November 21, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
In order to accomplish the large amount of writing required for a dissertation in any sort of sane way, you need a schedule.
A dissertation coaching client who has been juggling job/moving/dissertation has been struggling to find a time to write, a time that she’ll stick to.
She told me this week that she decided to read past issues of the ABDSurvivalGuide e-newsletter for suggestions, and what she came away with was “Write First Thing.”
Of course, she knew that I’d click my heels at the sound of that idea. And indeed I did. My client said that by going that route, she won’t feel that each evening she must rush out of the office at the first opportunity, dash home, and hurry through dinner in order to get in some writing.
Should she be too exhausted to write after dinner, she won’t feel that she has failed. She’ll be able to point to the good hour of work she put in first thing that morning.
While “Write First Thing” is eminently reasonable and sane, your schedule must be one that works for you, allowing you to move forward on your diss, as well as providing time for all of the others things your busy life requires you to do. And once it’s in place, you need to stick to it.
Dr. Tracy Steen, the brilliant and prolific writer/editor of the ABDSurvivalGuide, says that she definitely stuck to a writing schedule when she was in grad school.
I know many people who resist making a schedule, and daily they avoid writing. What a lot of unnecessary suffering.
If you have no particular plan, why not get on board with a morning routine? Make a schedule that has you getting up 30 minutes or an hour earlier than usual so that you Write First Thing? Try it for at least a week and see if you write more that week than you have written for quite a while.
All good wishes,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
Posted in discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, showing up, writing habit, writing schedule | Tagged make a writing schedule, stick to your schedule, write each morning, Write First Thing | Leave a Comment »
November 17, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
“ABD” is not a credential. It isn’t a degree. All things considered, finishing your dissertation is probably the smart thing to do.
It can help you get a job or keep the one you have. Even if you aren’t going into the academic job market, for now, you may be surprised what a PhD can do for you on down the road somewhere.
Furthermore, sticking with your dissertation may give you the chance to learn something –quite a bit of something – that you didn’t know before. It’s easy to disregard the dissertation process as a time for learning since the emphasis is on finishing and moving on.
During the dissertation process, you may be fortunate enough to learn:
• How to take care of yourself physically and emotionally so that you don’t sabotage your success
• How to understand fully that you have every right to the success you’re achieving
• How to take risks and to be bold in the writing process even though you’re scared
• How to recognize when you need help and to ask for it
• How to be clear-headed and reasonable even if your advisor is not clear-headed or reasonable
• How to write during whatever time, big or small, that you have
• How to find your way and to keep moving toward a big, difficult goal
• How to feel grateful for
–the progress you are able to make
–the opportunity to earn a PhD
–an advisor who does his/her best to help you
All good wishes,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
Posted in academic, advisor, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, grateful, gratitude, self-care, self-sabotage, staying in the moment, success, using your strengths | Tagged finish the dissertation, Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, Strengths gained during dissertation process, what you get out of writing a dissertation | Leave a Comment »
November 14, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
How often have you felt close to giving up completely on your dissertation?
I hear that statement most frequently among my dissertation coaching clients who are practically within a stone’s throw of finishing.
What could make it so hard to keep going?
The outsider might think that during the long process of writing a dissertation, writers would have grown to self-confidently view themselves as experts.
The fact of the matter is that dissertation writers all too often aren’t encouraged to recognize or trust their expertise. The process is often riddled with self-doubt and uncertainty.
Even in the best of circumstances, writing a dissertation may be one of the hardest tasks you’ll ever take on. It’s made worse when an advisor offers little or no guidance or support. The worst stories I’ve heard range from advisors who are completely disengaged and want nothing to do with the ABD student to advisors who seem not only to lack empathy but also lack awareness of the effect of their sarcasm and volatile moods.
Since most ABD’s work with the same advisor for months, if not years, what looks for all the world like psychological abuse can take a toll on even the most resilient and determined student.
When dissertation writers are confronted by self-doubt and the desire to quit, it’s time to step back from the process.
As a dissertation coach and an academic career coach, I encourage my clients to view their experiences through various lenses. This may sound Pollyanna-ish, but you probably can’t change the process, so why not change the way you look at it?
For instance, what might a future employer—even if the employer is not in your field of expertise—infer about you, based on your having a PhD?
The knowledgeable future employer will understand that you know:
• How to bring the best you have to offer to a project and keep yourself in the game over a long period of time
• How to manage an extended project, specifically an extended writing project
• How to be politically savvy
This is just a start– What else have learned during this arduous process?
