Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day

Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone who understands their particular situation. Joan Bolker, cofounder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for "blocked" writers. She encourages them to discover individual work plans that promote productivity. Using field-tested strategies and positive reinforcement, she buoys the student through the entire process—from choosing a topic and advisor to setting short-term deadlines, revising, defending the thesis, and deciding whether to publish.

Praise

"After directing dissertations for decades, I wish I had had Bolker's marvelously helpful book from the beginning . . . Bolker writers with wisdom, humor, and wonderful practicality. Get this book for anyone you know who is contemplating, midway into, or finishing a dissertation; you will be blessed."—Carolyn G. Heilbrun

"As a writer, I have learned from the practical wisdom of Bolker's fine book. And as a former graduate student advisor, I would require every doctoral student in every discipline in the English-speaking world to read this book."—Donald M. Murray

"Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day is a great gift not just for 'stuck' graduate students and their advisors, but for anyone having trouble writing anything. It is a jargon-free pleasure to read."—Pauline Maier

About the Author(s)

Joan Bolker

Joan Bolker, Ed.D., has counseled writers at Harvard, Wellesley, Brandeis, and Bard College. She is a clinical psychologist whose specialty is helping blocked writers. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

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Excerpt

1
Beginning
IF YOU ENJOY RESEARCH and writing, some of the greatest gifts life can offer you are time, space, and a good rationalization for devoting yourself to a project that truly interests you. But there are many other stances from which to approach writing a doctoral dissertation. Most of the students I meet in my work don’t often think of their dissertation projects with joyful anticipation.

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