Time Frame for Dissertation??

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by duff, Jan 25, 2003.

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  1. duff

    duff New Member

    I know this really depends on the topic and person involved but I just want to gage the crowd for those who have completed a dissertation or those who know of people who have completed a dissertation. Now lets say a person starts their dissertation after all coursework is completed.

    Because of this, they would not have to worry about any other course work other then the dissertation. With dedicated effort and say 10 hours a week, how long would it take them to finish the product? How long did it take any of you? Just the dissertation aspect of the program. Thanks for any insights!!

    Duff
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    You cannot equate time spent per week with an overall completion time. Some dissertations are longer than others. Some require more research than others. Some are delayed for uncontrollable reasons, or require certain things to happen before others can take place. Some require a great deal more coordination with one's committee. Some involve outside agencies. Some involve experiments that have undefined time frames. And on, and on....

    Any estimates would be specious.
     
  3. Jack Tracey

    Jack Tracey New Member

    Along the same line as Richs statement...
    I knew one person whose dissertation was essentially the presention of a specific new theory. There was a huge lit. review but the theory itself only required about 50 pages of elucidation. Another person was doing a more qualitatively oriented dissertation that required the testing of human subjects who had specific characteristics. The most difficult aspect of the dissertation was actually finding a sufficient number of these subjects. It took a long time just to find them. I don't think you could reliably draw any conclusions about your own project from these other stories.
    Jack
     
  4. duff

    duff New Member

    I knew I would not get a simple answer. Thanks for the replys. I was just doing my own little research to look at time frames for those who have completed dissertations. I am not trying to draw conclusions for how long it may take me or someone else. Like I said in my first submission, I know it depends on the subject and the time that is put into the project. Thanks to Rich, I now know there are other factors that need to be considered.

    Granted they give you 7 years for a reason to complete a Ph.D., I just wanted to know where others fell in relation to the 7 years for the dissertation part alone. Just a little field study, thats all.
     
  5. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Oh, so you want the secrets of the magic clubhouse? This particular hazing ritual has no rules...
     
  6. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Duff,

    Tar Heels usually need a little extra time to complete their dissertations. ;)
     
  7. David Williams

    David Williams New Member

    Duff, as Rich noted some dissertations take time to get assemble the subject pool. That was so in my case. I don't know about other fields but in applied psychology (clinical, counseling, school) many programs encourage students to complete the dissertation before going on internship. One of the issues APA considers in program accreditation is the proportion of students who never finish. This has brought forth a new acronym, ABI, which stands for all but internship.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 25, 2003
  8. duff

    duff New Member

    Russ:

    Thanks for the notion!! I know you are a Tar Heel fan!!

    It is funny because I once had a professor in grad school tell me that you know if someone has their masters because regardless of what question you ask them, they will always say it depends and you know if someone has a Ph.D. because they can write on and on about any subject. I think everyone who has posted is working on one of the two degrees.

    No harm to anyone and I respect what everyone has said, but all I wanted to know is......"Hi, I am John Doe and from when I stared my Dissertation to when I finished, it took me 2, 3, 4, etc. years. My Ph.D. was in......" I just wanted to gage how long it took some people. I just wanted to open up some discussion so that those who have completed their dissertation could share their experience.

    So another question I have for everyone....is this a secret society or something?

    Duff
     
  9. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Of course, I can't belong to a secret society, but South Efrican universities often allot 2 or 3 years for a doctoral "thesis" (US "dissertation"). A SA doctorate is a research-only degree, so theses tend to be a bit longer.
     
  10. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Not really a Tar Heel fan, Duff, just a Tar Heel (Burlington, NC).

    My D.Min. dissertation comprised the last year of my degree program. Two years of course work, one year for the dissertation.
     
