Anyone writing a dissertation should read this book. It would also be helpful for writing a master's thesis (although probably not as helpful). It is by far the best of the dissertation-writing manuals out there (and I've perused several of them). Bolker admits in the first chapter that you have to spend more than 15 minutes a day working, but the bedrock core of your dissertation can be worked out in these 15 minutes.

Bolker's approach is behavioral. She thinks that if you learn good writing habits, you will be able to write. Her suggestion is to incorporate free writing into the writing experience (this is the 15 minutes). By free writing, you can figure out what is really important, where the problems are, and if your experiencing writer's block (or fatigue), free writing can break you through it. Most dissertation committees are able to help you do research, but they usually don't help you learn how to write.

But there is so much more in this book. Bolker has suggestions for finding time to write, how to revise, creating a dissertation support group, and finishing! She also has an entire chapter about how to manager your personal life while you are writing -- a larger problem than most people think before they begin writing.

This is a great book. My only complaint about it is that Bolker advocates a "messy" approach to writing, involving lots of revisions, reorganizations and creative leaps. I'm much more stodgy than that. I write from an outline and don't often make those leaps -- all my leaping is usually done by the time I start writing. Her approach is non-linear, while mine is linear, and I didn't think she made enough allowances for these different styles of writing. However, the book was really helpful in spite of that.