Writing and Presenting Your
Thesis or Dissertation
S. Joseph Levine, Ph.D.
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan USA
mailto:levine@msu.edu
Introduction
This guide has been created to assist my graduate students in thinking through the many aspects of crafting, implementing and defending a thesis or dissertation. It is my attempt to share some of the many ideas that have surfaced over the past few years that definitely make the task of finishing a graduate degree so much easier. (This Guide is a companion to the Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal.)
Usually a guide of this nature focuses on the actual implementation of the research. This is not the focus of this guide. Instead of examining such aspects as identifying appropriate sample size, field testing the instrument and selecting appropriate statistical tests, this guide looks at many of the quasi-political aspects of the process. Such topics as how to select a supportive committee, making a compelling presentation of your research outcomes and strategies for actually getting the paper written are discussed.
Of course, many of the ideas that are presented can be used successfully by other graduate students studying under the guidance of other advisers and from many different disciplines. However, the use of this guide carries no guarantee - implied or otherwise. When in doubt check with your adviser. Probably the best advice to start with is the idea of not trying to do your research entirely by yourself. Do it in conjunction with your adviser. Seek out his/her input and assistance. Stay in touch with your adviser so that both of you know what's happening. There's a much better chance of getting to the end of your project and with a smile on your face.
With this in mind, enjoy the guide. I hope it will help you finish your graduate degree in good shape. Good luck and good researching!
(NOTE: Periodically I receive
requests for information on how to prepare a "thesis statement" rather
than actually writing a thesis/dissertation. How To Write a Thesis Statement is an excellent website that clearly sets forth what a "thesis statement" is and how to actually prepare one.)
Summary of Key Ideas in this Guide
The Thinking About It Stage
1. Be inclusive with your thinking. 2. Write down your ideas. 3. Don't be overly influenced by others-it's your research. 4. Try and set a realistic goal. 5. Set appropriate time lines. 6. Take a leave of absence when it will do the most good. 7. Try a preliminary study to help clarify your research. Preparing The Proposal
8. Read other proposals. 9. Prepare a comprehensive review of the literature.10. Photocopy relevant articles.11. Proposal should be first 3 chapters of dissertation.12. Focus your research. 13. Include a title on your proposal. 14. Organize around a set of questions. 15. Some considerations for designing your research: a. Design your research so the subjects benefit. b. Choose your methodology wisely. c. Consider combining methodologies. d. Carefully select location for your research. e. Avoid conducting research in conjunction with another agency. 16. Use your advisory committee well. a. Select faculty who will support you. b. Your major professor is your ally. c. Provide committee with well written proposal. d. Plan the proposal meeting well. Writing The Thesis Or Dissertation
17. Begin writing with sections you know the best. 18. Rewrite your proposal into dissertation sections. 19. Use real names/places in early drafts of dissertation. 20. Print each draft on a different color paper. 21. Use hand drawings of graphics/tables for early drafts. 22. Make your writing clear and unambiguous. 23. Review other dissertations before you begin to write. 24. Introduce tables in the text, present the table and then describe it. 25. Use similar or parallel wording whenever possible.26. Let your Table of Contents help you improve your manuscript. 27. Write real conclusions and implications - don't restate your findings.28. Make your Suggestions for Further Research meaningful. 29. Chapter One should be written last. The Thesis/Dissertation Defense
30. Attend some defenses before it's your turn. 31. Discuss your research with others. 32. Don't circulate chapters to committee.33. The defense should be team effort - you and adviser. 34. Don't be defensive at your defense. 35. Organize your defense as an educational presentation. 36. Consider tape recording your defense. 37. Prepare an article on the outcomes of your research.
THE "THINKING ABOUT IT" STAGE
The "thinking about
it stage" is when you are finally faced with the reality of completing
your degree. Usually the early phases of a graduate program proceed in
clear and very structured ways. The beginning phases of a graduate
program proceed in much the same manner as an undergraduate degree
program. There are clear requirements and expectations, and the
graduate student moves along, step by step, getting ever closer to the
completion of the program. One day, however, the clear structure begins
to diminish and now you're approaching the thesis/dissertation stage.
This is a new and different time. These next steps are more and more
defined by you and not your adviser, the program, or the department.
