We suggest reaching out to no much less than a couple of the movers from our record above. Be positive to review all of the companies you want when asking for an estimate. Also, verify that they’ve given you a “binding estimate” — otherwise, the actual price may be subject to vary.

We offer a hassle-free moving experience at competitive rates. As a transferring company, we only hire professionally qualified, licensed, and insured movers. Azalea City Moving Company is a extremely beneficial alternative of mover for each residential and Nakliye commercial strikes in Mobile. Their moving staff is very hard-working, cautious, Nakliye fast and courteous. They specialize in local strikes within cellular but also can do intrastate moves inside Alabama. Based in Birmingham, New Latitude Moving & Storage is certainly one of Alabama’s well-known transferring corporations. For more information on Nakliye take a look at our page. Their major focus is principally on customer expertise during which they offer a variety of customizable options to assist the client tailor their move. This is the primary cause why many select New Latitude Moving & Storage. Being a full-service moving firm, they cater to local, long-distance from Seattle to Maine, and industrial strikes as properly.

Road Runner Transferring & Storage – Voted The Most Effective Transferring Firm Three Years In A Row

We provide a broad array of transportation and logistics options including expedited, flatbed, dedicated, and ultimate mile. We tailor every resolution to our clients’ distinctive needs and focus on delivering superior service. R+L offers truckload services on shipments 22,000 pounds or larger. Enterprise specializes in commercial-grade cargo vans and vans to deliver the dependability, flexibility and service you should keep transferring. Trust your native Enterprise consultants to assist you find the sunshine and medium-duty autos you want, together with pickup trucks, field vehicles, transferring vans and cargo vans. We will need your name, account number, service address, telephone number, and forwarding address to course of your disconnect. You might obtain an software from this web site ( go to obtain forms ).

But keep in mind that even when you select a company, not from Alabama, you must decide rigorously. Researching and being prudent is crucial because the cargo is dear, and only a reliable moving company has insurance coverage. This is why it’s essential to ensure you’re careful when selecting a transport company. Hiring low-cost Alabaman movers might be a rip-off if the prices are suspiciously low compared to different companies you’ve inquired with. A noticeable difference means you ought to be wary as a end result of you don’t know what they’re skipping for the lower cost. Alternatively, in case your household items are being moved from out of state, like Seattle to Alabama, a flat rate is an efficient alternative if your organization presents it. You’ll have the flexibility to match the cash into your budget and know exactly what you’re paying. It relies upon entirely on where your pickup and drop-off places are. Shipping corporations have an expedited transport possibility that costs extra. Depending in your degree of urgency, you’ll have the ability to even minimize the wait time in half.

The Highest 7 Alabama Movers

IVL is understood for its long-distance movers, whereas PODS makes waves for its affordable charges. TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® has spent more than three a long time transferring people’s things throughout the nation and they can certainly be called masters of the industry. Their service is very complete and includes not only all kinds of transferring but additionally packing and storage. They have a formidable ninety six percent referral fee from glad customers, which solely reflects the world-class performance they ship with each move. We present skilled moving services to Birmingham and its surrounding areas. With years of experience, we know what it takes to get the job carried out proper.

With a exceptional historical past from 1925, Lambert Moving Systems has established itself as a trusted family-owned and operated business. Over the years, Nakliye we have built a stable reputation for delivering exceptional shifting providers to numerous glad clients. When you choose Lambert, you are choosing an organization that values integrity, professionalism, and the utmost care on your belongings. You don’t have to settle for lackluster service, get professional Alabama movers with Moving.com. The skilled AL transferring corporations on Moving.com are all licensed and ensured, as your satisfaction is extremely important to us.

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The difference in estimate to precise weight on the move was over the estimate barely however I knew the price immediately. Nothing was hidden in the means in which of charges or hidden costs. Offers storage, packing companies and specialty senior moving companies. Our years of experience have given us the logistical skills to make sure that your home goods arrive in even the most remote areas on time and damage-free.

Today, Poseidon Moving and Storage shall be explaining why we’re the highest interstate moving company within the United States. We will also be telling you every thing you have to find out about shifting to New Mexico. The company supplies multiple packing and transferring options, and it provides a move-out cleansing service. Joe’s Moving presents multiple shifting tips and sources on its web site. The enterprise is familiar with the area and might present fast, accurate quotes.

“Tremendous Skilled Guys!”

Sure, it’s exciting to maneuver into a new residence in Clovis, however there’s lots of work to be accomplished earlier than you presumably can sit again on the couch and luxuriate in your new place. There are heavy packing containers to be loaded and unloaded, delicate items to be dealt with, and plenty of bills to rack up alongside the means in which. Rather than moving into this tough course of all by yourself, group up with Simple Moving Labor to make your Clovis, NM transfer as simple as potential. When you want to store your belongings in Albuquerque for a number of months or longer, ask us about long-term storage choices. Slater Transfer and Storage, Inc. warehouses are flexible for you. In the method of making your Albuquerque transfer, you could want to protect your issues for a while in our Albuquerque warehouse. We keep every thing packed in their cartons and inside a secure vault till you’re prepared for supply. Our Albuquerque warehouse is absolutely containerized with locked storage vaults to keep goods safe. You can trust Slater Transfer and Storage, Inc. with Albuquerque storage. Our warehouse meets or exceeds Atlas requirements for security, cleanliness, and fireplace protections.

New Mexico moving company

By partnering with reputable organizations and associations, Buehler Moving Company has continued to enhance on its core competence to ship to customers a service that represents value for cash. Economic opportunities abound in the space, Nakliye particularly in personal, high-tech sectors. The Kirtland Air Force Base and the University of New Mexico are the biggest employers in Albuquerque, Nakliye adopted by Sandia National Laboratories and Albuquerque Public Schools.

“Professional And Personable”

Zen Movers is a local transferring company for small or Nakliye large residential strikes. It is a small, privately owned, specialty shifting and Nakliye logistics company. Customers can choose to move one chair, a piano, or an enormous house. Zen Movers is fully licensed and insured, with expert movers and a large fleet of enclosed modern box vehicles with ramps or carry gates. Locally owned and operated, Albuquerque Discount Movers has been serving the Albuquerque space for over two decades.

New Mexico moving company

The info in these neighborhood guides can just make sure you discover a moving location with everything that you just want. When you may be totally happy with a neighborhood, you possibly can contact movers in NM on Moving.com, and get moved into your new house or residence as soon as attainable. For your protection, all personal info is all the time saved entirely confidential, as a outcome of Moving.com swears by a whole commitment to high quality. If you have any concerns regarding the place and how to use Nakliye, you can get in touch with us at our web-page. If you have any questions, information about movers in NM may be discovered on our frequently asked questions section, and further particulars may be found by contacting us immediately over the location. Treat your self to an expert move with Moving.com, Nakliye and examine out your 4 free transferring quotes right now. Are you shifting to or from New Mexico or the surrounding area?

Your Native Shifting Company For Albuquerque, Nm, And The Encompassing Areas

We recommend reaching out to at least a couple of the movers from our listing above. Make positive to elucidate all the services you need whenever you get an estimate. Also, verify that you’ve gotten a “binding estimate” — otherwise, the actual cost may be topic to vary. Moving.com is committed to providing the best high quality mover listings to assist you scale back the time, value and stress of the moving process. Below is a summary of the itemizing standards every sort of mover has met prior to being listed. For an extra cost, our group can pack your smaller objects as well. Partial packing service means having as much as fifteen boxes packed by us. Another choice is a full pack, which incorporates greater than fifteen bins or your whole belongings.

Get a sense of the group and what it offers before shifting to the Land of Enchantment. You will not have to be concerned about your issues being harmed throughout delivery so lengthy as you correctly choose a shipping business. This is why you must constantly confirm the insurance standing of any professional transport company that has been approved by DOT. Never be reluctant to analysis various firms before making a choice. Never choose a business simply on the basis of value; instead, think about the benefits and downsides, and see if the enterprise has any prior expertise carrying items to the state.

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Don’t find yourself not having sufficient time to visit all of the nice areas of Vermont and plan to stay for an extended time frame. Living in Vermont may be like residing in paradise and many individuals are doing it. Surround your self with magnificence and desire all over the place you look and enjoy this lovely state to its utmost. There is nothing like discovering a place you presumably can visit that is extra comfy than your individual home.

Customers can select full-service packing, fragile-only packing or self-packing. Regardless of what you select, NAVL will handle the loading and unloading. Movers can even assist with appliance installation and furniture assembly. If the moving firm expenses by the hour, the entire hourly fee will be higher if there are three movers. This stated, your transfer may additionally take less time, and the movers are less prone to accidentally scratch some furniture out of tiredness. The quantity will rely upon the company politics in addition to the size of the transfer. Moving can be a strenuous task which might dampen the excitement that comes from relocating to a brand new house. The transportation of heavy possessions and prized valuables could be tough and could additionally be broken or Nakliye lost throughout personal shifting. Thankfully, there are residential movers which might be available to assist with the sleek transition of non-public gadgets to new locations at affordable rates and with utmost care. Whether you might be moving across the country or Nakliye overseas, Mayflower presents customized options for a guided and professional shifting experience.

Vermont Movers – Vt Transferring

These are readily available on each page of the company’s web site. NAVL additionally has on-line sources for assist submitting claims and a dedicated claims support line for help from a reside representative. In addition to long-distance moves within the United States, JK Moving provides worldwide shifting companies in more than one hundred seventy nations. It can also coordinate authorities and navy moves, employee relocations and industrial moves. We at the Guides Home Team have researched and reviewed the best shifting firms nationwide based mostly on availability, providers, popularity and more. Whether you’re planning an interstate, native or overseas transfer, we listing a reputable supplier that may help you along with your Vermont transfer. Vermont Moving and Storage provides a plethora of customer-suited services. They supply packing and unpacking, piano strikes, house rearrangement, and a lot of more. It is guaranteed that a crew manager or owner is present with the shopper at each transfer to reply any inquiries.

