5 Things to Know Before Starting Your Dissertation

Writing a doctoral dissertation is a major task. For many people, it is the most difficult professional or academic endeavor that they ever undertake. Stories of dissertations years and years in the writing are all too common, and for good reason: The dissertation stage is where students who complete their first year of coursework are most likely to get stuck or give up. Fortunately, a little advanced planning and shrewd use of your resources goes a long way to helping you finish your dissertation and graduate in a timely fashion!

Here are five tips to help you with planning and writing your dissertation or doctoral study:

1. Don’t be afraid to diagnose your weaknesses—and to seek out resources to minimize them.  Click to tweet

By the time you start planning your dissertation, you should have a strong idea of what your strengths and weaknesses as a writer are. If you’re still finishing your coursework, ask one of your professors at the end of a course if they will give you specific comments on how to improve in your writing. If you’re attending a residency, visit the Advising Room and sit down with a Writing Center representative, a recent sample of your best writing, and specific questions.

Once you know what your weaknesses are as a writer (and we all have our own), start by visiting the Walden University Writing Center website and searching for guides and resources related to your needs. If you find that you work best with close supervision or guidance, or if you want to spend focused time on improving your core writing skills, consider taking one of the Academic Skills Center’s specialized courses or workshops. And, of course, make sure to Ask a Librarian for help with your research and literature search strategies.

2. Make formal agreements with your dissertation committee—and keep them. Click to tweet

Formal agreements define expectations, both for you and for your committee members. Making and sticking to an agreement helps all parties manage their time, keeps you on a writing regular schedule, and helps you to build a productive working relationship.

An agreement can be as simple as “We will check in once per week about my writing progress, and every two weeks I will send you an updated draft with specific requests about selected parts of the manuscript.” Another helpful clause to include is this one: “I will proofread and spell check every draft that I send you before sending it.” (You’d be surprised how often people don’t—just make sure you follow through and don’t waste your committee’s time with material where you haven’t done due diligence.)

Remember: Clear communication is key! If you’re unable to honor an agreement due to exceptional circumstances, let your committee know in advance, and tell them when you expect to get back on schedule.

3. Outlining is your friend. It also speeds up your writing and your revisions. Click to tweet

A good outline tells you and your readers how information is designed to fit together. It also allows your committee to give feedback on the structure, grounding, and general content of your chapters before you invest time in writing them. This early intervention is the best time to make changes, because it’s much easier to reorganize and rework an outline than to shuffle and rewrite multiple-paragraph sections to match a different theoretical focus.

Think of your dissertation outline as a combination of a blueprint telling you exactly what goes where, combined with a step-by-step set of assembly instructions. It’s a lot easier and faster to make changes at the blueprint stage, before you start nailing things together and pouring concrete—or crafting sentences and writing out paragraphs.

4. Your dissertation doesn’t have to say everything that there is on a topic. Click to tweet

A dissertation isn’t an encyclopedia, so don’t try to write one. Specificity and conciseness are important virtues when it comes to dissertations. You can always expand on your research later, after you’ve submitted your manuscript and graduated!

It’s important to delineate between what is and isn’t within the scope of your dissertation. Things that are out of scope may need to be mentioned and discussed to establish context, but most of your time, attention, and words should be focused on the things that fall squarely within its scope.

In your literature review chapter you should make clear what other studies have and haven’t done related to your specific topic. You don’t have to summarize everything that another study has found—only the parts that are most pertinent to what you’re examining.

5. You don’t have to write your dissertation alone. Click to tweet

Remember, you’re part of a larger community of students and writers. Many Walden students join together online in the Walden Capstone Writing Community to share tips, vent, and offer feedback on each others’ writing. If you live in or near a major city, look for weekly and monthly writing groups that can help you stay on-task and writing regularly. We also invite you to join us and fellow students on Facebook. Building a community is a small commitment for finishing in a timely fashion!

This month on the blog, we're featuring topics related to the capstone (dissertation or doctoral study). Last week we highlighted our latest WriteCast episode, "The Literature Review: Tackling the Hard Questions." For more on writing literature reviews, register for our April webinars:

Reviewing the Literature and Incorporating Previous Research | April 15 at 1 p.m. ET
Literature Review Panel with the Library & Writing Center | April 15 at 9 p.m. ET

Basil Considine is a member of the faculty and administrative staff at Walden University, where he serves as dissertation editor and teaches doctoral writing. He is also the president of the Walden University Music Society and the Regional Governor of the National Opera Association’s North Central Region.

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