Effective Thesis and Dissertation Writing Tips

Most students do not know what to expect when writing a thesis or dissertation most especially during the process. Writing thesis or dissertation became simple when you know the steps to be taken.

The following are some thesis or dissertation writing tips:

1. Know your interest

It is best to know what topics that interest you. When you define the research interest, you can now work into possible thesis topic and develop your thesis statement. If the topic is not your interest, you will eventually preventing to work on your thesis.

2. Select a topic

Invest time and effort by restricting the research problem. Narrow down the topic and get help from your adviser.Make sure to choose or select a topic that really love.

3. Choose your mentor or adviser wisely.

When choosing a mentor or adviser, it is nice to have someone with a reputation and engaging with graduate students and graduate education. Additionally, your adviser or mentor should be knowledgeable about the topic you choose and understands the process of writing a thesis.

4. Regular meetings with your adviser or mentor

Make sure to always keep in touch with your adviser to monitor your progress regarding your thesis or dissertation. Get advise or counsel to your adviser because he/she knows the best for your thesis/dissertation since your adviser has the broad understanding of the process and he/she will help you to focus on what you are doing.

5. Ask for help and assistance

Do not afraid to ask for help from your adviser or mentor. Always seek help so that you are always on the right track.

Some Thesis Writing Strategies

After academic study, the next one is to make your thesis or dissertation in order to graduate.  Thesis writing and dissertation is the last requirement to attain a masteral degree or doctorate degree.  The following are some writing strategies to construct your unique thesis.

  • Choosing the topic.  Make sure to choose a topic or theories you are interested in and what would you like to know more about.  Is there a question in your field does not answer satisfactorily?
  • After choosing a topic, begin looking for information relevant to your topic and its theoretical framework. Read everything.
  • Once you become familiar and knowledgeable, you should state your purpose for your thesis or dissertation. You should articulate your purpose clearly.
  •  You are now ready to collect and analyze data and writing up findings.
  •   Get also a copy of the graduate school guidelines for writing theses and follow guidelines exactly.

The following are some general outline of thesis / dissertation.

Chapter 1 – Purpose and Significance of the Study.  This chapter explains the significance of your study as well as the purpose of the study

Chapter 2 – Review of the Literature. Theoretical framework should be explained further and the literature  review.

Chapter 3 – Methodology. It describes and justifies the data gathering methods used. It also outlines how the data is analyzed. Describe the method used and why this method is best appropriate. And also explain every step of the data gathering and analysis process.  It includes the description of the research design, description of the population and justification of data sample used or method used and description of data analysis such as statistical analysis and tests performed

Chapter 4 – Findings.  It addresses the results from the data analysis.

Chapter 5 – Discussions.  It reiterate what you have found out and discuss what is your findings.

Some Basic Thesis Writing Tips

  •  First of all decide on your topic. If your topic is too general, make sure to narrower subtopic to discuss.
  • After determining the topic that is suitable with you, you can prepare an outline to put your ideas about the topic.
  • Then you can write your thesis statement. Your thesis should have an argument.  It should not base on opinion statements. It should have thoroughly explored and dependable by evidence.
  • Thesis statement should focuses on ideas on one to two sentences to tell the reader what the paper is all about.
  • Be clear and avoid using vague words.
  • Make sure to collect sustainable evidence to defend your argument. Read every information relevant to your topic on academic research, trade literature, and information on popular press and on internet.
  • Your introduction should catch the attention of the reader and give an idea about your thesis.
  • Your conclusion should make your argument clear and provide your reader an indication of why your argument is credible.
  • Make sure that you proof-read your thesis carefully to prevent errors in spelling, grammars, and punctuation.  You can ask your friends or colleague to help you and proof read your thesis because you can overlook errors when reading your own work.

Thesis Writing Guides

Student often thinks that writing a thesis is complicated.  They seem to think of thesis writing as some special talent given only to those favored by heaven and they believe they are not one of those. Fortunately, that is not necessarily true.  The good news is thesis writing can be learned, just like how your baby brothers and sisters learned to walk or remember how you learned to bike.  All you have to do is follow some simple steps and guides in thesis writing.

First you should choose a topic that is not broad and interesting to you.  You need t seek the help of a thesis advisor.  Your thesis advisor will know if the scope of your project is too broad or too narrow.  Once the topic is selected, large task can be broken into many small ones.

Second, once the topic is broken down into smaller sections. Consider each section as its own separate project.  Treat each section as a regular research paper.  As a graduate student, you already wrote many papers.  In this way, it will be much easier to change the paper so that they all work together as a cohesive unit.

Third but not the least is managing your time effectively.  Thesis deadline is already given ahead of time to make sure that the project is finished on time so it is necessary to create a schedule.  Allocate each section a certain amount of time and make sure to complete the section within the given period.  Before starting the next section, make sure to have time between projected completion and the actual due date to fix errors.  If you have finished each section according to the schedule, there should be no worry finishing your thesis and nothing can be complicated.