If that wasn’t sufficient, the state is constantly growing and bettering public transportation. This only makes moving from Boston to Vermont extra engaging. Not to boast of Vermont having the lowest crime price in America, low inhabitants density, its proximity to Metropolitan areas, and is doubtless one of the finest states for schooling. They went above and past to get everything offloaded within the time window. We adhere to the guidelines & recommendations of the CDC & WHO to maintain you protected. We will continue to approach this case cautiously to supply all our customers with the safest means of relocation. The pricing table beneath exhibits ballpark prices for native moves inside Vermont. If you have just about any queries relating to exactly where in addition to how you can make use of Nakliye, you can e mail us at our own internet site. Or try our submit on the fee to move in Vermont for more pricing information. Most Vermont movers give a rough estimate which isn’t guaranteed unless it’s a flat fee. Many Vermont movers provide virtual estimates through zoom or Google meet.

Vt Moving And Storage (vt)

Or call us, and we’ll guide you through the rental process. As a quantity one nationwide moving company, Nakliye United is conscious of a thing or two about helping folks transfer. Having completed over 1.2 million strikes worldwide up to now 10 years, United’s movers be certain that every section of your transfer is as straightforward as possible. To help people plan their subsequent transfer, we have compiled this collection of moving ideas, including straightforward moving checklists, how-to articles and handy movies.

IVL additionally presents substantial discounts if you’re a senior or need to ship a automotive. Plus, the transferring firm offers 30 days of free storage to supply a buffer when moving into your new home. On the downside, it has below-average buyer critiques and annoying web site pop-up advertisements. American Van Lines is a family-owned firm that specializes in long-distance strikes. Its most exceptional function is its skilled shifting employees members, who average 10 years of experience every. AVL trains its employees within the latest shifting methods to ensure they will deal with even your most treasured belongings.

You also can fill out our quick type to receive your FREE, no-obligation estimate. As a matter of coverage, BBB doesn’t endorse any product, service or business. BBB Business Profiles are supplied solely to help you in exercising your personal greatest judgment. BBB asks third events who publish complaints, critiques and/or responses on this web site to affirm that the information offered is accurate. However, BBB doesn’t confirm the accuracy of data provided by third parties, and doesn’t guarantee the accuracy of any information in Business Profiles. The average annual high in Burlington can rise up to 51°F, and the world is within the center third of the country in relation to daily rainfall. You can use any of the general public transport, or think about having someone else as a substitute of you at the pickup or supply location. The typical transfer from Burlington Vermont space to Boston space starts within the morning with the identical day delivery few hours later.

Vermont moving company

The company also presents a $25 discount for those who reserve their move online. U-Pack presents ReloCubes that match inside a single parking house for smaller strikes. Its transferring trailers are reserved for bigger moves and measure 27 ft lengthy, eight ft extensive and 9 feet high. Trailers can be parked alongside the street or in your driveway. To minimize the risk of loss or injury to your belongings, U-Pack keeps your shipment intact exactly the method in which you packed it — no combining or transferring shipments. Customers can request a non-binding estimate based mostly on weight.

Vermont moving company

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They’re lust a quantity of testaments to the service Allied Van Lines. Looking for the most effective long-distance shifting company in Albuquerque? The professional movers at Allied Van Lines perceive what it takes to move your belongings safely, whether it is throughout town or throughout the country. Our local movers will get you into your new residence in Albuquerque or your new house out of city. When you liked this informative article and you want to get more details with regards to Nakliye generously stop by the web-page. Auto transportcompany prices are based on present market trends for nationwide auto transport. Why do clients say Montway is the best firm to ship a car?

Albuquerque moving company

Our staff are schooled and supported in providing glorious shifting providers. Say goodbye to last-minute stress and embrace a seamless shifting expertise with our really helpful movers. With our expertise and dedication, we present you with the finest moving firms in Albuquerque, able to make your relocation a seamless and pleasant expertise. Their movers are punctual, pleasant, and preach positivity, which is definitely going to make your moving experience much less annoying. They have senior shifting reductions available to make the method a little less stressful for you, which you shouldn’t forget to check out whereas getting your free quote! Along with that, Nakliye their assured costs also guarantee that you have a somewhat budget-friendly transfer.

Let Our Environment Friendly Packers Pack Some Or All Of Your Belongings

The delivery workers, Brandon S and Phillip have been courteous and very professional. The delivery crew was extremely professional, they contacted me ahead of time like requested. Instantly see a quote in your precise transfer and real-time availability. We present FREE in-home and Nakliye on the telephone transferring estimates.

On average most individuals in Albuquerque use 12’-16’ field vehicles. Hiring movers in Albuquerque can coat on common $300-$700. The commonest job teams, by number of folks dwelling listed right here are Office & Administrative Support Occupations , Sales & Related Occupations , and Management Occupations . Average worth per transfer for Albuquerque Moving and Nakliye Storage Company is between 9256 and USD based mostly on 2 critiques only. The breakdown of the average moving expenses depending whether or not you are moving regionally or long distance. Your belief is our high concern, so companies can’t pay to change or remove their reviews.

International Web Sites

Meathead Movers is right here to care for all the heavy lifting for you on your move to or from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Meathead is persistently voted the #1 shifting firm in each single market we serve. From the very beginning, how very respectful the movers have been and the way the movers presented the movers. North American Van Lines in Albuquerque is one of more than 500 agent locations across the U.S. and Canada. Wherever you name home, Nakliye let North American Van Lines information you through the moving process. Companies displayed might pay us to be Authorized or whenever you click on a link, call a quantity or fill a kind on our site.

Albuquerque moving company

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Most Effective Tips for Writing an Impressive Assignment

When in college, you have to accomplish all of your assignments as part of your education. One of the most common assignments is written essays that will contribute to your grade at the end of your course. 

But you might feel apprehensive when you receive such an assignment, especially if it's your first time. You might not feel like you have the necessary skills to write a good essay. But there are certain tips you can use to write a good assignment and lay your apprehensions to rest.

 

Research and plan

When you take on a course, you will receive a reading list. Familiarize yourself with it right away because your professors will choose texts from this list that will specifically help you with your tasks and assignments. Reading what's on your list will provide you with valuable insight into the topics you have to write about. It will make life easier for you when you need to write an assignment.

learn more about tips for writing assignment https://essentialblackmedia.com/10-tips-for-writing-assignments-2/ .

 

After researching, you should make a schedule for writing your assignments. Stick to your schedule. Also, double-check your deadline so you won't have to feel overwhelmed when you realize that your deadline is right around the corner. Break down your time and tasks into more manageable chunks so that you will always be on top of your work. Make a schedule that consists of mini-deadlines. Knowing that you have completed a task will keep you motivated.

 

Understand your assignment and take notes

Before starting your assignment, make sure that you understand it because writing an essay that contains irrelevant information or isn't coherent will prove disastrous. You should always know what you're doing and what you need to convey. If needed, rereading the instructions will help you understand what's expected of you. Moreover, you also need to determine how long the essay should be and how you will proceed with it.

 

Note-taking is another important aspect of writing. Before you start, you must collect various materials and resources relevant to your topic. You should also create an outline that will guide you. Go through various research materials, then take down notes on the most crucial information that you can include in your work. The writing process will become more manageable when you have all of the information you need.

 

Assignment writing by professionals

As a student in college, you have the option to ask for help when you need to complete an assignment and you have no time to do it. Since written tasks are an unavoidable aspect of college education, the best thing you can do is to seek assistance when you need it. The writers at AssignmentBro helped with my assignment writing in college. Thanks to their professional writers, I still had plenty of time to study and tackle my other responsibilities.

 

Use various resources

Aside from the deadlines and instructions that your professor will provide, they might also recommend some resources to you. Sadly, this is something that many students tend to overlook. For https://pet.fish/community/profile/marinacustance5/ instance, for you to understand how your professor will grade your assignment, you will need to examine their rubric. This is a chart that provides information on what you must do. You will also learn about the objectives of the assignments or the learning outcomes.

 

Other resources you might receive include reading lists, lecture recordings, discussion boards, and sample assignments. Usually, you will find all of these resources in an online platform known as a Learning Management System (LMS). Research has shown that students who use LMS tend to get higher grades. If you still have any questions, you can ask your professor either online or offline.

 

Determine the objective and structure of your assignment

The next thing you need to do is to define the objectives of your written work and its structure. This is where you will determine the pattern of a well-written assignment. You want to make your work look impressive in the eyes of your reader. One way to accomplish this is to include more theoretical content and details in your essay. 

 

Make sure all of your paragraphs flow smoothly

It's not enough for Careked.Com the essay writing project assigned to you to provide enough information. It's also important to remain coherent. You must link each paragraph to each other. 

 

This will keep your reader connected with the content. To achieve this, you need to go back to your plan for your assignment, then search for significant concepts that will help you connect the paragraphs smoothly. Here's an easy tip to do this – include phrases or words that will attract the eyes of your readers while supporting the context of your written assignment.

 

Conclusion

University life is full of challenges. One of which is the writing of assignments that will require higher communication, critical thinking, and information gathering skills that you may have practiced in high school. Instead of feeling daunted because of your assignments, use the tips you learned to make things easier for you.

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Dissertation Strategies

What this handout is about

This handout suggests strategies for developing healthy writing habits during your dissertation journey. These habits can help you maintain your writing momentum, overcome anxiety and procrastination, and foster wellbeing during one of the most challenging times in graduate school.

Tackling a giant project

Because dissertations are, of course, big projects, it’s no surprise that planning, writing, and revising one can pose some challenges! It can help to think of your dissertation as an expanded version of a long essay: at the end of the day, it is simply another piece of writing. You’ve written your way this far into your degree, so you’ve got the skills! You’ll develop a great deal of expertise on your topic, but you may still be a novice with this genre and writing at this length. Remember to give yourself some grace throughout the project. As you begin, it’s helpful to consider two overarching strategies throughout the process.

First, take stock of how you learn and your own writing processes. What strategies have worked and have not worked for you? Why? What kind of learner and writer are you? Capitalize on what’s working and experiment with new strategies when something’s not working. Keep in mind that trying out new strategies can take some trial-and-error, and it’s okay if a new strategy that you try doesn’t work for you. Consider why it may not have been the best for you, and use that reflection to consider other strategies that might be helpful to you.

