Finish Your Degree - 6 Key Lessons For Completing Your Study

All the great coaches will tell you the same thing: success comes from what you do, not who you are or what you’ve learnt. You have to take action, and actions must start small, you’ve heard it said that success comes from habits, and that is absolutely true of student success. And the most important habit you can develop is that of reading, writing and thinking. Sure there are other habits like good eating, exercise and so on but as an academic habit, you must read, write and think. These are also interdependent, you can’t do them independently of each other.

When I run my writing workshops, I ask who is busy with a final report. Then I ask those people if they wish they had started later than they did. No one does. No one ever feels they started writing too early. So what I want to teach you in this lesson is the importance of writing as early as possible. Also I want you to see the importance of writing often. There is an important relationship between writing and thinking and your thoughts only become structured once you write them down. Once you’ve written them down then that informs your thinking and vice versa. And lastly, its important to write well. At postgraduate level and especially phd, the primary measure of your success will be your writing. Your final report is yours, it’s a writing deliverable. You need to get as good as possible at writing and you will finish your degree.

Then lets talk about writing often. We’ve spoken about discussion papers, and this will keep your formal academic writing skills going. Some degrees are done by publication which means you are aiming to publish a few journal papers, combine them and that will be your final report, this is at a higher level of writing as those articles will be peer reviewed. So you will have to regularly do very good quality academic writing. I had a question in a webinar about doing a thesis by publication and I suggested that if you are proficient, established and already published as an academic writer then it makes sense, simply because of the pressure of academic writing and the need to get published in order to graduate. If you do a normal thesis, it doesn’t mean you only have to worry about writing at the end of your study when you write up your final report. You must keep your writing going throughout your degree.

Lastly let’s talk about writing well. I’ve launched 2 online courses on this topic and taught a writing workshop for five years where we get to grips with certain principles and practices of writing, and how to write with meaning and clarity. I’ll summarise a few key ideas that I find important for people who want to write better. Firstly, make sure you have a golden thread written down and visible whenever you write. These would be a few keywords and sentences that keep you on your main topic. If someone asks you what you are researching, this would be your answer. As you write, make sure these keywords are sprinkled throughout your writing. This is called signposting your work, people need to follow a common idea through your work.

So, write early, write often and write well, Taken together these three form a powerful combination and if you do them regularly and in combination then you have taken the first important step towards your student success. This foundational habit will serve you all the way through your studies. In fact I would say make sure you get this habit right before you try the others. Or if you struggle with the others, then there’s a good chance you need to refine this habit and as we know, habits require repetition.

Step number 2 on your journey to success is to set up your weekly status report. Now it doesn’t matter if you don’t have supervisors – find someone who will hold you accountable for your studies and agree that you can send them your weekly status report. Normally you would have supervisors and this step is really geared towards managing your relationship with your supervisors, streamlining your communication with them and getting you to apply a regular review of your tasks and progress throughout your degree.

Here’s how it worked for me, and I strongly suggest you just do exactly the same thing and I personally guarantee that if you keep it up, and do it properly then it will make a massive difference. So, what I did was to send an email to my supervisors every Sunday night which contained my status report, it was a very simple report but gave my supervisors a quick snapshot of where I was and what I needed from them. Your relationship with your supervisors will be an important aspect of your studies and this is one way of helping to manage that. In all the workshops and presentations I have done to fellow students, I have shared this practice and shown people exactly whats in this email and how it works.

Then the actual status report, I put a heading as simply “Status Report – Peter Alkema” then I list my supervisors below that heading. What that does is subtly remind them that they do have an important role to play and on the university system they are linked to the success or failure of your degree, even if it is indirectly. Then I give the date of the report and the overall status, ie Red, Green or Amber. Red would be a major issue that I cannot recover from without their help, Amber would be some serious issues but I am working on sorting them out and obviously green means all on track, and generally my supervisors probably didn’t read further if my status report was green.

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

You should aim to avoid sending your supervisor any other email during the week, and they will get used to the fact that if they want an update on where you are they will see that on Monday morning in every single week of your study and it will combine all the relevant topics they might need – progress, next steps, and any issues. Sure there will be busier times when you will need to do other emails with them and have more communications, but the general steady state way of communicating with your supervisors should consolidate everything in this weekly status update. Also by limiting your bullet points to 5 each it doesn’t mean you aren’t doing anything else, its actually the opposite, it shows you are on top of your degree. I actually put in the headings, done last week, and then in brackets (maximum 5 things) and to do next week, (maximum 5 things). As you count each week and you combine your supervisor communications in a weekly update you will get the structure and discipline you need to finish your degree.

So you’ve learnt all about the weekly status report and your activity is to set one up for yourself. If you have supervisors then discuss it with them first. In fact I had a question from a student in a webinar recently when they asked if they should discuss with their supervisor. Check out my response in the video in the resources of this lesson.

