Step-by-Step Guide to Dissertation Writing
First of all, you should know that writing a dissertation is not something you can do overnight. Therefore, you need to allow yourself enough time for this elaborate paper. This way, you can pay attention to each chapter of your thesis and also have time to revise it. Moreover, it may be possible for your instructor to ask you to change a few things on your dissertation. How can you do this if you don’t have enough time? Our recommendation is to start working on your thesis for at least 8-9 months before the final dissertation defense.
Your supervisor can provide you with several tips or suggestions, but don’t forget that his or her role is to supervise you and your work progress. Therefore, it should be clear to you that your instructor will not do the thesis for you, nor will they tell you how to write your paper. You should always want more. Check out these helpful tips for dissertation writing.
- Do a quick research on your subject
Ok, you have decided on your major subject, but you still don’t know your topic. Before choosing a particular topic, do a quick research on your domain. What are the most popular topics? For which of them can you access many reliable sources? Which of them are supported by unbiased sources? You can also note the most popular or appealing topics down, and then sort them according to your preferences.
- Choose a topic
The research you did before is undoubtedly helpful now because you already know how would each topic allow you to develop it further. Still, you need to consider at least two aspects when you choose your dissertation’s topic: the information you can find, but also your preferences. No matter the subject, if you pick a topic only because there are plenty of resources debating it, you won’t be satisfied with your thesis, and you will end up with more work than you imagined. Choose wisely, but also with your heart. Even though you should never omit this aspect, don’t rely only on the amount of information you can find.
Also, take into consideration that if you are going to present a topic which has already been debated thousands of times before, the committee may be sick and tired of it. Not to mention that they may have heard better presentations than yours. Therefore, if you opt for an extremely popular topic, you have to pay particular attention to what you can and cannot include in your thesis, but also to the way in which you write it. Make sure it is engaging and compelling.
- Do thorough research
The next step is to do some thorough research. Gather as many valuable pieces of information and documents as possible, and organize them later.
Don’t forget that the Internet is a rather false friend in this stage because most of the articles you will find online are not from reliable sources or are not written by experts. In order to avoid including irrelevant or wrong data in your thesis, you should stay away from untrusted sources.
Go to the library, look for books, academic articles, encyclopedias, etc. and seek information in these sources. Also, you can access numerous reliable resources on educational platforms, but most of them have a small fee. Another recommendation is to discuss with your instructor and ask him/her for advice regarding this aspect. Your supervisor can suggest you amazing references that you don’t even know they exist.
- Write a dissertation proposal
Generally speaking, a thesis proposal should be about 15-20 pages, but you better ask your professor to know exactly what are his/her expectations. In the paper, you should include the reasons why you chose this topic, as well as an introduction to it. A literature review is also a must, even though you are not done yet with your research. Write about the relevant resources you have studied until know so that you can convince the committee you have started working and are aware of other important works in your field.
Other aspects you should discuss in this paper are the research questions, issue or events you propose for study, the methodology you think to opt for, and bibliography.
- Write your dissertation
After you have written a successful thesis proposal, writing your dissertation will be much easier because the first paper becomes part of your final one.
This is the typical structure you have to follow:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Materials and methods or Literature review
- Results or Sources and methods
- Discussion or Findings
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- References and Bibliography
- Appendix
For better results, you should also read a chapter-by-chapter guide to professional dissertation writing. However, when you write your thesis, you should always pay particular attention to the style and tone used. Keep it professional and unbiased, and avoid using colloquial phrases.
Another tip you should consider is to manage your time well and divide your work into smaller tasks that you can do in a day or a few hours of work. Staying organized will help you to finish the thesis in time.
- Proofread and edit it
At this point, you've got to always stay motivated. So much work done and so many efforts dedicated - time to make it perfect.Even though you may feel that you just can’t wait to get rid of it, you also need to polish your dissertation. There are many spelling and grammar mistakes or syntax errors that may lower the quality of your thesis. You may also notice that some sentences sound forced, etc. so why not correct these issue and hand in a better dissertation?
Need help writing a dissertation?
If you consider that you can’t finish your work in time, or you still need a chapter or two, and you’re not able to write them, or you can’t write a successful thesis, you can always rely on academic writing services. In these circumstances, you clearly need professional assistance, so why not benefit from it?
