Home | Arts-and-entertainment

The Simple Question That Turns ABDs Into PhDs

By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.

I went to visit one of the professors on my doctoral committee after I passed my oral exam. According to the statistics I had read, 85% of doctoral students in the humanities, who reach the stage I had just reached, never finished their doctoral dissertations. After completing all course work and passing their exams, they become ABDs, which stands for "All But Dissertation." Knowing this statistic, I wanted to ask my professor a question.

My question was a simple one: "What do I need to know to write and finish my dissertation?" I knew he would give me practical wisdom because he was a street-smart scholar, in addition to being brilliant, an outstanding teacher, and prolific writer

I will never forget his answer: "By the time people reach the point of writing a doctoral dissertation, they are smart enough, they know enough, and they work hard enough to finish. But everything they hear is: 'You aren't smart enough, you don't know enough, you don't work hard enough.' And so they never finish because they think they can never do enough."

After that brief conversation, I wrote on a 3x5 yellow index card: "What Is Enough?" I put that card on the wall in front of me, where I could see it any time I sat down to work on my dissertation.

"What Is Enough?" is the single most important reason why I was able to go from ABD to Ph.D.

"What Is Enough?" allowed me to pull myself back on track when I realized that I had gotten off course, studying some interesting, but irrelevant piece of information. The question reminded me of my objective. My purpose was to finish the dissertation, so that I could defend the dissertation and finish my degree.

The enemy of completing a dissertation is the word "more." The word "more" drives scholars. There is always more to read, more to study, more to know. One more article. One more book. One more fact. The question: "What Is Enough?" cuts through this relentless drive to know and do more, to remember that the immediate task is to finish.

Since I completed my own dissertation, I have offered this question to other scholars, and I now offer it to you. The question will keep you on track to finish your dissertation. It is especially valuable whenever you feel overwhelmed, focused, and off-track. If you wonder if you will ever be able to finish, ask yourself: "What Is Enough?" to finish.

When you are writing a doctoral dissertation, "What Is Enough?" means that you write a clear argument to prove a clear thesis. You don't have to write everything you know on a topic. "Enough" means that you write enough to prove your case. You don't have to write more than "enough."

Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles

Nothing is more important to dissertation writing than a clear thesis. If you are unsure about your thesis, here's a persuasive writing guide for you. My ebook, What's Your Point? gives simple steps to get to your point. Don't reprint this article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, which means you may freely reprint it, in its entirety, provided you include the author's resource box along with LIVE VISIBLE links (without "nofollow" tags).