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The Thesis Whisperer is now over 10 years old! An older blog is a big, confusing attic full of content. On this page you’ll find a selection of low cost books created from the blog content – and a few other surprises. All sales help me sustain the blog. Take a look!

The uneven U

Publishers often send me academic writing books to review. I happily look through every book, but if I think I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, I just don’t write a review. I don’t want to crush a fellow author’s soul. The rejected titles sit sadly, in small piles of guilt, on the bottom of one of ...continue reading.

Latest articles

July 31, 2019

Keep the quirky bits! Turing your PhD into a best selling book

Dr Lynne Kelly has authored and sold more books than anyone else I know – and I live a life surrounded by people who write and publish for a living. I’ve known Lynne for many years, both personally and professionally. She wrote non-fiction books before she started her PhD so perhaps it is no surprise thatcontinue reading.

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What’s therapy got to do with it?

It can be hard to reach out for help when you are feeling down. I avoided therapy until I was 47, even though I knew I could probably benefit. Looking back, I wonder why I waited so long. The chance to talk about your self for an hour in a situation where someone has tocontinue reading.

5 Comments
July 24, 2019

A PhD … with teenagers

This post is by Fran Hyde, who has always embraced the idea of lifelong learning. Acquiring several professional qualifications as well as an MA in Marketing alongside working full time, Fran also remained actively involved with the marketing teams in several not-for-profit organisations. Fran‘s decision to change careers and start a PhD ‘midlife’ was driven by her wish to studycontinue reading.

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July 17, 2019

A 5 step program for finishing your PhD (finally!)

Part of the fun of being Thesis Whisperer is the emails I get from all around the world. Many of them outline classic PhD student dilemmas, which are excellent blog fodder, such as this one, from Laura S: Have you, or have you considered anything along the lines of *actually finishing* writing? I can producecontinue reading.

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July 10, 2019

Surviving the conference marathon

This post is by Dr Imogen Wegman, a project officer at the University of Tasmania. Her research is cross-disciplinary, and she might attend a digital humanities conference, a history seminar and a GIS symposium within a month. Imogen is also a co-founder and organiser of Hobart’s monthly public history event ‘A Pint of History’. As a dedicatedcontinue reading.

4 Comments
July 3, 2019

Some new books on writing

There’s a LOT of books out there on how to do a thesis/dissertation (some of them written by me). I’ve managed to plough through a couple of new books on the subject recently and this post is a compilation of my reviews plus one reader review from Jasmine Jenson at the end. There’s still acontinue reading.

2 Comments
June 26, 2019

Learning from Eminem?

Dr Bronwyn Eager spent nearly a decade running her own creative business before completing a PhD in entrepreneurship and joining the ranks of academia. She is motivated by a desire to improve the lives of entrepreneurs and through integrating enterprise skills across the Academy. In her spare time (!?) she aims to foster research outputscontinue reading.

6 Comments
June 19, 2019

The artisanal PhD

I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for anything ‘artisanal’. I love homeware shops full of hand crafted ceramic bowls, grocery stores with local honey and cafes with stripped brick walls and special regional coffees. I am nearly 50 (I know, I can hardly believe it either) so as soon as I become aware that acontinue reading.

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June 12, 2019

The #PhDweekend

This post is by Laura Wynne, a PhD student at the University of Tasmania. She has worked for six years as a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney. She researches housing policy and urban sustainability. She just submitted her PhD – only 10 days after her scholarship ran out. How did she keep to timecontinue reading.

8 Comments
June 5, 2019

New book! Becoming an academic

I have a new book out! Actually, that’s not entirely accurate… My book ‘How to be an Academic’ has been re-published in the US by Johns Hopkins University press as ‘Becoming an Academic: How to get through Grad School and Beyond’, which means it is now easily available in Europe and the UK as wellcontinue reading.

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