Second, break the project into manageable chunks. At every stage of the process, try to identify specific tasks, set small, feasible goals, and have clear, concrete strategies for achieving each goal. Small victories can help you establish and maintain the momentum you need to keep yourself going.

Below, royalnauticals.com we discuss some possible strategies to keep you moving forward in the dissertation process.

Pre-dissertation planning strategies

Get familiar with the Graduate School’s Thesis and Dissertation Resources.

Learn how to use a citation-manager and a synthesis matrix to keep track of all of your source information.

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Skim other dissertations from your department, program, and advisor. Enlist the help of a librarian or ask your advisor for a list of recent graduates whose work you can look up. Seeing what other people have done to earn their PhD can make the project much less abstract and daunting. A concrete sense of expectations will help you envision and plan. When you know what you’ll be doing, try to find a dissertation from your department that is similar enough that you can use it as a reference model when you run into concerns about formatting, structure, level of detail, etc.

Think carefully about your committee. Ideally, you’ll be able to select a group of people who work well with you and with each other. Consult with your advisor about who might be good collaborators for your project and who might not be the best fit. Consider what classes you’ve taken and how you “vibe” with those professors or those you’ve met outside of class. Try to learn what you can about how they’ve worked with other students. Ask about feedback style, turnaround time, level of involvement, etc., and imagine how that would work for you.

Sketch out a sensible drafting order for your project. Be open to writing chapters in “the wrong order” if it makes sense to start somewhere other than the beginning. You could begin with the section that seems easiest for you to write to gain momentum.

Design a productivity alliance with your advisor. Talk with them about potential projects and a reasonable timeline. Discuss how you’ll work together to keep your work moving forward. You might discuss having a standing meeting to discuss ideas or drafts or issues (bi-weekly? monthly?), your advisor’s preferences for drafts (rough? polished?), your preferences for what you’d like feedback on (early or late drafts?), reasonable turnaround time for feedback (a week? two?), and anything else you can think of to enter the collaboration mindfully.

Design a productivity alliance with your colleagues. Dissertation writing can be lonely, but writing with friends, meeting for updates over your beverage of choice, and scheduling non-working social times can help you maintain healthy energy. See our tips on accountability strategies for ideas to support each other.

Productivity strategies

Write when you’re most productive. When do you have the most energy? Focus? Creativity? When are you most able to concentrate, either because of your body rhythms or because there are fewer demands on your time? Once you determine the hours that are most productive for you (you may need to experiment at first), try to schedule those hours for dissertation work. See the collection of time management tools and planning calendars on the Learning Center’s Tips & Tools page to help you think through the possibilities. If at all possible, plan your work schedule, errands and chores so that you reserve your productive hours for the dissertation.

Put your writing time firmly on your calendar. Guard your writing time diligently. You’ll probably be invited to do other things during your productive writing times, but do your absolute best to say no and to offer alternatives. No one would hold it against you if you said no because you’re teaching a class at that time—and you wouldn’t feel guilty about saying no. Cultivating the same hard, guilt-free boundaries around your writing time will allow you preserve the time you need to get this thing done!

Develop habits that foster balance. You’ll have to work very hard to get this dissertation finished, but you can do that without sacrificing your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Think about how you can structure your work hours most efficiently so that you have time for a healthy non-work life. It can be something as small as limiting the time you spend chatting with fellow students to a few minutes instead of treating the office or lab as a space for extensive socializing. Also see above for protecting your time.

Write in spaces where you can be productive. Figure out where you work well and plan to be there during your dissertation work hours. Do you get more done on campus or at home? Do you prefer quiet and solitude, like in a library carrel? Do you prefer the buzz of background noise, like in a coffee shop? Are you aware of the UNC Libraries’ list of places to study? If you get “stuck,” don’t be afraid to try a change of scenery. The variety may be just enough to get your brain going again.

Work where you feel comfortable. Wherever you work, make sure you have whatever lighting, furniture, and accessories you need to keep your posture and health in good order. The University Health and Safety office offers guidelines for healthy computer work. You’re more likely to spend time working in a space that doesn’t physically hurt you. Also consider how you could make your work space as inviting as possible. Some people find that it helps to have pictures of family and friends on their desk—sort of a silent “cheering section.” Some people work well with neutral colors around them, and https://azuldentalmexico.com others prefer bright colors that perk up the space. Some people like to put inspirational quotations in their workspace or encouraging notes from friends and family. You might try reconfiguring your work space to find a décor that helps you be productive.

Elicit helpful feedback from various people at various stages. You might be tempted to keep your writing to yourself until you think it’s brilliant, but you can lower the stakes tremendously if you make eliciting feedback a regular part of your writing process. Your friends can feel like a safer audience for ideas or drafts in their early stages. Someone outside your department may provide interesting perspectives from their discipline that spark your own thinking. See this handout on getting feedback for productive moments for feedback, the value of different kinds of feedback providers, and strategies for eliciting what’s most helpful to you. Make this a recurring part of your writing process. Schedule it to help you hit deadlines.

Change the writing task. When you don’t feel like writing, you can do something different or you can do something differently. Make a list of all the little things you need to do for a given section of the dissertation, no matter how small. Choose a task based on your energy level. Work on Grad School requirements: reformat margins, itgamer.ru work on bibliography, and all that. Work on your acknowledgements. Remember all the people who have helped you and the great ideas they’ve helped you develop. You may feel more like working afterward. Write a part of your dissertation as a letter or email to a good friend who would care. Sometimes setting aside the academic prose and just writing it to a buddy can be liberating and help you get the ideas out there. You can make it sound smart later. Free-write about why you’re stuck, and perhaps even about how sick and tired you are of your dissertation/advisor/committee/etc. Venting can sometimes get you past the emotions of writer’s block and move you toward creative solutions. Open a separate document and write your thoughts on various things you’ve read. These may or may note be coherent, connected ideas, and they may or may not make it into your dissertation. They’re just notes that allow you to think things through and/or note what you want to revisit later, so it’s perfectly fine to have mistakes, weird organization, etc. Just let your mind wander on paper.

Develop habits that foster productivity and may help you develop a productive writing model for post-dissertation writing. Since dissertations are very long projects, cultivating habits that will help support your work is important. You might check out Helen Sword’s work on behavioral, artisanal, social, and emotional habits to help you get a sense of where you are in your current habits. You might try developing “rituals” of work that could help you get more done. Lighting incense, brewing a pot of a particular kind of tea, pulling out a favorite pen, and other ritualistic behaviors can signal your brain that “it is time to get down to business.” You can critically think about your work methods—not only about what you like to do, but also what actually helps you be productive. You may LOVE to listen to your favorite band while you write, for example, but if you wind up playing air guitar half the time instead of writing, it isn’t a habit worth keeping.

The point is, figure out what works for you and try to do it consistently. Your productive habits will reinforce themselves over time. If you find yourself in a situation, however, that doesn’t match your preferences, don’t let it stop you from working on your dissertation. Try to be flexible and open to experimenting. You might find some new favorites!

Motivational strategies

Schedule a regular activity with other people that involves your dissertation. Set up a coworking date with your accountability buddies so you can sit and write together. Organize a chapter swap. Make regular appointments with your advisor. Whatever you do, make sure it’s something that you’ll feel good about showing up for–and will make you feel good about showing up for others.

Try writing in sprints. Many writers have discovered that the “Pomodoro technique” (writing for 25 minutes and taking a 5 minute break) boosts their productivity by helping them set small writing goals, focus intently for short periods, and give their brains frequent rests. See how one dissertation writer describes it in this blog post on the Pomodoro technique.

Quit while you’re ahead. Sometimes it helps to stop for the day when you’re on a roll. If you’ve got a great idea that you’re developing and you know where you want to go next, write “Next, I want to introduce x, y, and z and explain how they’re related—they all have the same characteristics of 1 and 2, and that clinches my theory of Q.” Then save the file and turn off the computer, or put down the notepad. When you come back tomorrow, you will already know what to say next–and all that will be left is to say it. Hopefully, the momentum will carry you forward.

Write your dissertation in single-space. When you need a boost, double space it and be impressed with how many pages you’ve written.

Set feasible goals–and celebrate the achievements! Setting and achieving smaller, more reasonable goals (SMART goals) gives you success, and that success can motivate you to focus on the next small step…and the next one.

Give yourself rewards along the way. When you meet a writing goal, reward yourself with something you normally wouldn’t have or do–this can be anything that will make you feel good about your accomplishment.

Make the act of writing be its own reward. For example, if you love a particular coffee drink from your favorite shop, save it as a special drink to enjoy during your writing time.

Try giving yourself “pre-wards”—positive experiences that help you feel refreshed and recharged for the next time you write. You don’t have to “earn” these with prior work, but you do have to commit to doing the work afterward.

Commit to doing something you don’t want to do if you don’t achieve your goal. Some people find themselves motivated to work harder when there’s a negative incentive. What would you most like to avoid? Watching a movie you hate? Donating to a cause you don’t support? Whatever it is, how can you ensure enforcement? Who can help you stay accountable?

Affective strategies

Build your confidence. It is not uncommon to feel “imposter phenomenon” during the course of writing your dissertation. If you start to feel this way, it can help to take a few minutes to remember every success you’ve had along the way. You’ve earned your place, and people have confidence in you for good reasons. It’s also helpful to remember that every one of the brilliant people around you is experiencing the same lack of confidence because you’re all in a new context with new tasks and new expectations. You’re not supposed to have it all figured out. You’re supposed to have uncertainties and questions and things to learn. Remember that they wouldn’t have accepted you to the program if they weren’t confident that you’d succeed. See our self-scripting handout for strategies to turn these affirmations into a self-script that you repeat whenever you’re experiencing doubts or other negative thoughts. You can do it!

Appreciate your successes. Not meeting a goal isn’t a failure–and it certainly doesn’t make you a failure. It’s an opportunity to figure out why you didn’t meet the goal. It might simply be that the goal wasn’t achievable in the first place. See the SMART goal handout and think through what you can adjust. Even if you meant to write 1500 words, focus on the success of writing 250 or 500 words that you didn’t have before.

