First Draft Submission Week: So Many Words, So Little Time

After my last post I worked hard to finish the final two chapters. Which I did. When I submitted the rough drafts of those two chapters, they were quite rough and the whole dissertation was nearly 3,000 words short of the minimum. I got extensive notes back on the first two chapters and less on the final ones. This was not because they were better but because, my advisor said I needed to heed the notes he had made on previous chapters. Generally, I needed to edit better, cite better, and clean up my flow to make the whole thing work together better.

Recently, I have been toting the books I used the most around with me so I can edit on the fly when I need to. I have been doing a little bit here and little bit there whenever I can. I have spent so much of my spare time this past month, going over each chapter slowly fixing grammar, and spelling mistakes. I have also reorganized some of the chapters as well as working diligently to recognize when I pulled thoughts from my sources without citing where those thoughts. At this point I have read so much and have thought about this so much that I have my sources voices in my head, and I use them without knowing I am. This has required me to think about what I have written and then go looking for the source. This then might require me to reread that section of the source material and then properly citing it.

Last week I stumbled upon something new, which has been immensely helpful as I am moving through the tedious work of editing. I discovered that Microsoft will read me my paper while I read it. (I say “stumbled” because I was working on something for church and accidentally hit some unknow “sticky” keys which caused it to suddenly start reading the document I was working on to me.) I know this sounds awful, but it is great. It slows me down while I read, as well as allowing me to hear it. This does several things. First, I can hear those silly typos “it” instead of “is” or “form” instead of “from” the ones that are easy for your eye to gloss over as you read. Generally, I can also hear grammar. It also helps me hear how the sentences and paragraphs flow together, making it easier to spot where my logic is failing or where I am not making my point well. I stop it quite a lot to fix things and to make changes, but it has been immensely helpful in editing. I might try it with my sermons in the future.

Currently I have made at least one pass on each of my chapters. This week I am looking at two new sources to help solidify one of my conclusions, as well as going back and listening to the earlier chapters, since I did not discover this until the final two. I am still about 500 words short of the minimum but believe that I will find those words in the next few days. So this week is for editing and finalizing some rough spots. Then on Wednesday, I will bring all the chapters together with my working Bibliography, put in a title page on it all and send it off.

On Thursday, I am going on a silent retreat to rest, and recoup. And to listen to my own words on participating in fully embodied spiritual formation practices. I will share more about that next week.