One of the goals of your dissertation is to produce independent research and knowledge. At a basic level, however, a dissertation must address a research problem in order to convince your committee that the investigation is worthwhile. Exciting and unexpected challenges will appear while you pursue your degree. How do you structure the dissertation journey? How do you improve the odds that you will achieve what you set out to achieve?

At Walden University, the odds of achieving your goals are increased thanks to the host of services available to help you—including a Writing Center that helps with graduate-level writing, Ph.D. residencies that offer seminars on a broad range of important topics, librarians who can assist with locating hard-to-find resources, and academic advisors who help with policies and procedures. Now, on to your journey.

Look for Problems
As a doctoral candidate, you’re unique. You’re looking for problems. More precisely, you’re looking for ways to better understand a single problem. At the beginning of this effort, consider this deceptively simple suggestion: Observe the world. Everywhere around you are ideas, people and, yes, problems that could form the nucleus of a good starting point or question.

Talk to people. Your colleagues, faculty and mentors are key sources of good information about what’s happening in your profession. The questions that will arise naturally from these discussions are golden opportunities for further exploration and may lead to the idea for your dissertation.

Attend Conferences, Read the Literature
Professional conferences are at the cutting edge of knowledge. Why? A book, once it is published, is already dated at the time of its release, and that’s if the publication process went quickly. Books and journal articles are invaluable, but scholarly conferences are a treasure trove of advanced thinking and research.

Also, it is essential that you read the research literature. Consume it, live it and breathe it. Look for gaps in the literature in your field to see where you might make a contribution. When you begin your work, keep these points in mind: 

• Observe the world.
• Talk to colleagues and mentors.
• Attend professional conferences.
• Read the literature in your field.
• Look for gaps in the literature.

Linear Product, Nonlinear Process
Once under way, the dissertation process is dynamic and multidimensional. You’ll move back and forth among observations, empirical research, methodology, design, analysis, theory, models and so on. Various aspects of your work will vie for attention at the same time as others. Ultimately, doctoral candidates will create a process that works for them. But in the end, every dissertation is a linear product. A typical Walden dissertation has five or six chapters. In greatly condensed fashion, they are likely to be organized this way:

• Chapter 1–The research problem
• Chapter 2–Review of the literature
• Chapter 3–Research method(s)
• Chapter 4–Findings
• Chapter 5–Summary, conclusions, and implications

Plan
It’s not uncommon for a dissertation to take several years to complete. Given the demands and the complexity of the undertaking, careful planning is a necessity.

A wise course of action would be to use project management and productivity tools. Numerous options are available: The Gantt chart is a well-known tool that illustrates project scheduling and can help you plot start and end dates for different phases. Microsoft Excel is extremely powerful, with functionality in project command and control, analysis and charting, automated report generation, and data sorting and analysis. In recent years, mind mapping has emerged as a useful tool. The Concept Mapping Tool, from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, allows users to create graphical tools to organize, represent and share knowledge. Mindjet is a personal productivity tool that provides greater visibility into information that also can be integrated with Microsoft Office. New productivity applications appear almost daily, so organizational options for students abound.

Remember, a little planning goes a long way.

Learn more about earning a doctorate by watching Academic Residencies for Doctoral Students. 

  

January Ponder front page

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