Rinnelle Lee-Piggott

Many early career researchers battle with writing. From the first scribbles of an idea, to the zero draft, first draft, on to the thesis and publications, writing is an act that clarifies your own thinking and shares original thought with the world. In this blog, we review a self-help writing guide and conclude by offering a few top tips for effective writing.

TECR Hub reviews Joan Bolker’s Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day- A guide to starting, revising and finishing your doctoral thesis. Henry Holt and Co, New York. 1998

Overall

In this guide, Bolker shares her collection of field-tested strategies for writing a dissertation. She invites the reader to conduct an experiment with self as the subject to examine their own work habits to identify the writing method that suits best. Laid out as a guide, rather than a rulebook, Bolker writes in accessible language, providing numerous examples garnered from working with a few thousand writing students. She starts with her assumptions that writers own their writing, for better or for worse, and that they will be responsible for carrying their work forward. Bolker encourages the reader to write in order to think rather than think in order to write. She also urges the reader to refrain from the type of self-flagellation that impedes progress. Bolker points the reader to look for a dissertation topic about which they are substantially curious and reminds that research requires that one must engage with the material, ask it questions, and act upon it in such a way as to change the material, and self. Bolker is refreshingly open about the messiness of the writing process, sharing Perry’s description: “First you make a mess, then you clean it up.”

Highlights

One of the most important pieces of advice Bolker shares is to do some work on your thesis every day, even if it is only fifteen minutes. What she emphasizes is the daily habit of writing that builds into the completed work. Bolker urges to write, even when we feel sluggish, lousy or blocked. For those who are really blocked, she recommends starting with ten minutes a day of freewriting. In so doing she compels us to develop a self-perpetuating “writing addiction” by finding pleasure in our writing. By playing around with various writing methods, these she coins as the “sit there method”, “inspiration method” and “many pages method”, Bolker’s experience says that writers will find the process that works best for them. (She advocates for the “many pages method”.)

When inspiration visits, Bolker reminds us to “write it down and not rely on memory to recall the point later. She also prods us to “write first”, starting our day with the act of writing, prioritising it before the other routines set it. To prevent a sluggish start to the next day, she encourages the writer to “park on a downhill slope”, mapping out a few ideas for the next day’s content. She also advises writers to keep a thesis book with daily, dated journal entries, whether this be a physical book or a computer file. In these entries you should spell out your initial hunches, question your initial data, summarise your current understanding, keep track of flashes of insight and misgivings. For writers who get stuck, and that may be all of us, Bolker suggests we confront the stuck place we are in by writing about it and questioning when it began.

Bolker shares a number of maxims, such as Ruth Whitman’s “Write first”, and the humorous but compelling- “What do you call the lowest-ranked Ph.D. recipient at graduation?” ”Doctor.” In addition, she offers useful advice on working with your advisor and advisory committee. A great nugget here is to always consider suggestions of your advisory committee with an open mind. Establish regular meeting items and stick to them. Decide whether you will share coherent drafts or zero drafts.  Bolker, drawing from her behavioural sciences background, reminds the reader to use positive reinforcement, rewarding oneself for meeting small, doable goals. She reminds us to steer clear of self-blame and critical lectures when goals are missed.

Best quote

TECR’s best quote from Bolker’s book is found on p. 5:

“ Writing Your Way In: Writing is at the center of producing a dissertation. This book will teach you how not to talk away your ideas or lose them in mental gymnastics. You will learn to write in order to think, to encourage thoughts, to tease thought out of chaos or out of fright. You will write constantly, and continuously, at every stage, to name your topic and to find your way into it. You will learn to write past certainty, past prejudice, through contradiction, and into complexity. You will come to write out of your own self, and, eventually, even though you may be afraid of what your reader will see, you will learn to write in a way that will allow you to be good. If you’re to do all of this, you need to write everyday, even if it’s only for 15 minutes a day.”

Does TECR recommend?

Yes. Bolker writes in a good-humoured, accessible, DIY style in her mission to help the reader to enjoy writing their dissertation by giving practical and readily usable advice. She likens dissertation writing to being in a long-term relationship. Bolker reminds the aspiring dissertation writer that writing and finishing your dissertation is more important to you than to anyone else- and so it should be.

Star ratings:
Content:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Readability:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Usefulness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