Does everyone feel like their dissertation is just… awful? My defense is like 2.5 months away, and I’m almost there with 4/5 chapters done. But seriously, when I read it back, it sounds like rambling garbage. I swear my undergrad essays made more sense before my brain got this cluttered. Please tell me this is a normal stage?!
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haha I kind of feel you, I’m 1 week away from my defense and I’m falling asleep when I practice my presentation? I have loved this project but I feel like I’m so over the topic now. I hope this is normal!!
Yes, this is normal. You’ve been so close to the dissertation for so long that your view of it is distorted. It’s also normal to be sick of the topic by the end (but that usually wears off in time, especially if you can take a break and then work on a different, secondary project for a while after submitting the dissertation. Hang in there!
“You just need four people to sign it” was my mantra
I actually liked what i did. Was it perfect? Of course not!
In this time you are a running “limitations” section. In hindsight it’s so easy to realize what you could have done better, were you small slips and bigger errors are, where you could have published and what better terms you could have used to increase your visibility. Whatever. But it’s a process of trial and error and learning all that.
Completely normal. This is how you know you’re almost done!
Yes. This is normal and a good sign! It’s just the kernel of an idea of a project. And you’ve learned to raise your expectations. Finish this up. It’s just an academic exercise. Take time off. Then come back to it with fresh eyes. And write a good book. That will take time too and you will learn new things.
I’m pretty sure that by the end most people never want to see their dissertation again.
I had four chapters but three of them were already published before I defended so they were in good shape. Mind you, this was not by choice. My PhD supervisors wouldn’t let me defend unless I had 3/4 chapters published in good journals. But I’d did make it to where I didn’t have to do a ton of work on it after I finished.
Yes very normal. I wrote most of my dissertation in the final two months. The deadline was a serious motivator. What helped? Scheduling exercise and trying to read fiction at least 20 mins before bed even on nights I stayed up late. I read that even during the war Churchill did that and it helped clear my brain before bed. Good luck I’m sure it’s much better than you think it is. As the saying goes “the only good dissertation is a done dissertation.”
Yes.
Yes. Take a break. Give yourself some distance from it.
You will feel this way, then ashamed of it, then a year or so from now you’ll read it and be astonished that it wasn’t as bad as you imagined, then a year later you’ll read it and think past you was a genius for having cranked out such elegant thought and what happened to that genius when you desperately need them to publish or perish.
No, that’s not good. Take a couple hours walk in nature. Or bike canoe kayak.
Most of the time I thought my work was excellent and everyone else needed to be convinced. But there’s some off days you may feel like a sham. You aren’t convincing anyone at those times.