It's probably the most important piece of research and writing you will undertake during your undergraduate career – so the thought of writing your dissertation can be daunting. Starting out with a robust plan will focus your research, use your time efficiently and keep the task manageable. First things first: what topics have you most enjoyed on your course? investigating a subject you genuinely enjoy will make dissertation research less overwhelming. Do as much preliminary reading around the subject area as you can to make sure there is plenty of literature out there to support your initial ideas.

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They will help you to identify the best angle to take and could highlight the gaps in current inquiry that you can address. What will your line of inquiry be? you may, for example, wish to extend a study that has already been carried out, apply a theory to some practical experience and critique how successful it is, or closely analyse an idea or object using a particular approach. The title should clearly present the line of inquiry your dissertation will take. You could even compose a few different titles each with a slightly different emphasis, and keep them all in mind as you do your research. They will be able to give you advice, help you refine any grey areas and suggest reading for research. The general essay structure is as follows: introduction – say what you are going to say conclusion – say what you've said you can break down each of these three areas further.

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In the introduction, your subheadings could include: what future research could illuminate the issue further? when you're planning your sections, include the full names of books and page numbers wherever you can to help you retrieve information quickly as you write your draft. It is also useful to begin to compile you bibliography during the planning stage. When you are looking at your dissertation research project, whether this is for an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, you will need to understand that a dissertation is a rather lengthy process that requires you to put some planning into it. You will need to establish what you want to get out from the whole dissertation research experience, as this type of academic project will mean that you will have to work considerably hard. You will want to plan the work ahead so that you will know what you will be doing and at what stage. I would continually forget about the different holidays that would occur during the final year of my degree and i would have to kick myself for not thinking that i would have to make sure my dissertation plan was flawless this is something that you should do. If you feel as though someone else should look over it, then i would advise you to show it to your dissertation supervisor, so that they will be able to pass comment on it and advise you on whether there are points to improve.

Your plan should set out the different parts of your dissertation and also be able to be understood by anyone. Many different students will form their plan in a number of different styles and ways. Some will do a plan on the computer, in word whereas others will use a large a3 piece of paper and write down what they want to achieve from their dissertation and then plan accordingly. Also, you shouldnt think of the dissertation planning stage as one that you can choose to do or not do, as this part will be essential to the rest of your research and the actual dissertation paper that you submit to your university for consideration on your degree course. You should put as much effort into this as you possibly can, as the dissertation planning stage will help you for the different parts of your paper and also help build the foundations of your dissertation research paper. Not doing this step in the process is seem by some academics as an individual being unaware of the sheer complexity and size of a research project of this size. Many academics will tell you that students who fail to plan their dissertation project accurately and substantially are actually planning to fail it inadvertently.

I believe, from my experience, as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student, that completing a dissertation plan is vital to the stages and steps that you will undertake during the dissertation research and writing process. Youre going to want to really make sure that you have the right topic you are interested in it and you want to make sure you are going to produce a really great dissertation research paper this is the key reason why a dissertation plan is needed. You will need to have some understanding of your dissertation topic at this stage and you should also acknowledge where you will be looking for any sources that can help you with your dissertation research question or hypothesis, which will then be what your research paper will evolve around.

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This is essentially what your dissertation plan will help you with and direct you towards. Outlining your dissertation involves two main aspects: a practical list of what you need to do and a sketch of what you want to say. First, there is a list of 31 items that you can use as the basis of your own to do list.

Writing your to do list is the easiest part of your dissertation, being just a list of tasks. The tasks are arranged roughly in the order that youre likely to do them, although some of the tasks overlap. Second, the outline of your dissertation needs to say clearly what thoughts and ideas youre going to include in each section of your dissertation. Sketching out what you need to say and structuring the presentation of your thoughts and ideas can be done in a number of ways but the two most popular methods are linear planning and concept planning sometimes known as mind mapping. People often have strong feelings about which style they prefer each method has pros and cons. If you find creating the outline a useful part of your planning strategy, its a good idea to use the same outline style for each chapter.

This helps you to write a dissertation with a clear, tight structure and avoiding repetition and confusion. Never think about your dissertation plan as set in stone a good dissertation develops as you're working on it and youve no need to be afraid of moving slightly away from your original plans. If youre going wildly off track however, seek support from your supervisor as soon as possible.

When using linear planning for your dissertation outline you list your tasks in order of doing them, starting with your first dissertation task through to the end. Linear planning makes for a very clear outline, but its more difficult to make changes as you go along than with a concept map. For your linear plan you can use the chapter headings recommended by your supervisor or the headings in the following list: why on earth am i doing this is? what led me to this topic? explain all the terms in the research question so that theyre clear. Who are the key thinkers? what are the key texts? what is the underlying theoretical idea? what i have found in relation to the research question ideas for developing the dissertation topic additional material that would interrupt the flow of writing all the references and materials used if you prefer a more visual approach to your outline plan of your dissertation, a concept or mind map may suit you better. The disadvantage of the concept map is that you still have to write your dissertation in the traditional linear format, and so youre going to have to convert your concept map into another form. A key advantage of a concept map is that you can modify your listed tasks as you go along without having to completely rewrite your map each time.

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In the following figure, you can see an example of a concept map for a linguistics dissertation looking at how children speak. You need to be aware of the danger of making a to do list: you can spend more time creating the list then you spend working on your dissertation. However, a comprehensive to do list has some useful purposes: keeping in front of you an overview of your work. If you've chosen an empirical study, think through your research methodologies and check your decisions with your supervisor. Read about the pros and cons of the different research methodologies and take notes as you go.