[nabs-l] Graduate project?

[Adriana Pulido]

Thank you, Grek. You came up with useful suggestions! I will contact
you offlist.

2013/2/3, Greg Aikens <gpaikens at gmail.com>:
> Hi Adriana,
> Congratulations on almost being done with your masters degree.  Choosing and
> completing a good masters project can be quite a challenge.  Remind us what
> your field of study is and tell us the topic you have already chosen but
> that you are not satisfied with.  Every school has different requirements
> for a masters project and so knowing that would also be helpful for giving
> specific advice.
>
> I can give some general pointers about choosing a topic for a masters
> project though (I have completed 2 now).  Keep in mind that in most fields,
> a masters project is not going to be ground breaking work.  I don't say that
> to discourage you, but to help you keep the appropriate scope for the
> project.  Many students bite off something too big to cover in a small
> masters project and get frustrated and end up doing way more work than is
> necessary.  On the other hand, most schools want masters projects to be
> something that could be published in a professional journal when shortened
> to an appropriate length.  So it needs to be good, extend the literature in
> some way, but be limited enough in its scope so that you can accomplish it
> in a reasonable amount of time.
>
> Often, a masters level project is more about the process than the topic, so
> agonizing over finding the right topic can be a waste of time.  The
> university wants to see that you can conduct masters level research in your
> chosen field and can demonstrate scholarship through your analysis,
> experiment, etc.  They want to see that you can choose a relevant topic,
> analyze it, propose a solution, or whatever the parameters of your project
> are.  Masters level students will often pick a topic that one of their
> advisors are an expert in, just to make the project easier, even if it is
> not their favorite topic.
>
> I would recommend doing whatever you can to get the project done quickly.
> You want to do a good job, and it is nice to pick a fun and interesting
> topic, but getting it done is most important. :)
>
> For my masters thesis, I knew I wanted to do something related to braille
> reading but struggled to pick a topic.  There was a doctoral student in my
> program who had chosen repeated reading with large print users as her topic,
> replicating a previous study.  So, I chose to use repeated reading with
> braille readers as my study topic so we could design and implement our
> research study together.  This made it easier on both of us, both
> logistically and because we had another expert in the office we could bounce
> ideas off of.
>
> If your current advisors are not experts in your field of study, I recommend
> contacting an expert in your field who would be willing to give you guidance
> at several points during your project, especially during the topic selection
> process.  This person could then be one of your readers once the project is
> complete.
>
> I hope some of this is helpful.
>
> Feel free to contact me on or off list.  I know this can be a very
> frustrating process and you want to get it right because you are going to
> spend the next several months married to this project.
>
> Best of luck,
> Greg
>
> On Feb 3, 2013, at 3:33 PM, Adriana Pulido <adrimpc80 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello guys,
>> It's been a while since the last time I wrote on this list. I'm taking
>> the last semester of the master's, and I have found it extremely
>> difficult to make decisions about my graduate project. I have reviewed
>> a good amount of literature but I'm still confused. Also, my current
>> advisor (I have had two) is putting pressure because she's not going
>> to be here during the summer, but I'm aware that I will not be ready
>> by the end of spring term.
>> I would really like to have suggestions from those of you who have
>> already graduated. I'd particularly like to know which strategies you
>> guys use, in order to make the right decisions about your grad
>> projects. I had already chosen a topic but I'm not having fun with
>> that, and my professors haven't previously working on disability
>> issues so they cannot offer the best guidance.
>>
>> Thank you in advance for your suggestions.
>>
>> --
>> Adriana Pulido
>> Filóloga en Inglés y músico de la Universidad
>> Nacional de Colombia. Estudiante de Maestría en University of Florida.
>>
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-- 
Adriana Pulido
Filóloga en Inglés y músico de la Universidad
Nacional de Colombia. Estudiante de Maestría en University of Florida.