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| Author: Joan Bolker
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $11.53
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 5770
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 184
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 080504891X
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.066378
EAN: 9780805048919
Publication Date: August 15, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Interesting but not too helpful December 29, 2004
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is a nice book to read. However, I expected it to be a "How to ..." book about the structure of my dissertation, the methodology section, the presentation of the research findings, and the writing of conclusions and it wasn't. I used "Surviving Your Dissertation" instead and it helped me a lot.
 Respectful, and gets you writing September 7, 2001
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Her advice is really good. She is deeply respectful, both of the real difficulties of making yourself write, and of the fact that your writing must be your own. Some samples of her advice that have transformed my relationship to writing: Set goals you can keep, even if it's only 15 minutes a day; use positive reinforcements; write in order to think, not vice versa. This last is especially valuable- if you want to write, just keep writing, even if it's not what you think you "need" to be writing! You really can trust her process to filter dissertation topics and chapters up to where you need them. I also liked it that she put control for discovering how I write best back into my hands, because that's what you most need when writing, and it's what many writing books (and advisors) take away. I wish I had read this 5 years ago. I have transformed my writing experience so that it now fits rather nicely into my life instead of being a painful and forced attempt to prove myself.
This book is a gem September 1, 2002
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book is a gem. I like it because it takes a process approach to teach people how to write. The book suggests process measures and promises that if you make sure you meet these targets, they will lead you to achieve your performance measures - the piece of writing your desperately want to finish.My favorite quote is:
"Writing in order to think rather than in order to write", pp. xvi My favorite measures are:
-Using a "Model dissertation", pp. 12
-Maxims, pp. 18
-"Write first ...every day", pp. 38, 47-78
-Set daily goals (# of pages - i.e. 3 - 6 per day), pp. 45
-"Don't waste words" - write it down using a notebook, a pocket computer, ... etc, pp. 47
-A tentative timetable (deadlines you set need to be very generous), pp. 74
A must have for doctoral/masters candidates July 10, 2004
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I am about 70% of the way through my PhD thesis, and this book has helped me tremendously. After less than two years of part-time study (working full-time as well), I have not only written around 200 000 words of draft and edited text, but I have published three papers and have a fourth currently sumbitted. I credit most of this from the advice in Bolker's book. Sure, I adopted my own partiucular way, but I have followed much of what is in the book.As Bolker suggests, if you write as you go, all the bits and pieces begin to thread themselves together. Simply passively reading or collecting data won't do it. The biggest problem with this approach is that I will almost certainly finish well ahead of the minimum four years required for part-time PhD candidates at my university (the English PhD system is more arduous and longer than the American system). I highly recommend this book for all PhD and masters students, and I only wish I'd known about it when I was an undergraduate, as it would have helped me tremendously then, also.
Makes the completion of your dissertation a realistic goal! April 13, 1999
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
As someone who works privately with students, helping them with dissertations, I highly recommend this book. Many of my clients feel overwhelmed by the dissertation process, and this book makes them feel that the completion of their dissertation is well within their reach. This book contains the kind of no-nonsense, practical information that students crave. It helps to keep my clients calm while I walk them through the dissertation process. I wish I had read this book when I did my own dissertation.
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