The Thesis Whisperer
http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/about/
The Thesis Whisperer is a ‘newspaper’ dedicated to the topic of doing a thesis.
Newspapers need more than one journalist so we are looking for collaborators! Would you like to write for the Whisperer? Here’s what we want to do:
We want to be concise. PhD students have to do a lot of reading so no posts will be longer than 1000 words
We want to learn from people’s stories about doing a research degree – but we don’t need to hear about your topic. There’s enough journals out there for that.
We are not a ‘how to’ guide to doing a thesis, but we are happy to dish out practical tips and techniques that work for us.
We don’t want to just talk about writing – successfully finishing a thesis or disseration is about more than that. But we don’t want to be sued, so we are going to always keep it nice.
We want to stimulate conversations so our posts will always be opinionated, hopefully without being obnoxious.
We want to hear your voice. Doing a thesis can take the fun out of anyone’s writing. This is a place you can relax because there is no examiner watching.
We can’t pay you. But we promise to never rip off your work and present it as our own. If you want to write for us it is because you have an urge to share your experience and help others so it may travel further than you think (note the licensing arrangements below).
Interested? Email the editor, preferably with a sample piece of less than 1000 words.
Want to use our material? You are free to reproduce any posts from the Whisperer through the Creative Commons “Attribution-non commercial-sharealike” license. We would like to know how you are using our material, just out of interest, so feel free to drop us a line or include the link in the comments section attached to the feedback page
If you want to talk to us about anything – such as to suggest a post or ask a question – visit our feedback page
Are you a PhD student with a blog? Please let us know and we will add you to our sidebar.
Want more Whisperer? You can follow @thesiswhisperer on Twitter or become a fan of our facebook page.
And, similarly, I am trying to write my MusM dissertation whilst reading and critquing MA TESOL dissertation drafts. 🙁
Hi Eljee,
The “explorationofstyle” blog is great, thanks for posting the link. One of the key resources cited there is a book by Jacques Barzun, Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers. I don’t know it, but have read a massive volume by him, From Dawn to Decadence – it’s beautifully written, lucid and informative, so I’m sure his advice of style and rhetoric is well worth taking into consideration. Of course, his is not the only resource there, but I will definitely try to get that book.
I totally agree with what you said about teaching academic writing and doing academic writing yourself – I’m learning to adopt a more humble attitude, too!
On another note, I have just come back to Qatar (research and work) from a month-long holiday and am getting to grips with my own writing…
Best,
Magda
This one is another blog on academic writing. I find it useful because some of the articles remind me that my attitude of “I should know how to write academically since I’ve taught it before” is crap and I must (note modal use) start to pay better attention to my own writing structure.
http://explorationsofstyle.wordpress.com/
The blogroll on the side is also full of other blogs that are useful too.
I would be shy too 🙂 But, maybe by posting our rresearch statements here and there in this blog, we can all begin to overcome that shyness?
One that is a fun, and often cringeworthy distraction is:
http://ismythesishotornot.com/index.php
A different take on the original website “Hot or Not”, one essentially posts their thesis statement up and it is then ranked by others (mostly non-specialists). Some have interesting comments explaining their reason behind the rank, which can give some insight (however general) on how others perceive your topic.
NB: I have yet to post my statement on the website. Bit shy.
Any other sites you are following which you’d also recommend?
I’ve been following this website for a while now. Some great articles there and really good practical advice (taken with a grain of salt). What is expressed doesn’t work for everyone but it’s a good read. Hilarious at times (often if the reader applies it in a self-deprecating way).