Things You Should Know About Writing a Dissertation
Heather Frederick, PhD
You may or may not have crossed over into the exciting, yet illusive and uncharted territory of
becoming All-But-Dissertation, otherwise known as “ABD.” If you have not yet, you soon will.
Finishing the coursework that leads up to this stage is no small accomplishment. You should feel
pride at having come this far. You are probably tired, and maybe even a bit overwhelmed at the
task ahead. You knew one day you would be faced with writing a DISSERTATION, but it was
always in the future, something to be worried about later. On the other hand, some of you may
see light at the end of the tunnel. Before long, another student may point out that the light you see
is the light of a train about to run you over. Because I felt that way many times while muddling
through the writing of my dissertation, I would like to share some things I learned, with the hope
that you will have a meaningful, satisfying journey from now until the time you get to introduce
yourself as “Dr.” These ideas are not especially unique and there are plenty of articles and books
that exist on the subject of writing a dissertation. What I have done is used my experience, along
with my readings on the subject of degree completion, to come up with suggestions for the writing
of a dissertation in a distance learning environment.
Pick a topic you are passionate about. You will spend a great deal of time reading,
researching, thinking, writing, and talking about your dissertation topic. To pick a topic that you
are only vaguely interested in is like marrying someone you only kind of like. Do not do it. It is true
that your “idea” may change as you write, but the general area should be one in which you can
answer “yes” to questions like: Are you passionate about this? Do you enjoy talking about your
topic area to others? Do you honestly want to become an expert in this area? Do you think you
can study this and still be interested in it a year from now? Have you been interested in this area
for sometime?
Journal/brainstorm about your dissertation. Buy a journal, the kind that is bound so that you
are never tempted to tear out a page. Brainstorm, journal, doodle, make “to do” lists in this book. I
used the old black and white composition books and cannot tell you how many times I was so
glad I had this living piece of my own personal dissertation history. Whether it was because I
needed one place to keep track of all I had done (or needed to do) or because I actually came up
with decent ideas while brainstorming, I don’t know. During a moment of writer’s block, you can
thumb through this book and either find some mundane task you can do while waiting for your
creative juices to flow, or read some of your own ideas to get yourself going (it was pretty
amazing to “rediscover” so many of my own ideas this way). As you write, think through questions
you may get asked at your defense, and keep these in your journal; you’ll be glad you did.
Maintain regular contact with your Chair. The best advice I ever got in graduate school was to
regularly schedule meetings with my Chair. This advice was given one day by a colleague that
was close to defending his dissertation. I took his advice and accomplished more in one month
than I had in about a year. I found that weekly meetings forced me to write or accomplish
something at least once a week. And because I knew my Chair was going to be writing me a
letter of recommendation for just about any job I applied for post-graduation, I had some pressure
of wanting to write/accomplish something of substance. Easier said than done when doing your
degree at a distance, you may be thinking. True. However, the dissertation course sequences will
assist you in this regard. Having regular contact with your Chair has been show to impact degree
completion, and so the course is set-up to require weekly participation and interaction with your
Chair.
Have realistic expectations about contact. You must have contact with your Chair (and
committee members), while at the same time respecting the commitments and competing
responsibilities that faculty have. Remember, your Chair is a resource that will happily guide you,
however, do not take up their time in the name of wanting to prove you are working on your
dissertation (unless you tell them otherwise, they will assume you are doing just that). What I
mean is do not submit a poorly written paragraph just for the sake of having some “interaction”.
Rather, you can report briefly each week what you have accomplished and keep them abreast of
your progress. For example, you could let them know you did more research this week and that
you think your 1st chapter should be ready for review in about two more weeks. Or, you can share
an exciting study you read and how you think it might fit in with your design that you are still
hammering out. There may even be times when you need to tell them you have done nothing for
a week and that the word “dissertation” makes you break out in hives. Or you may be completely
at a loss when writing the analysis section of your proposal. Maintain contact and when you need
extensive feedback, be patient and know they will give you what you need as soon as they can.
At all times, be honest. Your Chair wants you to succeed and if you are not honest about your
progress or lack thereof, it will be difficult for them to assist you. In a land-based program, a Chair
has the benefit of regular departmental events during which they can notice an “absent” student.
The lack of face-to-face contact makes it difficult for Chairs to follow the progress of individual
students. If you are having serious problems, do not drop into a virtual black hole, at least not
without letting your Chair know about it.
