PhD Coaching Blog — Thesis

Happy 2024! Registration has now closed on my small group coaching sessions to produce a "Good Enough" thesis, that will give students a good start in this New Year: https://www.phdcoaching.ca/pages/upcoming-thesis-workshop However, I know that many doctoral candidates don't want to join a group and prefer individual coaching. I completely understand, and there are many benefits to one-on-one sessions. The main advantage is that the entire focus is on your own thesis.  Whether you need help with your writing, or want to discuss what your supervisor said to you in margin comments, the discussion is just about your own work. It's...

      Expecting to be dawdling over your thesis in 2024?   To help you avoid that, I invite to join me for a four-week series of tutorials on how to write a “Good Enough” thesis, starting January 25th. Why?  Well, did you know that the average thesis takes eight years to complete? I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that PhD programs are excessively long and that doctoral students take too much time. In spite of the best of intentions, too many find themselves failing to reach the end of their studies, and there are probably several...

    Let me share that shocking news again.  Your opinion doesn’t matter if you’re writing a thesis.  Many doctoral candidates want to use their thesis as a platform for airing an opinion, to try to  persuade everyone to agree with them.  A thesis is all about providing evidence.  It’s about reviewing the literature, conducting research, reporting the findings, and drawing conclusions.  That’s conclusions based on the findings, not on your own biased opinions. When I break the news to candidates that they have to hold off presenting their own unsupported ideas, they often say: “But how do I present...

  Graduate Pathways to Success Model When you're planning to build something, like a doctoral thesis, it's a good idea to create a model that shows how all the pieces connect.  I'm very proud of the model that I created for the Graduate Pathways to Success program at the University of British cancel, and I saw it was still in use when I visited for a special event this week: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/professional-development Also pleased to see that I'm still being given credit for my work with GPS: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/professional-development/about-gps Of course that may change shortly, because the special event was the retirement...

  Few things  test endurance more than working on a doctoral thesis.  This is a “self-portrait” that one of my clients sent to me to share with anyone who’s in the same boat as she is. Do you recognize yourself? This client has been working on her research topic for a long time.  In fact, she’s written a book, and is a practitioner in her area of expertise as well. But it’s taking a long time to get the thesis written, and from time to time she gets weary, as you can tell. We often talk about the need to...