Job Discussion Forums

[Egas]

Somebody asked me for some tips about getting a degree while working in ESL. I thought that it would be a good idea to share the ideas publically. Of course anybody who wants to share their ideas, or disagree with mine, can add to the post.

I've been teaching ESL for four years (I was a regular teacher back in OZ and NZ before that), and have been studying towards a PhD for the past two of those years. I'm enrolled part-time, and continue to work full-time. I've learned quite a lot during that time about the studying process (I've always been interested in learning how to learn). So here are a few tips for those already studying, or thinking of beginning.

1) Select a course or thesis topic that really grabs you. It needs to be somethinng that will intrinsically motivate you. If you are just doing the study for the degree at the end, or because your mother wants you to do it, you may struggle in the motivation stakes.

2) Make sure your uni has the facilities to support you. If you are doing a masters or PhD, you will need access to a lot of databases. Check to see if your uni will post books to you overseas. Mine doesn't whch is a real pain - believe me! I have to do my thesis almost entirely by journal articles, and by buying texts through Amazon.com (and that's expensive!)

3) Make sure your suprevisor is willing to support your decison to study abroad. It is not much good if she/he refuses to accept email, or will only talk to you face to face. I have a great supervisor, so no problem.

4) To say yes to a thesis/MBA, you have to day "no" to lots of other things. ie there is a big price to pay for it. For example, you have to be really choosey with what you do with your spare time. I can no longer spend hours wasting time on the net (likeI am now ) My social life has been cut to a bare minimum. This might make you unpoular with friends or spouses. I have warned you!

5) Get up early. I get up a 5am, and do 2-3 hours of study before I go to work. Then I relax, knowing that it's OK if I don't get any more study done during the day. No one disturbs you at 6am! But if you study in the evening you may find that there are lots of disturbances - people coming and going, asking you out to dinner etc. Of course I have to go to bed earlier. I go to bed at ten - so I get an average of about 7 hours sleep.

6) Set yourself a set amount of study hours per week, and don't do anytjhg else during this time. NOTHING! Don't answer the phone, write emails to frieds, or watch a movie etc. I suggest 20 hours a week. I do 3 hours a day Monday- Friday, and 8 hours on Saturday. On Sunday I only study if I feel like it. For those contemplating a PhD, you may be interested to know that two recent studies found that the average part-time PhD is now taking 9-11 years to finish these days. I don't know about you, but that is way too long. But the bottom line is people are way too inefficient with their energy and time, and don't study smart. My supervisor and his wife both finished their PhDs in 3 1/2 years, while working full-time!! His wife also had two kids to look after. Some of what I am telling you here has been leaned from them.

7) Write EVERY day. Set yourself a minimum number of words to write each day, and do it FIRST THING. I set myself 500 word as the daily minimum. You would be surprised how fast that adds up. In fact I just wrote 28 000 words in the last 5 weeks on a chapter topic. (I'll cut it back later.) Essentially writing can be classed into three categories.

a) Ramblings and free thinking. Don't underestimate these words. This is amongst the most important stuff you write, even though it doesn't end up in your final draft. You just write whatever comes into your head about the topic.

b) Drafting. This is where you take your research and put it into something approaching formal writing. But as you write, you don't try to organise it too much. That comes later.

c) Final drafting. This is when you want to submit something to your supervisor. Of course you have to get it all organised and pretty much perfect. I found my professor would scold me for even one typo in a document of almost 20 000 words. (Yep, that really p'ssed me off )

Finally, there is a book called Writing "Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes A Day." I can't remember the writer's name, but it is available on Amazon.com. Just buy it! It's worth ten times the price (it's about US$10 or something)

Don't try to be perfect. Many a perfectly decent dissertion is ruined because people overestimate what is required to get a PhD/masters/MBA etc. Do your best, and your professor will give you the feedback. It's just part of the process to get criticism.

9) Spend less time and energy on your teaching. This was a tricky one for me, because I have always felt guilty if I didn't spend hours preparing and marking stuff. Now I call myself a minimalist. If there are two ways to apprach a lesson, I choose the one that takes less time. Sometimes quality suffers. I think this is almost inevitable if you have research to do outside of teaching time. My advice is to aim for competence in the classroom while you are doing your studies. Don't try to be the star. It takes too mcuh time and energy, and you just don't have that much to spare. Of course I am not recommending that you teach crap. But you may have to bring your expectations down a bit. You don't have as much time or energy as when you were not studying.

