Davis and Parker gave a very well organized guidance for doctoral students on how to write a good quality dissertation in their book “writing the doctoral dissertation”. The main purpose of their book is to guide the students to a systematic approach that helps them to write their dissertation in short time with good quality. The book also helps the master students to write their master thesis. The authors in the first chapter gave two examples for two doctoral students that show the benefit of being organized and focused on the thesis. Additionally, the authors explained the management approach’s three stages in writing a doctoral dissertation. Those stages are pre-dissertation stage, selecting the dissertation topic, and finally management of research and writing. Moreover, the authors gave a characteristics list for a good dissertation. Basically, any dissertation should contribute to knowledge; this contribution can take many forms such as: new or improved evidence, new or improved methodology, new or improved analysis, and new or improved concepts or theories. In general, this book covers every single issue that any student can face in his/her writing dissertation’s journey.    

Drawing from their combined experience of many years as faculty and administrators, Gray and Drew (2008) assembled a 199 helpful guide for success in academic career – contributing to and getting the most from the academe. The guide covers issues ranging from getting the PhD as a licence to reproduce, landing the first job, determining the culture, teaching and servicing on committee, doing research and applying for tenure, academic remuneration, life as an institutional citizen.

The aspect regarding publications being the only form of portable wealth and not serving in a committee where one is an expert struck me. In spite of teaching being an act of doing public good, publications are the only portable wealth. They are evidence based documents containing selected information and artifacts and establishing significance and activity effectiveness.  Committees, one should refrain from serving in committees where one is an expert because such service might not increase one’s visibility. why? This runs at variance with my cognition.

I found writing hints packed in appendix C very useful. I have started using the reference ever before this assignment blog and I can reflect satisfactorily on my writing progress.

The two books - Davis and Parker (1997) and Gray and Drew (2008 - called my attention to reflect on my learning and teaching philosophy, styles and approaches, and management of my candidature. They are great guides and I will be referencing them from time to time.

Reference
Gray, P. and Drew, D. E. (2008). What they didn't teach you in graduate school: 199 helpful hints for new and future faculty on how to succeed in academic. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Davis and Parker give many ideas how to approach and manage dissertation to doctoral student or candidate. They explain the objective of a doctoral dissertation which is as follows.

Do independent research

Make a contribution to knowledge with the research

Document the research and make it available to the scholarly community

Also they suggest yearly plan for dissertation from the first year to last year including example that is useful way to prepare dissertation. What I mostly concern part in this book is the selection of a dissertation topic since I know most of student spend a lot of time to find appropriate topic for dissertation. This book introduces characteristics of a good dissertation topic and various ways to find good topic. I learned from this chapter good course work and various experiences can reduce methodology constraints in selecting a topic.

Especially two case studies, introduced in chapter 1, The need for a different approach to the dissertation, make me think carefully how I can arrange this doctoral program effectively. I can choose James Carthly’s way or Ted Maren’s. Although they achieved doctoral degree in different environment, can we say the quality of academic achievement for both case is same?  Maybe not.  It depends on your choice.

Davis and Parker (1997) present a very useful set of advice on the dissertation process for prospective doctoral students. The advice covers issues ranging from selecting an advisor and dissertation committee, selecting dissertation topic, submitting a proposal, working with advisors and dissertation committee, writing and defending the dissertation.

I found advice on selecting an advisor and dissertation committee, and working with them extremely useful. The relationship between the advisor and the prospective doctoral student is that of a senior and junior colleague. Advisors are interested in the topic of interest and competent to advise on the topic, methods, or both. They have reasonable level of expectations; they are consistent in requirements and advice; they view the role as an important responsibility, and above all they are interested in the student as a person and as a scholar.
Prospective doctoral students are willing to do a good dissertation in a reasonable time; they show initiative and accept guidance and follow through on suggestions. They are organized, use advisor’s and committee’s time effectively, and have personal integrity.

Reference
Davis, G. B., & Parker, C. A. (1997). Writing the doctoral dissertation: A systematic approach. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, Inc.

Although written in 1997, much of the information in this book still provides a good overview of how to manage the process of dissertation for doctoral students. Davis and Parker start off by providing case studies in the first chapter. The value of this book lies in its suggestions for overcoming real-world road blocks in the journey. Davis and Parker provide concrete tips and examples for dealing with common problems. This book has done a good job by keeping the reader's focus on a manageable dissertation plan. 

However, this book was written with conventional students in mind. For example, if you are enrolled at an open university, you will find that this book lacks related information.

In addition, at some points, the text becomes a tad bit dry. This book does not provide enough information about other significant issues (e.g. the dissertation defense). Furthermore, the book lacks an index which should be very helpful.