1. Be inclusive with your thinking.Don't
try to eliminate ideas too quickly. Build on your ideas and see how
many different research projects you can identify. Give yourself the
luxury of being expansive in your thinking at this stage -- you won't
be able to do this later on. Try and be creative.
2. Write down your ideas.
This will allow you to revisit an idea later on. Or, you can modify and
change an idea. If you don't write your ideas they tend to be in a
continual state of change and you will probably have the feeling that
you're not going anywhere. What a great feeling it is to be able to sit
down and scan the many ideas you have been thinking about, if they're written down.
3. Try not to be overly influenced at this time by what you feel others expect from you
(your colleagues, your profession, your academic department, etc.). You
have a much better chance of selecting a topic that will be really of
interest to you if it is your topic. This will be one of the few
opportunities you may have in your professional life to focus in on a
research topic that is really of your own choosing.
4. Don't begin your thinking by assuming that your research will draw international attention to you!! Instead, be realistic in setting your goal. Make sure your expectations are tempered by:
... the realization that you are fulfilling an academic requirement,
... the fact that the process of conducting the research may be just as important (or more important) than the outcomes of the research, and
... the idea that first and foremost the whole research project should be a learning experience for you.
If you can keep these ideas in mind while you're thinking through your research you stand an excellent chance of having your research project turn out well.
5. Be realistic about the time that you're willing to commit to your research project.
If it's a 10 year project that you're thinking about admit it at the
beginning and then decide whether or not you have 10 years to give to
it. If the project you'd like to do is going to demand more time than
you're willing to commit then you have a problem.
I know it's still early in your thinking but it's never too early to create a draft of a timeline. Try using the 6 Stages (see the next item) and put a start and a finish time for each. Post your timeline in a conspicuous place (above your computer monitor?) so that it continually reminds you how you're doing. Periodically update your timeline with new dates as needed. (Thanks to a website visitor from Philadelphia for sharing this idea.)
6.
If you're going to ask for a leave of absence from your job while
you're working on your research this isn't a good time to do it.
Chances are you can do the "thinking about it" stage without a leave of
absence. Assuming that there are six major phases that you will have
during your research project, probably the best time to get the most from a leave of absence is during the fourth stage* - the writing stage.
This is the time when you really need to be thinking well. To be able
to work at your writing in large blocks of time without interruptions
is something really important. A leave of absence from your job can
allow this to happen. A leave of absence from your job prior to this
stage may not be a very efficient use of the valuable time away from
your work.
Stage 1 - Thinking About It
Stage 2 - Preparing the Proposal
Stage 3- Conducting the Research
Stage 4- Writing the Research Paper*
Stage 5- Sharing the Research Outcomes with Others
Stage 6- Revising the Research Paper
7. It can be most helpful at this early stage to try a very small preliminary research study to
test out some of your ideas to help you gain further confidence in what
you'd like to do. The study can be as simple as conducting half a dozen
informal interviews with no attempt to document what is said. The key
is that it will give you a chance to get closer to your research and to
test out whether or not you really are interested in the topic. And,
you can do it before you have committed yourself to doing something you
may not like. Take your time and try it first.
PREPARING THE PROPOSAL
Assuming you've done a good job of "thinking about" your research project, you're ready to actually prepare the proposal. A word of caution - those students who tend to have a problem in coming up with a viable proposal often are the ones that have tried to rush through the "thinking about it" part and move too quickly to trying to write the proposal. Here's a final check. Do each of these statements describe you? If they do you're ready to prepare your research proposal.
Okay, you're ready to write your research proposal. Here are some ideas to help with the task:
8. Read through someone else's research proposal.
Very often a real stumbling block is that we don't have an image in our
mind of what the finished research proposal should look like. How has
the other proposal been organized? What are the headings that have been
used? Does the other proposal seem clear? Does it seem to suggest that
the writer knows the subject area? Can I model my proposal after one of
the ones that I've seen? If you can't readily find a proposal or
two to look at, ask your adviser to see some. Chances are your adviser
has a file drawer filled with them.
9. Make sure your proposal has a comprehensive review of the literature
included. Now this idea, at first thought, may not seem to make sense.
I have heard many students tell me that "This is only the proposal.
