Why didn't I start this sooner (cont2).

Ok, what chair am I on?  Chair 3.  So On 9/1/10 I submited my concept paper.  On 9/3/10 my mentor asked if I loaded it.  I told him yes, but sent it to him again.  Of course, it needs work. 

On 9/7/10 I got an email from may academic advisor (AA) which stated.....wait for it.......

YOU ARE GETTING YET ANOTHER NEW CHAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On 9/16/10 I got chair #4.

During this lag time between chair 4 and 5.  I was completely frustrated.  I hated my CP.  It wasn't reflecting what I wanted to say.  I didn't want to just regurgitate quantitative analysis.  I want to relay a message.  That people who choose to prepare their families for emergencies.

Around this time I discovered a Newsweek article from Bennet (2009) about preppers.  Prepper are individuals who choose to store food and supplies in case of emergencies.  They are normal people. 

So I changed to qualitative.  I wanted to explore the phenomenon of prepping.  By the way, before I changed I was literally ill trying to decide what to do.  I stayed up all night worrying about what to do.  About 3AM, I decided I need to do a qualitative analysis.  I need to interview these people. 

New title:

Choosing the Survivalist Lifestyle: A Phenomenological Study of Living with Stigma and Persecution

I felt comfortable with this. 

One thing I have learned with multiple chairs.  When you get a new chair, you basically start from scratch.  They look at your paper with a different lense.  Their backgrounds are different so they have different viewpoints.  Unfortunately, I think this chair used software to review my CP.  There were multiple issues with the difference between may and might, comma use, etc.

I would change things, then the next time it was reviewed, had to change it back.  My favorite was rhetorical questions. I was told that my research questions where rhetorical questions, as well as titles of referenced documents.  After 6 or 7 times at back and forth crap, I couldn't take it anymore.  This was getting rediculous.  Oh, and after all this time, he says he doesn't like some things in my annotated bibliography.  Why wasn't this addressed at day one.  So, frustrated, I sent him and email.  I will not keep changing this stuff back and forth.  The biggest issue was "a utopian society" he told me to change to "an" even though I told him that according to APA this was not correct.  He insisted. So I changed.  Then he said this was wrong.  It was the software he was using.  That's it, the email to him and my AA.

That day was October 18, 2010.  I get a reply from my AA, you are getting another new chair.

My sister went to Idaho State and was getting an EdD.  I asked her about her chair process.  She said chairs had to be tenured so they didn't have to worry about them being fired and quiting was rare.  But they did pass their students around.  "I don't like your subject" "I don't have time" ect.

More later.

Elle