Introducing English: Essays in the Intellectual Work of Composition Book

Yes, I did read this during a period where I was paralyzed with revising my dissertation proposal, funny that you asked. Like other reviewers mentioned, this book does not give you specific activities or exercises to get over your writer's block. It is still tremendously useful to read about the diverse cases and writer strategies described in this book. Past the halfway point, at about page 100, one comes across the conclusion that writing a bit day by day is the most efficient way to write. Don't fret! This advice does not sting in the insensitive way that an impersonal, disaffected bullet point powerpoint from your university's writing center does, or a well-intentioned friend who tells you to just sit down and write. All of the context given before this point shows how this can really be done.

This book was written in 2001, and it seems to predate a lot of popular advice about writing that is now available in university writing centers. The author asks at one point, "What is a dissertation, exactly?" and provides the only answer I have ever found satisfactory. A new way of thinking about the dissertation actually made me feel comfortable to start writing again (specifically, with composing text). Moving forward, the author suggested that departments that are openly regimented dissertation writing-minded can help prevent writing obstacles/blocks in graduate students. Nearly 20 years later, I don't find this to be true. The litany of bad advice continues, despite progress in structural support and checkpoints of thesis/dissertation progress. I have found that you can satisfy department requirements for frequent committee meetings and research presentations and still be very stuck in the writing process without much support. For that, I would especially recommend this book to graduate students.