Make lists. After doing some research on the subject of degree completion, I realized another
thing I did that was actually beneficial during this time (believe me, the writing of a dissertation is
very humbling and sometimes it may feel like you have had more failures than success – more on
that later). This “thing” was list-making. I had a laundry list a mile long (that is only a slight
exaggeration) of things I needed to do related to my dissertation. It ranged from things like “Learn
Structural Equation Modeling” to “type the references from the articles I read last week”. I kept
this list in a composition book (mentioned above). This way, I had a history of things I had done,
and things to do. Getting to cross things off this list was satisfying and getting to see pages of
tasks accomplished was a great way to see how much work I had actually done (and there will be
times when you need to remind yourself of simple facts like this).
Have a plan. Have a plan both for getting this thing done, and for how your research will be
organized. It is important that you think about a plan, and write it down. There are two documents
that related to planning specifically, so I will let you read those. The take home message here is
that you must be self-disciplined; this is hard to do without a plan.
Research takes longer than you think. Be aware of this fact. Next, work to accept it.
Undertaking and completing a dissertation will probably be unlike any other task you have done.
Do what you can to ward off disappointing thoughts if things do not move along like you thought
they would. You have a plan, but, as John Lennon so succinctly put it: Life is what happens while
you are making plans. Thus, when your data collection takes three times longer than you thought
it would, or your results section has gone through 11 revisions (and you only planned for 3), take
a deep breath and know you are not alone. One rule of thumb to consider is that once you think
your document is perfect, it will go through a minimum of two more revisions. Also, just because
your committee approves your proposal or completed dissertation, you may still be asked to
make final revisions when it goes through academic review.
Reduce other responsibilities as much as possible. Most land-based PhD students are fulltime students. Sure, they may teach and hold research assistantships, but these jobs are
qualitatively different from having a career. In addition to working, many distance learning
students have families. If it is possible to arrange for a reduction of responsibilities, do it. Writing a
dissertation can be stressful and this stress is a burden that will be shared with those close to
you. It is in everyone’s best interest for you to finish your dissertation in a timely manner. Find out
if it is feasible to arrange for a reduced workload and/or reduced childcare responsibilities. This
can be the difference between writing a dissertation in one year versus three (or more!). In some
cases it is even the difference between finishing and not finishing the PhD.
Expect good days and bad. This can be a difficult stage. Some days you will feel pride, a sense
of accomplishment, and passion for your research. Other days you may feel anxiety, insecurity,
even boredom. Talk to others in your same situation (use the discussion board, class café or
email). Join a dissertation support group (www.phinished.org). You may also want to spend some
time on a favorite hobby (all work and no play is no good). The bottom line is that these feelings
are normal. You need to remember that. Further, because you do not write your dissertation in a
bubble (although you may feel like you are alienated from the world around you), other life
stresses may exasperate “dissertation blues.” Things like divorce, a health crisis or death in your
family can have a large impact on your progress. If you find you are overwhelmed, seek
professional assistance for managing the stress in your life.
Find a buddy. As psychologists, we all have the common knowledge that social support is
important in all aspects of life. This is true when writing a dissertation, as well. A spouse, child, or
cat can be your cheerleading squad (and you should enlist their support), but you will need a
graduate school “buddy” in addition to family/friend/pet support. This will preferably be someone
in your program that you have developed a relationship with while taking classes together, or
someone in the same dissertation course. In a land-based program, students often form these
buddy-type relationships due to proximity. In the program I attended, my cohort shared an office.
It made it easy to discuss ideas, problems, and yes, even successes during the process. A
distance-learning environment does not afford such luxuries as sharing a student lounge, so you
will have to go out of your way to make this buddy relationship work. Find someone that you
enjoyed conversing with in the discussion areas of past courses, or someone you spent quality
time with during a residency. Read and critique each other’s work. The value of this can not be
underestimated. Sometimes all you need is another set of eyes to validate your work before
sending it off to your Chair, or you want to bounce what you think may be a semi-crazy-idea off
someone before approaching your Chair with it. A peer is an excellent resource in these types of
situations.