In this step, you will learn practical techniques for how to use Kanban boards as a practice throughout your degree. I teach you exactly how these boards work, why they are so powerful and how they help you visualise your workflow. You will actually apply these principles in your own situation so you achieve your goals of being more productive in your studies and getting things done so that you can be successful

You’ve probably seen a Kanban board in action, but maybe you’ve never really thought about how best to use it or what are the principles behind it that make it so powerful. I’ll teach these to you and I’ll draw on examples from my own experience so you have practical insights that you will benefit from as we go through the material. Kanban boards can be physically up on a whiteboard or a wall somewhere, or they can be electronic on a software platform like JIRA. It’s important that you understand the first and then you can figure out which format works best for your needs.

In this wipeboard lesson I give a practical demonstration of exactly how a Kanban board would work so that you can apply it to your individual student tasks and be more successful. The kanban board I demo in this lesson is a physical version, while you can apply the same principles with a digital kanban board as well. These wipeboard lessons are very popular with my students - find out why!

In this demonstration lesson I walk you through the key features of Trello which is a task management software that is designed using the principles of Kanban. There are many different templates for various requirements but I show you how to set up a digital Kanban board from scratch using the simplest method of To-Do > In-Progress > Done. Trello is a powerful and popular Kanban tool if you want to set your Kanban board up digitally. The version I demo is free, and everything you need in this course is available in the free version of Trello, but some additional features may require upgrading if you require them.

In this demonstration lesson I show you EXACTLY how I planned the last 6 months of my PhD when I had to get a huge amount of writing done to finish my thesis. I used a calendar to map out week by week which sections I was going to be working on and what the milestone were throughout the 6 months, leading up to when we the thesis had to be submitted to external examiners. This process was also very useful to manage my supervisors input to the document because I allocated them 2 distinct periods of time when they would review it and provide me with feedback. The plan worked! Find out how in this lesson.

In these lessons you will learn how to get through the proposal stage of your research. If you are starting a postgraduate qualification with research then you will need to put a proposal together which clearly sets out everything about your study. A research proposal is also an important document for the rest of your degree and in the lessons I teach you how to approach and complete all the different aspects of your research proposal. No matter what stage you are at, you will benefit from doing this step and I would advise going through all the lessons so that you get a complete picture of everything, especially because a lot of what you learn now will also be applicable in the rest of your degree.

I was interviewing a student for my podcast recently. She had just achieved a distinction and I asked her what was the secret of her success in the early stage of her study. She very clearly answered that she read as much as she could get her hands on about her topic. She knew roughly what she wanted to research but it was only as she read widely that she got a sense of all the different views and issues in that particular field.

Your proposal really sets you up for the rest of your study so its worth doing it as well as possible. your proposal needs to answer 3 main questions: number 1, what are you going to do in your study? Secondly, why should you be doing this study and lastly how are you going to do it. If you think about your final objective, its to complete and pass a thesis or dissertation. These three aspects of your proposal actually link directly with some key sections of your final document at the end of your degree, so its worth doing them well now, and then you will be in a better position later on.

In this wipeboard lesson I sketch the 3 main areas of focus for your proposal; these will cover 80% of your work and your writing to complete a research proposal. I take you through each one, as well as how they link with each other to create an overall complete picture of your study.

In your proposal its critical to explain to your readers exactly what you are going to do in your study. This links your study with the world of the reader. What’s the background to your study? what problem will it solve? and what contribution will a successful study make to the world? This is where all the background reading will come in useful. you learned about this in another lesson and i gave you some homework to write up a few questions of your own interest and get reading in the relevant literature.

you clearly need to define the motivation for your study. This links to the problem statement ... you may have identified a valid problem to solve, but is it an important problem to solve? What’s the significance of your research? If you need to apply for funding then this will be critical.how will the world benefit if your study successfully answers your research questions and follows the path you described in your thesis statement?

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

In academic research, you define how you are going to do a study in your methodology. Your results will only make sense in the context of how you produced them. Someone must be able to reproduce your method so that your results can have wider application. Your method describes the route you will take through your study to get it done you will need to describe the techniques you will use. are you doing interviews, surveys, laboratory work, experiments etc.

In this wipeboard lesson I use an example to explain how a good thesis statement defines the scope of your study and sets your research up for success. A good thesis statement is like a North Star on your journey through research in the coming years and if its well written as part of your proposal, then it will properly guide you to success.

You might not be required to present your proposal for approval. But even so, its a very good practice to arrange a presentation with your supervisors and possibly some other experts in your field. Your proposal is a bit like a contract between you and your institution. You have written down what you are going to do, why its important and how you are going to do it. In return, your institution commits to supporting your study and giving you the credibility you will need to actually get it done.

At school we learnt about subjects and objects in how we construct sentences. An important practice in academic writing is to make the subject of your sentence the main character of whatever story you are telling. Readers will have to work less to understand your writing, and your subjects will become clearer and less abstract.

