How to enjoy writing your PhD thesis

[@ryankemp3320]

I take your point about decreasing stress by finishing up sections as you go, but how do you think this tallies with the (rather ubiquitous) advice for PhD students and non-fiction writers to use writing and early drafts as a way to think. I often find that I need to write that longer messy draft to get my own view of the subject clear - having it all on the page helps me see what is and isn't important. I would like to find a method of doing that though that does not involve such ridiculously long and chaotic drafts - I think you make a good point about need for confidence, selection, and thinking perhaps earlier in the process

[@James_Hayton]

Try mindmapping- this way you don't need to go through endless rounds of formal drafting. It's orders of magnitude faster and it allows you to identify key ideas, connections between ideas and gaps in your knowledge. I then create bullet points, then start writing (the bullet points may change as i write, but at least have some idea where I'm going). I know it's ubiquitous advice to just get words down, but if that worked then why does it take people so long and cost so much stress?

[@ryankemp3320]

@@James_Hayton I will try that - my issue is more the huge mass of information and examples (perhaps a particular issue for historians). In an attempt to organise the information last year, I printed out my notes to cut into slips and reorganise into folders/envelopes. There were something like 3000 of them. But that speaks to your central point of practicing selection as a muscle - the thinking has to be done at some point and just reordering the deckchairs on the Titanic - as it sometimes feels I am doing with rearranging my notes - is part of the issue.

[@James_Hayton]

You may also need to really focus on one section or key question at a time

[@Soap-sk5mc]

I have started (as am in the midst of chaotic messy notes everywhere) to force myself to write a summary or conclusion at the end of my 'throwing up on paper' messy drafts, which then removes the need to re-read all of that mess and just see what it all led to. I can then start to write properly as I figured out before what I actually wanted to say. I hope this is going to work for me; it might for you too.

[@James_Hayton]

Good luck with it! I hope it works for you, but feel free to reach out if you get stuck

[@muhamedaziz2280]

I have already defended my PhD, but I wish I had known such golden advice before starting my PhD. I absolutely agree with almost everything he recommends, please take his notes seriously unless you have a better proven method. Good luck for everyone.

[@charlottehoward722]

Once I started taking your writing advice, I am actually enjoying writing my thesis! Thank you. I’m so glad your advice is out there because not many people seem to know how to write. I would love a few tips about writing a thesis discussion specifically. I have more trouble structuring it using problem-solution or knowledge-gap method you talk about.

[@James_Hayton]

Think problem - response, not problem - solution. With the discussion, it's often about exploring different interpretations of (responses to) the data. To lead the reader towards your point of view, you can first make an observation about the data, which then raises a question. One possible response could be x, however... You can then argue against these alternatives until you're left with what you want to argue.

[@charlottehoward722]

@@James_Hayton Thank you very much! I will try this

[@7head7metal7]

Thank you for your insights! When I wrote my master's thesis, I didn't go in order but instead wrote the sections as I felt. It was easier to start sometimes, but in the long run I probably lost quite some time. For the "going in order" strategy, I have another analogy: I'm playing a game that awards unique benefits for "world completion". This means, you have to uncover the whole map and complete lots of small quests and events, in any order you want. It might take at least 20 hours of play time. One time I did this not in order, but uncovered the map first and then went for the quests and events last. I thought this would be more efficient since I can fast travel anywhere. But instead it killed my motivation, since I left the annoying quests for last. That run took longer than all other ones. Going in order spread out the annoying and difficult parts, which preserved my motivation. And forming a habit of chipping away at the overall goal a little at a time was easier than just to rely on feeling motivated, especially after the easy stuff was already done.

[@TxBerg]

This was a great video! I am 45 years and starting my phd in music education. It's definitely nice to see a video that doesn't focus on what not to do and "don't do academia/academia is broken"-content. I recently finished my master's thesis (about 20 years after my bachelor) and this time around, I tried following the sort of conventional tips for writing. I found that it doesn't really click for me, and so it is nice to hear the advice of writing from start to finish (the way I used to as a bachelor student) and finish the sections before you move on. Realizing of course, that phd-work is harder, I still think I'm going to follow your writing advice. Thanks for your great content and wonderfully paced speaking voice!

[@ambj07]

Thank you James. This is very helpful.

[@remogurtner6907]

Going to try this right away!

[@rotprism8772]

You don't know how much I wish I had this video 6 months ago, when I had plenty of time to write and I was thinking these exact same things, but I was being told by my supervisor and colleagues to write in the "traditional" way, now I'm stuck with tons of issues and with almost no time before submission... 😅

[@James_Hayton]

Try to tidy up one section at a time and get it into a submittable state (starting with the intro). If there really isn't time, can you ask for an extension? Best to ask early than to wait for the deadline

[@rotprism8772]

@@James_Hayton Thanks, I'll try! About the extension, sadly at this point I will only be able to get a few weeks extra, in the grounds of letting my supervisor proof read it and give comments before submission, as the guidelines at my university allows for 1 single reading by the main supervisor, so I guess it will be a matter of pushing through for a bit...

