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The Grad Student Way
Your One Stop Grad School and PhD Resource
Thesis/dissertation writing need not be a multi-month ordeal that makes you pull your hair out and roll up into a fetal position. The trick is to get a head start , set goals and deadlines, and work steadily—not feverishly—toward that ultimate satisfaction of handing your magnum opus to the graduate school. The first three sections of this article are devoted to ways that you can get way ahead of the curve from the very beginning of your graduate program—BEFORE push comes to shove.
NEWS FLASH: you can start working on your thesis or dissertation almost from the moment you decide on a lab/advisor .
In the beginning, there were papers …
The starting point for any newbie graduate student is to read boatloads of relevant papers so that you can learn your advisor’s repertoire of experimental techniques or areas of interest, what has been done so far in the field, what questions remain to be answered, and where your research will contribute.
Keep in mind that these seminal papers will be heavily integrated into your thesis or dissertation:
a) The introduction, in which you give all the pertinent background to set the stage for your research and make everyone on your committee (and beyond!) understand why it’s important
b) Data chapters, where previously published data lend validity to your findings, or are at least taken into consideration as you interpret your data
Let’s back up. How do you find these papers? Hopefully, your advisor will provide you with a few of the original papers that got the ball rolling. Find out what papers cite them . You can perform Boolean searches in Pubmed and Google Scholar (great tips explaining how to do this can be found at Boolean.pdf ).
Note that in Pubmed, you will need to go to “Advanced Search,” where the builder constructs the Boolean search for you (Figure 1). Pubmed offers another great strategy: you can set up citation alerts that notify you via e-mail every time one of these pivotal articles is cited. Pubmed has a tutorial on how to do this here: myncbi.html . You can control how often you receive these alerts, or adjust later based on how inundated your inbox becomes.
FIGURE 1. PubMed’s Boolean Search builder.
Google scholar offers a similar citation alert service. Go to Google Scholar, http://scholar.google.com/ , and click on “Alerts” (see Figure 2). From the next screen, click “Create Alert” (Figure 3). You can set up alerts based on Boolean searches (Figure 4), or by author . Also, since many principal authors have varied interests, you can customize by using a combination Boolean/search-by-author approach (Figure 5). Enter your e-mail address, and you’re good to go.
FIGURE 2. Setting up alerts in Google Scholar. First, click “Alerts.”
FIGURE 3. Setting up alerts in Google Scholar, part 2. Next, click “Create Alert.”
FIGURE 4. Setting up alerts in Google Scholar, part 3. Setting up your search criteria using Boolean operators.
FIGURE 5. Setting up alerts in Google Scholar, part 4. The combined Author/Boolean operator search in Google Scholar.
ORGANIZING your boatloads of papers…
Let’s back up again. Realize that unless you are a genius, you will probably have to revisit these nuggets of wisdom several times during your graduate career, particularly when you have a better grasp on the research. Also, unless you are a genius, you will find yourself wondering, “What was that paper that explained________?” This is where being organized will save you TONS of time.
I am a big fan of saving paper and not printing out reams of articles to be read and then stuffed into filing cabinets . I highly recommend a citation management program, such as Endnote . Find out which program your advisor uses (see if he or she will let you install the program on your computer). Some departments even offer this software free of charge. Not only are all of the citations in your library searchable, but you can also file them into folders based on the subject matter (Figure 6).
FIGURE 6. Filing papers in EndNote–beats a filing cabinet!
As you do your literature search, you download the citations into your citation manager. Most e-journals have a “download to citation manager” link. Google Scholar also recently added a very nice “Cite” function that lets you import citations directly into your citation manager (Figure 7).
FIGURE 7. Google Scholar’s Cite function.
You can also search PubMed from within Endnote, which saves you several steps (Figure 8). In addition, the program has a lovely feature called Cite-While-You-Write that links with Microsoft Word. No more the parenthetical “ need citation !” statements in your text. With the CWYW feature, you can pull up all of the papers in your Endnote library that pertain to your text, and with the click of one button in Word—voilà! Citations inserted (Figure 9)! You can format the bibliography later, when your behemoth is completely written—yet another convenient, automatic feature.
FIGURE 8. Searching for papers from within EndNote.
FIGURE 8. EndNote’s Cite While You Write function.
2) Intermediate documents: the thesis/dissertation proposal and grant applications
Think of your thesis or dissertation proposal and any grant applications as being a big first step toward the first chapter of your final document: the introduction. Preparation of these documents entails a thorough review of pertinent literature to set the stage and explain the rationale for the research you are proposing. So by this logic, you should have taken a very large bite out of the first chapter of your thesis or dissertation by the time you take your preliminary exams.