Remember your “why.” There are a whole host of reasons why someone might decide to pursue a PhD, both personally and professionally. Reflecting on what is motivating to you can rekindle your sense of purpose and direction.

Get outside support. Sometimes it can be really helpful to get an outside perspective on your work and anxieties as a way of grounding yourself. Participating in groups like the Dissertation Support group through CAPS and the Dissertation Boot Camp can help you see that you’re not alone in the challenges. You might also choose to form your own writing support group with colleagues inside or outside your department.

Understand and manage your procrastination. When you’re writing a long dissertation, it can be easy to procrastinate! For instance, you might put off writing because the house “isn’t clean enough” or because you’re not in the right “space” (mentally or physically) to write, so you put off writing until the house is cleaned and everything is in its right place. You may have other ways of procrastinating. It can be helpful to be self-aware of when you’re procrastinating and to consider why you are procrastinating. It may be that you’re anxious about writing the perfect draft, for example, in which case you might consider: how can I focus on writing something that just makes progress as opposed to being “perfect”? There are lots of different ways of managing procrastination; one way is to make a schedule of all the things you already have to do (when you absolutely can’t write) to help you visualize those chunks of time when you can. See this handout on procrastination for more strategies and tools for managing procrastination.

Your topic, your advisor, and your committee: Making them work for you

By the time you’ve reached this stage, you have probably already defended a dissertation proposal, chosen an advisor, and begun working with a committee. Sometimes, however, those three elements can prove to be major external sources of frustration. So how can you manage them to help yourself be as productive as possible?

Managing your topic

Remember that your topic is not carved in stone. The research and writing plan suggested in your dissertation proposal was your best vision of the project at that time, but topics evolve as the research and writing progress. You might need to tweak your research question a bit to reduce or adjust the scope, you might pare down certain parts of the project or add others. You can discuss your thoughts on these adjustments with your advisor at your check ins.

Think about variables that could be cut down and how changes would affect the length, depth, breadth, and scholarly value of your study. Could you cut one or two experiments, case studies, regions, years, theorists, or chapters and still make a valuable contribution or, even more simply, just finish?

Talk to your advisor about any changes you might make. They may be quite sympathetic to your desire to shorten an unwieldy project and may offer suggestions.

Look at other dissertations from your department to get a sense of what the chapters should look like. Reverse-outline a few chapters so you can see if there’s a pattern of typical components and how information is sequenced. These can serve as models for your own dissertation. See this video on reverse outlining to see the technique.

Managing your advisor

Embrace your evolving status. At this stage in your graduate career, you should expect to assume some independence. By the time you finish your project, you will know more about your subject than your committee does. The student/teacher relationship you have with your advisor will necessarily change as you take this big step toward becoming their colleague.

Revisit the alliance. If the interaction with your advisor isn’t matching the original agreement or the original plan isn’t working as well as it could, schedule a conversation to revisit and redesign your working relationship in a way that could work for both of you.

Be specific in your feedback requests. Tell your advisor what kind of feedback would be most helpful to you. Sometimes an advisor can be giving unhelpful or discouraging feedback without realizing it. They might make extensive sentence-level edits when you really need conceptual feedback, or vice-versa, if you only ask generally for feedback. Letting your advisor know, very specifically, what kinds of responses will be helpful to you at different stages of the writing process can help your advisor know how to help you.

Don’t hide. Advisors can be most helpful if they know what you are working on, what problems you are experiencing, and what progress you have made. If you haven’t made the progress you were hoping for, it only makes it worse if you avoid talking to them. You rob yourself of their expertise and support, and you might start a spiral of guilt, shame, and avoidance. Even if it’s difficult, it may be better to be candid about your struggles.

Talk to other students who have the same advisor. You may find that they have developed strategies for working with your advisor that could help you communicate more effectively with them.

If you have recurring problems communicating with your advisor, you can make a change. You could change advisors completely, but a less dramatic option might be to find another committee member who might be willing to serve as a “secondary advisor” and give you the kinds of feedback and support that you may need.

Managing your committee

Design the alliance. Talk with your committee members about how much they’d like to be involved in your writing process, whether they’d like to see chapter drafts or the complete draft, how frequently they’d like to meet (or not), etc. Your advisor can guide you on how committees usually work, but think carefully about how you’d like the relationship to function too.

Keep in regular contact with your committee, even if they don’t want to see your work until it has been approved by your advisor. Let them know about fellowships you receive, fruitful research excursions, the directions your thinking is taking, and the plans you have for completion. In short, keep them aware that you are working hard and making progress. Also, look for other ways to get facetime with your committee even if it’s not a one-on-one meeting. Things like speaking with them at department events, going to colloquiums or other events they organize and/or attend regularly can help you develop a relationship that could lead to other introductions and collaborations as your career progresses.

Share your struggles. Too often, we only talk to our professors when we’re making progress and hide from them the rest of the time. If you share your frustrations or setbacks with a knowledgeable committee member, they might offer some very helpful suggestions for overcoming the obstacles you face—after all, your committee members have all written major research projects before, and they have probably solved similar problems in their own work.

Stay true to yourself. Sometimes, you just don’t entirely gel with your committee, but that’s okay. It’s important not to get too hung up on how your committee does (or doesn’t) relate to you. Keep your eye on the finish line and keep moving forward.

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Dissertation introduction, conclusion and abstract

It’s fair to assume that because the abstract and introduction are the first chapters to be read by someone reading your dissertation, it means they must be written first also. But in reality, this isn’t the case. When considering how to structure your dissertation, you’ll actually be far better off writing your introduction, conclusion, and abstract after you have written all the other parts of the dissertation.

 

But why?

Firstly, writing retrospectively means that your dissertation introduction and conclusion will ‘match’ and your ideas will all be tied up nicely.

Secondly, it’s time-saving. If you write your introduction before anything else, it’s likely your ideas will evolve and morph as your dissertation develops. And then you’ll just have to go back and edit or totally re-write your introduction again.

Thirdly, it will ensure that the abstract accurately contains all the information it needs for the reader to get a good overall picture about what you have actually done.

So as you can see, it will make your life much easier if you plan to write your introduction, conclusion, and abstract last when planning out your dissertation structure.

In this guide, we’ll break down the structure of a dissertation and run through each of these chapters in detail so you’re well equipped to write your own. We’ve also identified some common mistakes often made by students in their writing so that you can steer clear of them in your work.

The Introduction

Getting started

As a general rule, your dissertation introduction should generally do the following things:
  • Provide preliminary background information that puts your research in context

  • Clarify the focus of your study

  • Point out the value of your research(including secondary research)

  • Specify your specific research aims and objectives

While the ‘background information’ usually appears first in a dissertation introduction, the structure of the remaining three points is completely up to you.

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There are opportunities to combine these sections to best suit your needs. There are also opportunities to add in features that go beyond these four points. For example, some students like to add in their research questions in their dissertation introduction so that the reader is not only exposed to the aims and objectives but also has a concrete framework for where the research is headed. Other students might save the research methods until the end of the literature review/beginning of the methodology.

In terms of length, there is no rule about how long a dissertation introduction needs to be, as it is going to depend on the length of the total dissertation. Generally, however, if you aim for a length between 5-7% of the total, this is likely to be acceptable.

Your introduction must include sub-sections with appropriate headings/subheadings and should highlight some of the key references that you plan to use in the main study. This demonstrates another reason why writing a dissertation introduction last is beneficial. As you will have already written the literature review, the most prominent authors will already be evident and you can showcase this research to the best of your ability.

The background section

One of the main purposes of the background section is to ease the reader into the topic. It is generally considered inappropriate to simply state the context and focus of your study and what led you to pursue this line of research.

 

The reader needs to know why your research is worth doing. You can do this successfully by identifying the gap in the research and the problem that needs addressing. One common mistake made by students is to justify their research by stating that the topic is interesting to them. While this is certainly an important element to any research project, and to the sanity of the researcher, the writing in the dissertation needs to go beyond ‘interesting’ to why there is a particular need for this research. This can be done by providing a background section.

You are going to want to begin outlining your background section by identifying crucial pieces of your topic that the reader needs to know from the outset. A good starting point might be to write down a list of the top 5-7 readings/authors that you found most influential (and as demonstrated in your literature review). Once you have identified these, write some brief notes as to why they were so influential and how they fit together in relation to your overall topic.

You may also want to think about what key terminology is paramount to the reader being able to understand your dissertation. While you may have a glossary or list of abbreviations included in your dissertation, your background section offers some opportunity for you to highlight two or three essential terms.

When reading a background section, there are two common mistakes that are most evident in student writing, either too little is written or far too much! In writing the background information, one to two pages is plenty. You need to be able to arrive at your research focus quite quickly and only provide the basic information that allows your reader to appreciate your research in context.

The research focus

The research focus does two things: it provides information on the research focus (obviously) and also the rationale for your study.

 

It is essential that you are able to clarify the area(s) you intend to research and you must explain why you have done this research in the first place. One key point to remember is that your research focus must link to the background information that you have provided above. While you might write the sections on different days or even different months, it all has to look like one continuous flow. Make sure that you employ transitional phrases to ensure that the reader knows how the sections are linked to each other.

The research focus leads into the value, aims and objectives of your research, so you might want to think of it as the tie between what has already been done and the direction your research is going. Again, you want to ease the reader into your topic, so stating something like “my research focus is…” in the first line of your section might come across overly harsh. Instead, you might consider introducing the main focus, explaining why research in your area is important, and the overall importance of the research field. This should set you up well to present your aims and objectives.

The value of your research

The ‘value’ section really deserves its own sub-section within your dissertation introduction. This is because it is essential to those who will be judging the merit of your work and demonstrates that you have considered how it adds value.

 

The biggest mistake that students make when structuring their dissertation is simply not including this sub-section. The concept of ‘adding value’ does not have to be some significant advancement in the research that offers profound contributions to the field, but you do have to take one to two paragraphs to clearly and unequivocally state the worth of your work.

