Fear of the doctoral Dissertation...any advice?

Question

I want to apply to a doctoral program in educational leadership. I breezed through my masters prgm yrs ago and I am ready to move on. I am completely confident with all coursework, papers, exams that may come my way, but I am terrified of defending a dissertation. More so orally than on paper. Can anyone give advice? Is it that bad?

Answer 1

I have three pieces of excellent advice for you.

1) When it is time for your defense, you will be the expert on your topic. Most defenses, if they are going well, are simply "chats" with your soon-to-be colleagues. Most defenses are arenas in which a PhD candidate gets to explain why they wrote what they wrote, why they think it is important, and why the way they did their work is an important contribution to the field. (Did you get that? You GET to talk about your work with people you respect! And YOU know more about it than they do!) Most importantly, these people want you to succeed. Your advisor will be there to assist you, and will even help you if you stumble. So make sure to cultivate a good relationship with your advisor from the outset. S/he won't let you defend until you're ready.

2) You have plenty of other things to worry about at this point. (Getting into a good program, for instance.) If you are busy worrying about things far in the future, you'll miss the present. Focus on the fact that you're about to GET to spend years studying something about which you have a true passion. Enjoy.

3) When you're ready, visit PhinisheD.org. It is a community of folks working on their dissertations, and is a great support group. You can chat with lots of other folks in similar situations, and they'll help with great advice, in a spirit of community.

Best wishes to you!

Answer 2

Hi,
doctoral dissertation or thesis is a professional necessity; in order to finish your graduate degree and begin your professional career, it is necessary to write and defend one. Your dissertation is a document that demonstrates your professional proficiency in a discipline or subject.For many beginning writers, the word dissertation conjures unrealistic visions of an industrious year spent in the university library before miraculously emerging with five polished chapters. Since this is certainly not the case for most students, this pamphlet will offer advice about the dissertation writing and revising process, suggest ways that Writing Tutorial Services can help dissertation writers, and highlight other useful resources.Most disciplines require that students write and defend a dissertation or thesis proposal before they begin research and writing. The dissertation proposal is a document that presents the main questions or ideas your project will investigate, reviews relevant literature on the topic, explains the necessity of further research, and, finally, discusses expected hypotheses and their significance to the topic and in the larger discipline.
You can also take help from web .

Answer 3

Most defenses are formalities, and I know of no one who has "flunked" it. You will have an advisor, who is largely responsible for guiding you to a successful dissertataion and defense. He or she usually will not allow you to fail, because that would reflect badly on the advisor. The committee also does not want you to fail, because it would reflect badly on them and the institution.
As mentioned, you will also know more about the topic and the thesis than the committee, in most cases, so there are few questions likely to befuddle you.
Finally, you can and should practice for the defense a week or two before by anticipating likely questions and practicing your responses.
It is an anxious time, of course, but just be honest with your advisor and have that person help you prepare.

Answer 4

I don't have a PhD but I have an MA that had quite a thesis. I would think that by the time you finish your dissertation, you know way more on the subject than anyone on your committee. You can do it, have confidence! Good luck!

Answer 5

Keep practicing your public speaking skills. I'm in a doctoral program and one of our professors keeps stressing to stop using non-words, like um. I would say practice what you're going to say in front of people and have them ask you questions about it. They may not be to the depth of when you actually have to defend your dissertation, but it might help you learn to think quickly and not have that dead silence when you're stressed.