Dissertation: 190 pages and counting

I've been writing and editing a lot here lately, in order to meet my goals: the majority of the text written before the ESI Thanksgiving Retreat next weekend (yes, a week ahead of Thanksgiving), submitting the full text to my committee by early/mid-December, and defending it in early February. Today I worked on finishing up chapter 5 and did a bit of work on chapter 6, the conclusion.

A couple of days ago, I sent a cleaned-up copy of chapter 2 and my bibliography to the style reader. The School of Religion requires us to have it read for formatting and such stuff. There's a very nice lady at the School of Theology library who does it. Hopefully, I have done my citations and margins and all that well enough.

I am waiting for chapter 4 to return from my dissertation chair, Tammi J. Schneider. I talked with her again a few days ago, and she sent the chapter with her notes and comments out several days ago. Now I just hope the mail works ok.

It seems at times as if most of my life these days is consumed by the dissertation, but I am getting a lot done. It's also exciting, as I can see it all coming together. Pray for continued perserverence. I have noticed that editing footnotes and formatting create a lot of tension in my neck and upper back. It may be the detailed nature of the work, or the fact that I don't use my ergonomic keyboard for it, since I am using the mouse so much. Jenny's occasional massages keep me from getting too tight.

For background on what I'm writing about: www.thomasfamilyweb.net/matt/dissertation_information.htm