In the STEM fields, theses and dissertations require a chapter devoted to methods. You have your own set of experimental and/or statistical techniques that you presumably learn from your advisor, then troubleshoot and tweak based on your specific needs. You know how you write detailed notes on the conditions of each experiment every time you do them in your lab notebook? (RIGHT?!) This is all information that you can take even an hour per week to write up in your thesis document. Check out the previous papers from your advisor to get ideas on wording, and then re-work it so it’s your own (citing relevant papers, of course). By the time you actually for-real start writing your thesis or dissertation, your methods chapter can be practically done already!
You’ve received the greenlight to “start” writing your thesis or dissertation from your committee. Now what? Well, you have a good chunk of the intro done already, right? Your chapter 2 is practically done as well! Be sure to check out the deadlines not only for getting your document to your committee, but also for depositing it with the graduate school. Wouldn’t it stink to defend your thesis in April, but not graduate until December because you missed the deadline?
Now, I will tell you a huge time-saving tip . Before you start (well, continue) writing, find a colleague who has recently turned in their thesis or dissertation and still has their final word document kicking around . Ask your colleague for permission to use their document in the following way: you are not going to copy anything in that document… EXCEPT THE FORMATTING.
You know the part where the clerk at the grad school pulls out the ruler and measures your margins, page number position and other random stuff while you hold your breath? All of that will already be in your colleague’s word document. Why re-invent the wheel? Just use the document as a template—delete ALL of the text and leave the margins and other formatting alone. (Of course, check over everything carefully before you deposit your document!) Anything you’ve written up to this point can easily be pasted into the template.
Next, agree upon deadlines : “I’ll have chapter 1 to you by________.” If you have been working ahead on your document and your reference library as described above, it should take you about a week to finish up chapter 1 (your introduction) and chapter 2 (methods). Can you do a chapter per week for each of the remaining chapters? Put the deadline in your calendar, and stick to it. Then, based on how much time you are still expected to spend in the lab, decide a set number of hours per day that you will spend on nothing but writing.
I would suggest asking your advisor for blocks of time to hole up at the library, or wherever it is that you do your best work . Then do it. You will be working weekends, no doubt, but try to work steadily and avoid all-nighters. Adjust as necessary—you may need to have an additional meeting with your advisor to request more time away from lab.
Do have a colleague read your document installments before you give them to your advisor . Run spell check and do all the basics before you offer up your baby to the red pen of death. If you really struggle with writing, or if you are not a native English speaker, there are services out there that will clean up your document on a by-the-hour basis. Spare your advisor the frustration of correcting simple errors.
Now, a caveat.
Just because you have a deadline that you are sticking to like an embedded tick does not mean that your advisor will adhere to similar deadlines in getting you edits and feedback . Many advisors, bless their hearts, are procrastinators (erm…busy with grant deadlines, writing their own papers, editing, and other important stuff that advisors do). Don’t sweat it… the ball is now in your advisor’s court, and you will now move steadily on to the next installment.
Which is due by __________in your calendar.
And this time I do mean “backup”—as in your document. There is NO excuse for losing your thesis or dissertation . You should have MULTIPLE copies saved: on your computer, in Dropbox, on an external hard drive, etc. These copies should be clearly marked with dates in case you have to revert back to a prior version. They should also be marked after being edited by your advisor or others.
This will be a stressful time unless you are extremely lucky. It usually goes something like this: “Move this section to page 89.” Then two days later: “Put it back where it was.” Your advisor is stressed too—so try to take everything in stride.
If at all possible, try to get your thesis printed off for your committee a day or two in advance . This allows a cushion for the inevitable printer meltdown or copier jam. In my case, I got my final edits at 11 pm the night before my dissertation was due. Luckily, there weren’t a lot of changes to make, and there were no printer fiascos. I finished the edits by midnight and had the whole thing printed off by about 2 in the morning. Although I won’t say that I wasn’t completely stressed out and about to melt down myself…
You want your dissertation to look nice for your committee and to be easy for them to handle and write in . I’m a fan of bindings—I used three ring binders with pockets so that I could also include a CD with a copy of the document. But that’s not for everybody. Spiral bindings are just as good, but again, require planning because you’ll have to take your stack of documents somewhere like FedEx Kinkos. Even though it can be like herding cats to track down all the members of your committee, try to personally deliver your documents to them—not only for security’s sake, but to remind them of who you are.
I kid. Sort of.
You may have loads of changes to make to your thesis or dissertation based on your committee members’ comments . You feel elated and relieved to have your defense over with. After the effects of the all-night post-defense bender have worn off, try to work diligently on the edits so that you don’t run up against the grad school’s deposit deadline. Make an appointment for a pre-check of your document to catch any formatting errors well in advance of the deadline.
