Dissertation Writing

The Expert’s Secret To Dissertation Success

One of the greatest challenges in writing theses and dissertations is not really about the writing process itself, but about the psychological struggles behind the writing. The most difficult psychological obstacle involved in writing a thesis is that you must claim that you are an expert.

For you to write your thesis, you must position yourself as an expert. This is a change in self-identity. You no longer see yourself as a student, but as someone who has earned the right to position yourself as an expert in your field.

For most of us, our educational experiences don’t prepare us to make this psychological shift. How often did anyone regard you as an expert on anything in your student years?

Throughout our lifetimes, most of us experienced educational processes that taught us the “right” answers. Who decided the right answers? They were the real experts, who wrote the books we read. They graded our exams and papers. They taught us that we were not experts, but were supposed to learn the answers provided to us by the real experts.

It is entirely possible that you can reach the point of writing a dissertation without ever writing an original word about anything in your field of study. Teachers tend not to shower good grades upon original thinkers. Good grades are most often given to those who supply the predetermined “right” answers.

If your educational experience was typical of most of us, you learned how to write essays and term papers. You learned to demonstrate that you had learned your lessons and could provide the right answers. In all of this, you were probably never taught how to write a thesis.

The typical term paper usually consists of gathering information on a topic. Your goal is not to provide original information, but to organize existing information provided by experts in your field.

What about essays? You can express your opinions on a topic in an essay, but an opinion is not the same as a thesis.

You can go through high school and college and never be required to make an original contribution to your field. Yet, this is what you must do when you write a thesis. This is one of the primary reasons the transition from essays and term papers to theses and dissertations is so difficult.

What happens when you come to the point of writing a dissertation? You must now take your place among the experts in your field. Now it is your turn to ask new questions and provide new answers. After a lifetime of learning the right answers, this is a dramatically new stage of your educational process.

The secret of success behind a successful dissertation is that you become the expert. Your success lies in your ability to ask new questions. Your success is no longer measured by your ability to learn the right answers. You now become the one who provides the answers to your questions.

It doesn’t matter if your thesis becomes a landmark dissertation in your field. It doesn’t matter if your thesis is just a baby step forward. The critical issue is that you must claim that you are an expert in your field, by offering an original perspective. If you don’t offer any original answers, you are not writing a thesis.

A dissertation is a claim to the world that you are now an expert in your field. You are no longer simply a student. This is the expert’s secret behind a successful dissertation.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD. http://www.WriteToPersuade.com. Nothing is more important to writing a dissertation than a clear thesis. If you need help with your dissertation writing, I have a persuasive writing resource for you. My ebook, What’s Your Point? gives clear methods to clarify your thesis and make your point.

One Simple Question To Finish Your Doctoral Dissertation

I went to visit one of the professors on my doctoral committee after I passed my oral exam. According to the statistics I had read, 85% of doctoral students in the humanities, who reach the stage I had just reached, never finish their doctoral dissertations. After completing all course work and passing their exams, they become ABDs, which stands for “All But Dissertation.” Knowing this statistic, I wanted to ask my professor a question.

The question I asked was: “What do I need to know to write and finish my dissertation?” I knew that he was a street-smart scholar, in addition to being a prolific author, outstanding teacher, and brilliant scholar. I knew that he would have practical wisdom for me.

I will never forget his answer: “By the time people reach the point of writing a doctoral dissertation, they are smart enough, they know enough, and they work hard enough to finish. But everything they hear is: ‘You aren’t smart enough, you don’t know enough, you don’t work hard enough.’ And so they never finish because they think they can never do enough.”

After that brief conversation, I wrote on a 3×5 yellow index card: “What Is Enough?” I put that card on the wall in front of me, where I could see it any time I sat down to work on my dissertation.

I think that this simple question: “What Is Enough?” is the single most important reason why I was able to go from ABD to Ph.D.

As I worked on my dissertation, the question: “What Is Enough?” kept me on course. Whenever I realized that I had just spent two hours on some interesting bit of information, the question reminded me of my purpose. My purpose was to complete the dissertation, defend the dissertation, and finish my degree. When I asked the question I could evaluate whether the particular topic I was working on was relevant to my purpose. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn’t. But simply asking the question reminded me that I was working toward a specific goal.

Scholars are driven by the word “more.” “More” is the enemy of completion. There is always more to know. One more article to read. One more book. One more expert to consult. The question: “What Is Enough?” cuts through this relentless quest after “more” to focus on the single task at hand.

Since I completed my own dissertation, I have offered this question to other scholars, and I now offer it to you. The question will keep you on track to finish your dissertation. It is especially valuable whenever you feel overwhelmed, focused, and off-track. If you wonder if you will ever be able to finish, ask yourself: “What Is Enough?” to finish.

When you are writing a doctoral dissertation, “What Is Enough?” means that you write a clear argument to prove a clear thesis. You don’t have to write everything you know on a topic. “Enough” means that you write enough to prove your case. You don’t have to write more than “enough.”

By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.

Nothing is more important to dissertation writing than a clear thesis. If you are unsure about your thesis, here’s a persuasive writing guide for you. My ebook, What’s Your Point? gives simple steps to get to your point.