My dissertation consultant helped me better understand comments provided by my dissertation advisor. Coaching was useful in ensuring my qualitative research methods were considered trustworthy in my dissertation proposal. After defending my proposal, I sought help developing my findings, writing vignettes, and editing my literature review. I discussed with my Coach how to create a better balance between claims and evidence, use vignettes to emotionally connect with the reader, and balance my observational vignettes with interview data–in short, how to write findings in a qualitative study. My consultant also helped me reorganize some key points in the literature review to help readers understand my phenomenon. 200 plus pages later, my dissertation and defense were accepted by my committee for publication. Working with The Dissertation Coach helped me fill in gaps created by being an off-campus student, a novice researcher, and working full time.
