Give me your dissertation advice!

September 14, 2009 11:40 AM

Starting my dissertation (in the social sciences) - what advice do you have for me?

I'm a third year PhD student in Political Science, studying American urban politics. I passed my exams in May (with honors, woohoo!) and spent the summer regrouping/being a research assistant/general goofing off. Now with school back in gear, I'm ready to get started - choosing a topic, creating a proposal, and so on.

So - what advice to you have? What tools did you find helpful? (Software, esp. but also otherwise). What was a lifesaver? What do you wish you had done? Who did you seek advice from? How much time did you spend in the library/reading before starting your own writing/questioning? Any advice is welcome!

I've read through the previous questions, but thought I'd get an updated answer. A lot of them seem to resolve around procrastination - which isn't a huge problem for me (atleast right now, I know some of you are laughing now..). Thanks hivemind!

posted by quodlibet to writing & language (13 comments total)

Endnote.
posted by modernnomad at 11:44 AM on September 14 [1 favorite]

You bet your ass procrastination will be a problem. Its Grad school.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:48 AM on September 14

To hedge against procrastination, one thing I found that helped was when it seems like you've got this huge task in front of you, make sure to break it up into smaller ones. Then, have the question you ask yourself "what can I do right now to get ahead on this." You'll always feel a little better for doing something rather than nothing-- and for as much as it does not seem like it at times, you will be getting closer to your goal.

Random piece of advice that helped me a lot: get access to an online database for article searching. That way, whenever you get an idea, you can see if there is literature addressing it. Much easier than having to run to the library!

The other piece of advice I'd give-- and people might disagree with me on this-- is pick the topic you're passionate about. There certainly are reasons to do the simple, easiest topic, but I've found that the sustain that you can get from being passionate about your topic is the fuel you need to stay curious and engaged with it.

Good Luck, and feel free to PM me!
posted by No New Diamonds Please at 11:55 AM on September 14

As one of my finest teachers once said, "all dissertations are written in six months; the only question is, which six months?"

Write every day. When you have nothing to say, edit or analyze data. Never go a day without sitting down for at least an hour at the computer.
posted by fourcheesemac at 12:44 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

Two books are often recommended:
Getting What You Came For (about grad school in general)
Writing your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day (to finish, you have to write even when you think you don't have anything to say)
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:53 PM on September 14

So - what advice to you have?

Every dissertation that has ever been turned in, even the ones where the committee said "We're only passing this because you already have a job somewhere" or otherwise took pity, is better than yours. Until yours is done.

What tools did you find helpful? (Software, esp. but also otherwise).

TeX. Stata. R. since then, rudimentary perl.

What was a lifesaver?

Nothing. You should not expect the process to be anything other than a moderately miserable grind.

What do you wish you had done?

Taught less and spent more time in my department.

Who did you seek advice from?

My advisors.

How much time did you spend in the library/reading before starting your own writing/questioning?

On the one hand, very little.
On the other hand, I'd done that reading for classes and seminar papers and so on.

First you pick a question/topic, then you become an expert on that question/topic. But only on that question/topic, not about some broader question of "how do urban politics work?" or whatever. You should go to the library and read every article in APSR, AJPS, JOP, PRQ, SPPQ, and maybe APR or LSQ or POQ that is relevant to your research question for the past ten years or so. Ideally, you should find that you have already read 60-80% of them.

More general advice:

Write the papers first. Writing a paper is an immediate enough process that it helps avoid procrastination, and you can use conference appearances to discipline yourself. So if you have three empirical chapters, write the paper corresponding to each until they're done, and then take a few weeks to bang them together into an acceptable dissertation. Then converting the papers back into articles will be easier than if they'd never existed as separate papers until after the dissertation.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:09 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

Congratulations on advancing to candidacy.

For me, a steady but humane routine that includes lots of mind-clearing physical exercise and hydration was key to making progress.

Binge-writing that works for some people writing papers during coursework just doesn't work with a project this big. It also helped me a lot to have at least a couple other trusted fellow dissertation writers who will read your drafts within a few days and give you a frank assessment of how you are doing. I had a dissertation writing group with 1 or 2 others, and it kept us accountable.

Internet blocking software like Freedom for OS X has been really helpful as well.
posted by umbú at 2:15 PM on September 14

Man, I wrote that too fast. Please excuse the sloppy sentences.
posted by umbú at 2:17 PM on September 14

Great advice here. My take is very similar.

1) Write every day. I found that writing a dissertation was a bit like looking at a mountain and realizing that you have to climb it to get to the other side. You need to build momentum to get you over the top, which is why writing every day is crucial. There is a point at which you'll realize that you've gone over the top and suddenly everything coalesces. This only happens because of the good habits that allowed you to get to this stage.

2) Do whatever your advisor says. If he/she says take out this and rewrite that, do just that. This is not the time to be proud. It is absolutely true that there are no perfect dissertations, only completed ones.
posted by ob at 2:21 PM on September 14 [1 favorite]

I found it very comforting to read detective novels with strong female heroines -I'm a woman. There was something about the detecting that was similar to my research, searching for pieces of a puzzle whose shape you don't yet know, finding clues that don't appear to be clues but stick in your memory nonetheless, solving complex problems. The mystery always got resolved by the end of the book and that encouraged me. Those books- maybe one or two a week- and aimless driving in the mountains were my main escapes while I was writing what I called the dumb fucking dissertation, or DFD.

Serendipity also played a part, I accidentally came across a hundred-year-old book in the stacks while looking for something else and I built much of the DFD around an analysis and elaboration of the data I found in that book.
posted by mareli at 6:23 PM on September 14

My daughter just finished her dissertation a few days ago in England. She thought the time allowed for it was lots, it wasn't. Not to her anyways. I think she procrastinated but ended up writing 80 pages instead of 60. But she was a total wreck at the end of it. She went in to have it printed out and the printing place said they were closing early that day, which of course was the last day to hand it in. They did do it and all is well........now. And don't count on your advisers too much. Hers wouldn't answer her e-mails ( questions).

So I guess you know what my advice is...........
posted by Taurid at 12:16 AM on September 15

I'm writing my dissertation right now (well, not really, procrastination...) and the way I organise myself is I have done up a table of contents already with chapter headings and sub-topics within the chapters so while I am researching I can slot the appropriate information immediately. The headings are flexible enough that I can go through it later to sift the wheat from the chaff and change the naming to something more specific. It also allows me to work on a small bit at a time instead of facing an empty, unstructured document.
posted by saucysault at 6:21 AM on September 15

Oh, and given your field, you should read (if you haven't) Howard Becker's *Tricks of the Trade.*

Stat.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:22 AM on September 16