September 23, 2009
Organizing Your Research: Create a Living Outline
For many doctoral candidates, one of the more enjoyable parts of their program is conducting the hands-on research:
this is the rigorous, cerebral experience they signed up for. But actually writing the
dissertation? Not most people's idea of fun, and for many, the intellectual challenge of a lifetime.
But what so many fail to realize is that dissertation writing doesn't have to be such an onerous experience.
The critical first step toward easing your stress and lightening your burden is effectively organizing
your research, including your literature review.
The importance of creating a sound, dynamic outline cannot be understated. It is essential
to developing a series of clear, streamlined arguments that logically support your thesis and conclusions.
In this webinar, we offer you tools and advice you can apply directly to your work, no matter where you
are in the research process. We introduce the concept of a "Living Outline" that grows with your manuscript
as you collect data, consolidate your research, and organize your thoughts in preparation for and
during the writing process.
No matter what stage of the dissertation you are in, this seminar will help you get on the right track early —
and save you days of pain down the road. Let us show you the methods that have helped hundreds
of other students get it right.
October 7, 2009
Crafting a First Draft: Turn Your Outline Into Writing
Once you've taken the critical step of organizing research and developing the core structure of arguments
to support your thesis, the Herculean task of putting words to the page remains.
This webinar helps you reduce this massive undertaking into concrete, manageable steps that will lead you to a successful first draft.
Leveraging the work you've done in putting together a sturdy outline, you can apply the framework introduced in this webinar to
create a concrete, predictable plan to move through the process. This webinar also begins to introduce important and effective
writing techniques, continued in the next webinar.
Whether you've begun writing already or are still weeks away from starting, this webinar will help you think through how to make
the writing process as smooth, efficient, and predictable as possible.
October 21, 2009
Writing Like a Writer: Effective Sentences & Paragraphs
It's said that to become a great writer, 10,000 hours of practice are required. Well, very few people have that kind of time!
So what we've done is to boil down the most important things you need to know to make your dissertation communicate your ideas
in logical, streamlined and sophisticated form.
In this webinar, the instructor will walk you through how to develop sentences and paragraphs that support and enhance your argument.
The focus will be on developing streamlined transitions, creating logical supporting sentences to a paragraph's main topic, linking
together multiple supporting arguments in a section or chapter, and more. The editor will also discuss how to incorporate rhythm,
flow and style into the manuscript.
Students registered for this webinar will have the opportunity to receive individual feedback on their writing from an editor
during the semester.
November 4, 2009
Applying APA Style
Finally, we are excited to be bringing you former editors from the American Psychological Association to discuss with you the
major aspects and common pitfalls of APA Style. In addition, we will discuss change to the newly updated APA Style Manual (6th ed.),
just released this summer.
You'll also receive our quick reference guide to APA Style, which highlights the major aspects of the style as it applies to dissertations.
All registrants for this webinar will be automatically offered the opportunity to enroll in our StyleAnswers program for 6 months. StyleAnswers is
a beta program that allows students to post up to five APA Style questions to StyleMatters editors for free, using our secure web interface.
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