Ask the Dissertation Diva

Stanford "Dissertation Success" workshop a success

Thank you to all the brilliant Stanford PhD candidates who attended my workshop, "Dissertation Success: Practical and Holistic Strategies," yesterday. Amazing roomful of scientists and scholars. I am honored to work with you!  Much gratitude to the Stanford University Women's Community Center for organizing this annual dissertation workshop for women-identified grad students. I am truly impressed by the range and innovative thinking of emerging scholarship.

I was happy to see participants in the four-hour workshop tapping away at their computer keyboards, writing up their dissertation arguments, freewriting on challenging questions coming up in their thinking, and sharing strategies for writing, life/work balance, committee management, and organization. 

The best question I asked was: "Why are you writing this dissertation?"   This simple yet profound query allowed participants to connect with their core passion for the topic, cutting through the daily grind.
Remember to take healthy breaks, connect with peers and colleagues, and keep going!

Dissertation Diva

Shift to Big Picture

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

Dissertation Diva in the news

Great news! We've been featured on American Historical Association's AHA Today blog. The article is "Dissertation Diva to the Rescue"  by Elisabeth Grant.

"Liena Vayzman is the Ann Landers of ABDs. On her new blog “Ask the Dissertation Diva”, Vayzman dispenses supportive and constructive advice to dissertation writers of all stages..."

Read the rest of the article here.

Thank you for the positive feedback! 

Strategies for Identifying and Filling Research Gaps

Dear Dissertation Diva,
I have conducted preliminary research for one of my chapters and have started to write in order to digest this material. I'm finding as I write that I still have gaps that need to be filled in by additional research.  How should I appropriately annotate my draft to reflect this?
Thanks for your advice.
Sincerely,
Mind the Gap

Dear Mind the Gap:
The first chapter you write is the most difficult, for you are in the process of figuring out HOW to write a dissertation chapter. You are moving from months of research to your first draft of writing. Your question about how to annotate "gaps" in your research as you write is pertinent at this stage. Here are my suggestions...

Strategies for Identifying and Filling Research Gaps

1. Identify the gap – mark with brackets or parentheses and CAPS
2. Keep writing
3. After the draft is finished or at a separate time, go through and find all of the gaps
4. Pick one
5. Evaluate and take action. If filling that gap is essential, proceed to free writing or library research, or add to list of items to find at archive. If it isn’t, delete it or put in a footnote e.g. "more research needs to be done on this topic and would make good fodder for future study."
6. Repeat with next gap.

Thus, you annotate your rough draft with what I term "placeholders" -- notes to yourself to mark the place where additional research is needed. You simply type yourself a note, changing the format to make it stand out from your text, for example, by using all caps and bolding.

Examples:

Your sentence in a rough draft of a chapter might look like this:

"Charpentier's political ambitions to were thwarted, once in 1327 (CHECK DATE - SEE CHARPENTIER FILE AT THE BN) and again with the assasination attempt in 1329, only to be fulfilled with his appointment as _________ (LOOK IN JS ARTICLE - FOLLOW UP FOOTNOTE 23), adding to what I argue is the tumulous intrigue which led to..."

Here's another example:

"I suspect that X's involvement in the Resistance during WWII was a key factor contributing to the nationalist tendencies in her post-war poetry. (I NEED TO DO MORE RESEARCH ON X'S RESISTANCE ACTIVITIES - WHERE TO FIND MATERIAL?)"

In the above two examples, the text in caps is what you write to yourself to mark the places where more research is needed. Using placeholders will allow to you identify the gaps, yet still continue writing.

I totally understand how the temptation is there to rush off to look up footnote 23, right then and there, leading perhaps to distraction or frustration. Better to keep ideas flowing in this generative stage of writing. You want to get your thoughts down on paper without stopping at this stage.

At a later work session, when you are done with the generative kind of writing for your draft, you put on your gap-filling research's hat and go and fill those gaps! 

Thanks for your question.
Dissertation Diva

Make Back-ups, Not Excuses

"Too busy."
"Forgot."
"Need to figure out how my external drive works."
"I've never had problems with my computer before."
"I have back up CDs...from last month."
"I know I should."

Do these excuses for not backing up your hard-won research and writing files ring a bell?

Some of you have confessed that although you know you should, you don't actually, regularly, and faithfully back up your work!

