Dissertation Help: How to Improve a Doctoral Advisor/Mentor Relationship

By E. Alana James
Doctoral mentors or advisers are meant to aid a doctoral student in efficiently finishing their degree. Unfortunately there are a few things that doctoral students or professors do that inhibit the finishing of the doctoral dissertation or doctoral thesis. This article is one of a series offering dissertation help to doctoral students faced with the challenges of graduate work and it focuses on the frequently asked question, "What do I do about an advisor who drives me nuts?" Students tell me that they find their mentor or advisor not supportive of their process. When I dig deeper into this kind of frustration I usually find that three types of problems may exist: 1) the Mentor is not considered supportive, 2) the Mentor does not give timely feedback, or 3) the Mentor does not give direct instructions. This article looks into each of these complaints to offer suggestions for improvement.

Not Supportive?

Students and mentors together need to come to some agreement about what types of support will be given throughout their relationship. It is never too late for these agreements to be reached, so if you are disgruntled because you feel as though your advisor is not supportive enough, have a frank conversation with that person. Advising doctoral students is an interesting journey, because on the one hand you do not want to guide them as you would in a class to a specific level of outcome, as, after all, dissertations require that students prove they have reached a certain level of mastery on their own. On the other hand, leaving doctoral students to flounder around for years, as was the old-style of working, did not lead to positive educational outcomes. I believe in charting a course from the beginning of the dissertation process through the end; helping students develop a timeline that will get them finished in time; and then relying on them to come to me when they need specific help.

A doctoral student's work needs to be 100% their own responsibility. Therefore, even if I grow concerned that someone is not working, I seldom go and chase them as if they were students in the class. Are you are feeling your advisor is not supportive? Ask yourself whether and to what extent you have been willing to manage your own doctoral process. If the answer is that you have been waiting for them to help motivate you further, then take self-responsibility to figure out the process and come to them to gather their agreement to your ideas.

Another way that an advisor/mentee relationship may seem to lack support is if the professor's feedback is consistently critical. I have written in other articles about the fact that,in the role of working with the student on a dissertation,a professor has a dual responsibility not only to the student, but also to maintain the standards of the University. Some students seem to expect that their work on a dissertation will proceed much as all the work they have ever done on class projects proceeds, without many challenges. It is not uncommon for the first efforts at dissertation writing to be far off the mark, and therefore feedback may seem for while overly negative. Again, this is a matter to discuss one-on-one between yourself and your mentor/advisor.

Lack of Timely Feedback

Students also complain that they don't get timely feedback from their mentors and advisors. Different universities have different standards, so the first step for any doctoral student who is disappointed in the amount or timeliness of the feedback they receive is to check with the university as to whether there are discrete standards to which they hold their professors. Generally, it is considered timely to get back to a student with dissertation writing within two weeks. This allows for the substantial amount of time they take to read, mark, and give feedback. Professors also likely have several students and classes on their workload and so have to juggle each.

If, after considering the full situation, you still feel as though you are not receiving timely feedback the second step is to begin to manage your communication with your mentor advisor more closely. I appreciate a student who turns in their work and asks me whether or not I can give them feedback by a certain date. Then, as the second step, within a few days of that date they may write a quick e-mail reminding me that the deadline is coming up and asking if that is still possible. In this way it becomes unlikely that their work slips out of my attention, and I rarely miss those deadlines.

Does Not Give Instructions

Doctoral students also complain about a professor who seems never to be available to them, rarely if ever giving instructions. This again may develop out of an old-fashioned view from the advisor on the mentor advisor relationship. It used to be understood that students had to manage the whole process, and the person who is your mentor advisor may have gotten their degree with that understanding, therefore they may expect that also of you. I find, even working at universities that consciously guide the process, that the students who finish first and best are the ones who are willing to immediately take control of their own process.

I have written other articles on the need for students to find model dissertations to work from, set a timeline towards finishing, and build agreements with their mentor advisor as to how the work will progress. Most doctoral students are professionals in their own right and field, yet they don't take the same control over their own graduation process that they would over their employees, or the people they manage. To the extent that you can manage the expectations of your mentor rather then the other way around, you will be able to finish quickly and efficiently.

