Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Choosing the Right Dissertation Topic by Nick Sanders

When you’re looking at choosing a dissertation topic, this is generally going to be through a choice made by you and your lecturer/professor. Most often, students, when they are thinking about a dissertation topic, should attempt to narrow down their topic to one that is specific and can adequately researched. However, the opposite is commonly true, as many lecturers sometimes feel that students want to ‘research the world’ when they are thinking about a topic on which to write their dissertation research paper.



Your topic needs to be related to the academic arena, the course that you are one, and the area of expertise that your supervisor (the lecturer who will advise you of research direction) – if you choose a topic that is broad or off topic, then you’re surely heading in the wrong direction. This is where your supervisor/lecturer comes in to their element – they’ll question your understanding and thinking, and this isn’t to test you as a person, but to test whether or not you have the background knowledge and potential to see the research through. The main element here is that your supervisor can see that you believe you have an ending in sight.

If you are on a management degree and have a keen interest in marketing on your course, then choosing a topic of researching women and the effects of Beauty products, in relation to brand loyalty, wouldn’t be a good idea. Even choosing the 25–35 year olds category, who reside in the North West (of England) would still mean too broad of a topic, but will all be helpful when choosing a topic for your proposal.

Generally speaking, your dissertation topic should focus on something that you are interested in, but not something that you have detailed knowledge about. Why, you may ask? Well, simply put, you’re going to become bored easily and distracted. This is a human trait that everyone carries – we like to learn new things, they don’t have to be innovative or ‘hip’, they just need to be new to us as an individual.

When you are thinking about the topic of your dissertation help you don’t need to go into much detail, as you are setting the foundations to build the rest of your proposal on. Once this has been approved by your supervisor, you will then be able to go onto writing the hypothesis, or hypotheses, for your research project – i.e. what you want to learn, prove, or disprove.

When you are looking at narrowing the topic for your proposal, you will need to conduct research with relevant resources and review what other research has already been undertaken in the specific topic. A quick tip here – it’s always good to keep a note-pad on you at this point, as many of the sources you review will probably be used in your literature review.

From all of the research and thinking you are doing, and discussions with your supervisor and friends (the latter I would strongly advise), you should be formulating a plan of how your work is going to be shaped. This isn’t an easy task, but was is in academia?

You will of course want to keep on topic when you are planning out your topic and proposal, and planning is best started as early as possible in the dissertation process. This will allow you to understand where you are at in every stage of the process and will also benefit you when you have to centralise the scope and thinking of your paper. This will all be helpful when you are looking to write your proposal and thinking about the hypothesis of your dissertation topic.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

3 Tips For Using Free Online Dissertations Archives

Have you downloaded a pile of online dissertations from dissertation archives in hope to tinker them and submit it as your own? Chances are...you will be caught for plagiarism!

Catching plagiarized dissertations is not difficult now because of the availability of sophisticated plagiarism detection tools. Even if you copy a few parts from someone's dissertation, you will still end up getting caught.



Now the question is; is finding free online dissertations really worth your time and effort? The answer is not a straight "No". It depends on how you use them. Let me say that online dissertations can not only be rewarding, but will also solve a lot of dissertation problems IF you are using them with the correct approach. In this article, I have tried to teach you on building the approach which is so much needed when you are looking for free dissertations to get help. More precisely, here are the 4 tips to utilize the online dissertations archives in order to successfully write your dissertation. These tips will enable you to get the best out of online dissertations:

1. The Dearth of Ideas: It will really help if you are passionate about your subject matter. It took me seven long months to determine what I am passionate about. Before you log onto the internet and make an unfocused research of finding online dissertations that do not interest you, I strongly suggest you to be clear and 100% sure of what is the subject or topic you are passionate about. Once you have identified your interest, it will be extremely beneficial to go through online dissertations to spark new ideas relating to your subject matter.

