Your dissertation is your union card. It is the entry into the academy. But writing a dissertation can seem overwhelming. It’s scary to imagine writing a work 200 or more pages and submitting it
to distinguished scholars whose opinion of your intelligence and talent will depend on what you have completed. A dissertation involves far more research than you have ever done before. But by the time you begin your dissertation, you’ve already written countless essays, lab reports, and conference presentations. A dissertation is, in the end, simply a compilation of seminar papers—revised to provide conceptual unity. Completing a dissertation, then, is mainly a matter of perseverance.