In summary, much can be done to improve the mentor advisor relationship with doctoral students by communicating about and setting specific expectations as to support, timing, and feedback. The mentor/advisors probably graduated in a time where students had different expectations than they do now. Discussing this openly on both sides will do much to further your relationship, and to build a strong format for communication between you. If, on the other hand, despite all your efforts, it is still clear that you and your mentor/advisor do not agree on what constitutes supportive, timely feedback then discuss this with the university at large. I fired my first advisor at Columbia. It was a very good decision and I graduated quickly once I found someone I could work with. That did not make the professor I fired a bad advisor, it just meant that our styles of communication were so different that it rendered me incapable of learning from her.You will need to assess your own situation to find out the best way for you to make sure you have a productive advisor/student relationship while completing your doctoral work.

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Dissertation Help: How to Move Past Lack of Motivation When Writing a Dissertation or Thesis?

By E. Alana James
I find that doctoral students frequently face many challenges with motivation, especially when they come to the end of their doctoral journey and are primarily working on their dissertations. Maintaining consistent motivation with doctoral writing while working on dissertations or theses is especially challenging when your personal life includes family, full-time work, aging parents, health issues, etc. Lack of motivation happens to most people somewhere along the journey. This article is one of a series offering dissertation help to doctoral students faced with the challenges of graduate work and it focuses on the frequently asked question, "What tools will help me move past my lack of motivation?" There are two situations when your work is likely to bog down: when outside life challenges distract you from your doctoral work, and during the writing process itself when you are just bored with it, or think it will never end. Both situations and several tools are considered in this article.

Motivation When Outside Challenges Distract

No matter what lifetime reinvention process people engage in, whether it is professional development, learning new skills, etc. momentum is always difficult to maintain during times when the life you are currently living is full of challenges or distractions. As an example, no parent wants to miss the precious time of their children growing up because they have a paper to write. Similarly, care for an aging parent can often become a daunting task. I see it as a balancing act, and one where the balance is never even but, like a teeter totter, has one side up while the other is down. Picture your dissertation or thesis writing on one side of the teeter totter and the current distraction or challenge you face on the other. Your goal should not be to always have the thesis side in the air, but rather to manage the movement back and forth so that when the life side takes precedence then the dissertation or thesis does not completely hit the ground.

Building a writing habit is the first tool in your motivation toolbox. First consider that it takes 21 days of consistent movement for a new routine to be ingrained in your systems so that you no longer struggle against it. Therefore if you commit to just three weeks of getting up at least six days a week 30 minutes earlier and devoting 15 minutes at least to writing, at the end of 21 days you will have developed the habit of writing a little bit every day. This is the secret on which I see the most testimonials. My students often say it is what got them through. It's also amazing that you can sit in front of your computer not knowing what you are going to do that day and still have 15 minutes of solid good work develop. Often times you may not want to stop because the work is interesting and you are inherently motivated to do it. You wouldn't be in graduate school otherwise.

Motivation When Boredom Strikes

Similar to writer's block, but on a deeper level, boredom or feeling overwhelmed also is a mental/emotional state that is likely to derail dissertation writing. Perspective is the tool that is often needed in this case. At a certain point in the journey, when you feel as though you've been doing it a long time, and the daily grind of it is wearing you down, you may feel your motivation just grinding to a halt. Step back from your immediate situation and re-evaluate how this degree will allow you to contribute to your world. You started your doctoral work for some definite reasons. Remember the things you wanted to add to your life. Focus on them again. In another article I discussed how to use mind movies to help increase your daily awareness of your goals, you may want to go look up those articles if you are in a slump where accessing your internal motivation for getting your doctoral degree has become hard.

Another tool to use to get past lack of motivation is to break the work down into smaller quantities. You may be thinking about it like, "Oh my goodness, this is a BIG project I have to finish!" That way of picturing the work is likely to make you feel tired. Try instead to look at what you have to do next, and coming up with three small steps that will help you progress along that specific task. By keeping the whole project out of your mind, and instead focusing on the small or finite tasks you will find it easier to continue. Getting things done is inherently motivating, so it is likely that you will find your internal desire to sit down and get more time increasing as you have sections you have recently finished to celebrate.

