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> if he took his papers, put them in a stack, and put a staple in the upper left corner, then they would accept that stack as his dissertation

When I was finishing my PhD, my advisor pulled out his dissertation to show me what it looked like. It was literally his papers sandwiched between the covers.

(Edit: formatting)

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Yeah, that's kinda how it works.

If you're lucky you publish 2 - 3 papers in your PhD career along a similar topic. Stick those in and coheretize them with an introduction and a conclusion.

Those whose fields are less productive or who are in groups which don't publish very much will have a harder time getting their final bit written...but it isn't exactly supposed to be easy.

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