When you are honest with yourself, you must admit that you are learning a great deal about stamina and grit as you write this dissertation. The character strengths you are honing are perhaps just as important as your accomplishments in your field of study. What have you learned that will stand you in good stead after you leave the state of the ABD?
I’d love to hear from you.
Best,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
Posted in academic, advisor, choice, criticism, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, re-group, resilience, take stock, top strengths, trusting yourself, using your strengths | Tagged change the way you look at writing the dissertation, character strengths and dissertation process, dissertation process, learning to trust your expertise as you write the dissertation, self-confidence as you write, using strengths as you write dissertation | Leave a Comment »
November 4, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
Now that Halloween is over, it hasn’t taken long for me to eat all of the left-over chocolate-covered raisins that the trick-or-treaters rejected in favor of Snickers.
Having all of these tidy little packages of candy in my house once again reminds me of the dangers of home. It’s just tempting fate to stay in your house along with Halloween candy.
It’s also tempting fate to try to write your dissertation at home sweet home.
If you insist on writing at home, write as soon as you get up, just you, your cup of coffee and your computer, but no email.
Where home sweet home often doesn’t work is if you’ve been teaching all morning, and you come home in the early afternoon with the hope of getting some writing done. Then what happens? I know that a select few of you are as disciplined as tigers. You rush in from work or teaching, sit down, bite off a chunk of research, and write ferociously for four hours and produce many pages.
But most people, coming home in the early or late afternoon from work, feel they’ve done their work for the day. If this is you, the couch and TV are likely more compelling than the dissertation.
If you want to write at home, but you can’t start a writing session first thing each day, one of my dissertation coaching clients has two great ideas:
1. Unplug your internet
2. Don’t immediately change out of your professional clothes when you get home from work
Unplugging your internet may sound severe, but eliminating temptation is smart.
And why stay in your uncomfortable work clothes after you get home? If you promise yourself that all you have to do is sit down and work for 45 minutes in those uncomfortable work clothes before changing, you may very well have rescued an otherwise doomed writing session. Isn’t getting started the hardest part?
Good luck!
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
Posted in discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, getting started, perseverance, planning, productivity, self-sabotage, start writing, strategies | Tagged dissertation coaching, make deals with yourself, self-sabotage, write first before getting comfortable, write first each morning, writing the dissertation at home | Leave a Comment »
October 27, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
Have you ever been hit with an urge to write?
I don’t mean the motivation that writers pine for, but the sudden desire that makes you say, “I have to get this down” or “Where is my pen? My laptop?”
It’s quite a different feeling from gritting your teeth and grinding out text. Baring down and gritting and grinding certainly have their place. They can move you from the state of not writing to writing
But the intense urge to write happens when something touches you and you come alive.
One of my incredible coaching clients has just finished her manuscript for a book.
Even though she has a book contract with a good press, she still has had some fallow times over the past year of struggling to give life to her book.
The latest came not so long ago, during the writing of the conclusion. She had written ten pages and just could not generate more text.
But one week, she finally was able to write. She wrote 13 pages, and those were the pages which she had been looking for, the ideas which she felt were crucial before she could say “Now the book is finished.”
How did it happen? She was close to backing off from the conclusion she had wanted since it seemed beyond her. During this restless, uncertain time, when she had moved away from her computer, she happened to come across a book on a related subject– actually a book taking a critical perch opposed to the one she had taken. And that was it. Reading the book stirred a response within her, and she was eager to write.
Sometimes we forget what we know to be true—that we need to be awakened and re-awakened. Reading someone else’s analysis, like hearing a political critique or reading a poem, awakens us, stirs us, and makes the engine go. It can make us long to write.
To come alive, our ideas frequently need to connect with something outside of us.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
—Stanley Kunitz
Until next time,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
Posted in academic, creativity, motivation, productivity, resources, write more easily | Tagged a-ha moment, dissertation coach, finishing the writing project, generating ideas, inspiration, writing a book, writing coach | Leave a Comment »
October 24, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
How was your writing today?
You couldn’t get a flow going today during your writing session?
Some writing sessions are like that–you start off more slowly, maybe because you’re tired, it’s the end of the week, or maybe because you didn’t prime the pump, didn’t try to induce a good mood, or didn’t practice resiliency before you began the effort
Or perhaps you’re starting to see some success and you’re just a bit uneasy because you are thinking you may actually meet your deadline?
