Endorsements from Authors and Educational Leaders
While Demystifying Dissertation Writing is explicitly intended for doctoral students and their dissertation advisers in the social sciences and humanities, all academics, at any stage of their career can benefit tremendously from it…. Its warm, yet substantive style, with plenty of pithy quotes and lots of specific examples gleaned from years of working with doctoral students makes the reading enjoyable and very practical.
–Richard M. Reis, Editor of Tomorrow’s Professor eNewsletter and author of Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering
Written with humor in a friendly, conversational style, this book makes explicit the too often implicit aspects of successfully researching and writing a dissertation.
Readers will feel that they have a guide-at-their-side (and a stern task master in the form of Peg Boyle Single in their conscience) as they learn about and acquire the habits of fluent writing—reading interactively, taking citeable notes, outlining, and writing and revising their dissertations.
–Barbara E. Lovitts, author of Making the Implicit Explicit: Creating Performance Expectations for the Dissertation and Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study.
As someone who directs programs to help graduate students become effective teachers on top of productive researchers, I am delighted to be able to bring Single’s book and system to these students’ attention—and to recommend it as well to faculty directing dissertations. In a compact, practical, and engaging way, Single shares ideas that should make the writing ‘load’ of academic life that much easier for all of us.
–Michele Marincovich, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University, and past Executive Director of the POD Network
Dr. Single has written the definitive text on how to start, sustain, and finish a dissertation. Her book describes what she calls her “Single System for Academic Writing.” Her system is directed toward dissertation writers in the humanities and social sciences. The text is at once practical, accessible, and, in her aptly chosen descriptor, “streamlined.” Starting with choosing a topic and adviser, Dr. Single adeptly takes the reader through the necessary dissertation tasks of preparatory reading and note-taking, crafting clear focus statements and outlines, creating regular writing routines and overcoming writer’s block, and finally revising. I now have the quintessential writing text that I can recommend to all my doctoral students, regardless of the research genre they will be using.
–Robert J. Nash, Professor and 2003 University Scholar in the Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Vermont and author of Liberating Scholarly Writing: The Power of Personal Narrative.
Whether you’re inching towards a dissertation topic, choosing an adviser or already coping with the last stage of doctoral work, this book will be a life-saver. Demystifying Dissertation Writing is for anyone who wants to increase their writing productivity and especially for those who experience anxiety, blocking, impatience, perfectionism, or procrastination when they write. Through easy-to-follow steps, Single helps you rise above these barriers and become a fluent writer. She has managed to package into this book her expertise as a writing seminar organizer and a writing coach and it is just what academe needs.
–JoAnn Moody, Faculty Development and Diversity Specialist (www.diversityoncampus.com) and author of Faculty Diversity: Problems and Solutions.
I highly recommend this book to all directors of doctoral programs. Demystifying Dissertation Writing provides a blueprint for facilitating a dissertation writing seminar. Our students and their advisers rave about Peg’s seminar and her book.
–Susan Hasazi, Stafford Distinguished Professor of Education Leadership and Special Education and Director of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Vermont
I highly recommend this book—it is packed with helpful tips and effective strategies designed to help doctoral students succeed.
–Kimberly Huisman, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Maine at Orono