We’re not going to lie to you. If you’re new to the process, dissertations can be scary. In fact, at times they can appear monstrous. And, just like monsters, these brobdingnagian brow-benders are often shrouded in myths, rumors, and misunderstandings–making them even more formidable for beginners.
However, it’s nothing that you can’t overcome. After all, you can probably remember a time when that 8th grade 6-page history paper felt like a towering giant. Six whole pages! It’s not possible! Who do they think I am? Mark Twain?!?
Well, now that you’re approaching your dissertation (which will likely be around 150 pages, in all), that reaction is somewhat merited. You’re staring down a monolith of a project–and you have no idea what to expect. However, as a great author once said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Of course, it might help you get started if there weren’t so much fog surrounding what exactly the dissertation process entails. You’re always more likely to run aground when your heading is based on the “here be monsters” rumor mills of your peers–especially when your peers are communicating with you through the web (here be monsters, indeed).
As you know, whenever you’re doing your research, it’s important to rely only on credible sources. That said, as experts in the dissertation consulting business, we thought we’d go ahead and provide you with a list of all of the myths we’ve seen regarding dissertation composition over the years. Hopefully, this will help dispel some of the disinformation (and the anxiety) that you’ve been dealing with in the run-up to the real thing. Get ready for our list of the top three dissertation myths. Here’s a little dose of reality.
Myth #1: The School Will Support You
This is likely a hard pill to swallow, but it’s important medicine to take, especially when you’re just starting out. The students who think they’ll be able to rely on their university’s infrastructural dissertation aid programs are almost always in for a rude awakening. Basically, it’s like doing a trust fall when your partner has a 50% chance of going on an impromptu sabbatical–or just not returning your emails…or missing an appointment…or even giving you wrong information that you’ll then have to correct later under their very same watch. Well, just close your eyes, cross your arms, and prepare to drop…
Universities–online and brick-and-mortar alike–are a lot like apartment complexes. When you first arrive, you receive a grand orientation, replete with a showcase of amenities and services and maybe even a welcome basket with some Fererro Rocher. Oh, look, they have a community center, and a pool! I’m sure I’ll be able to use all of this once I move in. Then, once you sign the forms and start paying rent for a few months, you start to notice that all of those things that were so shiny and new when you moved in have since lost their luster. The pool is suddenly closed for repairs until next year. The community center’s WiFi runs at the speed of O.J. Simpson’s Bronco. And there’s always that one guy in the knee-high socks who creepily stares at everyone in the 24-hour gym, because he lives there apparently.
The same thing happens with a university, whose professors suddenly disappear during crucial stages of your dissertation composition. That statistician who was supposed to help you with your logistic regression in SPSS? They won’t be available to take on your project until three months from now. And so on and so forth.
Indeed, when you’re first starting your dissertation, it seems as if the project’s mammoth length comes with assurances of constant support from your chairs and supervisors, but often what you get are delays (and even misinformation. In fact, if you rely too heavily on the university’s internal “aid” programs, you might begin to have the sneaking suspicion that these mechanisms aren’t designed to move you through the process; they’re designed to keep you in–for years at a time. And, sometimes, you’d be absolutely correct, as no university (especially a private online university) wants its students to graduate on time, every time.
Of course, this isn’t quite what you bargained for when they were first giving you the tour. It certainly wasn’t what was conveyed in their advertisements, but now you’re locked in. What do you do?
Reality: Outside Help is Absolutely Necessary
In general, a university’s dissertation assistance options are never what they’re cracked up to be. In fact, as discussed, there are often indications that its biased to keep your paper in play for as long as possible so that you’ll be stuck in the review process (and thus have to pay for more tuition).
This is a tough one to hear, but almost every student at the dissertation level consults with outside help. The reason it’s not discussed as much out in the open is because universities tend to discourage it–likely because they know that it will speed up the process significantly, thus jettisoning students from years of future tuition.
Don’t fall prey to the myth that the university will be there for you throughout the dissertation process. You’re going to need outside help to finish this project, just like all of your colleagues. So, whether you need assistance with developing your methodology, researching your literature, or analyzing your results, you should seek counsel from a qualified dissertation coach.
A qualified dissertation coach is going to be able to provide you with all of the support you need as you attempt to navigate the process. This way, you’ll have everything you need, every step of the way. As always, if you feel like you’re in this position, feel free to give us a call or email us, and we’ll be able to connect you with one of our experts in no time.
Myth #2: It’s definitely going to take around 3-4 years.
It’s funny how hand-in-hand advertising and mythology are. Peppered in banner after banner are promises of a speedy graduation–with quick timelines provided to erase your misgivings about wanting to get involved in a PhD program. Don’t worry. It’s only going to take three to four years. In fact, you’ll probably get out sooner, because our fantastic professors (who definitely won’t leave you in the lurch to go on a vacation in Costa Rica) will be there with you throughout the process.
