'Your thesis isn't meant to be interesting'

I was sitting with my supervisor one day and going through a piece of my writing in which, alas, the (flowery, pretty) language, and in particular the (alliterative, beautiful) words I had chosen to end on were found wanting. The problem was, the pretty writing created ambiguity. 

'Do you really mean (X)?' my supervisor asked me. 'Or did you just choose those words because they sounded good?'

She had me. I marvelled at her powers of discernment.

'I guess I chose them because they... sounded good', I said.

My supervisor understood.

'You know', she said, 'your thesis isn't necessarily meant to be interesting.'

…I wilted. 

My thesis isn't meant to be interesting. I like nice writing, and that's basically of no use here. My thesis is meant to be boring. (Of course, the other problem was that I was not yet a fully-fledged writer of theses, and as such I actually had no idea as to what 'meaning' I was trying to get across; therefore, making the writing nicely obscure and 'flowery' suited me fine. I didn't yet have a clear point that I wanted to make. I wanted to write 5000 words of something and be left alone.I wanted to hide behind 'interesting' writing so I wouldn't have to commit to any concrete ideas yet.)

'Mate, that's rubbish!… I want your thesis to be interesting!… What if I want to read it one day? … Ignore this advice!' - was the general consensus amongst loved ones when i told them this news.

But my supervisor had a point. Your thesis is being written for a grand total of maybe two people: your examiners. It needs to be as clear as possible for them to understand. You need to take them by the hand and walk them through your ideas, and if there are any words in there which are just there to sound pretty, but actually don't clarify what you mean - or worse, create confusion, or suggest that you are going to lead them down avenues that you are not - then they need to go. It took me a long time to get my head around that one: how to write nicely, but in such a way that nothing detracts from what you really mean, and nothing creates ambiguity.

Of course, now that I'm trying to turn my PhD into a book, I am having to do a bit of a volte-face. Because a book, which is aimed not at two examiners but at a paying market and (hopefully) an international readership, HAS to be interesting. It can't just be full of sentences that just say things like 'In this chapter I will demonstrate' and 'I have thereby shown' and '(X theory) cannot be sustained'. It has to lead the reader into each chapter 'nicely', maybe with a much broader point, or an anecdote. The other day, I came across an article by a book-marketing guru (which inspired me a lot and which I have been trying, and failing, to find again and put on here), who makes the distinction between writing a 'good' book, and writing an 'interesting' one. He says, it's not enough for your book to be good; it has to, has to be interesting.

To all of you thesis-writers out there: your thesis doesn't need to be interesting. Don't get too paralysed by the writing. Just write; try to make your point as clear as possible; if you're not sure yet what your point is, it will come out in the successive drafts. 

But do save the interesting stuff somewhere, in a file or at the back of your mind, for later. You never know when you might get to use it.

Quote of the Day

'For the first time I realised that there was another option other than feeling like crap about myself [...]. When we dislike a situation we're in, or when we deem ourselves or other people to be wrong, it's nearly impossible to move forward and transform. Beating ourselves up or complaining about something or someone is like digging a hole deeper right under our feet to get us more entrenched in whatever situation, relationship, or personal struggle we're facing. [...] This is true any time we let ourselves stay entrenched in shame, whatever the issue may be. It can be a very paralyzing emotion.'   (Kate Northrupp, Money: A Love Story)


Very true, no?.... This might have been taken straight out of a book on how to do your PhD. In fact, this is from a book on personal finance. I can't help but notice that how you feel about writing a PhD, and how you feel about your financial situations (both things to do with giving and receiving value, and both bound up with feelings of personal worth) are very much linked.

And now I'm off to do some work.

'Stop agonizing over perfection'

Something nice which I came across the other day, and which I've been wanting to share on here: this is a suggestion on how to think about your writing.

"Stop agonizing over perfection. [...] Instead, focus [on] offering value to others. This change of attitude made a huge difference for me and my book. I put a post-it by my laptop as a reminder every day, “How can I be most helpful to my reader?"

I think this might just be the perfect note-to-self for the odd (agonizing, perfectionist) PhD student.

You can find the whole piece here: http://positivewriter.com/a-survivors-guide-to-writing/

Have a great day, everybody!...



CN

Words of Wisdom: Randy Pausch, 'The Last Lecture'

I first heard about this around October last year, thanks to a friend who sent me the link, and I remember sitting in front of it and finding it absolutely wonderful. I sat and listened and watched and made inspirational notes in a beautiful notebook.