If this describes you, you need to face the music. Figure out what's stopping you. Tackle this issue directly. Is it a technical glitch? Lack of knowledge? Lack of time? Overwork? Fatigue? A coctail of  stress/fear/anxiety/overwhelm? Are there any underlying issues -- however surreptitious -- that may be causing you to self-sabotage at a critical moment in the completion process?

Maybe you simply don't have a plan of action. Right now, take action. 1. Commit to backing up your work weekly. 2. Mark a specific day and time -- set an alarm if you need to -- and intentionally do a back-up of your computer files to two off-site locations (for example: a server and an external drive/CD's/DVD that you store in a separate building from your computer).

I recommend a full back-up every Friday. Say TGIF and kick back while your computer burns your book draft or dissertation journal to CD, then stash the CD somewhere safe. Get those once-in-a-lifetime media files of that ethnographic ritual onto a portable external drive -- and store it off-site, of course. (Worse Case Scenario Logic: If a thieft takes your computer, s/he will probably take the expensive external drive sitting next to your computer, too, right?)

An easy additional step that can be done daily: Email your dissertation chapters to your own email account. Instant back-up! 

You can also set up free email accounts specifically for storage (e.g. mydissertation@gmail.com).

Now, go back up your files. Your work is worth the effort.

Risk-Averse-ly yours,
Dissertation Diva

#1 Advice for Writer's Block

Dear Dissertation Diva,
I have a peachy fellowship this year. No teaching. All I have to do is finish my dissertation. As you can probably guess since I am writing to you, I do everything except my dissertation. I think I have writer's block. It's not that I can't think of anything to say; it's just that I don't actually write it down... anyway, by the time I stroll into my home office after a leisurely morning procrastinating, it's almost noon and I feel like a slug, not to mention guilty. Soon email and internet surfing take their ugly toll. What's your advice for those us with too much time on our hands and an embarrassing case of writer's block?
Signed, Chip O'Dablock

Dear Chip:

My #1 advice? Set up a writing schedule.

Use a paper or electronic calendar to block out the times you will reserve specifically for this writing project. Treat each writing timeslot as an appointment with yourself.

Enforce strict start and stop times. That means you start on time.. and stop writing when the timer goes off. Use a timer to break down your allocated two hours. Say you choose to write for two hours a day. (And for your case, this small amount of time would be an excellent start.) Divide the two hours into three 40-minute writing sessions. Set a timer for 40 minutes, and make yourself write something, anything, for 40 minutes.

In this way, short intense bursts of writing be more effective than long unproductive days. You write more in less time because you have allocated less time to work and thus must prioritize tasks and distill information. Think standardized test essay – you have 40 minutes: write!

If you are stuck in a lava flow of writer's block, the problem could be trying to write at the wrong time for you -- in the afternoon, for instance, when the body's biorhythms make energy wane. Try an hour first thing in the morning. Yes, Chip, it means getting up early and getting yourself to your conveniently-located office before you think of alll the other things you could be doing. The operative strategy here is shorter writing times coupled with commitment to a regular writing schedule.

Over days and weeks, you will achieve momentum and a healthy addiction to the writing process.

Now stop procrastinating and go set your timer for 40 minutes!

Unblockingly yours,
Dissertation Diva

Welcome!

Struggling to finish your dissertation? Overwhelmed by teaching, publishing, conference planning and research? Stressed out, disorganized, unmotivated or burned out?  Looking for community? Wondering how to make your PhD... FUN?

You've come to the right place! 

I will be sharing my insights and advice from my three years as a dissertation coach with a unique mission: to make the PhD process not just bearable, but empowering.

Some of my favorite things to share wisdom about:

    * finding a topic you love
    * managing your committee
    * getting face time with your advisor
    * connecting with your core passion for the topic
    * time management 101
    * feng shui-ing your dissertation hut
    * prioritizing mind/body wellness
    * balancing teaching,  publishing, and writing
    * jumping headfirst into the job market
    * and much more!

My goal is to empower you with motivation and strategies to take action steps, write regularly, stay in touch with your True North, and make the dissertation process a meaningful intellectual adventure.

Or at least to finish the darn thing and move on with your life.

Please participate in this virtual community: Send me your questions! Post comments! (You don't need to be registered.) Share resources! Bookmark this URL! Tell your friends about it!

COMING SOON: Free Dissertation Support Group Workshops and Seminars using Skypecast!  Modern technology strikes again: Skypecast is like a podcast in real time, using Skype, the computer telephone service. Watch this blog for details.

Encouragingly yours,
Dissertation Diva