Thesis and Dissertation Help

Need to write? Set a deadline! Deadlines are a fantastic motivator. If I didn’t have a deadline, this newsletter might never be distributed! It’s the deadline that drives me: I know that by the second Monday of each month, I must have a completed article about a topic my readers will find useful and insightful.

I suggest using deadlines to complete all of your writing, including the chapters of your dissertation. Those of you who are using our TADA-CD™ are already familiar with this foundational strategy … for example, using a conference submissions deadline as a motivator to get one of your chapters finished.

It’s also important to set a continuum of deadlines. After clearing a major hurdle – such as defending a thesis proposal – many students want to take a break from writing. If you find that you need a break after the completion of a major task, by all means take one – but only after setting a date for when you plan to begin writing again, as well as a deadline for when your next task must be completed.

Following are some additional TADA tips to help ensure that your writing gets done (and done well)!

Capture Ideas with a Journal
Keeping a journal is an age-old technique that writers have used to get their thoughts down on paper and keep track of what they learn. Many writers use a journal to write down facts, brainstorm ideas or “free write” a stream of consciousness to get their creative juices flowing. Others use it to vent their frustrations, which can help them move past the emotions of writer's block.

Though you might resist this strategy because you consider it extra work, I highly recommend using our TADA Journal. You can use our Methods journal to write down random thoughts and ideas whenever they strike; it can also serve as a central depository for data that can be mined in the future. There is also a “Issues to be Resolved” section, and a half page of graphing paper to create hand drawings of the elaborate tables and graphs you plan to include in your thesis/dissertation. You can run these “rough” drafts by your advisor for approval before investing a lot of time mapping the final versions.

Keep Keywords or Phrases Handy
Let’s face it, not too many people will read a masters thesis or doctoral dissertation. A thesis or dissertation is not the type of document that piques the general public’s interest mainly because of its academic rigor and writing style. The topic is generally of interest only to the student, experts in the field, the student’s advisor and committee members.

Academic writing is quite formal and is not designed to be entertaining. Remember that the most important goal in writing is to get your intelligent point across in a clear concise manner. This style of writing is structured, formal and objective. A wide range of vocabulary is of course important, however, when writing academic papers, it is often helpful to find key terms that are familiar to your reading audience. Focusing on scholarly text will also ultimately assist you in the writing process. Use academic journals to prepare a list of key words that are important in your research area---use this set of key words repeatedly throughout your document. Resist the urge to use your thesaurus to come up alternate synonyms to substitute for key terms; these words all have different meanings, nuances, and connotations. For example, if the key phrase for your discipline is "family structure", ---do not try substituting other phrases like "family composition", "family formation", "family arrangement", or "family size." Experimenting with alternative word choice can do more harm than good. On the other hand, purposely repeating key words and phrases links sentences and paragraphs. Moreover, repetition of key words and phrases not only emphasizes important points but also adds cohesion to your overall argument by creating powerful links between ideas in your paper and helping your reader understand the logic of your paper.

Organize Your Thoughts
At some point you’ll need to stop garnering ideas and facts, and start to write. First, however, it’s important to organize your project. Out of the mountains of raw data you have accumulated, you’ll need to decide what material to include, how to sequence that material, and how to shape your document to achieve the strongest possible argument and impression.

One of the most productive approaches to organizing your thesis or dissertation is to begin with your proposal and a well crafted table of contents (TOC). Your thesis or dissertation is really just an extension of your proposal; as such, a good starting point is to go through your proposal and simply change the tense from future to past. Then you can craft and use a TOC to create headers and sub-headers for the entire document.

This exercise will help you to organize your ideas effectively, and might also point out areas where you may need to collect more information. Be sure to involve your advisor in this process, and take careful note of the feedback he or she provides.

Editing Your Work
It is difficult for any writer to critique and proofread his or her own work. For the best result, take a “top-down” approach, and begin by reviewing the general organization and content of your writing. Don’t worry about sentence-level editing at this stage. Instead, focus on the flow of your paragraphs and sections, and whether they are properly ordered to facilitate a smooth stream of thought. One way to gauge this is to write down all of your topic sentences in the order in which they appear in the document. (You can accomplish this quickly and easily by using the “blocking” function of your word processor to copy them to a blank page.) Once the sentences are listed in this fashion, you can easily observe whether they flow logically and make any necessary changes.
Additional tips for effective self-editing are to:

Finding an Editor
Each time I begin writing this newsletter, I am comforted by the fact that I have an editor who will review my work. Knowing this allows me to freely pour out my thoughts on paper without having to simultaneously worry about the details of style and proper mechanics.

