Introduction to PhD and dissertation advice
This blog sets out to document some of the more practical tips I am picking up as I make my way through a Biblical Studies PhD program.
There are many great “how-to” books for aspiring / current PhD students, and I’ve read and benefited from many; however, there is still a need for some of the more nitty-gritty details that many of these books don’t cover.
Over the next few years my goal is to provide some practical tips for navigating through a PhD program. This includes processes, organizational resources, software programs, software tips, links, and the like that I have found useful and beneficial in the research and writing phases of my dissertation.
I will also be writing from time to time on some of the more salient findings in my research, particularly if these can be useful to other students’ research processes.
My story…
I feel greatly blessed to be where I am today.
I was born in Mexico but grew up in the San Diego, CA area and went to college in Los Angeles (Pepperdine University, BA Economics). I eventually settled there working as a banker.
At age 28, I had what you might term a religious conversion (OK, God spoke to me in a dream and told me to get my life in order!) I became a Christian and shortly thereafter met my wife who was living in Boston at the time. (The short story: She answered my tech support call after the demo software she had developed had crashed my machine. It was love at first sound!) I moved to Boston and began working in a software company as a software trainer.
Talk about culture shock. Anyway, a bit later I changed careers and went to seminary. I went from working in a high-tech software company to teaching aspiring pastors in a Bible Institute in Paraguay, South America, and I’ve never looked back. It was one of the best four-year periods of my life.
My current situation…
Currently, I am living in Medellin, Colombia where I teach in the New Testament Department of the Biblical Seminary of Colombia. (www.unisbc.edu.co).
For me, to work in a seminary setting, in one of the most beautiful countries in South America, helping to develop a new generation of pastors, leaders and missionaries is like a dream come true. It is my passion, really, and I feel fortunate that I can do this for a living.
I am also doing research through the London School of Theology in the Book of Acts and 1 Peter and guest lecturing for Gordon-Conwell’s Hispanic Ministries Division.
If you would like to learn more about the ministry of leadership development in Latin America (or think you might be suited to guest teach a class in Colombia at some point) please visit my website: www.karakey.com.
Gustavo:
Very good site. Enjoyed your comments last week and this site made me a believer in your choice of bib managers. I used End Note for a while but found it painful and ineffective.
Melody and I will pray for you as you and your family make the transition to Columbia!
Very best wishes for God’s best for you all,
Jim
Thanks Jim…for comments and especially for prayer!
Gustavo,
I actually ran across your site while looking for information on notetaking software for a Th.M. thesis I’m gearing up to start next year. What a surprise it was to see that you are in Colombia! I was also looking at the future possibility of doing a Ph.D. from the UK. We’ll see what happens.
We live in Santa Marta… our church’s site here may be of interest to you http://impactobiblico.com.
Blessings,
Jonathan
Jonathan:
So glad to make your acquaintance. I love your website.
If I can be of any help (or inspiration) in pursuit of your PhD let me know. It’s hard work, but the Lord has blessed the investment already, and I’m really enjoying the process.
If you’re in Medellin, look me up. I’ll do the same if I ever come to La Costa.
Keep in touch.
Gustavo
Thanks to your website, I am now using Scrivener to write my Ph.D. thesis (Durham University, Durham UK). Again, thanks for your post. However, I do have a question. Have you had any problems integrating Bibleworks 8 with Scrivener? For some reason, I cannot copy Hebrew texts to Scrivener; it keeps showing up as English characters. You can send me a personal e-mail if that works better.
Kind regards,
Ramone
Thanks for this website.
I’m currently torn between using Scrivener and Mellel for writing. I’ve started Scrivener, and got my whole outline, ideas and brainfarts organized there.
Once I started writing, I noticed that some things are not as simple as they should be, for example the chapter-numbering system and figure-implementation.
I know, one should just write and not worry about editing….but I’m a burnt child from using latex and I know how much time one can waste on having to deal with tons of text which have to be edited.
Mellel seems to be much better in terms of editing UI; it also has the full-sceen writing function, which is the single best thing EVER! I cannot believe how I could work without this feature. In Scrivener and in Mellel I can just write without distraction on any screen, without icons and stuff that keeps me from looking at my words. Its great.
Anyway, I was wondering whether you know a good piece of software for writing theses and puplications in, and which allows me to easily work and edit figures, references and such…
Thanks a lot,
take care,
fd
Thanks again for your comments…
I actually own a copy of Mellel but my learning curve was too big, so I went back to an old standby.
Scrivener was something I just fell into early on in my research and the more I worked in it the more I liked the environment. However, I’m with you. To finish a document in Scrivener is just not possible. So that is the biggest drawback for me as I end up exporting to another system to compile and hand in my work.
I tend to be very scatter brained and there’s no way I could progress with a regular, linear word processing type software. I need to move things around, see it in outline, note cards and document forms, isolate one chapter or one section and work on that. It’s too bad I don’t write screenplays as fun as it is to work with the software.
Best of luck.
Gustavo
Hi,
I got to your blog doing a search on a methodology I intend to utilise for my recently embarked upon PhD in Luke-Acts. I must say your write-ups ooze encouragement and offer a sense of possibility in the pursuit of a PhD research. I want to thank you for that and will love to keep contact via email.
In Christ Jesus,
Jacob.
Jacob:
Would love to help any way that I can. I am doing my research on Luke-Acts in comparison with another NT writing so I am familiar with a lot of the literature for Luke-Acts.
Best of luck in your research.