Once again, it’s time to practice resiliency.
Remind yourself that this time there’s no backsliding—but be playful as well as firm.
Laugh at the time you were so self-congratulatory for how well you were doing on a paper that you barely finished the project under deadline!
Resiliency is a skill that you learn through practice. A great way to increase your resiliency is laugh at your foibles and shenanigans. Use your sense of humor and self-knowledge to fuel your writing session.
Have a good weekend,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com
Posted in coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, flow, getting started, laugh, momentum, re-group, re-start, regrouping, resilience, restart writing, restarting, self-sabotage, start writing, using your strengths, write more easily | Tagged dissertation, dissertation coach, keep the writing going, keep your perspective, playfully firm self-discipline, practice resiliency, re-starting dissertation writing, Resiliency, self-sabotage, sense of humor, writing | Leave a Comment »
October 11, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
I’m curious how you learned the conventions you are to use, the voice you should use, the way to argue within your field, or, if you’re learning as you go, now, as you write your dissertation.
If you were at a U.S. university as an undergraduate, you may not have been writing exclusively in your major course of study until late in your 2nd or even until your 3rd year of school. By then, had you learned a bit of flexibility by writing in different discourses for your required courses?
Had you been writing as an art historian one night and the next night as a psychologist? Did that give you insight into what writing conventions are important in each field?
And as you specialized more and more in your own field, did you become clearer about your field’s discourse or writing conventions?
The New York Times (9.6.2009) asks several professors to give advice to students entering college this year.
Stanley Fish advises students to “take a composition course even if they have tested out of it.” He says, “I have taught many students whose SAT scores exempted them from the writing requirement, but a disheartening number of them couldn’t write.”
Gerald Graff, the past president of the Modern Language Association, tells students how to write an argument, seemingly without the help of a writing class or instructor.
Since it’s a little late for those of you who are writing dissertations to take a writing class, Graff’s suggestions on how to take what you know and transform it into an argument might be helpful and definitely would have helped me early on in my student career.
He says:
1. Recognize that knowing a lot of stuff won’t do you much good unless you can do something with what you know by turning it into an argument.
2. Pay close attention to what others are saying and writing and then summarize their arguments and assumptions in a recognizable way. Work especially on summarizing the views that go most against your own.
3. As you summarize, look not only for the thesis of an argument, but for who or what provoked it — the points of controversy.
4. Use these summaries to motivate what you say and to indicate why it needs saying. Don’t be afraid to give your own opinion, especially if you can back it up with reasons and evidence, but don’t disagree with anything without carefully summarizing it first.
Even as the writer of a dissertation, it’s great to remind yourself that you know a lot of stuff. It’s easy to forget that.
Also don’t forget that there’s usually a reason for the writing requirements you run into for your dissertation. Remember that the literature review creates a context for your methodology and findings or for your argument.
As you write your dissertation, your field’s required structure and discourse conventions give you a great clothesline where you can hang your ideas.
Warm regards,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com
Posted in Smart Tips, academic, discourse, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, higher education, practice writing, teaching writing, trusting yourself, write more easily, writing | Tagged composition class, dissertation coaching, Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, learning to write a dissertation, learning to write an argument, rhetorical conventions, teaching yourself to write, writing instruction | Leave a Comment »
September 27, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
Dissertation writers are largely self-taught academic writers, and the learning process can be a bold and daring adventure.
Over the years many of my dissertation coaching clients talk about the challenges in writing academic discourse. Academic writing is its own special discourse, with its own particular conventions. My dissertation coaching clients largely learn this discourse by doing.
What they are asked to do and the way they feel their way along, trying to put into practice what they think they’re being asked to do, is not unlike underprepared students in their first year or years of college.
Professors and instructors in composition and rhetoric fields are familiar with David Bartholomae’s article “Inventing the University.” Bartholomae defines how beginning college writers must act as if they know what they’re doing, even if they don’t.
The article opens in this way: “Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion– . . . or a branch of it, like History or Anthropology or Economics or English. He has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community.”
Bartholomae says that students can’t wait to write academic discourse until after they have learned more or can write comfortably: “they must dare to speak it, or to carry off the bluff, since speaking and writing will most certainly be required long before the skill is ‘learned.’”
Likewise, my dissertation coaching clients have to boldly write and rewrite. Dare to write.
Dare to carry off the bluff.
