Practical strategies for writing the thesis or dissertation

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Practical strategies for writing the thesis or
dissertation
A workshop based significantly on what Ive
learned from the master, Dorothy Duff
Brown (http//www.asgs.org/ConsDetl.htmlDDBrown)
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The plan

• Beginning the writing process
• Structuring the thesis or dissertation
• Organizing the material realities of the writing
  process
• Time management
• Knowing when to stop writing
• Writing clearly for an academic audience
• Communicating with advisors and committees
• Setting up support structures for writing

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Attitudes toward your writing

• Writing as a very personal, frequently vulnerable
  thing.
• At the same time, a very public thing, and in
  this case something that must be evaluated.
• So striking a balance between writing sincerely
  and resisting taking feedback as a comment on you
  as a person.
• Relocating the writing outside you - and, thus,
  as something that can be worked on.
• Writing mindfully, with moderation.

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Some graphs Hypomania.
(Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members 171
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Some graphs Binging.
(Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members 172
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Some graphs Creativity.
(Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members 173
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Some graphs Depression.
(Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members 174
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Taking a view

• See the thesis or dissertation as
• A whole
• Manageable
• A serious work, but also an experiment
• Something that you are doing, but that does not
  encompass everything that you are.
• Something you can make decisions about now, not
  later (title, length, number of chapters, etc)

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Beginning the writing process

• Hold your writing in mind while you do research.
• Read, perform labs, etc, with a view toward how
  the work youre doing will fit into your thesis
  or dissertation.
• Take notes that include your opinion/ thoughts
  what youre thinking for now about your
  findings have a charge.
• Use the tone in these notes that you will use in
  the thesis/dissertation itself Calm, reasonable,
  measured, ample, not cryptic.

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Structuring the thesis or dissertation

• Come up with a working title. Right now.
• Try out a cognitive map of the dissertation
• How many pages will this be?
• How many chapters will you include?
• Formulate a Table of Contents (not an outline)
• What are the institutional guidelines for
  formatting? (put the MS in this format soon)

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Organizing the material realities of the writing
process

• You must back up your files. Really. Otherwise,
  some suggested tactics
• the binder mock-up of the whole manuscript.
• the box marked archive
• develop a system for knowing when youve
  responded to comments
• go ahead and print drafts out.
• regard the computer as a tool for production, not
  organization.

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Time management

• Since you will not get everything done, consider
  what has to be done. Not everything is as
  important as everything else.
• Managing guilt, more than time.
• 80/20 rule
• Aim for concentrated, productive, short time in
  writing

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Further time management

1. Planning ahead
2. 45 minute units
3. Project weeks
4. Stop time for any given day
5. When your week starts
6. Taking a day off, as entitlement not reward

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Brief, Daily Sessions
(Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members 144)
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Knowing when to stop or pause

• Is your procrastination telling you something
  important about form or missing content?
• Check in with self, faculty given clear goals
  for a given piece of writing, how close are you
  to meeting them?
• In this piece of writing, I hope to show
  __________

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Writing clearly for an academic audience

• Academic writing as genre, tool something to
  master and use. Not the best kind of writing.
• Discipline-specific! Learn what makes sense in
  your genre, and write to that.
• Through-line does each part of the writing speak
  to your overall purpose?
• Would a reader be able to say what you mean to do
  at each point in the piece?

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Pre-writing, writing, revision

• Freewriting
• Notecarding
• Colour-coding and re-mapping
• Not too tight, not too loose
• Respond to feedback and also hold your ground
• Understand revision and pre-writing as just as
  significant as writing.

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Communicating with advisors and committees

• Faculty feedback valuable commodity. Brief them
  well.
• The memo cover-letter always include, on paper
• Dear Dr. _________
• Here is (V. specific pages, what they do,
  what stage of draft they are at, where they fit
  into the whole project.)
• What its core argument is.
• Specific guidelines for feedback you want.
• If this is the end Ask Is this something you
  can sign off on? explicitly.

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Setting up support structures for writing

• Prepare your friends/ lovers/ family/ spouse/
  children for your writing process
• Structure your material and psychic realities
  according to what actually works for you.
• Consider forming a small, manageable, functional,
  trustworthy writing group.
• Submit work to conferences and journals, at
  whatever stage youre at - singly or in
  collaboration with a more senior scholar.

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Useful books

• Annie Lamott Bird by bird
• Robert Boice Advice for New Faculty Members
• Natalie Goldberg Writing Down the Bones
• John Douillard Body, Mind, and Sport
• Becker, Howard S. with a chapter by Pamela
  Richards. Writing for Social Scientists How to
  Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article
• Bolker, Joan. Writing Your Dissertation in
  Fifteen Minutes a Day A Guide to Starting,
  Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis.

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Some useful links

• http//www.english.ucsb.edu/grad/2nd-exam-resource
  s/dissertation_links.asp
• http//www.gradschool.umd.edu/grrd/workshops/docs/
  070316_DissRoundtable_Article.pdf
• http//www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/dissertati
  on.html
• http//www.msu.edu/user/gradschl/all/gpsurvive.pdf
  
• http//dissertationdiva.typepad.com/
• http//www-leland.stanford.edu/group/econ/resource
  s/links.html