Dissertation Editing Mistakes Ruining Your Academic Work
Dr. Courtney Watson breaks down dissertation editing as a five-pass process: content review, developmental edit, grammar polish, citation style enforcement, and reference verification. She warns against relying on AI tools and explains why this stage is far more rigorous than earlier coursework.
Chapters
Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Courtney Watson, and today's masterclass is on how to edit your dissertation. So when we get to the editing phase of the dissertation, it's really exciting, but people also have lots and lots of thoughts about it, questions about it. So today we're going to break down why we edit dissertations, first of all, talking about that, what good editing looks like, what some things you should do if you're editing your own dissertation are, some things you should be thinking about and just keeping in mind. The dissertation editing phase is really tricky for a lot of people just because it's happening at the very end of your project where you feel like you're done. You feel like you've done all of the major work, you've done all the hard work, but then you hit this editing phase. Maybe you're getting comments back from your chair or your committee saying like, you know, your content looks really good, but you've gotta edit this. This has to be edited before we can call it done and before you can move on to the next phase, which is hopefully graduating. So this is a point where people get really discouraged because they're like, well, I've done, I've done all of this work and you're telling me there's still more that I have to do, like even more before I can just get this degree and be done with it. And the answer is yes, that is absolutely true, that is, that is how it goes. But there's also, you know, plenty of reasons to kind of look forward to this process too, as long as you know what you're doing and what you're looking for. So really the reason that we edit dissertations is manifold, there's a lot that goes into it. But the difference often between a good dissertation and a great one, or a not passing a passing dissertation and a passing one comes down to editing. It's getting in there, getting in the weeds, polishing the document just to make it, you know, as good as possible, as optimal as it can be. And so this can be incredibly frustrating. Good editing is often overlooked just due to time constraints, just because, you know, the document is due and it needs to be done and it needs to be done right away so you can graduate on time. And people often very like are very likely not to leave enough time for editing, so they're doing it under enormous pressure. And so that's something to kind of keep in mind as well, that it's something that in the same way that you, you know, had allocated a certain amount of time for each chapter of your dissertation, you also want to allocate plenty of time for editing, whether you're doing the editing yourself, whether you're working with, you know, classmates, classmates or colleagues or members of your cohort, or if you're working with an editor. All of those things take time. There are really unfortunately no shortcuts to editing, and it's something that you just kind of have to resign yourself to the fact that, you know, we're doing this and it's gonna take some time and it's gonna take some patience. But I promise you that the end result is that much better for having been edited. So keep that in mind. And again, it can be incredibly frustrating for, for students because by the time you're at the editing phase, you can really see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you still have a substantial amount of work to do and you're running out of patience and steam and probably even enthusiasm for the project. So if you're feeling that way, please know that you're not alone. It's very natural to feel that way. It would almost be surprising if you, if you weren't. So this is further complicated by the fact that dissertation editing is different than, you know, editing any other type of project that you've likely done up to this point, just because it's a much higher level of complexity. There's a lot more moving parts to it, and there's a lot more considerations that you have to make when you go into the dissertation editing process. So we'll talk about a few of those. To begin, I'd like to talk a little bit about about why editing a dissertation is different from the work that you've done on previous projects and why people get into so much trouble with it. So when we're thinking about editing a dissertation, of course, the type of writing that we're thinking about editing is academic writing, and academic writing is much more formal than any other type of writing that you may have done, your coursework included. Like, you might have gone through your program and passed everything with flying colors, gotten A's in every class, maybe even been told, hey, you're, you're a good writer, this is going well for you, but then you might feel like hit a brick wall when it comes to your dissertation because you're getting all of this feedback and all of these comments and lots of inline changes that they want made, and you're like, I thought I was, I thought I was a good writer. And chances are you are a good writer. It's your editing that needs some work. So keep in mind, you know, good writing is good editing. They are one in the same, and you really can't talk about one without talking about another. So academic writing at the dissertation level, it's a much higher degree of difficulty. The expectations are much higher even from what you encountered in your coursework and your previous assignments. And so that's why you might be, you might be extra frustrated at this point in the process. So part of the reason why academic writing is, is so difficult, especially at the dissertation level, why the editing is so difficult, is because dissertation writing is inherently rule-based. It's more rule-based than any other type of of writing that you've done. And so depending on what style