There are many possible ways to answer the question about the value of your research. You might suggest that the area/topic you have picked to research lacks critical investigation. You might be looking at the area/topic from a different angle and this could also be seen as adding value. In some cases, it may be that your research is somewhat urgent (e.g. medical issues) and value can be added in this way.

Whatever reason you come up with to address the value added question, make sure that somewhere in this section you directly state the importance or added value of the research.

The research and the objectives

Firstly, aims and objectives are different things and should be treated as such. Usually, these have already been created at the proposal stage or for ethical clearance of the research project, so putting them in your dissertation introduction is really just a matter of organisation and clarity.

 

Typically, a research project has an overall aim. Again, this needs to be clearly stated in a direct way. The objectives generally stem from the overall aim and explain how that aim will be met. They are often organised numerically or in bullet point form and are terse statements that are clear and identifiable.

There are four things you need to remember when creating research objectives. These are:

  • Appropriateness (each objective is clearly related to what you want to study)

  • Distinctness (each objective is focused and incrementally assists in achieving the overall research aim)

  • Clarity (each objective avoids ambiguity)

  • Being achievable (each objective is realistic and can be completed within a reasonable timescale)

In creating research objectives that conform to the above, you may want to consider:
  • Starting each objective with a key word (e.g. identify, assess, evaluate, explore, examine, investigate, determine, etc.)

  • Beginning with a simple objective to help set the scene in the study

  • Finding a good numerical balance – usually two is too few and six is too many. Aim for approximately 3-5 objectives

If you can achieve this balance, you should be well positioned to demonstrate a clear and logical position that exudes competence.

 

Remember that you must address these research objectives in your research. You cannot simply mention them in your dissertation introduction and then forget about them. Just like any other part of the dissertation, this section must be referenced in the findings and discussion – as well as in the conclusion.

This section has offered the basic sections of a dissertation introduction chapter. There are additional bits and pieces that you may choose to add. The research questions have already been highlighted as one option; an outline of the structure of the entire dissertation may be another example of information you might like to include.

As long as your dissertation introduction is organised and clear, you are well on the way to writing success with this chapter.

 

The Conclusion

Getting started

Your dissertation conclusion will do one of two things. It may fill you with joy, because it signals that you are almost done. Or it may be a particularly challenging test of your mental strength, because by this point in the dissertation you are likely exhausted.

 

It is your job at this point to make one last push to the finish to create a cohesive and organised final chapter. If your concluding chapter is unstructured or some sort of ill-disciplined rambling, the person marking your work might be left with the impression that you lacked the appropriate skills for writing or that you lost interest in your own work.

To avoid these pitfalls and fully understand how to write a dissertation conclusion, you will need to know what is expected of you and what you need to include.

There are three parts (at a minimum) that need to exist within your dissertation conclusion. These include:

  • Research objectives – a summary of your findings and the resulting conclusions

  • Recommendations

  • Contributions to knowledge

You may also wish to consider a section on self-reflection, i.e. how you have grown as a researcher or a section on limitations (though this might have been covered in your research methods chapter). This adds something a little different to your chapter and allows you to demonstrate how this dissertation has affected you as an academic.

 

Furthermore, just like any other chapter in your dissertation, your conclusion must begin with an introduction (usually very short at about a paragraph in length). This paragraph typically explains the organisation of the content, reminds the reader of your research aims/objectives, and provides a brief statement of what you are about to do.

The length of a dissertation conclusion varies with the length of the overall project, but similar to a dissertation introduction, a 5-7% of the total word count estimate should be acceptable.

Research objectives

The research objectives section only asks you to answer two questions.

 

These are:

1. As a result of the completion of the literature review, along with the empirical research that you completed, what did you find out in relation to your personal research objectives?2. What conclusions have you come to?

A common mistake by students when addressing these questions is to again go into the analysis of the data collection and findings. This is not necessary, as the reader has likely just finished reading your discussion chapter and does not need to go through it all again. This section is not about persuading, you are simply informing the reader of the summary of your findings.

Before you begin writing, it may be helpful to list out your research objectives and then brainstorm a couple of bullet points from your data findings/discussion where you really think your research has met the objective. This will allow you to create a mini-outline and avoid the ‘rambling’ pitfall described above.

Recommendations

The purpose of a recommendations section is to offer the reader some advice on what you think should happen next. Failing to include such information can result in the loss of marks. Including these recommendations as implicit suggestions within other parts of the brief (e.g. the analysis/discussion chapters) is a good start, but without having a detailed explanation of them in the conclusion chapter, you might be setting yourself up for failure.

 

There are two types of recommendations you can make. The first is to make a recommendation that is specific to the evidence of your study, the second is to make recommendations for future research. While certain recommendations will be specific to your data, there are always a few that seem to appear consistently throughout student work. These tend to include things like a larger sample size, different context, https://www.32acp.com/ increased longitudinal time frame, etc. If you get to this point and feel you need to add words to your dissertation, this is an easy place to do so – just be cautious that making recommendations that have little or no obvious link to the research conclusions are not beneficial.

A good recommendations section will link to previous conclusions, and since this section was ultimately linked to your research aims and objectives, the recommendations section then completes the package.

Contributions to knowledge

The idea of ‘contributions to knowledge’ largely appears in PhD-level work and less so at the Master’s level, depending of course on the nature of the research. Master’s students might want to check with their supervisor before proceeding with this section. Ultimately, in this section, the focus is to demonstrate how your research has enhanced existing knowledge.

 

Your main contribution to knowledge likely exists within your empirical work (though in a few select cases it might be drawn from the literature review). Implicit in this section is the notion that you are required to make an original contribution to research, https://yds-online.com/spotlight/discuss/index.php/community/profile/candraosburn497 and you are, in fact, telling the reader what makes your research study unique. In order to achieve this, you need to explicitly tell the reader what makes your research special.

There are many ways to do this, but perhaps the most common is to identify what other researchers have done and how your work builds upon theirs. It may also be helpful to specify the gap in the research (which you would have identified either in your dissertation introduction or literature review) and how your research has contributed to ‘filling the gap.’

Another obvious way that you can demonstrate that you have made a contribution to knowledge is to highlight the publications that you have contributed to the field (if any). So, for example, if you have published a chapter of your dissertation in a journal or you have given a conference presentation and have conference proceedings, you could highlight these as examples of how you are making this contribution.

In summing up this section, remember that a dissertation conclusion is your last opportunity to tell the reader what you want them to remember. The chapter needs to be comprehensive and must include multiple sub-sections.

Ensure that you refresh the reader’s memory about your research objectives, tell the reader how you have met your research objectives, provide clear recommendations for future researchers and demonstrate that you have made a contribution to knowledge. If there is time and/or space, you might want to consider a limitations or self-reflection section.

The Abstract

When planning how to write a dissertation, the abstract can often come across as an afterthought by students. The entire dissertation is written and now there are only a few hundred words to go. Yet the abstract is going to end up being one of the most influential parts of your dissertation. If done well, it should provide a synopsis of your work and entice the reader to continue on to read the entire dissertation.

 

A good abstract will contain the following elements:

  • A statement of the problem or issue that you are investigating – including why research on this topic is needed

  • The research methods used

  • The main results/findings

  • The main conclusions and recommendations

An abstract generally should be only one neat and tidy paragraph that is no more than one page (though it could be much shorter). The abstract usually appears after the title page and the acknowledgements.

 

Different institutions often have different guidelines for writing the abstract, so it is best to check with your department prior to beginning.

When you are writing the abstract, you must find the balance between too much information and not enough. You want the reader to be able to review the abstract and get a general overall sense of what you have done.

As you write, you may want to keep the following questions in mind:

1. Is the focus of my research identified and clear?

2. Have I presented my rationale behind this study?

3. Is how I conducted my research evident?

4. Have I provided a summary of my main findings/results?

5. Have I included my main conclusions and recommendations?

In some instances, you may also be asked to include a few keywords. Ensure that your keywords are specifically related to your research. You are better off staying away from generic terms like ‘education’ or ‘science’ and instead provide a more specific focus on what you have actually done with terms like ‘e-learning’ or ‘biomechanics’.

Finally, you want to avoid having too many acronyms in your abstract. The abstract needs to appeal to a wide audience, and so making it understandable to this wider audience is absolutely essential to your success.

Ultimately, writing a good abstract is the same as writing a good dissertation; you must present a logical and organised synopsis that demonstrates what your research has achieved. With such a goal in mind, you can now successfully proceed with your abstract!

Many students also choose to make the necessary efforts to ensure that their chapter is ready for submission by applying an edit to their finished work. It is always beneficial to have a fresh set of eyes have a read of your chapter to make sure that you have not omitted any vital points and that it is error free.

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Writing a Dissertation or Thesis

The aim of the dissertation or thesis is to produce an original piece of research work on a clearly defined topic.

Usually a dissertation is the most substantial piece of independent work in the undergraduate programme, while a thesis is usually associated with master's degrees, although these terms can be interchangeable and may vary between countries and universities.

A dissertation or thesis is likely to be the longest and most difficult piece of work a student has ever completed. It can, however, also be a very rewarding piece of work since, unlike essays and other assignments, the student is able to pick a topic of special interest and work on their own initiative.

Writing a dissertation requires a range of planning and research skills that will be of great value in your future career and within organisations.

The dissertation topic and question should be sufficiently focused that you can collect all the necessary data within a relatively short time-frame, usually about six weeks for undergraduate programmes.

You should also choose a topic that you already know something about so that you already have a frame of reference for your literature search and some understanding and interest in the theory behind your topic.

There are many ways to write a dissertation or thesis.

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Most universities and colleges provide very specific guidance to their students about their preferred approach.

This page, and those that follow, are designed to give you some ideas about how you might carry out your literature review, and then write each of the various sections of your dissertation in the absence of, or in addition to, any specific guidance from your university.


Organising your Time

However organised you are, writing your dissertation is likely to be one of the most challenging tasks you have ever undertaken.

Take a look at our pages on Organising your Study Time and Organisation Skills, as well as Project Management Skills and Project Planning, to give you some ideas about how to organise your time and energy for the task ahead.

