A long-term bestseller, this book is a pragmatic step-by-step guide to completing you dissertation or thesis during two semesters, in fifty workdays or less. It covers advisor and topic selection, proposal development, data collection and organization, available assistance, writing, and defense. The author demystifies the process and provides you with essential guidance through the rites of passage that are an integral part of completing your degree.

Expert writing advice from the editor of the Boston Globe best-seller, The Writer's Home Companion Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone to assure them that their struggles aren't unique. Joan Bolker, midwife to more than one hundred dissertations and co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for the graduate-student writer. Using positive reinforcement, she begins by reminding thesis writers that being able to devote themselves to a project that truly interests them can be a pleasurable adventure. She encourages them to pay close attention to their writing method in order to discover their individual work strategies that promote productivity; to stop feeling fearful that they may disappoint their advisors or family members; and to tailor their theses to their own writing style and personality needs. Using field-tested strategies she assists the student through the entire thesis-writing process, offering advice on choosing a topic and an advisor, on disciplining one's self to work at least fifteen minutes each day; setting short-term deadlines, on revising and defing the thesis, and on life and publication after the dissertation. Bolker makes writing the dissertation an enjoyable challenge.

“A textual mentor like During the Dissertation can fill a void in writers’ lives at a time of solitude, uncertainty, and anxiety. Keep it under your pillow.” This volume is a sequel to Casanave’s popular Before the Dissertation. Like that volume, this book is designed as a companion for doctoral dissertation writers of qualitative or mixed methods work in fields related to language education. It could also benefit those writing master’s theses and those writing in other social science fields. It is meant to be consulted once the writing has begun—once students have settled on a topic, designed the project, or collected the data—because this is the time when they are analyzing, drafting, revising, polishing, and probably fretting, deleting, reconstructing, and even losing sleep. Also, like its predecessor, it is not designed to teach anyone how to write a dissertation as there are plenty of those available elsewhere. For most doctoral students, writing will happen at different stages of the project. Strategies for timing of these kinds of writing differ across students, and also across supervisors and advisers. If dissertation writers do not know by the time they start writing which strategies and issues pertain to them, this book can help them craft some approaches to suit their own personalities, preferred practices, and individual goals and visions, as well as help them figure out how dissertation writing might fit into the real-life intrusions of work and family. Issues covered in the book are: starting to write, envisioning the project as a whole, relationships with supervisors, perfectionism and other maladies, health, low- and high-IQ days, loneliness and isolation, distractions and interruptions, revising, and knowing when to stop.

This book provides a guide for undergraduate criminology and criminal justice students undertaking their final-year dissertation. It speaks to the specific challenges for criminology students who may wish to research closed institutions (such as prisons, courts, or the police) or vulnerable populations (such as people with convictions, victims of crime, or young people), and offers guidance on how to undertake research on these topics whilet avoiding many of the access and ethical obstacles. It takes students through each phase of the dissertation, from designing and planning the research to writing up and presenting the completed work. The complexities of undertaking research on sensitive topics and with criminal justice institutions are discussed throughout, offering an insight into some of the challenges that students may be faced with and suggestions to overcome obstacles. It offers practical guidance for empirical and library-based projects and provides students with suggested resources for accessing primary and secondary data. It utilises a mixture of worked examples, top tips, practical strategies, and student activities to ensure the dissertation is a manageable and enjoyable process. This book will be beneficial to all undergraduate criminology students who have to undertake either a library-based or empirical dissertation. The examples and activities in the book will also be useful for dissertation supervisors who can use them to support their dissertation students.

Fully updated and packed with new material, the second edition of Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language is the ideal guide for non-native speaker students and their supervisors working on writing a thesis or dissertation in English. Considering the purposes of thesis and dissertation of writing alongside writer/reader relationships, this book uses accessible language and practical examples to discuss issues that are crucial to successful thesis and dissertation writing. This edition offers: Insights into the experience of being a doctoral writer, issues of writer identity, and writing with authority Typical language and discourse features of theses and dissertations Advice on the structure and organisation of key sections Suggestions for online resources which support writing Extracts from completed theses and dissertations Guidance on understanding examiner expectations Advice on publishing from a PhD Suitable for students from all disciplines, Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language is essential reading for non-native speaker students looking to complete a thesis or dissertation in English.

Focused on making reflection an integral part of the journey, this updated resource guides readers through the process of researching, writing, and defending a qualitative dissertation.

Mastering these skills spells the difference between "A.B.D." and "Ph.D." -refuting the magnum opus myth -coping with the dissertation as obsession (magnificent or otherwise) -the fine art of selecting a topic -writing the dissertation with publication in mind -when to stand your ground and when to prudently retreat if the committee's conception of your thesis differs substantially from your own -dealing with obstructive committee members, and keeping the fences mended -how to reconsider "negative" findings as useful data -reviewing your progress, and getting out of the "dissertation dumps" -defending your paper successfully-distinguishing between mere formalities and a serious substantive challenge -exploiting the career potential of your dissertation -and much, much more