How to Finish a Dissertation - Without the Agony
By BILL PANNAPACKER
There hasn't much news on the job front this past month. I haven't heard from the English faculty members with whom I interviewed at Modern Language Association convention in December. And I don't have much hope for an academic job next year. I think the main reason -- aside from "the speech that ended my academic career" - has to be that I have not yet completed my dissertation.
I know where it's going. I've done all the research, including archival work in Boston, New York, Washington, Camden, N.J., and Bridgeport, Conn., as well as Bolton and Sheffield in England. I can explain the chapters from beginning to end. I've published pieces of them. I've even received inquiries from several major university presses. I just don't have the whole thing in hand, and, without that, there's a seed of doubt in the mind of every interviewer.
"Maybe he won't finish?"
Meanwhile, my adviser is waiting patiently for me to turn in a major portion of the finished work. I've been on a fellowship all year, and I've promised to deliver the whole thing by the end of April. I really plan to do it. Those of you who have been reading this column know I've been having a hard time. Most of it has been caused by my anxiety over the job market. My fear that I am doing all this work for nothing.
Sometimes I gain hope from the very hopelessness of the academic job system. It means that all I have to do is finish the dissertation and get on with my life. But, as soon as I start writing in earnest, my enthusiasm for my work is rekindled, and my progress is slowed by a desire to produce something far beyond my present abilities.
So, I'm taking a moment for productive procrastination. Here is a list of strategies I've developed after years of suffering that may spare you the pain of an extended sojourn in dissertation hell: Start writing now. Not next year. Not tomorrow. Now! Start writing down ideas as they occur to you at odd moments. Every little idea is a springboard when you have writer's block.
Write early in your graduate career on topics that might lead to your dissertation. Make the big mistakes in your early years. As you get farther along, you will feel like you are not in a position to make mistakes (which can be paralyzing). Also, if you get stuck later, you'll have those old seminar papers to mine for material.
As much as possible, take courses in search of potential advisers. Try to find several advisers who complement each other. Don't over-rely on one person. This can be dangerous, and it's a bad completion strategy. It's good to find a kindly, encouraging mentor, but make sure that you also have someone who is a real taskmaster. An ogre. Someone who really scares you, whom you would not dare disappoint.
Your advisers will motivate you and give advice, but they will not be able to teach you everything. You will have to make your own way. Keep current. Read all the journals. Go to the Web sites. Become an active player in the scholarly community. Join scholarly and professional societies. Go to conferences, even if you are not presenting. Write letters to the professors whose work you are reading. Send your best work to them.
Keep your prospectus open enough to allow you to modify your dissertation without rocking too many boats. You may need to shift methodology or subject, as the conditions of the field, the marketplace, and your own perspectives change. This need will be magnified the longer you stay in graduate school.
Choose a topic not for today, but for five years from now. Think of it as the first draft of a future book aimed at a specific audience, which is still broad enough to have wide market appeal. (Think like a publisher or an academic hiring committee.) Start positioning yourself as the authority on your dissertation topic as soon as you can. Before long you will start getting inquiries from publishers and other scholars in the field.
Use the pressure of public performances and contracts to force yourself to write. Giving conference papers and writing book chapters will also give you the exposure you need to establish yourself as a player. Very often, conference papers lead to offers to publish. Sell yourself everywhere. Go to the cocktail parties. Smile. Make people like you as a person. Then the offers to publish will arrive. You won't even have to think very hard about what to write.
Make your dissertation your first priority. Write every day. Don't save up time in the future. Work that time straight through. Don't get up from your desk. Don't answer the phone. Don't check your e-mail. Everything else can be done at another time. Give yourself short-term deadlines for manageable portions. Use your procrastination time to relate to human beings. Don't let yourself become socially disconnected and depressed. Join the academic labor movement.
Don't be a perfectionist -- yet. Think of the dissertation as an exercise, and get your Ph.D. as soon as possible. Many people won't take you seriously before you get the degree. Besides, depending on your field, you will probably have at least three years of post-doc time to revise your dissertation for the job market.
You are a professional scholar now, not when you graduate. Be ubiquitous in the profession. Make yourself an established figure before you hit the market. If academia can't find a place for you then, it will be their loss, and you'll be in a better position to look elsewhere.
I don't want to suggest that the solution to the job crisis is that we all just need to work a little harder. Increasing competition has brought us to the point that a book contract is almost a prerequisite for an interview. But don't let the a bleak future destroy your belief in yourself as a real professional. Many of you reading this have already done more to get interviews than your advisers did to get tenure. We all must keep fighting to change the academic job system, but make sure you don't lose sight of your real work along the way.
Paradoxically, it's less devastating to leave the profession knowing you've done everything humanly possible to make a place for yourself. Leaving without finishing your dissertation will only harm your chances of finding work elsewhere, destroy your self-esteem, and leave a permanent gap in your life.
Now I have to get back to writing. Now. I really mean it.
Bill Pannapacker, a graduate student at Harvard University, welcomes letters and can be contacted through his Web site at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pannapac
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