Customer Reviews

Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This gem of a book is truly a life saver to any doctoral student navigating the rough waters of the dissertation process. Drs. Kjell Rudestam and Rae Newton take a usually convoluted process and map out a clear path that easy to follow from start to finish. This book was my bible going through my dissertation. The authors' clarity of writing and comprehensive thought allowed me to easily take the principles off the pages and put them into practice. I highly recommend it!

This is an outstanding guide for the dissertation process. I have consulted several other similar works on how to write a dissertation but this is the one I have relied on the most because it is comprehensive and very easy to follow. The entire text can be read in a few hours for a very good over view of the process. Then it becomes a very handy "survival" life line when problems come up.

This book is providing me with excellent guidance throughout my dissertation process. Honestly, it has even been more helpful than my advisor. As many doctoral students do, I keep odd hours while writing, often getting my best ideas in the middle of the night. It is great to be able to access my handy advisor 24/7, meaning that my ideas have been easily acted upon no matter what time of day or night I think of them. A bit pricey, but well worth it for me.

With all the other texts in my doctorial work, this book took the stress off of the reading. The writers have done a terrific job laying out the chapters. The reading is easy on the eyes and put in simple terms. While reading, I could understand the first time without having to reread and my mind did not wander. Great text!

This book was recommended by my dissertation chair (which meant I HAD to buy it). Once I got it and read through it, I found it to be surprisingly helpful. I just got the book yesterday and I have already filled the margins with notes and post-its. It is a good resource to have and am glad I got it at the beginning stages of the dissertation writing process.

I wish I had this book when I was doing my final core class preparing my prospectus. I had it on my 'wish list'. It would have made things much easier if I had obtained it earlier. I read it one sitting. Written in layman's terms. The best book out of several that I have bought to prepare for my dissertation. Highly recommend this as the one to obtain! You will find it valuable.

I discovered a previous edition of this book when I was a Ph.D. student, which was not easy to do given how few good books there are on the subject, and I found it to be very helpful; particularly the chapters on reviewing the literature in a manner appropriate to your dissertation topic.

I used these ideas when I was crafting my own dissertation and they helped me to write a much more focused and professional literature review than if I had not read the book.

I recommend this book to any doctoral student who wants to improve the odds of "surviving" the dissertation process and earning that coveted doctoral degree.

Robert E. Levasseur, Ph.D., author of "Student to Scholar: The Guide for Doctoral Students"

I am going to see what could be made relevant to my research in English, but it was frustrating to see that it is so geared towards social scientists. The book has every right to focus on a particular type of graduate student (however it should be noted, I think), but since humanities grads are seen as fluffy, redundant and not "fact" finders, this book is not comforting for me to read. It re-emphasizes empirical evidence and thus continues to suggest (by not mentioning them)that humanities dissertations do not "prove" anything. While my dissertation will be organized around a "problem" of a certain kind, it is not something that can be tested or measured in the same ways as a social scientist's research. This makes it even more challenging to specifically define and finish. The book still looks well-written and addresses some areas that should be helpful if only mentally.

Surviving You Dissertation has truly been a great handbook to help me through the initial stages of my Dissertation Process. In addition to my Ph.D. program, as a Life Coach, Business Consultant, and Author, I am constantly writing programs, processes, and business plans. This book taught me some great tools about writing and effective written communication methods. Buy the Book...Coach Jon Hartman

This book serves as an excellent resource. The style is clear and the book is well structured. Offers very helpful advice.