Daily Newsie

To keep myself from going insane, I have decided to liveblog my Organizational Rhetoric literature review this afternoon. It’s due at noon tomorrow, and while I have the critical problem statement (read: what the whole thing is about) down pat, I have yet to delve into the actual literature review part of it. I’m writing about my alma mater’s decision to cut the football program for budgetary reasons, and analyzing the university president’s rhetoric using my professor’s reconceptualization of organizational apologia. Basically, it means I’m barfing up 25 pages on whether the president’s speeches were effective in restoring the university’s image following this mini-crisis.

I only need 8-10 pages for the lit review. So far, not counting my eighty bajillion references, I have three. Here goes:

3:06 p.m.: My critical problem statement just spilled over onto the third page. I made sure to write up my references first, so the paper always looks two pages longer than it really is. I may write everything in single-space format as well so that I’ll be pleasantly surprised when I change it to double-spaced. Enlarging the font is not allowed here: it’s 11-point Arial or bust. Sorry, Courier New. You’re not needed here.

I’m going to make some coffee.

3:29 p.m.: The coffee is perking, tonight’s dinner is defrosting on the stovetop, and The Fiance’ has agreed to do the dishes in exchange for BBQ chicken, rice and green beans. My classmates and I are commiserating about the assignment on Facebook, and I am content in the knowledge that at least one of them hasn’t even started it yet. See, I’m light years ahead of everyone!

4:21 p.m.: I am stuck. After the critical problem statement, I have exactly one line under the heading of “image restoration and organizational apologia,” and even that one line sucks bad. I don’t know why this is so hard — I know Benoit’s five image restoration strategies inside and out, and I still can’t form a coherent sentence. Do I need a change of venue? A study break? Some BBQ chicken? A lobotomy?

Graduate school is hard, y’all.

6:01 p.m.: Yes. I am about to crack page five, and things are breezing along like no one’s business. I keep telling myself that we’re handing in the literature review midway through the semester so Dr. J. can give us suggestions to improve the final version, so of course no one expects it to be perfect. It is, however, one-eighth of our final score, and so far the only class in which I’ve received a B is Dr. J.’s Comm Theory, so it’s not like I can slack off. Ugh. My coffee is cold and I still have a lot of work to do.

7:05 p.m.: Holding steady at five-and-a-half pages, but I still have two or three more articles to discuss and I just had a major breakthrough regarding my critical problem statement and why this research is going to fill a void in the communication world. Dinner time!

9:01 p.m.: Time for the third Diet Pepsi of the day and a final push to get this sucker to the eight-page mark. I would love to finish it tonight and then spend tomorrow working on my Family Communication midterm, but we’ll see how that goes …

10:25 p.m.: Success! (Kind of.) All my lit review needs now is a snappy intro to Ware and Linkugel’s (1973) treatise on organizational apologia and I am set! Since my brain has ceased to function correctly after seven hours on the job, I’m going to call it a night and just make sure I’m up early enough to make corrections and polish the whole thing in the morning.  Goodnight!