Is A Dissertation Difficult?

Do you have difficulty writing? Do you feel uneasy when you consider writing a dissertation? Allowing subtle symptoms of writing anxiety to grow into something more serious is not a good idea! What may begin as a lack of inspiration might quickly turn into a block in the writing process, delaying the completion of your thesis. In this blog article, we go into the reasons why most PhD candidates are terrified of writing their dissertations and what you can do to prevent getting stuck! It’s entirely preventable, as a hint.

Fear may make the dissertation writing process difficult and uncomfortable and slow down your overall development. In severe cases, it might cause your PhD to be postponed for months or perhaps prohibit you from submitting it.

When thinking about impending writing responsibilities in your PhD. Your emotional response might provide you with an early indicator of whether or not you’re in danger of acquiring writing concerns.

Close your eyes and imagine a pending writing assignment. What are your thoughts?

• Excitement and joy: you say to yourself, “Nice, I’m looking forward to it, bring it on.” Your emotional reaction is favourable.
• Apathy: you say to yourself, “Well, it’s just another chore; I think I can handle it,” or “I don’t particularly enjoy it, but it’s part of the work.” Your emotional reaction is indifferent.
• You feel pressured, uneasy, panicked, concerned, tense, or terrified: you think to yourself, “Oh boy, if only I could get out of this,” “I’ll never get this done,” or “Writing is something that I loathe,” I say. Dissatisfaction is your gut reaction.

If you have a negative or neutral reaction, you should consider resolving your writing challenges before they develop into full-fledged writing anxiety.

When writing your dissertation, several things might cause you to become stuck:

1. Concerns about what others think of you and your job

Writing clarifies what you performed and how it pertains to your discipline’s current body of knowledge. You will be scrutinized when you show a draft or publication or sections of your dissertation to anyone else, such as supervisors, peer-reviewers, or examiners. They will – and will have to – pass judgment on you and your work. Fear of feedback and criticism is pervasive among PhD students, even though it is a necessary component of the training process. Fear of this nature usually leads to avoidance behaviour. One’s desire to avoid input increases in direct proportion to the degree of one’s anxiety. In fact, the more you hide your job, the bigger your sense of isolation will get, and the more terrifying your fear may become. You’re left behind.

2. Aversion to a predetermined conclusion

When you write up sections of your study and results for your dissertation, you’re essentially fixing the product of months or years of effort. Between your raw facts on the one hand and the story you tell in a paper or dissertation on the other, there’s a transition zone. When it comes time to put up your results, you’ll need to decide how to present them and which narrative to employ. There’s no going back once that’s fixed. That change can be frightening. You may be concerned (rightly or wrongly) that it will expose your flaws or inadequacies.

3. Insufficient writing abilities

You’ve spent the last few years focusing on your studies and improving your talents where they’re needed: from data generation to computing, analysing, testing, and watching. You’ve mastered it, but your writing skills haven’t progressed to the same level.

What may have sufficed for essay writing or Bachelor’s work during your studies will not suffice for writing a PhD thesis. Writing peer-reviewed journal articles is such a specialized genre that it requires specialized training to get to the point where you can pass the peer-review process without significant problems regularly. Similarly, writing a whole dissertation requires a high degree of competence that most people cannot achieve without assistance and practice.

When you realize you have a writing difficulty, you get less and less driven to work on your dissertation. You start to worry that you won’t be able to finish it.

4. Initial writing attempts left me disappointed

You got off to a good start, writing a few paragraphs here and there, starting one paper, or creating your literature review. Initially approached it with an open mind. Quickly dissatisfied by the results: it took too long, and you were gazing at a blank page. You struggled to organize your ideas, or what you wrote didn’t make sense (to you). You were dissatisfied after several failed efforts. Feel embarrassed that a seemingly simple job such as writing is challenging for you. ‘I am no good; I can’t even write up my results,’ your inner voice argues. You don’t know what went wrong, and you don’t know how to solve it. But you’re worried that it’ll be much worse the next time you try.

5. Overwhelmed by the task’s enormity

You always see a massive, daunting result when you consider dissertation writing. ‘I have to write a complete dissertation with 100-200 pages of relevant, creative information,’ goes the customary self-talk. It’s like standing at the base of Mount Everest, staring up at the summit, knees trembling. Wondering how you’ll ever get there. The enormity of the endeavour seizes the upper hand and immobilizes you.

6. Unreasonably high expectations

You have high expectations for the appearance of your dissertation or dissertation papers. However, the drafts you’ve made appear drab and are light-years from the final product you imagine. You go around in circles editing, rewriting, and improving. Realize that what you’ve created falls well short of your expectations, both in number and quality. You feel like you’re trapped in a never-ending cycle of disappointment.

In the writing mentioned above, fears frequently join forces and arise in tandem. Making it difficult to pinpoint the problem, find a solution, and go on. However, whether you are having modest difficulties with dissertation writing or are completely stuck, there is always a way out. If you’re still worried about your dissertation, take advantage of LiveWebTutors’ Dissertation Help and relax.