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Good Grades not a struggle anymore! 10 tips to ace your Dissertation
Let get straight to the point
Are you a university student? Do you need months to complete a dissertation?
No need to worry! As you have found a perfect place to spoon feed you with the tricks and tips for your dissertation.
Being in university is hectic full of pressure exhausting projects and assignments which make your head spin just by thinking of it.
You are not alone on this planet!
Where I use to believe that the last years of my university life would be the most happening and delightful moments ever!
But my dreams were all shattered when I got to know the start of 3rd year would begin with research, proposals, literature reviews, questionnaires and interviews.
My heart drops! As I was chilling with my friends enjoying my life as the semester ends my life become at ease.
Well, hop on to the world of research where you need to keep yourself busy with collecting notes, doing tons of research, and sitting on your favourite couch to go on a journey of studies again!
Let get started! First identify the problem
Let just be honest! Dissertation is hard and time taken. Selecting a topic is the crucial most areas of a research.
You would find many students like me frustrated with the idea of finding a topic which is relevant with your academic career moreover, it has the problem, a research gap where we can construct a whole bunch of facts and data revolving around one basic problem.
The first thing to do when starting your dissertation is to ‘RESEARCH’. If you can’t decide what to do! Where to find a relevant topic? So the best idea is to open your computer and start scrolling the research paper of other authors.
It may sound time consuming to you but in the process of structuring a whole dissertation you would be thankful to know that research plays a prominent part in the final drafting.
But remember! Choose a topic which would appeal you and what you are passionate about. As you are the only one to drag yourself with it till the end.
How to search for a relevant topic
You would have probably had a topic in your mind but where to find the keywords for the topic?
The question arises how to find the perfect keyword for your topic?
Let go find the perfect keyword for your dissertation.
Fasten your seat belts as you will need massive amount of scrolling in Google.
Firstly, you need to take help of Google scholar to find the relevant sources to cite your research study moreover; it has vast range of keywords, the publication Platforms which would guide you through the end.
Let start with searching the topics
For example, you the topic about fashion consciousness of the consumers this marketing related topic which is the domain and the keyword on the search box is your topic you have in mind.
Keep in mind, the topic should be relatable and of your own interest.
If a student who is more into fashion will subconsciously be interested in finding the research study about fashion conscious consumers.
There will be a massive list of studies which is related to your topic or is not relatable. Just like in this picture.
You can see that the list of topics about what you have recently searched is given below.
What journals to choose?
Although, there are many research journals you can take help with. Some of them are named below.
- Elsevier
- com
- Wiley online library
- JSTOR
These types will help you road down more related topics. However, the journals need to be paid by the universities or you can even buy it yourself but why!
If you have a better alternative so why not grab it. If you take the help from such website then see here.
Independent or dependent what to choose?
The topic has been decided searched through the internet.
Now what?!?!
Your topic will decide what would be gain from it and how the research will further proceed. But first! Did you check your topic does it have one dependent and independent variable. Are you confused to what are the variables in your topic?
The word ‘INDEPENDENT’ means the one who stands alone and the ‘DEPENDENT’ is the one who rely on the other keyword.
So, how to identify the independent and dependent variable?
For example “factor influencing fashion consciousness in hijab fashion consumption among hijabtas in UK”
Here, the dependent variable is the ‘fashion consciousness and fashion consumption’ and the independent is the ‘Hijabtas’.
As the fashion is influencing the consumers of the hijab wearing ladies the consumption of fashion among them is varied upon them.
Complying research proposal
After identifying a relevant topic which would go along with your dissertation paper you would probably make a draft or a research proposal to brain storm your ideas and compile a rough structure to show it to your supervisor which would help you throughout the process.
Some students do not even bother to make a proposal and start writing there dissertation without even constructing a formal proposal.
This would certainly affect perform of the research paper and as you will just full the need of stuffing the words in the dissertation. However, take active part in constructing the proposal of the dissertation which would guide you with the final dissertation itself. If you like to know the importance of the proposal and detailed study of writing a proposal you might want to take help of our blog ‘get dissertation proposal crafted to perfection’.
Why you need to write a dissertation proposal? What purpose will it provide you?
First of all, you need to understand a proposal which is certainly not a sheet of paper; it has very much importance in the overall construction of a dissertation.
The proposal revolve around the 3 W’s which is automatically answered when you will write it.
- What is the problem of the research paper
- Why we to research on this topic
- How will it be designed
The proposal will then need a proper format which would help you and the readers to give rough picture what is headed afterwards.
