This indisputable fact is the impetus behind the genius blog Dissertation Haiku, which explains itself thus:
Dissertations are long and boring. By contrast, everybody likes haiku. So why not write your dissertation as a haiku?
aI guess that graduate-student writers are just like any other kind of writer in that they do want someone, anyone, to enjoy their work, regardless of how specialized or mind-numbingly dull the subject might be–hence the hundreds who have posted to the blog. So far, my favorite comes from one Mary O’Connor, who is studying ecology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She writes that her dissertation deals with “the effects of temperature on food webs using coastal marine plants and animals. In general, as water warms by small amounts, fish and crustaceans eat more seaweed. Thus, warming predictably changes energy flow in food webs and the abundance of marine plants and animals.” I appreciate the importance of this research (and even find it intriguing), but for the sake of this post, I’ll give it a big yawn. Now for the haiku:
Hungry herbivores,
It’s warm; feel your tummies growl?
Graze down hot seaweed.