Why the Dissertation is taking so long

Hmm.

Due to family commitments, it's hard for me to get time at home to work on my Dissertation. (People without kids will treat that statement with skepticism; people with young children will know exactly what I'm talking about.)

But, the semester is over; the semester grades are submitted; and I have a few weeks to spend my workday devoting time to my Dissertation.


And, I think I discovered part of why it's taking so darn long.


My Dissertation is five chapters long. My semi-edited first chapter is 108 pages long. Single-spaced. Although, this includes a goodly chunk consisting of paragraphs of notes that will be distilled down to a sentence each.

My Chapter Three is 29 pages long -- with another 92 pages of notes (single-spaced) that need to be inserted at the relevant points.

My Chapter Four is 22 pages long -- with another 64 pages of notes.

That's over single-spaced 310 pages that I've typed into the computer. Not including Chapter Two and Chapter Five. And the norm is to double-space the manuscript. That's, umm -- pretty thick.

So: I **have** been doing "stuff" over the years.


In some ways, the easy thing would be to ditch those notes. Unfortunately, I need many of them -- and I'm under the delusion(?) that it would be faster to just plow ahead, rather than to spend time sorting through.


Why is it like this? Well, unlike most Dissertations, where the question is fairly focused, my Dissertation is basically about "everything 'Family' -- that influences delinquency". So, instead of just looking at (for example) "the influence of parental discipline on offending", I had to read -- and summarize -- just about everything. Like, the whole world.


Ayep.


--GG