tips on dissertation writing

March 6, 2014 Want to swap writing strategies? We're starting a discussion group on scholarly writing. Join us! Start a thread! As a former journalist, assistant professor, and seasoned dissertation-writing-workshop coach at New York University, I can promise you there is only one fail-safe method, one secret, one guaranteed trick that you need in order to finish your dissertation: Write. That’s it. Seriously. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are no magical shortcuts to the production of prose, academic or otherwise. If you want to complete your dissertation in a reasonable amount of time—and trust me, you do—you must learn to prioritize the act of writing itself and write every day. Writing must become a non-negotiable part of your daily routine. Here’s the basic, scalable program that I recommend: Sit your butt down in a chair, preferably in a quiet and distraction-free room. Disable your internet and turn your phone on silent. Come into your writing space having already done the research you need for that day’s writing task. You will not be researching or looking anything up during your writing time (research and editing are discrete tasks, believe it or not, and should be done in separate blocks). Don’t do “poms”—timed sessions of 25 minutes with five-minute breaks in between—for writing. They work well for other discrete tasks, like research or formatting or getting your bibliography together, but not here. Instead, try to write for a longer, uninterrupted time. In NYU’s workshops, we write for 50 minutes straight, with 10-minute breaks, for 4 hours daily. That might not be feasible if you work or have young children, but plan on writing five days a week, no matter what, for a minimum of two hours each day. It’s doable, I promise. Here’s the rationale for writing every day: Writing is thinking. It takes time and it’s supposed to be challenging. The.
Posted on 04 February 2011 Earlier today, I attended an excellent workshop by Dr. Rachna Jain on writing the dissertation. About 150-200 students attended. Here is some of her advice. Writing Strategies Writing is not revising. When you are writing, just write! Don’t stop, don’t backspace, don’t correct. Keep moving forward. Forward, forward, forward. Revise later. Perfectionism is your worst enemy, particularly at early stages. Write in layers. First, crude main ideas. Then, fill in the gaps. Finally, citations. Start with what you already know. “First drafts come from the heart.” In verbal conversation, you effortlessly tell the other person what you already know. When writing, pretend to tell someone the story. Then write the story. You may actually find it useful to record your own voice as you tell yourself the story so you can play it back as you write. Write at least one page of your dissertation per day. Often more, but at least one page. And it doesn’t have to be in order. Any one page is fine. Allow rough drafts. Launch quickly and iterate rapidly. The rough draft should be very rough. Don’t worry about errors. Just write, baby. But also turn around revisions quickly. Use an outline. It helps keep a coherent flow throughout your dissertation. Try constructing a mindmap — a “tree” of ideas with the core (root) idea in the center and branch ideas around the root, and so on. “Powerpoint” your ideas. Then turn your slides into prose. Seek feedback regularly. Feedback helps turn revisions around quickly, too. At first, ignore your audience. Write for yourself, first. Then, once you have written a fair amount, consider your audience, and revise. Write outward, not inward. Writing out of order is fine, perhaps even preferable. I made the mistake of writing my early research papers in order from introduction to conclusion. However, research is always so.
Writing a dissertation can be one of the hardest tasks a university student has to accomplish – but it will come to an end. Photograph: Randy Faris/Corbis The sun is shining but many students won't see the daylight. Because it's that time of year again – dissertation time. Luckily for me, my D-Day (dissertation hand-in day) has already been and gone. But I remember it well. The 10,000-word spiral-bound paper squatted on my desk in various forms of completion was my Allied forces; the history department in-tray was my Normandy. And when Eisenhower talked about a great crusade toward which we have striven these many months , he was bang on. I remember first encountering the Undergraduate Dissertation Handbook, feeling my heart sink at how long the massive file took to download, and began to think about possible (but in hindsight, wildly over-ambitious) topics. Here's what I've learned since, and wish I'd known back then 1) If your dissertation supervisor isn't right, change. Mine was brilliant. If you don't feel like they're giving you the right advice, request to swap to someone else – providing it's early on and your reason is valid, your department shouldn't have a problem with it. In my experience, it doesn't matter too much whether they're an expert on your topic. What counts is whether they're approachable, reliable, reassuring, give detailed feedback and don't mind the odd panicked email. They are your lifeline and your best chance of success. 2) If you mention working on your dissertation to family, friends or near-strangers, they will ask you what it's about, and they will be expecting a more impressive answer than you can give. So prepare for looks of confusion and disappointment. People anticipate grandeur in history dissertation topics – war, genocide, the formation of modern society. They don't think much of researching an obscure piece of 1970s disability.
