The Role of the Editor

This blog by Iva Cheung provides excellent insight into the writing process for academics/grad students, and then provides the most perfect explanation of the role of the editor I have ever encountered.

Supporting Graduate Student Writing

My recent presentation to Spark, University of Lethbridge Teaching Symposium, entitled "Supporting Graduate Student Writing in a Thesis and Dissertation" is now available on SlideShare.

The talk covers roughly the same material as my 32-page guide, "Writing Strategies for Theses and Dissertations", except this time from the point of view of thesis/dissertation supervisors. I am trying to make supervisors understand that it is not enough to support graduate students through the literature review, proposal, research methods selection, data collection, and data analysis, but that they must also explicitly provide instruction in thesis-writing. All too often, a student successfully completes all their graduate coursework, their thesis proposal, data collection and analysis, and then suddenly the support from the advisor dries up as they say, "great, now run along and write that all up" as if writing a thesis were not as problematic as every other step. My basic argument is that graduate students have to unlearn the writing strategies that made them successful term paper writers and undergraduate graduates, and must now learn an entirely new and different set of writing skills to master the writing strategies required for any sustained piece of writing.

My presentation to the Sparks Symposium seemed to go over very well, and my online version of the presentation received fifty-hits the first week, so pleased with the initial reception. Hopefully, the presentation will continue to gain some momentum, because unless the problem is recognized and addressed by supervisors, we will continue to see a 50% attrition rate among graduate students in thesis and dissertation route programs.

If you do download or review the presentation, make sure to read the "notes" section as well, as the notes include some of my verbal commentary not on the slides.

Tweet from the Faculty of Education, at the University of Lethbridge.

I like the quote obviously, but the thrust of the paper is that students need to understand why, after years of academic success, they suddenly discover they can't write when they sit down to write their thesis. Understanding that a thesis is different than anything they've done so far, that they essentially have to unlearn all the strategies that have helped them so much up to now, is a prerequisite of success.

Struggling with a Thesis or Dissertation?

Cover of Anxiety Magazine an art project by @crayonelyse to encourage discussion of mental health issues. Used with permission. ©2017 @crayonelyse

Doing graduate work? Need outside moral support? A writing coach can help.

Stuck while writing a thesis or dissertation? You are not alone: over 50% of those who start a thesis or dissertation never finish. That's an appalling statistic because it either means graduate program selection committees are universally terrible at choosing candidates for thesis-route programs, or that there is some structural problem with supervision.

What is most revealing is that 85% of those who fail to complete their thesis or dissertation drop out after successfully completing all their coursework and research. It is understandable if after a year in the program some students decide it's not for them and drop out. But that represents only about 15% of those who don't make it. The rest are people who stall out writing while writing their thesis— often after seven or eight years in the program. The financial, career, and emotional costs of such a high investment of time and energy for no return is clearly unacceptable, yet these statistics have not changed in over 50 years.

It doesn't have to be this way. Since the dropout rate is highest while students are registered in the thesis or dissertation, I would argue that the real reason people fail is that no one has taught them that undertaking a sustained piece of writing, such as a thesis or dissertation, requires different skills and strategies then other forms of writing; that they must unlearn the strategies that got them through their undergraduate papers and learn a whole new approach.

A key aspect of that new approach is understanding that angst is an inevitable part of writing. Almost everyone is anxious about their research-writing, as aptly illustrated by the cover of Anxiety Magazine. Since the problems that afflict 50% of thesis-route graduate students is the actual process of writing the thesis, a writing coach may be the best way to address these issues.

If one is struggling with writing basics—sentence or paragraph structure, transition sentences, citation format, and so on—then most campuses have a writing center that can help even graduate students improve their writing skills. The service is free. If one has generalized anxiety or test anxiety or thesis anxiety, most campuses similarly have professional counselors to help talk one through emotional issues.

If, however, your problems relate specifically to your thesis with things like writers' block, your ideas not 'jelling', lack of motivation, angst over your research writing not being good enough, and so on, then a writing coach might be what you need. Some campuses offer thesis-writing seminars, workshops, and so on ... but many do not. A private writing coach charges fees, but the fees are likely less than the cost of a typical graduate course or even just the fees charged to continue your registration for yet another extension as you struggle alone to finish your thesis. A writing coach can get you through the writing portion of the thesis faster, with less pain [there is no such thing as 'painlessly' when it comes to thesis-writing] and with a greater likelihood of success.

Start with the FREE 32-page guide from EssentialEdits.ca to understanding the thesis-writing process and strategies to address the logistical and psychological barriers to completing a thesis. (See also the "thesis" button on the EssentialEdits.ca homepage for other useful resources for Graduate Students, such as the pamphlet on how to choose your thesis supervisor or the pamphlet on keeping key files safely backedup.)

For personal coaching on your thesis or dissertation, Dr. Runté and his staff are ready to help. $400-$500 buys ten hours of coaching. All coaching, tutoring, and editing is done within the ethical guidelines of the Editors Association of Canada.

Theses and Dissertation Writing Strategies

I finished revising and have now posted my 32 page guide to writing strategies for theses and dissertations to the Essential Edits site.

I argue that one has to unlearn undergraduate writing skills to learn a completely new skill set to survive.

Research suggests attrition rates of between 50% to 65% for PhD candidates and thesis-route master's programs. Interestingly enough, most drop out of the program after completing all the course work and all the data collection and analysis for thesis/dissertation, which suggests that the problem is in the writing stage—though this is seldom recognized in the literature, and often not even by the students themselves! Reorienting graduate students to the different nature of sustained writing projects could assist many more students in completing their graduate degrees.

The guide is available free from EssentialEdits.ca/ThesisStrategies.pdf.