By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: How do I get out from the endless waves of dissertation revisions?

— Almost Drowning

A: In the throes of writing your dissertation, you’ve submitted your drafts to your chair and committee more times than you want to count. And they’ve returned the drafts with seemingly endless rounds of revisions. Granted, they may drive you crazy, but—please believe me—you can handle the revisions so they don’t completely erode your confidence, deepen your depression, and thoroughly destroy your sanity.

A chair or committee’s insistence on revisions that keep kicking back (one student called them “regurgitating revisions”) generally stem from one of two main motivations. The revisions reflect the less-than-healthy inclinations of some professors who are perfectionist, vindictive, petty, and competitive. They may be frustrated with their current position, shouldering too many doctoral students’ dissertations, or still bitterly recalling their own chair who put them through the grinder. And they want to show you who’s boss.

Other professors push you for revisions because they genuinely want a quality work, for you and, by reflection, for them. They’re not out to get you. They believe in the importance of your work and probably see a publishable spinoff in your postdoc future.

How Bad Are The Revisions?

Committee members vary greatly in the types of revisions they harp on. Students have shown me the most general committee comments, ad redundantum. The professors know that something doesn’t feel or read right, but their comments don’t reflect specific guidance or pin anything down. Grant and Tomal (2013), professors themselves, explained the possible reason with admirable openness: “faculty may have difficulty explaining all the nuances required to successfully complete and defend the dissertation” (p. 118).

In a study of doctoral candidates’ persistence in completing the dissertation, Spaulding and Rockinson-Szapkiw (2012) quoted one participant’s frustration at a very late stage: “I almost quit again right before the defense. . . . [I]t had to do with lack of direction and uniformity from the professors or their changing their mind when you think you are finished” (p. 208).

In contrast, some committee members spray students’ work with the fussiest comments, line by line, word by word, comma by comma. When you make the corrections and hand in the document, the professors come back with more, like a relentless tide, sometimes contradicting their earlier notes. No wonder you get depressed.

Dissertation advisor and distinguished sociologist Michael Burawoy (2005) offered an unusually frank admission to his advisees:

I used to make detailed comments that would go on for pages and totally overwhelm and even paralyze you. Sometimes you would never come back. It was rather disingenuous of me to complain about your retreat since I suspect that my barrage aimed to establish my authority, my credibility as a young sociologist—with little thought as to what might be helpful to you. (p. 47)

If you’ve received similar pages of “detailed comments,” recognize that your chair or committee members may be acting from similar insecurities as Burawoy admirably acknowledged.

Whatever you do, don’t act like an irate graduate student I heard about. After receiving the chair’s marked-up draft, the student stomped into the chair’s office without an appointment, threw his manuscript on the professor’s desk, and, referring to a brigade of sticky notes on most pages, argued with every point the chair had made. Needless to say, this candidate only reaped more unremitting revisions.

Instead, when you receive a decimating critique, remind yourself that it’s not personal to you (admittedly difficult). Respect the professor (even if you’re fed up), make an appointment to sit down together, and at the meeting acknowledge your doctoral frailties and ask for clarification. Good advisors and chairs collaborate with their students (Cassuto, 2013). When you ask for a meeting, generally the professor will oblige and will likely respect you, your maturity, and your dedication. See also Pryzak (2021) for professors’ many approaches.

Assess and Act

The first, step, though, is crucial: study the revisions beforehand. Prepare! Read over the comments and critiques in relation to your text. See if you can ferret out the professor’s thinking. Bouwer and Dirkx (2023) nail the major approaches you can take, from superficial to substantial.

Make notes. Are there elements you don’t understand? Can you ask a favorite professor, recent “doctor,” or peer for help? Or go to a doctoral coach (pardon the commercial for us coaches).

After many volleys back and forth with his chair, Darryl came to me. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t satisfying the chair’s scribbles. When I studied them and Darryl’s rewrites, I saw that he had missed several crucial issues. We talked, and I coached him with a few Socratic-like questions. He holed up to rewrite and sent me the new draft, which I edited. Finally, the work was approved.

