Narrowing things down

My task for the past two weeks has been to narrow down my topic.  This has me stalled.  Part of me feels like if I do something that's near and dear to my heart, my chairs will say it's not a good idea.  Guess I'll have to put it out there and see what happens.....

One down...

Well, it wasn't as great or as long as I wanted it to be but I've turned in my initial write up!!  I had it in my confused little head that I needed to write my entire lit review for this first submission.  It took me a few days to realize that this is a developmental process and no one is expecting me to have a completed lit review right now!  The plan is to do incremental work on this and submit it every one-two weeks....at least I hope my chair(s) think that's ok.  Onward and upward!

Inital write-up

Now, theoretically doing an initial lit review write-up doesn't sound too hard.  I mean you're just summarizing the massive plethora of articles that you've read thus far.  We'll, it take a lot more than you'd think!  I initially started this thinking that I would just summarize things.  Then I took a look at one of my colleagues' (who has earned her PhD) lit review for her actual dissertation.  Why just summarize when I have the beginnings of my own full lit review?!?  Unfortunately, this is going to take a bit longer so I won't be turning it in to my co-chairs today.  I'll have it ready on Monday!