Finally, don't forget the positive outcomes available from using reflection as a tool to get past lack of motivation. Consider for a moment on what you can do, think, or understand now that was outside of your scope a few years ago when you started this work. The doctoral journey, because it is a long one has lots of little curves and turns, some of which you may forget when you all are slogging up the last hill, getting your dissertation done. It should be motivating to think about those other challenges that you have faced and overcome. Also give yourself some time to celebrate how much more you now understand about your field, its intricacies, and what it takes to contribute at a high level. Research shows that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. That is roughly 3 hours a day seven days a week for three years. As a doctoral student you will have completed your 10,000 hours. Celebrate your expertise.

In summary, there are several tools you can use to move lack of motivation whether you are bogged down because of other things in your life, or because the work has just gone on a long time. Probably both of these reasons for motivation slump will occur to most graduate students somewhere along the path of their doctoral dissertation writing. Consider these helpful hints part of your toolbox, and pull out the tools that seem to address the challenge you face, whenever you need them.

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Dissertation Help During Defense: How to Move Past Criticism and On To Success

By E. Alana James
I find that doctoral students are frequently angry or unhappy when they receive strong critical comments, especially during Defense of Dissertation or Defense of Proposal. Maintaining a positive attitude when receiving criticism is a difficult task, one that most students face somewhere along the dissertation journey. This article is one of a series offering dissertation help to doctoral students faced with the challenges of graduate work and it focuses on the frequently asked question, "I'm really angry about the criticism I received, what can I do?" There are two ways to address this challenge: both before you enter your defense and after you have gotten the criticism and can't get past your reaction. Both situations are addressed in this article.

Before You Go into Defense of Proposal

Every doctoral student will face difficult or negative feedback on their work - it is part of the peer review process and will continue throughout your professional academic career. If you are reading this article prior to actually receiving critical comments the best thing you can do is to adjust your attitude to expect them. You must realize that two things come into play when people are reviewing your work as part of a Defense of Proposal or Defense of Dissertation process. Those same people who have been helpful teachers or professors may now seem hypercritical judges. Why? Because their role has changed from being in support of you to being protective of the standards of the university that employs them. Professors were all trained by different universities, therefore their views on the dissertation process, while similar, will also display differences. It is the differences that help ensure the best possible outcomes for students and universities, and why there are multiple readers on every committee.

Your mentor or advisor has taken your work to the fullest extent that they understand and now it is time for two other people to weigh in and help you go the next step. In all the defences in which I have participated, only one student sailed through without having to face difficult criticisms of their work and the requirement that they needed to go back and redo some sections. Therefore the best thing you can do for yourself is to expect that outcome, and prepare to rework sections as required by your new readers.

After You Have Received Difficult Criticism

Once you have received difficult criticism you need to gain perspective on it before you overreact. You may have been reading it, feeling yourself begin to get angry, or depressed. The best thing is to form an agreement with yourself that you will read it all the way through and then put it away for 2 to 4 days without reacting. In those days life will have continued on its own path, you will have been distracted by other situations and, you can come back to the comments with less angst, having put the situation in perspective. These comments are, after all, made in order to benefit the quality of your work overall. While they slow you down right now, they ensure a good ending.

When you revisit the review, first choose three things that you see as being the most legitimate suggestions. Take out your writing and work just on those three things. Each day continue on this path until you have chipped away at all of the easiest and most direct criticism that you received. This will help motivate you to tackle the hard parts.

Don't fool yourself that by tackling the easy-to-understand sections you are likely to be making substantive changes required by the comments. What you have done, is probably address the more cosmetic changes required. More often than not, professor's comments point to somewhat severe underlying challenges. Trying to understand the broader issues, reflect on the differences between your work and that of model dissertations you may be working with, and then make an appointment to discuss what you understand as necessary changes prior to doing much substantive writing. As an example, I'm currently working with a student on her final defence who did not adequately analyze her data, or if she did, she was not yet properly trained in how to express her findings from those data to her audience. She is facing another couple of weeks of work, and of course hates it. If you find yourself in this situation, what is not helpful is if you fall into being overwhelmed. Consider it one more task you have to complete prior to graduation, and dig into it with the same expertise as you have handled the rest of your doctoral work. It may have been unexpected to you, but it is not an unusual situation.

