Dissertation writing

• Your dissertation, or research project, is probably the single

most important assignment you will undertake, and is often
a key indicator of your true capabilities as a student and
researcher.
• A dissertation adheres to certain fundamental principles of
academic writing:
• It is a structured piece of writing that develops a clear line
of thought (an 'argument') in response to a central question
or proposition ('thesis').
• A dissertation is an extended piece of work, usually divided
into chapters, and containing a significantly more detailed
examination of your subject matter and evidence than is the
case for most essays.
• Because you usually have much more responsibility in
choosing your research topic, and for sourcing your
supporting materials, your dissertation provides evidence of
your ability to carry out highly independent study and
research.
• You are typically expected to be clear about the
methodology (investigative procedures and rules) you have
used to gather and evaluate your evidence. This aspect of
producing a dissertation has much greater emphasis than in
a typical essay.
• Those of you undertaking analysis of quantitative data must
similarly ensure that you adhere to the methodological
requirements expected within your academic discipline and
that you utilize the appropriate software. You must satisfy
yourself as to these requirements within your subject area.
Steps to writing good dissertation
• Proposing a Topic
• Theoretical Framework
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings and discussions
• Readability
• Reference Format
• Further Reading
• Conclusions & Suggestions
Proposing a Topic
• Your choice of topic for research is likely to be influenced
by such factors as:
• relevance: its perceived relevance to the academic
department's in which you are studying;
• supervision: the availability of tutors/supervisors within the
department (s) who are interested in the topic and their
willingness to supervise such a dissertation;
• interest: your existing knowledge of that topic and the
strength of your desire to learn more about it;
• competence: your likely ability to employ the proposed
methods of data gathering and data analysis;
• scale: the feasibility of completing the study within the time
and resources available
Using MORI to choose your topic
• Those of you that are expected to develop your own
proposal for a dissertation or project should try to follow
these four MORI principles:
• Manageable: your dissertation topic must be sufficiently
focused so that it is possible for you to do the topic justice
within the available word count. Any topic on which you
feel that you won't be able to cover it in any detail in the
space of 8 - 10 thousand words should not be chosen.
• Original: this relates to the above point, since a topic that is
focused and manageable is more likely to be one that has
not been written about too extensively, thus leaving room
for your original contribution.
• Relevant: your project should clearly be relevant to some
aspect of your studies, but it might also be relevant to your
plans for, say, postgraduate study or a career. The
dissertation may also be relevant in the sense that it plays to
some of your established strengths, such as a particular unit
or topic that you have enjoyed studying and in which you
have previously done well.
• Interesting: you are obviously more likely to enjoy and be
successful in your dissertation if it is of real interest to you
and to those marking your work. Ask yourself if you are
sufficiently committed to your idea to be able to give it your
best throughout the duration of your project. You should
also ascertain whether your supervisor finds the idea
interesting during your initial discussions with her or him.
Theoretical Framework
• A theoretical framework often features as an early
section in a dissertation. In a theoretical framework
you would include an outline of existing theories
which are closely related to your research topic.
• You should make clear how your research relates to
existing theories. How are 'research questions' in the
field framed? How does your own research relate to
such framings?
• You should make your own theoretical assumptions
as explicit as possible. Later, your discussion of
methodology should be linked to this theoretical
framework.
• REVIEW OF LITERATURE
• This is a review of what is already known and of the main
themes or issues. It covers past research and studies and
articles from relevant journals, books, newspapers, etc.
• It is a summary of what other people have written and
published around the theme of your research. It is very
important that you acknowledge the authorship of other
people's work.
• The literature chapter can, and should be drafted very early.
As you find the literature, read it, and write about it.
• Think of the literature review as a patchwork quilt - made
up of paragraphs you have written about individual texts.
Highlight the findings that are relevant to your theses.
• Be critical of the literature - don't just report it.
• Methodology
• Methodology refers to the choice and use of particular strategies and
tools for data gathering and analysis.
• Some methodologies embrace both data gathering and analysis,
• data-gathering methodologies include interviews, questionnaires and
observation;
• data analysis methodologies include content analysis,
discourse analysis and statistical analysis.
• There are many varieties of each methodology and the specific
methodological tools you are adopting must be made explicit.
Interviews, for instance, are often categorized as 'structured', 'semi-
structured' or 'open-ended'. You should mention which other related
studies (cited in your literature review) have employed the same
methodology.
• The section on methodology should include a rationale for the choice
of methodology for data gathering and for data analysis. In the
rationale you should consider what alternative methodological tools
might have been employed (particularly those which related studies
have employed), together with their advantages and limitations for the
present purpose.
• Findings and Discussion
• The ways in which you report your 'findings' depend
heavily on the methodologies employed so it is difficult to
provide general guidelines here. However, it is important to
ensure that you go beyond basic description of your data
• Some notes on numeric data.
• Extensive tabular data is usually best confined to
appendices: select only the most important tabular data for
inclusion in the main body of your text.
• Avoid any reference to 'significant' findings unless you can
specify their statistical significance.
