Completing a PhD with a Family (Part 5): Being a Student of the PhD

Episode 5: Being a student of the PhD

Hold on! I know what you're thinking:

I'm already a student of X discipline. Why in the world do I need to be a student of the PhD? Isn't it enough that I'm struggling to write the document, do my professional development, learn new skills, and take care of my family?

My response: EXACTLY

Just like crime fiction or romance novel, the dissertation associated with your PhD is a genre.

Can you sit down today and write a satisfactory fiction novel without:

• Reading several first ?

• Understanding your target audience?

• Planning your character development?

• Planning your story arc?

I would venture to guess that the answer to each of those questions is no.

Therefore, in order to successfully complete a PhD in a reasonable amount of time--which would maximize time with your family--you must become a student of the PhD genre.

Here's what I suggest:

1. Read a Variety of Dissertations for Structure

In all honesty, this is the number one way to ensure that you have a grasp of not only the style, but the breadth of the genre. At a minimum, choose at least 1 dissertation from each of these categories:

• Hard Sciences: physics, biology, chemistry, etc.

• Social Sciences: anthropology, education, psychology, etc.

• Humanities: history, literature, religion, etc.

• Artifact/Exegesis: music performance, architecture, film, etc.

The trick is to not read for content, but for form. Make notes. How did they structure the introduction? Use of style manual (APA, Turabian, etc.). Chapters. Length. Language. Sentence structure. Paragraphing. Flow of the argument.

I guarantee that you will learn something about the structure of the genre by surveying several dissertations.

Pro tip: While you are making notes, notate how you would like to structure your dissertation

2. Read Dissertations that Include Your Supervisor and Major Players in Your Field

Along with reading a variety of dissertations, you want to get to know your audience. Stephen King did not write IT and Cujo with 4 year-olds in mind. Rather, he was writing for adult entertainment. Horror enthusiasts, at that.

Considering that you do not actually know who is going to read your dissertation when you are finished, don't worry so much about them. You know who IS going to read it, though: your supervisor...and either your committee or examiners (depending on your system). When it comes to considering your audience, start there. If you satisfy your supervisor, chances are you will satisfy examiners.

Here's an Example of What I mean

I'm a fan of the Food Network show Chopped.

It's a show where contestants have a basket of seemingly unagreeable ingredients, and they have to make a meal using those ingredients. The meal is judged by a panel of food experts.

One of the frequent judges, Chef Scott Conant, hates raw onions. I've heard him say to a contestant before, "Surely you watch the show. You know I hate raw onions. Why did you serve them to me?"

Know your audience...

If you know your supervisor detests a word or simply has a way of doing something, then learn that. You are not trying to win a Pulitzer Prize for your dissertation writing. You are trying to complete a PhD.

Bonus Content: Know Your School's PhD/Dissertation Regulations

3. Review Ontology, Epistemology, and Methodology

I sound like a broken record, but the common elements between all types of dissertations are these three building blocks of knowledge. You have to spend time reviewing and truly understanding these concepts in order to keep your dissertation together.

How can you continuously review?

Using YouTube or similar platform...

• Make a playlist of talks about the concepts of ontology, epistemology, and methodology.

• Make a playlist of talks relating to your subject.

• Make a playlist of dissertation defenses/viva's about your topic or even from your school.

• Make a playlist of instructional videos about your method (quant, qual, etc.).

Listen to these while driving, while you are cleaning, during exercise times. Make this constant auditory learning part of your life. You will be amazed at how much you will learn just by listening. If something requires you to make notes, then take the time to do that with your thoughts notebook.

How does this relate to my family though???

The point of this series is to give tips on how to complete a PhD and still make time for your family. The biggest challenge I see in most PhD students is that they are disorganized and waste too much time. It's not that they don't have the time to spend with their families, they are wasting too much time on their PhD.

You have to focus and get the work done. How you do that is by knowing what the heck you are even doing. Knowing what you are doing gives you a destination; a goal.

When you take the time to learn something. I mean REALLY learn something, the execution is often very simple and straight forward. When you do not take the time to learn something, it can be disastrous.

You decide: more time cursing at your PhD? Or... more time with your family?

I would choose the latter.

Become a student of the PhD. By truly understanding the genre and the expectations, you can save yourself hours upon hours of headaches in the long run.