Developing Quality Dissertations in the Humanities


Book Description

"Lovitts and Wert wrote Developing Quality Dissertations in the Humanities as a guide for both dissertation advisors and graduate students as they work though the dissertation writing process. The text is arranged in booklet format focusing on the intentions of the dissertation, rather than the typical procedural focus commonly found in 'how-to' dissertation books. This text will prove useful for new dissertation advisors and graduate students looking for very basic guidelines on the purpose, significance and quality expectations of a dissertation."--Book review on Amazon.com.




Developing Quality Dissertations in the Humanities


Book Description

This is one of three short booklets designed to be given to graduate students as they begin their studies. These booklets explain the purposes of the dissertation and the criteria by which it will be assessed. They help students understand the context of their course work; the need to take an active role in shaping their studies; and the importance of thinking ahead about the components of the dissertation and the quality of scholarship they will need to demonstrate.These booklets are intended to support the dissertation research and writing process by providing faculty and advisors with guidelines for setting clear expectations for student performance, and with a model for helping students produce the desired quality of work. They encourage dialogue between faculty and students about the quality of the components of their dissertation project. They include rubrics that students can use to self-assess their work and that can aid faculty in providing focused feedback.Setting explicit targets and benchmarks of excellence of the sort advocated in these booklets will enable departments and universities to respond to demands for accountability with clear criteria for, and evidence of, success; and will raise the overall quality of student performance.




Developing Quality Dissertations in the Social Sciences


Book Description

This is one of three short booklets designed to be given to graduate students as they begin their studies. They explain the purposes of the dissertation and the criteria by which it will be assessed. They help students understand the context of their course work; the need to take an active role in shaping their studies; and the importance of thinking ahead about the components of the dissertation and the quality of scholarship they will need to demonstrate.These booklets are intended to support the dissertation research and writing process by providing faculty and advisors with guidelines for setting clear expectations for student performance, and with a model for helping students produce the desired quality of work. They encourage dialogue between faculty and students about the quality of the components of their dissertation project. They include rubrics that students can use to self-assess their work and that can aid faculty in providing focused feedback.Setting explicit targets and benchmarks of excellence of the sort advocated in these booklets will enable departments and universities to respond to demands for accountability with clear criteria for, and evidence of, success; and will raise the overall quality of student performance.




Developing Quality Dissertations in the Sciences


Book Description

This is one of three short booklets designed to be given to graduate students as they begin their studies. They explain the purposes of the dissertation and the criteria by which it will be assessed. They help students understand the context of their course work; the need to take an active role in shaping their studies; and the importance of thinking ahead about the components of the dissertation and the quality of scholarship they will need to demonstrate.These booklets are intended to support the dissertation research and writing process by providing faculty and advisors with guidelines for setting clear expectations for student performance, and with a model for helping students produce the desired quality of work. They encourage dialogue between faculty and students about the quality of the components of their dissertation project. They include rubrics that students can use to self-assess their work and that can aid faculty in providing focused feedback.Setting explicit targets and benchmarks of excellence of the sort advocated in these booklets will enable departments and universities to respond to demands for accountability with clear criteria for, and evidence of, success; and will raise the overall quality of student performance.




Sankofa


Book Description

Sankofa reexamines doctoral education through the lens of African American and Black experiences. Drawing on the African diasporic legacy of Sankofa and the notion that "it is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten," the contributors "go back" to address legacies of exclusion in higher education and take care to center and honor the contributions of historically marginalized doctoral students. Whereas earlier studies focused largely on socialization, departmental norms, and statistical portraits of doctoral degree attachment, this book illuminates the ways African American students encounter, navigate, and make sense of their doctoral experiences and especially the impact of race and culture on those experiences. Individual chapters look at STEM programs, the intersections of race and gender, the role of HBCUs, and students' relationships with faculty and advisors. Amid growing diversity across programs and institutions, Sankofa provides a critical model for applying culturally based frameworks in educational research, as well as practical strategies for better understanding and responding to the needs of students of color in predominantly White contexts.




Making the Implicit Explicit


Book Description

Despite their and other stakeholders’ consistent demand for excellence, doctoral programs have rarely, if ever, been assessed in terms of the quality of the dissertations departments produce. Yet dissertations provide the most powerful, objective measure of the success of a department’s doctoral program. Indeed, assessment, when done properly, can help departments achieve excellence by providing insight into a program’s strengths and weaknesses.This book and the groundbreaking study on which it is based is about making explicit to doctoral students the tacit “rules” for the assessment of the final of all final educational products—the dissertation. The purpose of defining performance expectations is to make them more transparent to graduate students while they are in the researching and writing phases, and thus to help them achieve to higher levels of accomplishment. Lovitts proposes the use of rubrics to clarify performance expectations–not to rate dissertations or individual components of dissertations to provide a summary score, but to facilitate formative assessment to support, not substitute for, the advising process. She provides the results of a study in which over 270 faculty from ten major disciplines—spanning the sciences, social sciences, and humanities—were asked to make explicit their implicit standards or criteria for evaluating dissertations. The book concludes with a summary of the practical and research implications for different stakeholders: faculty, departments, universities, disciplinary associations, accrediting organizations, and doctoral students themselves.The methods described can easily be adapted for the formative assessment of capstone courses, senior and master’s theses, comprehensive exams, papers, and journal articles.