you're using, whether it's APA or MLA or Chicago, Turabian, Harvard, any of them, your dissertation will have to adhere to the rules of that style much more closely than any assignment you've done before. So rather than the writing feeling like, you know, one like much longer assignment, the process is much like much more closely related to the process that you would go through to edit an academic journal article or to edit an academic manuscript, like a monograph manuscript for publication. And all of this is designed in a way to, you know, help you make the transition from being a student to being a peer, to being like an academic scholar. Because the question that your chair is asking themselves at this point, or that your committee is asking themselves at this point, is not like, "Oh, does this assignment pass or fail?" or "What grade would I give this dissertation?" What they're wondering at this point point is if you've done enough for the dissertation or for the academic writing to pass muster at a much higher level. So they're thinking, okay, is this ready for publication? Like, is this ready to be, you know, published before an audience of your academic peers? So that's why there's, there's so much pressure on the editing for this document and why it's unlike anything that you've written before, because it's not being judged as though it's just another assignment. It's being judged as something like, is it ready to go through that crucible or that gauntlet of the academic review process, of the peer review process. Are you ready? Is your writing ready to compete at that level? So that's why there's so much more pressure on it and, and why it feels so much more difficult than perhaps it has in the past. And that's just because it is, it is a lot more difficult now. So when we're talking about writing this level, it's a fairly substantial leap in the level of skill and the level of literacy that you're expected to demonstrate. You're not being evaluated in the way you were before. There's a whole new set of standards. So those are all things to kind of think about as you're engaging in this process. And something else to think about is what should the final product look like? Like, what does good editing look like? How do you know if your project, if your study, if your dissertation looks like it is well edited? And one easy rule of thumb for gauging that is does it look like a good assignment that you've done, or does it look like something that would be published in a peer-reviewed journal? Like, if you pick any one of the articles, of the probably hundreds of articles that you have cited in your dissertation, and go through, go through it, read yours next to, like, read your dissertation next to that article. How similar do they sound, like, as far as skill level, as far as mastery of language, as far as adherence to conventions? These are all things that you kind of want to think about. Does this feel publishable? is a question that you should be asking yourself, and the closer and closer you get to yes, the closer you are to being done editing your dissertation. Typically, you know, by the time a dissertation is finished and ready to be published, or by the time an academic article is ready to be published, at that point it's had so many eyes eyes on it. It feels almost more like a group project because, you know, the author has read it, people the author trusts have read it, the author has maybe had it professionally edited before they submitted it, and then it's gone through the gauntlet of the peer review board. So the editor of a journal has read it, a copy editor has read it, it's gotten feedback from multiple peer reviewers. So just lots and lots of eyes on it. And that's something else that kind of sets the work apart is that it does have— it has had that kind of professional critique to it, which is something that you certainly want whether you're, you're doing it yourself or whether you're working with someone. So if you're working with an editor, all of those— there's lots and lots of boxes that get checked before a dissertation is considered done or before a document is considered done. And we'll talk about what some of those are. So before we can talk about what good dissertation editing looks like, we should take a minute and talk about what bad editing looks like, because this is something that I see all the time. So I've had many clients that have come to me after working with editors or editing programs or editing provided by their school and and they're, you know, they'll go through this process, they'll perhaps pay people to edit, and then their draft still doesn't get accepted and they don't understand why. And this is a very common occurrence. And so bad editing is editing that, you know, relies on a lot of software, relies on apps, relies on AI. That is, is not going to get you where you need to be for academic editing. The AI programs that will effectively edit a dissertation to a publishable degree do not exist, at least not yet. So what a lot of people see in, in online programs or online services is, you know, it's a glorified spell check or a grammar check, and that's just not going to cut it at this level. It's fine to use software like Grammar Girl or Microsoft Copilot. It's fine to use those for assignments or for low-stakes fix things like email, but those programs aren't built and they really aren't equipped to deal with the complexity of writing that you're doing at the doctoral level, like when you're writing a dissertation. And so they'll be catching all sorts of, of things, and they'll say like— the program will be like, oh well, you have a lot of redundancies. And it's like, well yeah, it's a dissertation. There's statements that have to be repeated word for word multiple times, like research questions. You're not going to change the wording of the research question between chapter 1 and chapter 2 and Chapter 3 just to satisfy a program, an AI program, telling you you're not doing it correctly. So that's something to kind of think about too. So just make sure, like, if you are