After you have spent some good reflective time and know that you can tackle this, as you have all the other challenges you faced along your doctoral career, make an appointment to approach the person who made the criticism. Go into that meeting ready to discuss what you understand from their comments, what you have seen by looking at finished dissertations, and what approaches you have already thought of. In this manner, you demonstrate to the professor your own level of professionalism and expertise, and move out over the role of student towards the role of peer. This, after all, is the purpose of the dissertation process, and most professors will respond very well.

In summary, there are several things you can do to move the anger and frustration you feel when you hear strong criticism of your doctoral work. As I said, it's part of the process and happens to almost everyone. Consider these more tools for your dissertation toolbox and pull them out when appropriate.

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Dissertation Help: What Can I Expect Out Of My Defense of Proposal?

By E. Alana James
Doctoral students frequently feel unhappy or upset after both their defense of proposal and defense of dissertation processes. Maintaining a positive attitude when receiving criticism is part of the task, but it also helps to understand the defense in light of the entire journey. This article is one of a series offering dissertation help to doctoral students faced with the challenges of graduate work and it focuses on the frequently asked question, "What can I expect out of my Defense of Proposal?" There are two ways to address this challenge: one is to understand the process from your reader's point of view and the second is to set yourself up for success by developing solid and supportive expectations. Both situations are addressed in this article.

The Defense from the Professor's Point of View

Professors generally work in the role of helpful guidance and we enjoy encouraging students while supporting them in learning new skills, and tackling new ideas. Our job changes from helper to one of guardian of the systems we represent when we moved into defense of proposal or dissertation. Half of our job remains helping the students do the best they can, but we also need to be aware that it is our task to make sure that all of the work from our universities passes the scrutiny of the regional certification boards. Having been on both sides of the dissertation defense process, as mentor and advisor on the one hand, and as a reader on the other hand, it is always amazing to me that things I see as a reader I don't always see as an advisor. I've come to understand that this has to do with the fact that when I am advising I have a deep relationship with a student and so I am blinded by the progress they have made and cannot always see the deficiencies they still face. This will likely happen to your mentor and advisor as well. That is why the university requires that your work is overviewed by people who have not read your work up until this time. It is guaranteed that they will see things you have not up until this point understood. Therefore, the best thing you can do for yourself, as a student, is to expect new and substantive criticism when you pass your work into a defense situation.

Set Yourself up for Success

Setting your expectations is critical to your sailing through difficult criticism with ease. Expect that you will receive criticism, and that it will lead to more work on your dissertation than you or your advisor previously thought you needed.

You should expect to be closely questioned on your methodology. Be prepared by double and triple checking for a one-to-one correspondence between your questions, your methodology, and your outcomes. There should also be a correlation between your literature review, your questions, and the variables you expect to measure to answer those questions. You have written chapters and sections as separate pieces, the defense should ensure that they now become one integrated whole. You can save yourself some time at the end by doing a lot of upfront work and massaging those correlations so that they become evident and specific.

Understand the positive potential of the defense process and be on the lookout for those lessons. Going through defense of proposal and dissertation should leave you with a better understanding of the academic process. The rigors of peer review don't get easier with time, although they do become familiar. Therefore, especially if you want to publish, consider that this particular process will repeat itself over and over for the rest of your life. Get comfortable with how it feels, and how you respond to the sticky parts such as strong criticism. An understanding of academic rigor is also a key lesson. It takes a certain kind of strength and courage to revisit work, throw out entire sections, and redo them in order to meet higher standards than we ever knew existed prior to starting. Doctoral work is not for fools or lazy people. This is where you prove the strength your made of.

In summary, you will learn the most from your defense of proposal or dissertation by first understanding the process from your professor's point of view, doing some serious editing yourself before you get there, and then keeping an overview of what you are learning through the process in mind as you go through it. Consider these ideas a few more tools for your doctoral toolbox and pull them out when you need them.

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