Month help: I have a month and a half to write a dissertation of 15000 words… do you think it can be done? - Help.com

What’s it on?

oh yeah a month is ages wait til you have about a week/week and a half left that whack it all out in one go :)

yes it can and your just the right person to do it so get on with it

Yeah, sure… Start out with some kind of paper-planning-schedule, where you can brainstorm your ideas on what you want to say, how you’re going to focus the issue and how much attention you’re going to pay to each part. Once you’ve set up the content overall, develop it a little bit more. Then decide how you’re going to organise your time ahead and do save some time for “unpredictable” events.

Believe me, it’s easy enough. English isn’t my mother language (obviously :)) and more often than not, I was given 1.30h to write up to 250 words. A 15000-word essay / dissertation / thesis is not that difficult, just be organised ;). Good luck!

markitu wrote:
Yeah, sure… Start out with some kind of paper-planning-schedule, where you can brainstorm your ideas on what you want to say, how you’re going to focus the issue and how much attention you’re going to pay to each part. Once you’ve set up the content overall, develop it a little bit more. Then decide how you’re going to organise your time ahead and do save some time for “unpredictable” events.

Believe me, it’s easy enough. English isn’t my mother language (obviously :)) and more often than not, I was given 1.30h to write up to 250 words. A 15000-word essay / dissertation / thesis is not that difficult, just be organised ;). Good luck!

Thanks, seems like such a huge task right now at the start. I think I know what to write, but don’t really know where to start. Brainstorming is a good plan, however in the light of day I can’t focus on it.. i only seem to want to get it done at night when I can’t sleep! I guess they say that you are most honest with yourself lying in bed.. which is when I realise how much work it is!! arrgh! But it will be fine..right!

ps. your english is great!

Ahaha… yeah, lol I know what you mean… Honestly, I better focus on my tasks at night. Do it your way. If doing this at night feels ok, then off you go. If next week you’re willing to do this task in the morning, do it in the morning. Up to you, really :). However, I would certainly suggest that you should focus on this stuff for long enough. I don’t think it would be appropriate to work on it 4 times a day for 15 minutes each, but rather 1 time for 60 minutes, if you know what I mean… It’s not that much, ehehe, just go for it, specially at first!

Yes you can…

and I agree with Markitu, write during your best times….

I’d also like to share some other practical and “psychological” tips that were given to me:

Write to a lay audience– in your mind, choose someone who is just starting in your field as your audience– that will mentally help you to explain things more throughly than if you think of your committeee memebers as you write.

Someone told me to buy a different color of paper than I usually did–something easy on the eyes, like light blue or green. Then stack exactly 1000 pieces by your printer. Everytime you finish a section, print it,and move it to the other side. Seeing the stack on the “complete” side grow makes it seem more doable.

Establish a routine of writing, rereading, ajusting your outline, etc. Use the same pattern everyday– and put the writing time at the best part of the day. In my case, as a morning person, I always wrote 6am-11 am, took lunch, then spent the afternoon rereading, making notes for changes and preparing for the writing of the next day… thus I started with a fresh outline, notes and such each morning. I kept a pad of paper by my bed to write down any thoughts that came to me just as I was going to sleep.

Make a standing appointment with a writing lab person, colleague or mentor, to read the next section each week an give you general feedback. The mini-deadlines will help keep you on task.

Write the “easy” sections first– even it that means you are not writing in the order that they will appear in the diss.– that way you will build confidence as you write, before taking on the more complicated sections.

Hope one of these helps– just keep going!… I heard someone once say that people with PhDs are not necessarily the most intelligent but the most perseverant. :-)

Yes you can do this, just spend a couple of hours a day on it or an hour depending on how fast you think and write your thoughts down.

What subject it this on?

My advice is to break it down into sections and do a section a day, as in, what, why, where, when and how is a good rule of thumb to follow. If you tell me what the subject is I will break it down into sections to do with a rough guideline on how many words to produce for each and a few tips on how you can easily achieve this, if it will help you.