Reading About Writing - Book #1

Book #1 - Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day by Joan Bolker

This book was a recommended book for someone who is in the "dissertation-writing" phase of their program. As I am doing prelims and will soon be working on my proposal, I thought this book could give me some good ideas about breaking down the large chunks of writing a dissertation. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed, overall, with this book. 

When I started reading, I was expecting a book that really laid out a plan for writing about fifteen minutes a day. I'm not into prescribed plans, but I was looking forward to having a guide. Even something that broke down the chunks (i.e., research and write your theoretical framework first, then develop your methods). This book included more of a broad, over-generalization of the process and focused on some behaviors and habits to work on in order to successfully write. 

The book begins by discussing how you build a "work process" and how you pick a research topic, then covers putting together a committee. The author discusses how to manage life and contingencies, problems associated with word processors, and finally, how to publish your dissertation. None of the advice the author gives is bad, and for some people, I think this book could be really helpful. Fortunately, I had already been trained in many of the methods this author discusses and have already built a strong writing habit. Mostly, this book just reinforced what I already know but did not give me much new information.

That being said, one piece of advice the author shared that I really appreciated was the idea of a "zero draft". For as long as I can remember, my mother has hounded me about my writing progress. If she knows I have a paper or project due, she nags me and questions me about it. "Have you written your paper yet?" "What are you waiting for?" Very mother-like. My response to her is always, "It's all in my head...I've got it covered." What I mean by that statement is that I am thinking about the paper and planning what I want to write. I don't know how to explain it, but when I get an idea in my head, it has to marinate for a while. Then, suddenly, I'm ready to go. This goes back to the idea of a "zero draft". The author explains that before you can actually create your first draft, you have to create a "zero draft" of ideas, figures, or whatever helps you organize ideas. 

I think the zero draft concept can apply to many different forms of prewriting, but I just love the phrase. It is very non-intimidating and non-threatening. In a way, it gives the author permission to build his or her ideas without the pressure of having to create a formal argument or a draft of a manuscript. I love this idea. In fact, I wrote the word "zero draft" on a sticky note and stuck it to my computer as a reminder. 

While this book was not particularly useful, interesting, or eye-opening, I think it would be a great book for people who do not have a strong writing habit and need help structuring and managing their work, life, and other contingencies. Moreover, I did get one useful piece of information from this book and that is good enough for me! :)