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.