General Structure

Like an academic paper for journal publication, dissertations generally follow a fairly standard structure. The following pages discuss each of these in turn, and give more detailed advice about how to prepare and write each one:

  • Research Proposal
  • Introduction
  • Literature Review
  • Methodology
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusions and Extra Sections

Particularly for master's programmes, your university may ask for your thesis to be submitted in separate sections, rather than as a single document. One breakdown that is often seen is three-fold:

  • Introduction and/or Research Proposal, which should set out the research question that you plan to explore and give some ideas about how you might go about it. If you are submitting it as a research proposal, it will be fairly sketchy as you won’t have had a chance to review the literature thoroughly, but it should contain at least some theoretical foundation, and a reasonable idea of why you want to study this issue;

  • Literature Review and Methodology, which are often combined because what you plan to do should emerge from and complement the previous literature; and

  • Results and Discussion, which should set out what you actually did, the results you obtained, and discuss these in the context of the literature.

Warning!


You will probably have an overall word count for the total dissertation or thesis. If you are required to submit in sections, ensure that you have left yourself enough words for the Results and Discussion. It is easy to get carried away with the literature review.

As a general guide, use the marking scheme to show you the approximate split for the word count. For example, if the introduction is worth 20%, and each of the other two submissions 40%, for a total word count of 10,000 words, the introduction should be at most 2,000 words, and each of the other two around 4,000 words.

 

If you’re submitting your dissertation as a single piece of work, and not in separate submissions, you may find it easier not to write it in order.

It is often easier to start with the literature review and then write the methodology.

The introduction may be the last part you write, or you may wish to rewrite it once you’ve finished to reflect the flow of your arguments as they developed.

Top Tip


One of the best ways to write a dissertation is as you go along, especially the literature review.

As you read each reference, summarise it and group it by themes. Don’t forget to reference it as you go!

You should be used to referencing by the time you write your dissertation but if you need a refresher then see our page: Academic Referencing.


Writing Style

Dissertations and academic articles used always to be written in the third person, and in the passive voice; as an example, you might write ‘An experiment was carried out to test…

However, many journals have now moved away from that convention and request first person and active voice, which would require you to write ‘I carried out an experiment to test…

Check with your university about their requirements before you start to write.

If you cannot find any guidelines, then ask your supervisor and/or the person who will be marking your thesis about their preferences. Make sure that the voice and person are consistent throughout.

Whatever style is preferred, aim to keep your language simple and jargon-free. Use shorter, simpler words and phrases wherever possible. Short sentences are good as they are easier to follow. Any sentence that runs to more than three lines needs to be cut down or split.

Phrases to avoid include:

Phrase Use instead
Due to the fact that… Because
In addition Additionally (or also)
In order to To
In the first place First
A considerable number Many
Whether or not Whether

 

Remember the Golden Rule


K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid

 



The Role of your Academic Supervisor

The role of your supervisor is to supervise your work. It is not to do it for you, nor to tell you how to do it.

However, their academic reputation is bound up in the results of the students that they supervise so they have a vested interest in helping you to get the best possible marks. You should therefore not feel shy or embarrassed about asking them for help if you get into difficulties, or if you need some advice.

Academics tend to take a highly personal approach to supervision. Some will be prepared to spend a lot of time with you, talking about what you are planning to do by way of research and your emerging findings. Others will have very little contact with you, apart from being prepared to read a draft of your dissertation.

It’s worth spending a bit of time building up your relationship with your supervisor (have a look at our page on Building Rapport for help). It’s also worth discussing and clarifying with them exactly what they are prepared to do to support you, and in particular practical details such as:

  • How often are they prepared to meet with you during your research?

  • How quickly will they respond to emails asking for advice and/or guidance?

  • How much time do they need to review drafts of work?

  • How many drafts of your work are they prepared to read? University guidelines usually say ‘a first draft’ but many academics are prepared to read a preliminary draft to check that you are on the right track, and then a more polished version.

  • Having reviewed a draft, will they send you comments by email, or would they prefer to meet to discuss it?

One final piece of advice about your supervisor: if you don’t get on, then change supervisor. But do so as early as possible. Nobody wants you or http://brianknapp.co/community/profile/glenchevalier2/ your supervisor formazione.geqmedia.it to struggle with the relationship, but they won’t be very sympathetic if you’re asking for a change a month before your deadline.

Formatting and Templates

If your university has a required format for a dissertation, and particularly if they supply a template, then use it! Start your writing straight into the template, cncsolesurvivor.com or format your work correctly from the start. There is very little worse than cutting and pasting your work frantically into a template 10 minutes before your submission deadline. Templates are designed to make your life easier, not harder.

You will also need to format the references in the university’s preferred style. It is easier to do this as you go along. If the format is MLA, APA or Chicago, you can use Google Scholar to format it for you: search for the article title, then click on ‘cite’. This will save you typing out all the names, and can also be used, with minor tweaks, for other formats. But beware: it’s not always right! If it looks odd, check the original source.

Proof-reading

You’ll need to give yourself plenty of time to proof-read your work, to make sure that you haven’t made any stupid errors, and that it all flows correctly. This is likely to take longer than you think. You’ll also need to do this when you’re fresh, not last thing at night when you’re tired.

If possible, try to find a friend or fellow-student in the same position with whom you can swap dissertations for proof-reading. Fresh eyes are likely to spot errors much more effectively than those who already know what it should say.

Language Editing

The international language of academic publishing is English and many universities require their students to publish their dissertations in English. If your first language is not English, this is going to be a problem because your English will almost certainly not be up to the task. You have two choices about how you approach this:

  • You find a native English speaker, perhaps a fellow student, who is prepared to read your thesis for you and help you improve the English (preferably for free, or at least for the price of not much more than a meal and a few drinks); or

  • You pay an editor to do the work for you. This will not be cheap; the going rate for high quality academic language editing is about $7 per 250 words. You can find professional language editors via the websites of publishers of academic journals such as Emerald and Springer.

You will need to ensure that you build in sufficient time to allow someone else to read over your work. Nobody, not even if you are paying them, is going to want to stay up all night to edit your work because you left it too late. Many will also prefer not to work at weekends. Allow at least two weeks for professional language editing.

A Note on Plagiarism


DO NOT PLAGIARISE

If you are found to have plagiarised you will be heavily penalised and will probably lose your degree.

Ways to avoid being caught out inadvertently include:

  • Never copy and paste from a journal article. Always summarise it in your own words, which also helps to make sure that you have understood it.
  • If, for the sake of time, you want to copy and paste specific sentences which sum up the argument particularly well, always put them in quotation marks in your summary, with the source, so that you will remember that they are direct quotes and need to be acknowledged as such.

 

Conclusion

This page sets out general advice on issues connected with writing a dissertation, also known as a thesis.

The following pages set out in more detail how to approach each section of your dissertation, including the Literature Review, Methodology, Results and Discussion.

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How to Write a Dissertation: Step-by-Step Guide

  • Doctoral students write and defend dissertations to earn their degrees.
  • Most dissertations range from 100-300 pages, depending on the field.
  • Taking a step-by-step approach can help students write their dissertations.

Whether you're considering a doctoral program or you recently passed your comprehensive exams, you've probably wondered how to write a dissertation. Researching, writing, and defending a dissertation represents a major step in earning a doctorate.

But what is a dissertation exactly? A dissertation is an original work of scholarship that contributes to the field. Doctoral candidates often spend 1-3 years working on their dissertations. And many dissertations top 200 or more pages.

Starting the process on the right foot can help you complete a successful dissertation. Breaking down the process into steps may also make it easier to finish your dissertation.

How to Write a Dissertation in 12 Steps

A dissertation demonstrates mastery in a subject. But how do you write a dissertation? Here are 12 steps to successfully complete a dissertation.

light-bulb icon Choose a Topic

Read More about How to write dissertation https://foundationbacklink.org/top-tips-on-writing-your-dissertation-2/ .


It sounds like an easy step, but choosing a topic will play an enormous role in the success of your dissertation. In some fields, your dissertation advisor will recommend a topic. In other fields, you'll develop a topic on your own.

Read recent work in your field to identify areas for additional scholarship. Look for holes in the literature or questions that remain unanswered.

After coming up with a few areas for research or questions, carefully consider what's feasible with your resources. Talk to your faculty advisor about your ideas and incorporate their feedback.

book-open icon Conduct Preliminary Research


Before starting a dissertation, you'll need to conduct research. Depending on your field, that might mean visiting archives, reviewing scholarly literature, or running lab tests.

Use your preliminary research to hone your question and topic. Take lots of notes, particularly on areas where you can expand your research.

bookmark icon Read Secondary Literature


A dissertation demonstrates your mastery of the field. That means you'll need to read a large amount of scholarship on your topic. Dissertations typically include a literature review section or chapter.

Create a list of books, articles, and other scholarly works early in the process, and continue to add to your list. Refer to the works cited to identify key literature. And take detailed notes to make the writing process easier.

chat-alt-2 icon Write a Research Proposal


In most doctoral programs, you'll need to write and defend a research proposal before starting your dissertation.

The length and format of your proposal depend on your field. In many fields, the proposal will run 10-20 pages and include a detailed discussion of the research topic, methodology, and secondary literature.

Your faculty advisor will provide valuable feedback on turning your proposal into a dissertation.

bookmark-alt icon Research, Research, Research


Doctoral dissertations make an original contribution to the field, and your research will be the basis of that contribution.

The form your research takes will depend on your academic discipline. In computer science, you might analyze a complex dataset to understand machine learning. In English, you might read the unpublished papers of a poet or author. In psychology, you might design a study to test stress responses. And in education, you might create surveys to measure student experiences.

Work closely with your faculty advisor as you conduct research. Your advisor can often point you toward useful resources or recommend areas for further exploration.

chart-square-bar icon Look for Dissertation Examples


Writing a dissertation can feel overwhelming. Most graduate students have written seminar papers or https://cncsolesurvivor.com/ a master's thesis. But a dissertation is essentially like writing a book.

