How to Write a Successful PhD Thesis: Ebook

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How to Write a Successful PhD Thesis

One Man’s Journey Through Hell to Success 

(2010)

Author:  Dr. Russ Murray

Introduction

Greetings, I am Russ Murray. I have earned an MPhil thesis degree from the University of Wales, Bangor and a PhD thesis degree from the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David at Lampeter. Both my degrees were in Theology and Philosophy of Religion. They were on the rather technical and difficult side as the topic was the problem of evil/theodicy and I needed to understand and discuss topics related to Christian, theistic and atheistic perspectives. Besides studying and having expertise with related aspects of philosophical theology, philosophy of religion and Biblical Studies, I was also required to have proficiency with practical theology, empirical theology, statistics, surveys, graphs and scientific concepts concerning consciousness and research.

Both my MPhil and PhD degrees were research only and so there was no course work.  I did do six years of course work with my first two degrees.

In addition, with my theses, the MPhil was approximately 40, 000 words, the PhD 130, 000 words,  and they were done by distance learning.  I did not have a local advisor to assist me, and I also did not have local access to a Wales or UK library.  In addition I did the work in the Vancouver, BC, area which is a rather secular area that does not contain a multitude of close theological libraries.

So, obviously I had my work cut out for me, even having done a successful BA in Biblical Studies and Master of Theological Studies locally,  which were primarily course work based.  Unlike with course work which is usually due and therefore over and done with within the semester, a thesis, especially a Doctoral thesis would certainly have years worth of additions and revisions.  The process can also feature changes of advisors, changes of institutions, and after viva revisions from reviewers. This can take several unexpected years.   With the cost of tuition, books and related, and the loss of full-time income, in many cases, an extended thesis can be financially difficult.  There are as well potential issues concerning depression and family struggles related to prolonged periods of thesis writing, especially when there are major problems.

In this eBook I will provide some important tips on how to write a successful Masters/PhD thesis. 

Is the PhD Worth It?

I had worked in the Insurance industry briefly after Secondary School, and soon realized my heart and mind was into Theology, Biblical Studies and Philosophy of Religion.  So my PhD is related to my life’s passion.  It is a main way I am serving God, in his will, imperfect as I am.

It also gives me a great sense of peace and accomplishment.

With reduced income, reduced social life, academy politics, and as one young professor told me, ‘You are basically putting your life on the line’, a Doctorate is a real gamble, humanly speaking.  Honestly, I am very good at several aspects of my field, and am a natural philosophical person and learned how to become a very good academic in many ways.  But I could have hypothetically failed my PhD viva and dissertation if I had been advised poorly and/or the internal and external reviewers decided they wanted to fail me and could present a good enough case to my University.  This is probably not difficult to politically produce.  Even if their case was basically more false than true.  

For example, one advisor mentioned to me the story of a brilliant Doctor who had previously written a successful PhD in the UK system but had failed the second time.  My advisor implied the Doctor was overconfident and somewhat disinterested the second time.  Perhaps he was, and perhaps not.

Failure and a huge painful shot to the ego is a very real danger in this business.  If one fails most of one’s friends and professional colleagues will find out about it.

One should make sure that the risk is worth the reward.  I would not, generally speaking, risk the time and effort to write a PhD, unless one is quite sure one can pass by doing what is required and that the degree with pay in the end.  By pay, financial considerations are of course important, but spiritual and intellectual considerations are also primary.

I can think of few situations where one should simply take a stab at a PhD.  Perhaps one can write a PhD mainly for reasons of ego, if one can handle the possible failure.  The failure could be from a lack of ability or lack of hard and smart work, or could be due to political powers out of one’s control.  If one is very wealthy, very old, terminally ill, or like, one can perhaps reasonably take a shot at a PhD without putting one’s life on the line.

It is good to discuss the PhD process with potential advisors and also others, local, and worldwide via the web, if possible, that have written a similar PhD project at the same or like University or college.  Here one can receive largely good advice and perhaps even receive feedback on the actual legitimacy of one’s own Doctoral candidacy.  Two advisors I had for example, put much emphasis on having written an MPhil thesis within the UK system prior to attempting a Doctorate.  The one advisor put more emphasis on this for potential PhD success than a long academic career with published works and no major thesis. 

