Bookcase roundup: Proposal and Dissertation Writing
/So, maybe you're not ready for coaching at this point but you still want to get some things done. Here's a sample of what I've read or what I'm reading that might help you in the process! (Click on the book covers to go to Amazon)
(though, for the record, it's never too early to start coaching)
Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day
Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone to assure them that their struggles aren't unique. Joan Bolker, midwife to more than one hundred dissertations and co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for the graduate-student writer. Using positive reinforcement, she begins by reminding thesis writers that being able to devote themselves to a project that truly interests them can be a pleasurable adventure. She encourages them to pay close attention to their writing method in order to discover their individual work strategies that promote productivity; to stop feeling fearful that they may disappoint their advisors or family members; and to tailor their theses to their own writing style and personality needs. Using field-tested strategies she assists the student through the entire thesis-writing process, offering advice on choosing a topic and an advisor, on disciplining one's self to work at least fifteen minutes each day; setting short-term deadlines, on revising and defing the thesis, and on life and publication after the dissertation. Bolker makes writing the dissertation an enjoyable challenge.
Complete Your Dissertation or Thesis in Two Semesters or Less
This newly updated guide describes how to effectively and efficiently manage the dissertation or thesis process in two semesters or less. Written for doctoral and master's degree students enrolled in on-campus programs and students pursuing accelerated and online-based degree programs, this book demystifies the seemingly daunting process. From choosing a topic and advisor, to efficient researching and the actual writing and defense, Complete Your Dissertation or Thesis in Two Semesters or Less provides students with all the information needed to conquer this academic experience.
The Dissertation Journey
This is a useful book both for advisors of doctoral students and for students themselves. It should help advisors encourage uncertain students new to dissertation writing, with its detailed advice, liberal doses of motivational quotes, and an insider’s view of what faculty expect from the dissertation student. Many tips are engagingly practical, such as “buy a surge protector” and “do not borrow software.” A list of “common errors” is also helpful, allowing students to learn from the mistakes of other students. The book is comprehensive, moving from how to choose a topic and a faculty advisor, through preparing the proposal meeting, selecting a methodology, and constructing the document’s basic components. The high point of Roberts’ manual is its ultimately empowering demystification of the oral defense. But she does not stop there; instead, she goes on to discuss how to overcome the emotional letdown students can experience after successfully defending and submitting a dissertation, a topic that other authors might easily overlook.
Students who have successfully completed dissertations often point to their academic advisor as the one person who consistently provided encouragement. This is unlike faculty committee members whose roles must be to provide tough critical assessment of the student’s work. Doctoral student advisors will certainly benefit from the book’s strategies to better encourage students through this long and arduous process, even if the advisors will not be as actively involved as the faculty who will evaluate the dissertation. (Moreover, advisors of doctoral students should consider reading some of their students’ completed dissertations and observing a dissertation defense, if they have not done so. These steps will help advisors better prepare their students for what is ahead.)
The Dissertation Journey suffers occasionally from an overly basic approach that might put off doctoral students who should know more about graduate-level writing than Roberts sometimes assumes. Additionally, the mountain climbing metaphor may be used a little too often. Moreover, although Roberts distinguishes between the quantitative and the qualitative dissertation, her background in organizational management necessarily favors the former. Thus, she may try to cover too much ground here. Those seeking a practical guide for writing qualitative dissertations may want to look at Piantanida and Garman's book entitled The Qualitative Dissertation. But for advisors of students writing quantitative dissertations, this book provides a wealth of useful information and motivational strategies to see the task through to completion.
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