photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Introduction
Some of the more popular posts here on my PhD Tips and Advice blog have to do with the craft of writing, either how to advance your writing output (Making Progress When You Write) or staying focused during the writing task (How to Focus When You Write).
In this post, I wanted to give you three simple yet powerful writing tips to boost the output on your dissertation writing.
Writing Tip #1 – Put Aside Perfection For Progress
I think this is difficult for many dissertation writers. We hold onto the belief that somehow the things that we write have to flow just right, have exactly the right words, be in the right order or be in a finished or semi-finished format. (You know, in order to sound scholarly…)
The result is that we sometimes sit in front of a computer for three hours with two paragraphs to show for it (that equals about 135 words, which won’t cut it…)
You must give yourself permission to simply write. Set a goal of 500-1,000 words a day of good reflection, decent content (forget footnotes, graphs and other distractions). At the end of the week, go back and polish up what you have written. If there is one thing I’ve learned as a dissertation writer it is this: the best writing is re-writing.
Also, what we often fail to appreciate is that writing gets us to thinking. Writing tells us where our research is weak. Writing tells us where our argument is failing. Thus it is incumbent on you to use your writing to help you accomplish those things.
Perfection can come later.
Writing Tip #2 – Try to Work From An Outline
At the outset of your research, it’s imperative to visualize and craft a decent outline of your dissertation. This requires a lot of thinking, reflection and testing.
I have heard of folks who have spent 10 months working only on the outline. Ordering the major sections, tracing the arguments, connecting the chapters, sections and ideas. After that, they were able to finish the writing portion of the dissertation in about 9 months.
Under this scenario, when you are ready to start writing, each day is simply filling out a small portion of that outline.
The outline removes the hopelessness of what appears to be an insurmountable amount of research. Each section is bite sized. You have this author to summarize. You have this term to define.
Bam! Each completed section provides you with an instant progress meter and gratification.
Writing Tip #3 – Set a daily and weekly writing goal
This sounds so blazingly simple and obvious, but we can often go weeks and weeks without making very much progress on actual writing.
My goal now into my third year of part-time research is 500-1000 words a day. When I’m working on polish, it’s 500 when I want to fill out a section of the outline to test flow and argument I shoot for 1,000.
If I reach my goal, I reward myself. If I don’t (and I don’t have a good excuse except for petty procrastination) then no reward.
I’ll share a secret with you. I love the TV show Lost. It’s a mythic masterpiece and I’m hooked on the reruns. Guess what? Without reaching that writing goal, I get no reruns of Lost. (No Kate, no Sawyer, no Jack. For a whole week. That’s rough stuff! 🙂 )
It sounds so stupid, I know, but that one little incentive has allowed me to make so much progress. It’s a wonderful distraction stopper. You should try it.
Conclusion
Every day of my dissertation writing is a learning experience for me. These are the techniques I’ve used to try to make some decent progress.
Would love to know what’s worked for you.
Happy researching!