What this handout is about Graduate school pundits often cite 50% or more as the attrition rate for ABD students (those who have completed All the requirements of their programs But the Dissertation). Why? This handout will not only answer this question, but also give you good, practical advice on starting, drafting, and completing your dissertation. Reasons for ABD inertia—the nature of the beast Why don’t doctoral candidates manage to get rolling on the dissertation any sooner, or KEEP rolling once they get started? Partly because the dissertation is a completely new experience that is much larger and more independent than your previous academic work. 1. Writing a dissertation is a completely new experience. To this point, being a graduate student has been, more or less, an extension of your earlier life as a student. Many people, in fact, go to graduate school because they have always been “good at school,” and want to continue with something that brings them success and self-confidence. The reading assignments, labs, papers, and tests you have been assigned as a graduate student may not have been so different from your undergraduate course work. The dissertation, on the other hand, is a new kind of academic project, unlike anything else you’ve done. It is the academic project that marks your transition from student to scholar. 2. Writing a dissertation is not only new, it’s also a very large, very independent project. Writing a dissertation is a lot like writing a book. It is, by definition, a self-directed process. There are usually no weekly deadlines from professors, no regular discussions with classmates, no reading assignments, no one telling you what to do—you are on your own, writing something longer than you’ve ever written, and doing it without a net. This independence can make the process seem very intimidating 3. The dissertation marks the transition.
Dissertation deadlines, for many students, are just around the corner Photo: Alamy Dissertation deadlines, for many students, are just around the corner. With any luck you'll have written, honed and perfected your essay and will be all ready to get your magnum opus bound. However, if you're still fussing over the finer points of your argument, or, worse still, have yet to start typing, Dr Andy Martin from the University of Cambridge has compiled a list of top tips to make sure your dissertation stands out. >> Student life: the art of dissertation writing Don’t save up your killer argument till the end – it has to be right there in the first paragraph. Look at it from the point of view of the reader – let's face it, an easily bored academic often with poor reading habits. Think of it as a movie, and not as a documentary. In fact, think of it as a James Bond movie – with the teaser right at the beginning. Start with a bang not with a whimper. Talking of argument – it has to be strong and coherent (regardless of whether or not it is right). You are relying on the argument to hold together the whole essay. So long as the core argument is strong you can afford to digress and go off in different directions. Think of it as the recurrent melody of a song (can a song be right or wrong?) or the refrain – which can be restated at different points. Don’t be too deferential to great authors. You don’t have to be polite or say nice things about, for example, Balzac or Chaucer. For one thing, they are dead, so they won’t mind. But, for another, everybody tends to agree that they are good anyway, so don’t faff around with the homage. Get to the point. And, if relevant, what about tossing in noncanonical authors? For example, Jules Verne or H.G. Wells – or advertising, prayers, valedictions of the period. >> Google your way to revision success Be brutal. The point here is that.
Stalled on your thesis or dissertation? Here are some books that may help you get inspired to start writing again. General Dissertation and Thesis Writing Writing your dissertation in fifteen minutes a day: a guide to starting, revising, and finishing your doctoral thesis, by Joan Bolker This text focuses on helping readers/writers discover a personal writing process, rather than imposing a process on them. The author offers advice on beginning to write, choosing an advisor and dealing with problems that may come up with an advisor, free-writing and drafting, dealing with interruptions, funky exercises for times when you're stuck, revising, and finishing the dissertation. Writing with power: techniques for mastering the writing process, by Peter Elbow A writing help book for all kinds of writers. Includes different writing exercises as warm-ups - practice for getting words down on paper. Chapters focus on drafting, revising, considering the audience, soliciting, and using feedback  Secrets for a successful dissertation, by Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, Jan Secrist, and Debra J. Wright Written in an informal, humorous tone, this text offers many examples of doctoral students' dissertation experiences. Part I addresses issues of content and process (proposal, methodology, selecting committee members, collecting data) and Part II addresses The Secrets to Maintaining Sanity and Good Humor (support groups, staying organized, using technology, defending the dissertation, and avoiding sudden stops). The text will be most helpful for students in soft sciences, but includes information for students in the hard sciences as well. Surviving your dissertation: a comprehensive guide to content and process, by Kjell Erik Rudestam and Rae R. Newton A general guide for students in all disciplines, this text focuses on guiding students through the dissertation process. Part I: Getting.