The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing a Dissertation

Introduction

With the constantly changing face of the business world, it becomes difficult to determine any plan of action without proper market research. Market research is the key to success in any business. Before deciding to launch any new product or taking up a strategy, proper research is needed. In order to make the potential employees of an organization analytically strong, academic institutions have introduced dissertation writing as a part of their syllabus. Many institutions have it as a separate credit course. While others have it as a mandatory requisite for obtaining a postgraduate or any other high order degree.

What is a dissertation?

A dissertation can be defined as  “a substantial paper which is typically dependant on original research and which gives an evidence of the candidate’s mastery of his/her own subject knowledge as well as of the scholarly method.” (Royal literary fund 2018)

What is the importance of a dissertation?

The importance of a dissertation is much more beyond a mere requirement to be fulfilled in a credit course. Dissertation writing requires a great deal of study to be undertaken.

It also requires an analytical bent of mind to look at the implications of the results and apply the same to business situations. This helps individual students to develop critical thinking skills, and also to develop an industry-related mindset.

Dissertation writing helps an individual to gain deep knowledge into a subject since dissertation writing requires extensive literature review.

Things to keep in mind while writing a dissertation

The aspects of writing a dissertation require some amount of care and detail. There are certain aspects which, if kept in mind, makes dissertation writing an easy task. Following are a few do’s and don’ts of dissertation writing:

The Do’s of Dissertation Writing:-

1. Detailed research

Not conducting a research thoroughly before commencing a dissertation means that the individual will be perplexed at the time of actually writing the dissertation. In such a situation, it is a great idea to conduct significant research to get a head start at the writing of the dissertation.

2.  Mention the appropriate methodology used

For any research-based dissertation, it is very important to understand that clearly defining the research methodology used in the actual research as well as data collection process is necessary. This gives the researchers as well as the readers a clarity regarding the research methods and outcomes.

3. Take help from experts

It is not necessary that everyone is equally good at all the areas of dissertation writing. Some may be good at writing literature review while some at analysis. Someone else may be good at using various statistical tools. So one must opt for the required dissertation help they need. There is always some online help available in the form of dissertation examples which are mostly free. There are even dissertation writers who provide dissertation writing services at a fee depending on the quantity of writing to be done.

4. Proofread for one more time

It is always a good idea to have a fresh pair of eyes for proofreading or editing the dissertation work. This helps to eliminate errors which can be missed by oversight or negligence.

The Don’ts of Dissertation Writing:-

1. Avoid repetition of content

A dissertation is one of the longest written projects which a student undertakes in his/her academic life. Due to this, there are chances of ending up repeating oneself during the course of writing the dissertation. This can be avoided by proper planning as well as indexing of the content into appropriate sections.

2.  Avoid unnecessary use of figures

There are parts of the dissertation which need figures such as findings and analysis. But there are parts where figures are not needed, such as Introduction and methodology. Also, figures used should be numbered. This should also be kept in mind that tables and figures are indexed and numbered differently.

3. Avoid multiple uses of fonts

It is always advisable to use a single font for the entire dissertation. This provides uniformity to the project. Multiple fonts can confuse the readers and is also not very appealing to the eyes.

4. Multiple referencing patterns

One should use only a single and an appropriate referencing pattern. Be it APA style or MLA format. The reference pattern should remain uniform throughout the entire dissertation.

Conclusion

Thus it can be seen from the above points that dissertation writing is neither an easy task nor a very herculean one.  If an individual always keeps the mentioned important points in mind, writing a dissertation can be a task handled with proficiency. One major aspect can be noted that dissertation writing is not a one-person job. So wherever needed, one should take appropriate assistance in order to complete the dissertation in a successful manner. Dissertation writing is an art, which can only be mastered or improved by practice.