For the past two months I have been struggling with a page numbering issue. I am on the very last part of the downhill slide of my D.Min. I have finished my doctoral ministry project and written the Project Report (some other seminaries call their D.min project reports dissertations – NOBTS does not). My report has been approved by my faculty mentor which leaves just three more steps:

1. Send this to the Style Reader to check to make sure that I have done everything according to Turabian standards – Oh how I hate Kate Turabian
2. Send the report to my doctoral board
3. Defend this sucker.

I have been waiting to send the report to the Style Reader because I needed to work out how to do the page numbers on one appendix. The first appendix of my report is the approved proposal for the project. The page numbers in that proposal need to reflect both the original proposal’s page numbers and the Project Report’s page numbers. It should look like this.

I have asked for lots of help concerning these page numbers and I have received a lot of suggestions from people. Unfortunately none of them had worked in the past.

I became so frustrated a month ago that I asked a friend of mine who graduated last year how he did it. He told me he couldn’t figure it out and had to get a guy to do it for him. He sent me the guy’s number and I called him figuring he could walk me through the process. This is kind of a big deal for me. I usually can figure out what I need to do with computers and software. I have a bit of pride concerning this ability. Any how I humbled myself and called the guy. He told me it was too difficult to talk me through over the phone, but he would find a sample that would work with my report that I could copy and paste my stuff into. It would just take him a while because he was busy. So I thanked him, said I would look forward to his help when he could do it, and immediately emailed back my friend asking if I could get his Word file for his Project Report so I could just figure it out on my own. After a couple of weeks my friend forwarded me the file and I looked at it. It was absolutely no help because for some reason when I toggled the codes (Alt+F9) it would show the code for one page number and not the other. ARGH! I needed the codes for both page numbers.

I asked for help again from my Facebook and Twitter friends. I received more responses. Unfortunately once again none of them worked. So I waited for that one guy to send me a template to use. Today I thought I would give it another try and once again failed. When I posted my frustration on Facebook and Twitter I started receiving suggestions yet again. This time one worked. A college friend (thanks Jane) sent me a link that had a code I could manipulate to work. I SCREAMED! Seriously you can ask Pam. I screamed and danced. This was awesome. i now appreciate Jane for another reason other than introducing me to the Violent Femmes in college.

What is even more awesome is that my D.Min project is about collaborative sermon preparation and ultimately the report has been finished by collaboration. I love that.

SIDE NOTE – For anyone searching for the way to do these page numbers (basically NOBTS D.Min students) you just need this code:

{ PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT } [{= { PAGE }+68}]

You replace the “68″ with the overall page at which your appendix starts. it was really that simple once I knew what to do.

I am through with all but two things in my dissertation/project report for finishing my Doctor of Ministry degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. 1) I am waiting on a letter and Curriculum Vitae from one of the experts who helped me with my project, and 2) I need to figure out how to do the page numbers in one section.

ARGH! Where are you when I need you Clippy

This second part is killing me. I need to have two different page numbers on the same page. One page number is the overall page number of the paper and the other is the page number for just that section. It should look something like the image above. Can anybody help? I have searched and searched the interwebs trying to find out how to do this in Word 2007 and I haven’t had any luck. I’ve even written the author of the paper that the above image came from hoping that he can help.

Once this is finish I get to send it to the style reader and then I am REALLY, REALLY close to being finished. So come on people. Help a brother out. I’ll buy an ice cream cone for whoever finds this answer for me.

I’m need a few test subjects concerning the survey that I will be using for my D.Min project. I’m trying to decide if I am going to use Google Docs to do the survey or if I will go with good ‘ole fashion pen and paper. Want to help me? Go here and complete the questionnaire. I don’t care how you answer it. All I need is to find out if it works.

Sermon Response Questionnaire

Thanks.

