I knew this moment might come

So, I send off what I *hope* will be the final version of the prospectus yesterday morning. In the afternoon mail a book arrived. It's a book that was recommended to me for a non-dissertation related project.

But as I read the introduction to the book, I realize the book is doing much the same thing as I intend to do in the dissertation.

The sensation produced by that realization is certainly not pleasant. Sinking-feeling-in-your-stomach is one way of describing it. The world-tilting-on-its-axis might be a bit over dramatic, but it could serviceably be another.

I know this is a point that probably every doctoral student hits at some point in the research stage - finding someone else who has already done almost exactly what you want to do. My first thought actually had nothing to do with the dissertation itself though. My first thought was actually, "Now I'll have an even harder time publishing the book"

Yes, that's a long, long way away, but if I'm going to be honest, it was the first thought. After all, the expectation is that you will produce a book shortly after finishing the PhD, and you need to do so to gain tenure. The most logical material for a book is a revision of the dissertation, after all, you spent years researching and putting it together, it's the most logical candidate for book material.

After my initial distress at reading what this scholar produced (and just produced - it was published this year), slowly lessened, and I began to try to find the points of difference between what I'm trying to do and what she has done.

I discover there are several points of difference. Though even as I do so, I can't help but admire her book for its polished presentation of some of the same arguments I'm trying to formulate. My attempts look so clumsy and amateurish compared to their articulation in this book. But that just makes me anxious again, and I return to trying to find differences.

And there are differences. Though the major difference between our projects was really only going to be the subject of one chapter of my dissertation. I'm now thinking it wouldn't hurt to emphasize it more throughout the dissertation.

Thank goodness a prospectus is just that - a proposed project - and not written in stone!