Slow working on the proposal

I've just had a morning session working on the proposal, and I thought I would process it with a bit of thinking on paper about how it is going. It is really interesting to "feel" how this writing is going. First, it goes slowly. My sense of what I am doing is like carving or perhaps it is more modular like building a wall or a lego. I am taking pieces and fitting them in and fitting them together. But it is a bit more than that. I am creating pieces that themselves are often formulated by taking other pieces and shaping them to fit in and together. So it is slow work. I have this image of a mason who builds a rock wall and chips and breaks stone pieces to fit in. The mason also trowels cement into gaps and lubricates the fitting together of pieces. All I can say is it is slow going.

What I think is taking shape better is what this Proposal as a first chapter of the dissertation is about--what it is and what it is for. I believe I have an opening that sets the problem fairly well with a concrete example (as Fred said I should). I think that concern or as Fred says the "friction" underlying my study is fairly clear. I am now working on the "So What?"--the reason why writing teachers should be interested in this study too. My main rationale is based upon premises for how we learn and what we understand the activity of writing is. I'm a bit worried that this discussion about premises may be seen as a digression, especially as right now they are long, but I think these concerns are important. They also happen to be chunks I have been able to import in-whole from my qualifying exam. Again, I don't know if that is a good idea, but there they are. I'm not complete in fashioning and refashioning them to fit and work yet.

My next task will be to clearly define the relatively narrow focus of my study--rhetorical reflection. Again, I have a worthy chunk from my quals I can fit in here, but I believe it will take a fair bit of refashioning. I think this can be followed by a restatement of the significance of the subject of study (the WGRA) and the problem underlying the subject of study. It will be in this section that I will have to gauge how to bring in the inadequacy of current theory and how far I go in delving into this inadequacy in this section or if I leave it to the Lit Review. This recap of the significance and problem will lead into my research question--the guiding direction for pursuing a better understanding of this subject.

What I guess I am seeing now a bit better is how the first chapter is simply setting the problem, clarifying the place this problem/study has for the field, and clearly defining the subject of study. I think I am getting a bit better sense of the difference between it and the lit review.

We shall see if I can reach my 2/20 deadline for this draft. I NEED to make this deadline, so I will do my best.