using a program, you would want to use it like in a very specific way, and you probably wouldn't want to be using it to edit your entire dissertation because it just— it won't work, and it adds another layer to the process. And if you're working with an editor, you want— one question you absolutely want to ensure that you get answered before you work with them is, are you using any AI on my dissertation? That answer, their answer needs to be no, just because for editing at this level, you really, you need it done by a person. Like, it has to be a one-to-one exchange. You want someone to, someone who's a professional editor, to have their eyes on it, and that will prevent a whole lot of headaches in the future and a whole lot of work down the road. So that's something to keep in mind. Like, if you are working with an editor, make absolutely sure that they are not using any AI on your dissertation. And really, the The bottom line for editing a dissertation is you can't— you're not going to spell check your way out of it. You're not going to grammar check your way out of it. Like, it has to be properly and appropriately edited. So what are then some components of good dissertation editing? What are, you know, as a professional editor in the field, what are some things that I do when I'm editing a dissertation? What are some things that I expect from a professionally edited dissertation? So a really good edit is thorough, it's comprehensive, and it offers clear pathways for improvement. It is not something where your editor reads it and says, you know, this is good or this is bad without explaining, you know, what's going really well, but more importantly, what are some— what are some areas that need some polishing, need some improvement in order to meet the standard that you need to meet for a dissertation. So we'll talk about what some of those are. So what does a thorough and comprehensive edit entail? The first The first piece of this is a thorough comprehensive edit entails really deep reading. You want your dissertation like read very carefully, so every word cover to cover. This is another reason why you want it done by a human because, you know, people aren't AI programs that are just searching for keywords and evaluating those. Like you want it read by a person that's not trying to, you know, optimize it in any way. So thorough editing starts with thorough reading. My chapter, or my process, is when I'm editing a dissertation, I go chapter by chapter. I read each chapter probably about 4 times, and the reason for that is I'm looking for something different in each reading. So there are different components to, to how I edit a dissertation, and each time I review a chapter, I'm paying attention to different things and trying to fix different things. So we'll talk about what those are. So on the first edit of a document, I read it and I'm just trying to get a feel for the document. So I'm trying to get a feel for the topic, understand, you know, how the study was put together, why it was put together that way, because that's a good way to think about, you know, avenues for improvement as well. So what's working, what isn't working, are there any gaps, or are there any areas that I know I'm gonna want to spend more time in later? I always identify those those during my first reading of the document. So some examples might be if I'm doing my first reading and I notice there's just issues with quotations throughout, like quotations aren't being used the way they should be used, they could be used a lot better, they could be a lot more effective, or, you know, there's a lack of references. Like sometimes it will— the writer will, will go a few paragraphs without a single reference, and that raises a flag for me. I'm like, oh, that's a problem. Okay, that's something that we're we're going to need to address here, or the conceptual framework needs greater clarity. So those are all things that I might notice on a first read and then I'm making notes about to, to revisit the next time I go through the chapter. So the second edit is what I call the developmental edit, and there's a lot of things that happen in a developmental edit. So it's really looking— a developmental edit is really looking for the big things that maybe aren't working in the project. So Examples of this might be the research question. Is the research question aligned throughout? Is it aligned with the study? Is it aligned with the purpose? Like, do we see alignment between all of those things? Is there alignment between the problem and the purpose? Are the, like, theoretical underpinnings of the, of the project sound, or does more work need to be done to show, you know, why the theory was selected and why the theory works for this study? Professionally, I— these are things that we think of, these types of issues are things that we think of as as being big problems because you can't really have a successful study unless the big stuff like that is fixed. So if there's an issue with, you know, problem and purpose statement alignment, that's something that has to be corrected before the project can go forward. If there are, you know, issues with the questions, if there are issues with things like, you know, sample size, stuff like that, that's stuff that you would all want to make sure that was addressed in a developmental reading of the project. So other things that happen in a developmental edit are not just identifying the problems but brainstorming about how they can be fixed. So in a developmental edit, I'm looking at the problems and I'm also offering solutions for fixing the problems. So good editing is not just spotting a problem and saying, "Hey, that doesn't look right." It's also, you know, thinking critically about it and making recommendations to the writer for ways to fix it. So typically I'll go through and I'll say like, "All right, this, this piece of your project isn't working. Here are 2 or 3 options you have." for fixing it. And that's something that is really essential for, for an effective edit. So make sure that you're working with someone who