Robbin Warner, PhD
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Maintaining Work/Life Balance
When you made the decision to attend Graduate School to pursue an advanced degree, you surely knew that you were taking on an enormous task. Still, you may have been unprepared for the sheer amount of work required and the number of competing interests pulling you in opposite directions. It’s easy to look at other…
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Beware of Plagiarism
If you’re the kind of person who is reading these blogs on the Defend and Publish website, you’re the kind of person who works hard to write well. You’ve probably struggled to come up with a clever turn of phrase. Maybe you’ve spent weeks alone in your University’s library trying to locate the evidence you…
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Not all Comments are Created Equal
When you receive comments, whether from your dissertation committee or a journal, keep in mind that a reviewer’s purpose is to submit comments. However, the motivation for each comment can be confusing. Sometimes the comment is representative of what the reviewer is thinking at that moment. Sometimes the comment is a reflection of your committee’s…
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When a Messy Desk is a Messy Mind
Between coursework, research projects, teaching responsibilities, and – hopefully – a personal life, dissertators are juggling a lot of balls. In those busy situations, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and start feeling out of control. We don’t feel like we have time to finish and clean up from one task before moving on to the…
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Incorporating Changes
Incorporating Changes into Your Writing Is a Multi-Step Process. When you start incorporating comments and suggestions, keep in mind that every change can impact the whole piece through a ripple effect. Merely going through a list of revision suggestions one-by-one in isolation will produce a disjointed draft. Avoid the patchwork approach to responding to readers’…
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How and When to Email Your Dissertation Advisor
Advisors can be tricky. They’re around to help you accomplish your goal, but they also have their own projects and responsibilities. They don’t have unlimited time to prod you and it’s not their job to force you. As a dissertator, one of the most crucial things you can do is to maintain an open line…
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There’s Always Time to Proofread
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There’s Always Time to Proofread
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Setting Goals and Sticking to a Calendar
Time management is key to accomplishing any task, especially one as complex as a dissertation. Too often students get overwhelmed or stuck and lose track of not only how to move forward, but how to do it in a timely fashion. In those situations, the most useful thing you can do to help yourself (assuming…
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Just Write