Once you have deposited your thesis or dissertation with the graduate school (congratulations!), investigate how many bound copies you need. Most departments require a bound copy, as will your advisor. Then you need one, of course, and then there’s your parents…
University towns usually have at least one book bindery in addition to services on campus. There are online services as well—but be careful to check their ratings. You generally have to figure up the number of color-copy and high-resolution pages you have versus regular black and white. You send this estimate along with a digital copy of your dissertation and your selections for binding color, lettering, etc. There is something deeply satisfying about finally holding that beautifully bound book—that YOU wrote—in your hands at last.
In summary, it is possible to write your thesis or dissertation in under a month with good preparation, organization, and planning . The end result makes it all worthwhile. Keep in mind that if you move on to a postdoc or any other position that requires writing papers and grants, these same strategies apply.
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I will ask this question trying to be simple, but hoping to be understood on the complexities of my problem. I have looked for questions alike and my answer is not in any of them or, combined, the answers cannot make up for what I need to know.
a) I am a PhD Student, no fund is available at my university right now, it is a very good university, but they will not make anything in my favor, as I could see last week from their attitude towards me. They will rather have me working for free and pay another one when they have more money. Two PhD students for the price of one.
b) I took this position because I wanted to study with professor X and he would care about my situation/he does, but the faculty now is cutting professors and professor X is going away to a much better, 1st-tier university.
c) I got this position and cannot just give up because it would be the very bad thing for my career. I come from a country where you need to study 7-8 years prior to PhD, so I am rather old compared to the European or American students, even though I have much more experience, it is not an advantage when it comes to finding a job and etc.
d) To go join the professor X is not possible right away, to stay in this program with no money is not possible. I can, however, sustain myself for more 6 months and it is all I really can do. I know is a ridiculous question, believe me, I know, but if you had 6 months and 3 months prior to research at the PhD program, it sums 9 months, how would you manage to finish your dissertation to get out of this problem? I have the first draft of my dissertation (80p.), more research needs to be done. It is not the result of 3 months research, but prior to accepting the offer I was doing my work anyways.
The question: How would you organize with the rest of the research and really finish it within 6 months? Have in mind that your supervisor would agree to that because he knows what you can do, and if you have a good dissertation, he would go with you to the defense committee.
Thank you all, sorry for the errors, I am writing with my phone on the train, I have not the time to write at home or in my office.
I really appreciate your time.
Edit: I study Philosophy (continental philosophy, but with much of analytic in it). I started my PhD 3 months ago. I have worked 1 year on my project before start the PhD. I need to finish the argumentation on the basic work of others (some of the secondary literature). It is the lesser important, but without it, my work will show up as a weak, incomplete, an amateur attempt of an essay, it will not even be a dissertation. (It takes time, but if I could find a strategy, I could do it working 10-12 hrs a day). I have my idea almost complete or as complete as it can be, but it could always be better, simpler, more transparent. It needs to be better displayed. I need to do it in 6 months or I need to give up on this career I have struggled for my entire life. I think I can make it, but I would like to know what would be your strategy in your particular case, so I could learn something from you. I, unfortunately, have not the privilege of doing it in the mood of "maybe it will work". I have just one option, make it work. Above all, there is always a bit of depression and despair that makes the work even more difficult.
Thank you all for your support.
If you already have a first draft, then I think you need to have an honest conversation with Prof. X. The primary question needs to be "given what I have right now, is it actually possible to finish in 6 months? If so what are the crucial things that have to get done in order to pass the defense?"
The best case scenario here is for Prof. X to respond to you with a list of specific, targeted issues that need to be fixed and a rough idea of which are the most important.
If you can get that list of items to fix, then it comes down to prioritizing. If you can fix everything that simply must be fixed in 6 months, then I'd say maybe it's worth going for it. If you can fix all that in 4 months, and then fix medium to minor stuff for a month and revise for a month, all the better.
On the other hand, if Prof X comes back and says, "Well I think you need more experiments," or "the results don't look significant enough yet" or "it isn't clear yet what all the issues might be" or something like that, then you're project probably simply isn't well enough defined yet to be able to be defensible in 6 months.
That said, don't underestimate how much can be accomplished in 6 months, if you're focused, well-prepared and willing to work long hours. You just need an expert opinion from somebody familiar with your work that obviously we're not going to be able to give you here.
Dealing with phd research stress, the invincible mindset.
In the summer of 2006, almost 3 years after starting my PhD, I was ready to quit. I had nowhere near enough results, the equipment I was using didn’t work most of the time, and I could barely summon the motivation to get up in the morning.