Choosing a Place to Study

It is probably not going to be easy to be accepted into a PhD program. It is much easier to get into a Masters program.  In particular for a terminal degree, I would suggest that one look for a degree from a well-known University in his or her field of study. Research does not need to necessarily take place on the campus of, and directly with the major institution, but an affiliated college or like that provides more than one stamp on the final degree would suffice.  But the final degree should include the stamp of the major institution.  

If you have career aspirations with your degree there is little point in working very hard for years with much self-sacrifice for a degree barely recognized in your field.

You must also find a supportive advisor and hopefully a department. This can be a real struggle.

Coming from North America to the UK, even as a British citizen, I spoke with a Canadian accent and had two Christian degrees.  These were not easy degrees, by any means if one strives to be an ‘A’ student looking forward to PhD acceptance somewhere. One gentleman at London dismissively stated that he would not be sure if my 1^st class honours were equal to their 3^rd class honours. The first place I was accepted for PhD work had a younger quite supportive advisor who liked my work but when I arrived he was away for a year and I was left with two older largely hostile members in the department that served as advisors. They seemingly hated the work of conservative Christians, even though I was moderate and not a fundamentalist.  They seemingly wanted me out if I was not going to change my views to match the department.

It was like they were in a ‘fan club’ with the dismissive bloke from London.  By the way, I mentioned the London bloke to my older interviewer at Cambridge, a place I could have signed with, had I done a GRE, but I decided to attend somewhere else and skip the GRE,  and he agreed with me that the man at London was a jerk. 

Remember to treat others well as much as one can, and guard one’s reputation.  People talk.

So at the first place where I was accepted, almost everything I did was marked in red.  After I met with one of the advisors and the academic Dean I was told I would not face academic review for a year.  I came back to Canada for Christmas break and when I returned to the UK there was a letter in the post stating I would face an academic review. They broke their promise within a month.  I called the academic Dean on the phone and he stated the letter was wrong,  it was not an academic review, but I would have to defend myself at the meeting.

Now I was facing double talk.

Here is when one must know when to bail rather than fail!  If one knows that he or she already has a successful Masters degree, or is a qualified candidate, has met with University authorities, and yet is still facing an unsupportive advisor and department, one should probably leave.  I realize I stated it was difficult to get accepted into a PhD program, especially.  Even with a proficient and/or brilliant mind in the field, supportive advisor (s) and department, one can still fail the PhD,  in the end, and especially in a research only scenario, as with the UK, and receive an MPhil (that is not how I received mine, thankfully!).  If in the end the external reviewer does not think at the viva that the work is salvageable for a PhD, one will not pass.  If one does not have a supportive advisor at least, he or she is probably simply wasting time and money.

And one will have to live with failure, even if it is primarily politically caused!

So,  in my story, I moved on to Wales.  There I did receive support although I did go through three schools and advisors, not due to any more conflicts but because of advisors changing jobs.

The prestige of the institution, a supportive advisor and department are more important than the location of a college or the main institution. However, social considerations are important. With research only MPhil and PhD degrees especially, a great deal of time must be dedicated to massive amounts of theses writing.  However, having done course work, I admit this probably takes up more time than theses writing, although is it less technical.  Sitting in classes is also time consuming, so North American PhDs and Masters degrees, for example,  with both course work and theses are also very time consuming.

Studying in a place like New York or London will probably be more interesting than a smaller locale, but as much as you need to choose a place to study, the institution also chooses you.

I mentioned that course work may very well take more time than theses writing, although the latter is more technically challenging.  This may seem a surprise to many.   Well, with course work,  between commuting for my first two degrees, as I lived off campus, listening to lectures, time in the library, papers and studying up to 40 hours for exams, this would take 50-60 hours a week.  If one lives on campus several hours can be taken off this amount.

When I started my thesis work at Wales my advisor suggested 5-6 hours a day.  I found this worked out well as when I spent more time than that on writing mental fatigue started to set in.  Now if one can effectively write for 10-12 hours a day, then one should go for it, but I found that much of thesis thought would take place away from the computer and digging through books.

Several times while lying in bed an idea would come to mind.  It seems with major writing, at least,  that time away from the actual writing and research is needed for clarity.  However, these thoughts came to me after extended 5-6 hour and sometimes I admit 8 hour writing periods. 

Obeying your Advisor (s)

Okay, I just informed you that it is better to bail rather than fail.  You need basic academic freedom.  If you are Jewish, for example, and you are writing at a Christian University, after following all legitimate requirements, you still should be able to pass holding to a Jewish philosophical position, as long as it is well-reasoned and academic.  You need to play their game but should not have to hold to departmental intellectual positions necessarily to pass.

