Thesis/Dissertation Writing: Five Tips for Getting Unstuck (Part 2)

This blog is part two of a five-part series on getting unstuck in your writing. If you are finding yourself stuck in your thesis/dissertation writing, it's not a good feeling. To free yourself as quickly as possible from that feeling, you need to do two things. You need to think, and you need to act. First, try to think about why you are stuck. Then figure out the best course of action you can take given that reason. Reflect on the question below. Could this be a reason you are stuck? If so, read the tip, and try it out. I think you will find this course of action to be a real game changer. This one small shift in my thinking made all the difference for me. I hope it does for you, too.

Are You Stuck Because of Your Negative Inner and Outer Critics?

The word critic, although a noun, originally comes from the Greek adjective kritikós which means "capable of judgment." Technically, that judgment does not have to be negative. A judgment can be favorable. However, for the purpose of this blog, I am using the negative connotation of the word. As you write (or maybe just thinking about your writing), do you have that inner voice that is negatively assessing, evaluating, and analyzing your work? Are you finding fault with your writing? Are you concentrating on its apparent shortcomings? In your imagination, can you hear the disapproving voices of your committee members (your outer critics) telling you that your work is not clear enough, not long enough, not concise enough, not developed enough? Are they saying that your work lacks value or worth? A negative critic can absolutely paralyze you, whether it's coming from your own voice or the imagined voices of your committee members.

TIP--Put Yourself in Teacher Mode

What Putting Yourself in Teacher Mode Is

Imagine yourself in a classroom. Where are you? Are you seated at a student desk? The reason for your negative thinking could be because you're in student mode. Shift your position. Get out of your student desk, get up in front of the room, and put yourself in teacher mode. Put your committee at the students' desks. Then teach! (Write!)

How to Put Yourself in Teacher Mode

If you've ever taught in a classroom setting, this strategy will be easy for you. If you don't have formal teaching experience, you must have taught someone something at some point in your life. Think about how you did it and draw from that. Whether you've been a teacher in the formal sense or not, you can transfer your teaching skills to your writing.

Here's how this strategy works. You are the teacher, and your committee members are the students. It's role reversal. As you stand in front of the classroom, think about your committee members who do not know your content. Spend a little time thinking about these questions:

How do I teach/present this content?

How do I talk to these students?

How do I engage them?

Next, as any good teacher would do, you have to anticipate your students' questions. Picture your committee, your "students," asking you questions, not in a threatening or challenging way, but in a way that conveys their genuine interest. They are eager to learn about your topic. They want to know more. What questions do you anticipate them asking? Answer them as you write.

Also, you have to think about areas that might need presenting in different ways. Visuals typically help students understand material. That's where your tables and graphs come in. In your teacher role, give some context that previews the visual, then show the visual, then discuss its relevance in light of the point you are trying to make. Continue to teach (continue to write) in this manner. Move from one point to the next in a logical way that your "students" can follow. As you write, imagine yourself teaching your content to your committee members who are listening, nodding, and following what you are saying. Your "students" appreciate your clarity and thoroughness in the variety of ways that you present your material.

A good teacher reads the room to get a sense of whether more examples are needed with any given point. After you make each point as you write, use your imagination to look at the facial expressions of your committee members as they sit at those student desks. Do they need examples? Give them some. Then reinforce your main point. Then look at your committee again. Do they look like they understand? If so, move on. If not, give them more examples. Since you know your content, it won't be difficult for you to think of examples to help your "students." Providing examples probably won't take much time on your part, and it's valuable for their understanding.

When you put yourself in teacher mode, don't think of it as explaining your research to your "students." You are not explaining. Explaining puts you in an inferior role of having to defend yourself. Instead, you are describing. You are describing to your committee members the aspects of your research and why it matters.

After you have written a chapter of your thesis/dissertation using this method, congratulate yourself. You have just presented a wonderful lesson. Your "students" are inspired.

Why Putting Yourself in Teacher Mode Works

If you are stuck in your writing, there needs to be a shift of some sort. This strategy offers a small, but powerful, shift in your mindset. It gives you a different position from which to write. Using this strategy, you are not writing as a timid student anxiously hoping for professor approval. You are writing as a self-assured instructor, sharing the story of your research and why it matters in a clear and comprehensive way. If you imagine your writing voice to be a teaching voice, it can help to free you from that negative critic. With that freedom comes a greater sense of competence and confidence in your academic writing.

Are you still here? You're not writing yet? Are you still stuck because you are having trouble stepping out of student mode and into teacher mode? Click below, and we'll help you take that step.

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