Just over a year later I’d managed to;
And, on top of all that, I actually started to enjoy the process.
So how did I do all this? The tips below are not easy and many go against common thesis-writing advice, but they worked.
After a near-breakdown, I started taking walks around the campus when I faced a problem or found myself getting stressed. I took the time to think about what I needed to do and get myself in the right frame of mind to go back.
Previously, I would have found myself killing time on the internet just to get through to the end of the day. This was one of the key habits that probably saved my PhD .
This may seem counter intuitive, but slowing down helped me to go faster. By taking more time over my experiments and doing thingscarefully, I eliminated a lot of time-consuming mistakes.
Though my productivity increased once I figured out how to deal with stress, I was still doing experiments well into my fourth year.
I had a final submission date (at the end of my 4th year), but my research was still a bit chaotic. It wasn’t focused on finishing.
My supervisor (the brilliant Professor Moriarty ) then told me that I would no longer be allowed into the lab after the end of March 2007, and that I would have to write whatever I had.
Because of the limited time, I had to make some tough decisions. Anything I did, I would either have to finish or let go . There would be some loose ends, but that was OK as long as I tied up others.
I had to decide not to do certain things, and focus with energy and determination on others.
Still, though, the thesis would be a little thin. So I took on a side project based on another student’s research, which could produce some results quickly.
This side project produced the most interesting result of my scientific career .
By the time I stopped doing experiments, I knew I had enough for a PhD. Not the best PhD ever, and not world-changing, but with two publications and enough data for another, I felt it was good enough.
Because I wasn’t allowed back in the lab, I just had to focus on writing. The hard part was behind me. The results weren’t going to change, so it was just a matter of making sure I was productive when writing.
It is much, much easier to write when you know the raw material isn’t going to change.
Tip: If there’s research or analysis still to do, prioritize this over writing
I decided to work at home, not at the office, because there would be fewer distractions.
I got rid of the TV, and had no internet connection on my computer. The lack of internet meant I had to gather all the papers I would need beforehand, forcing me to think about what I would need.
I also set up a dedicated space (2 large desks joined together and a very comfortable chair, next to a large window for plenty of natural light), just for thesis writing.
I set myself a target of 3 months, broken down into targets for each chapter. This would give me about 3 months in reserve before the final absolute deadline.
I had a daily minimum target of 500 words , which I knew I could meet even on the least productive days.
This meant that because I smashed the target most days, I finished every day feeling good about my progress, which in turn meant I started the next day feeling confident.
Tip: Set your target as something you know you can achieve daily, then beat it. Don’t set it as high as you can possibly imagine.
The two most important parts of the day are the beginning and end. It’s important to build momentum early, and have a routine for ending the day too.
At the end of each day I always left myself something easy to do to get started with the next day, so I woke up knowing what I was going to do.
I also tidied the desk at the end of every day, which also helped close the day mentally and stopped my brain going over and over the thesis at night.
Whether it was the lit review, or my own work, I cut anything sub-standard.
I focused only on the very best literature, saving myself a huge amount of time. It also had the result of associating my work with the very best in the field.
I only wrote about what I knew about, which made the thesis shorter, faster and easier to write, and of higher quality than if I had included everything whether I understood it or not.
Tip: You choose the syllabus, not the examiner . Only include what you can comfortably defend.
I took painstaking care over the clarity of the writing, the diagrams and the overall look of the thesis.
If a diagram took 2 hours, so be it. If I couldn’t find a high-quality image in a paper to paste in, I would re-draw it myself. Why? Because it adds so much to the feel of quality running through the thesis.
By applying obsessive focus to one detail at a time , I could make sure that I wouldn’t have to do it again. This brings me to the final point…
I always edit as I write, with one goal only: to make sure I’ve expressed the idea in my head clearly on the page. I don’t move on until I feel the sentence makes sense, with no ambiguity of meaning.
Clarity of thought is always the number one aim. But it is very difficult to come back to a piece of writing days or weeks later and sort out a mess of thought if you don’t clarify your writing while the thought is still fresh in your head.
This means I was constantly re-reading and revising what I’ve just written, but also means that when I submitted something to my supervisor it needed very few revisions and saved months, simply by getting as close to submittable as I could the first time round.
Throughout the course of my PhD, event though a lot went wrong, I built up a lot of experience and skill in the techniques I’d been using and in the data analysis. This is one of the reasons why, when I slowed down and did experiments more carefully, I was able to analyse the results quickly.
Too often, I meet students who have left analysis to the very final months, having done virtually none throughout the course of their PhD. This is a difficult situation to be in, as you have to learn analytical skills very fast under immense pressure. Practice analysis early and don’t neglect your data!
