Destination Dissertation
A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation
3rd Edition
Published on 15. April 2025
480 pages
978-1-5381-9658-8 (ISBN)
Description
Demystifying and charting a path from concept to completion, Destination Dissertation has helped thousands of doctoral students emerge on the other side of their dissertation as successful researchers. The third edition supplements the core 29 steps of the dissertation with new discussions of research technologies and now-popular dissertation sections like theoretical perspective, theoretical framework, and positionality statement. A new chapter looks beyond the dissertation to springboard researchers into future journal and book publishing opportunities.
More details
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
57 b/w illustrations; 1 b/w photo; 7 tables; 53 textboxes
ISBN-13
978-1-5381-9658-8 (9781538196588)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2025
3rd Edition
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
€95.70
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Sonja K. Foss is professor emerita of communication at the University of Colorado at Denver. She created and is co-director of Scholars' Retreat, designed to provide intensive, focused, and supervised writing time for dissertations, theses, and other writing projects.
William Waters is associate professor of English at the University of Houston, Downtown and co-director of Scholars' Retreat.
William Waters is associate professor of English at the University of Houston, Downtown and co-director of Scholars' Retreat.
Content
- Cover
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgments
- New in the Third Edition
- CHAPTER ONE Preparing to Go: The Dissertation Journey
- Can a Dissertation Really Be a Trip?
- Packing Your Bags
- Enjoyment
- Doability
- Competence
- Agency
- Support
- Our Guarantees
- Your Travel Agents
- How to Use This Guide
- CHAPTER TWO The Journey before You: 29 Steps
- Our Timetable
- Yeah, But
- CHAPTER THREE Planning the Trip: The Conceptual Conversation
- Selecting and Orienting a Partner
- Asking and Answering Questions
- Identifying Key Pieces
- CHAPTER FOUR Developing Your Itinerary: The Preproposal
- Naming the Problem
- Formulating Your Research Question
- Criteria for a Good Research Question
- Multiple Research Questions
- Selecting Your Data
- Identifying Your Method of Data Collection
- Identifying Your Method of Data Analysis
- Identifying the Literature to Review
- Identifying the Significance of Your Study
- Identifying Your Chapters
- Writing Your Preproposal
- Assessing Your Decisions
- Committing to the Preproposal with Your Adviser
- CHAPTER FIVE Advice from Other Travelers: The Literature Review
- Coding Your Literature
- Keyboarding Method
- Photocopying Method
- Copy-and-Paste Method
- Electronic Coding Method
- Cutting Apart Your Codes
- Sorting Your Codes
- Checking Your Piles
- Creating Your Conceptual Schema
- Writing It Up
- CHAPTER SIX Getting There: The Dissertation Proposal
- Introduction
- Research Question
- Definition of Terms
- Literature Review
- Research Design
- Data
- History or Context
- Procedures
- Theoretical Perspective, Theoretical Framework, and Positionality Statement
- Significance of the Study
- Outline of the Study
- Approval of the Proposal
- CHAPTER SEVEN Things to See and Do: Data Collection and Analysis
- Collecting Your Data
- Creating Codable Data
- Identifying Your Unit of Analysis
- Coding Your Data
- Sorting Your Codes
- Checking Your Codes
- Creating Your Explanatory Schema
- Getting Inspiration for Your Explanatory Schema
- Talking Out Loud
- Random Stimulation
- Shifting Focus
- Aristotle's Topics
- Reversing
- Framing
- Assessing Your Explanatory Schema
- Writing It Up
- CHAPTER EIGHT Making the Most of Your Travels: The Last Chapter Plus
- Summary
- Interpretation of Findings
- Limitations
- Suggestions for Future Research
- Three-Article Format
- Finishing Up
- CHAPTER NINE Useful Phrases: Writing and Editing
- Fast Writing
- Switching Off the Screen
- Making Notes to Yourself
- Writing with Headings
- Skipping Around
- Getting Unstuck
- Slow Revising
- Editing
- Proofreading
- Making Use of Phrasebanks
- What about AI?
- CHAPTER TEN Travelogue: The Dissertation Defense
- Preparing for Your Defense
- The Defense Itself
- The Opening
- The Questions
- Your Answers
- The Closing
- Following Your Defense
- CHAPTER ELEVEN Making the Best Use of Your Guide: Adviser Advising
- Asking Appropriately
- Agreeing on a Vision
- Expectations about Roles
- Expectations about Advising
- Expectations about Dissertations
- Articulating Needs
- Conceptual Conversation
- Ground Rules
- Information about the Dissertation Process
- Information about Research and Writing
- Information about the Dissertation Defense
- Enacting Professionalism
- Assessing Your Relationship
- Understanding Your Adviser's Perspective
- Framing Issues Collaboratively
- Protecting Your Adviser's Face
- Planning for Action
- Applying Productive Chicanery
- Performing Completion
- Asking for Help from a Mediator
- Adding a Coadviser
- Switching Advisers
- CHAPTER TWELVE Avoiding Delays and Annoyances: Enacting the Scholar Role
- Incomplete-Scholar Roles
- Housekeeper
- Model Employee
- Undocumented Worker
- Patient
- Good Student
- Proxy Critic
- Executor
- Maverick
- Enacting the Scholar Role: Writing Regularly
- Writing on a Schedule
- Focusing on Successes
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN Extending the Journey: Publishing Your Dissertation
- Turning Your Dissertation into a Book
- Rebooking Your Trip
- Turning Your Dissertation into a Journal Article
- Selecting Potential Journals
- Assessing Potential Journals
- Matching Your Manuscript to a Journal
- Drafting Your Manuscript
- Submitting Your Manuscript
- The Decision
- Revising Your Manuscript
- Success!
- Index
- About the Authors
