1. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
2. Look over your previous writing for a few minutes to refresh your memory.
3. Freewrite about what you think you may want to write or think about until the timer rings.
Repeat with breaks, altering the small tasks you do in the allotted time.
Dear Dissertation Diva:
Am I a PhD after I successfully defend my dissertation or after I
officially graduate? I might not make the deadline for this semester
but want to know if I can use the title even if I don't graduate until
a few months after my defense.
Signed,
Can't Wait 2 Gradu-8
Dear Can't Wait,
My understanding is that one is officially a PhD after the degree is awarded at the graduate school's commencement. (Disclaimer: I suggest you check with your university's dissertation office or graduate school administrative office for the exact policy for your situation.) After you pass the defense, you could write, for example, "PhD expected May, 2008" on your cv in the interm months. You could also add the date of your successful defense to your cv.
You might want to celebrate the successful defense of your dissertation and communicate that you will, very soon, be signing your name "Can't Wait, PhD", by sending out a lovely printed invitation to your PhD commencement.
Congratulations on your upcoming defense and degree!
Dissertation Diva
You have a stack of research materials, a nebulous yet promising topic, and a looming deadline. Now, how do you actually write?
In my work with graduate students, I am often asked for concrete strategies for writing. How to transform ideas into writing? How to finish that dissertation, book, or article? And how to stay motivated and sane during the writing process?
I have found that the best recipe for sustained intellectual productivity is a mix of structured writing practices, time management strategies, and holistic lifestyle support.
In the next eight posts, I will be sharing with you my top eight practical strategies for focused, sustained writing—ways to create the space and structure to shepherd unarticulated ideas into a cogently written argument. While targeted at the dissertation writer, this advice can be used by graduate students drafting their proposal, junior faculty members rewriting the dissertation into a book, and scholars working on articles. Regardless of the type of project, healthy writing strategies—as opposed to staying-up-all-night marathons—are crucial. My hope is that these strategies also help advisers to support their PhD students through the nuts and bolts of the writing process.
[The entire article appears as "Practical Advice for Writing Your Dissertation, Book, or Article" by Liena Vayzman, in Perspectives, the journal of the American Historical Association, accessible online.]
"..[A] young writer can't write a book without risking intellectual self-exposure. That risk, by the way, is one of the most important parts of being a writer, even a scholarly writer" says William Germano in From Dissertation to Book (University of Chicago Press, 2005). I agree. Furthermore, I'll add that your dissertation should take intellectual risks. In crafting your dissertation argument, take a definite stance.
Dear Dissertation Diva:
I was set to defend in two weeks but I just got feedback on a chapter draft from one of my committee members. The draft is full of suggested corrections! His exact words were: "This chapter needs substantial revisions before you are ready to defend." I'm freaking out. I don't have time to make these changes by next week. This committee member came on board recently (this past year) and has not followed the project from the start. It's the methodology chapter on a combined quantitative-qualitative social sciences dissertation. I've worked on this for ten years! My outside methodologist approved it, and the chair of my committee also thinks the project works although there are problems. I want to defend, rent a UHaul, and drive my stuff to my new job out of state... a teaching job that starts in mid-August. Any advice?
Signed,
I Can't Believe This Is Happening
Dear Believe,
Are you absolutely sure this committee member will block your project if you do go through with the defense? Would it help to have this committee member see the entire dissertation including the results, not just the methodology chapter, if they have not already? Can you ask your Chair to speak to this committee member? What you have on your hands is a serious problem that needs to be addressed by your chair and among the committee members, especially since a defense date is set and you will be starting a teaching position shortly. I can't wave the Dissertation Diva Magic Wand on this one.
You are probably doing this already, but you may want to communicate with the chairperson of your committee and the head of your graduate program immediately about this discrepancy between a green light from your chair and methodologist and a red/yellow light from another, more recent committee member. These two people in charge may decide to move forward with your defense and to let you defend your project in front of the entire committee, which is what your defense is FOR. Perhaps there is a miscommunication about what is acceptable; perhaps the committee member in question needs to see the entire dissertation (not just a single chapter) to fully appreciate that you have addressed these issues elsewhere in the write-up. Hopefully the defense will be the space and time for the committee member's questions to be addressed satisfactorily. Your chair will be there to back up the project, right?