Please Note
I’ve had some comments on this post reacting as if I completed my entire PhD in 3 months. No, I did three and a half years of research first, then wrote the thesis. I also do not claim that anyone can write that fast, as it depends on a lot of different factors. This is why the title is “How I wrote…”, not “How to write…”
What to do if you only have 3 months to finish your PhD
Your final PhD year: Moving towards completion
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Thank you very much for these tips. It is really helpful. I really needed to hear that.
By james hayton (2015).
PhD: an uncommon guide to research, writing & PhD life is your essential guide to the basic principles every PhD student needs to know.
Applicable to virtually any field of study, it covers everything from finding a research topic, getting to grips with the literature, planning and executing research and coping with the inevitable problems that arise, through to writing, submitting and successfully defending your thesis.
About james hayton, phd, latest phd tips, phd coaching.
All the text on this site (and every word of every video script) is written by me, personally, because I enjoy writing. I enjoy the challenges of thinking deeply and finding the right words to express my ideas. I do not advocate for the use of AI in academic research and writing, except for very limited use cases.
Why you shouldn't rely on AI for PhD research and writing
The false promise of AI for PhD research
Most of the students find it difficult to complete their thesis within time. Many students fail to do so because they don’t have a plan. They might have a time frame to complete the entire thesis. However, they haven’t divided their thesis work into weeks.
During my Ph.D., I came up with a six months plan to complete my thesis. I am glad that it worked perfectly. Considering how many students are suffering due to their thesis, I have decided to come up with the course .
“ Transform Your Academic Performance ” is my course that describes the exact steps I used to plan the last 6 months of writing up my thesis.
I divided my time perfectly to ensure that I submit my thesis within the given time.
First month was dedicated to “Introduction, Literature review and Research methods.”
Second month , I dig deep into Research methods and Results .
Third month , I continued writing the Results and gave a couple of weeks of Discussion and Conclusion.
In the course, I have talked about how you need to ensure weekly status report. It helps in checking your progress and keeps you on the right track.
Fourth and Fifth month, I gave around 6 months to my supervisor to review and give me suggestions.
Sixth month, I dedicated about two weeks to “ Student corrections .”
Most importantly, I left some time for routine issues when you can’t work on your thesis.
Here is a video explaining my course and how I write my PhD thesis in 6 months.
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I (26F) am doing agricultural research, my degree will be in plant science. I've already received a master in a similar field where I had to write a thesis (4 chapters) but I was very new at scientific writing and had so much to learn, I can't even remember how long it took me. Now, two publications later, it's time to start working on my dissertation for my current projects (3 to be exact, will also include a lit review and final remarks chapter). While I've gotten plenty of experience with this type of writing, I don't want to be overly confident that I can get it done in 6 months, as I am quite the procrastinator. Has anyone else with a similar background/field of study been able to write theirs in that amount of time?
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Speaker 1: Hey everyone and welcome back to my channel. If you are new here, my name is Amina and in today's video we are going to be going through how you can write a first class dissertation in just a matter of a few weeks. And I'm going to say four weeks because I think that is pretty realistic to be able to write a strong first class dissertation. In today's video I'm going to be going through the structure of the dissertation, the different chapters and the different sections that you need to include, a few top tips about each of those chapters as well and also I'm going to be sharing with you a perfect blank Word document template that you can download with the link down below and includes everything you need to give you that starting point for you to start writing your dissertation. So if you want to see more videos like this then don't forget to press the subscribe button to see more from me and yeah, let's get right into it. So I know that this is the time, it's December now, I know that dissertations typically tend to start around the January time point, so the last semester of university and now is the time when you are probably thinking about the title, what you're going to be writing about, maybe you're doing a bit of research and you're going to start writing a bit later on. So it's a really good time now to know what to expect and kind of pre-empt what are the things that you're going to be including in your dissertation. And dissertations are worth so much. If you're in your final year of university, it's probably worth a good chunk, sometimes even 50%, sometimes even 100% of your final year mark. So it is really important that you're taking the time to not just rush it at the last minute, but actually take time to make sure that all the sections are done really, really well. So let's start off by going through the organisation and the structure of what a dissertation looks like. And for this, I'm going to be sharing my screen so you can see everything over here to see the structure. This is actually a template that I have developed myself. And like I said, the link will be down below. So you're more than welcome to go and download it. It's got all the top tips there as well. So let's go through and look at every single chapter that you need to include in your dissertation. Okay, so let's start off with the title page. So you need a title page, which obviously includes your title. It includes your name, your year, the year it is now, or even like the fact that you're a third year student, the word count, and look out for any other details that you might need to include in this as well. So that also could include like your student ID number. Sometimes the university requires different things at the front of your title page. Just make sure that you're checking the requirements of your university, that it matches what is actually on your title page, because these are things that will lose you marks and other things, little things that mean that you won't get a