Guardians and Dissertations
August 5th is James Gunn’s birthday. Did you realize that he wrote a scene in Guardians of the Galaxy just for dissertation students?…
Peter Quill: I have a plan.
Rocket Raccoon: You’ve got a plan? Okay, first of all, you’re copying me from when I said I had a plan.
Peter Quill: I’m not copying you, I have a plan, that’s not that unique of a thing to say.
Rocket Raccoon: And secondly, I don’t think you even have a plan.
Peter Quill: I have part of a plan.
…
Rocket Raccoon: …What percentage?
Peter Quill: I dunno… Twelve percent?
Rocket Raccoon: Twelve percent?
[starts laughing]
Peter Quill: That’s a fake laugh.
Rocket Raccoon: It’s real!
Peter Quill: Totally fake!
Rocket Raccoon: That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life because THAT IS NOT A PLAN!
Rocket was right; twelve percent is not a plan! (And, telling somone, “Give yourself twelve percent of the credit,” isn’t really a compliment, either, but that’s another story.)
When it comes to your dissertation, you need a plan. You need to know what you are going to do to complete your dissertation.
Most professors will tell you to begin with the beginning and just kind of follow your nose through to the end. Although that’s a great way to spend a lot of time and effort, it’s a lousy way to actually finish…anything!
Instead, you should begin with the end in mind. Figure out exact where you’re going. Then figure exactly how to get there. Then you can get started!
It may sound odd, but for your dissertation that means not starting with a topic but, instead, starting with a thorough appraisal of your resources.
Where can you collect your data? Who can you recruit to participate? What will your data look like when you’re done? What will you do to make sense of the data?
I like to break down a dissertation plan into three questions:
Who are you going to talk to?
What are you going to ask them? And,
What are you going to do with their answers?
When you have good answers to these three questions, then you know where you’re going. You know what you have to do.
Your plan makes it easier to write your proposal. Your plan makes it easier to determine what sources to use for your literature review and how to use then. You plan make it easier to position your study in terms of research questions and a dissertation topic.
Isn’t this exactly backwards, though? — To most people, yes. But, then most doctoral students take years and years to graduate. In fact, most don’t graduate, at all!
But, the students who work with us at Dissertation Done report that they graduate at least one-to-two years sooner than they would have otherwise. So, if we’re doing it backwards, I say we’re reversing a trend that should be reversed!
