PhD Coaching Blog — Mindset

    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...

  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...