If dissertations were software
In my systems analysis class this week, we learned about the differences between various models for software development, and we talked a bit about the circumstances under which you might choose one model or another. For instance: the waterfall model, in which the programmers and everyone else involved in the project move through a series of well-defined stages where the outcome is known from the get-go, and everyone signs off on each stage before moving to the next; the incremental model, in which you release the system a little at the time, improving it and adding features with each stage; and rapid prototyping, in which you develop a prototype, show it to the people who need the system, fix and refine as necessary, lather, rinse, and repeat.
Halfway through the lecture, the proverbial light bulb clicked on in my head: oh, this is like working on a big writing project! Especially the kind of writing project where you’re getting feedback from several different readers. It reminded me of the process of writing my dissertation, which was sort of a cross between the incremental model (here’s a crappy draft of chapter 1! here’s a better draft of chapter 1 with feedback incorporated! here’s a chunk of chapter 2! and so on) and the rapid-prototyping model. My preliminary exams were all about coming up with a dissertation-prototype in 72 hours, then going through an intensive critique with a view of turning it into a finished product eventually — even though I ended up not using the prototype.
And then I recalled how I always tried to encourage my writing students to try something like the incremental model (draft, get comments, revise, get more comments, et cetera) rather than the waterfall model (plan out the entire thing so that you know what the end stage will be). Which is probably about as far as the analogy will go before it starts to fall apart. But it was good to feel that connection-making part of my brain come online and start whirring away.
I wonder if my students would have glazed over if I’d started making software development analogies? It’s probably just as well I didn’t know about this stuff back when I was teaching composition. Though it might have appealed to the future engineering and computer science majors.
Man, my current crop of engineering and computer science majors would probably eat that stuff up!