Looking at examples of dissertations can help you set realistic expectations and understand what your discipline wants in a successful dissertation. Ask your advisor if the department has recent dissertation examples. Or use a resource like ProQuest Dissertations to find examples.

Doctoral candidates read a lot of monographs and articles, but they often do not read dissertations. Reading polished scholarly work, particularly critical scholarship in your field, can give you an unrealistic standard for writing a dissertation.

clipboard-list icon Write Your Body Chapters


By the time you sit down to write your dissertation, you've already accomplished a great deal. You've chosen a topic, bgbinfrastructure.com defended your proposal, and conducted research. Now it's time to organize your work into chapters.

As with research, the format of your dissertation depends on your field. Your department will likely provide dissertation guidelines to structure your work. In many disciplines, dissertations include chapters on the literature review, methodology, and results. In other disciplines, each chapter functions like an article that builds to your overall argument.

Start with the chapter you feel most confident in writing. Expand on the literature review in your proposal to provide an overview of the field. Describe your research process and analyze the results.

user-group icon Meet With Your Advisor


Throughout the dissertation process, you should meet regularly with your advisor. As you write chapters, send them to your advisor for feedback. Your advisor can help identify issues and suggest ways to strengthen your dissertation.

Staying in close communication with your advisor will also boost your confidence for your dissertation defense. Consider sharing material with other members of your committee as well.

pencil icon Write Your Introduction and Conclusion


It seems counterintuitive, but it's a good idea to write your introduction and conclusion last. Your introduction should describe the scope of your project and your intervention in the field.

Many doctoral candidates find it useful to return to their dissertation proposal to write the introduction. If your project evolved significantly, you will need to reframe the introduction. Make sure you provide background information to set the scene for your dissertation. And preview your methodology, research aims, and results.

The conclusion is often the shortest section. In your conclusion, sum up what you've demonstrated, and explain how your dissertation contributes to the field.

pencil-alt icon Edit Your Draft


You've completed a draft of your dissertation. Now, it's time to edit that draft.

For some doctoral candidates, the editing process can feel more challenging than researching or writing the dissertation. Most dissertations run a minimum of 100-200 pages, with some hitting 300 pages or more.

When editing your dissertation, break it down chapter by chapter. Go beyond grammar and spelling to make sure you communicate clearly and efficiently. Identify repetitive areas and shore up weaknesses in your argument.

user-circle icon Incorporate Feedback


Writing a dissertation can feel very isolating. You're focused on one topic for months or years, and you're often working alone. But feedback will strengthen your dissertation.

You will receive feedback as you write your dissertation, both from your advisor and other committee members. In many departments, doctoral candidates also participate in peer review groups to provide feedback.

Outside readers will note confusing sections and recommend changes. Make sure you incorporate the feedback throughout the writing and editing process.

speakerphone icon Defend Your Dissertation


Congratulations — you made it to the dissertation defense! Typically, your advisor will not let you schedule the defense unless they believe you will pass. So consider the defense a culmination of your dissertation process rather than a high-stakes examination.

The format of your defense depends on the department. In some fields, you'll present your research. In other fields, the defense will consist of an in-depth discussion with your committee.

Walk into your defense with confidence. You're now an expert in your topic. Answer questions concisely and address any weaknesses in your study. Once you pass the defense, you'll earn your doctorate.

Writing a dissertation isn't easy — only around 55,000 students earned a Ph.D. in 2020, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. However, it is possible to successfully complete a dissertation by breaking down the process into smaller steps.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dissertations

What is a dissertation?

A dissertation is a substantial research project that contributes to your field of study. Graduate students write a dissertation to earn their doctorate.

The format and content of a dissertation vary widely depending on the academic discipline. Doctoral candidates work closely with their faculty advisor to complete and defend the dissertation, a process that typically takes 1-3 years.

How long is a dissertation?

The length of a dissertation varies by field. Harvard's graduate school says most dissertations fall between 100-300 pages.

Doctoral candidate Marcus Beck analyzed the length of University of Minnesota dissertations by discipline and found that history produces the longest dissertations, with an average of nearly 300 pages, while mathematics produces the shortest dissertations at just under 100 pages.

What's the difference between a dissertation vs. a thesis?

Dissertations and theses demonstrate academic mastery at different levels. In U.S. graduate education, master's students typically write theses, while doctoral students write dissertations. The terms are reversed in the British system.

In the U.S., a dissertation is longer, more in-depth, and based on more research than a thesis. Doctoral candidates write a dissertation as the culminating research project of their degree. Undergraduates and master's students may write shorter theses as part of their programs.

Read More

How To Write A Dissertation

To The Candidate:

So, you are preparing to write a Ph.D. dissertation in an experimental area of Computer Science. Unless you have written many formal documents before, you are in for a surprise: it's difficult!

There are two possible paths to success:

    • Planning Ahead.

      Few take this path. The few who do leave the University so quickly that they are hardly noticed. If you want to make a lasting impression and have a long career as a graduate student, do not choose it. 

    • Perseverance.

      All you really have to do is outlast your doctoral committee. The good news is that they are much older than you, so you can guess who will eventually expire first. The bad news is that they are more practiced at this game (after all, they persevered in the face of their doctoral committee, didn't they?).

Here are a few guidelines that may help you when you finally get serious about writing. The list goes on forever; you probably won't want to read it all at once. But, please read it before you write anything.

 


 

The General Idea:

  1. A thesis is a hypothesis or conjecture.

     

  2. A PhD dissertation is a lengthy, formal document that argues in defense of a particular thesis. (So many people use the term “thesis'' to refer to the document that a current dictionary now includes it as the third meaning of “thesis'').

     

  3. Two important adjectives used to describe a dissertation are “original'' and “substantial.'' The research performed to support a thesis must be both, and the dissertation must show it to be so. In particular, a dissertation highlights original contributions.

     

  4. The scientific method means starting with a hypothesis and then collecting evidence to support or deny it. Before one can write a dissertation defending a particular thesis, one must collect evidence that supports it. Thus, the most difficult aspect of writing a dissertation consists of organizing the evidence and associated discussions into a coherent form.

     

  5. The essence of a dissertation is critical thinking, not experimental data. Analysis and concepts form the heart of the work.

     

  6. A dissertation concentrates on principles: it states the lessons learned, and not merely the facts behind them.

     

  7. In general, every statement in a dissertation must be supported either by a reference to published scientific literature or by original work. Moreover, a dissertation does not repeat the details of critical thinking and analysis found in published sources; it uses the results as fact and refers the reader to the source for further details.

     

  8. Each sentence in a dissertation must be complete and correct in a grammatical sense. Moreover, a dissertation must satisfy the stringent rules of formal grammar (e.g., no contractions, no colloquialisms, no slurs, no undefined technical jargon, no hidden jokes, and no slang, even when such terms or phrases are in common use in the spoken language). Indeed, the writing in a dissertation must be crystal clear. Shades of meaning matter; the terminology and prose must make fine distinctions. The words must convey exactly the meaning intended, nothing more and nothing less.

     

  9. Each statement in a dissertation must be correct and defensible in a logical and scientific sense. Moreover, the discussions in a dissertation must satisfy the most stringent rules of logic applied to mathematics and science.

recent post about How to write dissertation https://pbkp.com.np/knowledge/profile/latrice09l55151/ .

 

What One Should Learn From The Exercise:

 

 

  1. All scientists need to communicate discoveries; the PhD dissertation provides training for communication with other scientists.

     

  2. Writing a dissertation requires a student to think deeply, to organize technical discussion, to muster arguments that will convince other scientists, and to follow rules for rigorous, formal presentation of the arguments and discussion.

 

A Rule Of Thumb:

 

Good writing is essential in a dissertation. However, good writing cannot compensate for a paucity of ideas or concepts. Quite the contrary, a clear presentation always exposes weaknesses.

 

Definitions And Terminology:

 

 

  1. Each technical term used in a dissertation must be defined either by a reference to a previously published definition (for standard terms with their usual meaning) or by a precise, unambiguous definition that appears before the term is used (for a new term or a standard term used in an unusual way).

     

  2. Each term should be used in one and only one way throughout the dissertation.

     

  3. The easiest way to avoid a long series of definitions is to include a statement: “the terminology used throughout this document follows that given in [CITATION].'' Then, only define exceptions.

     

  4. The introductory chapter can give the intuition (i.e., informal definitions) of terms provided they are defined more precisely later.

 

 

Terms And Phrases To Avoid:

 

  • adverbs

    • Mostly, they are very often overly used. Use strong words instead. For example, one could say, “Writers abuse adverbs.''
  • jokes or puns

    • They have no place in a formal document.
  • “bad'', “good'', “nice'', “terrible'', “stupid''

    • A scientific dissertation does not make moral judgements. Use “incorrect/correct'' to refer to factual correctness or errors. Use precise words or phrases to assess quality (e.g., “method A requires less computation than method B''). In general, one should avoid all qualitative judgements.
  • “true'', “pure'',

    • In the sense of “good'' (it is judgemental).
  • “perfect''

    • Nothing is.
  • “an ideal solution''

    • You're judging again.
  • “today'', “modern times''

    • Today is tomorrow's yesterday.
  • “soon''

    • How soon? Later tonight? Next decade?
  • “we were surprised to learn…''

    • Even if you were, so what?
  • “seems'', “seemingly'',

    • It doesn't matter how something appears;
  • “would seem to show''

    • all that matters are the facts.
  • “in terms of''

    • usually vague
  • “based on'', “X-based'', “as the basis of''

    • careful; can be vague
  • “different''

    • Does not mean “various''; different than what?
  • “in light of''

    • colloquial
  • “lots of''

    • vague & colloquial
  • “kind of''

    • vague & colloquial
  • “type of''

    • vague & colloquial
  • “something like''

    • vague & colloquial
  • “just about''

    • vague & colloquial
  • “number of''

    • vague; do you mean “some'', “many'', or “most''? A quantitative statement is preferable.
  • “due to''

    • colloquial
  • “probably''

    • only if you know the statistical probability (if you do, state it quantitatively
  • “obviously, clearly''

    • be careful: obvious/clear to everyone?
  • “simple''

