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Things to Remember When Writing a Doctoral Dissertation

December 14, 2018| Category: Writing Tips

Things to Remember When Writing a Doctoral Dissertation

A couple of years of intense work on your topic are behind, but the last months are the most strained and exhausting. Hurried and desperate attempts start to remain the acts ofinsanity. Is such a situation familiar to you? We have compiled a list of ideasof how to proceed with a balanced working regime and finally introduce anaccomplished written piece.

Steps that Might Guarantee Your Success

• Do not perceive integrating and finishing your dissertation as an intimidating task. Devote enough time to polish the entire text and make sure it develops atopic in the direction you planned. Editing is the right tool at this step. You may also get encouraged by the example of some famous writers and their piece of advice on writing. While there are no exact rules of how to create an ideal Ph.D. dissertation, you should keep in mind that in most cases you get the outcome as a result of continuous editing.
•  Consult your supervisor on the question of the thesis’s structure. Write down a draft that you will be correcting in the course of your scientific work. With the time, you will get more concentrated and will understand more clearly the main points, which have to be represented. There is a high chance that you will be forced to rewrite some chapters many times.
• Academic writing is not only about clear-cut theoretical material. It will be much more interesting if you include something original in it. In other words, any written piece should have its zest. Some of the authors suggest applying colorful adjectives, others advise on employing various grammar structures, etc.
• The chronological order is not always the best decision for composing the items of your thesis. Each chapter should be elaborated while you are compiling some information referred to it, or when you have recently faced one of the aspects of the subject. Adding any information to your paper, think carefully whether it is relevant and what contribution it makes. Get back and reread the already completed section to spot possible inaccuracies and fallacies.
• Do not hurry up, be level-headed and reasonable. There is no point in getting on with checking a piece right after the moment you have written it. So, wait for a certain time and only then set about critical analysis. When writing is still fresh in the memory, you won’t be able to be objective estimating the manner of writing and the sense of it. You may also ask a friend to read your paper and look for some typical mistakes.
• It is essential to familiarize yourself with a list of requirements to the scientific works in your educational institution. There may be comments on the most appropriate style to use. Pay additional attention to the citations, which you use, and double checking each of them. The bibliography should be organized faultlessly. Try to make notes of any resources you use. With this in purpose, you may apply the database, which will help you to save a great amount of time. Among the most beneficial apps are Paperpile and EndNote.
• Employ the option of the house style. Even professional published works use it forproviding spelling consistency. Whenever you doubt whether to use –ize or –ise ending, we would advise you to choose the British variation ofspelling. Other issues that require additional attention are the usage ofitalics, hyphenation, and formatting of foreign phrases.
• Beespecially considerate when approaching quotations. Check if the original ismarked in italics, and speaking generally, analyze all the quotes, which you havechosen, to ensure that they are focused on the issue you relate them to. Youmay also transcribe them and keep the original spelling to prove the credibilityof the sources you select.

The dissertation is the tool to present all the findings of your research and present yourself as a professional in the specific branch of science. Try to interest your target audience in the opening paragraphs. Be simple and straightforward when stating your hypothesis and the results of your work.         Follow the ideas presented in the article and you will certainly accomplish an all-encompassing and informative piece of writing.