Just like the last list entry, at first blush many universities (again, both brick-and-mortar and online institutions are at fault here) will promise their doctoral and masters candidates that their schedules will be highly organized and that most of their graduates will finish up their degree plan within the timeframe neatly specified in that random spam email that the dear candidate happened to see (You’re right! I do want to earn a degree in less than 4 years! ). However, once you’ve signed on the dotted line, that timeline begins to stretch a bit–a bit here meaning years.
Indeed, countless are the calls we receive from students seeking dissertation help who have been enrolled in four-year programs only to find themselves paying for upwards of seven years. How is this possible? And how can universities justify their advertising when circumstances like this are so common?
It’s true, sometimes students take on more than they can handle. They don’t anticipate the spike in difficulty that comes from high level doctoral work (nor the sheer volume of pages that they’ll have to produce). As a result, they don’t get their papers finished on time; they have to take additional classes, etc. In this case, the reasoning behind prolonged timelines for graduation make more sense. And, if you’re in this position (i.e., you’ve bitten off a bit more than you can chew with your program, we’re always happy to help). You might want to call a dissertation coach so that you can get some prime dissertation consulting.
However, there are also plenty of students who–because of either circumstance or work ethic–are able to get everything done thoroughly and on time throughout the process. Suddenly, however, when they get to the composition of the thesis or the dissertation, their journey is arrested. What was once an easy three-year program begins its metamorphosis into a five-year, and then a six-year, monstrosity–leading to the following statistic, as discussed by CBS’s Moneywatch:
A PhD takes twice as long as a bachelor’s degree to complete. The average student takes 8.2 years to slog through a PhD program and is 33 years old before earning that top diploma. By that age, most Americans with mere bachelor’s degree are well into establishing themselves professionally.
What’s more, the rhetoric universities will often employ ensures that students who go this route will feel that the deferment of their degree is completely justified. They’re told, for instance, that, though they completed the paper on time, that it’s not structured according to some all-important (but typically arbitrary) rubric or checklist. They will cite forms and guide books 100-pages long. “It’s right there, black-and-white, clear as crystal,” they’ll say, channeling their inner Willy Wonka.
However, in this case, “right there” may refer to a short paragraph buried in a leviathan of a document, which most professors depend on you not reading. Let’s be honest. Many of us didn’t even read every page of Moby Dick or Ulysses, and those are classics. Are you really going to pore over every page of your university’s dissertation guidebook?
Again, most universities are betting you won’t and will use the paperwork you previously received as leverage against you when it comes time to extend your stay. Following the apartment analogy from earlier, you can consider your dissertation guidebook as a lease agreement. Stray but a hair from the boilerplate and they’ll penalize you–arguing that they’re well within their rights to do so.
When this is the case–i.e., when people find that their a victim of a giant rulebook–they often shrug their shoulders and assume that that’s just the way it is. However, if you’re ever in this position, you should remember who exactly it is who presides over all of that red tape. Remember, all of those formatting guidelines–even the very length of the dissertation itself, have been constructed by the university, an entity which has a vested interest in ensuring that you stay enrolled as long as possible. Put yourself in their shoes. If you had a business where someone had to pay for every minute they were shut inside of a room, wouldn’t you make the locks to get out as complicated as possible?
I know this sounds discouraging, but the goal here is to dispel myths. And one of the biggest myths (again, going back to the ads that were used to get you involved in a graduate program in the first place) is that everything will go according to plan and that you won’t have to stress about the possibility of an extended stay in your graduate program. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but what can you do to stop this from happening?
Reality: In Order to Get Through Quickly, You Need a Guide
Basically, the promises of possibly graduating with an advanced degree in just a few years aren’t always complete prevarications. The reason that this isn’t false advertising is because there is indeed a way to get through the program quickly, and that way is knowing the ins and outs of the dissertation process.
The universities are banking on the fact that, having little to no experience writing dissertations, you’ll be prone to make a series of mistakes along the way which will result in extensive rewrites needing to take place.
However, if you have a guide (say a dissertation coach, for instance), you’ll have someone who will be able to steer you away from the time-sink traps that have been laid out for you. Furthermore, when it comes time to develop your methodology (or to find extensive qualitative research or statistical analysis relating to your topic), you’ll have someone who will be with you every step of the way. Finally, once it comes time to perform the editing work that you’ll need to complete, a guide will be able to make sure that nothing, no matter how trivial, stands between you and your graduation.
If you’re interested in getting full dissertation assistance, which is the foolproof way to get through your program with ease, feel free to give us a call.
