#WhatisaDissertation

This I updated throughout my dissertation, and now I’ve concluded it. If I think of something else, though, I may come back to add it in.

1. Pain
2. A fight against your advisor
3. A fight with your advisor
4. A fight alongside your advisor
5. A fight where your advisor fights with you against your committee
6. A fight where your advisor throws you in alone with your committee
7. Days of enlightenment when everything comes together and you read research and totally get it
8. LIKE SQUEEZING the most UNRULY and nasty orange ever with only one drop of good juice in it. You read 187 page papers and get only 1-2 lines out of it for your literature review section.  And it hurts… it hurts…
9. Pain
10. Exhaustion
11. Something you make much more complicated of a process then it actually is.
12. Something you will be grateful to your advisor and your committee for for the rest of your life.
13. Something you could have finished much faster if you had just believed in yourself.
14. Something everyone thinks is cooler than it actually is… but you probably won’t or shouldn’t correct them.

FYI… DON’Ts:

1. Don’t model your dissertation too tightly based on another your advisor approved for another student before. Use it as a general guideline, but your project is different, and you are going to have to make a million changes if you try to use it as a template (DONE THAT…)
2. Don’t cling to your own grammar or prose. Accept that the people supporting you are actually supporting you and take their criticism as constructive. That being said…
3. Don’t give in if you are sure of something. In fact, as you go along you will know 800% more about your topic than anyone else in the world. If the advice you get is something you can’t or don’t agree with, speak up. It is your work, speak up for it.