Sticking Points and Big Pitfalls to Watch Out For
Dr. Russell Strickland 12:11
So what I mean by that is once you have, okay, so a lot of people, they’ll start with this idea, again, something that they’re passionate about some sort of passion project, and they think they have a topic in mind. I tend to call it an area of interest more so than a topic that because what you need with a topic is you need to have specific questions that you’re going to answer. That’s what your dissertation is all about. I’m going to pose a question and then I’m going to answer it. And you have to have a way of answering that question. Dissertation. You go out and do research, you collect data, you analyze that data, you make sense of it, and then that answers your research question. The problem is that a lot of students don’t have all those pieces in place, and in particular, they don’t have that resource. plan that says, How am I going to collect data? How am I going to analyze that data? Exactly? What questions Am I asking of the data? In order to answer my research question, here, again, we can go back to that analogy of, say, building a house. For example. If you were a custom builder, and you were building a house, and you know that your client was going to pay you, when you have the house built, you would make sure in your contract, you specify every single thing about what that house was going to look like, the room sizes, the materials, you were going to use delivery dates, everything, okay? Well, chapter three of the dissertation is where you lay out your research plan, this is what you’re going to do. You should think about that in exactly the same way as a custom builder would think about a contract that they would create with their customer, because that’s really what it is. You’re telling your committee, I’m going to do this stuff. And when I’ve done this stuff and delivered it to you, you’re going to pay me with that degree. If you’re too vague when you’re laying out That that research plan in chapter three, then you don’t really have a contract, right? Your committee could come back and say, Oh, I thought you were going to do more? Well, it’s not clear in your in your dissertation in your proposal what you were going to do. So now you can’t say no, I said I was going to do this. And that’s it. You can get scope creep, where the community just ask for more and more and more, you never know where that’s going to end. So you want to be specific. The other problem is sometimes when you’re too vague, you literally don’t know what to do. They tell you, okay, your proposals approved, go do it. And you look at and say, Okay, what do I do to switch the metaphors a little bit, if you were asked a baker, how to bake a cake, they can give you a set of instructions, here’s what you’re going to need, here’s what you’re going to do, here’s how long it’s going to take and then you have a cake. We call that set of instructions a recipe, and you really need to have a recipe for your dissertation. That’s precise enough that you could give it to me or anyone else who kind of is fluent in these sorts of things. And they could take that and do your research for you. Now I’m not saying anybody should do that that’s not ethical. It’s not something that we do in academics. But the fact that you can write out a recipe card like that for your dissertation, it means that you’re specific enough, you know what you’re doing. And you’re really in a good position to get the work done when it’s time.
Jeremy Weisz 15:17
passion project, no structure, it’s their dissertation too vague. And this is my favorite is maybe too strong, but a sticking point pitfall is trying to do it all yourself. And this goes into throughout the process, and then at the end, so I want to talk about both of those.
Dr. Russell Strickland 15:36
Right? So obviously, as a dissertation coach, I’m going to tell tell folks, listen, I’m going to be able to help you develop that structure. I’m gonna make sure that the project is sound from the beginning, we’re going to lay a good foundation, we’re going to make sure that you have guidance and accountability throughout this process so that you’re moving forward steadily, and that you know, when you’re heading in the wrong direction, we can get you back on the right path. That’s all stuff that someone Who can help students throughout the process can do, you can get that through a dissertation coach, like me, you can get that through maybe a mentor at your school that that’s willing to help you maybe someone else has gotten their doctoral degree before. There’s a lot of options out there. I’m biased. Of course, I’ve done this. A lot of times, I think that somebody else who’s gone through their dissertation once, maybe they got a little lucky, you know, they don’t, they probably don’t have a process down and a plan for doing it. But wherever you go about getting that help, you need to at least have some accountability, somebody who’s been there before done that before, and can celebrate and commiserate for you in a meaningful way. Your husband or wife is probably not that person unless they have their own doctoral degree, because ultimately, they don’t know what you’re going through. And that’s nothing against them. They can be as loving and supportive as possible, but they literally don’t know what you’re going through. So make sure that you have someone that’s helping you through in that regard. Now, that’s kind of the whole process. There’s a couple of things that people get stuck on towards the end of the process. And I’ve got some awesome news for you, which is that the last two sticking points in the process for most people, you don’t even have to do them yourself at all. Okay, so one thing is, I tell my students all the time, the fastest way to graduation, right from the beginning, is choosing a quantitative project, it’s a lot easier to collect data, analyze data is a lot quicker, okay? It’s gonna take you the same effort to write the proposal and to get it approved, but much less effort to get the project done at the end. Well, people, you know, gnash their teeth and wail about statistics and how it was the most horrible class they ever took. And they swore to God when he when he let them get out of the class with that A or B or whatever, they were never going to touch this stuff again. And I tell them, well, you can do a quantitative project and still not touch the stuff again, because universities understand that you’re not getting a degree in statistics, you’re getting a degree in business or education or nursing or psychology or whatever it might be. It’s not a degree in statistics. So You have to be able to talk about the results that you that you found in your project. But you don’t have to put those things together yourself. You think about it this way, if you’ve ever had seen a person standing in a suit, talking to a bunch of people about numbers, I can pretty well guarantee you that person didn’t run those numbers. Okay, maybe as a mayor or a CEO or president or something like that. They’ve got other people to do that stuff for them. And the good news is, you can too, that is perfectly kosher and aboveboard as far as the academic candidate ethics is concerned. So getting that work done for you by someone is really, really important. It’s a very smart way to get through this process. And then the final sticking point is, at the end of the day, your paper not just doesn’t have to be just well written, but it has to follow the minute details of a very thick Manual of Style. Most of you are probably going to be confronted with the APA style guide. And it’s again hundreds of pages long and has rules Absolutely everything. And you can drive yourself insane trying to figure out how to follow all those little rules. Or you can get somebody that eats, sleeps and breathes the stuff to do it for you. And you can find APA editors out there you can find editors that used to be in Chicago or whatever style your school might use APA against the most popular, we do that for our students as well. We, I send dissertations that are very well written all the time to our editors, and they come back with a minimum of like a half a dozen little changes and corrections on every single page of the dissertation. Because that’s just how minute and precise this academic style of writing is. And unless you’re gonna be writing academic papers for a living, there’s no reason for you to develop that skill set for yourself. You should just take that skill set and rent it from someone who already has it, use it for your dissertation, get published and graduate, move on.
Jeremy Weisz 19:54
Thank you Dr. Strickland for sharing that I always love hearing before the journey or During journey, what are the sticking points and pitfalls? People can check out www.dissertationdone.com and check out other episodes of the podcast. So thank you, Dr. Strickland for having me.
Dr. Russell Strickland 20:10
Thank you, Jeremy so much for being here. Appreciate it.
Outro 20:18
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