In Gray and Drew's, hints 53 and 54 offer very useful tips on grants. As they say in hint 53 (learn grantsmanship), it is a skill like any other. They suggest attending a workshop if necessary. Since it is a skill, it can be acquired, and learned. It also needs practices to master this skill. They mention the powerful 100 (hint 2). Those powerful 100 don't emerge from nowhere. They too have to start their career as a novice. Why do they become the powerful 100 and others don't? One of the reasons is that they manage to master some critical skills that are needed in their academic career.

Hint 54 gives some points on writing a grant proposal. It says that "keep the budget small or at least reasonable". This one is very important. I have experiences in writing grant proposals. The first grant is usually the most difficult one to come by in that you have no track record. Once you get your first grant, it will be a lot easier for you to get your second. Keeping your budget small would make it easier for your grant to be granted. If you have a very big project for a grant, my advice is that you might want to break it into several smaller projects. By doing so, you submit a smaller project with smaller budget for a grant. When you come through with your first small project, your chances will be much better for your subsequent projects. "Don't be modest", OK. But bear in mind that your proposal should sound like feasible.

Another advice of mine is that a researcher should establish close ties with industries. When you have close ties with the industries, you will be able to know what they really need to know about from your research. You will also have the savvy to submit a research proposal that can elicit support from the industries.

Hint #157 relates to the need for time management. #158 advises that no matter how long we surmise our work to last, it will actually take more time. So, it's always good to brace ourselves for that eventuality. I see a common theme running through the Davis book and these hints.

For our purposes as research students, I think those on “Writing” (#127 – 134) and “Publishing” (#135 – 153) are very handy. I particularly point you guys to #130, “Plagiarism is a Cardinal Sin”. It advises that although it is a serious offence to plagiarize others’ work, it is perfectly alright to do that to oneself. This so-called scholarly rich-get-richer phenomenon can go a long way boosting us psychologically when we are at initial stages of a new work. Limitations apply, though!

Davis is full of valuable advice for every prospective doctoral student/candidate. From the selection of dissertation topic through to the publication of the research report, it speaks to the essential mindset and strategy necessary to produce a good dissertation within the allowed time limit and consequently launch ourselves into a successful career of scholarly work. I particularly warm to the advice that we consider the dissertation as an integral part of our plan for a scholarly career—the discipline acquired doing the doctoral research will be crucial in that career. On the other hand, if we fail to conclude the dissertation, the planned scholarly career may never really kick off.

Davis advises on the use of a systematic approach geared toward planning and careful management of the whole dissertation process. This approach requires a good appreciation of the hurdles that lie ahead, how we can best draw on the advice and mentoring of the advisor and committee, a good sense of relevant research resources to employ, and the overarching importance of a time management approach to the work involved. Providing statistics on the distributions of dissertation time and size, the book makes clear that dissertation work is serious business and not to be considered as just another term paper. In a word, it cautions that we never take a lackadaisical position regarding our dissertation. Indeed, we are already at our own predissertation stage! 

Like Booth and Robson, this is an invaluable companion for every doctoral student/candidate.

Colin elaborates in the forth part of his textbook the analysis stage for both quantitative and qualitative data. Colin gives a general introduction to readers about the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and some of the statistical methods that researchers should be aware of it whenever they start their research. Selecting which method to use shouldn’t be arbitrary. However, researchers need to keep in mind the type of research questions they are attempting to answer before selecting the analysis method. After researchers collect their data, they start the data analysis process. Data analysis is divided into two types, exploratory and confirmatory. Exploratory analysis is the one that explores and reveals what the collected data imply, while the confirmatory analysis is the one that establishes whether the researcher got what he/she was expecting to find.

Analyzing qualitative data depends to a great extent on the analyst himself. Colin gives in chapter fourteen an overview for the NUD*IST approach for qualitative data analysis. He also gives a quick insight on NVivo which is the new version of NUD*IST. The main problem that encounters the researcher in qualitative studies is how to confirm his/her findings from the qualitative data? Miles and Huberman answered this question in chapter fourteen where they suggested thirteen tactics for assessing the quality of qualitative data analysis in box.14.9 in page 483. I found this box a very useful reference for researchers to keep in mind whenever they are working on qualitative research. At the end, researchers need to make their research public. At this point, the researchers start the reporting stage where the researcher communicates his/her findings with others (audience) within and outside the field. In this part, Colin emphasized the importance of considering the audience and following the format that most of journals follow to publish papers. Colin gives a checklist for that format in box15.1 in page 505 in his book. I found this box very useful for readers including me because it serves as guidelines for writing a report.

On the whole, I found Colin’s book (Real World Research) very interesting book and it is easy to read. Colin sheds the light on many critical subjects that researchers especially the beginners need to be aware of before starting research to avoid the mistakes that some researchers were trapped in it.