" Thirty years ago my older brother,
who was ten years old at the time, was trying
to get a report on birds written that he'd had
three months to write, which was due the next
day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas,
and he was at the kitchen table close to tears,
surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened
books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness
of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside
him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder,
and said 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it
bird by bird.'"
- Anne Lamott, Bird
By Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life
"Ohhhh, so you'll be writing your dissertation
under our roof!" my new housemate said, with
a glint in her eye reminiscent of a cat ready
to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse. She had a
PhD in physics so I figured she knew what she
was talking about. I nodded and said, "Yes,
it will be a long year." But secretly I wondered,
how painful can it be? I had already written and
submitted three chapters for publication in scientific
journals. Only two more to go, plus an introductory
literature review. I expected the latter to be
fairly straightforward since I had already written
variations of it for various grant proposals.
Whether it was good mentoring from my advisor,
good planning on my part, or just plain good luck,
I had it pretty easy.
But for many students, writing
the dissertation is a torturous process. Far too
often, they wait until they've completely finished
their research before they start writing. When
they finally do get to it, they're brain-tied
by the overwhelming mountain of information in
front of them. They would rather do anything elsego
to the gym, drink a latte, watch a movie, take
up cooking, go hiking, anythingbut start
their dissertation. They don't know how or where
to begin, and just the thought of it can be paralyzing.
But there's no reason to wait until you're done
collecting or interpreting all of your data before
you start writing about it. Besides, by the time
you actually finish all of your research, you'll
be anxious to do just that - finish! The last
thing you'll want to do is wade through all those
files full of data from three years ago, trying
to recall exactly what you did (or intended to
do). Do what you can to lighten the load early
on. You will thank yourself many times over.
A great way to start early is by breaking your
research project down into smaller, more manageable
chunks that you can write about separately. When
I started my dissertation research, it was all
one grand feat in my mind. I fantasized about
turning it into a single Science or Nature paper
at the end. But after I started collecting and
analyzing data, I realized that the project could
be split into five or six separate, publishable
pieces. So I broke it down. I finished an experiment
and then wrote about it, then did another experiment
and wrote about it, and so on. By the time I was
finished with my research and ready to "start
my dissertation," I'd already written three-quarters
of it!
Some schools even offer "journal format"
dissertation (or thesis) options, whereby each
chapter is an actual manuscript that has been
either submitted or already accepted for publication.
This is an excellent strategy for several reasons.
Again, it's much easier to manage a dissertation
that is broken down into discrete chunks. Second,
very few people are ever going to read your actual
dissertation if it's just sitting on a shelf in
your school library. But if you've submitted chapters
for publication, you won't feel quite so anonymous.
Third, journals have their own guidelines and
styles, and journal articles are usually much
more condensed than traditional dissertation or
thesis chapters. So if you are ever going to submit
the chapters for publication you might as well
do it now and save yourself the unnecessary extra
work of converting a conventional dissertation
chapter into a journal article. Fourth, if your
goal is to become a professional scientist, then
you might as well start publishing and getting
your name out there. Fifth, no matter what your
professional goal, having publications on your
CV or resume as a grad student looks very good.
And finally, your committee will have a difficult
time finding fault in something that has already
been reviewed and accepted for publication by
experts in the field.
The Master's thesis is generally a much smaller
and more manageable project than the dissertation,
so it makes a lot more sense to wait until you're
actually finished your research before you start
writing about it. Still, I've known students who
have turned even their Master's theses into two
or three published papers! As with the dissertation,
if you can, break it down.
Before you start writing, be sure to find out
what your organizational options are and what
your department and especially your committee
expect. Schools often have very strict expectations
about organization and format, which should be
spelled out, in some sort of official document.
I had to take my dissertation into the graduate
college for a "format check" before
I could even schedule my defense, just to make
sure that I was "doing it right." For
example, you may find that you can't organize
your dissertation such that each chapter stands
on its own, with its own introduction, methods,
results, and discussion. You may have to lump
all of your methods from multiple experiments
into a single chapter. Nonetheless, you'll probably
still subdivide the chapter in such as way that
you are describing at least the methods and results
of each experiment separately. Thus you can still
write in chunks.
The first time you write about
something, don't worry about what it sounds like.
You don't need to sound brilliant or even well
organized. If all that comes out are bits and
pieces, that's okay. You can change words, rewrite
sentences, move paragraphs around, and piece it
all together later. Like any good writer, you'll
probably (and probably should) revisit and revise
over and over again.
Keep in mind that the introduction is not necessarily
the best section to tackle first. The best piece
of advice I ever received from one of my committee
members was to "start with the methods."
Describing what you did should be fairly straightforward
since it really doesn't require much thought;
you're not interpreting any results or trying
to convince your readers why what you did is so
important or interesting. Then move on to the
results. If you have charts or tables to accompany
your text, you may find it easier to construct
them before you try to describe their content.
Like the methods, describing your results should
also be a fairly straightforward writing exercise,
unless of course you realize that you don't really
understand something as well as you thought you
did. All the more reason to hammer out all these
nuts-and-bolts details first, before trying to
explain why what you found out is so important
and how it fits into the "big picture."
Save the introduction and discussion for last.
If you don't have your own computer, now is the
time to think about getting one. Furthermore,
whether it's in your lab, at home, or in a graduate
student office, make sure that you have a desk
in a quiet area where you know that you will be
able to concentrate and write during your working
hours. And whether it's your own computer or not,
ALWAYS back up your work regularly on a zip disk
or CD so that you have an extra copy of all that
you have written in the unlikely event that the
hard drive crashes.
As any professional writer
will tell you, waiting for the muse to strike
is a myth (and a waste of time). No matter how
inspired you are, writing your dissertation is
not going to just happen. Writing is hard work
and requires extraordinary discipline. You may
find it helpful to plan a daily writing schedule.
If writing from 9 to 5 or 9 to noon seems too
unbearable or daunting (or simply not possible
because of other time demands), then spend just
an hour or so a day writing. As that hour becomes
easierwhich it will, as you become less
anxious and your writing starts to feel like a
more natural processgradually increase the
amount of time you spend writing.
So start early and write often.
The more steps you take, the easier it becomes.
And if you don't believe that, then think of it
like this: once you take that first step and you
get that first chunk writtenwell, you're
that much closer to finishing.
Leslie Pray is a freelance science writer based
in Leverett, MA. She has written extensively on
the educational and professional development of
grad students and postdocs for Science's Next
Wave and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She
is also a regular contributor to The Scientist.
Leslie earned several national awards from scientific
societies in recognition of her accomplishments
as a graduate student. She received her Ph.D.
in Biology from the University of Vermont.
Related Reading
Enjoy
Writing Your Science Thesis or Dissertation!
by Daniel Holtom and Elizabeth Fisher.
Communicating
in Science: Writing a Scientific Paper and Speaking
at Scientific Meetings by Vernon Booth
The
Craft of Scientific Writing by Michael Alley
How
To Write & Publish a Scientific Paper: 5th
Edition by Robert A. Day
The
Craft of Research (Chicago Guides to Writing,
Editing, and Publishing)
by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M.
Williams
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