2. Availability of References & Sources: Finding appropriate references & sources can be a hurdle and online dissertations allow you to overcome this problem. Using appropriate referencing is immensely crucial. You will be able to get a lot of references through dissertations available online as not having proper references and sources will indeed slow your dissertation writing process. You can go through the bibliography and read in-text citations to avail new references and sources. This way you will be able to improve the credibility of your dissertation.

3. Improve the Outlook: Going through the online dissertations will help you embellish your dissertation with a great look and improve its credibility as the appearance does make a big difference. You will also discover how to combine different parts of your dissertation help together.

Online Dissertations are extremely helpful and can be a great learning experience. Going through the online dissertations and learning all the necessary parts will allow you to write more confidently and effectively.

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

The Mindset Change Behind A Successful Dissertation

People struggle with theses and dissertations for psychological reasons more than writing reasons. The psychological challenge behind writing a dissertation is that you must claim that you are now an expert.



For you to write your thesis, you must position yourself as an expert. This is a change in self-identity. You no longer see yourself as a student, but as someone who has earned the right to position yourself as an expert in your field.

To make this claim, you have to make a psychological adjustment that your previous educational experience has not prepared you to take. If you think about your life as a student, when were you ever considered an expert on anything?

Throughout our lifetimes, most of us experienced educational processes that taught us the "right" answers. Who decided the right answers? They were the real experts, who wrote the books we read. They graded our exams and papers. They taught us that we were not experts, but were supposed to learn the answers provided to us by the real experts.

It is entirely possible that you can reach the point of writing a dissertation without ever writing an original word about anything in your field of study. Teachers tend not to shower good grades upon original thinkers. Good grades are most often given to those who supply the predetermined "right" answers.

Throughout this whole typical educational process, based on learning the right answers, we learned to write essays and term papers. Most of us were never taught how to write a thesis. If your education was typical, you learned how to demonstrate that you had learned your lessons. You learned how to write essays and term papers. You didn't learn to how to declare an original thesis.

The typical term paper, in secondary schools and universities, is not based on your own original research in some topic. Instead, you gather information about your topic published by various experts in the field. Your objective is to summarize the material you gathered on your topic in a coherent way.

Essay topics provide an opportunity for you to present your opinions, but an essay expressing your opinion is not the same as an argument to make your case.

What most people find so difficult about writing a thesis is that the writer must make an original contribution to the field. After going through high school and colleges, writing term papers and essays, it is an entirely new experience to write a thesis, arguing for an original point of view. But this is exactly what you must to do write a thesis.

What happens when you come to the point of writing a dissertation? You must now take your place among the experts in your field. Now it is your turn to ask new questions and provide new answers. After a lifetime of learning the right answers, this is a dramatically new stage of your educational process.

The secret of success behind a successful dissertation help is that you become the expert. Your success lies in your ability to ask new questions. Your success is no longer measured by your ability to learn the right answers. You now become the one who provides the answers to your questions.

It doesn't matter if your thesis becomes a landmark dissertation in your field. It doesn't matter if your thesis is just a baby step forward. The critical issue is that you must claim that you are an expert in your field, by offering an original perspective. If you don't offer any original answers, you are not writing a thesis.

Whatever your topic, whatever your field, when you write a dissertation, you are claiming to the world that you are no longer simply a student. You are now an expert. This is the psychological secret behind a successful dissertation.

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Saturday, May 2, 2009

How to write a dissertation without getting confused & intimidated?

Are you ready to write a dissertation and feel confused and intimidated? You don't have slightest of an idea of what to do now and how to start it? When you are ready to write a dissertation, you need to first check with your advisor and follow the specific requirements of your course. However, in this article, we will discuss some general strategies that will permit you to understand how to write a dissertation.



Write Dissertation after you narrowly define your project: When you are ready to write dissertation , avoid a broadly defined project. The idea of going after a broadly defined project is appealing when you start to write a dissertation but you will eventually notice that it becomes difficult to manage as a research project. It is highly advisable to go after something specific. This way you will be able to concentrate on one thing, where as if your project is broadly defined then you will actually touch many different projects.

