Problem: Article: Plan the structure of your dissertation according to the standards of your discipline. The more detailed your outline is, the easier it will be for you to write efficiently. This outline will be an invaluable road-map and should not be ignored or discounted. Your school or department may require you to compose a formal proposal or prospectus, which can help guide the organization of your dissertation. Check your department's guidelines to find out what procedures you need to follow. A dissertation outline often follows the same basic form as shorter research papers, beginning with an introduction to the topic, giving some background, presenting research by previous scholars, presenting your own evidence, combating evidence which does not fit or contradicts you, and then wrapping up. There may also be a discussion of your methods, but where that goes and to what extent it is integrated into other sections will depend heavily on your discipline. Talk to your advisor and committee regarding the expected length and structure for dissertations in your program and field. Developing a set schedule will go a long way towards helping you get your dissertation done. Set aside time each day for writing, and do not use that time for anything else. This will get you in the habit of focusing on writing, and will also help deal with motivation issues. Choose a time of day that works well for you. If you are too tired to write at night, write in the morning. If your brain takes half the day to boot up properly, write in the evening. If you're suffering from writer's block during your set-aside time, do some of the other "writing" that's required in a dissertation. For instance, work on your bibliography, format your citations, or fine-tune your tables, graphs, or images. Be sure to use the correct voice and tense for papers in your discipline. It is incredibly difficult and time-consuming to go back through your text and edit for tense and voice, so try to get it right the first time through. Ask your adviser about the correct method, and then make sure you pay attention to those details while writing. In most cases, dissertations should be written in an active voice and in the present tense. You want to make it clear that you are engaging directly with the source materials and related scholarship, and creating something new. Certain types of language do not serve you well in high-level academic writing. Avoid these types of language from the start and you will save yourself some editing later on, since your adviser will undoubtedly tell you to change or remove it. Indecisive or conditional language makes your dissertation feel weaker. You do not want to say that your thesis is "probably" right or that this evidence is "maybe" significant. Stand by your assertions, even if they may not be as solid as you'd like. Make sure you thoroughly address limitations, challenges, and/or competing views to your claims in the text as well, though. Colloquial language, slang, overly informal language, contractions, and regionalized language are all typically poor choices for inclusion in a dissertation. Do not include them unless they are essential to your topic. Being lax about citing your sources can lead to accusations of plagiarism. That's a headache you definitely want to avoid, so cite all of the information you present that is not yours. Citing will also serve to make your work seem more credible and thorough. In order to save time and keep track of your citations, cite your sources as you write. You can make this job easier by using bibliographic software such as EndNote, Zotero, or Refworks. You can emphasize when ideas are coming from you, and also that they are supported by others, through your phrasing and citing. For instance: "String cheese is delicious and fun because it's cheese and you can play with it. Further evidence of this can be found in Dr. Mickey's and Dr. Minnie's work on the subject." Particularly bold claims or ideas that challenge accepted narratives definitely need to be cited. You need to build a strong base of support for such stand-out assertions. If there is any doubt in your mind about whether you should cite something, just cite it. The answer is probably yes anyway! Don't wait until you've written an entire draft to get feedback from your peers and advisers. Show them the overall structure of your dissertation, and overview of your research and evidence, and drafts of individual chapters or even sections of chapters along the way. Their feedback will help you see where you have neglected information or made too many logical leaps. Writing a dissertation is a back-and-forth process of writing, getting feedback, revising, getting more feedback, and so on. Don't get frustratedthis is how it's supposed to work! Peers who are also writing dissertations make a great resource for getting feedback. They'll also be eager to commiserate about the occasional joys and ample frustrations of the process! Most programs have specific formatting and stylistic requirements for dissertations, and it can be tempting to not worry about any of that until the end of the process. However, if you keep at least the basics of these requirements in mind as you write, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle at the end of the road. Make sure to give yourself at least a few weeks to deal with formatting issues. Many universities have very strict formatting requirements, and you may need to make multiple rounds of corrections before you can get your dissertation approved for final submission. Your advisor can help guide you through the formatting and style requirements. Departmental or program secretaries are also often fantastic resources. Read through your work often to find spelling and grammar mistakes. Minor errors like these can disrupt the flow of your work and make your claims and analysis less compelling.
Summary: Create an outline to structure the writing of your dissertation. Set aside a specific time each day for writing. Pay attention to voice and tense in your writing. Avoid unprofessional or indecisive language. Make citing your sources a priority. Get feedback throughout the writing process. Keep formatting, style requirements, and proofreading in mind.

Problem: Article: There are a few different kinds of cherries on the market these days, and using a particular type will influence the taste of your wine. Here are some things to consider: Try black cherries or sweet cherries for a sweeter wine. Morello cherries work well for a dry wine. A dry wine is simply a wine that has no residual sugar, meaning it isn't sweet. To make a dry wine, let your mixture ferment completely, allowing the yeast to consume all of the sugar. Here are some things to consider when making "dry" wine: After about 2 weeks most of the sugar will have been consumed by the yeast and fermentation will slow, making it easier to keep track of the falling sugar level of your wine. Tracking the sugar level will give you an idea of how your fermentation has been progressing. You may wish to stop the fermentation early and leave a bit of residual sugar in your wine. The fermentation is considered done when you either reach your desired sugar level or go "dry" at 0 Brix on the wine scale. A wine with 0.2% residual sugar contains two grams of sugar in a liter of wine. Dry wines are typically in the 0.2%-0.3% range, off-dry wines in the 1.0%-5.0% range, and sweet dessert wines are normally 5.0%-10%. There is no "correct" sugar level for your wine, it just comes down to your personal preference. You can give your wine an intriguing flavor by adding small amounts of oak during the fermenting process. Here are some things to consider: Use oak powder. This way, you won't risk over-oaking your wine. The oak powder will also sink to the bottom of your crock during fermentation, making siphoning easier. When adding oak powder to a batch of homemade wine, you'll want to add anywhere from 4 to 20 grams per gallon, depending on the type of wine (white vs. red) and desired flavor. Generally speaking, for six U.S. gallons of wine you would add about 40 to 50 grams of oak powder for a white wine, or 70 to 85 grams of oak powder for a red wine.
Summary:
Experiment with different types of cherries. Make a "dry" wine. Oak your wine!