Part of our ongoing free webinar series at https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctoralnet/conferences, DoctoralNet.com discusses drift - what it is, how to recognize it and how to recover. This session was recorded at https://www.bigmarker.com/doctoralnet/room89 during which one of the participants had a very useful example of drift in his research on outsourcing in the automotive industry. Go there if you want to hear that example

1. Is Your
Doctoral Work
Drifting?
Thank you for coming, we will
start in just a moment
We will start in just a moment

2. PhD Drift: What is it? Where does it happen?
Today we will cover
1. Elements of drift
2. Where it shows
3. How to recover

3. Time is Not Your Friend
1. Ideas drift: change
with policies/
innovations, etc.
2. Require constant
updates with
literature

4. Drift During Planning
1. It is not a good idea
not to know where
you are going for too
long = loss of
momentum and
motivation
2. Also not good to
change to meet
requirements without
understanding them

5. Drift During Writing
the Proposal
1. = loss of momentum
and motivation
2. Universities change
the goals/standards

6. Where does it show up?
1. Topic drift
2. Writer chasing the
rules rather than
building an argument
3. Loss of internal
consistency
4. Poor review between
iterations of
methodological
design

7. Specifically…
1. More than one topic/
often not from the
same family.
2. Problem statement vs.
lead in, context, ideas
in lit, etc.
3. Research questions,
purpose or are not
consistent
4. Theoretical foundation
no longer supports the
methodology

8. What is the wood your
work drifts against?
1. University guidelines
2. Model dissertations or
thesis
3. Feedback from
profs/mentors

9. How to recover?
1. Focus
2. Have a good pit crew
1. Reading
2. Editor
3. Supervisor
3. Self belief –
champions
4. Motivation – outside
sources of inspiration.

10. What are you
favorite tools for
recovery?
• Groups?
• Tools?
• University level help?
• ????

11. Upcoming
News/Events
NOTE: Always Sign in First!
1. Last week or so for
30% off from Sage
on the new book:
http://www.sagepub.com/
vip/james/
Doctoral Group Space
3. Know anyone else who might want our
services? Sign up as an affiliate and earn a
free 30 minute consultation as a “Thank
You.” Send out notices using your affiliate
code and anyone signing up using it earns
you either money or services – your choice.
http://www.doctoralnet.com/idevaffiliate/index.p
hp
4. Do you read our blog?
http://www.doctoralnet.com/professors-blog.html
5. Bundles of Help: For proposals
http://promos.doctoralnet.com/proposal-fordissertation/
For writing
http://promos.doctoralnet.com/academic-writing/
6. Conferences:
https://www.bigmarker.com/communities/doctor
alnet/conferences
• Sat 9th – Chapter 1
• Sun 10th – Linking lit and methods
• Sat 16th Writing Chapters, Paragraphs, etc
• Sat 17th All about abstracts
• Sat 23rd APA
• Sun 24th Inspirational Stories