{"id":276,"date":"2017-01-05T09:21:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T09:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/jrustedlab\/?p=276"},"modified":"2017-01-05T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T09:21:53","slug":"5-tips-from-a-thesis-writing-boot-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/jrustedlab\/2017\/01\/05\/5-tips-from-a-thesis-writing-boot-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips from a Thesis Writing Boot Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Right before the holiday season, I decided to attend the Sussex University Doctoral School\u2019s Thesis Boot Camp and was pleasantly surprised by how much I accomplished and learned. One limitation was that the writing workshops mostly catered to the humanities so, in addition to sharing top tips, I\u2019ll also be translating the strategies (on the fly) for us psych folk. I\u2019ll also note how the strategies differ from (incorrect) implicit assumptions I\u2019ve held:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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  1. Develop a routine that\u00a0works for you,<\/u><\/b>\u00a0specifically: I\u2019ve held onto the implicit assumption that there is a \u201cright\u201d way to do a PhD despite my supervisors and classmates telling me no. Despite this, I know there are others like me comparing themselves to other doctoral students and subsequently, feeling inferior. At thesis boot camp, we were encouraged to figure out what works for us<\/li>\n
  2. Try and remove any psychological barriers between you and your writing:<\/b>\u00a0…No one at boot camp actually said that, but I think it summarizes what Liz was trying to get across. Specifically:\u00a0writing is a form of thinking. It\u2019s difficult to form an argument until you start writing so\u00a0\u201cshut up and write!\u201d\u00a0<\/b>That being said, the reason we were told previous attendees wrote as many as 20,000 words in one weekend was because it was \u201cfirst draft material\u201d or what I refer to as my “messy outline.\u201d As we all know,\u00a0 psychology articles tend to be pretty information-dense; thus, I knew that if I was going to get anything out of this intensive writing weekend, I needed to bring along some version of my messy outline and then write from that. I also spent half a day editing what I\u2019d already written. Thus, I \u201conly\u201d managed to write 6,000ish words, but I still felt pretty proud of myself (for the most part).<\/li>\n
  3. On the subject of editing,\u00a0<\/span>don<\/span>\u2019<\/b>t\u00a0edit while you write:<\/b>\u00a0Something I found REALLY helpful was the notion that multi-taking while writing is\u00a0not<\/b><\/u>\u00a0time- or cognitively-efficient. This idea might seem like common sense, but if you\u2019re anything like me, you rarely listen to logic when it comes to writing well, because writing a thesis is stress-inducing. Well, because the boot camp was only two days, I thought I might as well give this logical notion a whirl and by George, it worked! When I was writing content, I only let myself make tiny edits on the sentence I\u2019d just written (because that\u2019s how I write), and I\u2019d try not to let\u00a0myself go back and read what I just wrote (my worst, self-induced time-suck).\u00a0After that, I\u2019d only let myself do\u00a0organization, content-based edits (we were encouraged to break down the process of editing into distinguishable tasks), etc and then, when I was happy with what I was trying to say, I\u2019d copyedit.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Collect evidence based on facts, not emotions:<\/b>\u00a0we were encouraged to try out the pomodoro technique (25 mins on, 5 mins break x 3, 25 mins on, long break – REPEAT) for the morning of the first break. Liz encouraged us to base our daily\/weekly goals on how much work you achieve on average during one pomodoro in addition to how many pomodoros you can realistically do in a day. I know that at least for me, if I\u2019m feeling particularly motivated, I\u2019ll set myself a word-count goal that is way to high. The only issue with this is that I end up disappointing myself rather feeling accomplished by the end of the day.<\/li>\n
  5. If your time management\/<\/span>organization<\/b>\u00a0method stresses you out, find\/make a new one:\u00a0<\/b>If you\u2019re anything like me, getting through your doctorate is a mind-warp (in lieu of a\u00a0different phrase). Not only is the work challenging, but, because we\u2019re often not credited for how difficult it is to go from dependent undergrad (or\u00a0whatever) to independent, kickass\u00a0researcher, we end up feeling inferior to our classmates. I think this is a mind-game that more PhD students would benefit from tackling. There is no right\u00a0way to do a PhD and thus, there is no right way to\u00a0organize your time!\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    I have more notes from what I learned at\u00a0Thesis Boot Camp but not enough time to write all of them up (this girl has got to finish her thesis). That being said, if you\u2019re keen to hear more of my ramblings, I\u2019d love to go for a coffee. If you know me,\u00a0you\u00a0know I\u2019m pretty chatty. My email is\u00a0m.berenhaus@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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    Molly Berenhaus<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Right before the holiday season, I decided to attend the Sussex University Doctoral School\u2019s Thesis Boot Camp and was pleasantly surprised by how much I accomplished and learned. One limitation was that the writing workshops mostly catered to the humanities…<\/span><\/p>\n

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