Should you Write Dissertation from Beginning? If you are ready to write a dissertation but don't know how to start chapter 1 then simply start from chapter 2. There is no need to complete one chapter before you can move to the other. If you are comfortable with a specific part of your dissertation then you may start with that. After writing different parts and different sections, you will later on be able to manage them in the best possible order.

Not Adept at Writing? You will be when you Write Dissertation: If you don't want to write a dissertation, just because you think or someone else told you that you are not adept at writing even though you are a bright and intelligent student, then it is not a wise move. What if both of you are incorrect? Don't underestimate your skills and simply start writing. As you begin to write, you will notice that your writing skills improve as you proceed further.You can also check for writing advice at his dissertation blog .

Learn the correct writing style when you Write your Dissertation: There are many different writing styles and you should learn the one required to write your dissertation. Let's suppose you have to present your dissertation in APA format then you must refer to the latest APA manual. You will also need to know how to correctly cite your references in APA writing style. Learn the latest format by referring to the latest manual.He also provides dissertation help through his writing advice.

These are just some basic guidelines for you to get you started. When you write a dissertation, the most important thing is to have sufficient material for your dissertation. You may manage to get ample matter only if you carry out an in-depth research. So, carry out an in-depth research, find out the specific requirements, follow the general strategies, write your dissertation and get your degree!!!

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Friday, May 1, 2009

The Top 6 Ways to Facilitate Your Dissertation Writing Process

Dissertation writing is not an easy task and it is extremely challenging for almost all students. Dissertation writing is the most important part of your degree. It requires dedication, perseverance, ability to do in-depth research and determination. Writing a dissertation is challenging but not impossible and you should try to facilitate your dissertation writing process by following these valuable tips:


1. The most important thing you need to do, when it comes to dissertation writing, is not to procrastinate at all. Set up a plan that how you are going to be writing your dissertation and make sure you stick to it.

2. Idea development is something that can procrastinate your dissertation writing process dramatically. This is the part where students struggle a lot. What you need to do now is to write down the topics that you find interesting. When you are in class or listening to a lecture or reading an article, etc, just write down what you find interesting. Then you can discuss your ideas with your advisor and fellow students to decide the theme for your dissertation. However, you must prepare yourself to struggle; it's not an easy task at all.

3. Don't choose a topic that doesn't fascinate you. If you choose a topic that doesn't fascinate you and you find it difficult then you will never be able to finish writing your dissertation on time. You will also end up procrastinating. Writing about something that you find interesting will keep you motivated and focused. Therefore, choose a topic that you find interesting.

4. If you need to find out about any particular experience or problem faced by general public and its impact on their lives, then do not limit yourself to your friends and family. Talk to people you don't even know and ask them if they faced this problem and what their experiences were.

5. Ask your friends and fellow students about what you can add to your dissertation. Discussing your topic with them and getting their valuable tips will enable you to add quality content to your dissertation.

6. Make sure you stay in touch with your advisor and talk to him whenever you get stuck or feel confused. If you can only stay in touch with your advisor, you will notice that the motivation you get from him encourages you to stay on track and write your dissertation help successfully.

Consider dissertation writing to be something extremely fascinating. I understand that it will be difficult for you to think about your dissertation like this but it will at least keep you calm mentally. Thinking about dissertation writing as something almost impossible to accomplish, won't do any good. First, tell yourself that you can write your dissertation, then follow the tips mentioned in this article, do thorough research and get your degree.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Top 3 Favorite Sources for Getting Free UK Dissertations

Are you looking for free copies of dissertations, UK Standard, written by previous UK students? Would you like to use them to understand how a successful dissertation can be written? If so, then there is no need to look further as you have come to the right place. In this article, we will provide you with valuable links to some web sites that contain UK dissertations and also inform you how you can use them effectively.



