PhD EncouragementTM

I’ve been diving into Writing the Doctoral Dissertation 2e as a motivational tool.

Here’s some encouraging news:

• 90% of dissertations are 110-450 pages
• 80% are 130-390 pages
• 50% are 170-300 pages

Considering I just wrote 170 pages in two months (granted, it was on six different writing projects), this is good, good news!

Want some more? ‘Kay.

• 80% of dissertations require 12-20 actual work months (from start of topic search to completed draft of doctoral dissertation)
• 50% require 13.5-18 work months
• 5% require 11 or less work months
• Though 5% do require 22 or more work months (Yikes!)

All of which lends some credibility to this extremely attractive title: Completing Your Doctoral Dissertation or Master’s Thesis in Two Semesters or Less, or, as the blurb puts it, “during two semesters, in fifty workdays or less.” In fact, chapter 6 is entitled “Writing the Dissertation — Twenty Workdays to go!”

After yesterday’s panic attack, I got all focused and excited last night as I organized and planned out my literature review. I’ve got exactly sixteen items thus far (though a handful of tangential articles). More to get, of course, but that doesn’t include the five ancient commentators I did a paper on last month, and it lays a pretty solid foundation.

I definitely feel better today.

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