I was recently asked to provide motivational tips to clients seeking dissertation coaching towards completion of their doctorate. Here are my tips to clients who are seeking dissertation coaching:
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Many doctoral students determine that their thesis or dissertation needs to use sophisticated or complex wording to appear more scholarly and impressive. However, my suggestion is to simplify your writing - not try to make is sound more complex. For research to be effective, it must be understood. To achieve this, recommend writing at a Grade 8/9 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.
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Throughout my academic career as a doctoral professor, reviewer, chair/advisor, methodologist, and coach I’ve had the opportunity to work with countless students for dissertation topic selection or refinement. As noted in a previous blog post, topic selection is critical towards doctoral success or failure. For this blog post, the focus is on topic selection and development.
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What if students honed their research skills by actually researching available resources via the Internet, instead of a textbook, to learn about qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods - then apply that knowledge to their chosen research topic?
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I was recently asked “Is a PhD necessary?” While there are situations where a PhD is necessary, I started thinking that a bigger, and more relevant question is “Why a Phd?” There are many valid reasons why one should pursue obtaining a doctorate degree, or not. In this post, I will explore both the pros and cons of obtaining this pinnacle of scholarly degrees, along with resources for further research.
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Beginning doctoral students ask whether they should pursue a qualitative or quantitative research method. The response is that the method does not drive the topic, but that the topic drives the method in a logical manner – beginning with the problem, gap, purpose, then research questions/hypotheses (quantitative only).
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In today’s environment of increasingly strenuous and refined writing criteria among higher education universities, dissertation [also thesis] editors are essential for doctoral student success. According to Young et al. (2019), 36-51% of students fail to complete their doctoral journey. For many students, doctoral program delays, or failure, can be attributed to (a) a lack of understanding regarding the research process (potentially coupled with poor supervision), and/or (b) how to develop and write the dissertation [opinion]. Read more…
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A mindset that appears evident today is that debt is okay as earning a degree will result in greater job opportunities and earnings, from which debt can be paid. There is some truth to this as the higher the degree, the better the job (generally); however, like any business, there is a Return on Investment (ROI) to consider. How much does your education cost, and how much more will you earn as a result? Further, will the increased income, if any, be sufficient to pay off the loan? In how many years?
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Many researchers do not have access to paid library databases for multiple reasons, including a traditional college without online database access or a pre-enrollment research and proposal development for grants, scholarships, and/or admissions. Regardless of the reason, students and researchers often require a free/low-cost option for research to conduct their study. Following is a list of resources that are open access and free for use.
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