Are you Struggling to Finish your Dissertation?Use an Editor and Coach!
Earning your Ph.D. (or Ed.D., or DBA, or whatever “D”octorate you might be after!) is not easy. Advanced course work, papers, reading, the proposal, comprehensive exams…there is a lot to it. Whether you are sitting at the end of chapter 3, struggling to get the proposal done, or staring at your first full five-chapter draft and thinking about the defense stage, chances are you could use some help.
What Exactly Does a Doctoral Coach Do?
Great question! The answer is as simple as you might imagine! If you are well on your way to completion, having at least chapters 1-3 written, we’ll perform heavy and technical copy editing, review your conceptual and/or theoretical framework (an area where many doctoral students struggle), and help prepare you for the defense stage. Proposal stage? A coach will help you focus in on a topic. All chapters completed? Heavy editing and defense preparation should be on your mind.
Editing: Every author needs an editor. Everyone. It’s doubtful you’re a poor writer, but after you’ve written 70, 100, 140 pages or more, and you’ve read it over a few times, you’ll become convinced it reads well, really well, perfect!!! I guarantee you it’s not perfect. To test this out, go back and look at something you wrote as an undergraduate or graduate student. Guess what? You thought that was amazing, too. Now you can probably tear it apart. Why? Experience and time. The writing gives up its failings more easily. That’s what an editor will do for you. The task of taking 25 or 30 hours to read your work is probably not all that appealing to you. And even if it was, and you did it, performing heavy and technical copy editing on your own work is not the best idea. Someone else needs to review your work, as they will catch all kinds of things you will overlook, read after read.
Guidance: Through regular weekly video calls, a coach will help you stay on track. Using MS Teams as a central work hub, your coach is within reach via messaging and can jump on a quick call if you need help. Assistance with researching sources, re-examining the themes in your results, evaluating the framework, and most any other task associated with the dissertation process is where your coach will provide support. Our coaches hold a doctorate, they know what the process looks and feels like, they know how to navigate it, and can help you through to the end!
Defense Preparation: Unless you are a glutton for punishment, you probably don’t already hold a doctorate. You have no idea what you’re in for! We’re not trying to freak you out or anything, but the defense stage is hard. Real hard. The subject-matter experts that make up your committee…well…subject-matter experts says it all. They are going to see holes in the work you would never have dreamed of. We have coaches spanning several academic disciplines, plus plenty of colleagues with whom we can subcontract. While we can’t cover everything, we know what to look for in terms of fundamental questions stemming from your work, just waiting to be asked. A mock defense with a Q&A session and review afterward will help set you up to understand how to better-present your defense once you’ve run through it in front of two consultants (both doctors). We’ll grill you on the material and look for logical flaws, and/or contradictions. That is what a defense is, you are telling the college you’re ready to be called “doctor” based on your work, and you’re required to defend that assertion. It’s tough. We will help prepare you for the challenge!
We're not simply going to give your document a heavy edit, email it back to you, then wish you the best.Our coaching philosophy is full-service.
Once we’ve completed an exhaustive read of your work, with all changes and comments tracked in MS Word, we’ll schedule a two to three-hour video call with you and go over everything. The cost of the review call is zero (0 USD, $0, nothing). Our quote to you for the editing is based on the actual copy editing work only, in terms of the standard manuscript pages per hour. We’ll charge you a standard and reasonable rate for the copy editing work, but we’ll go the extra mile on that call to thoroughly review everything we’ve marked up…that’s included with no additional hourly charge.
Am I Close to Done?
Nope. A word you’ll get very tired of hearing over the final few months: REVISIONS! Once we’ve reviewed the document with you, it’s yours to revise according to our suggestions, or you can ignore them, it’s up to you! (Maybe don’t ignore them, that’s what we’re here for.)
We include two full revisions with all copy editing quotes. That means once you’re done with our round 1 edits, we’ll look at it again. Rinse. Repeat. You get two full revisions, fully re-edited, fully re-reviewed. (Although typically, rounds 2 & 3 go quicker than round 1.)
Done with your defense? GREAT! CONGRATULATIONS DOC! But I bet your committee wants, you guessed it, REVISIONS! Probably minor at this point, but we include post-defense revisions as part of the deal, too. Your coach and editor will be there to help you with all of this. That’s doctoral coaching.
It is a long, costly journey (the department of education reminds me of the cost every month, how nice of them!), but if you are out here looking for help getting across the finish line, then I bet you have the drive to do it, and are in no way, shape, or form ready to give up on the dream. Let us help you finish, you’ll be glad you did!