Innovation and Dissertations
February 16th is Innovation Day. Here are the Top 4 ways to put innovation to work in your dissertation…
- Don’t: The dissertation, for all its mystique and rigor, is not a particularly creative piece of work. Many universities provide guidelines, templates, and rubrics to help you fit your study into their mold. Use them! Keep in mind that your dissertation is done when your committee members say it is. They have to approve whatever work you submit. And, they are used reviewing work in a particular format. If you want to finish your dissertation, make it easier on your committee and yourself.
- Just Don’t: Even if the presentation of the dissertation is rigid, you can be innovative in your design. Right? Wrong! There are three methodological approaches you might consider: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Forget mixed methods. Of the other two, I always recommend quantitative; however, I will concede that there are arguments for both. Within these methods, your choices are nearly infinite, but you should constrain those choices to two in each side. On the qualitative side, you may elect a phenomenological design or a case study. Ignore grounded-theory, ethnography, and narrative-based designs. On the quantitative side you should utilize an ex post facto design based on correlational or comparative hypotheses. Eschew experiments, pre-test/post-test, and any other design that requires interventions or multiple rounds of data collection.
- I Said Don’t: O.K. So, if the presentation and design of my dissertation are paint-by-numbers, I’ll pour my creative energies into the development of my topic. -No! Your dissertation topic should look a lot like someone else’s research. You have to identify a gap in the literature in order to justify your study. If your topic is completely different than everything that’s come before, how will you find relevant articles for your lit review? How will you articulate a gap in a completely new area of research? How will you establish the relevancy of your proposed study, when no other research has found anything remotely similar to be relevant in the past?
- Still Want to “Be Innovative?”: There’s a not-so-politically-correct saying that pioneers are the ones with arrows in their backs. You don’t have to blaze new trails with your dissertation. And, you shouldn’t. Follow a well-worn path laid down by past researchers. Better yet, get a guide to help you along the way. No one climbs Everest without a Sherpa. You shouldn’t attempt to summit Mt. Dissertation with guidance and support, either.
In Australia, there’s a saying that the tall poppy gets cut down. I hate that saying 99% of the time. But, I do not want any of my students here at Dissertation Done to standout. Fly below the radar. Don’t set off your committee members’ Spidey Senses. Just produce a boring, cookie-cutter dissertation that proves that you can complete a research project. That’s all you have to do to graduate. And, graduating is the goal!
If you’re constantly thinking outside the box, can’t resist adding creative flourishes everywhere you go, but understand the importance of fitting in to finish your dissertation, click here to schedule a quick, 15-minute chat with me to see if you’re a good fit for our Fast Track Your Dissertation Coaching Program. If you are, then I’ll invite you to join the fastest group of dissertation students out there and help you to reach graduation a good year or two faster than you would on your own.
