Creativity and the dissertation

Is working on a dissertation a creative process? I believe that it is, yet not in the way of the creativity of writing fiction. In fictional writing, you are creating a new world, one that may or may not reflect reality. A fiction writer has rules that must be followed in form and must, in a sense, build and support the world that the story is set in. However, the end point is created by the author; when starting the book or story, the reader does not know exactly where the story will go.

In writing the technical material of a dissertation, you are constrained by the specific rules and formatting. However, you must develop an idea and project that has never been considered before, something new and therefore creative. You must support your creative idea with literature and it should build on previous work, but it is your own creativity that moves the project forward. The reader of your dissertation also does not know where your "story" will go, that is an outcome that is determined by your data. 

Next time, I will consider catching creativity. 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