Warm regards,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com
Posted in academic, acting as if, brave, courage, creativity, discourse, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, higher education, practice writing, resilience, teaching writing, top strengths, trusting yourself, underprepared students, using your strengths | Tagged bluff, dissertation coach, Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, learning to write a dissertation, learning to write an argument, rhetorical conventions, self-taught writer, writing as if you know what you’re doing, writing instruction | Leave a Comment »
September 23, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
When and how do we acquire the skills, voice, critical perspectives, and confidence needed for successful writing? Specifically to write successfully a dissertation and, for that matter, the book that follows the dissertation?
Years ago as a first-year college student, I tested out of composition class, but all students at my university were required to take at least one semester of writing, so I took an advanced writing class. It’s possible that I may have been required to write an argument, but I don’t remember any such formal assignment. Maybe I’ve conveniently forgotten it since it would have been a painful process for me. I came to the university understanding only vaguely what would be required in the demanding, competitive world of a good, large university.
I think I was a decent writer at that time, but not very analytical. I had a lot to learn.
I recall a few assignments from that class–two had to do with describing a place. I suppose I remember those assignments because it was the kind of writing that I had always enjoyed, but I wonder if in that class I was ever assigned to do something I didn’t already know how to do, something that would help me write an extended argument.
Throughout my undergraduate years, I never felt confident as a writer, and years later, when I was ready to write my master’s thesis, I recall being very unsure about what I was supposed to do. And that feeling was magnified even more by the time I began my dissertation.
I remember being afraid, but my strengths of curiosity, love of learning, and perseverance were helpful… at times…when I remembered to call on them.
Student writers in undergraduate school and graduate school, dissertators, academicians, and professional writers all need to know how to use different rhetorical strategies and how to write in specific discourses.
Learning those skills is hard work, and teaching those skills and the type of writing in which those skills are learned is a bear, especially in terms of the paper load.
Is it a student’s responsibility to teach herself? Maybe, but when is she or he told that it’s her job or how does she pick up on the cues of what kind of writing will serve her best?
How did you become a good writer? I’d love to hear from you!
Warm regards,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com
Posted in academic, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, higher education, memories, practice writing, teaching writing, underprepared students, using your strengths, write more easily, writing | Tagged dissertation coaching, learning to write an argument, learning to write a dissertation, writing instruction, rhetorical conventions, composition class, Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, teaching yourself to write | 1 Comment »
September 20, 2009 by Nancy Whichard
For sundry reasons, several dissertation coaching clients are now looking around and saying, “What happened to the last three months of my life, how can September be nearly over, and what do I do now?”
Bemoaning the lack of progress you’ve made on your dissertation doesn’t help. Starting again is the key. And not just starting, but forming a daily writing habit.
If you’ve been reading my blog on most any given day, you know that I advocate forming a daily writing habit as the best way to produce text and to finish your dissertation.
Practicing that habit is critical.
Just as musicians have to practice in order to play well, writers have to practice their writing habit in order to produce a finished document.
I came across The Practice Notebook, a blog designed to help professional musicians and music students alike to develop good practice habits. And even better, it’s to help musicians “make the most of limited practice time, by making your practice as efficient as possible.”
The tips are all good. With apologies and thanks to the practice notebook blogger, I have rewritten three tips particularly applicable to dissertation writers who are restarting their dissertations after time off.
The initial goal in restarting your writing is to wake up your brain, tame your space, and tame yourself.
1. When you make your plan to restart, go light on those first few writing sessions. Short is good when you’re just re-starting. If you can last through 15 minutes the first day, you’re on your way.
2. If you are a bit out of practice with your dissertation writing and can’t detect any signals between your brain and fingers, do some warm ups. Start by making a list. Do some free writing. Write a haiku.
3. When you’re restarting your dissertation writing with the intention of getting your dissertation writing habit up and running, it’s o.k. to write in your monkey jammies. What? You don’t have monkey jammies? O.k., then, how about writing in your knit sleep pants? They’re good, too. Make yourself comfortable and reward yourself for showing up.
Go gently, but firmly and keep coming back.
Dissertation coaching can help you restart your dissertation, too.
All good wishes,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
nancy@nancywhichard.com
www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com
Posted in coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, practice writing, re-group, re-start, restart writing, showing up, write more easily, writing habit | Tagged dissertation coaching, form a writing habit, overcome inertia, prewriting, restart your dissertation, start moving on your dissertation, wake up your brain, warm-ups | Leave a Comment »
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