Choose a job that is not too demanding. Try and find a job which does not require more than about 30-35 total hours of work a week. But even 40 hours is doable. Near the beginning of my PhD I took a job as Director of Studies. I was working 12 hours a day, and then studying in the evening. It nearly killed me! Still, I managed to write up an 18 000 word chapter for the PhD and publish two 10 000 word peer-reviewed journal articles in that year, using the methods mentioned above. But if I were you, I'd do it a little less stressfully.

9) Keep an intuition/insight journal. This may sound weird, but this is one of the best things you can do. Your mind processes information and gants insights, both when you are thinking about your topic, and when you are not. I have gained numerous insights about my thesis topic through dreams, meditation images, and gut feelings. If you know how to utilise your intuitive capabilties, it really makes the whole process of doing research much simpler. In an age of information overload, nobody can simply process all the potential data in linear/sequential form. Use your intuition, and you get a free helping hand! I won't devulge any more about this here. If you want to know a bit more about this, email me.

Finally, good luck with your studies!

[Gordon]

Thanks a lot Egas! As someone who is going to embark on a distance MA very soon, you have given me a lot of helpful advice. I have a family which makes time management more difficult, but my f/t uni job doesn't involve a lot of hours and will allow me a lot of time to study. I will take your advice to heart and may take you up on your offer and email you. 10 years for a PhD? Wow Can I ask what you're planning to do after you get your Doctorate? You could PM me if you don't want to divulge here. The part about library support is an important factor. The uni I am thinking about studying at is not that supportive and there are no big cities around me with good university libraries with English books. I guess you have to resign yourself to being a hermit and get to work. Great post.

[shmooj]

Gordon, you might also benefit from my brain dump which no one ever replied to when I posted it way way back in the annals of time. You can read it on this forum HERE

[Capergirl]

Good tips. I will need to get my MA in the near future. Jobwise, it's becoming an absolute necessity. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or the money for it at the moment.

I had to laugh at the "get up at 5 a.m." suggestion, though. As a single mom, I find it hard to get up at 7, let alone 5.

[nomadder]

It seems like some people might find studying on campus a better option for their particular work style/personality type than what has been described here.

[Egas]

Yes, Nomadder, many would prefer to be on campus. Me too, to be honest. But since most ESLers are in a foreign country and thousands of kilometers away from their universties, this is often not possible. Some get around this by doing on-camnpus intensives over the summer, or during break time.

Yes, the way I suggest is VERY, VERY lonely. That is pehaps its biggest drawback. You also don't get the benefit of rubbing shoulders with other students, and getting the benefit of discussions with them. The other psychological benefit of beng on campus is that you can share your pains and frustrations with others. I just whimper in pathetic self-pity.

And it also takes a hell of a lot of self-discipline to do it the way I suggest.

[naturegirl321]

Wow,
Thanks for the tips. I"m looking into doing an MA, but I'm going to pick one without a thesis!

[Egas]

Here is another little tip that I find really helpful. This is especially good for those writing a longer thesis. Upload heaps of articles on your topic onto your computer hard drive. I have hundreds on mine. Just get the articles from database searches and the web. I uploaded mine over a longer period of time, but you could do it in a shorter period too. Now, when you are writing up you chapter/paper/article etc., you can easily supplement and add to your argument via reference to those articles. You don't have to read 'em all (but of course you will need to read the ones that are essential in their totality). When you find your argument is a bit weak, or needs a bit more depth, do a search on your computer. (the "search" option is on the start-up column in IBM computers) For example: if your research topic is using computers for distance learning, you can do a search on any given theorist's name, key word or concept. When you open up the document, use the "find" option to find the key word you are looking for in the document. (if you are using microsoft word, go to the "edit" icon at the top of the page, and scroll down to the "find" option) The computer will find all the places in the document that has that key word. Read those sentences/paragraphs, and you may find a quote, or an idea/argument to add to your research.

PM me if that's not clear!