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Grad School
Mar. 29th, 2008 12:48 pmBack in February, I had to attend a two day conference (for credit) and I need to write a 10-12 page paper about a subject from the conference due April 1st (no joke) *rimshot*
I'm just really getting to the meat of it now. I have until Tuesday. But, it's a Pass/Fail paper so as long as it's okay, I'm okay. BUT -- the girls I associate with at school who also have to do this paper also hadn't really started it until now either. I take an odd comfort in that... other grad students are just as preoccupied or slackassed like me. It reminds me of part of a song from Avenue Q:
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!
My problem was that I couldn't really get into the paper, I had so many topics to choose from. But now I'm buckling down and think I have pretty much decided on my topic*, and I found a few happy surprises as I searched the library.
1) There is a lot of research done on my topic, with different populations... very easy to whip up a paper using those as sections.
2) I had NO idea my topic had ever been applied to sports, so that is fun to read about. More meat for the paper.
3) Google Scholar is... is... fanfreakintastic. and Shiny.
*Topic is Stereotype Threat, the concept that if you are doing a task that your demographic is supposed to be stereotypically bad at, you perform poorly - especially in the presence of a demographic of people who are supposed to excel at the task. Most common example is that girls are bad at math in general, so in a classroom with boys, they perform poorer, but in an all girls classroom, they perform better on average.
I'm just really getting to the meat of it now. I have until Tuesday. But, it's a Pass/Fail paper so as long as it's okay, I'm okay. BUT -- the girls I associate with at school who also have to do this paper also hadn't really started it until now either. I take an odd comfort in that... other grad students are just as preoccupied or slackassed like me. It reminds me of part of a song from Avenue Q:
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!
My problem was that I couldn't really get into the paper, I had so many topics to choose from. But now I'm buckling down and think I have pretty much decided on my topic*, and I found a few happy surprises as I searched the library.
1) There is a lot of research done on my topic, with different populations... very easy to whip up a paper using those as sections.
2) I had NO idea my topic had ever been applied to sports, so that is fun to read about. More meat for the paper.
3) Google Scholar is... is... fanfreakintastic. and Shiny.
*Topic is Stereotype Threat, the concept that if you are doing a task that your demographic is supposed to be stereotypically bad at, you perform poorly - especially in the presence of a demographic of people who are supposed to excel at the task. Most common example is that girls are bad at math in general, so in a classroom with boys, they perform poorer, but in an all girls classroom, they perform better on average.
