Pen.eps
Introduction

Presumably, you picked up this book because you have finished the majority of your graduate coursework and are ready to begin working on your thesis or dissertation, but you are not sure how to go about it. You might also be looking for a way to avoid being another “unfinished” statistic.

You are certainly not alone. According to the National Center for Education, 625,023 students earned a master’s degree during the 2007 to 2008 academic year. In the same year, 63,712 students earned their doctoral degree. It is easy for students to not finish their graduate work because of the amount of work involved. But, with the right approach, finishing a graduate degree will become less complicated.

Rationale for This Book

So, how long have you worked toward your degree? How much has changed in your life since you began your journey? Life does not pause just because you are in graduate school. Many students take longer than the typical graduate catalog advises. Taking longer to complete the curriculum can create a frustration.

This book is designed to alleviate that frustration by:

My Personal Experience

I received my Master of Science degree in 1995 from the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Illinois University. Enrolled full time, I took nine semesters to finish a six-semester program. Considering I was on academic probation after my first semester, it was a miracle I finished at all.

What happened, you ask? I landed on campus with zero idea of what it meant to be a graduate student. My first semester of coursework quickly demonstrated classroom expectations. But, that coursework did not teach me how to read and use academic papers. Thanks to the graduate school catalog, I knew I needed an adviser for the thesis requirement, yet it took me three months of knocking on administrative and departmental doors to figure out advisers were not assigned; it was my job to find one.

When I enrolled, I had wanted to study algae. But because of faculty constraints and a one-month stint in a research lab, I switched to the more realistic topic of wetland plants. My long-suffering adviser, who specialized in aquatic insects, worked outside his comfort zone to help me develop a question of local significance. He also helped me acquire research locations and connections to local experts.

My fellow graduate students invited me to unofficial seminars where we read and discussed academic papers, thus teaching me one essential skill I lacked — the ability to analyze sources. One student in particular, who you will meet later in a Case Study, mentored me in organization and departmental politics. I also tagged along on various data-collection jaunts, helping doctorate candidates and myself at the same time. I never would have finished my degree without this peer network.

My thesis project involved growing wetland plants on a patch of land the university owned. I spent my first field season learning about the invasive grass and native sedge I was to study. This immediately banished any thought of finishing in six semesters. But, even the most knowledgeable and prepared person cannot prevent acts of God from interfering with timetables. My second field season was hampered by drought; I had to water my study subjects with a 5-gallon watering can to keep them alive. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of watering one experimental set from a pond filled with tadpoles and the other from a frog-free creek, essentially adding an unintentional water-quality variable to an already multivariate design. Fortunately, I remembered to record the event in my field notebook, as the protein-rich, live fertilizer could have impacted the growth of one batch. It certainly made for a funny story during my defense.

What should have been my third field season was preempted by flood and an impending move. Thanks to my creative committee, though, I had managed to conduct a greenhouse experiment the previous winter and spring that padded my miserable excuse for summer data so I could successfully defend and earn my degree anyway — two weeks before I was to relocate to California for my husband’s new job. I successfully defended, made my revisions, filed my thesis, moved cross-country, and then flew back for the graduation ceremony. My adviser threw a party at his home to celebrate; brats and beer never tasted so good.

How to Use This Book

As a graduate student, you have already read copious amounts of material, so adding a thick how-to book to your stack might seem like a big task. But, this book is designed to be read and followed chapter by chapter. It should serve as a guide as you complete the process of writing your dissertation or thesis. You will master concepts and working habits as you go, building on prior-chapter skills as you develop new ones.

Each chapter contains tasks associated with the core elements of a successful thesis/dissertation, elements that are interdependent and continuous throughout the process. These elements are:

Because this book by its nature must force a fairly nonlinear process into a linear framework, each chapter will end with a list of tasks from that chapter grouped by phases. Each phase within a chapter may or may not have tasks from every element. The nice thing about the grouping is it gives you choices when you are stuck in that “I should be doing something for my thesis right now, but I do not know what” mode. You will be more likely to get something done if you can choose from a list rather than bang away at the one item you do not feel like doing.

Chapter titles are written in the imperative to keep you focused while completing each stage of the research process. For instance, if you are in Chapter 8, but you find yourself spending five hours in the library doing literature searches at the level of Chapter 3, stop. Remind yourself it is time to write, not read. When you actually finish your degree, you will be glad you did.

Table of Contents