A dissertation is most probably the most cogent contribution of any student’s academic work to their final grade. It is typically used by schools and examiners to determine students’ research capabilities, help them find out their interests in their specific field of study, ability to explore a subject topic to great lengths and also their proficiency in making use of available resources and tools available to their disposal. Still, in this article, we are going to focus on how to complete such a write-up on your own.
A dissertation is usually written by graduate students upon the completion of their doctoral program or degree. Due to the importance of the degree being acquired, a lot of importance is placed on a dissertation as it could be useful in the future for not only the author but other researchers in that field of study. Writing a dissertation has never come easy, and for it to be useful in future, it has to be written according to conventional standards and practices. Discussed below are a couple of steps to note when planning a dissertation:
Picking a Topic
Choosing a dissertation topic usually comes off as the most challenging part of the whole project. While some students may come up with a topic very easily, others might have different ideas and end up with no particular research question. This confusion and pressure to begin early causes students to develop anxiety and panic. While this is a pretty bugging situation, there are a couple of ways forward from this position:
- Communicate with others: Find out the topics other students or colleagues are considering and what are their ideas behind them. Also, communicate your ideas with them, and get pointers as to how you can transform your ideas into a topic or find a way of sticking to one of your numerous ideas.
- Peruse other research work: Best bet is to narrow down your interests or ideas to several topics you find interesting and dedicate some quality time to researching past work done on them. There are several resources and publications you can get both on the internet and in the library, so use them to study the abstract of recent work done in this regard.
In as much as the internet and the library are good sources of information, do not limit yourself to them alone. Take time out to visit your department and go through the research work of past students, especially in the area of interest you have streamlined your focus to. Apart from studying the abstract, go through their recommendations for further study, and pick out ideas from there. That should put you on the right track towards choosing a research topic.
- Be extra critical: Although this could lead to a spiral of interests in several areas, being extra critical about personal interests that relate to any of your potential research areas, looking into areas you feel have not been well covered in an existing research topic, questioning the cogent part of topics you find interesting – could all put you on the path to arriving at your research topic.
In a bid to find a research topic, remember that your study can:
- Delve deeper into an area of study that is under-researched;
- Develop a practical application to a theoretical solution;
- Develop an existing methodology;
- Extend the scope of an existing study, etc.
The capabilities of a study cannot be fully detailed, so having a discussion with a staff of your department who would be appropriate to supervise your research would be advisable. They should be able to provide pointers as to how broad the scope of the research should be and if it falls within the ambit of what the department would approve of.
Writing a Proposal
Once you have arrived at a topic and it has been approved by your department, it is best you streamline your project into an argument you will be trying to explore, an issue to be investigated and the scope of the research. Following this, the proposal writing process can begin. A research proposal is a more comprehensive detail of the research to be undertaken and helps you think through several parts of the project even before you begin writing the actual research project. While some departments or schools make this compulsory and others don’t, a proposal is still worth writing as it helps define your research problem amongst other benefits mentioned previously.
In any case, whenever you feel you’re having any troubles with writing a proposal or the dissertation overall, don’t hesitate to use someone’s help. A lot of students and academic stakeholder’s first look for something like “thesis Canada writing”, and then hire dissertation writing services, essay writing services or any other type of online writing services for their dissertation research project or proposal, and that’s totally okay. Of course, dissertation writing is not bound to Canada only, but you get the idea.
Creating a Plan
As widely said, “failure to plan is a plan to fail”, and this might be correct in the case of research planning. A research work without a proper research plan is bound to fail. In order to avoid this, it is best to draw up a timetable or chart that will help plan your time for the research accordingly and also give time for other activities. This would also help remove procrastination and help you arrive at a realistic plan through proper time management and allocation.
Literature Survey
A literature review helps justify your rationale for choosing a dissertation topic and also describe how the topic fits in the context of the research area you have chosen. A literature review on an area of research typically should be done using materials and resources not older than 5 years from the research year to avoid developing very old or obsolete technologies or research areas.
Conclusion
Once the above points are duly noted and effected during the process of preparation, the development of the dissertation bounds a success and would be useful in affecting future work because of the time, research, resources, dedication, and professional guidance put towards the actualization of the dissertation. This is all the more reason why some people hire dissertation writing services to help produce their research dissertation.