0.10 Storms, b.a., prada, m. j., & Donahue, e. n. (september 2011  (Page 5/8)

Complimentary working styles

Advisor. Prior to agreeing to become the advisor for either the doctoral students, I already had a clear sense of what I have found to be successful methods for working with students on research studies for master’s degrees projects, a degree program in which I had taught and advised students for nearly a decade. Before committing to be a dissertation advisor, I reviewed my own professional and personal obligations as well as my own interest level in advising each particular study to ensure that I could work with each of the candidates in the way I thought would be necessary.

In early conversations, the candidates and I discussed how we each liked to work. My style of advising included giving detailed, electronic feedback on multiple drafts. I pledged to give honest, critical feed back on work and both of them promised to receive it in the way it was intended: to move the dissertation ahead. Most of our interactions were not face-to-face, but rather via email, text or phone calls, although the JDP candidate and I did meet for extended work sessions at times because we lived in the same general area.

JDP graduate. My advisor had clear expectations for creating and adhering to timelines and project milestones. I felt that our work styles were very complimentary as both she and I had a penchant for using technology to foster collaboration in the work. As I was approaching the time to ask a professor to serve as my dissertation chairperson, I carefully selected my advisor since I knew that she would be prompt and transparent in her feedback, that she would be an unflinching advocate demanding excellence in my research, and that she would hold me accountable to quality research and established timelines. I knew that doctoral candidates often become derailed during their dissertation phase, so I sought this particular advisor because I knew she would find ways to keep me focused on my work among the pressures of my professional life outside of my studies.

It is important to note that one of the major contributions to my successful dissertation was my advisor’s availability during the cycles of my research study. There were times when I needed face-to-face meetings to work on segments of my research strategy of findings. In all these cases, she found the time to honor my need for an in-person meeting in order to keep the project on the articulated timeline. Through fits and starts, there were opportunities when our interactions were wholly electronic through email document iterations. Other conversations were phone meetings to discuss and work-through roadblocks, or email communications to keep the flow of the project moving.

ELSJ graduate. It was important for me to choose an advisor who I believed understood my style of learning and working and who understood the urgency I felt to complete the dissertation according to the programs’ timeline of one year. Since I had worked with this advisor previously when I completed my master’s degree, I knew to expect critical, honest and thorough feedback. What was also important to me was to have an advisor that I believed was a highly skilled writer to assist me with my own writing. One very important and major contributing factor in the timely completion of my dissertation was that my advisor was regularly available to answer questions, to give quick feedback, to brainstorm, and to synthesize old thoughts and new ideas. Also noteworthy was the fact that my advisor had high expectations of the quality of work I produced which she made clear through her regular feedback.