The graduate

Me at the MAC Center with my grad bear and dozen roses, presented to me by my mom.

Research Road...the journey to graduation starts here

The Superman cape I will wear - if I can find an old-fashioned phone booth.

     

    It's finally time to finish what I started at Kent State University.

   Tomorrow I will walk down the aisle of the Memorial Athletic Convocation Center wearing my shiny black graduate cape like Superman. I'm no super hero, but there were times when I needed to conjure up super human strength to get through the past five years.

   But this blog post isn't about that. In a nut shell, the educator in me wants to inspire and help others who want to or are about to go down that same academic road. So, here goes...

 Navigating Research Road

   The only way to finish a Master's project or thesis is to start it, and keep plugging away until it's time to defend it.

   There were times I wanted to put off doing the final project for another semester, but there was a spouse nagging me to “just finish the damn thing.”  My dad was also flying in from Arizona for the ceremony, so finishing it was my only option.

   This post is dedicated to anyone who is about to go down that really long and bumpy stretch of highway I call Research Road, otherwise known as the Master's Project.

   To navigate Research Road, which eventually leads to graduation, you need to design a map to get you there. The kind of map I'm referring to isn't conventional. It's more like an outline of ideas and plans with a vague start point but a definite conclusion. You plot as you go. Be flexible because ideas will change and plans go south.

Identifying your seed:  To get started you need to search your mind for that seed that was planted somewhere along the route.  It's a nagging feeling deep in your gut that just won't go away. It's different for everyone. For me, the seed was cultivated during my first grad class, when I discovered that too many English teachers were journalism advisers.

   When you identify that seed, decide whether it's best to do a Master's project or write a thesis. Is there a course or website you'd like to create? If so, do a Master's project. Do you want to investigate a topic and prove or disprove an hypothesis? Then write a thesis. Journalism Educator students are encouraged to do a Master's project. It's less formal, with an end result of designing something concrete for students and/or fellow teachers.

Cultivating your seed:  Once your seed is planted, water it as it grows. This is when you start mapping out ideas that come to mind. Be prepared to change direction early on. At first I wanted to create a 3-day workshop for journalism teachers. The initial idea was to recruit journalism educators to give classes on everything from InDesign and Photoshop to news writing and law/ethics. That was way too lofty a goal because I would have to depend on too many people. My focus was narrowed down to creating a photography class for high school teachers. Do what you KNOW!

   Here are a few lessons I've learned on my journey down Research Road:

·    Buy a good book on APA style. Familiarize yourself with APA before you write a single word! This will save those of you who have a journalism background a lot of time and frustration. I compare APA style to kryptonite for journalists. We thrive on AP. 

- Another great tip: Bookmark Purdue OWL site. This is a very valuable online APA styleguide. 

·    It's helpful to understand that your research paper is like a thesis, which requires a literature review. This means the ideas you have and want to get across should not come from YOU, but from other scholars and experts in the field your are researching. The only time you can get away with stating your personal opinion and using the word 'I' is in the Introduction and Conclusion.

·   With this in mind, you have to start somewhere. I found it helpful to write down my thoughts, statements and opinions, and then find scholarly research or newspaper/blog articles that collaborated or supported my points. It's helpful if you live near Kent State and can go to the library. But most of you are spread across the country, so you will have to use your Kent FlashLine login user name and password to access the online library. You will have to access to library resources remotely. I contacted a librarian and asked her how to conduct the research I was seeking. She sent me a helpful email that walked me through the process.

 A ton of paperwork collected along Research Road.

·   You will be required to provide a Resources section in your paper. Print out every article you find, including the abstract and citations, and save these articles in a folder on your desktop. Learn the APA style for citations in the beginning. Every time you quote a resource, plug the citation into your Resource section in alphabetical order. I printed out the APA format citation sheet for electronic and print sources and kept it by my side at all times. Expect to have about 30 resources when it's all said and done!

·    Don't expect to complete your paper and project in a single semester, especially if you have a job and kids. It took me three semesters, with the bulk of the work done in the final three months. This is not a project you can speed through, unless you are Superman! Prepare to be a Sunday driver and take your time.

·   Choose your 3-member committee team wisely, and stay in contact with them on a regular basis. I must have sent them dozens of versions of my proposal and final paper. Their recommendations were instrumental in finalizing the project. Please don't present them with a single version of what you deem is the perfect product at the end of the semester right before you expect to graduate. Not a good idea. They don't want to be kept in the dark along your journey. Keep them informed and ask for advice. Your committee will most likely want to keep in touch weekly during the semester of your graduation. That's one reason I chose to document my experience in my blog.

·   Most importantly, choose a project your care about! Being passionate about a course you are creating or a website you're designing will keep you chugging uphill, even when you think you're out of gas.   

     Harvesting your seed: To view my Master’s Project proposal, final paper and course syllabus, see the Pages at the top of this post. You can view other tips and comments in earlier posts.

    Well, that's about it. I'm at the end of the road. Like my GPS likes to say, “You've reached your final destination."  Indeed I have.