is experienced and knows how to do that. So if you're getting comments from your chair or getting comments from your committee saying you have an issue with alignment or an issue with like intersectionality, make sure that you are working with an editor who can talk you through that and help you, you know, decipher those comments and also give you suggestions for fixing them. The next edit that I do, so the third round that I do as I'm going through a project, is an edit for grammar. So my background is as an English professor, so editing for grammar, structure, mechanics, that's really my professional time to shine. And because that's something that is kind of a fun part to work through the document, because once the big problems are fixed, like, so once you've developed— once you've addressed those developmental issues then you can start doing the— you can get into the minutiae and work on the pieces of it. So work on polishing the different pieces that are really going to make that, like, are really going to make a difference in your writing. So it's going to make your tone more academic. That's one thing I edit for, is, is getting that academic tone and that academic persona and just polishing and polishing and polishing from the section level to the paragraph level to the sentence level to, you know, down to the level of the word and the word choice and the words that you're using. And so this is the place, like, this edit is where, you know, I'm correcting grammar, I'm looking at diction, I'm looking at syntax, really polishing the language so that it does become publishable. And it does, because it does become a piece of writing that can compete at that level, that's meeting, meeting those standards of peer review. So something else I'm looking for is just your expression of ideas. Are you expressing your ideas in a way that, you know, clear in the best way possible? Are the quotes that you're using well integrated? Are they analyzed? Are they introduced effectively? Is your voice professional and clear and distinctive? Do your ideas flow naturally? Is there a nice sense of, like, continuity and momentum throughout the document? So those are all things that I'm looking at in that, in that third edit. Then moving on to the fourth edit, this is something that I call the style edit. And this is just an edit for making sure that you're adhering very, very closely to the style that has been selected for this project. So whether you're using APA or MLA or Chicago, Harvard, Turabian, whatever style that is, I'm making sure that, you know, you, you are adhering to it completely as far as your citations and your formatting, your pagination, all of those things. Those are things that happen during that during that fourth edit. So part of that, like part of the style edit, is looking at your university's template. Many universities will say they are using a particular style, like for instance they'll say they're using APA, and they might be like using 95% APA, but over the years they've developed a few variations that they use at the university that are unique to the university. So this is something that happens sometimes with capitalization. It's something that happens sometimes with the way that they do headings, and they'll tell you that they use APA headings, but they use like APA but with one like small variation. Like maybe they do level 3 headings differently, or they handle level 3 headings differently. So it's those like really minor things that at this stage in your writing become major things because they will, you know, throw back a draft to you and tell you that it's not done and that you need to go back and fix it. And so this is this is the place where we go in and we fix it. And as I'm doing one of these edits, I'll be scanning and scanning and making sure that everything that you're doing is aligning with your university's expectations for how it should go and how it should look and what you should have in there and what should not be in there. So that's what happens in my, my fourth reading of your dissertation. The final edit of your dissertation is your references, looking at references In my experience of reading and editing hundreds of dissertations, if not more than that, and also working with my own students, there are always, always mistakes in the references. So that's something that I'm very aware of. It's something that, you know, you need to be aware of in an edit. So most of the mistakes are very small and also very easy to fix. So, you know, fixing things like what should be italicized and what should be indented and what needs to be underlined. So it's fixing it at that level,. But then there's also another, another thing that happens in this kind of edit, and what that is is cross-referencing. So when I'm cross-referencing, I am going through and I'm making sure that every single citation that appears in the references corresponds to a citation in the body of the dissertation. Because what happens is people will, you know, through their own editing process, as they finish chapters, they you know, might take out entire paragraphs or entire sections, but leave the citations in, in the journal or in the references. So I go through and I make sure that there aren't any in there any longer that don't correspond. And in doing this, I've never read a dissertation that didn't have at least 5 to 10 still in there, still hanging out that have to be deleted. And it's also a matter of making sure that every, every in-text citation that is done, every footnote that is done, all of those, that those are cited as well. In the references. So that's the last thing I look at, and then I, you know, write up my notes for you. I do all of my in-text changes for you, send it back, and we go from there. I give writers an opportunity to, you know, make their revisions, and then I review it again, and after that, it's typically ready to be shipped off. So I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions, please ask them in the, in the community chat. And happy writing, and more importantly, happy editing. Bye!
