Thread by @raulpacheco

I want to write a thread on writing the doctoral dissertation. This is particularly important because every single doctoral student I meet asks me: "when should I start writing my PhD dissertation?"

Different supervisors will have a broad range of views on this, so here's mine

Contrary to other colleagues in my cohort, I did not rewrite my comprehensive exams' papers to become chapters of my dissertation. I wrote a book-manuscript-style dissertation, though my advisor was very much intent on the three-paper model. So we compromised as follows:

1) I would write a book-style dissertation with 3 empirical chapters that, standing on their own, would give me each a theoretical or an empirical contribution.
2) I was free to do a full literature review chapter if I wanted to, and a full-fledged historical overview chapter.

3) The introductory and concluding chapters should read like any book manuscript (read @WmGermano for what's perhaps the best guidance on turning a book-manuscript-style dissertation into a book, but also search for guidance on how to write introductions and conclusions there).

Most of MY PhD students' dissertations read as follows:

1) Introduction/set up/review of the literature/where my students' thesis contributes and how/structure of the dissertation/summary of chapters
2) Paper 1
3) Paper 2
4) Paper 3
5) Conclusions/future research/limitations

Mine looks a bit like this one, with a historical chapter as chapter 2. But as I was writing it, when I developed my framework, I realized each one of the 3 elements of my framework could be framed as a stand-alone paper, so I wrote it as Element 1, Element 2, Element 3.

Many doctoral students I know will write a very long dissertation proposal/prospectus from where they can extract material for their dissertations.

That's what I did with mine. My prospectus was a mini-dissertation. I just had to expand with the 3 empirical examples.

For ALL my doctoral students, the moment when they need to start writing the doctoral dissertation is when their Dissertation Two Pager (DTP), their Dissertation Analytical Table (DAT) and their Global Dissertation Narrative (GDN} present a coherent, cohesive body of work.

My posts on the 3 Overview Devices I teach my students:

Dissertation Two Pager (DTP)
raulpacheco.org/2018/08/the-di…

Dissertation Analytical Table (DAT)
raulpacheco.org/2019/09/the-di…

Global Dissertation Narrative (GDN}
raulpacheco.org/2020/01/the-gl…

I started writing my prospectus with the ...

... idea that my prospectus, expanded, would become my full-fledged doctoral dissertation.

In summary: I don't think there's a perfect moment where you can wake up, and say "it's February 15, I am going to start writing my PhD dissertation". I think you can always write...

... bits and pieces of the dissertation. I always have written in "memos" raulpacheco.org/2016/07/writin… (i.e. small pieces of written work), so for me, the actual moment of sitting down and starting to assemble my dissertation occurred about a year before submitting my final draft.

Important for those of you who do experiments/fieldwork/archival work:

When you plan progress of your dissertation research and you build your Gantt Chart raulpacheco.org/2018/10/planni… using backcasting techniques raulpacheco.org/2016/12/revers… you need to account for "time to assemble".

When you finally have completed experiments, fieldwork, data collection, archival work, you probably want to sit down and write everything up. But once you've written all of your analysis up, you still need time to ASSEMBLE the final product and create the Red Thread/Throughline.

(This process looks exactly the same when you're writing a full book manuscript even if it's not your doctoral dissertation - it also works similarly for an undergrad or Masters thesis).

The assemblage process is important because that's where you give coherence to your work.

It took me a solid 3 months to make my doctoral dissertation coherent and to build the Red Thread/Throughline raulpacheco.org/2020/01/develo…

It may take you less/more time, but I always recommend my students to remember to build buffer time into their planning for thesis assemblage.

Germano on "From Dissertation to Book" raulpacheco.org/2018/04/from-d… and @PJDunleavy 's Authoring a PhD Thesis raulpacheco.org/2018/05/author… should be required reading if you're doing a book-style thesis.

If you're writing a 3-papers-thesis, I recommend @ThomsonPat and Kamler and ...

Belcher's #12WeeksArticle.

My post on Thomson and Kamler raulpacheco.org/2018/08/writin… Writing for Peer Reviewed Journals

My post on Belcher's 1st edition https://t.co/vvvirqPfrY (there's a 2nd edition out now, you should read that one too).

Overall, let me re-emphasize this:

YOU NEED CONSTANT CONTACT WITH AND FEEDBACK FROM YOUR SUPERVISOR (AND SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE).

There is absolutely no substitute for a conversation with your supervisor. No matter how many books on "how to PhD" you read, you need to be in constant conversation and communication.

(PhD advisors, I have heard from MANY graduate students all over the world, wherever I go and give talks, that they don't get much/enough feedback/lack a lot of bi-directional communication - this is very important - students need your feedback and your sign-off on their theses).

So here's how I wrote my doctoral dissertation and how my own doctoral students write theirs. Every supervisor/lab/student have their own processes and idiosyncracies. What I think is always important is to maintain open and constant communication between student and advisor.

</end thread>

Post-script: I am writing a lot of these threads because I have several PhD students that are nearing completion, and I want to have a full body of work that my future and current students can refer back to. Hopefully these threads/posts will help others.

NEW BLOG POST: Writing the dissertation (thesis) I: Structure, timing and content raulpacheco.org/2020/02/writin…

My thread in handy blog post format with links to posts of mine I mention in the thread, and additional thoughts.