University Dissertations and How to Write Them
Written by Harry Croose
" I write, because I don't know what I think, until I read what I say."
Hello all, I hope you are well today this is my sequel to the blog post ‘University Dissertations and How To Plan Them’ which you can check in the link below.
Today however, I am going to talk about the writing process, and how to essentially write well. 🙂 Again these our general points, for some dissertations their could be slightly differences in requirements, depending on your chosen degree subject. I am hoping these points will be very helpful and insightful all the same, here are a few points. 🙂 Remember that Good Writing takes as much planning as it does writing. 🙂
1. Structure Before Starting
Make sure that you know how your Dissertation, is going to be structured. Look at examples Dissertations from your University, and better yet your subject, e.g. History.
You will be able to see how they structure their Dissertation and this will give you a basis sturcutre to begin the writing process. Structure also comes done to knowing the word count, and how to layout your essay. E.g. you could structured your essay knowing that your introduction is 2000 words, main body is 6000 and conclusion is 1000 words. This will give you a rough idea on how many paragraphs and points you will need to make to answer your questions.
2. Make a list of your quotes with References before drafting
This is an important bit of advice, that helped me compile my references and sources, you can even do this with any appendix or list of tables that you may have. With this list of quotes (wether directly quoted or paraphrased). You can decide which section each quote can go in, e.g. you can space out your quotations if you have 50 quotes (you could try and space out so that there is 10 quotes in each of your 5 sections); of course this could change slightly depending on the sections but it would be a great way of establishing some word count before even starting to write.
This helps me write a first draft as you feel as though you already have some word count, and not a blank page. A metaphor I would use is ‘dot to dot’ these quotes help you join your arguments together, and thus it is easier to focus on your first draft.
3. Look up other Blog Posts and Advice on Creating a Dissertation
There a loads of YouTubers and other blog posts as well as resources given to you by your Disseration Tutor and the Academic Team at your Univesity, to give you many tips and varations on writing style, if you watch enough of these videos or read enough blogs, you will be able to compile your own strategy and approach guided to you by the best tips that cater to your circumstances. Once you have taken their advice, into account you are ready to start writing.
4. Write a First Draft (even if it isn't the best)
Writing a First Draft early on in the process is important. Don’t feel as though you cannot do it, and you have to write the perfect draft first time. The first draft is mean’t to cement your core ideas and give you the template you need to adapt and add to afterwards. With the dot to dot strategy I described by pasting the quotes you want in each paragraph you should be able to easily join up the quotes and get a basic form of argument. Of course using , the point, evidence, explain, link paragraph layout may help, but again it depends on your essay and how you like to stylistically edit.
Plus, even if you dont have a lot of time left, at least you have a draft to submit. 🙂
5. Editing to the Dissertation Question and Your Own Criteria
This is quite self-explanatory but once you have wrote a first draft, you will be able to do edit styilistically to the assessment criteria and your chosen dissertation question and title. Double checking that you have stylistically answered your own question, is paramount to a successful dissertation. I would also adivce getting a family member, friend or just somone else to read your work, to make sure it makes sense grammatically.
Bonus Points
To give you some suggestions that really benefited me through Dissertation here are a few pointers.
– USB Backups of saved drafts and sections (e.g. Dissertation Save 1, 2 etc.)
– Create a contents page, and use headers to help structure your arguments.
– Create a new theory or line of argument in your Dissertation Topic
– Take advantage of Appendices, Figures and Tables in your arguments.
– Remember to critic and evaluate they are the higher levels of understnading and marks.
– Don’t forget the basics, the easy things are easy to overlook.
Hope you all found this highly useful, I am sure their are many points you couild think off, what other points would you advice someone writing a Dissertation, until next time take care all. 🙂
Harry 🙂
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