I'll do a complete literature search for the dissertation. I don't want
to waste the time now." But, this is the time to do it. The rationale
behind the literature review consists of an argument with two lines of
analysis: 1) this research is needed, and 2) the methodology I have
chosen is most appropriate for the question that is being asked. Now,
why would you want to wait? Now is the time to get informed and to
learn from others who have preceded you! If you wait until you are
writing the dissertation it is too late. You've got to do it some time
so you might as well get on with it and do it now. Plus, you will
probably want to add to the literature review when you're writing the
final dissertation. (Thanks to a website visitor from Mobile, Alabama who helped to clarify this point.)
10.
With the ready availability of photocopy machines you should be able to
bypass many of the hardships that previous dissertation researchers had
to deal with in developing their literature review. When you read
something that is important to your study, photocopy the relevant article or section.
Keep your photocopies organized according to categories and sections.
And, most importantly, photocopy the bibliographic citation so that you
can easily reference the material in your bibliography. Then, when you
decide to sit down and actually write the literature review, bring out
your photocopied sections, put them into logical and sequential order,
and then begin your writing.
11. What is a proposal anyway? A good proposal should consist of the first three chapters of the dissertation.
It should begin with a statement of the problem/background information
(typically Chapter I of the dissertation), then move on to a review of
the literature (Chapter 2), and conclude with a defining of the
research methodology (Chapter 3). Of course, it should be written in a
future tense since it is a proposal. To turn a good proposal into the
first three chapters of the dissertation consists of changing the tense
from future tense to past tense (from "This is what I would like to do"
to "This is what I did") and making any changes based on the way you
actually carried out the research when compared to how you proposed to
do it. Often the intentions we state in our proposal turn out different
in reality and we then have to make appropriate editorial changes to
move it from proposal to dissertation.
12. Focus your research very specifically.
Don't try to have your research cover too broad an area. Now you may
think that this will distort what you want to do. This may be the case,
but you will be able to do the project if it is narrowly defined.
Usually a broadly defined project is not do-able. By defining too
broadly it may sound better to you, but there is a great chance that it
will be unmanageable as a research project. When you complete your
research project it is important that you have something specific and
definitive to say. This can be accommodated and enhanced by narrowly
defining your project. Otherwise you may have only broadly based things
to say about large areas that really provide little guidance to others
that may follow you. Often the researcher finds that what he/she
originally thought to be a good research project turns out to really be
a group of research projects. Do one project for your
dissertation and save the other projects for later in your career.
Don't try to solve all of the problems in this one research project.
13. Include a title on your proposal.
I'm amazed at how often the title is left for the end of the student's
writing and then somehow forgotten when the proposal is prepared for
the committee. A good proposal has a good title and it is the first
thing to help the reader begin to understand the nature of your work.
Use it wisely! Work on your title early in the process and revisit it
often. It's easy for a reader to identify those proposals where the
title has been focused upon by the student. Preparing a good title
means:
14. It's important that your research proposal be organized around a set of questions
that will guide your research. When selecting these guiding questions
try to write them so that they frame your research and put it into
perspective with other research. These questions must serve to
establish the link between your research and other research that has
preceded you. Your research questions should clearly show the
relationship of your research to your field of study. Don't be carried
away at this point and make your questions too narrow. You must start
with broad relational questions.
A good question:
Do adult learners in a rural adult education setting have characteristics that are similar to adult learners in general ?
A poor question:
What are the characteristics of rural adult learners in an adult education program? (too narrow)
A poor question:
How can the XYZ Agency better serve rural adult learners? (not generalizable)
15. Now here are a few more ideas regarding the defining of your research project through your proposal.
a. Make sure that you will be benefitting those who are participating in the research.
Don't only see the subjects as sources of data for you to analyze. Make
sure you treat them as participants in the research. They have the
right to understand what you are doing and you have a responsibility to
share the findings with them for their reaction. Your research should
not only empower you with new understandings but it should also empower
those who are participating with you.
b. Choose your methodology wisely.
Don't be too quick in running away from using a quantitative
methodology because you fear the use of statistics. A qualitative
approach to research can yield new and exciting understandings, but it
should not be undertaken because of a fear of quantitative research. A
well designed quantitative research study can often be accomplished in
very clear and direct ways. A similar study of a qualitative nature
usually requires considerably more time and a tremendous burden to
create new paths for analysis where previously no path had existed.
