Writing your doctoral dissertation - part 18 ppt

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impede commitment and continuity of effort,” is a frequent observation of
doctoral students. (The phrasing of this quotation is potentially significant. It
might reflect the doctoral student’s passive role. Alternatively it might provide
evidence of the effect of being instructed to avoid the use of “I.” Clearly that
style pervades many of the responses offered in this study.)
You need to be firmly committed to getting your degree, or you will not
have the stamina to resist all the distractions which are likely to divert your
progress. You need to find an inner strength that you will not get from others.
Organize your time to meet your goal
Create a system for organizing your work on this large-scale project. Work
on parts which contribute to the whole. For example, work on one chapter, or
even one part of a chapter at a time. Divide and conquer! Be able to identify
your achievement of sub-goals along the way. Knowing the stages in the
Figure 9.1 The doctoral student’s ideal world
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process, you can mark your progress on a checklist which you create. (See
Appendix E for a sample checklist.)
Establish a consistent block of time to work every day, undisturbed by
other responsibilities, time when your exclusive task is to work on your
dissertation. The more time you devote to your dissertation, the sooner you
are likely to get done. Note this schedule in your appointment book, making
this time inaccessible for other activities.
Identify your own realistic yet demanding deadlines revising these as you
proceed. Expect to invest as much as six years of your life in this process. (The
length of time will vary among programs and among individual participants.
Clearly part-time, commuter students are likely to take longer than full-time,
residential students, and students conducting hypothesis-testing studies are
likely to get done sooner than those doing hypothesis-generating studies.) Even

though coursework can be completed quickly, you will need time to navigate
the system and to write your dissertation. Students find that once they focus all
of their energies on the dissertation (when getting done becomes an obsession),
they finish fairly quickly. Although your dissertation may be the most important
activity at this moment in your life, it probably is not that important for many
others. “You need to take control of the process and the pacing.”

If you cannot take control of your time, you will never finish. Do not
clean house. If necessary, do not let your mother or other critical
housewife-types visit until you are finished. And then, let them take you
out to dinner. Teach all family members routine housekeeping chores. It
will build their character although they won’t realize this at first.
Assure your financial resources to meet your goal
The possibility of “exhausting financial resources” before your completion can be a
daunting experience. Get a realistic projection of the amount of money you are likely to
spend in the process of completing your degree by asking current and graduating
students. Include expenses for transportation, books, xeroxing, typing, and tuition. When
working with restricted finances, you might consider some options. Are there ways to
defer some expenses to the future when I may have a new job and perhaps an increased
salary? Are there some expenses I can avoid by using the library’s resources more
extensively? Are there some things which I would like to have, but do not need at this
moment? Inquire about scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, loans, and part-time
employment opportunities at the university. Share your concerns with your dissertation
committee. They may be able to direct you to some financial resources.
Establish a scholarly attitude of continued learning in the process of meeting
your goal
Expect to continue to learn in the process of writing your dissertation. Your
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dissertation is not a final examination. It is a new learning experience, an

apprenticeship in research. This is the time to increase your understandings
about conducting research, about knowledge in your discipline, and about
how to write a research report. Learning is what students and scholars do.
Students frequently believe that the dissertation is an exercise to prove that
they have learned the content of their courses. Faculty frequently believe the
dissertation is an activity to promote the acquisition and development of more
sophisticated scholarly skills and knowledge. Clearly with these different
perspectives, conflict and tension are inevitable. The attentive student
resolves these problems rapidly.
Currently the aims to be achieved by writing a dissertation are being
discussed (for e.g., see Olson and Drew, 1998). From a historical perspective,
the dissertation was initially viewed as the first scholarly publication. This
goal has been modified in many settings. The university program you enrolled
in probably has a tradition which you may either challenge or continue. (If
you challenge it, expect repercussions! The purpose of this book is to guide
you to complete your dissertation. Once you have accomplished this goal,
you may be in the vanguard of those seeking to revise this entire process.
Clearly a critique of the current procedures is needed and will be
forthcoming.)
Expect to become frustrated and resolve to be resourceful in finding ways
to deal with these tensions. Expect to develop independence as a learner,
making such decisions as:

• What’s important?
• When do I stop collecting data?
• What is my role in the community where I do my research?
• When is a good time to stop reading and start writing?