    • Can have a negative connotation, as in “simpleton''
  • “along with''

    • Just use “with''
  • “actually, edeyselldigitals.com really''

    • define terms precisely to eliminate the need to clarify
  • “the fact that''

    • makes it a meta-sentence; rephrase
  • “this'', www.needlegirl-haystackworld.com “that''

    • As in “This causes concern.'' Reason: “this'' can refer to the subject of the previous sentence, the entire previous sentence, the entire previous paragraph, the entire previous section, etc. More important, it can be interpreted in the concrete sense or in the meta-sense. For example, in: “X does Y. This means …'' the reader can assume “this'' refers to Y or to the fact that X does it. Even when restricted (e.g., “this computation…''), the phrase is weak and often ambiguous.
  • “You will read about…''

    • The second person has no place in a formal dissertation.
  • “I will describe…''

    • The first person has no place in a formal dissertation. If self-reference is essential, phrase it as “Section 10 describes…''
  • “we'' as in “we see that''

    • A trap to avoid. Reason: almost any sentence can be written to begin with “we'' because “we'' can refer to: the reader and author, the author and advisor, the author and research team, experimental computer scientists, the entire computer science community, the science community, or some other unspecified group.
  • “Hopefully, the program…''

    • Computer programs don't hope, not unless they implement AI systems. By the way, if you are writing an AI thesis, talk to someone else: AI people have their own system of rules.
  • “…a famous researcher…''

    • It doesn't matter who said it or who did it. In fact, such statements prejudice the reader.
  • Be Careful When Using “few, most, all, any, every''.

    • A dissertation is precise. If a sentence says “Most computer systems contain X'', you must be able to defend it. Are you sure you really know the facts? How many computers were built and sold yesterday?
  • “must'', “always''

    • Absolutely?
  • “should''

    • Who says so?
  • “proof'', “prove''

    • Would a mathematician agree that it's a proof?
  • “show''

    • Used in the sense of “prove''. To “show'' something, you need to provide a formal proof.
  • “can/may''

    • Your mother probably told you the difference.

 

Voice:

 

  • Use active constructions. For example, say “the operating system starts the device'' instead of “the device is started by the operating system.''
  •  

 

Tense:

 

  • Write in the present tense. For example, say “The system writes a page to the disk and then uses the frame…'' instead of “The system will use the frame after it wrote the page to disk…''

 

Define Negation Early:

 

  • Example: say “no data block waits on the output queue'' instead of “a data block awaiting output is not on the queue.''

 

Grammar And Logic:

 

  • Be careful that the subject of each sentence really does what the verb says it does. Saying “Programs must make procedure calls using the X instruction'' is not the same as saying “Programs must use the X instruction when they call a procedure.'' In fact, the first is patently false! Another example: “RPC requires programs to transmit large packets'' is not the same as “RPC requires a mechanism that allows programs to transmit large packets.''

    All computer scientists should know the rules of logic. Unfortunately the rules are more difficult to follow when the language of discourse is English instead of mathematical symbols. For example, the sentence “There is a compiler that translates the N languages by…'' means a single compiler exists that handles all the languages, while the sentence “For each of the N languages, there is a compiler that translates…'' means that there may be 1 compiler, 2 compilers, or N compilers. When written using mathematical symbols, the difference are obvious because “for all'' and “there exists'' are reversed.

 

 

Focus On Results And Not The People/Circumstances In Which They Were Obtained:

 

 

  • “After working eight hours in the lab that night, we realized…'' has no place in the dissertation. It doesn't matter when you realized it or how long you worked to obtain the answer. Another example: “Jim and I arrived at the numbers shown in Table 3 by measuring…'' Put an acknowledgement to Jim in the dissertation, but do not include names (even your own) in the main body. You may be tempted to document a long series of experiments that produced nothing or a coincidence that resulted in success. Avoid it completely. In particular, do not document seemingly mystical influences (e.g., “if that cat had not crawled through the hole in the floor, we might not have discovered the power supply error indicator on the network bridge''). Never attribute such events to mystical causes or imply that strange forces may have affected your results. Summary: stick to the plain facts. Describe the results without dwelling on your reactions or events that helped you achieve them.
  •  

 

Avoid Self-Assessment (both praise and criticism):

 

  • Both of the following examples are incorrect: “The method outlined in Section 2 represents a major breakthrough in the design of distributed systems because…'' “Although the technique in the next section is not earthshaking,…''

 

References To Extant Work:

 

  • One always cites papers, not authors. Thus, one uses a singular verb to refer to a paper even though it has multiple authors. For example “Johnson and Smith [J&S90] reports that…''

    Avoid the phrase “the authors claim that X''. The use of “claim'' casts doubt on “X'' because it references the authors' thoughts instead of the facts. If you agree “X'' is correct, simply state “X'' followed by a reference. If one absolutely must reference a paper instead of a result, say “the paper states that…'' or “Johnson and Smith [J&S 90] presents evidence that…''.

 

Concept Vs. Instance:

 

  • A reader can become confused when a concept and an instance of it are blurred. Common examples include: an algorithm and a particular program that implements it, a programming language and a compiler, a general abstraction and its particular implementation in a computer system, a data structure and a particular instance of it in memory.

 

Terminology For Concepts And Abstractions

 

  • When defining the terminology for a concept, be careful to decide precisely how the idea translates to an implementation. Consider the following discussion:

    VM systems include a concept known as an address space. The system dynamically creates an address space when a program needs one, and destroys an address space when the program that created the space has finished using it. A VM system uses a small, finite number to identify each address space. Conceptually, one understands that each new address space should have a new identifier. However, if a VM system executes so long that it exhausts all possible address space identifiers, it must reuse a number.

    The important point is that the discussion only makes sense because it defines “address space'' independently from “address space identifier''. If one expects to discuss the differences between a concept and its implementation, the definitions must allow such a distinction.

 

Knowledge Vs. Data

 

  • The facts that result from an experiment are called “data''. The term “knowledge'' implies that the facts have been analyzed, condensed, or combined with facts from other experiments to produce useful information.
  •  

 

Cause and Effect:

 

  • A dissertation must carefully separate cause-effect relationships from simple statistical correlations. For example, even if all computer programs written in Professor X's lab require more memory than the computer programs written in Professor Y's lab, it may not have anything to do with the professors or the lab or the programmers (e.g., maybe the people working in professor X's lab are working on applications that require more memory than the applications in professor Y's lab).
  •  

 

Drawing Only Warranted Conclusions:

 

  • One must be careful to only draw conclusions that the evidence supports. For example, if programs run much slower on computer A than on computer B, one cannot conclude that the processor in A is slower than the processor in B unless one has ruled out all differences in the computers' operating systems, input or output devices, memory size, memory cache, or internal bus bandwidth. In fact, one must still refrain from judgement unless one has the results from a controlled experiment (e.g., running a set of several programs many times, each when the computer is otherwise idle). Even if the cause of some phenomenon seems obvious, one cannot draw a conclusion without solid, supporting evidence.
  •  

 

Commerce and Science:

 

  • In a scientific dissertation, one never draws conclusions about the economic viability or commercial success of an idea/method, nor does one speculate about the history of development or origins of an idea. A scientist must remain objective about the merits of an idea independent of its commercial popularity. In particular, a scientist never assumes that commercial success is a valid measure of merit (many popular products are neither well-designed nor well-engineered). Thus, statements such as “over four hundred vendors make products using technique Y'' are irrelevant in a dissertation.

 

Politics And Science:

 

  • A scientist avoids all political influence when assessing ideas. Obviously, it should not matter whether government bodies, political parties, religious groups, or other organizations endorse an idea. More important and often overlooked, it does not matter whether an idea originated with a scientist who has already won a Nobel prize or a first-year graduate student. One must assess the idea independent of the source.
  •  

 

Canonical Organization:

 

  • In general, every dissertation must define the problem that motivated the research, tell why that problem is important, tell what others have done, describe the new contribution, document the experiments that validate the contribution, and draw conclusions. There is no canonical organization for a dissertation; each is unique. However, novices writing a dissertation in the experimental areas of CS may find the following example a good starting point:

     

    • Chapter 1: Introduction

      • An overview of the problem; why it is important; a summary of extant work and a statement of your hypothesis or specific question to be explored. Make it readable by anyone.
    • Chapter 2: Definitions

      • New terms only. Make the definitions precise, concise, and unambiguous.
    • Chapter 3: Conceptual Model

      • Describe the central concept underlying your work. Make it a “theme'' that ties together all your arguments. It should provide an answer to the question posed in the introduction at a conceptual level. If necessary, add another chapter to give additional reasoning about the problem or its solution.
    • Chapter 4: Experimental Measurements

      • Describe the results of experiments that provide evidence in support of your thesis. Usually experiments either emphasize proof-of-concept (demonstrating the viability of a method/technique) or efficiency (demonstrating that a method/technique provides better performance than those that exist).
    • Chapter 5: Corollaries And Consequences

      • Describe variations, extensions, or other applications of the central idea.
    • Chapter 6: Conclusions

      • Summarize what was learned and how it can be applied. Mention the possibilities for future research.
    • Abstract:

      • A short (few paragraphs) summary of the dissertation. Describe the problem and the research approach. Emphasize the original contributions.

 

Suggested Order For Writing:

 

  • The easiest way to build a dissertation is inside-out. Begin by writing the chapters that describe your research (3, 4, and 5 in the above outline). Collect terms as they arise and keep a definition for each. Define each technical term, even if you use it in a conventional manner.

    Organize the definitions into a separate chapter. Make the definitions precise and formal. Review later chapters to verify that each use of a technical term adheres to its definition. After reading the middle chapters to verify terminology, write the conclusions. Write the introduction next. Finally, complete an abstract.

 

Key To Success:

 

  • By the way, there is a key to success: practice. No one ever learned to write by reading essays like this. Instead, you need to practice, www.globaleconomicsucsb.com practice, practice. Every day.
  •  

 

Parting thoughts:

 

  • We leave you with the following ideas to mull over. If they don't mean anything to you now, revisit them after you finish writing a dissertation.

     

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