Today’s “How (not) to get your PhD” post is about a skill/habit that many math educators don’t have in their toolbox: writing. You’ll be doing a lot of writing in your PhD program, like it or lump it.
I had a conversation with a friend recently who said they might get a PhD in Math Education just because they feel like they could do it. That’s not a great “why” but fine. They also said they don’t ever want to write a book. That’s just as big a red flag to me.
You don’t have to write a book someday (or in my case, ahead of time) in order to get a PhD. But know that the amount you will write for courses and your dissertation will be equivalent to a book (at least). A typical 3-hour course might require a mid-term exam, which consists of an essay or a handful of short-answers, and a final paper/project in which you will have to generate between 15-25 or more pages. This is in addition to your regular coursework, including discussions, research, and reading.
I was fortunate or smart in that I had been blogging semi-regularly for 10 years before my program, so I’d built up some writing stamina. I had written a book. I was also not working full time. With the family out of the house from 8am to 3pm I had time to engage with my writing on a schedule that didn’t detract from my family time or distress my sleep. I didn’t do much else during the day other than coursework and figuring out dinner. Not everyone has that privilege.
I mean, I’m currently writing a 10,000 word treatise on getting your PhD just for fun. That’s the kind of output you’ll be generating. You are now a word-generator.
“But I’m not used to writing”
Understandable. It’s not part of our typical existence as math teachers. I recommend putting yourself on a regimen. Start a blog. Write for your regional math practitioner journal (or just submit to Colorado Math Teacher). Write every day and see how it hits you. You can start at 10-15 minutes at first. If you find yourself really struggling with that, it might be worth rethinking your enrollment. I’m not saying I wrote every day, but I knew I had the fortitude based on blogging and past writing.
Or grab an Anne Lamott book or two and see if that inspires you. While Lamott surely didn’t know she was writing to a Math Education PhD audience, the tenets and exercises she proposes in Bird by Bird are nevertheless excellent and applicable.
I don’t particularly like exercising. I do it, but I don’t like it. At least with exercise if I skip a day or multiple days I don’t get dinged other than my own sense of shame and then I can start up again. In a doctoral program, the further you get behind on your writing tasks the more daunting they will seem. You need to generate words – even a few – every day.
I suppose you don’t have to enjoy writing to write a lot. But if you absolutely abhor writing, then why would you put yourself through the stress?
Write towards your dissertation
I’ll address this again in Part 6, but the thing I appreciated the most about the UW program was how I was explicitly coached to use my coursework to aid my dissertation. Most classes concluded with a final paper of some sort. In some cases it was a literature review, in one case it was an IRB (again, we’ll get to that) application, in another still it was a survey and analysis methodology. All of these could feed into my dissertation. I was able to write a good chunk of my dissertation through my classwork. I was also reading and cataloguing helpful articles that informed my dissertation. You may not be able to shoehorn every final paper into your dissertation, but try to do so as much as possible.
Write towards publication
“Publish or perish” they say.
There used to be a time in academia when you could graduate with a PhD and that was sufficient credentialing to at least get your foot in the door at institutions of Higher Education. Now, given the competitiveness of the job market, there is an expectation that you have several papers authored and co-authored before you graduate.
Your advisor hopefully would be helpful in that process, ideally as a co-author. You should actively seek out opportunities for authorship with classmates, your committee members, your instructors and other people within your sphere.
You should also entertain the idea of participating in a writing group. UW offered multiple opportunities to be a part of a writing group that I took advantage of. During these writing group times we were able to talk about and get feedback on papers we were working on or just sit silently and write. These were among my most productive times in the program. I was able to generate three manuscripts for publication just in that writing group time. So far one has been published and I am awaiting word on the other two. (UPDATE 12/26/24: Both of the other manuscripts were sent back to me for “major revisions.”)
It takes a long time to get a paper reviewed and accepted, rejected with a recommendation of resubmission, or flat out rejected. If you take ~5 years in your program, it would be best to have a couple in the hopper by year 3 or 4.
See why I said it’s best if you like to write?
Takeaways:
- Be ready to write every day.
- Be ready to read peer-reviewed articles every day
- Much of your coursework will involve writing
- If you don’t like to write, try to learn to
- Use your course papers to inform and support your dissertation
- Join a writing group to get feedback and carve out time specifically for writing
All posts in this series:
Part 1: Why (not) to get your PhD in Mathematics Education
Part 2: Finding the right program
Part 3: What a Math Education Doctoral Degree is (and what it isn’t)
Part 4: Do you like to write? You better.
Part 5: Classes, Coursework, and You
Part 7: Let’s Talk About Your Dissertation: the thing that people just don’t want to do
Part 8: Your defense committee: Prelims, Quals, and the moving of mountains
Part 9: What comes next (for me and for you)?
Appendix A: Slow cooker meals
emergent math 