Writing is painful.
Sorry, that tends to be everyone's reality. It is hard work to think through
complex ideas and find the best way to present them so that someone else can
understand them. I am not going to go into a lot of detail about writing
specifics; Walden has an amazing writing center that is very happy to help you!
A few general
things though, first if you find it very hard to write, I recommend this book:
Saltzman, J.
(1993). If You Can Talk, You Can Write.
Grand Central Publishing.
As you can see, it
is an older book, so it is available very cheaply on Amazon. It will reduce
your anxiety and will help you get something down on paper. I strongly
recommend reading your paper aloud; you will catch many errors. If nothing
else, read to your dog or cat, they will find you fascinating! You will reduce
the number of needed corrections by simply rereading your paper carefully.
Be prepared and
open to many revisions. Your committee has much more experience in writing at
this level, trust their guidance. At a doctoral level, revisions are simply
part of the writing process. Professionals also have to rewrite their papers
many times, keep in mind that the final article you see in the journal has
little resemblance to where it started. As an example, a recent article that I
wrote with colleagues went through 25 revisions (yes, I counted!).
What should you
look for in revisions? Read a sentence aloud and see if you can restate it more
clearly. You want to be very precise in your meaning. Let me give you an example
from one of my papers that I wrote with some colleagues. Here is the original
draft of the first few sentences of the paper:
By 2020, one in six American
citizens will be elderly or over 65 years old (U.S. Census, 1993). The number
of oldest old individuals over 85 years old will reach 6.6 million in 2020 and
is expected to triple by 2050 and reach 18-19 million (Administration on Aging
[AoA], 2010). The rapid growth of the elderly and the oldest-old population is
a growing concern to the healthcare system, as it must prepare to provide
increased support services.
Here is the final
version:
The 2000 U.S. Census (2001)
reported 4.2 million people were over the age of 85 (1.5% of the population),
this group has been designated the “the oldest-old” by demographers, and is the
most rapidly growing age group.
Currently the cost of health service utilization for the oldest-old
averages $22,000 per year compared to $9,000 for individuals 65-74 years old
(Krause, 2010).
What is different?
The 2nd version is much clearer, concise, and more to the point that
the first.
One final issue, I
think it is very important that you understand the dissertation from the
faculty's viewpoint; it may explain much of their feedback to you. Throughout
the dissertation process, and even after it is published, your committee's
names are attached to it. When anyone at your institution criticizes a
student's work, one of the first questions that is asked is "who is the
chair?" The student is expected to make errors; the chair's role is to
catch as many as possible.
Next time I will begin an exploration of interviewing
techniques. Do you have an issue or a
question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to
be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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