Stephanie Dailey

Did you know the can opener was invented 47 years after the can? Seems a little overdue huh? However people still canned things and, most likely, they figured out some way to open them. I am almost certain people didn’t sit around for 47 years staring at cans until someone came up with an idea! However, your dissertation is not a can. You do need to come up with an idea first, even a general topic area is a good start. Why? Because your topic lays the foundation for selecting your committee, gaining expertise, and finding out where you can uniquely contribute to the field of counseling. It also gives you the push you need to begin flushing out your subject into manageable research question(s).

So let’s start walking. Some of you may be waiting for that inevitable day when you have to start writing your proposal. You may feel you have a paucity of ideas with the best one being that you have no clue where to begin. Others may know your topic, the question(s) you want to answer, and even know the research methodology which best fits the question(s). Wherever you are in the process – there is no wrong place. St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” How true this is for your doctoral experience! The following are actions which hopefully you will find useful. I also encourage anyone to share what they have found helpful along their journey.

Why God didn’t get a PhD / EdD… 1. He had only one major publication. 2. It had no references and it wasn't published in a refereed journal. 3. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results. 4. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it by drowning his subjects. That’s probably enough of a bad, but hopefully not offensive, graduate student joke. When I was taking my comprehensive examination I had this, and about 20 other tawdry teasers, posted on my wall. What I have found, especially while working on a dissertation, is that a good dose of absurdity is just what the ABD (a.k.a. doctor) ordered. Why? Because writing a dissertation and being ABD (All But Dissertation) is best addressed with a happy heart. Humor and supporting one another – that’s what this blog is all about!