first. Okay, so moving on to the next page, the next page is our contents page. And this is the contents page that includes all the chapters and the sub chapters of your dissertation. So as you can see here, we have the declaration, which I'll go through in a second, the abstract, the introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion. Then you've got your supplementary parts, which are the list of tables, list of figures, list of charts, abbreviations. And by the way, these are things that people always forget to include, but they are what is going to make your dissertation look like a PhD thesis, because this is how you would present your PhD thesis. And then obviously your appendix as well. So including all of these things in this order just means that you have a very concise plan and a very concise set of chapters. So moving on, you have your declaration as well. So the declaration essentially says that this is original work, I haven't plagiarized, and I'm saying that I've done all this work myself. So I've also left a bit of a comment here saying that if you have collaborated with anyone else, you should really include that like this work has been done in conjunction with this person. And that is also important to declare there too. Then moving on, you have the abstract. So the abstract, I have a ton of videos about the abstract. So if you want to go into more depth about that, you can. And yeah, abstract is like a good 200 to 300 word summary about what you've done. Then the next thing is the introduction. So the introduction typically includes a literature review, which forms the body of your dissertation, which forms like the background showing that you understand like the literature and the field that you're working in. And it's one of the kind of biggest parts of your dissertation and also the most challenging, I would say. Then you have a research question, also a hypothesis. The hypothesis essentially states that this is what you're doing. So I think if I do this thing, this thing's going to happen. So that's what your hypothesis is. Then moving on, you have your material and methods. So this is where you'd include any experiments that you're doing, your analysis, your stats, your procedure, your inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, all of that good stuff is included in this section. Then you have your results. So think of it like a little story. You've given your background. You then say what the method is. You then say what the results are. So here you'd have like results depending on how many results, sub results you have. This would be three headings, four headings, five headings. Then you have your discussion section. So this is where you would say you'd go into more depth. So your methods and your results are typically just like descriptive. Then your discussion is a lot more analytical and critical and your conclusion, of course. And then you've got your list of tables, as I said, list of figures, list of charts and abbreviations. And then finally, obviously your references, which I also have a link here for a video. So this template I've done quite, I think quite in depth. It took me quite a long time actually to get it all together. And essentially what it includes is a hyperlink for all of these chapters in the contents page here. So what you can do is once you've like included that information, you've edited it, you've changed the titles, maybe the subheadings, whatever, you can very easily just refresh. And what it does is it refreshes the contents page for you. And it means that everything is aligned in terms of the page numbers and like your titles and headings and everything. So like I said, that's available to download down below. So let's move on and talk about how you would actually organise and how you're going to actually write your dissertation. So I would always recommend starting from the methods and materials section, because this is the one where you usually would have the methods already set out. It's probably one of the first things that you start to think about. So you can write those things down. They typically don't tend to change that much. Once you've picked your participants and once you've picked your research group or once you've picked your method, that tends to be quite stable, secure, and that doesn't really change that much. So you can start writing your methods and materials really as soon as possible. Then I would recommend going on to writing the literature review. So this is something that you kind of will do in conjunction. So whilst you're doing your research and you're looking at your methods and you're trying to get some results, you can also obviously read some papers and gather those papers. You might have like a reading list and you've written down like the sources, what their methods are, what the limitations are, what's missing from their research and the critical discussion and kind of put those together into a literature review. So you're writing your methods and whilst you're doing that, you're writing your literature review or you're reading papers at least to get yourself started. Then once you have done your methods and you've started to actually apply that and you're starting to do your research or your experiments, you then will have some results pop up. So this is where you start to develop those results. So as soon as you get some results, put them into charts, put them into graphs, put them into tables, start to compile them. If it's a survey, start to make it look nice. Think about how you want to present it. So that's all going on in the background. So you're reading your papers for your literature review and then of course you're writing your literature review. You're starting to think about the different chapters and at the same time you're thinking about your methods and you're starting to develop your results as to whatever's coming in. Then you want to make sure that you've now finished your literature review and that everything that reflects in the results is reflected in the literature review. If you are not talking about it in your results or you're not really discussing it, then it shouldn't really go in your literature review and vice versa. So just making sure that everything matches. Then once you've done those three main sections, you then want to think about the conclusion. So how are you concluding this research? What is it that you've found? What are the takeaway messages? What are the limitations? What has happened in your research? The conclusion is the next thing. Then the last thing of the main chapters is the abstract. So the abstract is the absolute final thing that you do that is essentially a summary of everything. So the abstract talks about what