Finishing the Dissertation - Advice

There are numerous books about starting and finishing the dissertation/thesis, some better than others. But one of the things I've realized is that the process of writing a dissertation is much more about psychological aspects and facing myself – overcoming procrastination and perfectionism, endurance and perseverance and developing new ways of thinking, writing and viewing the world. Although everyone's experiences will be different, there is some practical advice that everyone can use. The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article “Finishing the Dissertation” by Renata Kobetts Miller that is worth a read. Although the author directs her comments to her dissertation work, it is applicable to most of the work we do in graduate school – including our class work, comprehensive exams, etc.

Here is a quick summery of Kobetts Miller's lessons learned about writing a dissertation:

1. The first chapter was the hardest – learning a new genre is tough, but keep at it.
2. Observe the rhythm of your work – both in time, energy, and where you struggle when writing. Figure out your own cycle of working and realize each phase will end (with perseverance).
3. Avail yourself of writing groups if they're useful, but don't feel guilty about ditching them when they're not – groups can be a great source of support and motivation, but they can also interfere with your own thinking. Be wise!
4. Revision may be easier if you put it off until later – reviewer comments can be demoralizing. With time and perspective, it will make more sense.
5. Be realistic about your timeline – Don't make set deadline that will make you feel overwhelmed. Thinking (and writing) takes time.
6. Identify the people around you who provide useful support - be gracious and grateful for the people who listen, sympathize and cajole you.
7. Relish epiphanies - open yourself to talking with many people and be ready to take advantage of the serendipitous inspiration.
8. Remember that you're doing this for yourself – it is a marathon of one, you are not in competition with others, and the journey is as important as the finish. 
   
   If you are looking for the full article, it can be found here:
   http://chronicle.com/article/Finishing-the-Dissertation/45136/ 

Publishing: Some Advice

In Educational Researcher from 2005, Janette K. Klingner, David Scanlon, and Michael Pressley have a great article “How to Publish in Scholarly Journals.” It is only 8 pages long, and really worth a read, but here's a quick summary.

Planning Before Writing

• Consider Your Reasons for Publishing – yes, academia is “publish or perish” but you have to have something substantial to say.
• Determine the Scope of Your Manuscript – keep the focus narrow and align your data, research question and findings
• Connect Your Research to the Field – know the field, but don't try to summarize the entire field.
• Decide Early on the Target Journal – know the scope and style of the journal, which can vary widely, and read the current call for manuscripts and articles
• Consider Whether to Co-Author Your Manuscript – great for broader perspective and expertise, but be aware of your institution’s view on co-authorship and tenure

Writing the Manuscript

• Tell Them What You Set Out to Do – clearly state the purpose and importance
• Tell Them What You Did – explain your methods in enough detail that your reader can trust that your findings are warranted
• Tell Them What You Found – clear and concise – enough said
• Discuss What You Found – connect your study to broader issues, but don't overreach
• Don’t Forget About Style - know the style of the journal, use transitions to increase flow and clarity, avoid passive terms, don't anthropomorphize, and as William Strunk said, “Omit needless words”
• Get Help – form a writing group, ask colleagues to read, use your writing center

Submitting the Manuscript

• Create a Good First Impression – follow the journal's style guide, check your references
• Send in Your Manuscript - follow submission guidelines,

The Review Process

• Process - each journal is different, but it takes time, read the journal's guidelines
• Decision – pay close attention to editor and reviewer's comments – revisions are almost always required

If you are looking for the full article, here is the citation and a link to the pdf:

Klinger, J., Scanlon, D., & Pressley, M. (2005). How to publish in scholarly journals. Educational Researcher, 34(8), 14-20.

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

Michael C. Munger has a wonderful post with 10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly at the Chronicle of Higher Education. He raises the point that few academics receive solid training in writing, yet the foundation of tenure, grant writing etc. is based on being able to clearly and concisely write about research. His tips, in brief, are this:

1. Writing is an exercise. (Practice, a lot.)

2. Set goals based on output, not input. (Time in chair may not get the results need – set specific section, project, word or page number goals.)