So, what is the format? No worries! I am here to help.
This flow chart will explain you what is working done.
The above flow chart shows the format which should be constructed along with the headings. As always we need to explain the topic which is the main point of every paper. However, the topic should be relatable and could engage the readers as it would be published. In the research paper the main body is where you need to add an introductory paragraph which should be attractive enough to keep the reader engaged.
Take your time! Be patient. As this the main body the whole crust of the research is based on the introduction.
Next is the problem statement which is the crucial most objective you need to achieve. The objective of the research where all the research will be held from, need to be properly well written as it shows the gap which is identified in the statement.
The next step is to gather the previous studies of the other authors which need to be cited and sourced enough according to the standard style of the given university. Although, there are many citation format each university uses in there research paper. There are some types given below.
- APA (American psychology association)
- MLA citation
- Chicago/ Turabian citation style
- Harvard citation style
Done with the literature reviews! What come next are the outcomes of gaining what you have sown. It determines the efforts gone through in making the proposal. And last is the references section which shows the authenticity of the research paper and prove that the research paper is not in your opinion it has the essence of other sources.
Approval is necessary
You need to have approvals for any task given specially the one which you are not expert in. If done with your proposal the next step to be taken is the proof check all the work done. Approval is mandatory!
For example, students are mostly afraid of presenting the proposal to the supervisors. As some of them do face rejections for not having relevant idea of the study and more changes need to be done.
If you believe you cannot have time for working another 2 weeks of your life making the next draft which is impossible so buy dissertation online which would help you with a week or so. The word ‘DO IT AGAIN’ traumatise you as you begin to picture the struggle of finding the perfect match for your supervisor as your whole week has been ruined.
Just chill! Stay focus. Take your time in finding the flaws and the basic idea of understanding the concept of the study.
After going to the supervisor with a disappointed face you would probably be thinking what is wrong with my research? Why didn’t he/she did not approve it?
Well, when doing a whole bunch of research and finding the studies you have gather your interest from will not be enough. Don’t just stuff the words on the sheet for the sake of approval.
You should probably be considering yourself a teacher.
This is the first step for you to understanding your own research study, build your own research questions/ hypothesis which would guide you to explain what is the research is about.
Remember! Your supervisor do not know your research, you are the one who knows better.
Construct an ideal dissertation structure
Doing all the research and selecting a niche topic according to the guidelines of your supervisor. But, where to start from! If you know the structure of the paper you would easily be on the same page as others. The step by step process will guide you from stage 1 till stage 5. Many academic papers are lengthy, detailed and time consuming you need to know every detail possible to have a professional dissertation. There is a step by step process of constructing a report.
Proofread your work again
When you are done with your dissertation you might want to read it so that the errors can be minimal as possible. But you don’t have to do that.
Just leave your report on one side and relax for a days and week. No need to take tension as this tip will help identify the small errors which aren’t noticeable as you keep stuffing words along with the flow.
This tip is basically very useful as first do your writing and clos it for two hours open it again read it and find errors. AGAIN! Read it from the other day and identify mistakes. This whole process will be as convenient for you as you will submit your final dissertation and be happy to find no errors. There is some valuable software which can also guide you and correct your mistakes time to time.
https://app.grammarly.com
Plan your dissertation structure according to the criteria
Every university have certain criteria for constructing a dissertation report which should meet the university standards.
If we talk about the overall structure you will note each of the heading has its importance and weightage. If the weightage of the whole report is 100% it will be distributed according to the headings such as.
Basically, the introduction has the significant importance in the dissertation itself where the % decides the word count of the intro is 1500 to 2000. The literature review, methodology and data entry/findings of the report is the crust of the report or the important element which should be handled properly, the word count is based on 3000 words which is 10% approximately. Here is the final touches done in report where you will conclude the problem of the report all the researches done and recommendation given to the readers which be of 500 words.
Check plagiarism and cite your sources
The last thind you would probably want to do is whether the text is copied or not. Is it 100% plagiarism free? There possible outcomes to have plagiarism in your writing which will lead you to bad reputation or even cancelling of the thesis.
This would be a nightmare! Students should double check the what is been written on the sheet and even take help of turnitin software who are specialized in detecting plagiarism at once. Some universities have criteria which are considered to be appropriate in the world of dissertation. The researches of psychology dissertation help the students to save themselves with plagiarism techniques. The content of the report should be plagiarised 10% or less than the 10% which will be approved by the university standards. And last the report should have the citations for all the research done accordingly. There should have a separate section of references according to the APA or Harvard standard in your dissertation.