There are a number of practices that you can apply when editing your own sentences that will help you to write with meaning and clarity. A number of these are covered in the book “Craft of Research”. These include the practice of “old before new” and “complexity last”. In this topic we will discuss each of them and you will have a chance to identify each in some examples.

Another very effective writing practice that will help you write with meaning in clarity is to express action as verbs, not nouns. At school we learnt that verbs are action words, but somehow when we get to academia we complicate things. Once again, this is often not done intentionally, we are merely trying to acknowledge the complexity of our thinking with unnecessarily complex writing.

At writing workshops I teach students about how to write with meaning and clarity. I have run workshops at Wits University in Johannesburg for the last 5 years. Writing with meaning and clarity will help you achieve your goals, especially if you are working on a thesis, dissertation or writing project. Learn how to make your subjects stand out and become your own editor so that you think like a reader.

The final report is a document that brings your whole study together and presents it to your examiners. In Step 4 you learned how to write a proposal, which sets out what you are going to do in your study, why you are doing it and how. It introduces the field and the literature as well as your specific research questions relating to the topic that you want to investigate. The final report loops back to the proposal to confirm what you actually did in your study, what were the results, the findings, the applications of your study as well as an limitations and other information.

In the introduction of your final report you create some important context for your reader. Even though your examiners will be experts in your field, you need to assume that a broader audience will pick up your work. This first section creates a link between the world of the reader and the more detailed, specific world of your study and its findings. This is an important balance to get right: on one hand you can’t assume your reader has too little knowledge about your field or your introduction will be too long as you have to explain too much.

I show you the introduction section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

The literature review is where you sketch the overall landscape of related work in the field. You will have done a lot of reading of the literature when you did your proposal and selected your topic, so now you need to provide an updated version of that in the final report. Your examiner won’t have read your proposal so they won’t have the context of the relevant literature at all and you can re-use much of what you did for your proposal, but you may also have missed some relevant work that you should add in and make sure you cover as well.

I show you the Literature Review section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

The methodology section of your final report is where you outline exactly how you are going to perform your research. Remember that you will have already completed your study by this point so on one hand you are describing it before the results section, but its technically in the past. Just check with your faculty whether or not you should write this section in the past tense. Remember that in your proposal you would also have been required to discuss your methodology so once again you can reuse some of that, but it should be vastly improved because you now have the benefit of going through it and actually using it.

Throughout this course we will celebrate your progress at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. I really want you to succeed but you need to take action and keep going so look forward to these milestones of progress. I will see you there and cheer you on as you keep going from one milestone to the next >>

I show you the Methodology section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

The results chapter of your final report presents the outcome of your work to the reader. So far you have created some context about your work in the real world with your introduction, then you positioned your work in the academic literature and in the chapter before this one you have explained the method you used and how you used it in your study. Now its all about what your produced in your study, the results, or often called, the findings.

I show you the Methodology section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

In this last part of your thesis, you will discuss your results and conclude your study. Sometimes these are 2 different chapters and sometimes they are combined as sub sections of one main section. BY now you have presented your results, you have been through the detail of what all your efforts over many years have actually produced. And interesting this is an area that I find students really struggling. I coach a number of postgrads and they often find it hard to make this transition. Especially during your actual study, how do you know if you have gathered and analysed enough data? No one else has done this exact study so there is nothing to compare it to. Then in the actual write up, students often go on presenting their results in their discussion.

I show you the Methodology section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

You’ve learnt a lot in this last step, but ultimately getting your final report passed is the most important deadline in your whole study, so this really must be where your focus is, and if you are well prepared then you will be certain to pass. And remember that the other 5 steps lead up to this one, thinking, reading, writing, weekly updates, planning and managing your tasks, your proposal extends into your final report and then writing skills which you learnt in the 5th step is put to the biggest test with your biggest writing project.

I show you the Methodology section of my PhD Final Report and point out the key lesson in practice that help you complete a successful introduction and apply what you have learnt.

Are you studying and need more help? Do you need a breakthrough in a specific area of your degree? Join thousands of my other students that have learnt to: write, plan, reference, get motivated, organise their time and benefit from so many more tips and techniques. Achieve your goals! Write better, research better, finish your reports! Study harder, go further, get your degree and make your contribution. My name is Peter Alkema and I am your online student success coach. I have a PhD and I've helped thousands of my students achieve their goals, like Flora Makgale: "What an amazing course! After finishing this course, I have confidence. Thank so much Dr Peter Alkema" Tulongeni Shilunga: "This is exactly the jump-start I needed. Very clear and concise." Lebogang Tswelapele: "This is what I have been longing for" Paskalia Ndapandula: "Peter speaks with so much clarity" Werner van Wyk: "Thank you Peter, once again your lesson and course have given me so much knowledge and understanding" Yvonne Rudolph "I really look forward to take everything i learned in action" Josephine Mahlangu: "exactly what I needed to know, absolutely valuable and helpful for my personal growth"