Writing a dissertation is a daunting task most academic students face while pursuing a degree. It requires the utmost time and dedication to churn out an above-average dissertation.
After giving investing much time and dedication to the research part, it would be heartbreaking if your writing isn’t the best. Right? Here are a few writing tips for each section of your dissertation that will help you write an effective dissertation.
Some general writing tips:
Academic or non-academic; writing, at the core of it, is the same regardless of what you are writing. It requires practice and a firm grasp over the language to engage the reader. Take Dissertation help if required. Some general tips to brush up your academic writing skills are :
- Write every day. A paragraph every day is enough to improve your writing.
- Read related works. Read good essays, research papers, etc. and observe the writing style, usage of words, etc.
- Read fiction. Yes! Fiction helps you understand storytelling. Even when writing a thesis you’re narrating something. The only difference in academic writing such as a dissertation is, you use a formal tone and avoid everyday speech.
- Keep expanding your vocabulary. When you read, search for the meanings of every word that you don’t know and make a list of such words. You can always refer to it when you write.
- Practice writing essays. Essays are the most common form of academic writing and can be done in a single day. A dissertation, of course, is a great deal different from an essay but the form of speech remains the same. Therefore, practicing essays regularly will help you attain a better grasp of the academic writing style.
Coming to the dissertation itself, here are some writing tips for your dissertation to make the overall work effective.
Start writing early:
Start writing early as you’ll be needing a lot of time to make your dissertation good enough. Even though you might wait a lot before you start writing thinking that you haven’t researched enough yet, the sooner you start writing, the better.
It might be very much true that you still need more research, your argument isn’t complete, but if you start writing you’ll be able to figure out clearly and easily as to what exactly is missing and needs more research.
Moreover, the longer you wait, the harder it will become to actually start the writing process and it results in panic. Starting sooner means you’ll have more time to figure out the fill the holes and fine-tune the writing.
Take good notes:
When you do your research and experimentation, take detailed notes. Good note-taking is essential in laying out a structured outline and writing properly sequenced information.
Organize your notes properly under subheadings and different sections so that referring to them later is easier and it also helps you in creating a good outline and sequence.
Rewrite:
Rewriting is an important part of improving your dissertation. Keep in mind that you will have to rewrite things a couple of times before you can achieve satisfactory results. For the same reason, starting sooner is essential.
Don’t work for perfection while writing as it will only waste your time. Perfection comes after going through your work several times and making necessary changes to it.
When you have it in mind that you will be rewriting, you can put down your thoughts on paper more freely and write consistently without having to worry about mistakes as you will be fixing them later.
Know when to stop and research again:
Another important factor in writing a good dissertation is knowing when to stop and research again. When you write or re-write, identify missing information or insufficient information, stop writing and research it again. That is how you will be able to present a concise and clear dissertation.
There are certain crucial points to keep in mind for each section of your dissertation:
- Abstract
- Summarize your overall research briefly and state the purpose of your dissertation.
- Write the abstract after you finish writing everything else.
- Summarize your main results and conclusions briefly.
- Introduction
- Clearly describe your main topic.
- Provide enough background information for the readers so that they’re able to put the following parts of the dissertation into perspective.
- The introduction should lead readers smoothly to the next part.
- Clearly state your objectives and research questions.
- Literature review
- Mention all the sources you used for the research such as books, journal articles, etc.
- Analyze and evaluate each of them.
- Present the connection between each of them such as the patterns, themes, gaps, differences, etc.
- Describe how your own research compares to them and how it adds more knowledge to the existing resources in that particular topic.
- Methodology
- State your methods of collecting and analyzing data along with the necessary details.
- State your overall approach towards the research.
- State the tools you used for the research.
- Explain why you used particular methods or approaches.
- Results
- Only mention the results and findings that are relevant to your research questions and purpose.
- Explain your results concisely.
- Discussion
- Interpret your results in detail and discuss them while highlighting your research questions.
- Discuss how your results fit with the existing knowledge base of that topic.
- Conclusion
- Answer the main research questions concisely.
- Reflect upon your overall process and how you reached the conclusion.
- Leave your readers with a thorough understanding of the whole topic presented.
Once you have written your dissertation, make sure you edit the spelling and grammar mistakes, change any unintelligible sentences or unclear phrasings, and make sure the flow of information is smooth and not jerky. Format your dissertation according to the guidelines provided by your professors, institution, or university.