Choose your methodology wisely!
c. Sometimes a combined methodology
makes the most sense. You can combine a qualitative preliminary study
(to define your population more clearly, to develop your
instrumentation more specifically or to establish hypotheses for
investigation) with a quantitative main study to yield a research
project that works well.
d. Deciding on where you will conduct the research
is a major decision. If you are from another area of the country or a
different country there is often an expectation that you will return to
your "home" to conduct the research. This may yield more meaningful
results, but it will also most likely create a situation whereby you
are expected to fulfill other obligations while you are home. For many
students the opportunity to conduct a research project away from home
is an important one since they are able to better control many of the
intervening variables that they can not control at home. Think
carefully regarding your own situation before you make your decision.
e. What if you have the opportunity for conducting your research in conjunction with another agency or project
that is working in related areas. Should you do it? Sometimes this
works well, but most often the dissertation researcher gives up
valuable freedom to conduct the research project in conjunction with
something else. Make sure the trade-offs are in your favor.
It can be very disastrous to have the other project suddenly get off
schedule and to find your own research project temporarily delayed. Or,
you had tripled the size of your sample since the agency was willing to
pay the cost of postage. They paid for the postage for the
pre-questionnaire. Now they are unable to assist with postage for the
post-questionnaire. What happens to your research? I usually find that
the cost of conducting dissertation research is not prohibitive and the
trade-offs to work in conjunction with another agency are not in favor
of the researcher. Think twice before altering your project to
accommodate someone else. Enjoy the power and the freedom to make your
own decisions (and mistakes!) -- this is the way we learn!
16.
Selecting and preparing your advisory committee to respond to your
proposal should not be taken lightly. If you do your "homework" well your advisory committee can be most helpful to you. Try these ideas:
a. If you are given the opportunity to select your dissertation committee do it wisely. Don't only focus on content experts. Make sure you have selected faculty for your committee who are supportive of you and
are willing to assist you in successfully completing your research. You
want a committee that you can ask for help and know that they will
provide it for you. Don't forget, you can always access content experts
who are not on your committee at any time during your research project.
b. Your major professor/adviser/chairperson is your ally.
When you go to the committee for reactions to your proposal make sure
your major professor is fully supportive of you. Spend time with
him/her before the meeting so that your plans are clear and you know
you have full support. The proposal meeting should be seen as an
opportunity for you and your major professor to seek the advice of the
committee. Don't ever go into the proposal meeting with the feeling
that it is you against them!
c. Provide the committee members with a well-written proposal well in advance of the meeting. Make sure they have ample time to read the proposal.
d. Plan the proposal meeting well. If
graphic presentations are necessary to help the committee with
understandings make sure you prepare them so they look good. A well
planned meeting will help your committee understand that you are
prepared to move forward with well planned research. Your presentation
style at the meeting should not belittle your committee members (make
it sound like you know they have read your proposal) but you should not
assume too much (go through each of the details with an assumption that
maybe one of the members skipped over that section).
WRITING THE THESIS OR DISSERTATION
Now this is the part we've been waiting for. I must assume that you have come up with a good idea for research, had your proposal approved, collected the data, conducted your analyses and now you're about to start writing the dissertation. If you've done the first steps well this part shouldn't be too bad. In fact it might even be enjoyable!
17.
The major myth in writing a dissertation is that you start writing at
Chapter One and then finish your writing at Chapter Five. This is
seldom the case. The most productive approach in writing the
dissertation is to begin writing those parts of the dissertation that you are most comfortable with.
Then move about in your writing by completing various sections as you
think of them. At some point you will be able to spread out in front of
you all of the sections that you have written. You will be able to
sequence them in the best order and then see what is missing and should
be added to the dissertation. This way seems to make sense and builds
on those aspects of your study that are of most interest to you at any
particular time. Go with what interests you, start your writing there,
and then keep building!
(David Kraenzel - North
Dakota State University - wrote in describing the "A to Z Method". Look
at the first section of your paper. When you are ready go ahead and
write it. If you are not ready, move section-by-section through your
paper until you find a section where you have some input to make. Make
your input and continue moving through the entire paper - from A to Z -
writing and adding to those sections for which you have some input.
