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.