New graduate students are often unaware of the many hazards and pitfalls that occur during the dissertation process: intensive schedules, dwindling motivation, difficult or unavailable mentors, and research and publication complications. Lacking the experience and wherewithal to successfully overcome or avoid these impetuses for derailment, many students are unable to complete the dissertation process, losing sight somewhere in between reading, studying, collecting data, and writing a thesis. Based on the authors’ inside knowledge and extensive experience, Dissertation Solutions provides graduate students with the basic tools and skills to help them navigate the whole process with minimal damage, making the whole process of planning, researching, and writing more manageable. This thorough, but concise guide will help even the most naïve graduate student become experts in navigating and surviving their graduate experiences. Outlining the dissertation process, explaining the key players involved, and offering advice to help complete any research project, this book will also provide overwhelmed, intimidated, or just reluctant students with the motivation required to complete this arduous project.

This engaging book not only offers step-by-step guidance on planning, writing, and defending a dissertation but also helps create a beginning-to-end process that is meaningful, rewarding, and exciting. Each chapter answers commonly asked questions, contains a checklist for each part of the dissertation, provides a summary of key points, and lists additional resources. Topics addressed include tips for staying motivated, time management, and self-care; selecting a dissertation committee and narrowing down the topic; writing a proposal; preparing the literature review; creating the problem statement, purpose statement, and research questions; understanding research methodology and ethics; collecting and analyzing data; presenting results; and best of all—publishing a dissertation. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on www.wiley.com *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website https://imis.counseling.org/store/ *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected]

Practical, comprehensive, and readable, Secrets for a Successful Dissertation is designed for doctoral candidates at or near the beginning of the dissertation stages of their academic programs. Combining humor with actual student stories, Secrets offers the doctoral candidate a poignant and motivational guide to assist in hurtling the perils of each dissertation phase. Each chapter offers a view of the dissertation process that is beyond the academic and addresses the emotional and mental stresses that often accompany the process itself. Secrets for a Successful Dissertation is meant to encourage each doctoral candidate toward beating the overwhelming odds of "ABD-dom." Doctoral candidates will find Secrets a book that provides a sense of reality and a "road map" with helpful hints not often told to students by any faculty.

Being aware of thesis and dissertation pitfalls can help the graduate student make efficient use of resources available to him or her and bring precision to research and writing of that important project. The authors present 61 cases cast as an envisioned conversation between a student and a professor whom the student consults about a problem. The cases are presented within ten chapters that proceed through a sequence of typical stages in the production of a thesis or dissertation. Chapter titles include Choosing and Defining a Research Topic, Searching the Professional Literature, Developing a Proposal, Getting Help, Devising Data-Collection Procedures, Organizing the Collected Information, Interpreting the Results, Writing the Report, Defending the Finished Product, and Publishing the Study.

Your dissertation is not a hurdle to jump or a battle to fight; as this handbook makes clear, your dissertation is the first of many destinations on the path of your professional career. Destination Dissertation guides you to the successful completion of your dissertation by framing the process as a stimulating and exciting trip—one that can be completed in fewer than nine months and by following twenty-nine specific steps. Sonja Foss and William Waters—your guides on this trip—explain concrete and efficient processes for completing the parts of the dissertation that tend to cause the most delays: conceptualizing a topic, developing a pre-proposal, writing a literature review, writing a proposal, collecting and analyzing data, and writing the last chapter. This guidebook is crafted for use by students in all disciplines and for both quantitative and qualitative dissertations, and incorporates a wealth of real-life examples from every step of the journey.

This book is a step by step illustrated guide to planning and writing dissertations and theses for undergraduate and graduate science students. Topics covered include advice on writing each section of a thesis as well as general discussions on collecting and organizing references, keeping records, presenting data, interacting with a supervisor and avoiding academic misconduct. Recommendations about how to use word processors and other software packages effectively are included, as well as advice on the use of other resources. A concise summary of important points of English grammar is given, along with appendices listing frequently confused words and wordy phrases to avoid. Further appendices are provided, including one on SI units. The aim is to provide an easy-to-read guide that gives students practical advice about all aspects of writing a science thesis or dissertation, starting from writing a thesis plan and finishing with the viva and corrections to the thesis.