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 […]

One key strategy for avoiding burnout as a dissertation student is to set yourself doctorate goals. However, goal setting involves more than just making a to-do list. Read on for a quick explanation of how goals help, how to write goals, and what to do if you don’t manage to achieve your goals as expected. […]

Pulling together your final dissertation manuscript is no walk in the park. From references and citations to proper academic formatting and professional-looking tables and data graphs, there are a lot of moving pieces that all need to be executed perfectly if you want to impress your dissertation committee. Luckily, there are lots of free and […]

Managing different versions of your work can be challenging when you are dealing with multiple dissertation revisions. Sometimes, a chapter or proposal goes through multiple rounds of revision. At other times, you may be working with separate sets of feedback, from more than one advisor or committee chair. The majority of students use either Microsoft […]

You can be the best dissertation student in the world, but without good file management skills, your research talent won’t count for much. In my time as a dissertation coach, I have seen clients accidentally release rough drafts into the wild, lose hours of revision in the single push of a button, and discover that […]