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Dissertation Completion Strategies

by Lori Schroeder | June 1, 2011

I asked an advisee who earned her PhD in 2011 if she would kindly craft list of strategies that served her well during the dissertation process. Great thanks to Dr. Kaya Ford for sharing the following advice:

“What worked for me: Best practices on finishing a dissertation—Informal advice
This informal guide is not meant to be authoritative but only a helpful list of tips for those of you who find yourselves struggling to continue on this academic journey. It is limited to 10, but it could have easily grown to 100.

1. Find a topic about which you clearly feel passionate. I went through several of them and discussed them during Capella Colloquia. They were well-received, but nothing ever ignited my passion, until my sister, who lives across the Atlantic suggested an issue, and I knew then that was it!!!

2. Do not wait between comprehensive exam results and the start of your dissertation; keep the thrill of having passed them keep the momentum going: dive right in and just keep going.

3. Finding committee members is daunting, but referrals from advisers are always helpful; mine suggested someone that turned out to be my staunchest supporter throughout. Consider a visiting scholar from your previous university as a third member. It worked perfectly for me, after getting rejections from Capella professors who were too busy. The idea is not to give up at any step of the way, and find creative solutions to obstacles along the way.

4. Once you have all of these administrative steps out of the way, start a research filing system that makes sense to you. I used piles of journals and books categorized appropriately. In every piece that I read, I tried to notate the overall gist and the page numbers on the cover sheet. Often I would write comments like “very useful with numbers,” “not needed unless this topic is discussed,” etc, just to jog my memory because I ended up with 5 full large boxes of materials; they have a way of piling up and becoming overwhelming before you know it!!!

5. Writing! This is the most important step. Carve out a time everyday and stick with it! Whatever works for you, but you will need a schedule. Because I worked full time and crazy hours, I arranged with my work to have every other Friday off. Know yourself: early bird or night owl? I fade in the afternoons and evenings, so I would devote a few hours every Friday (when I was off), Saturday, Sunday, to do my work, starting early in the morning (5 or 6 am) when the house was quiet and there were no distractions. Make it fun: wear comfortable PJs and have your favorite breakfast drink (I am into espresso). I also carved out my most comfortable and favorite place in the house to do my work. I actually enjoyed my routine when I got used to it. And still miss it, ironically enough.

6. I know there are lots of databases to organize your research, but for me Questia was perfect (no advertising conflict of interest here, it is just what I thought worked best for me). They have just about every book and journal, you can create your library, and they help you with citations. I subscribed to it while doing my dissertation.

7. What to write first? If you have enough reading/researching for your topic, maybe Chapter 3 is a good start because you can explore the literature and find ways to justify your thesis, problem statement, methodology, etc. I read all of it beforehand, but decided to go linear because that is how I work best: following the sequence of 1, 2, 3, and so on.

8. I cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining contact with your committee chair. If he/she accepted the honor, you owe it to him/her to cultivate a relationship from the beginning. A first telephone conversation is imperative, where you two will form bonds that will guide you and sustain you during the whole process. Mine was instrumental and we actually met in person when she visited my town. We were a team from the beginning.

9. On a similar vein, if you are assigned a mentor—and you should—you MUST get to know him or her, because this is a go-to person for anything you need. Mine was my life-saver, even by just reminding me to “breathe!” which sometimes I forgot to do. She went to bat for me numerous times helping me navigate the bureaucracy.

10. Keep track of what is needed in each milestone, it is your responsibility. I had mine tacked in my refrigerator, and just kept checking the boxes. When you are in between milestones, find out what you could be doing in the meantime, just so you do not lose your rhythm. Finally, when you are ready for the conference calls, do not just rely on paid servers. My firsts one was paid, and it was a disaster, even though I practiced it beforehand; last minute, the PowerPoint did not download—oh so unprofessional, it devastated me. If this happens, send the PowerPoint via email to your committee, so they can follow you along. The second provider was free and ironically it worked with no glitches, when it really counted, during my defense. By the way, your chair should look at your presentation BEFORE you share it with the committee!

AND KEEP AN EYE ON THE PRIZE!!! It will all be worth it in the end! Forever and ever! Best of luck!”

Topics posted in: Dissertation, Success Strategies, Tools & Resources.

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