Friday, August 27, 2010

How To Write A Dissertation.

A dissertation is a thesis; basically a document submitted by a candidate in support of his qualification that presents his findings. But, writing dissertation is not at all an easy task. It requires day and night efforts to come out with a full fledged and strong dissertation. A dissertation that may seem excellent to you may seem just fair to the examiner. So, this tedious task involves a lot of planning and a careful thought, before you start.

How to start with your dissertation?
  • Idea Generation
Open up your mind and let ideas peep in it. Once you will start thinking about your topic, you will come across your mind. So, it is always suggested to write those ideas on a paper. An idea which may not seem exciting to you at the first can really make an interesting report. So, just write down all the ideas. You can also consider books, internet, etc. for finalizing the topic. And never choose the topic that appears monotonous to you as the chances of that dissertation to get complete may be void.
  • Proposal for the project.
Now, that you are sure of the topic on which you are going to write, prepare the project proposal. This part of dissertation should highlight the area of the research, aims and objectives, the research methodology, scope and limitations (any hurdles faced during the research period) and lastly resources and references (any book, journal, periodical that you have consulted or referred to while carrying out your project).
  • Literature Review
The next important task in front of the researcher is to write the review of literature. It essentially means to critically analyze any research that has been carried out on a topic, more or less, similar to yours and is relevant to your project. It is of great use to the researcher as helps you in carrying forward the research and also provides the context for your research. It should clearly convey to the readers what knowledge and ideas have been established on the topic, areas of controversies and elucidate the similarities and differences with your own research.
  • Research Methodology
After the review of literature, you need to highlight the research design and methodology used in the research process. The research design could be either quantitative, qualitative or mixed (involving both qualitative and quantitative design).It should point out the hypothesis (tentative assumption on which the research is based), research questions, sample size (no of people on whom the research was carried out), and discuss the participants.
  • Data Collection & Analysis
We come to a conclusion only when the data is collected and analyzed, hence it’s important to clearly state in your dissertation that which methods were used to collect data and how were they analyzed. There are various ways by which data can be collected, some of the most commonly used method are – Interviews or Questionnaires.

The tools for dissertation data analysis include t-tests, ANOVA, descriptive statistics, etc.
  • Results Presentation
The major findings, conclusions, and recommendations are discussed in this last part of the dissertation. A research report must point out that the research objectives, on the basis of which the research was carried out, have been accomplished. Moreover, the report should be well organized, logically structured, and clearly and lucidly written.

The above - mentioned tips can surely help you in drafting a good dissertation. But, make it a point to get your dissertation properly reviewed by a professional to avoid any kind of flaws in it.

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