Each time you work on your paper follow the same A to Z process. This
will help you visualize the end product of your efforts from very early
in your writing and each time you work on your paper you will be
building the entire paper - from A to Z. Thanks David!)
18.
If you prepared a comprehensive proposal you will now be rewarded! Pull
out the proposal and begin by checking your proposed research
methodology. Change the tense from future tense to past tense and then
make any additions or changes so that the methodology section truly
reflects what you did. You have now been able to change sections from the proposal to sections for the dissertation. Move on to the Statement of the Problem and the Literature Review in the same manner.
19.
I must assume you're using some form of word processing on a computer
to write your dissertation. (if you aren't, you've missed a major part
of your doctoral preparation!) If your study has specific names of
people, institutions and places that must be changed to provide
anonymity don't do it too soon. Go ahead and write your dissertation using the real names.
Then at the end of the writing stage you can easily have the computer
make all of the appropriate name substitutions. If you make these
substitutions too early it can really confuse your writing.
20.
As you get involved in the actual writing of your dissertation you will
find that conservation of paper will begin to fade away as a concern.
Just as soon as you print a draft of a chapter there will appear a
variety of needed changes and before you know it another draft will be
printed. And, it seems almost impossible to throw away any of the
drafts! After awhile it will become extremely difficult to remember
which draft of your chapter you may be looking at. Print each draft of your dissertation on a different color paper.
With the different colors of paper it will be easy to see which is the
latest draft and you can quickly see which draft a committee member
might be reading. (Thanks to Michelle O'Malley at University of Florida for sharing this idea.)
21.
The one area where I would caution you about using a word processor is
in the initial creation of elaborate graphs or tables. I've seen too
many students spend too many hours in trying to use their word
processor to create an elaborate graph that could have been done by
hand in 15 minutes. So, the simple rule is to use hand drawing for elaborate tables and graphs for the early draft of your dissertation.
Make sure your data are presented accurately so your advisor can
clearly understand your graph/table, but don't waste the time trying to
make it look word processor perfect at this time. Once you and your
advisor agree upon how the data should be graphically represented it is
time to prepare "perfect" looking graphs and tables.
22. Dissertation-style writing is not designed to be entertaining. Dissertation writing should be clear and unambiguous.
To do this well you should prepare a list of key words that are
important to your research and then your writing should use this set of
key words throughout. There is nothing so frustrating to a reader as a
manuscript that keeps using alternate words to mean the same thing. If
you've decided that a key phrase for your research is "educational
workshop", then do not try substituting other phrases like
"in-service program", "learning workshop", "educational institute", or
"educational program." Always stay with the same phrase - "educational
workshop." It will be very clear to the reader exactly what you are
referring to.
23. Review two or three well organized and presented dissertations.
Examine their use of headings, overall style, typeface and
organization. Use them as a model for the preparation of your own
dissertation. In this way you will have an idea at the beginning of
your writing what your finished dissertation will look like. A most
helpful perspective!
24. A simple rule - if you are presenting information in the form of a table or graph make sure you introduce the table or graph in your text.
And then, following the insertion of the table/graph, make sure you
discuss it. If there is nothing to discuss then you may want to
question even inserting it.
25. Another simple rule - if you have a whole series of very similar tables try to use similar words in describing each.
Don't try and be creative and entertaining with your writing. If each
introduction and discussion of the similar tables uses very similar
wording then the reader can easily spot the differences in each table.
26.
We are all familiar with how helpful the Table of Contents is to the
reader. What we sometimes don't realize is that it is also invaluable
to the writer. Use the Table of Contents to help you improve your manuscript.
Use it to see if you've left something out, if you are presenting your
sections in the most logical order, or if you need to make your wording
a bit more clear. Thanks to the miracle of computer technology, you can
easily copy/paste each of your headings from throughout your writing
into the Table of Contents. Then sit back and see if the Table of
Contents is clear and will make good sense to the reader. You will be
amazed at how easy it will be to see areas that may need some more
attention. Don't wait until the end to do your Table of Contents. Do it
early enough so you can benefit from the information it will provide to
you.