Myth #3: It’s Not About the Little Details. It’s About the Big Picture
Ah, the Ed Wood principle–so unfortunate that this isn’t the case. However, unlike Ed Wood, you don’t want to be known for being outrageously bad at what you do (to the point of hilarity). However, like Ed Wood, you want to get things done as quick and cheap as possible.
It can be a huge temptation to plow ahead in the dissertation and save the details for later. After all, that’s what proofing and editing are for, right? Hey, don’t let great be the enemy of good.
This isn’t the worst mentality to have (and indeed we discuss it a little bit in our discussion of how to meet deadlines. However, rather than putting you in the express lane, this tactic is more akin to driving into oncoming traffic.
For instance, let’s say you’re doing a quantitative study and you need to do some good old MANOVA testing (if you’re not a statistician, just substitute a picture of a calculator for these terms). You say to yourself, well, my sample size looks about right; I probably don’t need to run a power analysis. So then you go ahead and put all your data into SPSS (there’s that calculator again), and you’re feeling really great, because now you have Chapter 4 of your dissertation ready to go. You’re home free!
But then your chair asks you about whether you’re sample size validates the data, and you’re speechless. Now, you have to retool your methodology and run a power analysis. Once you’ve finished this, you find that your sample size was indeed too small, so guess what? Now you have to do the analysis all over again–which is potentially months of extra work, once you factor in the writing you’ll have to do for Chapter. 4.
Because of all of that red tape we mentioned earlier, it’s important not to skip over the details in the hopes of finishing faster. Ironically, by trying to ensure that you meet the deadline that was spelled out to you when you first enrolled, you’re falling into the traps that the university has set to delay your graduation.
Furthermore, if you thought that it was hard to navigate your professors’ comments before, just imagine receiving a 150-page document that’s marked up and down with errors–many of which are vague and refer to grammatical rules. “Please remove anthropomorphism and other problematic solecisms throughout the text before the next draft.” Aye, aye, captain.
Also, if your draft is this marked up when you first get it, you automatically know that you’re going to have to write several drafts in order to completely rid the paper of grammatical and stylistic errors. “A speck of dirt is easiest to find on a clean floor,” our editors say–meaning that, even after you finish revising your work based on the comments you’ve received, it’s likely that your chair or supervisor will be able to locate further errors. This kind of recursive impediment will, of course, cause far more delays than a process in which you’re getting everything right the first time. Unfortunately, not everyone’s an expert in APA style, and it’s very difficult to know what you’re doing wrong when it’s your first time writing a dissertation.
Reality: The Devil is in the Details
The details of your dissertation are ultimately what will either facilitate or stall your graduation journey. After all, often during the dissertation writing process, you’re just waiting to hear back from your professor with comments. The more you need to correct errors that you missed in your drive toward the finish line, the more time you’re going to spend waiting.
The best way to prevent this situation from occurring is to recruit an expert in the dissertation writing process–whether that involves data analysis, editing, or research assistance. These guides will ensure that you get everything right the first time and aren’t stuck in a purgatorial revision process.
After all, once you’ve spent several years investing your time and money into a doctoral program, the last thing you want is for a few misplaced commas to alter the calendar you’ve set for yourself. Getting connected with editing services can drastically improve your chances when it comes to finishing your doctoral journey on your timeline (not the university’s). If you need a dissertation editor, feel free to contact us today at info@precisionconsultingcompany.com.
If you’re writing a dissertation, the worst thing you can do is kid yourself. The myths of the dissertation process are extremely tempting to believe, mainly because they reflect an easy journey. However, even though the reality of the situation is much less glamorous, there are plenty of ways to make your dreams come true–especially when you have the team here at Precision on your side!
Whether it’s full-blown dissertation assistance or just dissertation editing services that you need, let us know, and we’ll connect you with a dissertation coach today.
References
- N. (2011, July 03). Edwood D Junior My Favorite Scene. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6l-GWwZZ7c
- Mahoney, K. D. (n.d.). Latin definition for: Aedifico, aedificare, aedificavi, aedificatus. Retrieved from http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/1839/aedifico-aedificare-aedificavi-aedificatus
- O’Shaughnessy, L. (2012, July 10). 12 reasons not to get a PhD. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-reasons-not-to-get-a-phd/
- Setness, M. (2016, November 08). Netflix & College Students: A Binge Affair – Madison Setness – Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@m.setness/netflix-college-students-a-binge-affair-6cb23967c484
- Speech Anxiety. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.speaking.pitt.edu/student/public-speaking/speechanxiety.html
- White, A. (n.d.). 12 Spectacular Acts Of Wikipedia Vandalism. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/spectacular-acts-of-wikipedia-vandalism?utm_term=.rjQRWX3o6q#.rxvbvDKGN7