I am currently in the process of throwing away and dismembering lots of old notebooks (as I am about to move home/ country for a bit, in search of a new adventure; there's only so many notebooks you can take with you, or keep and store in someone else's garage, so I have made myself go through them and throw them away, shredding the odd page of handwritten wisdom. I don't need to keep them all. The Tidying Bible would tell you that it's actually better for you to throw away things like that than to hold on to them; conversely, storing piles and piles of information in your house, useful though they may seem, doesn't actually do anything good for your brain.)

So I am throwing out the notes I made on this, and I am finally getting round to sharing it with all the users of this blog:

There is a lecture series in America called the 'Last Lecture', where distinguished speakers are asked to deliver a lecture on the most important things they've learned. The idea is, if you had only one lecture left to give in your whole life, what would you like to teach people about?... For this particular speaker, Randy Pausch, the 'Last Lecture' was particularly meaningful: at the time of the lecture, he was dying of cancer.

He gives the most amazing advice on time management, positive thinking, and in general just having fun and getting on with it. (I cite a couple of inspirational quotes from some of his lectures at the end of a previous post.)

Here is a link to one of his talks to get you started; there are more online, including a fantastic talk on managing your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Enjoy!

'Hate My PhD' - Best Of

Recently, sitting on a train and having nothing to do, I pulled out my mobile phone and started rereading some of my posts on this blog.

I had a lot of fun rereading some of these. If nothing else, at least the one thing I got out of my PhD is this little collection of nice writings... (And I did get a whole lot more out of it, too.)

So here are some of my favourite bits from this blog (selected for you in one handy post - for your amusement and joy) :

It was fun rereading the blog post called 'The End'. This is my absolute favourite post on this whole blog (I think you all know why!) In the days leading up to this blog post, I was already composing it delightedly in my head, half unable to believe that I would actually ever get to write these words (when it's two days to the deadline and you still have an unfinished conclusion and about 2, 348 footnotes to straighten out...) I really couldn't quite believe that I would ever get to write this one. And when I finally did sit down to write it... I don't think I've ever enjoyed writing anything more in my whole life.

I also liked writing 'Violation of Rules' and 'I Have a Dream'. The PhD wasn't all misery and difficulty, and even some of the frustrating and miserable bits could be turned on their head, and mined for anecdotal gold. I remember laughing over the Violation of Rules scenario with a lovely friend over an afternoon coffee on a London terrace (ahhh, the life of a PhD...) and I remember coming up with the 'men in white coats' line whilst chatting on the phone, while I joked about how I could maybe just 'phase out the PhD'...

I enjoyed musing over the inns and outs of my personality in 'Lastminute.com'. I subsequently found all my theories on 'being a last-minute person' to be wrong, however, when I discovered the Procrastination Bible in March 2013. I began to think that maybe there's no such thing as a last-minute person. I also began to just do stuff.

And here's another one I like - here are my Top Tips for Doing a PhD.

Happy reading!....

CN

'From Thesis to Book'

Some useful advice here from a kindly young academic on how to go about turning your thesis into a book:

http://frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/blog/?p=374

I am finding this all very useful right now.

'How to Write Everything'

I got a great book for Christmas, entitled 'How to Write Everything'. It's great stuff. It tells you how to write a screenplay, write an article for a magazine, write a novel...

Alas, it does not have a chapter on 'How to Write That Academic Article You Promised to Write Ages Ago (and Now Your Heart Isn't In It)'... (If only there was such a chapter, I would be so excited.)

A wise friend of mine once told me, 'If there is something you really really dread doing, then how about just... don't do it?... I was once supposed to make some changes in an article I was writing... and I just couldn't bring myself to do one particular part of it... and I thought, what would happen if I just - don't do it?... And I left it. And it never mattered.'

That's all nice, and that is actually very good advice, when you think about it; if it makes you feel a surge of dread and if the mere thought of it has you breaking out in hives, consider not doing it.

That's all very nice, but... I still feel like I have to do this article, which I promised to (and am contracted to) do. Somehow, I don't think a 'sorry, I just don't want to do it anymore', a month ahead of the deadline, will cut it.

Note to self: from now on, agree only to do those things which quite clearly bring me joy. Or maybe my note-to-self should be: from now on, say no to absolutely everything.