One Simple Question To Finish Your Doctoral Dissertation
Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD
Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.
I went to visit one of the professors on my doctoral committee after I passed my oral exam. According to the statistics I had read, 85% of doctoral students in the humanities, who reach the stage I had just reached, never finished their doctoral dissertations. After completing all course work and passing their exams, they become ABDs, which stands for "All But Dissertation." Knowing this statistic, I wanted to ask my professor a question.
My question was a simple one: "What do I need to know to write and finish my dissertation?" I knew he would give me practical wisdom because he was a street-smart scholar, in addition to being brilliant, an outstanding teacher, and prolific writer
This was his answer: "By the time people reach the point of writing a doctoral dissertation, they are smart enough, they know enough, and they work hard enough to finish. But everything they hear is: 'You aren't smart enough, you don't know enough, you don't work hard enough.' And so they never finish because they think they can never do enough." I will never forget these words.
After that brief conversation, I wrote on a 3x5 yellow index card: "What Is Enough?" I put that card on the wall in front of me, where I could see it any time I sat down to work on my dissertation.
I think that this simple question: "What Is Enough?" is the single most important reason why I was able to go from ABD to Ph.D.
As I worked on my dissertation, the question: "What Is Enough?" kept me on course. Whenever I realized that I had just spent two hours on some interesting bit of information, the question reminded me of my purpose. My purpose was to complete the dissertation, defend the dissertation, and finish my degree. When I asked the question I could evaluate whether the particular topic I was working on was relevant to my purpose. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn't. But simply asking the question reminded me that I was working toward a specific goal.
The word "more" drives scholars. Scholars love to study. Love to know more, read more, learn more. Yet, this quest for "more" is often what stands in the way of completion. The question: "What Is Enough?" reminds scholars who can never do enough or know enough, to remember the simple task at hand.
Since I completed my own dissertation, I have offered this question to other scholars, and I now offer it to you. The question will keep you on track to finish your dissertation. It is especially valuable whenever you feel overwhelmed, focused, and off-track. If you wonder if you will ever be able to finish, ask yourself: "What Is Enough?" to finish.
When you are writing a doctoral dissertation, "What Is Enough?" means that you write a clear argument to prove a clear thesis. You don't have to write everything you know on a topic. "Enough" means that you write enough to prove your case. You don't have to write more than "enough."
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