As I posted on Twitter in mid-May 2018, I’ve been reading a lot of books that focus on how to write a doctoral dissertation. I already have mine and I’ve already had doctoral students graduated, but I strongly believe that everybody can learn a new lesson on how to become a better PhD advisor.
I have students in all three stages (pre-proposal/coursework, post-proposal/fieldwork, and close to finishing) and thus I wanted to get a handle on the literature out there. This page is intended to store all the blog posts that summarize my reading notes for books on how to write a doctoral dissertation.
#PhDChat PhD students: you’re in luck, because for the next couple of weeks, my Reading Notes and book live-tweets will be on books on how to write a doctoral dissertation. I am doing this because I have PhD students at all 3 stages of the process.
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) May 10, 2018
I will continue to store them in my Reading Notes of Books but I figured this page would make it easier for doctoral candidates to read them all in one place.
Becker, Howard (2007) “Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish your Thesis, Book or Article” University of Chicago Press.
Berdahl, Loleen and Malloy, Jonathan (2018) “Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD.” University of Toronto Press.
Bolker, Joan (1998) “Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis“. Owl Books.
Davis, Gordon; Parker, Clyde and Straub, Detmar W. (2012) “Writing the Doctoral Dissertation: A Systematic Approach” Barron’s Educational Series.
Dunleavy, Patrick J. (2003) “Authoring a PhD Thesis: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation” Palgrave Macmillan.
Eco, Umberto (2015) “How to Write A Thesis“. The MIT Press.
Erubavel, Eviatar (1999) The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books. Harvard University Press.
Farkas, Dora (2009) “The Smart Way to your PhD: 200 Secrets from 100 Graduates“.Your PhD Consulting.
Foss, Sonja K. and Waters, William (2015) “Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation“. Rowman & Littlefield.
Luker, Kristin (2010) “Salsa Dancing into the Social Science: Research in an Era of Info-Glut“. Harvard University Press.
Ogden, Evelyn Hunt (2006) “Completing a Doctoral Dissertation or Thesis in Two Semesters or Less.” Rowman & Littlefield.
Single, Peggy Boyle (2009) “Demystifying Dissertation Writing: A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text” Stylus Publishing.
Sternberg, David (1981) “How to Complete and Survive a Doctoral Dissertation.” St. Martin’s Press.
Thanks read all your notes, bless you!
Moss
Thank you, this is a very helpful list. My dissertation advisor can be helpful but is not a very good mentor. What do you suggest are ways to overcome this? Should I consider hiring an external mentor/consultant type folks to push me along – or ?? Any suggestions would help!