My Life in France, by Julia Child:
This book cannot be called a guide to writing a dissertation but it discusses communication, learning, and passion in detail. The writer explains in detail her transformation from a weak housewife to a pioneer in American home cuisine. She admits that she messed up a lot during this journey and tells the writers about the mistakes she made and the failure she faced but the best thing is that she does not let these setbacks affect her journey to success.
She stresses the significance of laughing at one’s own mistakes, ignoring haters, and working hard to get what they want. All these lessons are a great motivation for students and help them develop the self-confidence and the diligence that they need to do well in their university and work on their dissertation in the best possible way. When students do not feel like working on their dissertation and do not know what to do, reading this book will inspire them to move forward as they have the perfect example of how hard work can take them places, even if they face setbacks and problems and hard work has its reward, even if it is a little late in coming.
On Writing, by Stephen King:
Most of the students in their young years have gone through the phase when they read Stephen King. The books were mainly about the perversions of the mind, the desolation of the wide-open spaces as well as things that go bump in the night. This book provides a lot of information regarding writing and the information helps the students understand a lot about writing. The writer has written in a manner that touches the students’ hearts with details about his personality and work that so many can relate with.
Going through this book, students will understand that renowned writers can also go through writers’ block, lack of inspiration and ideas, and lack of progress when working so it is ok to feel stressed but keep on working to achieve success. Students can look forward to feeling more easily knowing that they are not alone with working on their dissertation writing tasks and at times they might not feel up to doing things. The best thing to deal with such problems is to take a break, read a lot and keep on writing as it will help them move forward as writing and reading are closely related, and the more they read, the more and better they will be able to write.
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott:
This book mainly deals with the writer’s advice to the readers. The writer guides the readers to understand that they must listen to their inside voice and follow it too as it does not give them the wrong advice. Students must listen to what their research, documents, subjects or data are telling them and trust their instincts to write their papers. The students need to trust themselves because they are putting in a lot of time and energy into collection, organizing, and reading about their topic and it is all waiting for them to be sorted out and written most effectively.
Students need to understand that they cannot be perfect; they need to get this out of their mind that they cannot come up with the perfect paper. They will have to just focus on getting their ideas on the paper and come up with the first draft, then the second one, and even a third one before they can finalize what they have written and are completely satisfied with their work. The better the students understand how they can keep themselves motivated and keep on working, the better results they can achieve in the long run. With the best advice from the top writers, students can learn a lot about dissertation writing and life in general and look forward to doing well in their academic career and life.