While I highly recommend using a third party to edit your work, it’s important to find the right person. Your thesis or dissertation will be written for a highly intellectual community, many of whom are experts in your field. As such, the editor you choose must be practiced in an academic style of writing that will appeal to this audience.

Evaluate potential editors by having them edit a few pages of your work to get a feel for their style. It’s helpful to provide samples of journal articles in your field, and to advise the editor of your style requirements and expectations. Some editors only edit for grammar and specific MLA or APA formatting issues. Others edit for overall continuity, and will check to ensure that the paragraphs are in the proper sequential order, and whether a particular argument makes sense. Editing fees range from $20 to $150 an hour. Be sure to clarify issues such as how many words or pages an editor can complete in an hour’s time. For more useful information about finding an editor, visit www.academicword.com.

Overcoming Writer’s Anxiety: Write with a Clean Slate
I got high marks in all of my college preparatory English classes, but hit a sticking point in my freshman year of college, when a visiting instructor told me that my writing skills were lacking. I was devastated by her negative assessment, and my confidence in my writing waned.

The following semester, I finished my freshman writing sequence at another university. Despite the fact that I wrote my essays on the bus rides to and from class, I was able to achieve straight A’s. Still, my confidence in my writing remained shaken.

If you have suffered a similar negative experience, it is important to understand that time and continued practice will heal this wound. Writing is like everything else: the more you practice, the better you get. It is important to move past any confidence issues you have by just writing and writing more. Another good way to build confidence is to share your writing with trusted confidantes who will appraise, constructively criticize and help edit your words.

Writing with an Attitude of Confidence
Many of us experience writer’s block because we are worried about whether or not what we are writing is actually right. I suggest that you abandon “right” and “wrong” and just write with abandon! Write as if you know you are right, and worry about the details later.

Writing with recklessness allows you to clear your head and move ahead of whatever may be blocking your thoughts. I used this technique to write the summary chapter of my dissertation. I had been struggling with the document for months, and finally said to myself, “I know more about this dissertation than anyone else, so I’m going to act like it!.” I began writing as if what I had to say was important, and as if my findings were an important academic contribution to the field. My new attitude was absolutely freeing! I was able to quickly finish the last chapter and rewrite the first one, as well!

Find a “Coach”
I strongly advise students to find a “coach” to help them organize and complete their project. There is a considerable difference between an advisor and a thesis or dissertation coach. An advisor is, first and foremost, an academician with considerable responsibilities that do not involve you. A thesis or dissertation coach, on the other hand, is paid to focus on you and help you finish your degree by listening to all of your concerns … academic or otherwise.

Thesis/dissertation coaches focus on a holistic – not strictly academic -- approach to finishing your degree. In person or on the phone, they can discuss your project on an individual basis in absolute confidence, and also serve as a sounding board for stress relief. They can offer both emotional and academic support to help you complete important tasks, as well as provide the tools you need to achieve your goals, which enable you to accomplish more with less effort.

Coaches can help you get organized, and regularly track your progress to ensure that you stay on top of tasks. Their goal is to work in every possible way to help you write your thesis/dissertation, finish it, and get it published.
“Group Coaching” is also valuable. Through this model, once coach provides counsel to several students over the phone (via a bridge line). Everyone involved agrees to confidentiality, and the group is configured to guarantee that no one in the group will be in competition with another. The advantage of this approach is that you can accomplish more in less time, and can have the opportunity to work with students in different disciplines from all over the world. The group setting also provides built-in peer support.

For more useful information about this and other critical subjects, visit www.academicladder.com.

I am an African American doctoral student I have returned to school after a long career as a Chemist to pursue a Ph.D. degree in science education.

I am finding that the African American students at my school (including me) are having a very difficult time graduating in a reasonable length of time. In a 6-7 year period or longer, no full-time doctoral students have graduated from my area. I am trying to set up mechanisms for school administrators to 1) recognize that the education students are having a problem, and 2) that we need help/support if the school wants to see more African American graduate.

Currently, advisors are comfortable saying and accepting that "Blacks are not capable of graduating from a Ph.D. program. When a Black drops out, they say, "see I told you so, that's what they all do, drop out." Therefore, they do not have to do anything because they see the problem as being with us, not them.