162 pages stuck in the mail today. The Final Project Proposal is officially over. Implementation begins now. :)

interested in reading what i have been working on for my d.min? well here is the final draft edition of the proposal for my dissertation. you are welcome to read it and if you see a typo or something that i missed please don’t hesitate to let me know. i will not send this in until sometime tomorrow. it is 73 pages long and it is only the proposal. truthfully most of it is pretty boring because it is setting the stage for the project itself.

establishing the foundation for my d.min project/dissertation (which is a study concerning the effectiveness of collaborative sermon preparation) is done through by establishing an annotated bibliography that is evaluated by a recognized expert in the field to make sure that it represents the general thought and discussion of the field. it is similar to the literature reviews that other fields do as an initial part of their studies.

i have been corresponding with dr. wesley allen of lexington seminary and author of “the homiletic of all believers” to develop the annotated bib for my project. yesterday morning dr. allen said it looked good. i was so thrilled that i shouted loud enough to wake noah up.  thus my tweet yesterday.

THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY HAS BEEN APPROVED! BOOM SHACKALAKA. Now all that is necessary is to get the proposal to Dr. Lemke’s standards.

— Robert Terrell (@ratterrell) June 13, 2012

i felt pretty good about the books i was using for the foundation of the project before i corresponded with dr. allen but I AM THRILLED with the books that talking with him led me to consider. thanks to the used books on amazon i was able to get them for next to nothing. i think the most i spent on any of the books is $6. most of them i was able to buy for $3-$4.

here is the annotated bibliography for anyone who is interested.

the remaining steps for finishing my project proposal are:

• receive edits from dr. lemke (my faculty mentor) and update paper.
• have paper reviewed by d.min reader to make sure it is ready to be submitted.
• have paper read by dr. ogea associate dean of the professional doctorate program to make sure it is ready to be submitted.
• submit the proposal to the professional doctorate committee for approval.

once it is approved i can begin to work on the actual study. yeah.

one of the things i am discovering from working on my d.min project/dissertation is how generous most academics are with their time and unfortunately how non-generous some others are. i have written before concerning how amazed i was with the incredibly fast and positive response of those involved with john stott ministries and the incredibly slow and negative response from a couple of people i would have considered friends or at least strong acquaintances (if you can’t tell i’m still a little bitter about this but i am trying to let it go). as i finish my proposal and prepare to submit it i am again amazed by the generosity of the many academics with whom i have talked. two different professors at uwsp have willingly loaned me their time and expertise. my research has absolutely nothing to do with their research. they have nothing to gain from helping me (other than maybe a cup of coffee or some homemade cookies) and yet they are very willing to review things for me and make suggestions for improvement. i am very thankful for their help.

the latest example of this is dr. maggie watson, a professor in the communicative disorders department, who has graciously agreed to review the survey i will use to quantify my research. i felt pretty good about the survey i had originally developed. i modeled it on several others i found in other people’s research. you can see it here. pam recommended that i run it past maggie. pam said she is a wiz when it comes to this stuff. so i asked her and she has been gracious enough to evaluate it. her changes were small but should make a dramatic difference in the data i garner from my research. you can see it here. one small change she suggested that i believe will make a huge difference is to never have odd numbered choices on the survey. i had originally asked them to answer “strongly agree / agree / undecided / disagree / strongly disagree.” maggie suggested getting rid of the “undecided” choice by either going to 4 or 6 possibilities (i went with 6). this forces the one tested to make a choice. brilliant.

anyhow i have been pleasantly surprised, though i probably shouldn’t be because it seems typical of most of the ones i conversed with, by how generous with their time the academics i have corresponded with have been concerning my research.

for those of you who are interested here is the doctrinal foundations section of my final project proposal for my d.min. the goal is to finish the proposal this weekend and get it proofed and approved by my faculty mentor in time for the june committee. this would mean that i should be able to finish the research over the summer and have the report in with time to spare for graduation in december. woohoo!

this is just the first draft so a great deal will change before it is finished. i cannot express enough how thankful i am for pam. she helps so much with my studies.

final project proposal – doctrinal foundations section