Oh you horrendous fiend of the dissertation!
You reveal the timidity of the author.
You revel in awkward prose and gain strength in run-on sentences.
How can students overcome you?
Dewey once remarked that the "packing box" buildings
Reveal the flaws of the architects who designed them,
And these buildings cannot be remedied
Until the architects first correct themselves.
And so you stand condemned, passive voice.
Students cannot merely revise their work
To remove you from their dissertations.
First they must find themselves.
With boldness, students must proclaim their own voices,
They must gain confidence through painstaking reading and thinking.
Their voices thus become testimony to their growth
And the ultimate outcome of their doctoral endeavors.
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