Finally, don't despair. You are at the end of a long and winding road. Your chair and other committee members would not have let you come this far without understanding and supporting your project, and will want to help you make arrangements to make agreed-upon revisions after the defense and prior to the granting of the degree. Get your second (third, forth, fifth) wind and keep sailing forward!
Dissertation Diva
Dear Dissertation Diva,
I wrote two paragraphs today. On a good day, I can do 3 or 4, adding up to a page. This is after taking the subway to the library and locking myself in a room with no internet. It's like pulling teeth. Does everyone write this slowly? I am frustrated that this dissertation is going to take forever!
Turtle ABD
Dear Turtle,
Congratulations: you're writing! Yes, most people write "this slowly" -- which is to say, you are making excellent steady progress. 3-4 paragraphs sounds like at least one double spaced page to me. At this rate, you can produce 20 pages a month, or a 40 page chapter in two months. Not too shabby. You will probably need to add time for editing, rewriting, or reorganizing, as well as additional research and footnotes, depending on your personal writing process.
Keep going. You are doing the exact right thing. Slow and steady wins the race.
Dissertation Diva
Reminder: Send in those dissertation haiku for the Dissertation Diva Haiku Contest!
Fabulous Prizes. Fame and glory. Your name in lights.
Go here and post your haiku as a comment.
When working on your dissertation, it is easy to fall into the vortex of the daily micro-steps. Dissertation writers can get lost in the minute details, obsessing about perfecting tiny details, and thus easily lose sight of the Big Picture. I suggest that you shift to the Big Picture for yourself. For many of you, it is a finished dissertation, not a perfect dissertation.
Decide what is important and what is minor. Does that footnote warrant 2 hours of research? Can you delegate reformatting the margins to a friend or editor down the line? Try to think about the overall outcome you want to achieve. Glide over the details with more ease. Shift to the Big Picture!
Good luck!
Dissertation Diva
Hi everyone and happy new year!
Thanks to everyone who has emailed to give positive feedback on this site and to say "You should write a book!" The Dissertation Diva IS working on a book, gathering years of dissertation coaching wisdom (some of which you find on this site) into a fun and accessible format. The project is currently looking for an enthusiastic agent and publisher. If you have any suggestions, please do get in touch.
In the meantime, I have one piece of inspiration to all you struggling dissertation writers out there, mired (or flourishing) in the intricacies of constructing an intellectual argument, compiling quantitative research, emailing long-lost advisors, presenting at conferences, formatting footnotes, balancing family and work, and, of course, fighting the urge to surf the internet:
You can do it!
In solidarity,
Dissertation Diva
Announcing... the 1st annual Dissertation Diva DISSERTATION HAIKU CONTEST!
Send us your haiku poems about the dissertation process. A haiku, you'll remember, is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five. Send us your English-language haiku. Have fun!
FABULOUS & USEFUL PRIZES: One grand prize winner will receive a 30-minute dissertation coaching session, a featured spot for their haiku on Ask The Dissertation Diva, and bragging rights! All haiku worthy of their seventeen syllables will appear on Ask The Dissertation Diva. Send us your dissertation haiku even if you don't want the prizes, because we want you to get creative and WRITE something, even if it's 17 syllables.
Deadline EXTENDED!: March 1, 2008.
TO ENTER: Submit your haiku as a comment to this blog post by clicking "Comments" directly below this post. Feel free to include your name, university affiliation, and dissertation title or topic, or to remain anonymous. All entries become the property of Ask The Dissertation Diva and may be reproduced. Please include your email (which remains private). Ask the Dissertation Diva reserves the right to decide what constitutes a haiku for the purposes of this contest. We reserve the right to change or cancel the terms of this contest at any time. Thanks and happy writing!
The top image is the kanji of 'haiku' .
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