Stranger Things and Dissertations
I often use this space to connect someone’s birthday to something pertaining to your dissertation. When I started investigating November 8th, I noticed some stranger things…
Stranger things opens with a group of boys playing Dungeons & Dragons. Hasbro has produced numerous Dungeons & Dragons games, movies, and television shows.
Hasbro is also the parent company to Milton Bradley, whose birthday is today. Milton Bradley was famous for creating games.
And, fellow birthday boy Bobby Bowden is famous for coaching games. He took his team, Florida State, to the BCS Championship (the biggest game during his coaching tenure) in the first three years of its existence. He lost his final appearance to Oklahoma.
Do you know who else is from Oklahoma? Birthday girl, Alfre Woodard, who played an important figure in the development of warp drive technology in one of the Star Trek films.
Do you know who played Spock’s mother in another Star Trek film? Winona Ryder, star of Stranger Things!
Weird, huh?
But, wait! There’s more.
Stranger Things, Season 2 star, Sean Astin voiced a vampire bunny in the TV series, Bunnicula. Birthday girl, Parker Posey also played a vampire in the movie, Blade: Trinity.
Who was the original inspiration for the vampire character? None other than birthday boy, Vlad the Impaler. And for a really creepy turn, Vlad shares his birthday with author, Bram Stoker, in 1897, wrote the novel, Dracula.
But, it gets stranger… Who played Dracula’s love interest in the movie version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula? You guessed it! Winona Ryder, star of Stranger Things!
Creepy!
Discovering connections is important to dissertation students, especially when writing the literature review. But, more important than simply finding articles to mention is understanding how those articles serve the narrative you are trying to tell. How does each article lend credibility to your topic? And, how does each article support the need for your research?
Use the articles in your lit review as evidence in your analysis of the state of research surrounding your chosen topic. The lit review is not merely a recitation of previous findings. Instead it is a persuasive piece, designed to convince the reader (or your committee, at least) that your project is relevant and needed in your field of research.
Too many students fall into the trap of not knowing whether they have sufficiently paraphrased each author’s work. Don’t fall into that trap. Rise above. Don’t simply report findings, which is very low-level writing, according to Bloom’s taxonomy. Instead, utilize those findings in higher-level processes like comparisons and analyses.
And, who knows, maybe making these connections will help you discover some Stranger Things that will make your study even more interesting and relevant!
