How to Craft a Dissertation that Gets You an A?

Whether you are considering a PhD program or recently passed your comprehensive exams, you may be wondering how to craft a dissertation. Writing, researching, and defending a dissertation focuses on representing a critical phase in earning the doctorate. There are certain steps that you need to consider when crafting a dissertation.

Selection of a Topic

It may sound like a simple step, but selecting a topic can play a critical role in the success of the whole dissertation. In some cases, your dissertation supervisor would suggest a topic. However, in other cases, you will have to come up with a topic by yourself.  

After extracting some domains for the research or questions, consider what is feasible with the resources. You must talk to your supervisor regarding your ideas and then integrate their feedback.

Conducting the Research

Before starting a dissertation, you would have to carry out research. You can find similar research papers in databases like Google Scholar or ProQuest. Then, you can develop a similar topic that is doable obviously. Don’t come up with a highly complex topic that you cannot do.

Secondary Literature Analysis

To develop a strong basis for the research, you need to conduct a secondary research analysis. In this analysis, you will have to extract research papers in your domain and then analyze them. Dissertations often include the literature review chapter that discusses the literature in detail. To develop that section, you will have to conduct secondary research and then interpret and discuss the past studies. In the literature review section, you can also conduct a critical analysis of past studies.

Continuous Research

Doctoral or even master dissertations can make the original contribution to the domain, and your research will be the basis of that contribution. The form that your research takes will rely on the academic discipline. For instance, in the computer science domain, you may have to evaluate the complex dataset for determining machine learning. In English, you may have to read the unpublished papers of an author or poet. In the psychology field, you have to devise a study or test the stress response. However, in other fields, you may have to create surveys and apply relevant statistical tests.

Writing the Body Chapters

After choosing the topic, defending the proposal, and conducting the research, now is the time to organize your whole research work into different chapters. Normally, a dissertation is divided based on an Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Analysis, Discussion, and Conclusion.

Your department will surely provide you with the dissertation guide that will help to structure your work. In several disciplines, the dissertations include chapters on methodology, literature review, and findings. However, in some fields, each chapter functions like the article that develops the whole argument.

Editing the Draft

After completion of the dissertation draft, you now need to edit that draft. The process of editing can be quite challenging compared to writing or researching the dissertation. The majority of dissertations are between 50-100 pages, with some even going to 300 pages.

After the editing and proofreading, now you can say that the dissertation is complete finally. You can submit it to the professor and then wait for his feedback. To get an A, you need to follow this guide and you must focus on RESEARCH and WRITING.