Previously written UK dissertations can be immensely helpful for students preparing to write their own. These dissertations can serve as a great reference tool and provide you with many sources that will permit you to effectively complete this task. If you donĂ¢€™t have access to UK Dissertations then writing your own dissertation may become an ordeal for you.

The following UK links will allow you to go through a lot of dissertations. However, these dissertations should only be used for reference purposes. You cannot copy any information without proper acknowledgment. Copyright remains with the authors. Copying or reproducing any information will be considered as a breach of copyright.

1. Brunel University, West London: On this UK site, you will find a few examples of full dissertations. All the dissertations are available in pdf format and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader Software to read them.

2. Lancaster University, Lancaster: This page contains examples of previous UK dissertations help on Environmental Science. They are also available in pdf format only. This website contains examples of previous UK dissertations on Linguistic Methodology. Some dissertations are available in pdf format and some in MS Word.

3. University of Sussex, Brighton: You will find here a few examples of MA dissertations written in UK. They are available in pdf format:

Being able to access the links provided above, for UK dissertations, and reading the dissertations there will allow students to have a better understanding of dissertations. After reading a few dissertations you will know how to write your own and after writing it you will be able to combine different parts of it together. Utilize these links and complete your task of dissertation writing successfully.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tips For Writing A Phd Dissertation

It seems that many of our college bound students these days are not satisfied with only getting their Bachelor's degree. Many are continuing on to get their Masters and then their PhD. I thought I would like to give a few tips when you come up against writing your PhD dissertation.

INTRODUCTION

Research is not only about discovery, but it is about the testing of hypotheses and ideas. Through inquiry and exploration, you lay down the establishment of facts. The outcome of the research is new knowledge. This leads to the improved understanding of mechanisms as well as the making of new and improved procedures. To make sure that the use of the research results is maximized, the results must be made known or disseminated in a proper manner.



There are a great many ways to circulate research results. You have guessed it! The production of a research dissertation is one of them. Even though a research dissertation is one of the usual criteria for an academic degree program that includes a research element, it is also used for student assessment. Don't make the mistake of making your dissertation into just a beefed-up laboratory report.

Its writing should be in such a way that the results presented can be validated and should be able to form the basis for additional investigations. You must justify any procedures that you adopt, claims and conclusions will have to be supported by experiments or by deductions or reasoned arguments. A research dissertation is unlike any other reports in that it is the culmination of either several months or even years of work. Writing a dissertation requires some planning, thought and organization.

Ideas, Guidelines and Tips

Layout refers to the kind of presentation format that you want your dissertation help to follow. This is often dictated by regulations or institutional guidelines. There are many reasons why one should opt to have a standard layout.

1. You will be able to see copies of dissertations from institutional libraries. There is a standard look and feel to a layout wherein it maintains corporate identity.

2. You can be assured that when the publication is bound, the contents will not be destroyed or obscured because pages have to be trimmed.

Here are some important features that you will want to include in your layout.

Size of page margins and spacing between the lines

Formats of

- Title page - Contents list - Appendices - Reference list - Figures, illustrations and tables

Numbering system for

- Chapters as well as sections - Pages - Table captions and figures - Equations

Font-styles for

- Chapters and section headings - Other text - Table captions and figures - Equations - Quotations - Citations

How are your references going to be cited? How are you going to cite tables, figures and equations? The decision as to whether the dissertation should be written in a certain tense or �person�

Reference List

As was previously mentioned, the way you compile your Reference list depends upon the kind of citation style that you use. One of the most common things that confuse first-time writers of dissertations is how to cite references. These are basically the two most common methods as to how you cite published work.

The number system references are listed in the order in which they have been cited. The name-year system references are usually listed alphabetically. Consistency is the key so you should stick to one of these styles.

Hopefully, these tips will help you formulate your dissertation. Remember to allow yourself much time, thought and energy to this process and you will come out a winner.

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