Just when you think it's finally over and you can breathe, out of nowhere comes another obstacle that you have to overcome. For me his name is Cleve and he's the dissertation reviewer for my university. Before any doctoral candidate can walk across that stage you and your dissertation have to go through Cleve in the graduate school. Now don't get me wrong, Cleve is a pretty cool guy, but don't get it twisted, he takes his job VERY seriously! Cleve has the responsibility of ensuring that EVERY dissertation that is completed by a doctoral candidate meets a certain format and the bottom line is that you do it the right way or there is no way you will graduate.
I had the pleasure of meeting Cleve one week ago, and watching in agony as he went through my dissertation with a red ink pen (I find red ink traumatizing...I'm just saying, I think purple is more pleasing, but that's another story...). Cleve looks at certain details such as your margins, spacing between headings and the main content, page numbers, etc... He could careless about your content. His only concern is that all dissertations are formatted the same.
Since my meeting with Cleve I've submitted my dissertation to the graduate school twice. The first time it was returned I had forgotten to make one correction, and a correction I made previously caused a few things to shift and page numbers to change. Although it seems minor, but when all that stands in your way of you marching across that stage and receiving that onion skin that bears your name is the correct formatting of your dissertation, this becomes a very serious step...it's the FINAL step.
So with a cap and gown on order and invitations made, all that stands between me, the stage and my PhD is a guy name Cleve and me getting this formatting down. With one month left until graduation, let's hope I got it right with this 2nd submission... Wish me luck!
