I’ve refurbished the exam notes blog, Exam Sitting, and converted it to a
dissertation blog. I suppose I’ll use it to post notes and other gems of
speculation. I’ve never dissertated before, so it’s not entirely clear yet
just how useful such entries will be. All the same, I’m convinced of the
benefits that carried over from the exam note-keeping to the performance of the
exams themselves. And I appreciate that some processual transparency
allows others who might be interested in such a thing to see into what I’m
working on, what I’m thinking about. It also introduces a mild, supportive
form of accountability in that everything I do there is out in the open for my
committee to follow as they see fit.

I waggled back and forth on names for the new blog. In the end, it was
a three-way split decision between Diss-o-Matic, Dissarray, and Disscombobulatio.
Diss-y lot. Ah well, it’s easy enough to switch up. And these
choices sure beat the Dissney riffs: Dissy-dissy-bang-bang, Dissertation Gully,
Mary Dissins, and Diss Willy. No. You’re right about this one. This is
not how I should be spending my time (biting my fingernails over the name of
the diss blog, that is).

So far I’ve posted a provisional bibliography for the prospectus, and today I
posted notes on Unsworth’s address from a few months ago. I also spent a little
over an hour drafting two pages of the prospectus today. Here’s hoping some of
these tactics help shuttle me through the transition from exams to more focused
dissertation-writing.