Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I work with grad students who are writing their dissertations. Often the simplest advice and exercise is the most effective. Here is one of those exercises.

I work with graduate students in engineering and computer science at George Mason University. Most of the students are working on their dissertation proposals or dissertations. Many struggle with their writing. They are brilliant people, but the words don’t move from their brains to their paper easily or readily. One of the more frequent stumbling points is deciding what to say in a paragraph. Since they are struggling, they usually try to say half a dozen things in one paragraph.

Here is what I do in this situation.

Me: What do you want to say here?

Student: Uhh.

Me: Let’s try this. Don’t look at your paper. Look at me. Please tell me what you are trying to write here.

Student: Something brilliant, concrete, precise, specific.

Me: Great. Write those words.

Student: You mean I can do that. I can actually write just what I want to say?

Me: Yes, you have my permission to actually write just what you want to say.

The student usually sighs and smiles at this time. They then scribble notes with their pencil in the margin of their paper. Everything goes much easier after that.