Conquering The Fear Factor of Writing Your Dissertation

The thought of writing your dissertation can send a shiver of fear into the most seasoned grad student. Breathe easy–feeling worried about writing the biggest paper of your life is completely normal!

For practical step-by-step tips on how to overcome dissertation inertia and a great guide for taking those initial steps in the writing and research process you will want to check out this wonderful resource on dissertations, which I’ve found very helpful.

There’s so much useful info in that article, but one of the thing I learned is there are a few roadblocks that commonly pop-up with dissertation writing that prevent us from getting the deed done:

• Not knowing how to do it. Does it help to know that every grad student feels that way? A dissertation is not just another research paper, but it’s a completely new level of writing that few of us have ever encountered before. It’s comparable to writing a book, with no one watching over us setting deadlines or evaluating how we’re coming along. This is our first significant independent project, and the thought of it can be overwhelming.
• Procrastination. Probably the hugest reason why we procrastinate is because we’re not sure how to move forward, we don’t know what to expect or what’s expected of us, and so we push our start date back further and further. Resisting the dissertation marathon that lies ahead only creates stress. It’s important to do something to start the process. By taking one baby step in the direction of starting the dissertation, we can get the ball rolling in our favor and the steps after that become easier.
• Not having enough time. I guess another way to think about this would be to say that we have not organized our schedules in a way that would allow us enough time to do the dissertation work. All grad school students are busy, some have jobs and families and for everyone it’s hard to find the time, but it is possible. It takes reorganizing our priorities so that we’re able to consistently work on this project rather to completion.
• Doubt. Writing and presenting our dissertations is a huge mountain to climb, and on the way up that mountain we’re bound to get tired and think “What am I doing up here? I wanna go home.” There is nothing wrong with having some doubt creep up–in fact it’s completely normal. It’s an opportunity for us to re-examine what our goals are, why we wanted them in the first place and what we’re willing to do to achieve them.

I’ve heard it said that writing the dissertation marks the transition from student to scholar. It helps to know that whatever anguish you’re going through as you run the dissertation marathon, that it is serving the purpose of transforming you into the academic that you want to be.

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