Do not expect your Doctoral thesis to be your life’s work.  It may be, but do not become so possessive of it that you insist that it is my way or the highway (to hell).  Remember that when and if you receive a degree and have done a thesis it MUST have the stamp (s) of  the institution (s) you signed with.  That means it must meet certain institutional requirements that may clash with your desires for your work. In fact, decent chance it will.  It is not just your work, it is theirs as well, in a sense.

My advice is to find a way to obey your advisor (s) while at the same time maintaining intellectual and academic integrity.  Read everything you are told to read and write what you are told to write as far as subject matter, as long as everything you do is moral, ethical and again, you maintain your integrity.

For my PhD thesis, by the time I had done my viva and done all the work my two advisors and two reviewers required for me to pass, there were 10+ and closer to 20 citations per page in the footnotes. This makes the work quite difficult to read and persons outside of the University that read my work were quite critical of the format.  That many citations also forced me to spend more time explaining the work of other writers cited and less time providing my own viewpoints that I would have liked.

But, within the UK system and in my situation, that was what was required to do to pass. I still maintained intellectual and academic integrity but I needed to obey my advisor (s) and my reviewers in order to pass.

I still ended up presenting some complex and fairly original concepts.

I would advise one to write too much rather than too little. Follow all of your advisors’ directions and most certainly after the viva EVERY SINGLE one of your final reviewer’s directions as much as you can.  If one writes too much one can also edit later, but if one writes too little that means more time back at the library and more grunt work.

As well, one should make sure that he or she has a copy of a book or source for the required University/institution format for writing the thesis. It would be wise not to expect an advisor or

advisors to necessarily know each and every formatting technicality.  I have found that especially with the Bibliography, the student is expected to know the format required.

Dealing With Authority

I have mentioned my troubles with advisors and institutions.  Please do not understand this as my rejection of authority. No, I believe that the student should attempt to meet all the ethical and academic standards of the educational institution and advisors.

Use the format required, read the books and journal articles required, do interviews, surveys and graphs as required.  Do everything that you are told to do that is ethical and will help to you to succeed.

Do everything you are required to do and everything you are told to do.  However, one must think for self, and this would mean creative work and technical enhancements to the work one is guided to do.  So, do everything you are told to do, PLUS.  Keep revising and revising well past the point where you think the work is excellent.

Now thinking for yourself means that you need to be able to figure out if an advisor and department are likely not going to lead you to success.  As well as being concerned with non-supportive advisors and a department, also be concerned with an inexperienced advisor and one with a new PhD.   If you sense that your advisor is green although very supportive, for example, or is not very proficient or expert with all areas of your project, one may wish to suggest that another advisor be asked to assist.  This can be an advisor in another department, another University or college or perhaps someone retired.

Ask librarians for help. 

A librarian can assist with University/college formatting issues, finding sources, including ones that may be out of print or at another library, and sometimes he or she will even do some of your research for you.  I have found a librarian can also be a good source on how to write a thesis outline. 

The librarian may or may not be an expert in an area related to your field, but due to the broad range of knowledge required to earn library degrees and become a librarian, they are a very good source for assistance. 

In fact, I have pondered on the idea of having librarians as secondary Doctoral advisors… 

Doing Research

The typical way to do thesis research with today’s technology is to buy a laptop computer and review in the library books and journal articles again and again and make notes.  Or perhaps take notes by hand. Well, that may be the best way for most, but not for me.

I find libraries too warm and stuffy and not conducive for long hours of research. That may seem ridiculous to some, but I always used the library as simply my place to do the initial research and at times to make photocopies.

I prefer to work at home in a private office with a window open, some of my music playing in the background with constant access to the beverage of my choice and related.

I desire to be more relaxed in an environment with fresh air and drinks.  Yes, the library is much more potentially social, but thesis writing is sorry to say, rather unsocial.

Again, the typical method may be best for many, I do not want to be unfairly critical here, but I found note taking at my undergraduate level to be rather unprofessional.  I reason it is too easy to miss valuable material the first time and to make mistakes.  Instead I would go through a text book, find relevant material and then would photocopy some materials at the institution, some at home and most at Staples or somewhere with a professional grade copy machine.  My reasoning is that if I have a permanent hard copy of my sources I will in the end make better use of materials than by simply having made notes with a laptop or by hand.  For my key exemplars I would actually buy the book if it was still in print and not several unaffordable volumes.