Thank you for contacting me. There are a number of issues that you have describe below that are common to all PhD students...and also black graduate students as well.

The Survey of Earned Doctorate has repeatedly shown that the field of Education shows the longest Time to Degree (TTD) for ALL students. In addition, the median age in this discipline is also higher than in any other field. Women and minorities also flock to this field as well instead of science and engineering. I give you all of that information to let you know that what is going on in Education across the country as well as at your university.

To that end, I can suggest a number of things to help you and your friends move through the process:

1. Dealing with racial discrimination can be exhausting and quite energy draining. I suggest that you and your friends begin by reading my July 2005 issue of TADA FinishLine newsletter: Evening The Odds Issues Facing Women, International Students And Minorities.

2. I would also suggest that you and your friends sign up for our FREE monthly newsletter that provides some tips, tools, and techniques to help students through graduate school. The next newsletter goes out on Monday, 2-13-06 if you don't sign up before Monday you won't get a newsletter until March.

3. I am headed to Boston to give 2 workshops at MIT and at BC...My workshop is called "TADA Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished: Practical Steps to Completing a Master's Thesis or Dissertation."

You might consider having your administrator on campus bring me to campus to do a workshop there. Often universities have special funds to bring speakers to campus. If you have a Black Graduate Student Organization you might consider doing a joint venture with the graduate school to bring a series of speakers to campus to inspire and motivate yourselves to complete the degree.

4. I will ask around about mentors specifically for education...because I know what you mean about having mentors for science & Engineering, and also business majors etc. I hope my answer has given you a starting place on what to do next. I will get back to you on another occasion.

If you're still wondering whether or not TA-DA! Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished™ can help you — don’t take our word for it. Take a few moments to read what some of our customers have told us.
See how TA-DA!™ helped them...

• TA-DA gave me the incentive to "get the lead out" and finish. The 12 minutes a day has lead to approximately two to three hours. I have really got a lot done, just knowing that the twelve minutes does wonders for the psyche.
Maryjane, Fayetteville, NC

• The commitment to a deadline and to working 12 minutes a day actually reduces stress. I can always do 12 minutes--even if I'm tired, sick, uninspired or grumpy. Facing a deadline makes it feel like I will actually get done! "I have to do my 12 minutes" we say in our house these days. I've been progressing steadily on my dissertation by committing to 12 minutes, and my husband has covered huge amounts of material for an upcoming professional exam. My friend has committed to completing the annulment papers she has procrastinated on for 10 years, and my father-in-law has started studying Spanish 12 minutes a day. Thanks!
Christine, Seattle, WA

• It helped me to set goals for my chapters and give me some practical strategies for finishing. Also I believe it's good to list your finish date. It gives you something to strive for rather than letting the thesis become nebulous.
Martha; Albany, CA

• TA-DA explains the dissertation process and lifts the curtain to a process that seems impossible to accomplish. It provides strategy for selecting the committee and provides timelines that enable accomplishment of the dissertation within a specific time frame.
Randall; USMC Jacksonville, NC

• The program helped me to understand the dissertation concept much better. I am a visual individual; the tutorial was a great help.
Deborah; U.S. Army

• Provides helpful suggestions for how to proceed as well as suggesting disciplined and reasonable timelines for completion.
Lawrence; Philadelphia, PA

• It has helped with the fact that my graduate school does not have a formal format for the proposal. The Journal has helped a lot.
Talia; Naranjito, Puerto Rico

• This is a great tool for those who will be starting either their Master's Degree or Dissertation. I highly recommend it.
Teresa; Naguabo, Puerto Rico

• Requesting that I set a goal date for finishing, kept me focused and it was the first step in accomplishing the task. Also, I kept remembering the words; a good thesis is a done thesis.
Gladys; NY, NY

About the Author: As a single mother, professor Wendy Y. Carter, Ph.D., completed three masters' degrees and a PhD. Her motto is a Good Thesis/Dissertation is a Done Thesis/Dissertation. She is the creator of a new innovative interactive resource tool on CD—TADA! Thesis and Accomplished. To learn more and sign up for her FREE tips and teleclasses, contact us at info@tadafinallyfinished.com. Privacy is our policy. TADA™ Finishline does not give out or sell our subscribers' names or e-mail addresses.