The Dissertation Revision Trap

Imagine this common scenario: You’ve put your heart, blood, and time into creating and submitting an initial dissertation prospectus, concept paper, or dissertation proposal – only to receive a request for revision.

想象一下这个常见的场景:你投入了心血和时间来创作和提交一份初步的论文大纲、概念论文或论文提案，结果却收到了修改的请求。

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put your heart, blood, and time into : 投身于

Now, it’s up to you to revise this thing and return it to your chair and/or committee members such that you can move forward. You make the revisions based upon your understanding of the requests being made. You resubmit. Then, it happens: You receive more request for revision.

现在，由你来修改这个东西，并把它还给你的主席和/或委员会成员，以便你能继续前进。你根据你对所提要求的理解进行修改。你重新提交。然后，事情发生了： 你收到更多的修改要求。

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it's up to ：取决于
such that ： 如此...以至于
based upon : 取决于

It’s at this point where most candidates get stuck. It’s from this point that so many candidates will never advance. Such candidates are forever caught in the cycle of what I call “The Dissertation Revision Trap.”

正是在这一点上，大多数候选人被卡住了。正是从这一点出发，许多候选人将永远无法前进。这些候选人永远陷入了我称之为 "论文修改陷阱 "的循环之中

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at this point : 在这时，在此处
It's at this point where ..... : xxx在这个地方
get stuck : 卡住了
be forever caught in the cycle of : 陷入循环

Here are reasons that candidates get stuck in this trap:

POISON #1 : They submit their work far too early.

Candidates sometimes submit their “draft” before it’s fully ready for chair and committee eyes. While checking in with one’s chair, asking for feedback about specific elements of one’s draft, and asking specific questions about executing specific section of one’s draft are great strategies to writing a great dissertation, submitting an all-out draft before you know that is fully meets the expectations of a finished draft is pretty unwise.

以下是候选人陷入这个陷阱的原因：

POISON1：他们过早地提交了他们的工作。

候选人有时会在自己的 "草稿 "完全准备好供主席和委员会审阅之前就提交。虽然向主席了解情况，就草案的具体内容征求反馈意见，并就草案的具体部分提出具体问题，是写出一篇好论文的好策略，但在你知道完全满足完成草案的期望之前就提交一份全面的草案是非常不明智的。

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specific : 特定的，明确的
pretty unwise : 及其不明智

POISON #2 : They only address the revision request.

When you receive a request from a committee member, it’s natural to want to satisfy that revision. However, satisfying that revision request alone is not enough. Often you have to adjust other elements of your draft to satisfy the revision request AND address any paper-wide changes required to accommodate the request.

The antidote: Make the requested revision and examine how the draft needs to change around the revision. Carefully check your line of logic to make sure that it still holds with the new revision. In the event you don’t understand the revision request, call the requester on the phone or meet face-to-face to ask some questions.

POISON2:它们只处理修改请求。

当你收到一个委员会成员的请求时，想要满足这个修改是很自然的。然而，仅仅满足修改要求是不够的。通常，你必须调整草稿的其他元素以满足修改要求，并处理为适应要求而需要进行的所有纸张更改。

解决方法:进行要求的修改，并检查草稿需要如何围绕修改进行更改。仔细检查你的逻辑线，以确保它仍然适用于新的修订。如果你不明白修改请求，打电话给请求者或面对面地问一些问题。

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address : 也有修订的意思
accommodate : 容纳，满足，迁就
it's natural to do : 自然而然做
antidote : 解毒药(矫正方法)
make sure : 确保
In the event : 假如，倘若

POISON #3: They go overboard in their revisions.

Sometimes, rarely, candidates will change their draft more than required. For example, if a revision request was made to augment a minute element of a single sentence and the candidate made unnecessary global changes to one’s literature review based upon that single request, that would be an overreaction.

The antidote: Ask careful questions to the person requesting the revision. Understand the extent of the change before you make it.

POISON3:他们在修改中做得太过火了。

有时，很少，候选人会修改他们的草稿超过要求。例如，如果一个修改请求是为了增加一个句子的一个微小元素，而候选人根据这个请求对他的文献综述进行了不必要的全面修改，这将是反应过度。

解决方法:向要求修改的人仔细提问。在做出改变之前，要了解改变的程度。

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go overboard in : 太过火了
rarely : 很少
the extent of : 程度