Writing your doctoral disserrtation

For the past twenty-five years I have been working with doctoral students, guiding their evolution to doctoral recipients. During the time we work together, I become intensely conscious of their need to understand the culture of the university as it impacts on their progress. Concurrently, they need to be receptive to engaging in a transformative, life-changing experience, the essence of learning. As I recall my own days as a doctoral student, I remember being at a total loss to understand what was happening to me. I have discovered this is not unique. Most have no idea what a dissertation looks like or how it evolves. While most doctoral students expect to draw on their earlier collegiate experiences, nothing in the academic world prepares them for the complexity and intensity inherent in the doctoral process. I have identified the crucial issues to include in Writing Your Dissertation: Invisible Rules for Success from multiple sources: • my experience in guiding more