• Consider where it would be most useful to employ graphical
displays such as bar-charts or pie-charts rather than tables.
• Label tables as 'Table 1' [or whatever] and all other forms as
'Figure 1' [etc.].
• Remember to list these at the beginning of the dissertation.
• Readability
• It is important to make your text easily 'navigable' for the reader,
providing 'signposts' to help them to find their way about. If you have
been writing primarily to clarify your own thoughts (as many people
do) then as you get closer to presenting your writing to others you
must switch your focus to the convenience of the reader. It can help to
ask a friend to comment on a late draft because it is not always easy
for the writer to spot the problems which readers may have. If you
know who the reader(s) will be, then try to consider the ways in which
they are likely to react to the text. Can you anticipate any objections
which they might have? If so, then you need to revise your text to
address these.
• Your dissertation should ‘tell a story’ in the sense that you should ‘set
the scene’ (and grab the reader’s attention) at the start, then try to lead
the reader as smoothly as possible from point to point, working up to
some genuine conclusions at the end. Not many of us can write like
this at the first attempt, but a dissertation can be gradually edited into
this form. Check in particular that there are no sudden jumps from one
point to another.
• Include a contents page (some universities have
specific guidelines for the way in which this should
be done). Use subsections within each chapter
(these can usually be included in the contents page).
After the contents page include a list of figures and
a list of tables. It is customary to include an
'Acknowledgements' page: be sure to record your
thanks to all of those who have helped you.
• You should double-space your text and use generous
margins. Choose a font size of 12-13 points,
• You should avoid using too many quotations,
however: it may give the impression that you
have no ideas of your own and that you accept
too uncritically what others have said on the
topic.
• The cardinal sin in academia is plagiarism, which
we may define as the presentation as one’s own
of ideas
• For students, there are very serious penalties for this
and it may be treated as an act of fraud.
• Reference Format
• The list of references should appear at the end of the
paper in alphabetical order as below.
• Name of the author [in reverse order], year of
publication, book title, edition, location of publisher,
publishing co. page no
• Agar, Michael H (1980): The Professional Stranger:
An Informal Introduction to Ethnography. New
York: Academic Press, pp. 112-130.
• Berger, Arthur A. (1991): Media Research
Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 25-46.
• Hammersley, Martyn & Paul Atkinson (1983):
Ethnography: Principles into Practice. London:
Routledge, pp. 246-315.
• Note : reference list:
• After the initial author, the names of co-authors are
not reversed
• Link co-authors with an (&) rather than 'and‘
• Use pp. only for chapters in books - not for
journal page numbers
• Include full names, where given, for authors
• Always provide both volume number and part
number for journal articles
• Where more than one reference is to a chapter in
an edited collection, list the collection as a
separate reference, ending the chapter reference
with 'In [Editor(s)] [Date], pp. [page-range]'
• Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION
(approx. 10% of total words)
• 'The context'. Why do this study? Why now? Why here? Why me? The aims of
the study.
• Chapter one is very important and is possibly best compiled by answering a series
of questions as follows.
• Is there a problem?
• What is it?
• Why does it need to be solved?
• What is your hypothesis (hunch)?
• Who will benefit from your investigation?
• In what sense will they benefit?
• In what sense will my contribution add to
• what is already known?
How in general terms are you going to solve the problem, e.g., collect data, analyze
• data?
• By what methods? E.g., a case study approach.
• What are the constraints or limitations of the study?
A good way to end the introduction is to state the
dissertation objectives.
2.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
(approx. 25% of words)
• This is a review of what is already known and of the main
themes or issues. It covers past research and studies and
articles from relevant journals, books, newspapers, etc. It is
a summary of what other people have written and published
around the theme of your research. It is very important that
you acknowledge the authorship of other people's work.
• The literature chapter can, and should be drafted very early.
As you find the literature, read it, and write about it. Think
of the literature review as a patchwork quilt - made up of
paragraphs you have written about individual texts.
Highlight the findings that are relevant to your theses. Be
critical of the literature - don't just report it.
 METHODOLOGY
(15-20% of words)
• 'The framework': What I did? How I did it? Why did
Chapter
I do 3.
it that way?
• This is a description and evaluation of the methods,
techniques and procedures used in the investigation.
It describes the scope and aims of the dissertation in
some detail. It is also very important that you justify
the methods used.
Chapter 4.
SYSTEMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE DATA
(approx. 10-15% of the words)
• What was observed and what was
discovered/found out?
• This is a presentation of the data - not a discussion
in this section. It may involve the creation of
tables, charts, histograms, etc., each of which
should have an appropriate title or heading.
Chapter 5.
DISCUSSION, ANALYSIS &
INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA
(approx. 15 - 20% of words)
(a)Interpretation of findings. What patterns have
emerged?
(b)The difference between your findings and those of
other people. The difference between the views of
various other authors.
(c)How do the main points you are making change
the way you think about the topic?
Chapter 6.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
(approx. 10 - 15% of words)
(a)Summary of main findings as a series of
statements.
(b) Conclusions and directions for further
research.
(c) Recommendations.
• Finally, after the last Chapter, you
should include
• Appendices
• Bibliography.
 Topic
By
Name
Qualification
A Dissertation submitted to
Name
Designation
Organization name
Purpose
Date
Dissertation directed by
Name
Designation
Organization Name
 A STYLE MANUAL FOR THESES AND DISSERTATIONS
by
Amit Goel
M.A. in Organizational Psychology, May 1999, Columbia University
A Dissertation submitted to

