What is a dissertation or a thesis paper? Both of these materials are the major projects of college or high school students. The thesis paper is the more popular one because it is less demanding compared to the dissertation. The latter is the equivalent research paper that only Ph.D. students should write. In most cases, the features and the steps of research involved are just the same for both types of projects.
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Where do we start and where do we proceed
What is the first step in writing dissertation papers? First of all, you need to decide whether you want to write the paper on your own or you’d rather chose an essay writing service. Dissertation and thesis are complicated papers and you will have to invest a lot of time in them. Fortunately, there are a lot of people on the Internet who are more than willing to help you. So you can choose the best custom writing service and be confident in the result. If it is not for you, brace yourself and get ready for restless nights.
If you choose to write it yourself, you need to know what you are interested in discussing. This is when you need to choose the topic of interest. The thesis paper should have a topic that you know you can handle. This will imply that you are familiar with the topic as well as that you are knowledgeable about it. Of course, the topic of interest should be feasible and you can find enough resource materials for it. Therefore, try to list a set of subjects that you know you can implement in the course of research. Lastly, the topic should be interesting and unique. This will give more value to your research paper in the long run.
The next step in writing dissertations and theses is to create the proposal. The research proposal includes all the necessary chapters of the research, only that you simply need to put temporary details since you are in the planning stage. You need to make sure that the adviser approves your proposal so that you can easily manage your writing tasks. The research proposal must have an introduction, an explanation of why you selected the topic, the methodology that you want to apply, and the assumptions that you wish to develop after the research. Now, you can start writing the research paper.
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You have to bear in mind that the research paper should contain several chapters to present the results of the research. This means you need to include the following parts:
- Abstract;
- Introduction;
- Literature review;
- Methodology;
- Data and analysis;
- Discussion of results, and;
- The conclusion.
You have to cite your reference materials as well. This could mean writing in APA or MLA style of referencing. Lastly, take time to proofread your work. It would mean eliminating spelling and grammar errors in the entirety of the research paper.
A little bit more about research paper chapters
As we said, the first part of a dissertation is your abstract. Or perhaps, more aptly, the first part of your dissertation is your outline, then the proposal, then the abstract, but the abstract is your first piece directly linked to the dissertation.
The abstract is simply a brief explanation of your work. Although it might seem difficult to boil your entire dissertation into such a concise piece of writing (usually no more than 150 words, sometimes up to 300), you must approach the abstract as an introduction to your thesis, a synopsis of the most important parts. You will have a great many pages to explain why these are the most important facts, but in your abstract, you need only present them in passing.
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You will also work with a literature review. This will discuss the different sources cited in your paper. It is similar to a bibliography, but with a more analytical approach. Take this opportunity to examine your sources for biases and ensure that you are including an array of concepts and ideas. You want to include as many different types of scholarly information as possible.
In the next integral part of your dissertation, you will include both the data collection information and the data analysis portion. Together, this creates the methodology chapter. Here, you discuss your research in the context of your dissertation.
You will want to utilize different media when you work through your data and analysis chapter. Graphs and images are especially useful to incorporate into your dissertation, as they not only provide visual insight, but they allow your work to appear more developed and sophisticated.
And when you are done with all those chapters, wherein you discuss the most intimate details of your chosen subject, you will write a conclusion. This is one of the most important parts of a dissertation because this will be your parting sentiment as well as the chance to fully clarify your “point.” As in the abstract, you must be concise here (although perhaps not quite so concise), and that in itself is a challenge.
To Summarize
When all of this said and done, you’re gonna have your paper on hand. Your best option is to write it beforehand so that your adviser could give you some comments and you would have time to change the text a little bit. As we said before, dissertation and thesis are complicated papers, so you should have time to receive comments several times during the writing process. Therefore, you’d better not put it off for the last minute.