ABSTRACT
When we think about "writing a dissertation" we may envision a person seated at a computer for long hours, creating hundreds of pages of text, surrounded by stacks of books and documents. While this is an appropriate image, it clearly does not capture the totality of the experience. In fact, it represents only a small part, perhaps 10 per cent of all that goes into writing the dissertation. Many who have gone through the process comment that only those who have been there could understand what it's like. To facilitate your understanding, we will look at the metaphors which pepper the conversations of doctoral students.