your research aims are, what the hypothesis is, what the missing gap in literature is, and then the methods, what approach you're taking to overcome that gap, then your results, and then the conclusion and the future implications and directions. So that is your abstract. And that is the last thing you do because that is something that is determined by everything else. So you can't write the abstract first without having the results and without having the discussion and the conclusion. Then you want to, of course, obviously format. If you use this template, everything's basically there for you. So all you need to do is add in your references. Now, adding in your references is something that you should be doing throughout, and this will save you a ton of time. If you were to ask me, how can I write my dissertation really quickly? I would say, sort out your references before you even start writing. So what I'd recommend is when you download this template, I would recommend downloading the Mendeley plugin, the Word plugin. So you can use it side by side. So as you are writing your literature review and as you're writing your results and getting all your data in, you can also input your references at the same time. So it's very, very easy. I have a whole video about this, and I've also talked about a little bit in the guide as well that accompanies this template. And I think it's the easiest way possible. If you delete a reference, it deletes automatically. If you have to change your references from Harvard to APA or something else, it does it automatically. It lists it all for you in alphabetical order. To get a first, the thing that you need to understand is that for the top level for a first, the key characteristic of a first in a dissertation for final year is that it is publishable. That's like the top. So if you ask yourself, is this work publishable? There's a few things that mean that it's publishable. Firstly, it needs to be accurate. It needs to be clear and concise and written academically with the correct structure. But the most important thing is also the fact that the references have to be written really well. You can't publish a paper without references being strong. So if you can guarantee that your references are written well using something like Mendeley or any others, EndNote, there's a few other ones as well, but I would recommend Mendeley because it's free. It's easy to use. It seamlessly gets added into your Word document, so you can use it at the same time. Those are little things that will mean that you are aiming towards a first. And so keeping your references clean and up to date and updated is something I'd highly recommend thinking about before you even started writing anything. So we've spoken about the organisation and the structure of your dissertation. We've spoken about the order that you want to write things in. And we've spoken about referencing. The last thing I wanted to mention is that to be able to get a first, your dissertation has to be very heavily critiqued, especially in the discussion and not in the results. And now this is something that I've spoken about again in the guide, but I really want you to remember that the results section is purely you stating what the results are. I am wearing a black jumper. That's it. That's a result. There's no critique. There's no she's wearing black because it's winter and she wants to be a little bit dark, because she's in a bad mood, because she's feeling low, because she likes the colour. No, I'm just wearing black. That is my result. In the discussion, that is where you can say she's wearing black because, right? So if you have a result and you're doing an experiment, the temperature increased. In the result, all you need to say is the temperature has increased by five degrees. Look at figure one. In the discussion, as you can see in figure one, the temperature has increased by five degrees, which could be a result of the fact that it is winter now, right? And that is a critique. And then you want to expand on that and say, also, Jonas et al have also similarly reported that the temperature increased by five degrees when they looked at it in mice, right? And so you're adding extra layers to it. And that is what happens in your discussion. In the results, it's purely, purely descriptive and evaluative. So you're just evaluating, describing. You're not going into any detail as to why you think that happened at all. So that's something that you want to really think about when writing your dissertation. It can be an afterthought. So I'd recommend just like getting started, get started in your research and then take a look again, go back and look again at your results section and your discussion and make sure that you are being really distinct in the way that you write those two sections. I am going to do more detailed videos on each of those chapters. This video is very much just kind of going through the overall structure and making sure you have like a start point from where you can start from. But I am going to be doing videos in all through January, a full series on each of those sections for the dissertation. So if you do want to make sure that you catch those, then please subscribe to my channel and I'll make it into a nice little playlist for you. But otherwise, I hope that you found this video helpful for giving you a start point as to where you can even begin when it comes to writing the dissertation. Because I do feel like just that initial, like having the title page, having something on paper is sometimes the most difficult part. And I'm providing you with a template that I have designed myself. So that hopefully will give you that first step up. And then you can obviously go from there, do your research, add them in. And yeah, that's a dissertation done, hopefully in a few weeks. Yeah, let me know if you have any other tips and if you want to see any other templates from me as well. And I'll see you guys in my next video. Okay, bye.
References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .
Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.
Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.
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Here is the 10-Step Process to Completion. 1. Figure out what your D-Day is. Look ahead approximately 6 months and determine either when you would like to submit a full draft or else acknowledge when you MUST complete (maybe the last date before you have to pay for an extra semester of tuition, maybe your committee members are leaving for ...
Here are two ways that I managed to do it. Write. Even when you have zero motivation. This applies especially to those who are in the situation I was in. Since the aim is to fill your content ...
