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Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis By Joan Bolker ( Holt Paperbacks )
Release Date: 1998-08-15
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $16.95
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Product Description
Expert writing advice from the editor of the Boston Globe best-seller, The Writer's Home Companion
Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone to assure them that their struggles aren't unique. Joan Bolker, midwife to more than one hundred dissertations and co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for the graduate-student writer. Using positive reinforcement, she begins by reminding thesis writers that being able to devote themselves to a project that truly interests them can be a pleasurable adventure. She encourages them to pay close attention to their writing method in order to discover their individual work strategies that promote productivity; to stop feeling fearful that they may disappoint their advisors or family members; and to tailor their theses to their own writing style and personality needs. Using field-tested strategies she assists the student through the entire thesis-writing process, offering advice on choosing a topic and an advisor, on disciplining one's self to work at least fifteen minutes each day; setting short-term deadlines, on revising and defing the thesis, and on life and publication after the dissertation. Bolker makes writing the dissertation an enjoyable challenge.
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Amazon.com Review
"Fifteen minutes!" you say. "That's too good to be true!" Okay, author Joan Bolker admits she gave her book the title Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day to get the reader's attention. And she admits that it's unlikely you'll actually finish a dissertation at that speed. As she tells her clients, however, a mere 15 minutes is much better than no writing at all when they're stuck. As a clinical psychologist who cofounded the Harvard Writing Center, Bolker has helped hundreds of writers complete their dissertations. She offers suggestions on how to create a writing addiction so that you feel incomplete if you don't write every day and stresses the need to set reasonable goals and deadlines for yourself to keep from getting discouraged. She also offers strategies for dealing with both internal and external distractions and for fending off writer's block. Even more important is the advice on some of the more awkward issues related to dissertation writing, such as how to choose your adviser carefully. (For example, when faced with the tradeoff between a famous advisor who is inaccessible and a less famous advisor who is willing to make time for you, Bolker advises, "If choosing a politically advantageous, famous advisor makes it unlikely that you'll complete your degree, it's clearly not worth it.") The book even includes a helpful appendix for advisers that could become the basis for an honest discussion of what student and adviser can expect from each other. Throughout this excellent book, Bolker acts as a therapist, cheerleader, and drill sergeant, all rolled into one. While some of the book's advice is of interest only to dissertation writers, much of the information--on battling writer's block, for instance--is valuable to anybody engaged in writing. Rather than being filled with rules defining how to become a great writer, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day is about finding the process by which you can be the most productive--it's a set of exercises that you can use to find out more about you and the way you write. Along the way, you'll do a bit of writing. And that's what matters, especially when you experience writer's block--as Bolker says, "Write anything, because writing is writing." With its helpful advice and supportive tone, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day should be required reading for anyone considering writing a dissertation. --C.B. Delaney
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Jump start a chapter with a shot of courage
The author packs discipline and confidence into a quick read that motivated me on more than one occasion as I wrote a dissertation about 13th century poetry written in a language I'd never studied formally.
It took re-reading a chapter here and there to coax me through writing my 300 page thesis, and since I had three children all born during the season of writing my dissertation, there were some days when 15 minutes came one minute at a time and left me with fragements that were undecipherable... still, I have to say that this book, an encouraging spouse, and a patient advisor helped me to get through the process.
If you're stuck and need to feel less guilt and more courage as you face the blank page, this book is for you. If you need a kick of energy and a method for moving forward, read a few pages and then get to work. You can do it!
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 worth more than gold ( cecille38 )
THis book is worth more than twice its weight in gold. I only bought it on the off-chance because it was listed as a book often bought along with another book I was buying, and in any case the price was so affordable. I am so glad I did. I was suffering from intellectual inertia - didn't know where or how to start my writing. This book helped me to see how to take small steps and just begin. I have only had it a few weeks, but already there is a marked difference in my approach to my thesis. I am actually getting something done. It will definitely be my Bible for the year to come.
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one for the canon
If you're just starting your doctoral work and are terrified, buy this book. If you're already writing your dissertation and are stalled, buy this book. If you're a thesis advisor seeking to add another work to the canon on dissertation writing, buy this book. Joan Bolker has a ton of experience working with students; she has seen it all. Her tone combines "C'mon don't be a wuss, you can DO this," with the caring concern of any good mum. She gives the reader tips for working through all the worst possible moments of thesis writing and she covers a range of topics not specifically related to the writing but to all the other considerations: choosing your committee and then working with them; dealing with interruptions; life after the disseration, and more. I particularly like the chapter entitled "The Best Dissertation is a Done Dissertation." I think this is a terrific book.
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CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS
When iread this book,i really enjoyed it especially if you are planning to start your thesis and the instructions r very clear and short.
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 Would NOT recommend.
If you are interested in a personal novel this may be the choice for you. I found the content disorganized, the content not as useful as A Dissertation Journey/Roberts. My agenda was looking for help in organizing my ideas, my sources, my paper prep. I was also hoping for some guidance in how to use school resourses (people) for guidance in my thesis. This book, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen... was not for me.This is what I recommend (based on my agenda): The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and Defending Your Dissertation
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Addiction
