defense looming

I've done the easy part of preparing for my defense: I checked to see what the weather in Normal will be like when I'm there (cold), I figured out which outfit to wear (black lace blouse, black jacket, camel pants, black boots that make me 5'6"), and I did the obligatory reading of defense horror stories people have blogged about. Now I need to actually review my dissertation, flagging sections with post-its that I might want to refer to during my defense, and some of the more relevant literature and predict questions I might be asked and responses I might give.

Some questions I've thought of that I could be asked:

• what would you do differently if you were doing this same study again?


• what were your assumptions about revision and the teaching of revision?


• in what ways does your own experience writing this dissertation reflect and contradict your findings about revision?


• given that one of your conclusions is that peer response motivates global revision more effectively than instructor response, what recommendations might you make to a writing program director about preparing and training graduate TAs?


• what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the study?


• since you wrote the review of literature, is there any new published work you wish you could have included?


• what are the most significant implications of your study for the discipline?

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