3. Find a voice; don't just "get published." (Publishing for publishing sake means bad writing.)

4. Give yourself time. (Good Thinking = Good Writing ∴ Take Time)

5. Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant. (Actually exploring ideas make you realize how much you don't know.)

6. Pick a puzzle. (Conceptualize ideas in different ways.)

7. Write, then squeeze the other things in. (Schedule!)

8. Not all of your thoughts are profound. (You have to go through a lot of crappy writing to get to the good.)

9. Your most profound thoughts are often wrong. (Revision, of ideas, not just words, is necessary.)

10. Edit your work, over and over. (And find writer friends to reciprocate.)

Advice on the Dissertation Defense - Take with a Grain of Salt

I'm at the point that I'm really interested in the process and reality of the dissertation defense.  I realize that every university and every department within each school has different cultures and expectations - many of them unwritten.  Even the choice of committee members has an impact on how the defense will run.  As a graduate student, I have had to glean information about my department's culture and preferences of my committee.   However, I have found some advice, from a variety of sources, about the defense process.  Like any advise, though, take this with a grain of salt and check with your own adviser and committee.

• Don't have anything in the presentation that isn't in the dissertation.
• Remember, it is a defense, not a presentation. Don't focus on coverage!
  • You will be interrupted.
  • The committee will have thoroughly read the dissertation and will come prepared knowing your work and by extension, the work you cite.  Their job is to question you.
• Set up the defense with the problem statement – what is the problem and why should I care.
• Theory (theoretical framework) is often the place that is interrogated strongly by committee members. Be clear, concise and well-grounded in your own framework.
  • There is a possibility that the committee members may argue in front of you about their views of the theories chosen. Don't freak out about this.  Choose wisely if you want to get in the middle of their argument, but answer any questions directed at you.
• Methodology - in a defense, you generally don't need as much support (in your presentation) on methodology as the committee has read it. But, be prepared to talk about it.
• A defense is not the time of “stories”. You may be really excited about the people in your study, but that doesn't mean you should tell them.
• If you don't intend the committee to read the whole slide in ppt, (ie. Showing specific data, transcripts or analysis) don't show it.
• Define your own use of terms and give clear examples. Use the signposts of “By ______ I mean _______________” and here is an example.
• In a defense, be careful about using and presenting graphic models. It invites questions and picking apart of the model. The use of arrows, circles, cycles etc indicate particular interpretations.  When you create a model, be thoughtful about alternative interpretations based on the size, color and positioning of the parts of the model.
• Be powerful in your “Future Research” - it shows that you are ready to go out and work on your research agenda.
• Be ready to answer “What is this about?”- can you give the elevator speech of your dissertation of 2 minutes or less.

Time and the Writer

      One of the major struggles of any writer (and grad student) is "finding" time to write.  However, I hear the same advise from writers across disciplines -  you don't "find" time, you "make" time to write.  If writing is a significant part of being successful in your career, then writing needs to take priority and be consistently scheduled.  This is an excerpt from a wonderful article that details how to make the time needed for writing.

Time and the Writer  by Moira Allen

Are you wondering when you'll find enough time to start writing? If so, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, you'll never have more time than you do right now. The bad news is... well, that is the bad news.

Time is never "found." Time can only be "made." If you decide to wait until your kids are in school, or in college, or you have enough money to quit your day job, or retirement, you could wait forever. The only way to make those writing dreams come true is to start looking at the time you have now, today -- and find ways to make that time work for you instead of against you.

Step One: Treat time as an investment.

Step Two: Examine your "time budget."

Step Three: Examine your priorities.

Step Four: Eliminate time-wasters.

Step Five: Teach others to respect your time.