27. If you are including a Conclusions/Implications section in your dissertation make sure you really present conclusions and implications.
Often the writer uses the conclusions/implications section to merely
restate the research findings. Don't waste my time. I've already read
the findings and now, at the Conclusion/Implication section, I want you
to help me understand what it all means. This is a key section of the
dissertation and is sometimes best done after you've had a few days to
step away from your research and allow yourself to put your research
into perspective. If you do this you will no doubt be able to draw a
variety of insights that help link your research to other areas. I
usually think of conclusions/implications as the "So what" statements.
In other words, what are the key ideas that we can draw from your study
to apply to my areas of concern.
28. Potentially the silliest part of the dissertation is the Suggestions for Further Research
section. This section is usually written at the very end of your
writing project and little energy is left to make it very meaningful.
The biggest problem with this section is that the suggestions are often
ones that could have been made prior to you conducting your research. Read and reread this section until you are sure that you have made suggestions that emanate from your experiences
in conducting the research and the findings that you have evolved. Make
sure that your suggestions for further research serve to link your
project with other projects in the future and provide a further
opportunity for the reader to better understand what you have done.
29. Now it's time to write the last chapter. But what chapter is the last one? My perception is that the last chapter should be the first chapter. I don't
really mean this in the literal sense. Certainly you wrote Chapter One
at the beginning of this whole process. Now, at the end, it's time to
"rewrite" Chapter One. After you've had a chance to write your
dissertation all the way to the end, the last thing you should do is
turn back to Chapter One. Reread Chapter One carefully with the insight
you now have from having completed Chapter Five. Does Chapter One
clearly help the reader move in the direction of Chapter Five? Are
important concepts that will be necessary for understanding Chapter
Five presented in Chapter One?
THE THESIS/DISSERTATION DEFENSE
What a terrible name - a dissertation defense. It seems to suggest some sort of war that you're trying to win. And, of course, with four or five of them and only one of you it sounds like they may have won the war before the first battle is held. I wish they had called it a dissertation seminar or professional symposium. I think the name would have brought forward a much better picture of what should be expected at this meeting.
Regardless of what the meeting is called, try to remember that the purpose of the meeting is for you to show everyone how well you have done in the conducting of your research study and the preparation of your dissertation. In addition there should be a seminar atmosphere where the exchange of ideas is valued. You are clearly the most knowledgeable person at this meeting when it comes to your subject. And, the members of your committee are there to hear from you and to help you better understand the very research that you have invested so much of yourself in for the past weeks. Their purpose is to help you finish your degree requirements. Of course other agenda often creep in. If that happens, try to stay on course and redirect the meeting to your agenda.
The following ideas should help you keep the meeting on your agenda.
30. The most obvious suggestion is the one seldom followed. Try to attend one or more defenses prior to yours.
Find out which other students are defending their research and sit in
on their defense. In many departments this is expected of all graduate
students. If this is not the case for you, check with your adviser to see that you can get an invitation to attend some defenses.
At the defense try and keep your focus on the interactions that occur. Does the student seem relaxed? What strategies does the student use to keep relaxed? How does the student interact with the faculty? Does the student seem to be able to answer questions well? What would make the situation appear better? What things should you avoid? You can learn a lot from sitting in on such a meeting.
31. Find opportunities to discuss your research with your friends and colleagues.
Listen carefully to their questions. See if you are able to present
your research in a clear and coherent manner. Are there aspects of your
research that are particularly confusing and need further explanation?
Are there things that you forgot to say? Could you change the order of
the information presented and have it become more understandable?
32. I hope you don't try circulating chapters of your dissertation to your committee members as you are writing them.
I find this practice to be most annoying and one that creates
considerable problems for the student. You must work closely with your
dissertation director. He/she is the person you want to please. Develop
a strategy with the dissertation director regarding how and when your
writing should be shared. Only after your dissertation director
approves of what you have done should you attempt to share it with the
rest of the committee. And by then it's time for the defense. If you
prematurely share sections of your writing with committee members you
will probably find yourself in a situation where one committee member
tells you to do one thing and another member says to do something else.
What should you do? The best answer is not to get yourself into such a
predicament. The committee meeting (the defense) allows the concerns of
committee members to surface in a dialogical atmosphere where opposing
views can be discussed and resolved.
