You’ve done the research, analyzed the data, written the dissertation, and submitted it – now all that’s left is to complete your oral defense (also known as the viva voce, or just the viva). How on earth can you prepare to orally explain to a panel of experts what took you years to research and […]

Think you’ve hit the finish line when you finally finish your full dissertation draft? Well … not quite. You actually have many more steps before you finally get to call your dissertation journey finished. Here’s a handy infographic of what to expect.

If you’re approaching the final weeks of your dissertation writing journey, you may be wondering about the process for approaching and completing your defense. Exactly what happens after you hit the “submit” button, and how soon will you be able to flaunt your new title? You may unaware that there is still some work ahead […]

When you have a dissertation deadline approaching, it can be challenging to keep motivated. In fact, the closer the finish line looms, the harder it gets to stay focused and enthusiastic. Anything but sitting down to work starts to look attractive. (I often used to find myself really interested in dealing with the laundry backlog.) […]

No one likes doing academic references, but they are essential and a dissertation contains HUNDREDS of them. How can you keep your references and citations in order when you are working with so many sources over so many months and drafts? In this post, I give you my top tips as a professional academic writer […]

If you’ve never been taught how to conduct scholarly research, finding academic journal articles can feel overwhelming when you first sit down to research your dissertation lit review, problem statement, and so on. Many students resort to random browsing, but struggle to find journal articles that are relevant, timely, or both. If this is you, […]

You can be the most lucid writer in the world, but without good document management skills, your writing talent may not count for much. In my time as an editor and communications specialist, I have seen clients accidentally release rough drafts into the wild, lose hours of collaborative revision in the single push of a […]

We all know that academic hiring is cut-throat at the best of times, and even more so now that COVID-19 is hitting higher education institutions hard. A key question for budding academics at the moment, therefore, is how to transform amazing ideas and expertise into a coherent academic career narrative attractive to employers. One key […]

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when the task of writing 10,000+ words of dissertation report content looms before you. Here are my top tips for making the task feel more manageable. Tip 1: Make a Writing Plan You can make any task feel more manageable by breaking it down into smaller chunks, and dissertation writing […]

A key question for many dissertation students just getting started on their proposals is, “what is theory in dissertations, anyway?” A post on the topic of “what is theory” could expand to fill a whole book – and indeed, many books have been written on this topic. This post is your quick intro guide to […]