Style - Writing A Dissertation Proposal

Style
· Dissertation writing style is not designed to be entertaining. Dissertation writing should be clear and unambiguous. To do this, well you should prepare a list of key words that are important to your research and then your dissertation writing should use this set of key words throughout. There is nothing so frustrating to a reader as a manuscript that keeps using alternate words to mean the same thing. If you've decided that a key phrase for your research is "educational workshop", then do not try substituting other phrases like "in-service program", "learning workshop", "educational institute", or "educational program." Always stay with the same phrase - "educational workshop." It will be very clear to the reader exactly what you are referring to.

· Review two or three well organized and presented dissertations. Examine their use of headings, overall style, typeface and organization. Use them as a model for the preparation of your own dissertation. In this way you will have an idea at the beginning of your dissertation writing what your finished dissertation will look like. A most helpful perspective!

· If you are presenting information in the form of a table or graph make sure you introduce the table or graph in your text. And then, following the insertion of the table/graph, make sure you discuss it. If there is nothing to discuss then you may want to question even inserting it.

· If you are including a Conclusions/Implications section in your dissertation make sure you really present conclusions and implications. Often the writer uses the conclusions/implications section to merely restate the research findings. This is a key section of the dissertation and is sometimes best done after you've had a few days to step away from your research and allow yourself to put your research into perspective. If you do this you will no doubt be able to draw a variety of insights that help link your research to other areas.

· Potentially the silliest part of the dissertation is the Suggestions for Further Research section. This section is usually written at the very end of your writing project and little energy is left to make it very meaningful. Make sure that your suggestions for further research serve to link your project with other projects in the future and provide a further opportunity for the reader to better understand what you have done.

· After you've had a chance to write your dissertation all the way to the end, the last thing you should do is turn back to Chapter One. Reread Chapter One carefully with the insight you now have from having completed Chapter Five. Does Chapter One clearly help the reader move in the direction of Chapter Five? Are important concepts that will be necessary for understanding Chapter Five presented in Chapter One?

Style

Guidelines

Methodology

Conclusion

Writer's block?

How do the professionals begin the dissertation writing process, i.e., getting that first sentence down on paper?

First:Get organized. Know what you need to write, and why you are writing it. Problem Statement? Limitations section? Hypotheses? You can't write without planning what you are going to say. Make a list of the points you plan to cover- a word or two is enough-and then organize the research materials and notes you will use.

Second:Look at samples. You can't write a section of Chapter I such as the Problem Statement if you don't know what a Problem Statement is, or what goes into it.

Third:Get it down, then edit. What you write does not have to be perfect the first time. Get the words down, and then go back and refine where necessary

Fourth:Save, save, save. How discouraging to find that the page or chapter your worked so hard to write has disappeared in a hard disk failure, or when a power surge hits your computer. Save your work in multiple places: hard drive, floppy, zip drive, CD. Also print out sections as they are finished so you can see what your work looks like on paper.