help for dissertation writing

help for dissertation writing

Tips for Successful Dissertation Writing

1. Choosing a Dissertation Topic

Time Constraints – Most importantly, you want a topic that you can work on for an extended period of time. If you have a 3-4 year long doctoral programme, and have an applied/professional goal oriented study (i.e. change school practices), a topic with an extensive time constraint may not be in your best interest. You also want a topic that is specific enough to keep you focused, but not so specific that you cannot find enough information on the topic.

The first major challenge in the dissertation process lies in choosing a dissertation topic. Your choice determines how long it will take you to complete your study. For most doctoral students, it is an agonizing decision, mainly because it is a departure from what has been traditional. This may be the case, but there are several things that make your life easier when it comes to generating the topic.

2. Conducting a Literature Review

Once resources have been found, the researcher must read over each article and look for the key themes, results, and arguments made by each author. Usually, notes can be made on each article resource in a table format tracking what was said, who said it, and what page you can locate this information. This table tracking the information can be beneficial to the process of writing out the final product of the review of the literature step. Written notes should be taken on the key themes, results, and arguments, and these should be related to the research ideas or the current problem in question. A good idea is to keep a specific folder for the review of the literature, keeping all resources and notes organized.

To begin a literature review, a search should be commenced using a combination of keywords or phrases entered into search engines in the World Wide Web, databases, or library catalogues. The initial few articles may be difficult to find as you will be sifting through many abstracts and search results. The most recent and useful resources are generally those that are published within the last 10 years. However, depending on the topic, the researcher may want to go further back. Certain topics may have very little new research, and some problems are still hot topics debated over several decades. Always keep notes on the resource location and reference information. You can save a lot of time later in revisiting the same resource a couple of months later after you have gained more insight into the topic.

The task is to complete a scholarly review of several articles, books, and other resources in order to obtain a content base on which the criminologist can group or build their new ideas. This review of the literature provides a good source of information that identifies areas of consensus on the ideas which are being built or redeveloped, but identifying the contentious issues also provides insights into future research gaps in the information available. It is these gaps in which the researcher can identify their problem. A literature review is also a valuable source for the very identification of the problem, which can sometimes not be recognized until some initial research has been undertaken. This is not true of researchers in the field of criminology and criminal justice studies. Many times, what seems to be a good idea for a research topic can be altered when the researcher identifies new information throughout the process of the review step. It is important to be flexible with ideas and always subject the future direction of the research to the findings of the review of the literature. Also, when conducting the research, come back to the literature review to constantly measure the relevance of what you are doing to the overall research topic.

3. Developing a Solid Methodology

When a student devotes time to research, it will be with purpose. After all, the research done right now is the answer to what the topic heading for the dissertation was. Developing a solid methodology is vital to the aim of the research. The student has a great idea of what they want to do; now they just have to make sure it is done correctly. This is easier said than done, as there are infinite ways that something can be researched and analyzed. This chapter will be a general guide on how to develop a methodology. The most important consideration when developing a methodology is to consider the aim of the research. Often this can be best understood by the research question. For example, a study aiming to understand why people do x may be best addressed by a qualitative methodology. This is a sound aim if there is already a good understanding of how x is done (possibly through secondary literature chosen right at the start). The simplest aim would be to understand or find out something new and this is achieved with exploratory research. However, there may be a time when the aim is to test a hypothesis or to check the relationship between x and y, something which may be best achieved with quantitative methods. The most important thing is to determine what the research is trying to achieve and then to do it in a way best suited to answer the research question.

4. Writing and Structuring Your Dissertation

We recommend an essay framework from, generally, the social sciences and has several components. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that totally different genres have their very own particular expectations concerning beginnings and endings. The detailed construction right here supplies extra steering about how one can set about making your exact selections. Usually you need to begin with an introduction to set the context to your work and supply an outline of what is to comply with. Then it is likely to be helpful to work out what the reader must know to grasp the remainder of the paper and work by every of those points concisely earlier than shifting on to the empirical part or evaluation: this could possibly be a bit in regards to the way you went about doing the analysis to supply the reader with context or defining terminology earlier than presenting your evaluation. Then the primary physique of the work contains the analysis, which ought to present an argument both from a theoretical or empirical perspective, and should use a coherent construction to information the reader by the route of the argument. This part must be organised in response to the factors utilizing quite a lot of paragraphs and subheadings the place helpful. Lastly, the conclusions ought to summarise what has been discovered all through, and although some academics discover a temporary conclusion paragraph redundant, for the sake of readability and to fulfil the expectations of the style it’s advisable to incorporate one.

5. Editing and Proofreading Your Dissertation

What the reader wants to get out of your work may still be significantly different from the achieved result. They may want a concise explanation of a sociological phenomenon or wish to trace an argument which you have made. The next step in the process is handing your work over to another person, such as a peer or family member, and explaining to them the way in which you see the structure of your work and then asking them to explain to you the way they interpreted it. Ask them what they saw as the most interesting points and where they felt confused. Take notes while they are speaking and compare the notes to what the reader actually got out of your writing. This will provide valuable information on how to make the necessary improvements to your writing.

Reading aloud is a very effective way of checking your work as it will enable you to pinpoint any run-on sentences or grammatically incorrect phrases. Reading aloud is also good preparation for presenting your work at seminars and conferences. If you are unable to speak a sentence in a clear and articulate manner, then you must ask yourself whether it needs rephrasing. A way of ensuring grammatical correctness is to know “who is doing what to whom” in every sentence. Here is an example of a great philosopher, Karl Popper, who made revisions to his manuscript up to six times: “It is going to rain” was later changed to “The set of conditions under which the occurrence of a definite event can be predicted is the same as the set under which such an event can be prevented” (Nemeth).

Now it is time to begin one of the most difficult steps in the dissertation-writing process, determining all your material in a single, uncomplicated way. You have done your research, added new theories from relevant sources, and have corrected or removed conclusions that have little or no bearing on your work. This is often a time when you have to go back and rewrite some of your material but don’t be disheartened by this as it is all part of the process. It is important to be prepared to work with your material more than once as this will enable you to weed out any mistakes which could affect the quality of your work. This means you must ensure that your work is checked more than once and you are focusing on more than just the mechanical details of writing. Now is the time to read and reread every single sentence written. While doing so, ask yourself if the information is presented in the most effective way. This involves creating a smooth transition from one idea to another and ensuring that the overall tone of the work is understandable.