Doctoral Support Center & Doctoral Programming Blog

Volunteer Opportunity! Chicanos for Progressive Education

CHICANOS FOR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
along with MEChA, LBSA, and Lambda Theta Alpha bring you the

**2010 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT CONFERENCE**

Every fall semester CPE, with the support from other organizations, puts together this conference to impact the lives of 500 high school students. We bring these students from neighboring areas in order to show them that USC and other universities are within their reach, and to highlight the many opportunities within higher education. Most importantly, we strive to show these students that just as we have reached our goal of attending a great university, they too have the potential to accomplish this.

This conference cannot be successful without the dedication of Volunteers such as yourselves. We need your support in order to show these students what the Trojan Family is made of. We need volunteers all day, from 8am to 2pm. Even if you can only volunteer for a short period of time, make an effort to help out!
The schedule of the day is as follows:

8am-9am: Set-Up
9am-9:30: Check in/Breakfast
10-11: Keynote Speaker: Rodney Franks, CEO Foundation at St. Francis Medical Center
*11-12:30: College Workshop followed by a tour of USC
12:30-1:30: Lunch; Wrap Up
1:30-2:30: Clean up

*For the volunteers available during the 11-12:30 slot, they will be in charge of holding workshops for the volunteers and will need to attend a mandatory workshop. The workshop will be a really quick workshop just to prepare the volunteers.

To volunteer please input your availability click here.
(please include your full name and email)

facebook event page: www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=128331280558905

Avoiding Procrastination When Writing Your Dissertation

  (These tips are based on a hand-out available at the Doctoral Support Center.)

Procrastination is the behavior of postponing tasks.  Everyone procrastinates sometimes, but when we're working on our dissertation, procrastination can have serious consequences.

How can you avoid procrastination?  Here's some tips to keep from being overwhelmed.

1. Work in an envirnoment with minimal distractions.   Try to modify your environment to reduce distractions from things like the phone, email or people.  Choose a space where you can spread out your documents where you can focus and concentrate.
2. Establish a realistic routine.  Dedicate specific times earch week or day to work on your dissertation.  Protect that time from other activities and keep up your momentum.  Be realistic though -- planning to work two hours every day after work isn't practical if you come home feeling mentally or physically drained.
3. Work on bits and pieces. Thinking about your whole dissertation can be overwhelming.  Therefore set goals based on smaller pieces of the dissertation.  Focus not only on one chapter at a time, but on individual sections at a time. 
4. Reward yourself.  When you have met your goals, take the time to reward yourself.  You may find you need more frequent rewards (such as when you complete a section) or for larger tasks (such as the draft of a chapter).
5. Seek social support. Partner with people who are able to complete tasks.  Having positive role models can help motivate you to start and complete your own.
6. Make a public commitment.  Once you make a goal or set up a routine, annouce it publicly.  Making the statement publicly will make it more difficult to avoid completing it.
7. Practice telling time.  Procrastinators tend to underestimate the time needed to complete tasks.  Be realistic.  If you have any question, get estimates from faculty and former students. 
8. Create intermediate deadlines.  Focusing only on the Graduate School filing deadline may create anxiety.  Instead, establish intermediate deadlines that work you more gently toward the larger one.
9. Be flexible.  Even the most well thought out plans and realistic deadlines can hit a snag.  At these times its important to be flexible and readjust your strategies.  Remember, we're here to help you through the rough times.

Contact the Doctoral Support Center: rsoedsc@usc.edu for more information.

 

Writing Your Lit Review? Think "Funnel"

Are you struggling to write a literature review, either for your dissertation or a class assignment?  Getting bogged down in articles?  It may help if you think of the structure of the literature review as a looking like a funnel -- that is, wide at the top, narrow at the base.

Begin your review with a wide but brief overview of the field.  This provides a sense of background, but should not be the main focus of your reivew.   Instead, quickly narrow to a discussion of the research relevant to your specific topic, focusing on reviewing the information that's most relevant to your research question.   

If you follow this structure, the review will be shaped by a focus on your topic, even while you demostrate where your research fits within the larger field. 

Contact the Doctoral Support Center: rsoedsc@usc.edu for help and additional writing tips.

 

Dissertation Writing Groups This Weekend

Just a friendly reminder that the November Session of the Fall Dissertation Writing Groups will be this Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14 in rooms WPH 201/202/206. As usual we will have guest presenters on Saturday who will discuss how to work with your dissertation chair at 2pm, and we'll have guest presenter on Sunday who will discuss quantitative methodology on WPH 201. If you would like to RSVP for this weekend's Writing Group, please email me at gokalp@usc.edu

Look forward to seeing you there!

Gokce Gokalp

Note: The image above is from coolshots.blogspot.com

Presentation: Introduction to SPSS

What's SPSS?  SPSS is a computer program widely used for statistical analysis.  If you've ever wanted to learn how to use it, here's your chance.

This Wednesday we're excited to offer a beginning SPSS workshop presented by Katharin Peter. The focus is an introduction to working with the SPSS software. Setting up a database, coding and entering data, and descriptive statistics will be discussed. It will not include any advance analytical techniques.  No previous knowledge of SPSS is assumed.

November 10, 2010 in MRF 204 (3:00 - 4:00 PM) - LiveCast Link

Please RSVP to rsoedsc@usc.edu

 

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You can view recorded webcasts of the above presentations and take part in them yourself by doing the following:

1. Go to the blackboard website at https://blackboard.usc.edu
2. Select User Login:

• Username - enter your USC email username.
• Password - enter your USC email password.
• Once you login, under the section "Course List" select "20061_rsoe_dsc_ns00002: RSOE Doctoral Support Center (DSC)"

3. Click on the left menu button reading "Online Resources"

• note the DSC username and password (you'll need it to get to the programs)
• click the link for the DSC Online catalog
• enter the username and password
• enter "DSC Presentation Webcasts"
• click the link for the presentation you're interested in watching.

All the handouts for the presentations are available via Blackboard in the "Course Documents" section under "Presentations and Handouts."

If you have any questions or just need some support, join the Backboard discussion of the presentations in the "Presentations and Workshops" part of the "Discussion" section.

Having trouble getting access?  Contact the DSC at rossier.dsc@usc.edu.