When it comes to writing a dissertation, it seems like in general you know what to do. You have written many extended before and you know the system. However, this self-assurance is tricky. Here are some tips from our experts which can help you to boost your Ph.D. thesis writing skills. We tried to gather the most useful ideas on writing, routine organization and technical details.
#1. Elaborate on the Concept of Your Work
The description of the Ph.D. thesis concept should tale no more than 5-7 pages and contain a summary of all chapters of the thesis. In some educational institutions, it is called a “concept” in some “summary” — the core idea is the same. The concept outlines the vision of the problem and the proposed ways to solve it. The concept is submitted to the scientific council and the supervisor of the dissertation research. After their adjustments, the main work begins.
The Ph.D. thesis should include the following elements. It should be relevant, it should clearly set out the goals and objectives of the work, and describe the object of research in detail. This scientific work should have scientific novelty, practical significance and contain reliable scientific positions.
After the concept is created, it is already clear in which order it is necessary to carry out research activities, the results of which are recorded in a text document, which later becomes a thesis.
#2. Pay Attention to the Structure
The thesis begins with the title page, designed in accordance with all requirements. After a little introduction regarding the core of the problem and in the directions of solving it, starts the main text, which consists analytics, theory and practical part. In the first part, you can describe information from a variety of sources, analyze them and highlight the least investigated issues. The conclusions of the first analytical part become the basis for theoretical developments, which are refuted or confirmed by practical research. Here, all independent research on a given topic is described step by step and conclusions, which are summarized in the final part of the Doctoral thesis, are drawn.
#3. Mind Your Routine
Working on the text of the dissertation, the author notes that his strength is rapidly declining. Quickly starting with a few pages a day, he or she gradually reduces the daily rate, and then makes a long break. One of the possible reasons for this decline in performance is an unreasonable daily routine. Ph.D. thesis writing students like to declare themselves as “owls,” which gives them the moral right not to start work on the thesis until late in the evening.
#4. Try to Finish as Fast as You Can
The whole thesis (the first version of it) should be written as quickly as possible. Of course, you will need a lot of “power”, but the total amount of effort will be significantly reduced. There are two reasons for this (reported by Sarah M., freelance academic writer from a PhD thesis writing service on the custom writing market):
- People surprisingly quickly forget even what they wrote themselves, as a result, there are repetitions and contradictions in the data and its interpretation.
- A person subconsciously strives to get away from the intellectual and emotional tension associated with writing. Postponing work on the thesis, you are every day experiencing an increasing desire to forget about it forever. It is better to swallow something bitter quickly.
#5. Be Thorough In the Technical Matters
Every time you sit down at the computer to change something in the text, start by taking a copy of the text file and working only with it, and send the original file (the previous version of the text) to a specially created folder called “ARCHIVE.” It is also desirable to include the date of its creation or modification in the name of the file, for example, “chapter Results_092217”, which means that you last worked with this file on September 22, 2017. If the date of the change is included in the file name, you can keep the latest versions, arranged in chronological order, in the working folder. It is also a good idea to copy the latest version of your work to some well-protected cloud service.
Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but you can use it as a great starting point. Good luck with Ph.D. thesis writing!