You’ve been working on your dissertation for months. It is your brain child, your baby, possibly your demon. So far be it from me to tell you how to do it. What I will tell you is that you do, in fact, know how to do it. You know where to begin, what to do next and where you should end.
You might get stressed, lost or confused once in a while, but ninety nine times out of a hundred, students have far more than enough work and research to fill the requisite pages. In fact, you probably have far too much. If you can’t think what to do next, where to go, or whether or not to put in that interesting point, look at the question again. Does this point answer your main question? If not, cut it. Can the sentence be begun with the word ‘Interestingly’? If so, cut it. As one rather brutal tutor once told me, ‘you’re the only person who finds this interesting.’ And she was right.
So where to start? At the beginning, but then keep going past the beginning. Write the introduction once, order your thoughts, and then move on. There will be plenty of time to rewrite the introduction at a later date. You may even find that you don’t have to. Keep going through. Keep an eye on the plan and stick to realistic daily goals. Make time for proofreading and editing.
Take breaks, go for a drink with mates, don’t go mad, put relaxing into your schedule. Working ‘through the night’ might sound cool but it doesn’t in fact produce very good results. Don’t let anyone tell you it does. I knew an actor once who said he could only be creative when he was stoned. I experienced him stoned; he wasn’t very creative. He was really just sleepy. Most stimulants, caffeine, alcohol, sugar or drugs, will not really work. What does work is sitting down at a desk for about eight hours a day, working for a while, and then having a solid evening to rest, or morning, if you’re a night worker.
One thing to remember: you can do this. The information is not all going to fall out of your head and the day will come when your dissertation is done and you can go back to other things in your life. If you’re overwhelmed, take a walk, go to the gym, hell, go out dancing. Try yoga. Yoga is fun.
For more information on taking care of yourself whilst studying, follow this link.
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University Tutoring UK offers comprehensive academic tutoring, writing coaching and editing and proofreading services for students, academics and writers. These services are entirely offered remotely and Laura works with clients living all over the world. Taking clients straight to the tutor makes the service affordable as it cuts out the middle man and extra costs all round. All tutoring and writing coaching is provided remotely via Zoom, Google Hangouts, in combination with phone and email.