Compressure.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any smaller... (Stop that.)

One of the most frustrating things I've run across in doing my dissertation work is writing conference papers. My dissertation is currently bouncing around 100 pages, and I expect to double that before I'm done, at the very minimum. Possibly triple.

It is convoluted, arcane, and worst... all tied together in one big bundle. The ideas are fairly enough far from the accepted norm that to accept the main thrust, you have to work your way up through an argument chain with various levels of validation and proof along the way. No single step can be left out, or the logic won't be accepted by many folks in the field. It breaks several concepts that are accepted as 'fact', but I have *tons* of corroborating material for each argument, taken directly from the literature that seems to contradict my thesis.

The problem is... I have about 100 pages now. How am I supposed to condense that to 18 pages of readable material, that still makes sense?

Well, I did it about four months ago, and ended up with a slick little paper (that ended up getting rejected, but that was alright) that I was pretty happy with. Tightened it all down, brought the concepts down to their minimal form, ratcheted down the text without losing the nuances, and generally wrote a great little executive synopsis.

Until I was asked to pare it to 6 pages.

At 5pm today I submitted a 6 page synopsis of my dissertation, with a complete example of the process.

Oy.

The truly frightening part? I *added* material over the 18 page version. A couple of pages worth. Then I went back and started coming up with synopses for the various sections. A lot of detail was lost, but the main thrusts are still there, and the argument chain is fairly intact. Since this was an abstract for a presentation, with the full paper to be delivered later, I was able to shunt a lot of explanation off with "We will discuss in more detail..."

6 pages. Six. Pages.

Surely my dissertation can't *really* be explained in six pages?

I'm perversely tempted to see just how far I *can* compress the sucker.

Thesis: "Stuff."

Compressure.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any smaller... (Stop that.)

One of the most frustrating things I've run across in doing my dissertation work is writing conference papers. My dissertation is currently bouncing around 100 pages, and I expect to double that before I'm done, at the very minimum. Possibly triple.

It is convoluted, arcane, and worst... all tied together in one big bundle. The ideas are fairly enough far from the accepted norm that to accept the main thrust, you have to work your way up through an argument chain with various levels of validation and proof along the way. No single step can be left out, or the logic won't be accepted by many folks in the field. It breaks several concepts that are accepted as 'fact', but I have *tons* of corroborating material for each argument, taken directly from the literature that seems to contradict my thesis.

The problem is... I have about 100 pages now. How am I supposed to condense that to 18 pages of readable material, that still makes sense?

Well, I did it about four months ago, and ended up with a slick little paper (that ended up getting rejected, but that was alright) that I was pretty happy with. Tightened it all down, brought the concepts down to their minimal form, ratcheted down the text without losing the nuances, and generally wrote a great little executive synopsis.

Until I was asked to pare it to 6 pages.

At 5pm today I submitted a 6 page synopsis of my dissertation, with a complete example of the process.

Oy.

The truly frightening part? I *added* material over the 18 page version. A couple of pages worth. Then I went back and started coming up with synopses for the various sections. A lot of detail was lost, but the main thrusts are still there, and the argument chain is fairly intact. Since this was an abstract for a presentation, with the full paper to be delivered later, I was able to shunt a lot of explanation off with "We will discuss in more detail..."

6 pages. Six. Pages.

Surely my dissertation can't *really* be explained in six pages?

I'm perversely tempted to see just how far I *can* compress the sucker.

Thesis: "Stuff."

The blacks.

Everyone gets the blues, but the really special people get 'the blacks'... that gnawing, deep depression that sends your mind spinning into wheels and circles intertwining in your deepest fears and doubts.

Using the term 'the blacks' is just fraught with peril however... too many connotations that have priority in people's minds, but 'the blues' doesn't cut it, and even 'depressed' just fails to get across the utter despair.

Well, I learned a new term yesterday.

dubhachas

I'm currently reading Patricia Kennealy's Keltiad series, and while it is *far* from an authority on Gaelic language, I liked this term.

Our heroine is in the midst of deep peril, and has lost (as in can't find) her closest friend, behind enemy lines, etc, etc, etc.

"She could do no more tonight, save fret herself into the dubhachas, that evil mood known to its victims as the 'Keltic blacks'."

Being of Celtic descent, I can relate. I think it's a genetic ingrained symptom of centuries of misty skies.

But that word... dubhachas... it rather jumped out at me. Gaelic pronunciation, as explained in the series (no, I don't speak it), states that this word should be pronounced doo-vachkas, bh = a slightly guttural v, and ch = the 'ch' in the German 'ach'.

Try it. It has a deep rumbling despair to it, and it bites neatly off at the tongue. Use it as an epithet, draw it out in emotional agony... it works.

The blacks.

Everyone gets the blues, but the really special people get 'the blacks'... that gnawing, deep depression that sends your mind spinning into wheels and circles intertwining in your deepest fears and doubts.

Using the term 'the blacks' is just fraught with peril however... too many connotations that have priority in people's minds, but 'the blues' doesn't cut it, and even 'depressed' just fails to get across the utter despair.

Well, I learned a new term yesterday.

dubhachas

I'm currently reading Patricia Kennealy's Keltiad series, and while it is *far* from an authority on Gaelic language, I liked this term.

Our heroine is in the midst of deep peril, and has lost (as in can't find) her closest friend, behind enemy lines, etc, etc, etc.

"She could do no more tonight, save fret herself into the dubhachas, that evil mood known to its victims as the 'Keltic blacks'."

Being of Celtic descent, I can relate. I think it's a genetic ingrained symptom of centuries of misty skies.

But that word... dubhachas... it rather jumped out at me. Gaelic pronunciation, as explained in the series (no, I don't speak it), states that this word should be pronounced doo-vachkas, bh = a slightly guttural v, and ch = the 'ch' in the German 'ach'.

Try it. It has a deep rumbling despair to it, and it bites neatly off at the tongue. Use it as an epithet, draw it out in emotional agony... it works.

Cool.

I just got all the bits and pieces of my dissertation started in written form from previous writings. I gathered together the chunklets from papers, reports, and such, sliced and diced them into the final ordering, and massaged out the problems in LaTeX from moving and editing so many files.

97 pages.

I've got 97 freakin' pages.

YES!

They're hardly high literature, and I probably have another 100 pages or so go, (at least), but the framework is now in place. I can expand, edit, and play with each piece within its own sandbox, instead of dealing with one monstrous creation daily.

This feels *GOOD*.

Cool.

I just got all the bits and pieces of my dissertation started in written form from previous writings. I gathered together the chunklets from papers, reports, and such, sliced and diced them into the final ordering, and massaged out the problems in LaTeX from moving and editing so many files.

97 pages.

I've got 97 freakin' pages.

YES!

They're hardly high literature, and I probably have another 100 pages or so go, (at least), but the framework is now in place. I can expand, edit, and play with each piece within its own sandbox, instead of dealing with one monstrous creation daily.

This feels *GOOD*.