The Thesis Whisperer is a ‘not for loss’ blog which is maintained by me (Dr Inger Mewburn) in my own time, with my own money. There are a couple of ways to help me keep the blog alive.

The best way to show the Thesis Whisperer some regular love is to consider becoming a $1 a month Patreon subscriber. Every little bit really helps!

If you are shopping for books for your PhD on Amazon, you can help me by buying something via the links on my Big List of Excellent books for your PhD, 

Buy the original (cheap!) book of the blog

The second edition of my self published book ‘How to tame your PhD’ is available – this time with no typos!

You can buy it for the price of a take away coffee – only $2.99 AUD straight from the blog. Or, if you want to go through an online book store, you’ll find it listed at $9.99 AUD – a price carefully calibrated to match a cheap lunch in my home town of Canberra.

‘How to Tame your PhD’ helps you navigate the major ‘pain points’ of writing a PhD thesis; from thinking up a research question, to working out your discussion section and learning how to pump out 10,000 words a day. The second edition is significantly expanded to 38,000 words. I believe in the advice in this book because I followed it myself. I did do my thesis in 3 years while working two days a week – and won my faculty award at the end. This book contains my best tips and tricks.

Buy the PDF for $2.99 AUD

Buy the .Mobi version for your Kindle for $2.99 AUD

Buy from the US Amazon store here.

Buy from the UK Amazon store.

Buy via Google Play store

How to Fix your academic writing trouble

My first book on writing techniques was written with my excellent colleagues Shaun Lehmann and Katherine Firth of the Research Insiders Blog. Here’s the back blurb:

This clear and accessible guide to decoding academic feedback will help you interpret what your lecturer or research supervisor is really trying to tell you about your writing – and show you how to fix it. We will help you master a range of techniques and strategies to take your writing to the next level and along the way you’ll learn why academic text looks the way it does, and how to produce that ‘authoritative scholarly voice’ that everyone talks about. This book is an easy to use resource for postgraduate students and researchers in all disciplines, and even professional academics, to diagnose their writing issues and find ways to fix them. This book would also be a valuable text for academic writing courses and writing groups, such as those offered in doctoral and masters by research degree programmes.

You can buy the book from the US amazon store here and from the UK Amazon store here (which is the only place it is available on Kindle for some reason… I’m working on this with the publisher). The cheapest way for Australian readers to buy this book is straight from the publisher, see link here. If the book is out of stock in Australia, or you live in a country which doesn’t stock it, you can write directly to me on inger.mewburn@anu.edu.au – I have a stash and can arrange to sell you a copy and ship it.

If you enjoyed this book, the band is back together, writing a new one for undergraduates and masters students called ‘Level up your Essays’, which will be available through New South Press next year. We have a mailing list for book news here.

How to be an academic:

‘How to be an academic: The Thesis Whisperer reveals all’ is a collection of my writing about academia published through NewSouth Press. There’s a rather nice review on the Australian Review of Books and you can also read a review of the book from the Campus review. 

I requested that the price be kept as low as possible because I am well aware that many PhD students – and working academics for that matter – are on low incomes. Buy it from Amazon in the US for $9.99.

If you’d like a paper copy, you can buy it from a number of places. The  paperback edition can be purchased direction from the NewSouth website (they can deliver internationally), or from Amazon in your country or from Booktopia.

If you live in Australia, you can purchase it from the co-op bookstore on your campus or other good retailers, like Paperchain or Readings.

I’m excited to share that How to be an Academic (a slightly different version) has now been published in the US as ‘Becoming an Academic: how to get through grad school and beyond’ through Johns Hopkins Press! This version is also available in bookstores in the UK. Here is the back blurb (which I love):

Welcome to the university, where the Academic Hunger Games, fueled by precarious employment conditions, is the new reality: a perpetual jostle for short-term contracts and the occasional plum job. But Inger Mewburn is here to tell you that life doesn’t have to be so grim. A veteran of the university gig economy, Mewburn—aka The Thesis Whisperer—is perfectly placed to reflect on her experience and offer a wealth of practical strategies to survive and thrive.

In Becoming an Academic, Mewburn, who has spent over a decade helping PhD students succeed in graduate school, deftly navigates the world of the working academic. Offering tips and tricks for survival, she touches on everything from thesis and article writing and keeping motivation alive to time management, research strategies, mastering new technologies, applying for promotion, dealing with sexism in the workplace, polishing grant applications, and deciding what to wear to give a keynote address. These essays are funny, irreverent, and spot on; Mewburn peppers her writing with wit and wisdom that speaks to graduate students.

Constructive, inclusive, hands-on, and gloves-off, this book is a survival manual for aspiring and practicing academics, as well as for students who are considering whether to stay in academia. A field guide to living in the academic trenches without losing your mind (or your heart), Becoming an Academic confirms that—no matter what your experience is in academia—you are not alone.

The best way to buy this version of the book is via the US Amazon store here

Co-authored and edited books

I assisted in the publication and editing of the “Postgraduate Study in the Australia: Surviving and Succeeding” which is presently only available online.

If you’re interested in my more ‘serious’ academic work, check out the upcoming book I have edited with Deborah Lupton and Pat Thomson. The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives on Digital Technologies in Higher Education. Published through Routledge. For a taste of the book here is a book chapter I wrote about PhD student blogging with Pat Thomson.