*sfx: head pounding against brick wall*
Jul. 25th, 2003 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaTuesday evening, the day I finished my dissertation first draft, I sent the last section to my advisor with a slightly panicked note reminding him that he hasn't gotten any of my sections back with comments, and that the clock is ticking down. At the time I wrote the e-mail, there were a scant five weeks until my defense - which meant three weeks until I have to have my final draft.
No response Wednesday.
No response Thursday.
No response Friday morning.
I've really been freaking out. I mean, yes, I can make changes on my own. I'm a good writer and a good editor of my own writing. But I need to hear from him that I'm on the right track overall - that I've done all the analyses I need to do, that my discussion is adequate in scope, that I'm not missing anything important. I can wait for his stylistic comments, but I desperately need a big-picture evaluation from him, and I haven't been getting it.
Today I called him at his vacation cottage in Wisconsin. I was pretty worked up by the time I called - all this silence from him! - and there he was, sounding all relaxed and amiable. Happy to hear from me. Nothing in his voice sounded like he thought there was any kind of issue between us.
Yes, he got my e-mail. Yes, he knows he needs to send me something. He's going to try to get me the whole thing tomorrow or Sunday. Can he send me sections? No, because he's working back and forth through the whole document and thinking about how the sections relate to each other. Can he tell me anything? Well, the reason he hasn't been rushing to get it back to me is that it's pretty good. He's got some suggestions - I need to dig up references for some of the things I say in the introduction, for example - but he thinks it's in good shape. Has he read the whole thing? Oh yeah, of course. And he thinks my graphs are great - very persuasive. A word of advice - installing a glass block wall is a lot trickier than it appears. Any dissertation advice? Not at present, but he knows he's been derelict. He'll get it to me soon. Great talking to me.
Jesus Christ. Okay, I feel much much better knowing that I'm on the right track. If his only example of things that need fixing is some unreferenced assertions, then I'm fine. I'm not going to find out a week before it's due that I have to rewrite the entire back half. But for God's sake, why couldn't he drop me a single lousy e-mail to tell me so? He was so... so blithe, through the whole phone call. So cheery. As if it never occurred to him that not hearing from him might be causing me problems.
I feel like tearing my hair out at the roots - but only because I can't get to his.
No response Wednesday.
No response Thursday.
No response Friday morning.
I've really been freaking out. I mean, yes, I can make changes on my own. I'm a good writer and a good editor of my own writing. But I need to hear from him that I'm on the right track overall - that I've done all the analyses I need to do, that my discussion is adequate in scope, that I'm not missing anything important. I can wait for his stylistic comments, but I desperately need a big-picture evaluation from him, and I haven't been getting it.
Today I called him at his vacation cottage in Wisconsin. I was pretty worked up by the time I called - all this silence from him! - and there he was, sounding all relaxed and amiable. Happy to hear from me. Nothing in his voice sounded like he thought there was any kind of issue between us.
Yes, he got my e-mail. Yes, he knows he needs to send me something. He's going to try to get me the whole thing tomorrow or Sunday. Can he send me sections? No, because he's working back and forth through the whole document and thinking about how the sections relate to each other. Can he tell me anything? Well, the reason he hasn't been rushing to get it back to me is that it's pretty good. He's got some suggestions - I need to dig up references for some of the things I say in the introduction, for example - but he thinks it's in good shape. Has he read the whole thing? Oh yeah, of course. And he thinks my graphs are great - very persuasive. A word of advice - installing a glass block wall is a lot trickier than it appears. Any dissertation advice? Not at present, but he knows he's been derelict. He'll get it to me soon. Great talking to me.
Jesus Christ. Okay, I feel much much better knowing that I'm on the right track. If his only example of things that need fixing is some unreferenced assertions, then I'm fine. I'm not going to find out a week before it's due that I have to rewrite the entire back half. But for God's sake, why couldn't he drop me a single lousy e-mail to tell me so? He was so... so blithe, through the whole phone call. So cheery. As if it never occurred to him that not hearing from him might be causing me problems.
I feel like tearing my hair out at the roots - but only because I can't get to his.
