October 21st Post

I really enjoyed the discussion questions for those that are off campus.  Cecil even had some great tips on another committee member for my thesis, so I greatly appreciate that help.  Currently I am following up on Cecil’s information and trying to schedule a meeting with my committee members.  I am trying to find a time where I can actually go and visit my members face to face (which works better for me in this process).  It has become very difficult to schedule meetings with so many busy schedules.  I would like to schedule all of the meetings within a couple of days, so I am not in Lexington away from work for too long. 

I am in the midst of revising/developing my proposal.  I am using a template from research methods class, since that is all I know.  I am also using bits and pieces of previous work from other graduate classes, where I completed research papers very simple to my thesis.  Sometimes I find this helpful because I do not have to re-write the same statement over and over again.  But sometimes I feel like it can be more work to take and statement and re-work it to fit into my current proposal.

Does anybody have any other templates for proposals?

October 7th Post

In my last post I described my current graduate status.  I think this was important so that the professors and my classmates know where I come from and my background and interests.   

Monday class was held at Pazzo’s, since I am not close to Lexington I was unavailable to attend.  But I am very interested in what my colleagues discussed.  Please feel free to pass on any useful tips or guidelines that were mentioned on Monday.  Also since some of us are taking this course via distance learning (per say), I know we talked about having discussion questions on Blackboard.  Is this still the requirement?

Since I last wrote I have become more and more involved in my literature review.  With my schedule I am limited to how much time I spend researching, but I try to research daily even if it is reading one article.  I enjoyed reading the Grad School Tips packet last week and feel like I can definitely use some of their tips when it comes to researching articles.  Throughout my literature review process I find it difficult to process the amount of information that is out there, it is almost overwhelming.  But at the same time, I am often afraid I am missing that oh so important piece of information.  I find myself looking and searching for articles only with my RD mind, if you will, only concern with the nutrition side of things.  However, I think with my topic looking and searching with a communication (because I am researching online weight loss programs and the internet is definitely a form of communication) and education (because I am educating people on how to lose weight) mindset is crucial.  Often times this is where I fall short.  Hopefully this class and Dr. Hains can help with this lack of knowledge. 

Also, I am beginning to think this is the time where I need to start working on my proposal and getting a good foundation started before I get to far deep into the research.  So I am starting to think about that and everything that goes along with a proposal-research methods, sample size, statistical analysis, etc.

I think a timeline will help me considerably and hopefully this is something I will get out of this class.  Again, I am very interested to hear on Monday’s class went and I look forward to seeing everyone again on the 24^th.