Dissertation Writing

Writer's block? How do the professionals begin the dissertation writing process, i.e., getting that first sentence down on paper?

First: get organized. You must know what you need to write, and why, when writing a dissertation. Proposal? Problem Statement? Limitations section? Hypotheses? You can't write without planning what you are going to say. Make a list of the points you plan to cover- a word or two is enough-and then organize the research materials and notes you will use during the dissertation writing phase.

Second: look at samples. You can't write a section of Chapter I such as the Problem Statement if you don't know what a Problem Statement is, or what goes into it.

Third: get it down, then edit. What you are writing does not have to be perfect the first time. Get the words down, and then go back and refine where necessary.

Fourth: save, save, save. How discouraging to find that the dissertation page or chapter your worked so hard to write has disappeared in a hard disk failure, or when a power surge hits your computer. Save your dissertation outline and writing in multiple places: hard drive, floppy, zip drive, CD. Also print out sections as they are finished so you can see what your dissertation writing work looks like on paper.