1st Edition
Completing Your Thesis or Dissertation Professors Share Their Techniques & Strategies
• 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.
Dissertation Defense
Attend other students’ defenses
Have it in final form
Lay it all out
Make a friend for it
Outliers
Preparation
Scheduling the defense
What is expected
Getting Help from Others
Feeling a sense of isolation
Job shadowing
Join a group for real progress
Meet regularly with others
Shadow researcher
Support group
Weak member of a group
Goals and Timelines
Begin with the end in mind
Dividing it into parts
Goal-Setting Theory
Major life events
Master calendar
Allow for “wiggle” room
Strict policy
Six-step plan
Plan on it taking longer
Time orientation
Work backward
Humor (Ha!)
Bathrobe
Butter up the committee
Committees eat elephants
Create a Dissertation Dartboard
Dedicated
Donuts don’t always help
Keep your advisor busy
Latent chromosomal functioning
Mom’s coffee table copy
Outliers
Recycle
Regular schedule
Take hours to answer
Try smoking a pipe
Words-to-peanut ratio
Outside Pressures
Being a first-year professor
Finish school first
Internship
Leave only with an approved proposal
Overcoming Self-Doubt/Anxiety
Challenge the validity of negative feelings
Don’t think “defense”
Emotional support system
Fun then, not fun now
Information is power
Seek help if immobilized/overwhelmed
Small problems
Using subgoals reduces anxiety
Prospectus/Proposal
As a contract
Avoid vagueness
Include all components
Limit literature review
Write a mini-proposal
Write two to four of them
Reviewing Literature
Bibliographic computer program
Collect reprints of papers
Complete 90%, then 10%
Consult Dissertation Abstracts
Controversy
Electronic vs. paper search
Endless search
General suggestions
Know people at the reference desk
Limit the number of references
Rule of 19 for citations
Thoughtfully selective
Worksheets
Rewarding Yourself
Behavioral formula
Build in time for fun
Dance to the music
Rewards
Without guilt
Selecting a Committee and Chair
Ask major professor
Avoid emeritus faculty
Committee able to work together
General suggestions
Listen with three purposes
Select someone with tenure
Selecting a Topic
Avoid grandiose ideas
Avoid politically “hot” topics
Consider prior knowledge
Consider your passions
Considering the future
General suggestions
Select during coursework
Start early
Writing
Cheerfully rewrite
Courses as a sounding board
First draft not perfect
Good writing is short
Headings and subheadings
Make a model
Notes for the next writing session
One day per page
Pedantic writing
Provide a rationale
Results section
Sequence of steps
Use of the first person
Use the required format
Write introductions and conclusions last
Write a “spew draft”
Work Habits
A “real” job
Annotate everything
Avoid isolation
Daily progress
“Dissertation days”
Do something every day
Organize articles
Perseverance
Number of hours per day
Working with the Committee and Chair
Allow sufficient time for review
Avoid standoffs
Check with your advisor first
Create a visual presence
Get feedback early
Get to know other members
Line numbers
Prepare for the defense
Put it in writing
Seek closure
Standing meeting
Take notes
What are their preferences?
Write down your questions
Writer’s Block
Discover how you work best
Imagine a sympathetic reader
Start with what you can do
Use a tape recorder
Work on clerical
Write—write anything
Biography
Fred Pyrczak
