Thesis and Dissertation Survival

Collecting Dissertation Data

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Thesis and Dissertation Survival, Thesis or Dissertation Process
Tags: dissertation data

Once you have successfully defended your dissertation proposal and have had your study approved by your university’s institutional review board, you are ready to start collecting data for your study. There are many data collection methods, but how you ultimately choose to collect data will depend on the design of your study. Below are some common methods of collecting dissertation data and the types of projects for which these methods…

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Choosing Your Team: Selecting a Chair and Academic Committee

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Thesis and Dissertation Survival, Thesis or Dissertation Process
Tags: academic committee, faculty chair

To receive graduate degrees, graduate students will likely be required to write dissertations or theses under the direction of faculty chairs or advisors and to present that work to an academic committee who decide whether or not the students pass examination and qualify for graduation. Typically, graduate students are allowed to choose their own chairs and committee members. Committee members and chairs play an important role in the success of…

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Your New Job: Taking Your Thesis or Dissertation Seriously

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Staying on Schedule, Thesis and Dissertation Survival
Tags: dissertation plan, thesis plan

You’ve finally finished several of your upper-level graduate courses and are beginning to put together your dissertation plan. You might be thinking that writing this paper will be a breeze and that you will complete the project easily. However, writing your thesis or dissertation is a process that will consume much more of your time and concentration than will any of your other class or term papers. The most successful…

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Writing Your Dissertation: Setting a Daily Dissertation Schedule

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Staying on Schedule, Thesis and Dissertation Survival
Tags: dissertation schedule, thesis schedule

Do not underestimate how much time it will take to write your dissertation. Many graduate students spend much of their valuable time researching and collecting data and put off the arduous task of writing about what they’ve done until the last minute. These students inevitably scramble to synthesize thoughts and ideas on paper, making (what is to most) the already stressful process of writing even more difficult than it has…

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Accountability Partners: Creating a Writing Support Group

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Staying on Schedule, Thesis and Dissertation Survival
Tags: writing group

Perhaps the most important part of writing is keeping your sanity throughout the writing process. A few ways to do this are screaming your problems into your pillow, making prank calls to that professor you hate, and openly crying in your graduate class. However, making a writing group with your colleagues to assist each other in writing is much more appropriate and constructive than is any of the previously mentioned…

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Parametric and Nonparametric Statistics

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Thesis and Dissertation Survival, Understanding Statistics
Tags: parametric and nonparametric, ways of analyzing data

Most statistics courses tend to focus on parametric statistics; however, you might find that as you prepare to analyze your dissertation data, parametric statistics might not be an appropriate choice for your research. The following are some of the differences between parametric and nonparametric statistics. Parametric Statistics Parametric statistics are any statistical tests based on underlying assumptions about data’s distribution. In other words, parametric statistics are based on the…

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Data Crash Course: Types of Data and Scales of Measurement

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Thesis and Dissertation Survival, Understanding Statistics
Tags: scales of measurement, types of data

Before you begin to collect data for your thesis or dissertation, it may be helpful for you to review the different types of data and scales of measurement available to you. You can use the following cheat sheet as a reference guide as you prepare to collect your dissertation data. Scales of Measurement Nominal: (a.k.a., categorical) refers to characteristic data that have no numeric value (i.e., ethnicity)      Dichotomous:…

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A Change of Plans: Using the Correct Statistics Test that Fits Your Data

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Thesis and Dissertation Survival, Understanding Statistics
Tags: statistics test

You have successfully defended your dissertation proposal, and now you have your dissertation data. It might seem like the next logical step would be to run your analysis according to the analysis plan from your proposal. However, it is important to make sure that the statistics test you plan to run is appropriate for the data that you obtained. Sticking to a rigid plan for which statistics test to…

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Finding the Minimum Sample Size

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Choosing a Research Design, Thesis and Dissertation Survival
Tags: a priori power, find the minimum sample size, what is a dissertation methodology

When completing your thesis or dissertation, you will most likely be collecting data and running some statistical analysis on the data that you collect. When writing proposals for their theses and dissertations, students commonly overlook a priori power analysis which can be critical in their study. What is power? Statistical power is the ability for statisticians to use statistical tests to determine if significance exists between variables in a…

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Data Collection Methods

Published: 5 October 2012
Written by PhdStudent
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Categories: Choosing a Research Design, Thesis and Dissertation Survival
Tags: data collection methods

Regardless of the topic of your dissertation or thesis, it is highly likely that at some point you will need to collect data. Below are some common data collection methods. Remember, you will want to collect data in a way that fits your research design and questions. Self-Report Self-report is a type of research design in which participants give their responses to a given set of questions. The most common…

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