Thursday, September 27, 2007

Setting it Free



Well, I did it. I finally finished up those accursed edits, with 9 pages to spare over and above HMMDC's arbitrary 100 pages (as in "You can't throw a dissertation down the stairs if it's under 100 pages.") - Gaah...almost makes me wish I hadn't developed such a tight academic writing style. I have found myself all this week stranded and banging my head against the wall at 97 pages with nothing else to say because I'd already said everything at least four times. Unfortunately most of the people who read and understand dissertations are usually bright enough to get it the first time, but sadly, such is the nature of scholarly output.

So, discouraged, in an effort to determine the next steps and hopefully give myself a little inspiration, this morning I looked up the dissertation formatting requirements for my program, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a strictly enforced 1 and 1/4 inch margins rule. All this time I have been working with 1 inch margins all the way around, just as has been pounded into me since my undergraduate program. The cool part though is that when the paper was reformatted said required bigger margins all the way around, it gave me 12 extra pages without having to redundantly repeat myself again! Woofuckin'hoo! So I just tidied up the jagged bits, revised the table of contents and threw it against the wall in hopes that it will stick this time. Let's all cross our fingers or whateveritis that we do and hope that good enough is good enough this time.

Oh yeah, tomorrow I meet with the neuropsychologist for whom I've worked forever to discuss some potentially exciting options for postdoc. I think I need sleep now but feel so energized and excited that I don't think I'll be able to.

*stealing Natalia's Snoopydance!*

6 comments:

Babs Gladhand said...

My fingers are crossed. Who knew 1/4 of an inch could make such a big difference.

Dr. Brainiac said...

Well, apparently 1/4 of an inch is the difference between getting there and not getting there. -At least in this case ;o)

Constance said...

Good Sunday evening to you, Dr. Shedevil !

Thank goodness for reformatting and the 1 and a quarter inch margins rule !!!!

Please let us know how it goes tomorrow with the postdoc options discussion !

Loving Annie

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