  11. obecve

    obecve New Member

    The actual work of my dissertation took 7-8 months and ususally much more than 10 hours per week. However the disseration took more than 2 years overall. There are a number of things out of your control that you will have to account for. First you cannot be assured that the members of your committee are committed to the same pace you are. They may go on trips, sabbaticals, vacations, etc. Each of these events effect your time committments. If they are not there, you cannot meet. Additionally, you will have to go through some kind oif institutional review by the university if the research involves human beings (such as a survey). Sometimes this is very easy; other times it can take months. If you have partnered with another organization to do your research on their personnel or clients or whatever, you will have a second institutional review from that group. They will take their time. Additionally, if your chair has other doctoral students, the ones who are closest to done or who are most interesting will get the most time from the professor. You will have to wait your turn. This is not to be negative. It is just to let you know there are many things that get involved in the "time picture" of a dissertation. In my own situation, I required an approval for a survey by an outside group. That process took over 8 months. During that time I could work on literature review and some of the research chapter, but once that was done, I was frozen until the permission came through. Once they gave their approval it went amazingly fast, but required 30-40 hours a week in the final stages. Lots of stuff to consider!!!
     
  12. duff

    duff New Member

    Thanks Russell, I knew you would come through, don't tell me you are a Duke or NC State fan??!!!

    Obecve: Thanks for the information!!!

    So, I have one last question for advice. Are their any publications or websites that go over how dissertations are structured and what formats are acceptable (i.e. Using real subjects, secondary data only, etc.) or does this information come directly from the school that you may be getting your Ph.D. from?

    Once again, thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences!!

    Duff
     
  13. PaulC

    PaulC Member

    It took me one year and one month to complete my dissertation upon completion of my coursework and comps. However, it should be noted that I was doing research on my dissertation while involved in the coursework phase of my program. So, needless to say, you don't really start your dissertation at a particular time in your program. It is more like stepping up the effort once your coursework and comps are completed.
     
  14. obecve

    obecve New Member

    Each school has a specific style and their own format booklet. However, what I recommend is getting several copies of recent disserations that were successfully completed in your department. this will go a long way in helping you know what they really want. Also, see if you university library has access to Proquest Direct Dissertation Abstracts. It really helps to look at other dissertations in prerparing for your own. There are a number of books on how to complete your dissertation. I did not find them very helpful however.
     
  15. Charley Tichenor

    Charley Tichenor New Member

    May I offer an opinion.

    If you are a mid-career professional and reasonably expert in your field, you may already know a number of topics for research needed to make important and original contributions to your industry. You don't have to start from scratch. Then, as part of your application process to a university's Ph.D. program, informally present your topic to the Dean or potential Advisor and see if the university will approve the topic. You will certainly have to do a formal proposal later on in your studies, but at least you can spend your course taking time thinking about how to approach and conduct your research. An informal approval from the Dean or Advisor as part of your application process will save many months of time later.

    If you are good at word processing, you can save lots of additional time. I think of how long it took to send drafts to typists in the "old days" and how long it took them to do the edits required by the Advisor or committee. The "worst" editing job I needed to do took less than a day and I just printed out the final product.

    Finally, studying a short book on how to develop a dissertation will help immensely. "Completing Your Dissertation" by Ogden helped me.

    With reading a good book on how to write a dissertation, word processing, expertise in my field so I could select an appropriate topic, an informal topic approval during the application process, and thinking about my approach while I was taking my course work, the actual proposal and dissertation research and writing time for me was about five months in a distance learning mode with a full time job. (My dissertation was based on a statistical proof of a business forecasting method using simulations as the source of data. It was 99 pages with about 700 pages of simulation printous as appendices.)

    However, if one has to have someone else do the word processing, starts the topic selection from scratch and in a field of interest but with no professional experience, and after the coursework is finished, I think the total dissertation time will be substantially longer.
     
  16. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Michael has given some excellent advice here. After I decided the subject of my dissertation, I checked out 10-12 dissertations from the seminary library. Some dealt with a similar subject, others did not, however, I read through each of them making note of items such as:

    Overall Style and Content
    Chapter Classification, Sequence and Flow
    Documentation
    Bibliography
    Length
    Table of Contents
    Etc.

    This was extremely helpful as I worked through my own dissertation.
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    It is essential to get in touch with your school's and department's requirements. However, there are other sources available as well. Try this link:

    Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation

    Also, I enjoyed Successful Dissertations and Theses by David Madsen and How to Complete and Survive Your Doctoral Dissertation by David Sternberg.

    There are many others, of course. Also, you might want to look at other universities' websites for their guidelines. I think Walden University posts its dissertation guide, but that might have changed.
     

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