keeping track of chapter edits

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a very organized person. I would recommend to anyone trying to write a dissertation while working full-time that they become extremely organized. I’ve been working seriously on my dissertation since July and have had very minimal stress around making deadlines and keeping myself focused. I attribute the low stress level to being organized. I mentioned before how useful Gantt charts have been for me.

Right now I am using a Gantt chart to keep track of which stage of editing each chapter is in. Without a Gantt chart, I’m sure I would go slightly crazy trying to remember whether I’ve done a second or third or fourth edit on each of six chapters. Here’s the process I’ve been using to edit my chapters. Once a chapter’s content and structure has been approved by my committee, I put it through four editing phases.

• The first edit is for source-related issues. I make sure that everything that needs to be cited is cited, I double check that the citation information included in the chapter is correct, and then I make the corresponding entry on the References list matches up with the information in the chapter.


• The second edit is for stylistic issues. I fine tune word choice, transitions between paragraphs, headings and subheadings, and paragraph structure. I also check during this phase to make sure each chapter's intro and conclusion ties it to the chapters before and after it.


• The third edit happens after my husband has read and annotated a chapter. Most of his comments relate to word choice, clarifying unclear antecedents, and typos. In the third editing phase, I make the corrections my husband has suggested.


• The fourth edit is where I make sure the table of contents matches up with the chapter. This includes making sure the wording for all headings and subheadings is the same in each place, making sure the capitalization is the same in each place, and making sure that each heading’s level is the same in each place. I have three levels of headings in one chapter and two levels of headings in five chapters, and apparently if I accidentally have a heading formatted for the wrong level, at format check time, my dissertation will be struck by lightning and burst into flames.

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