How to Get Unstuck When Facing a Writing Challenge

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

Some years ago, while I was checking my emails, I came across a message from my advisor. As soon as I opened it, I wished I hadn’t. The email contained feedback on my dissertation proposal, and she asked me to rewrite the entire document. Since I only had a few weeks to complete it, I felt overwhelmed, stuck, and lost. Many writers have likely gone through a similar experience situation when working on a project. If that resonates with you, read on.

2025 TAA Conference Bookstore Featured Book: ‘Qualitative Research Design and Methods: An Introduction’

Qualitative Research Design and Methods: An Introduction, by Kathleen DeMarrais, Kathryn Roulston, and Janie Copple, situates qualitative research within the history of the field and integrates this history within discussions of specific research designs. The text discusses traditional as well as emerging qualitative research approaches, providing a theoretically grounded approach to designing and implementing qualitative research studies.

Purchase in the 2025 TAA Conference Bookstore

Stepping Away…

By Dr. Rocky Wallace

This is the season of year when veteran colleagues typically decide it’s time. After months of reflection, prayer, discussing with family, discussing with colleagues, doing the math, imagining what it will be like to not start back up in August, and often with eyes filled with tears–they turn in their retirement letter.

For many, their stomach churns with angst as they are humbled by the many congratulatory conversations and well-wishes…And it churns as their colleagues celebrate a lunch in their honor…It churns when they watch students in their last class exit the room…It churns as they clean out their office…It churns as they put on their regalia on graduation morning…It churns as they march into the auditorium, as so many springs before…It churns as they sit through their last graduation ceremony…And the tears flow as they drive away from campus—on their way home.

Dear Dr. Noelle: Stranger in a Strange Family

By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: My wife says she doesn’t don’t know me anymore. What should I do?                         

             — Immersed in Dissertation and Estranged

A: You’re knee-deep or, more accurately, file/notecard/article/laptop-deep in your dissertation. You don’t hear anything around you—refrigerator opening, kids tussling, clothes washer whirring. You don’t even hear your name called for dinner. When you come up for air, you realize your partner hasn’t spoken to you for days.