Reflection+on+Johnson's+Presentation

Johnson’s presentation helped me learn how difficult it is to get a plausible topic for a doctoral dissertation. But yet the patience and endeavor he showed and the help he got from his academic advisor was worth listening and was a lesson to be learned. His presentation started with how he came to ask Dr. Lohr to be the chair of his committee. He said that “she told us in class to read chapter one many times to understand it because it is the basis for the rest.” He further indicated that I found the advice helpful and then I decided to ask her to be my committee chairperson. He also mentioned that it is good to have your committee members be people that go along with each other very well and thus I asked Dr. Gall to be a member of my committee. This way he was able to form his committee members and the strategy he used was good for him and for the committee members who work together. Discussing how he improved his English writing, he indicated that he learnt it in ET 613 through the encouragement and help of the course instructor. He mentioned that the assignments in the course were good learning experiences for him how to write papers on top of the specific knowledge he gained from the subject matter of the course. Explaining his experience on finding a topic for his dissertation, Johnson said he tried a number of topics until he finally got one that focuses on anxiety in learning English as a second language and application of technology in learning the language. Johnson indicated how his committee chairperson and committee member helped him search his topic using different key words in ERIC website. He advised us that after getting a reliable topic, good for thesis writing, international students particularly have to be able to meet with their academic advisors at least once in two weeks constantly because that way they can get the help they need. He mentioned that he is writing chapter three of his dissertation and said “I am a bit slow, writing about four to five pages a week” although his committee chairperson said it is a good pace. Thus, he looks to be progressing well as confirmed by his academic advisor. As a whole it was very encouraging to listen to his presentation and a good learning experience in that we were able to learn to be patient, hard working and be able to get concerned committee members to successfully progress in our efforts. Thus, I learned from the presentation perseverance, closely working with committee members and patience are the strategies that one has to use to be successful in writing dissertation.
 * Reflection on Jonson’s Presentation **