Learn to accept criticism of your work. Let’s face it, you are getting your PhD. Thus, you more
than likely have a touch of the trait called “perfectionism.” I know that when I turned in drafts of
my dissertation, I was often so sure it was close to perfect, that seeing the document come back
bathed in red ink could put me in a stupor for a day or two. Your Chair and committee members
know what they are doing. Have faith that their comments will make your dissertation the best it
can be. There may be times you disagree about something you think is critical to your
dissertation. If this happens I suggest you think about your Chair’s/committee member’s
suggestion/concern, do some more reading/reasoning and if you still feel strongly about your
original plan, then respectfully present your reason(s) for not wanting to make the suggested
changes. If you go through this process you will likely find that either your Chair/committee
member was right, or you simply did not explain your reasoning well enough the first time for
them to understand what you wanted to do (or what you meant). Your dissertation will go through
many changes (say this out loud, five times, right now). It is imperative that you do not resist this
change, or the process can become unbearable.
Talk about your dissertation to anyone who will listen. Whether it is your spouse, the person
you carpool with, your exercise buddy, or a co-worker: talk about your dissertation. Now I am not
suggesting you do this incessantly, because you will quickly find your circle of family and friends
diminishing. However, there are parts of your dissertation that will make for great conversation
with just about anyone. Be able to explain your dissertation in 3-5 sentences that a typical
grandmother would understand. Be able to answer simply questions like “So what?” upon giving
your 3-5 sentence spiel. Meet a lawyer at the next cocktail party? Maybe talk about some of your
human subject issues and get their opinion. The point is not to try to solve problems or issues you
are having with the dissertation. The point is to become eloquent in your area, and to let others
educate you, as well. You may be surprised at how some people will view your research, and
other opinions will give you a more comprehensive understanding of your area. One last word on
this tip: never become defensive about your dissertation. Soon, you will become attached to your
dissertation as if it was your (insert dearest possession here: first born child, childhood dog, new
corvette). This will make it very difficult to hear criticism (see “Learn to accept criticism” above).
Listen to what others have to say, you may learn a thing or two.
Adopt a motivational technique that works for you. For me, it was finding a picture and a
quote. The picture was of a stone path leading up and over a grassy hill (even though I have
never been there, it reminded me of something I might see in Ireland). The quote I chose was
“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” I had this picture and quote next to my
computer, and often repeated the quote like a mantra, when feeling like I was never going to
finish. Other quotes you might find worth repeating frequently are: “Rome was not built in a day”
or “An elephant can be eaten one bite at a time.” Other examples of motivational techniques may
be visualizing how things will be different once you have your degree (a new job?), or visualizing
what it will feel like at graduation.
Attend professional conferences. Even for land-based students, professional conferences are
motivating and help socialize students into becoming full-fledged PhD’s. For a distance learning
student, the power of attending a conference may be 10-fold. Having the opportunity to hear
people speak on topics of interest to you does a lot for fueling one’s desire to finish the degree
(even if, or perhaps I should say, especially if, some of these topics are not your dissertation area
and give you a break and renewed passion for the field in general). Conferences give you an
opportunity to hear “hot off the press” research, and the opportunity able to talk to others in your
area of research. Presenting preliminary results of your dissertation is a great way to get
feedback and ideas from other professionals (it also looks nice on your CV). Have a list of the top
conferences you would like to attend (e.g., SBM, APA, WPA) and do what you can to be attend at
least one, annually. Register for the conference on the first day and do your homework: plan a
schedule for all the talks and presentations you would like to see. Make sure you come with
business cards that have contact information and always have a pen and paper, so that you can
take down others’ information. When you are there talk to people.
Take full advantage of Walden residencies. A residency is a great place to talk about your
research (whether formally or informally). Sign up for intensives related to your dissertation topic
and use the time to really deepen your knowledge of the area. Take the “Research Intensive”
related to the dissertation prospectus. If your prospectus has been approved, you can still benefit
from this class, so if space allows, take it. Sign up for advising hours with faculty, even if you have
no idea who they are or what they study. Talk to them about your dissertation. The information
you can gather and the types of interactions you can have at a residency is like no other….do not
let opportunities like this pass you by!
Talk to others about their dissertation defense. This is a no-brainer. It will take the “mystery”
out of the defense and help you psychologically prepare for the big day.
Get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and eat well. Although this is common knowledge it is
worth mentioning here, simply because most of us do not do this as it is. When you find yourself
having a difficult week (or month), make an effort to attend to sleep, exercise and diet for one
week. You may be surprised at how much this helps get you through the slump.
Keep a positive attitude; you are almost there! Attitude is critical, do what you can to make
yours positive.