Completing Your Thesis or Dissertation

Professors Share Their Techniques & Strategies

Fred Pyrczak

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781884585210
• eBook ISBN: 9781351970921
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Psychology

• Seventy professors share their tips, techniques, and strategies for overcoming roadblocks to the completion of a thesis or dissertation.

• Many of the professors share their personal experiences in completing their dissertations. With hindsight, they offer advice based on these experiences. The personal nature of these essays makes fascinating reading.

• The professors' contributions cover a wide range of topics including

· selecting a topic,

· selecting a chair and a committee,

· working with the chair and committee,

· selecting literature to review,

· writing a literature review,

· time management,

· overcoming writer's block,

· overcoming anxiety,

· putting the thesis/dissertation into proper perspective,

· establishing support groups,

· understanding the role of the dissertation in professional development,

· and many others!

• This "in-their-own-words" book allows students to select the advice that is best suited to their situations and work styles.

• Running sidebars throughout the book help students locate information on the matters with which they need help.

• Ideal for independent reading by your students or use each of the contributions as a discussion topic in a thesis/dissertation preparation course.

Contribution 1

Hema Ramanathan

Butler University

Classified Advertisement

Wanted: A Shadow Researcher!

Find another student to work with.

Responsibilities:

• Meet for coffee/lunch at least once a week for an hour.
• Look at my data as I gather it.
• Comment on the data, the instrument, the analysis. (No, you don’t write my dissertation for me!)
• The job lasts while I complete my dissertation (at least a year!).

Required qualifications:

• A fellow graduate student.
• Someone with whom I am likely to take a couple of classes.
• Someone not necessarily in my major area of interest but in the same discipline. (I am an education major and the dissertation process in the sciences or engineering is too different from mine!).
• Someone who will have the time and inclination to look at my data and talk to me about it.
• When I am writing the final draft, must be available on e-mail till I complete my dissertation.
• Likely to be doing a proposal within 12 months of starting mine.

When I was doing my dissertation, I didn’t quite take an ad out in the campus newspaper (though it may not have been a bad idea!), but I did keep my eyes peeled for people I liked talking to, fellow students I felt comfortable with.

What did I get out of it? Two heads are better than one (a cliché but true). A sounding board. A second pair of eyes that were more readily available than my advisor’s. Someone to help me talk my ideas through. She was up at 2:00 A.M. when I had my best ideas. She gave me confidence when my computer crashed and took 25% of the data with it.

Benefits of working with another student.

What was in it for the shadow researcher? She saw at close quarters how a dissertation went and felt more prepared for her turn. In a sense, I was her dress rehearsal! We worked on a paper for one of our classes, based on my data. We collaborated on presentations at conferences based on my data.

Friends are fine, but most of them get quite busy with their own thinking. So go out and get someone you can talk shop to on a regular basis and expect to be understood!

Notes

Contribution 2

Richard Olsen

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Despite several significant events that happened in my life, I was able to complete my dissertation in one year because of the progress I had made on it during the coursework phase of my study. I was hired ABD [all-but-dissertation] to develop two new courses. My wife was pregnant and delivered our first child in December of that first year teaching. Had it not been for the fact that many of my chapters were at least drafted during coursework projects, I would never have made the deadline my institution set for me.

Using Coursework as Sounding Board

Use coursework as a time to explore the breadth of the discipline and pursue topics, concepts, and research questions that may take only one paper or course to answer. Often this phase is characterized by projects that reflect the interests of the course professor as much as they reflect your own. However, throughout that process you should remain vigilant to note significant topics that might interest you for a dissertation. I kept a file of questions I might want to tackle. Inside the back cover of each course textbook, I wrote research questions (and class discussion questions) raised by the book. I kept track of significant questions raised in class discussion as well. This question raising served me well in selecting term projects, and also alleviated the fear that I might not have a good topic for my dissertation.

Make notes during coursework on possible research topics and questions.

