This is a practical guide for students who need help in progressing from the decision to write a dissertation to the planning, writing and defending of it. It includes samples of proposals and dissertations that have been accepted and data drawn from a number of sources, including focus groups with doctoral students and graduates and responses to an open-ended questionnaire from doctoral students. As increasing numbers of adults enroll in doctoral programmes whose earlier college lives have often not prepared them for the rules of the academic game, many have no idea what a dissertation looks like, how it gets that way, or what options are available to them.