I basically have all the sources for my MPhil and PhD theses located in this office.  I have some books, a cabinet full of photocopies, some photocopies in binders on the floor and some material saved on CD/DVD.  I also made use of the internet and world wide web.

With the web, thankfully it is more expected than a decade ago that this will be used for sources.  Be careful that the person you cite is actually a recognized scholar in the field they are writing about and be careful citing references from web pages of organizations that do not have specific authors.  Unless the source seems very credible with only a Masters degree I would only cite PhDs.  In the Bibliography I would place the link at the end of a reference.  I would delete the underlining and make the link black as with the rest of the thesis text.  Do not have a live link for a reviewer to stumble on.

Some persons like to do all their Chapter or even thesis research and then do the writing.  Again, this is good, but not my way.  I tend to desire a looseness with my approach.  I would have my basic exemplars in mind and documented, at least for the Chapter I was working on.  I would then write a loose outline with headings and sub-headings.  I would then work on completing the Chapter by following the outline.

For me I would reason that if I were to do all my research before writing I would be putting myself at a disadvantage because much of the research I did for my theses were actually done as I was writing. Again that is another reason to have hard copies of materials available rather than just notes because one may decide to use material from the hard copy that one thought was unimportant previously.  This information would be missing from the notes.  Many, many times I used material from hard copies that I had not previously marked for use.

Revise, Revise, Revise

At a Masters and PhD thesis level, one should be one’s own worst critic.  The advisor is there to check content, format and perhaps catch some grammatical and spelling errors, but the writer is ultimately responsible for work presented.  I have used a proofreader throughout the theses writing process who was a stenographer for many years.  This person greatly assisted me, but I am still the one responsible for the work.

Repetition is key. Run spell check often while writing.  A grammar checker can be helpful but with MS Word anyway, I have found it sometimes less than ideal.  Make sure that you and your proofreader go over spelling, grammar and format, many, many, more times than you can remember, before you hand in a piece of work to your advisor.  Advisors are very busy and so do not expect them to catch everything.

One should understand the difference between writing assertions and an argument.  An assertion is merely the proposition or premise, while an argument is at least one proposition/premise with a conclusion.  One of my advisors did not completely understand this (perhaps not having a background in philosophy) and seemingly assumed that simply a proposition/premise with a conclusion was not an argument, but it is.  Counterpoints are not necessary to present an argument, but especially in the UK system one needs to provide argumentation with counterarguments from the other side in theses work.  Basically the advisor’s complaint was that my arguments did not all contain counterarguments and so my work lacked breadth.

According to the rules of philosophy and reasoning, a deductive argument is logically valid as long as one does not provide a true premise with a false conclusion.  One can have a valid deductive argument with a false premise and false conclusion, false premise and true conclusion and true premise with true conclusion. 

One should make sure arguments are valid and more importantly, sound. Soundness means the argument is valid and the premises are true.  The conclusion is true.

Sometimes assertions suffice (as with this e-Book primarily) and basically no one writes academic work where every single claim is made in argument.  But, make sure central and controversial points are made with arguments and a clear concise understanding of important counterviews.

Some assertions and arguments are not worth pursuing for political reasons.  If a point is not central to your thesis and may be too controversial, strongly consider leaving it out of your work.

Remember politics is always an issue, even when a department acts like it is not.

So, from my perspective I was a moderate Christian conservative working in a moderate secular liberal department.  I avoided some unnecessary topics and my advisors kindly helped me with this as well. 

Paying for your PhD

If you are rich, or have someone else paying for your Doctorate, you are of course in the clear.  I realize some actually have their PhDs paid for and work at the University/college.

One can work part-time on the thesis and work full-time at a job.  I never went that route because I wanted to have my degrees, eventually four concluding with the PhD, over as soon as possible.  As you can deduce, I did not finish as soon as possible, and I only managed to work part-time while working on a full-time PhD thesis.

I suppose if you have a good job and one you can tolerate, working on the thesis part-time could be a very good idea.  If one has excellent health, which I did not in the process, and have few other commitments, and can work 70+ hours a week.  Perhaps one can work full-time and successfully complete a PhD thesis full-time.

If one decides that the full-time route is the way to go, I would suggest part-time work if that would suffice.  I also went with Canada and British Columbia student loans and did receive free room and board from family.  Of course, one must check his or her own jurisdiction for student loans, but from personal experience I have found that government loan agencies and especially banks can be difficult to deal with.