[@parishayjahanzeb2578]

Hello james, I hope you are fine. Your writing tips are really helpful and help me to complete my thesis. I just want to say that, is there any template for literature review, discussion and conclusion, as you use to narrate the introduction. for example 1. Describe a situation, 2. Describe problem or question arising from situation. etc Kindly guide. Thanks

[@CharliWrites]

Thank you so much for your videos. They are incredibly helpful, especially sections 1:09, 5:02, and 7:00. I have a question: I often get profoundly distracted when discussing my research with other PhD candidates, who frequently suggest what I should focus on or what "hook" I might be missing, making all kinds of suggestions I never asked for. Even when I mention this to them, they automatically resort to doing it again the next time. I've noticed it takes me almost a week to collect my thoughts after such encounters. While I want to discuss my work, these conversations cause significant delays. Should I avoid discussing my dissertation altogether?

[@James_Hayton]

Not sure about avoiding discussion altogether, but maybe if you know this happens then avoid it when you're feeling overloaded (or after a discussion, take 30 minutes with pen and paper and think through which suggestions you want to implement)

[@CharliWrites]

​@@James_Hayton Thank you. "...when you're feeling overloaded" seems to capture the fundamental issue at play.

[@garethbilton]

Thank you James, I’ve been learning from your videos for about a year, and start a PhD in a couple of weeks. I’m wondering if you have any advice for new PhD students like me. I appreciate that the final write-up can only be done with all results etc, but do you have any tips on how I can I set myself up for a more enjoyable experience (to minimise the stress to come in later stages) at this early stage? For example, did you do your literature review during the first year with a word per day goal, and then revisit it over subsequent years up update it with new research etc? Thank you for any guidance 🙏🏼

[@James_Hayton]

No- I only started using the 500 word per day target at the very end. Regarding the literature review, I talk about my experience here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6mTkIKlq891r9U Any literature review you write in the first year you'll probably have to re-write at the end (as you should have a much better understanding of the literature by the end). In the first year, I'd say focus on understanding the literature and getting some practical experience with your research methods

[@garethbilton]

Thank you so much 🙏🏼

[@homesunderthehammer]

The idea of writing from front to back is more appropriate advice to STEM research than social science. (Perhaps excepting heavily quantitative social science). Especially in critical and theoretical social science approaches, the research questions are generally produced through rational enquiry itself, so you would not be able to discuss the results of the rational experiment before you have them, but would need to frame them for the reader before they reach the 'lab'.

[@James_Hayton]

I've helped more social scientists than those from any other field (including a lot of qualitative reseachers) Also, I don't understand the statement, "so you would not be able to discuss the results of the rational experiment before you have them, but would need to frame them for the reader before they reach the 'lab'." What do you mean?

[@homesunderthehammer]

@@James_Hayton thinking of the discussion of theoretical (and empirical, if it's there) arguments as the middle part of the thesis structure, it's academically robust to work dialectically. That's what I'm calling a 'rational experiment'. Presenting the layout of the work and rooting it in the wider literature (that might take the introduction and the first chapter) is not really possible to do until you've done the work.

[@James_Hayton]

Agreed. I've always said you need to do the research before you start formally writing a paper or thesis

[@homesunderthehammer]

@@James_Hayton then it's not possible to do as you say and write from introduction -> conclusion, since the middle part of the writing is work in itself. As opposed to in a lab-based stem subject, where you're able to write a literature review, design the research, perform the experiments, collect the data, and then write up - that certainly seems like something you can do from front to back. In a lot of social science, writing is method. Writing is the lab, and it's iterative.

[@James_Hayton]

There is a difference between writing to figure out what you want to say and writing for the purpose of communication. Where most social science students get stuck is they think of the exploratory writing in the form of chapters. What I recommend is working on standalone pieces exploring different aspects of a problem, figuring out what you want to say, then writing formal chapters, starting from the intro.

[@skjamaludin]

Dr. Hayton, if you don't mind, may i know how long did you take for your whole PhD program? I'm in my 3rd year now, i'm progressing but a bit slow (i'm doing combination of simulation and experiments, the simulations take a lot of my time for trial and errors). Is finishing PhD after 5-6 years ok? Thank you for your answer.

[@James_Hayton]

It took me 4 years in total. Regarding whether it's Ok to take 5-6 years, in some countries that's typical (it tends to be 3-4 years in the UK, up to 7 or so in the US). The question should be whether it's OK for you... are you comfortable investing that time?

[@skjamaludin]

@@James_Hayton Noted Dr., thanks for your reply.

[@acmilanoce]

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