Using Coursework as Drafting Board

A key to completing the dissertation in a timely manner is being able to draft sections or chapters of the dissertation as you develop term projects for your courses. Ideally, one of your papers will emerge as a particularly intriguing topic that has the depth and significance to expand into a dissertation. Once you have a direction for your dissertation, then other course projects should be grafted onto the dissertation “tree.” To do this, it is critical to adapt coursework to the dissertation focus. As you take required courses or electives, the question “How can I advance my dissertation through this course?” should be asked early and often. For instance, for a course on the history of your field, you can do a term paper that explores the historical dimensions of your topic. Everything has a history, so rather than pursuing a generic exercise in historical scholarship, chip away at the literature review. When the mandatory sequence of methods classes presents itself, focus again on the methods section of your dissertation.

Begin writing drafts while taking coursework.

Adapt coursework to the dissertation focus.

Using the Qualifying Exams

The particulars of qualifying exams vary tremendously across graduate programs. Some are “take-home” exams; others are strictly timed events with candidates confined to a room. In either case, there is often a period prior to the exam where candidates meet with professors to discuss possible questions, as well as the interest areas of the student. These conferences are a good time to negotiate a general prompt or even specific question that is tangentially related to the dissertation topic. My own experience was a bit serendipitous. I was given a question on the second day of my qualifying exams that asked me to offer an organizing schema for various approaches to rhetorical criticism. I had not anticipated the question, but the answer actually formed the conceptual basis for the methods chapter in my dissertation.

If possible, request qualifying exam questions related to the dissertation topic.

Each phase of coursework is designed to prepare the student for life after graduation. However, wise use of courses and exam questions can help candidates make significant progress toward completion of the thesis or dissertation even as they complete their coursework.

Notes

Contribution 3

Anonymous

Bemidji, Minnesota

“Writer’s block” was common during the early stages of my dissertation, yet I found that I was able to verbally explain a great deal about it. When my advisor or friends would ask me about the topic, or specific questions about the general research question, sample, procedure, literature review, or statistics, I was able to talk at great length, at times even eloquently. I began to carry a tape recorder with me on long road trips when I was alone, and to imagine that an interested and informed passenger was asking about my dissertation. I would record myself providing these explanations, and then transcribe this at a later time into my document. I found it much easier to edit and expand upon this than to simply sit down and write it.

Use a tape recorder and talk to an imaginary acquaintance.

I also eventually constructed a type of personal behavioral “formula” for my ideal writing conditions. I would exercise heavily during the day so that my body was physically exhausted. I would unplug the phone, get out the popcorn, chips, or peanuts (not so subtly influencing the contrast between my “before” and “after” photos; this would have been deadly without the exercise), and set immediate goals for virtually every paragraph, sometimes a sentence at a time. For example, I wouldn’t take a bite until I had finished the next sentence or completed a certain step in the analysis, or would determine that there would be no bathroom break until the next section was done. All such goals had to be established minute by minute, and I became proficient at requiring the optimal amount of progress for the reinforcement available. And, yes, I did gain several pounds in the final tough weeks, when my words-per-peanut ratio was reduced to around 1:1. Amazingly, I still like peanuts.

Develop a behavioral “formula.”

Hold down the words-to-peanut ratio. (Ha!)

Notes

Contribution 4

Christine L. Ratto

University of Pennsylvania

When faced with the task of writing my dissertation, my immediate thought was, “How am I ever going to write hundreds of pages? This is an enormous amount of work.” As a result, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and tended to avoid and procrastinate. I actually found it ironic that my dissertation topic was based on the cognitive model, and I was succumbing to a negative spiral of thoughts, feelings and, consequently, nonproductive behavior! Just noting this pattern was helpful, and in response, I took steps to change my thinking and behavior.

Watch out for a negative spiral of thoughts and feelings.

To change my thinking, I was alert to shifts in my mood as I was working on my dissertation. When I experienced a mood shift, I wrote down my thoughts. After about a week, I had collected a full two pages of negative thoughts about the writing process. The prominent themes were, “I am never going to get this done” and a m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Guide to Selected Contributions
• Contribution 1
• Contribution 2
• Contribution 3
• Contribution 4
• Contribution 5
• Contribution 6
• Contribution 7
• Contribution 8
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