In another variation, my client Elena seemed trapped in a whirlpool of infinite revisions, and with academic political overtones. She met with her chair and methodologist about her proposal, and they agreed that Elena should revise chapters 1 and 2. But then the methodologist told Elena to revise chapter 3. The chair reiterated that Elena should first work on revising chapters 1 and 2, which she (we) did.

But now the chair refused to read chapters 1 and 2, saying Elena was to have worked on 3. Elena tried to clarify what she’d heard at the meeting, but the chair wasn’t buying. By this time, Elena was completely confused and phoned me in tears.

She said she felt like a tennis ball at a nightmare match. I too felt a little dizzy from all the back-and-forths. She threatened to change chairs and committee members. But we quickly realized that at her relatively late stage, such a move would delay her further. I cautioned her too not to complain to either the chair or methodologist about the other. Whatever their private battles, the politics were too precarious, and at that point Elena could little afford to alienate either of them.

Instead, in a move to elevate Elena’s self-respect, I counseled her to refer her chair back to the original meeting (with email documentation). Then I asked her to summarize what both the chair and methodologist had decided and how they had instructed her. And hold the chair to her word. Elena did all this perfectly.

And the chair agreed to read the first two chapters and grudgingly acknowledged they were sufficient. Elena then worked on chapter 3 with the methodologist. With Elena’s patience, professionalism, and willingness to swallow her pride and dismiss her rage, we eventually got through it all and she graduated.

Revision Reminders

When you’re caught in the riptide of relentless revisions, recognize you are not alone, as these clients’ experiences show, and remember several points:

1. Know it’s all part of the process.
2. Understand the professors are acting from their own motives and perspectives: perfectionism, reputation, competition, interprofessorial power politics, genuine caring . . . .
3. They are not attacking you personally.
4. Be honest with yourself about your work—and get outside help (former professor, recent doctor, colleague, coach).
5. Swallow your pride and do the damn revisions.
6. Expect that more may come rolling in. Just do them.
7. Keep your eye on the goal: graduation with the degree.
8. When you finally get the dissertation approved, you’ll likely be the only one to remember how many revisions you had to grind out.

You don’t have to flounder in the interminable swells of revisions. Only your willingness, ego-swallowing, concentrated time, detachment, and dedication to the work are required(!). Through it all, keep visualizing yourself walking across the stage and getting hooded. And see yourself thanking your chair and committee members, who are standing nearby and smiling broadly.

References

Bouwer, R., & Dirkx, K. (2023). The eye-mind of processing written feedback: Unraveling how students read and use feedback for revision. Learning and Instruction, 85, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2023.101745

Burawoy, M. (2005). Combat in the dissertation zone. American Sociologist, 36(2), 43-56.

Cassuto, L. (2013, April 22). Remember, professor, not too close. Chronicle of Higher Education.

Grant, C., & Tomal, D. R. (2013). How to finish and defend your dissertation: Strategies to complete the professional practice doctorate. Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Pryzak, F. (2021). Completing your thesis or dissertation: Professors share their techniques & strategies. Routledge.

Spaulding, L. S., & Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J. (2012). Hearing their voices: Factors doctoral candidates attribute to their persistence. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 7, 199-219. doi:10.28945/1589

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Dissertation coach, nurturer, bolsterer, handholder, and editor; scholarly and mainstream writing consultant; author of writing craft, spiritual, and academic articles; and spiritual and motivational counselor, Noelle Sterne has published many pieces in print and online venues, including Author Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Children’s Book Insider, Graduate Schools Magazine, GradShare, InnerSelf, Inspire Me Today, Transformation Magazine, Unity Magazine, Women in Higher Education, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer. Noelle’s ninth story for Chicken Soup for the Soul appears in June 2025 in the volume Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. With a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Noelle has for 30 years helped doctoral candidates wrestle their dissertations to completion (finally). Based on her practice, her Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2015) addresses students’ often overlooked or ignored but crucial nonacademic difficulties that can seriously prolong their agony. See the PowerPoint teaser here. In Noelle`s Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books, 2011), she draws examples from her academic consulting and other aspects of life to help readers release regrets and reach lifelong yearnings. Following one of her own, she is currently working on her third novel. Visit Noelle at www.trustyourlifenow.com