33. It's important that you have the feeling when entering your defense that you aren't doing it alone.
As was mentioned earlier, your major professor should be seen as an
ally to you and "in your corner" at the defense. Don't forget, if you
embarrass yourself at the defense you will also be embarrassing your
dissertation director. So, give both of you a chance to guarantee there
is no embarrassment. Meet together ahead of time and discuss the
strategy you should use at the defense. Identify any possible problems
that may occur and discuss ways that they should be dealt with. Try and make the defense more of a team effort.
34. Don't be defensive at your defense
(this sounds confusing!). This is easy to say but sometimes hard to
fulfill. You've just spent a considerable amount of time on your
research and there is a strong tendency for YOU to want to defend
everything you've done. However, the committee members bring a new
perspective and may have some very good thoughts to share. Probably the
easiest way to deal with new input is to say something like "Thank you
so much for your idea. I will be giving it a lot of consideration."
There, you've managed to diffuse a potentially explosive situation and
not backed yourself or the committee member into a corner. Plus, you've
not promised anything. Try and be politically astute at this time.
Don't forget that your ultimate goal is to successfully complete your
degree.
35.
Probably the most disorganized defense I've attended is the one where
the dissertation director began the meeting by saying, "You've all read
the dissertation. What questions do you have for the student?" What a
mess. Questions started to be asked that bounced the student around
from one part of the dissertation to another. There was no semblance of
order and the meeting almost lost control due to its lack of
organization. At that time I vowed to protect my students from falling
into such a trap by helping them organize the defense as an educational presentation.
Here's what we do:
I ask the student to prepare a 20-25 minute presentation that reviews the entire study. This is done through the help of a series of 10-12 large pieces of paper, wall charts, that have been posted sequentially around the walls of the room. Each piece of paper contains key words regarding each of the different aspects of the study. Some pieces of paper contain information about the study setting, questions and methodology. Other pieces of paper present findings and finally there are those pieces that present the conclusions and implications. By preparing these wall charts ahead of time the student is able to relax during the presentation and use the pieces of paper as if they were a road map toward the goal. No matter how nervous you are you can always let the wall charts guide YOU through your presentation. Lettering is done with a dark marking pen and extra notes are included in very small printing with a pencil (that no one can really see). We've also tried it with overhead projected transparencies but it doesn't work as well. With the transparencies they're gone from view after a few seconds. The wall charts stay up for everyone to see and to help focus attention.
Following this structured presentation the committee begins to ask questions, but as can be expected the questions follow along with the wall charts and the whole discussion proceeds in an orderly manner. If guests are present at the defense, this form of presentation helps them also follow along and understand exactly what was accomplished through the research.
36. Consider tape recording your defense.
Using a small portable recorder, record your entire presentation and
also the questions and comments of the committee members. This helps in
two ways. First, the student has documentation to assist in making
suggested changes and corrections in the dissertation. The student
can relax more and listen to what is being said by the committee
members. The tape recorder is taking notes! Second, the student has a
permanent record of his/her presentation of the study. By keeping the
paper charts and the tape together, they can be most useful for
reviewing the research in future years when a request is made for a
presentation. (Bring out the tape and the pieces of paper the night
before your presentation and you can listen to you make the presentation. What a good way to review.)
Well that about does it. By following the above suggestions and ideas I hope it will be possible for you to finish your graduate degree program in a most timely and enjoyable manner. By looking ahead to the different aspects of this final part of your graduate study it becomes clear that you can do a number of things to insure your success. Good luck!
37. Oh, I almost forgot. There's one last thing. Get busy and prepare an article or paper that shares the outcomes of your research.
There will be no better time to do this than now. Directly after your
defense is when you know your study the best and you will be in the
best position to put your thinking on paper. If you put this writing
task off it will probably never get done. Capitalize on all of the
investment you have made in your research and reap some additional
benefit - start writing.