Read the full article here: 

http://www.writing-world.com/life/time.shtml

Motivation and Prioritizing

Motivation

Based on:

Silva, Paul J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Monitoring Progress

      Setting a goal is just the beginning of being a successful writer. People who are successful at something monitor their progress – saving money, losing weight, training for a marathon, or selling cookies. “Most people have no idea how much – or how little – they're writing. Because they view themselves in a flattering, self-enhancing light, most people think that they're writing more often and more efficiently than they are. To write a lot, you need to take a cold, accurate look at your writing progress” (pg. 39).

       Besides seeing the reality of your effort, monitoring your progress can also be very motivating. Writing down your progress at each writing session helps keep your focus on the project. Monitoring your own behavior, research had shown, produces the desired behaviors – in other words – the desire to write down progress encourages progress. Financial planners and diet gurus play to this desire. To get control of spending, the spendee has to write down everything they purchase, or the dieter writes down every bite they take. Having to write down the details encourages more thoughtful spending or eating. Writing down your sessions encourages increased time and more productive work.

      Silvia uses a spreadsheet format with columns for date, session goal, word count, and a check for met/unmet goals. However, a notebook or chart on the wall would work just as well. It is the visual cue that is most important. If you like playing with numbers, you can then figure out the average words per day or percentage of session goals met. Then, try to increase that percentage each month.

8 Online Goal Progress Tracking Tools

15 Fantastic Apps to Track & Manage Your Goals

12 Things Successful People Do Differently

Reward Yourself

      B.F. Skinner studied reward behaviors in people. It is clear that self-reinforcement and reward is highly motivating. You might consider setting a reward when you set your large writing goals. For session goals, it may be something smaller – a a 2-minutes mediation, a “Risky Business” like dance and singing, or a cup of Earl Grey tea. By generating a feeling of accomplishment for reaching goals, you're more likely to want to succeed more often. But, do NOT reward yourself with skipping a writing session. That is like rewarding yourself for quitting smoking with having a cigarette!

Writer's Block

      Silvia believes that in academic writing, there is no such thing as writer's block. The narratives academics craft do not (in many cases) resemble the figurative, flowery stuff of fiction and poetry. “Writer's block is nothing more than the behavior of not writing” ( p. 46). Writing on a schedule, with specific goals, should take care of this. However, if you need some suggestions on how to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, read the article linked below (a short summary is provided):

Breaking Writer's Block: Ten Effective Methods for Better Writing by Phil Partington

1. Write about something else
2. Write about a picture
3. Keep a journal
4. Make an outline
5. Read
6. Take a break
7. Establish a writing habit
8. Listen to non-lyrical music
9. Research
10. Ask others for ideas

 Prioritizing 

It is very easy to get distracted by non-important but fun items on your to-do list. Stephen Covey, in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People proposed four quadrants of activity management to help people organize and prioritize the things they need to do. To often, we spend most of our time in the Urgent/Important square because we don't have a clear picture of our overall goals, projects and deadlines. Then, deadlines creep up and it become Urgent/Important and we rush to get it done. Those of us who procrastinate tend to locate ourselves in the Not Urgent/Not Important quadrant – choosing to do things that are immediately pleasurable, but don’t advance our goals or projects. You might consider using this graphic organizer as another way to think about your weekly writing and grad school roles – which will allow you to see both the urgent and the important tasks during the week.

 Instead of reading Stephen Covey's book, I would recommend his son's adaptation of the ideas for teenagers, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey.  It is shorter, illustrated, and less dry than the original.  Or, check out some of the interpretations of Covey's ideas below:

A Beginner’s Guide to Time-Management

Important vs. Urgent: 5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters

When You're Right to Refuse (an academic's view)

     Another helpful hint that I have heard from #phdchat is to have a list of things that should get done, but don't require intense concentration.   For example, renaming and organizing files, deleting old emails, or skimming articles to see if they would be useful.  These activities can be saved for the times that your energy and concentration is low.  In addition, have a file of work that is always with you for the times that you find you are unexpected waiting (at the doctor's office, for your car etc.).    The most effective and efficient academics plan ahead and use even the smallest chunks of time, like the 15 minutes in-between conference sessions or the time waiting for a late appointment.