I had mentioned I had to quit my first UK PhD appointment for political reasons.  Well, the Canadian government unfairly credited me with an entire year of loan period, not loan money, and so I ran out of loan period time and my last year of PhD had to be paid on my VISA. 

With my British Columbia loan, a certain bank decided, in ignorance, not to check with the provincial loan authority to see if I still qualified as a student in non-repayment status and started having representatives call me at 8 pm several nights a week, sometimes with a threatening tone.  I went to the head of the bank, who did little, and eventually a kind provincial loan employee managed to let the bank know that indeed I was still in repayment status and to please leave me alone.

The bank did this again at a later date.  Rather than do the research the bank representative stated I could no longer be covered under repayment status.  This was at best, laziness and ignorance, and at worse an outright lie.  The provincial loan authority let me know that yes, until I have a full-time job and can pay back my loans, I am in repayment status, just as national loans, provincial loans, the bank and I had agreed on years ago in writing.  So, a friendly warning, dealing with student loans can be a big hassle.

Grants are difficult to find and receive.  I won a Biblical scholarship with my first degree.  My deduction is that it is probably easier to receive a Doctoral grant in the sciences as compared to the arts/philosophy related academics. 
                                       

Consider Outside Help

I have mentioned I used a proofreader.  Highly recommended.  More and more of my readers will likely be distance learning students, like I was.  It may be that one does not have an official local advisor.  If you do not, I would consider asking local academics for assistance.  I asked two pastors at church who had Doctorates to look over my work for me.

Now they were both primarily educated in the North American system, and not the UK one, and so they were not specifically familiar with UK research only PhDs.  But, one of my pastors had worked in academia for almost forty years and reviewed theses.  He actually, like many, did not like the heavy, heavy use of citations in my work that I was required to do.  He did, however, provide some important feedback on sources.  The other pastor was very helpful with books that he provided.

Since these local unofficial readers of my thesis were not employed by Wales, I would consider all of their suggestions, but obviously I would make sure that I was following my official advisor (s) instructions primarily.

Having  done UK theses, it was good to get a North American perspective on theses.  One British advisor seemed to look down on American work somewhat stating that their British counterparts had more breadth.  As noted, my one pastor who had worked in the American system disliked the heavy use of citations and complained that I did not have enough of my own argumentation within the work.  As noted, previously, I had an intellectual problem with this approach as well.  The impression I received is that North American Doctoral theses would be unacceptable in the UK, and UK Doctoral theses would be unacceptable in North America.

It may have been that a North American Doctoral thesis would have better suited my intellectual approach, but I had done two North American degrees with course work and two small theses.  I favoured a UK or European degree because I had done six years of course work.

In my mind, and I realize some disagree, I reason that theses writing is a better indicator of academic ability overall, than is course work and the ability to remember information for tests.

However, I recognize that without six years of course work I would not have been educationally prepared enough to write MPhil and PhD theses.

So for a PhD thesis only degree, this can be found in the UK/Europe, and North America offers course work and thesis.  As for the rest of the world, ask the institution in question.  My tendency is to think that a research only PhD is generally a bit more prestigious academically. However, let’s face it, a PhD from Harvard,  Stanford, Yale or Princeton, for example,  in the right field is going to be absolutely first-rate.  For myself, I am fortunate that Wales is a large multi-campus University known for religious studies.

Conclusion

In my estimation this e-Book presentation will be a unique opportunity to gain inside information on PhD academia.  On the web, there is plenty of information from insiders/employees of Universities and colleges, so to speak, but it will be more politically correct.

I wanted to provide one with first-hand information from someone that wrote complex research  only theses (MPhil and PhD) in semi-hostile academic environments, although in general persons were not personally hostile.  Many of the technical do’s and don’ts one needs to find out are from his or her advisor (s) and University/college thesis handbook.  What I am providing is a non-politically correct guide on how to succeed when one reasons one is smart enough and yet will face some political opposition.  How to succeed when you are perhaps foreign culturally and philosophically and are perhaps a distance learning student.

Intelligence is vital as from my perspective is God’s willingness for the work to succeed.   However, persistence is more important than intelligence.  I would suggest that one have a burning desire to succeed with the thesis or theses and growing confidence as one’s God-given talent more and more becomes God-given skill.

This belief and confidence combined with evidence of success can overcome the negative forces that may very well have PhDs themselves and do not think you are worthy of the club. 

PhD