Demystifying Dissertation Writing


Book Description

Research shows that five strategies correlate with the successful completion of a dissertation:·Establishing a consistent writing routine·Working with a support group·Consulting your advisor·Understanding your committee’s expectations·Setting a realistic and timely scheduleBuilding on these insights, this book is for anyone who needs help in preparing for, organizing, planning, scheduling, and writing the longest sustained writing project they have encountered, particularly if he or she is not receiving sufficient guidance about the process, but also for anyone looking to boost his or her writing productivity.The author uncovers much tacit knowledge, provides advice on working with dissertation advisors and committee members, presents proven techniques for the prewriting and writing stages of the dissertation, sets out a system for keeping on schedule, and advocates enlisting peer support. As Peg Boyle Single states, “my goal is quite simple and straightforward: for you to experience greater efficiency and enjoyment while writing. If you experience anxiety, blocking, impatience, perfectionism or procrastination when you write, then this system is for you. I want you to be able to complete your writing so that you can move on with the rest of your life.” Few scholars, let alone graduate students, have been taught habits of writing fluency and productivity. The writing skills imparted by this book will not only help the reader through the dissertation writing process, but will serve her or him in whatever career she or he embarks on, given the paramount importance of written communication, especially in the academy. This book presents a system of straightforward and proven techniques that are used by productive writers, and applies them to the dissertation process. In particular, it promotes the concept of writing networks – whether writing partners or groups – to ensure that writing does not become an isolated and tortured process, while not hiding the need for persistence and sustained effort.This book is intended for graduate students and their advisers in the social sciences, the humanities, and professional fields. It can further serve as a textbook for either informal writing groups led by students or for formal writing seminars offered by departments or graduate colleges. The techniques described will help new faculty advice their students more effectively and even achieve greater fluency in their own writing.




Shaping the Digital Dissertation


Book Description

This volume is a timely intervention that not only helps demystify the idea of a digital dissertation for students and their advisors, but will be broadly applicable to the work of librarians, administrators, and anyone else concerned with the future of graduate study in the humanities and digital scholarly publishing. Roxanne Shirazi, The City University of New York Digital dissertations have been a part of academic research for years now, yet there are still many questions surrounding their processes. Are interactive dissertations significantly different from their paper-based counterparts? What are the effects of digital projects on doctoral education? How does one choose and defend a digital dissertation? This book explores the wider implications of digital scholarship across institutional, geographic, and disciplinary divides. The volume is arranged in two sections: the first, written by senior scholars, addresses conceptual concerns regarding the direction and assessment of digital dissertations in the broader context of doctoral education. The second section consists of case studies by PhD students whose research resulted in a natively digital dissertation that they have successfully defended. These early-career researchers have been selected to represent a range of disciplines and institutions. Despite the profound effect of incorporated digital tools on dissertations, the literature concerning them is limited. This volume aims to provide a fresh, up-to-date view on the digital dissertation, considering the newest technological advances. It is especially relevant in the European context where digital dissertations, mostly in arts-based research, are more popular. Shaping the Digital Dissertation aims to provide insights, precedents and best practices to graduate students, doctoral advisors, institutional agents, and dissertation committees. As digital dissertations have a potential impact on the state of research as a whole, this edited collection will be a useful resource for the wider academic community and anyone interested in the future of doctoral studies.




Strategies for Writing a Thesis by Publication in the Social Sciences and Humanities


Book Description

Responding to the growing popularity of the thesis by publication within doctoral education, this book offers practical advice and critical discussion of some of the central choices and challenges that PhD students considering dissertation options face. Drawing on current research and informed by extensive experience of working with and running workshops for PhD candidates who write article-based dissertations, this book gives readers an idea of what writing a thesis by publication entails – what its purpose is, what the various expectations might be for this emerging genre, and what the challenges might be in writing one. Particular emphasis is put on how to put the individual articles together to create a coherent thesis that clarifies the student’s individual original contribution. Written primarily for students, Strategies for Writing a Thesis by Publication in the Social Sciences and Humanities covers key topics such as: how the genre has developed, with an emphasis on the role of the narrative (introductory text) that accompanies the articles typical rhetorical challenges that writers of such dissertations face strategies for handling the writing process specific challenges of demonstrating doctorateness in the thesis by publication and strategies for addressing them institutional variations that the thesis writer should seek clarification on as early as possible structural elements of the narrative and their main functions the range of choices that can be made throughout the doctoral journey and thesis writing. This book is a must-read for PhD candidates and supervisors new to the genre, as well as those involved in directing PhD programmes who are interested in the pedagogical implications of the move towards article-based dissertations. The 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' offers support and practical advice to doctoral students and early-career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia. These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game -- the things you need to know but usually aren't told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units, or supervisors -- and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. They are essential reading for doctoral students, early-career researchers, supervisors, mentors, or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia.




A Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing


Book Description

This book provides a step-by-step guide to writing the different chapters of a PhD dissertation, which will benefit aspiring, beginner and mid-track PhD students and candidates in the Social Sciences. Based on the authors’ combined experience of working with both Masters and PhD students through the dissertation writing process, it offers helpful writing guidelines, from the conceptualization and problematization of the dissertation through to the literature review, methodological issues, writing up results and, finally, to the discussion, conclusions and abstract writing process. With chapters dedicated to offering guidelines, suggestions and pitfalls to watch out for, this book will assist PhD students and candidates in the fields of the various Social Sciences with exercises and pointers on successfully navigating the writing of a PhD dissertation. It takes the PhD student in the Social Sciences through the maze of writing a dissertation, and provides a step-by-step train of thought throughout the entire writing process.