Articulating your confusion and need for knowledge is the first step towards
getting answers to your questions.

Believe in yourself and your own capabilities. If you’ve succeeded
academically this far, you must have what you need to go further. Avoid the
syndrome of thinking you’re supposed to know everything, as reflected in
this student’s testimony:

I had little to no idea how to use the materials in the archives to which I
had access. The…Library seemed to be full of scholars who already knew
what they were doing and why. There were no institutional processes for
learning how to use the resources. Asking questions seemed to mark me
as inadequate and amateur rather than curious and enthusiastic.

Another remarked: “I was reluctant to reveal my personal concerns. I thought
it might potentially damage my future, my completion, my employment, my
advancement, my publications, my conference invitations, and opportunities
for grants, and awards.” These are self-destructive stances.
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You need to find a way to access information. One way to do this is to
believe in your ability to discover answers to your questions. Expect learning
to take time. Be patient with yourself and persevere. In addition, ask your
supportive colleagues.
Create a supportive setting to facilitate achieving your goal
Comments about isolation are common in doctoral students’ experiences:

I thought it would be a collaborative experience, but instead, it was a
very lonely, isolating one.
Being away from my family and friends and doing things totally alone
was very difficult.
I did not understand the remoteness of my friends, colleagues, and
professors.

I was surprised how little support existed outside of the mentor.
When I accepted the fact that I was alone in this effort, I researched my
methodology by identifying experts, reading their books, and talking with
them on the phone. I was very pleased with the responses. They answered
their phones personally, were very receptive to my inquiries, and spent
as much time with me as most of my committee.

The isolation comes as a surprise. Resourceful doctoral students create a
supportive community where they celebrate each other’s progress, profit from
each other’s experiences, keep each other on task, and critique drafts, all in
the process of assisting each other in meeting goals.
As in your doctoral research, where you will seek multiple data sources to
inform your response to your research question, seek multiple sources for your
personal support, but always remember that you must be your strongest
advocate. The degree is for you, and others do not have the same vested interest
as you. Regardless of how many people are potentially available to work with
you, ultimately you must be the most resilient and the most driven.
Verifying that the five essential characteristics of an ideal student are in place, you
are ready for your dissertation work. While you may start with all these in place,
changes might occur which require your reconsideration of how your dissertation
work influences your life. (For some, this means taking a break; for others,
collaborating with their committee to create a schedule helps everything to stay on
course. You will need to find ways to modify your ideals to align with a reality base.)
It is clear that much of your work will be done independently, so we turn
to that topic next.
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Your Dissertation Work
Your “work” is multidimensional, including conducting a research study at
the same time as collaborating with a professional team, at the same time as

living the rest of your life and meeting all of your responsibilities in other
realms. There is a considerable amount of work which you will do
independently. In the main, these activities will be: reading, planning,
conducting your study, and writing it up. Clearly, thinking is at the center of
all these activities. While each of them will be addressed individually here,
there is a certain reciprocity among all these activities: your reading will lead
to your planning and then your planning will result in additional reading, for
example (see Figure 9.2). It should also be noted that you might start with
any of the activities, but that ultimately your work will require all. And you
may go back and forth between reading and writing many times. Eventually,
these reciprocal and recursive activities result in the creation of a substantial
research report called “Your Dissertation.”
Reading
You will read voraciously and widely so that you become the most
knowledgeable person in a specific domain. You will know what’s been done,
what’s in process, and what directions your field is taking. This knowledge
positions you to identify what needs to be done next. As you read a journal
article, your inquisitive sense might be sparked by a recommendation “for
future research,” or you may devise a potentially more effective way of
testing one aspect of a theory.
You will read dissertations completed at your institution for several reasons:

• to see topics which others have found interesting;
Figure 9.2 The cyclical and recursive process: working independently on your
dissertation