The Faculty of
The School of Engineering and Applied Science The
George Washington University

For the degree of Doctor of Science December 15,

2003

Dissertation directed by

Douglas Linwood Jones

Professor of Engineering
The School of Engineering and Applied
Science
 ABSTRACT
This manual was written with two purposes in mind:
· Present the reader with the proper format for a
dissertation or thesis. · Communicate some of the rules
of English grammar and style. This manual contains such
information that will assist engineering students in writing
their theses and dissertations.
Preparing this manual involved a study of websites from
various universities and a number of books. Thesis and
dissertation guideline formats from a variety of universities
were examined and a guideline format was created.
The finished manual will be posted on the website for use of
all engineering students.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND/OR
DEDICATION
This manual is dedicated to the graduate students in
the School of Engineering and Applied Science at
The George Washington University.
I deeply acknowledge all the help provided to me by
Prof. Douglas Linwood Jones. I also thank all my
friends and class mates who have helped me in
preparing this dissertation.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
• Abstract ii
• Acknowledgement and/or Dedication iii
• Table of Contents iv
• List of Figures vi
• List of Tables vii
• List of Acronyms viii
• Glossary ix
Chapter 1
• Introduction 1
• 1. Review of Literature 1
• 2. Chapter Summaries 2
• 3. Statement of Purpose 2
Chapter 2
• Basic Grammar 3
• 1. Parts of Speech 3
• 2. Capitalization 5
• 3. Punctuation 6
Chapter 3
• Advanced Grammar 8
• 1. Subject/Verb Agreement 8
• 2. Indicating Possession (Apostrophe) 9
• 3. Run on Sentences 10
• 4. Conjugating a Verb 10
Chapter 4
• Words and Expressions 12
• 1. Problem Words and Expressions 12
• 2. Being Brief 13
• 3. Irregular Singular/Plural 14
Chapter 5
• Miscellaneous 15
• 1. Funneling 15
• 2. Being Forthright 16
• 3. “A, an, the” 18
• 4. Electronic Theses/Dissertations 19
Chapter 6
• Conclusions
• References 21
FIGURES

Page
Figure 5.1 A writing funnel 15
diagram
• LIST OF TABLES
Page
• Table 2.1 The parts of speech….
5
• Table 3.1 Conjugation of the verb “to be.”
11
• Table 4.1 Being brief: commonly
misused phrases and their corrections……. 13
• LIST OF ACRONYMS
• APA American Psychological Association
• ASTD American Society for Training and
Development
• MLA Modern Language Association
• SIOP Society of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology
• GLOSSARY
• Abstract - Summary of a larger work
• Chapter - Subsection of a longer work, usually a book
• Format - Way in which a document or presentation is
arranged
• Glossary - List of difficult terms with accompanying
definitions
• Manual - Reference item, usually with information or
instructions on a particular
• topic
• Syntax - The ordering of words within a sentence
• Tone - Whatever it is in a particular piece of writing which
indicates the
• attitude of the writer towards a particular topic
• Verb - A word that indicates action or state of being in a
sentence