Writing a masters or phd dissertation/thesis is a massive undertaking ndash and one that is not to be taken lightly. Here we look at a number of different aspects of thesis/dissertation writing to assist you in the process of running your race ndash be it a sprint or a marathon! who knows, maybe we can help you realise that whatever type of thesis/dissertation you are writing, it is in fact more like a 400m race ndash it can feel neither too short not too long if you pace yourself and take the appropriate steps. And if you've been away from academia for a while our blog on essay tips for out of practice postgrads contains more handy tips. Writing a thesis is a unique experience and there is no general consensus on what the best way to structure it is. As a postgraduate student, you rsquo ll probably decide what kind of structure suits your research project best after consultation with your supervisor as well as by reading other theses of previous postgraduate students in your university library. To some extent all postgraduate dissertations are unique, however there are two basic structures that a postgraduate dissertation can follow.

For phd students, one possibility is to structure the thesis as a series of journal articles that can be submitted for publication to professional journals in the field. This kind of structure would spare you the effort of having to write the thesis and articles for publication separately, however it is relatively unconventional and you should discuss it first with your supervisor before opting for this method. A more conventional way of structuring a postgraduate thesis is to write it in the form of a book consisting of chapters. Although the number of chapters used is relative to the specific research project and to the course duration, a thesis organised into chapters would typically look like this:

title page

abstract a brief project summary including background, methodology and findings. contents a list of the chapters and figures contained in your thesis. chapter 1 background a description of the rationale behind your project. chapter 2 literature review a summaray of the literature supporting your project. chapter 3 methodology a description of methodology used in your research. chapter 4 6 data analysis a descsription of technique used in analysing your research data.

chapter 7 discussion main conclusions based on the data analysis.

when you should start writing your thesis/dissertation depends on the scope of the research project you are describing and on the duration of your course. In some cases, your research project may be relatively short and you may not be able to write much of your thesis before completing the project. However in other instances your project may be relatively long, especially if you are doing a phd, and you will need to keep writing the thesis while conducting your research. But regardless of the nature of your research project and of the scope of your course, you should start writing your thesis or at least some of its sections as early as possible, and there are a number of good reasons for this: 1.

The best way of improving your writing skills is to finish the first draft of your thesis as early as possible and send it to your supervisor for revision. This process will be repeated a few times which will help you recognise and correct writing mistakes yourself as time progresses. If you are not a native english speaker, it may be useful to ask your english friends to read a part of your thesis and warn you about any recurring writing mistakes. Most universities have writing centres that offer writing courses and other kinds of support for postgraduate students.

Attending these courses may help you improve your writing and meet other postgraduate students with whom you will be able to discuss what constitutes a well written thesis. Reading academic articles and searching for various writing resources on the internet will enable you to slowly adopt the academic style of writing and eventually you should be able to use it effortlessly. When studying for your phd you will need to develop an efficient way of organising your bibliography ndash this will prevent you from getting lost in large piles of data that you rsquo ll need to write your thesis.

The easiest way to keep the track of all the articles you have read for your research is to create a database where you can summarise each article/chapter into a few most important bullet points to help you remember their content. Another useful tool for doing this effectively is to learn how to use specific reference management software rms such as endnote. Rms is relatively simple to use and saves a lot of time when it comes to organising your bibliography. This may come in very handy, especially if your reference section is suspiciously missing two hours before you need to submit your dissertation! plagiarism may cost you your postgraduate degree, and it is important that you investigate how to avoid it before you start writing your thesis.

Dissertation Program Evaluation

Occasionally postgraduate students commit plagiarism unintentionally, and this can happen because they copy/paste specific sections of a journal article they are citing instead of simply rephrasing them. Whenever you are presenting some information that is not your own idea in your thesis, make sure you mention the source and avoid writing the statement exactly as it is written in the source. On twitter this week two people asked me for advice for starting the discussion chapter of their thesis / dissertation im going to use the word thesis from now on because i am australian. I didnt feel up to answering in 140 characters or less, so i promised a post on it today. If you are feeling anxious about the discussion section rest assured you are not alone. Theres no one answer that can help everyone because every project is original, so i thought i would offer a few thoughts on it by way of starting a conversation.

Describe the discussion chapter as the place where you: critically examine your findings in the light of the previous state of the subject as outlined in the background, and make judgments as to what has been learnt in your work essentially the discussion chapter tells your reader what your findings might mean, how valuable they are and why. I remember struggling with this section myself and, looking back, i believe there were two sources of anxiety. At the university of melbourne we used to talk about how a good thesis has a ph factor. The ph factor is somewhat elusive and hard to describe, but basically it means you have to make some knowledge claims. you need to have the confidence to say something is true at least, without getting too post modern about it, true within the confines of your thesis.

This can feel risky because, if you have been approaching the thesis in the right spirit, you are likely to be experiencing doubt. Most of the rest of the thesis asks us to think analytically or, if you are in a practice based discipline, to make stuff or perhaps, if you are an ethnographer, to observe the world in some way. So the problem of the discussion chapter is a problem of creative thinking and confidence, but there are some stylistic conventions and knowledge issues that complicate the task. Every thesis needs to have discussion like elements, but they may do it in different ways. In a conventional thesis, what we call the imrad type introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion the discussion chapter appears a discrete chapter.