June 21, 2024. It is possible to finish your thesis in 6 months, even if you don't know what to write or haven't finished your research. In this hour-long webinar that I gave earlier this week for students of Dora Farkas's Finish Your Thesis, I break down the process of how to go from crippling writer's block to writing hundreds of ...
6. Have all the guidelines at your fingertips. As you are working, have a copy of your departmental referencing guidelines printed off in front of you and make sure you reference as you go along. Taking time to get the presentation of your thesis to a high standard reflects the significance of the project.
Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal. Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter. Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review. Undertake your own research. Present and interpret your findings. Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications.
There are, after all, more enticing and perhaps even more pressing things to do. Similarly, if you don't have a clear goal of when you want to finish your dissertation, it is easy to put off your daily writing for another day, which can easily become more distant into the future. (3) Be realistic about your goal.
5) Take real breaks - and lots of them! This may sound sound counter-intuitive, but I created most of the content for my dissertation when I was away from my desk. My two-week break forced me to restructure my day and create a more efficient writing process.
6 Write the first draft. It could take days, months, or even years to write a dissertation, so hunker down for the long haul. If you put a lot of thought into your outline, writing the first draft is just a matter of following along and fleshing out the ideas.
It is possible to finish your thesis in 6 months, even if you don't know what to write or haven't finished your research. In this short ebook, Scott Rank distills the principles that helped him go from crippling writer's block to writing 500-1000 words a day. In this book you will learn the following: A simple daily habit that will help you start writing your dissertation How to make it ...
Writing a masters dissertation or thesis is a sizable task. It takes a considerable amount of research, studying and writing. Usually, students need to write around 10,000 to 15,000 words. It is completely normal to find the idea of writing a masters thesis or dissertation slightly daunting, even for students who have written one before at ...
This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up. A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months.
FIGURE 8. EndNote's Cite While You Write function. 2) Intermediate documents: the thesis/dissertation proposal and grant applications. Think of your thesis or dissertation proposal and any grant applications as being a big first step toward the first chapter of your final document: the introduction.
4. Get a Decent Computer. All my life i've used the cheapest computer I could get. As an undergraduate I didn't have a computer until my final year. That had been slightly upgraded during the ...
The answer depends on how much of your dissertation you have completed and the nature of the "additional work" required. Without knowing too much about your field of study or topic of your dissertation, it's hard to give good advice. I completed 6 chapters of my dissertation in about 4 months (health economics).
7. Targets and consistency. I set myself a target of 3 months, broken down into targets for each chapter. This would give me about 3 months in reserve before the final absolute deadline. I had a daily minimum target of 500 words, which I knew I could meet even on the least productive days.
Month 4: Experiments, start data analysis, approve thesis outline with supervisor Month 5: Data analysis, and draft of the thesis Month 6: Thesis correction, submission, and final defence presentation Proposal In the first month of your project you should present a 4-5 page proposal detailing the plan for the project.
I procrastinated 3 months away and did 90% of the research and writing in about one month for my 40 page minimum master's thesis. You can see a flurry of activity on my github in the 1-1.5 weeks of writing. I'm now doing a PhD straight out of my master's. You'll be okay.
Write Your Thesis in 6 months. " Transform Your Academic Performance " is my course that describes the exact steps I used to plan the last 6 months of writing up my thesis. I divided my time perfectly to ensure that I submit my thesis within the given time. First month was dedicated to "Introduction, Literature review and Research methods
How do you finish a Ph.D. quickly? Well, it takes a lot of dedication and ruthlessness towards how you spend your time. Follow these 5 tips and you'll be abl...
have approved your thesis or dissertation by the final day for adding a class in the semester of graduation. See the Graduate Calendar. Submit your document . at least . a week prior to the last day to add classes in order to provide the editor adequate time to examine the document, request corrections, and grant approval by her deadline.
Yes. Start slow, do 1 hour a minimum every day including weekends. I'm assuming your publications will go into your dissertation and the lit review shouldn't take too long. 3 chapters in the middle will include your pubs. You can easily do this in 6 months. I am coming from this after a Ph.D. in Mech. Eng. so maybe not exact field. 6.
I would recommend that you do not write your dissertation in a month. It will likely be not very good, and even fewer people will read it. That being said, i...
https://phd.academy/blog/how-i-wrote-a-phd-thesis-in-3-monthsHere's the paper that came from my accidental discovery: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs...
Subscribe & get 35 hours/month Captions From $1.22 per minute Text Translation From $0.07 per word Audio Translation From $8.80 per minute ... So that's something that you want to really think about when writing your dissertation. It can be an afterthought. So I'd recommend just like getting started, get started in your research and then take a ...
References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text. Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements with ease.