We found that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) dissolves PAAm. Direct N-alkylation of the amide groups of polyacrylamide was performed under homogeneous condition in DMSO. By using tert-butoxide, the amide groups of PAAm were turned into amide cations, followed by a coupling reaction with alkyl bromide to give N-alkylated PAAm. H-1 NMR suggests that the incorporation of alkyl bromide proceeded quantitatively. Intrinsic viscosity measurements and C-13 NMR spectra in DMSO suggest that undesirable side reactions such as cross linking or hydrolysis of the amide groups did not take place during the reaction.