Yesterday I met with my dissertation workshop group, and one of the people whose drafts we were discussing had interspersed "I" with "this dissertation." As in, "This dissertation will combine the work of [this theorist] with [that theorist] and discuss the implications for [this rhetorical activity]." Pretty standard, right? Well, this person (whose draft was excellent, by the way -- very sophisticated and complex) overpersonified his/her dissertation a little bit in a couple of places, with constructions like, "This dissertation is aware of the distinction between [this term] and [that term]."

Of course we all started getting a little silly with that one, laughing riotously and making cracks like:

This dissertation is very worried.
This dissertation has a broken heart.
This dissertation can't get out of bed in the morning.
This dissertation just sits around in its bathrobe all day chainsmoking and listening to Morrissey.

But that's no way to think. Let me try to turn it around:

This dissertation is smiling its way to success.
This dissertation ce-le-brates good times, COME ON!
This dissertation's being headhunted by the most prestigious universities and think tanks in the U.S. and Europe, but it decided to just use its MacArthur grant to set up its own facility.

How about your dissertation?

They now have Blogger/Blogspot for wikis: Jotspot is a free, easy to set up wiki service. You can make your wiki password-protected if you're working on a super-secret document or if you want to use it in a class and have privacy concerns for your students. So far I've found it to be the easiest wiki setup I've had -- a while back James was good enough to set up a wiki for me to experiment with, but I never really got the hang of TikiWiki (but I didn't spend enough time engaging with it either). Then I tried to install phpWiki on my domain using Fantastico, but I never could login to the Admin panel.

Also in wiki-related news -- you know how you can personalize Google now? Well I chose to add the "'How to' of the day" feed, which is part of a wiki. One of today's featured articles is How to sweep a girl off her feet. Here's a bit that jumped out at me:

Here's an example of what you can say: "Hey, look, I've gotta go, but you seem like a really amazing person, and I'd like to get to know you better. Here's my number; call me and I'd love to take you out for a cup of coffee and talk. But if you're not interested, that's cool, too. I just didn't want to let this opportunity pass."

I had an experience like that once. In my sophomore year of college, I dated a guy I met at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert at 328. We had been looking at each other, and then when the concert was over, I had to leave with my friends. He caught up with me, tapped me on the shoulder, and without saying one word, put a little piece of paper in my hand. My friends were running off and leaving me, so I had to go, but when we got to the car I unfolded the paper to find his name and phone number. Much smoother than wikiHow's suggestion, if you ask me.

The first, via Badger and Wolfangel. Do a Google search for [Your first name] needs:

Clancy needs to go deeper into their minds (totally)
Clancy needs a new publisher/editor for sure if someone is pressuring [her] ... (more like, I need a publisher in the first place)
Clancy needs to hone up on actual writing skills before [she] fires up [her] imagination again (probably right)
Clancy needs [her] daily nap (Boo! Hiss! I can't go to sleep in the middle of the day.)
Clancy needs more rigorous editing. (gulp. Again, probably right)
Clancy needs you to save the world...again. (yes.)
The book nears 1000 pages and Clancy needs all of them to make [her] complex narrative come together but [she] pulls it off brilliantly. ... (well I hope I pull it off brilliantly! But there's no way my dissertation's going to be ~1000 pages.)
Clancy needs no introduction. (doubt it.)
Clancy needs to get the laser eye surgery (yes, I'd love to be able to see as soon as I wake up in the morning, but I'm still skittish about the long-term effects.)
Clancy needs to do a better job of supervising [her] ghostwriters (Ssshhh! I'm trying to keep that on the DL!)
Clancy Needs to Stop Lowering the Boom (yawn. Is this one a song, movie, or what? I've heard it before.)
Clancy Needs a Break (If only I could get a break from my own mind, which is stressed out on an epic scale right now.)

And here's how I'd look as a Lego (also via Badger):

What do you look like in Lego?

Turkitron: Is that a taco pie?
Meatwad: Mmm-hmmm.
Turkitron: Taco pie?!
Meatwad: I added food coloring cause it's a holiday, but it turned black because I added all the food coloring I had, and I ate this butter straight out of the tub, cause it tastes good. There's a reason behind everything.

From The Dressing. You can actually listen to this snippet (.mp3) at Aqua Teen Adventures; I highly recommend it.

Now for my concept map that represents my literature review. This is how it's shaping up, and hopefully I won't have to add too much to it (I'm fine with taking stuff out). I've been struggling with it and getting contradictory advice, which I've come to understand is common, and which boils down to one question: Is it preferable, in a dissertation, to enter a specific conversation in one field of study, or to get a broader sampling of books and articles representing multiple disciplinary perspectives on your general topic/object of study, even though you run the risk of overlooking some important work? I'm hoping to be able to do the former, as you can see on the concept map. I want this thing to be wieldy. (This image links to a larger one.)

But if there are problems, I need to know, and I'm always grateful for feedback, so please leave it here or email me.

As I write my dissertation, I've been mind-mapping like crazy. It helps me rein in all the material I'm using and everything I need to say. What follows is the map of my methodology chapter, which includes everything I really feel that I need to cover, i.e. stuff I would be remiss if I didn't say. But I want to know what you think: Assuming there's too much going on in this chapter as I've conceptualized it at this point, what can be cut? (This image links out to a bigger, readable one.)

The chapter basically has four parts.

1. A review of methodological problems (or complexities) to consider in doing qualitative internet research. Some are from a roundtable on the subject, and others I have learned on my own.
2. A general definition and overview of my approach: how I'm defining "rhetorical analysis," what is meant by a "feminist rhetorical approach."
3. A description of my data collection and analytical procedure (to answer the "What did you do?" question).
4. A reflective section that addresses situatedness and reflexivity -- locating myself in the research. This section is an important part of my overarching feminist approach.

I'm tentatively planning on doing it in that order, but I'm open to suggestions if you think another arrangement would be more coherent and sophisticated. [Edited to add: I should put the "operationalizing gender/online identity" point (which is just a little "how I define and interpret gender online" few paragraphs) under "general introduction." Probably better that way.]