Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation

by Rita S. Brause

Increasing numbers of adults are enroling in doctoral programmes, but their earlier college lives often do not prepare them for the rules of the academic game. Many have no idea what a dissertation looks like, how it gets that way, or what options are available to them.
This book is a practical guide for students who need help in progressing from the decision to write a dissertation to the planning, writing and defending of it. It includes samples of proposals and dissertations that have been accepted and data drawn from a number of sources, including focus groups with doctoral students and graduates and responses to an open-ended questionnaire from doctoral students across the United States.

Genres: Writing

180 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1999

Reviews

[Emilia Greendevald]

Thanks for sharing this book - it offers a useful perspective on what can otherwise feel like a very overwhelming part of doctoral study. Writing a doctoral dissertation can feel overwhelming because the challenge is often not just research, but organizing complex ideas into a clear and convincing academic argument. I’ve found that setting smaller writing goals and revising in stages makes the process much more manageable than trying to perfect every section at once. For students writing in French, having an additional pair of eyes on structure, clarity, and academic style can also be especially useful, which is where Expert Rédacteur Thèse can fit naturally into the process. The key is still keeping your own voice and ideas at the center while using feedback to strengthen the final manuscript.

[Silvano Paternoster]

Quite a useless book aimed at the murican PhD of two decades ago. A painful waste of time. Not recommended.

[An Te]

Common sense. I like particularly the emphasis on consistently writing.

[Bahar]

It is a good book to read before starting to write your thesis around proposal time.

[Sovatha]

Very useful book to read when writing your dissertation. Even more useful if you get to read this before you start writing or as you are entering a PhD program. Pretty straight forward info on a pretty not straight forward process. Either way, this book can be used as a guide one way or another throughout the PhD process.

[Melanie]

This book was generally helpful, although much of the material seems designed as a basic entry point for students who have no prior exposure to materials regarding doctoral work and who are not familiar with the process at all. I did gain knowledge from the author's perspective, however, and I appreciated the insight particularly from the inclusion of doctoral students' personal experiences.

[Ramon Girona]

Very good tips and advice to take into account in every stage of the PhD programme. Provides explanations for the technical and psichological issues of writing your dissertation.