I
have spent time identifying a number of different books that are
available to help in writing a thesis/dissertation. The quality of the
books, as can be expected, varies greatly. If you would like to see a listing of the books I have identified and my reactions to them, please click here. If I only had time to visit a single website for help with my thesis I'd probably go directly to the Thesis Handbook (http://www.tele.sunyit.edu/ThesisHandbook.html)
maintained by the Telecommunications Program at SUNY Institute of
Technology. Especially helpful are the accompanying Thesis Workbook and
Frequently Asked Questions where you will find a wealth of clearly
written and helpful information. (Selecting a topic; Developing a
search strategy for going after relevant literature: Deciding which
tense to use in your writing; etc.) An extensive set of hints and ideas on how to improve your dissertation/thesis writing. How To Write A Dissertation or Bedtime Reading For People Who Do Not Have Time To Sleep (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html)
lays out suggestion after suggestion in direct and non-confusing form.
A great list to bring out after you've completed the first draft of
your writing, are rather tired of your topic, and you are not sure
where to begin your fine tuning. An
excellent website with lots of highly specific information (especially
if the focus of your work is in a scientific or technical area) has
been developed by Joe Wolfe at The University of New South Wales
(Australia). How to Write a PhD Thesis (http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html)
provides a variety of very useful suggestions on how to get from the
beginning to the end of your thesis project - and survive the process!Wouldn't
it be great if there were a bunch of theses/dissertations available for
reading right on the web? Well, there are some resources you should be
aware of that will let you see what the finished product could look
like. First, there is an Experimental Digital Library of M.I.T. Theses (http://theses.mit.edu/)
which includes electronically-submitted theses. Next, you can always
purchase a copy of most US dissertations/theses. These are available
from UMI's website - UMI's Online Dissertation Services (http://www.umi.com/hp/Products/Dissertations.html). The University of Wisconsin has a site which lists Sites with Full Text Access to Dissertations (http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/Memorial/elecdiss.htm#fulltext).
You should also be aware of the various Electronic Dissertation/Thesis
(ETD) projects that are currently underway. A good access to this area
is via the library at the University of Virginia which has a page
dealing with Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Humanities (http://etext.virginia.edu/ETD/).Another
website that's worth visiting is maintained by Computer Science &
Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County
and also the Computer Science Department at Indiana
University-Bloomington. How to Be a Good Graduate Student/Advisor (http://www.cs.indiana.edu/how.2b/how.2b.html)
"attempts to raise some issues that are important for graduate students
to be successful and to get as much out of the process as possible, and
for advisors who wish to help their students be successful."Prof.
John W. Chinneck at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) has created a
very practical and well written webpage on the preparation of your
thesis. How to Organize your Thesis (http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis.html) starts
with a description of what graduate research/the graduate thesis is all
about and then moves point-by-point through a "generic thesis
skeleton". If you are in need of some gentle prodding and a bit of humor to go along with it, check out the Dead Thesis Society (www.deadthesissociety.org)
- a support group for graduate students. Lots of well organized
information that is moderated by Frank Elgar, a graduate student in
Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Mike Hart, Professor of Business and Informatics at King Alfred's
College, has put together a very helpful website focused on
successfully completing the "final year project." Final Year Projects(http://final-year-projects.com/)
is loaded with numerous ideas and suggestions for helping the student
get started in the project and then to keep going until the project is
finished. Don't let the title scare you away. Discussion On Ph.D. Thesis Proposals in Computing Science
(http://john.regehr.org/reading_list/proposal.html) has lots of
excellent suggestions to assist in creating a meaningful proposal in
just about any academic discipline. The ideas will serve to not only
get you started on your research project but also establish a
foundation for actually completing it. Not
sure of all the administrative steps at your university that are
required to successfully complete a dissertation? Check out this well
thought through website from Pepperdine University's Graduate School (http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/studentservices/dissertation/education/).
Everything seems to be included from a definition of exactly what is a
dissertation all the way to exactly how many spaces between the title
and your name."Feeling
a bit lonesome in the process of writing your thesis or dissertation?
Take a minute to find out who else has visited this website and read what others have said about this Guide (http://LearnerAssociates.net/dissthes/results.htm) and their own situation. It might just be reassuring!!And finally, when all else fails, you might want to see what other sites have included a link to this Thesis/Dissertation website. These other sites will have a variety of additional resources to check out. Your comments and suggestions for improving and extending this guide would be most welcome. Please click on the box (below) to send feedback about this website. Thank you!
Joe Levine
|
Feedback |
