Starting your doctoral program at Walden,

Prompt: By starting your doctoral program at Walden, you are joining a group of career professionals in pursuit of the Walden University mission to “transform themselves as scholar-practitioners so that they can effect positive social change.” This is a pursuit that comes with joys, challenges, and rewards. While many begin a doctoral program, not all successfully complete their program. One way to increase your chance of success is by understanding and reflecting on the challenges many doctoral students face and identifying and employing the strategies that will work best for you.
The excerpted reading provided below is from the article “Dissertation completion: No longer higher education’s invisible problem,” published in the Journal of Educational Research and Practice by Marshall et al. (2017). In this article, the authors conduct a literature review and qualitative interview study in order to better understand the challenges and supports that impact doctoral student success. The reading below includes the literature review portion of the article which focuses on “Challenges to Completion” and “Supports to Completion” as well as the “Implications” section which offers reflections on the findings of the authors’ qualitative study.
As you read and engage with this excerpt from Marshall et al. (2017), determine what content from the reading is relevant to your doctoral journey; then, compose an essay in response to the questions listed below:
What challenges to completion do you anticipate you will encounter in your doctoral program?
What strategies for successful completion do you anticipate will be the most useful for you, and how will you work toward implementing these strategies to meet your goals?
In your essay, include relevant paraphrased and cited information from this Marshall et al. (2017) reading excerpt, using your preferred citation style:

From the reading, this is what is relevant to my doctoral journey.
Writing Anxiety
Candidates associated anxiety with producing doctoral level work, especially because “explicit instruction in areas such as ‘thesis writing’ and ‘writing for publication’ does not seem to be normal practice in higher education” (Ferguson, 2009, p. 286). Students can feel overwhelmed by feedback for revisions regardless of depth or breadth of the recommendations due to a lack of exposure to academic writing before program admission (Ondrusek, 2012; Thomas, Williams, & Case, 2014). When students can edit their work based upon the feedback of faculty or peers, students lacking research skills are likely to focus primarily on grammatical changes instead of strengthening their overall argument (Ondrusek, 2012).
Becoming a good writer requires a sense of vulnerability and discomfort inherent in the practice during multiple revisions. Additionally, O’Connor (2017) argued that when students face their intellectual inhibitions, it is not simply an issue of confidence in presenting ideas, but a compelling anxiety about the nature of formulating thoughts. Writing is a personal experience and receiving feedback requires a certain level of openness and willingness to take criticism (Ferguson, 2009; Liechty, Schull, & Liao, 2009). “We must recognize that the ability to write from a scholarly perspective is a skill that does not necessarily precede acceptance into a graduate program” (Ondrusek, 2012, p. 185). “Providing for supportive groups or peer review opportunities and providing prompt and meaningful feedback may foster writing efficacy in students” (Lavelle & Bushrow, 2007, p. 817). O’Connor (2017) discussed how writing offers both an opportunity and a threat for students: “In the negotiation with the dissertation, there is a frustration in the inability we meet in ourselves, the lack of fluidity in expression and the sometimes torturous space between what we seek to express and what we actually express” (p. 3). Scholarly writing skills required in doctoral programs emphasize critical thinking, synthesis, and clarity of expression as essential for overall doctoral performance.

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Write a 1-2-page, double-spaced essay in response to the prompt above. To present your strongest writing skills.

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