Working the Dissertation Writing Plan

Just over a week ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Eastern Communication Association
in Cambridge, MA where I attended a session on graduate education. Eventually the conversation veered towards how to support doctoral students towards completion of their dissertations. Some of the ideas I have shared here were reiterated there; one highlight for me was the idea about creating structure after comprehensives/preliminaries/qualifying exams to enable students to make progress on the dissertation.

One professor shared how in their program, they have created due dates and deadlines by which students should submit various portions of their dissertation. Others felt this might be too structured for some students, particularly if those deadlines are created by the program. In some programs, the most important deadline is the defense date in order to graduate by a particular end-of-semester (e.g. must defend by end of March to graduate in May).

I think there is a way to create a structure that supports your efforts at writing your dissertation. It is to create a plan in cooperation with your dissertation advisor. That plan should include due dates for major sections of your dissertation. The easiest way to do that is to start with your intended graduation date, then work backwards to determine when you have to defend, when you have to submit the completed document for committee review, when you need to submit each chapter/major section, etc.

Once you come up with your plan, introduce it into your daily, weekly and monthly calender. That is, ensure that there are periods of your calender dedicated to achieving your dissertation goals. As many writing coaches will tell you, the best way to achieve your writing goals is to write daily. Waiting until you have huge chunks of time to write especially if you also have a busy work and family life is often not effective. Off course there may be seasons when you can dedicate entire days and even weeks to writing...but that is often the exception rather than the rule. 

As much as it depends on you, work that plan! When life happens (as it often does), then revise your plan accordingly. Be sure to keep your advisor abreast of your progress and any changes. Like you, your advisor quite possibly works on schedule, so any changes to your schedule affects hers. Be courteous by keeping her informed. If you cannot meet a particular deadline, inform your advisor in good time so she too can adjust her schedule.

When you achieve a milestone (such as complete a chapter, or data collection, or defense), reward yourself. Do not wait until the very end to reward yourself, do it along the way. This will keep you motivated and energized along the journey.

As always, all the best. Comments and questions welcome.

The Successful Dissertation Defense

What makes for a successful dissertation defense? Am sure you have found other sites where students or professors tell you what makes a defense successful. I hope this will add to what you already know.

The defense is the oral examination of your doctoral dissertation (or thesis). It is the 1:30-2:00 hours you spend in conversation with your dissertation committees, in the presence of other 'witnesses' who may include friends, family and the campus community, demonstrating your expertise in your study topic.

Depending on institutional guidelines, your defense 'audience' may or may not be allowed to participate by making comments or asking questions. In most cases, whether the audience participates or simply watches the interchange, the only people who determine whether you have passed are the members of you committee.

Generally, your committee should not let you get to the defense unless they are sure that you are well prepared and can pass. However, institutional cultures are different, and committees are different too. Personally, I will not let my candidates sit in a defense unless am confident in their preparation and have essentially, ensured that they will pass. But that's me. I would not want the humiliation of seeing my candidate fail at that all important juncture.

So how should you as the candidate prepare for this 'examination'?

You should be in agreement with your chair and the rest of your committee that your dissertation is 'defensible', it is ready for this process. That does not necessarily mean every t has been crossed and every i dotted...though, it should not be a draft either. Rather, it means that your introduction, literature review, and methods (which in most institutions would have been approved at the proposal stage) are in tip top shape, the tenses have been changed to past, and everything there is good to go. Similarly, your chapter 4 (results) and 5 (discussion, interpretation, implications) are in excellent shape, they have been reviewed by your chair and essentially, approved as ready for defense by the entire committee. You should not schedule a defense if any one of your committee members is saying otherwise.

Prepare to present your research in about 30 minutes (check with your chair and dissertation handbook on any instructions for the presentation).

Prepare a presentation that is logically organized, beginning with purpose statement and ending with implications for future research. In most cases, you do not need to spend a lot of time talking through the last three chapters since your committee already approved those in the proposal defense. However, you do want to highlight any changes to your protocol even as you reiterate the purpose statement and theoretical framework.

Focus the bulk of your presentation on chapters 4-5 (I am speaking here of a traditional 5-chapter dissertation; if yours is not in this format, use the 5 chapters mentioned here as a guide on what you would be preparing). Ensure you discuss how your work extends theory, and informs practice, even as you point ahead to recommendations for future research.

Expect your committee to ask questions and make comments, interacting with you in a dialogue for at least an hour, sometimes longer. If you are well prepared, and they have been involved in your process closely having approved your dissertation for the defense, its possible that their questions and comments will focus not on what you did but on:

a. What you would do differently given ideal conditions
b. How you will use the dissertation, how it fits into your career goals
c. Your plans for publications

You would hope that the defense is not the place for the committee to get into an ego-war (I've heard that happens). Well, the best advise I would give on that will come in a different post, on how to select your dissertation committee members.

In the next few weeks, I will post on how to turn your dissertation into publications, and how to use it to enhance your career. If you are interested in reading my dissertation, you only need but Google me, it is freely available on ohiolink etd (Electronic Thesis and Dissertations). A link is also included here.

http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Ngunjiri%20Faith%20Wambura.pdf?acc_num=bgsu1143220309

All the best at your defense. If you need further advise, do not hesitate to contact me.