University: University College London
Faculty: Geography
Author: Anna Knowles-Smith
Award: 2017 Royal Geographical Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize
Title: Refugees and theatre: an exploration of the basis of self-representation
University: Stanford University
Faculty: Management Science and Engineering
Author: Shayan O. Gharan
Award: Doctoral Dissertation Award 2013
Title: New Rounding Techniques for the Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms
University: University of Ottawa
Faculty: Education
Author: Matthew Brillinger
Award: 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Humanities Prize
Title: Educational Park Planning in Berkeley, California, 1965-1968
University: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Faculty: Computer Science
Author: John Criswell
Award: 2014 Doctoral Dissertation Award
Title: Secure Virtual Architecture: Security for Commodity Software Systems
Each university has its own rules
From our own experience, we know how difficult it is to begin writing a thesis, especially if you don’t know where to start. Looking at other theses can give you initial ideas for how to get started and help you work out the best structure for your own research.
As you read the examples below, bear in mind that all universities have their own guidelines for writing theses and dissertations. The requirements for length, format and structure often vary by faculty and department, and different disciplines have different research conventions. We highly recommend that you review your own university’s and programme’s policies, and discuss any doubts with your supervisor.
University: University of Washington
Faculty: Computer Science & Engineering
Author: Nick J. Martindell
Award: 2014 Best Senior Thesis Award
Title: DCDN: Distributed content delivery for the modern web
There is no specific number of words or pages that determine the length of any dissertation. Therefore, check with your university, faculty, or journal to know the specific requirements for your dissertation in terms of length.
There are generally practical suggestions about how long should a dissertation be. For instance, the areas that your dissertation project focuses on should influence its length. For instance, a dissertation on a history topic will most likely be longer than an average dissertation on a chemistry topic. That means your academic discipline will influence the length of your dissertation.
The committee considers the dissertation proposal, as well as, a signed statement attesting to their proposed dissertation length. If they don’t and their dissertation exceeds the average length, it will be referred back for revision before it is forwarded to the institution’s examiners.
Another question that might be lingering in your mind is how long is a dissertation chapter? Well, this varies because each chapter is a separate section that should address something specific. If you include the right information succinctly and adequately, your final write-up should have the right length. So, how long is a doctoral dissertation in every section? Here is a rough estimate.
How long is a dissertation should be?
This document proposes the work to be done. The focus of this text should be on convincing the thesis committee of your faculty that you have a research question that’s worth pursuing. Thus, you must present a convincing document for your faculty to allow you to proceed with the dissertation writing project. So, how long should it be?
Most academicians say that a PhD dissertation length should not exceed 80, 000 words. Thus, your text should be near this length. This word count includes the appendices while excluding references, footnotes, and bibliography. The footnotes of a dissertation shouldn’t exceed 20% of the text.
There is no single answer to the question of a doctoral dissertation length. But most dissertations are on average 100-200 pages long. Somebody can say it should be 146 pages while somebody else can say 90 pages. Another person can say it should be 200 pages. Essentially, the length of this important academic document should depend on the topic, writing style, and goals of the writer.
The dissertation length, on average, is between 100 to 200 pages long. Nevertheless, a dissertation can be 146 pages or 96 pages long. The length depends on the goals of the writer, topic, and writing style.
I would recommend writing first and editing later. Editing the finished piece (eg sub-chapter) is much easier because you can assess the overall flow and the clarity of the message. Once you come to editing, do it ruthlessly. Think about each word: does it convey the right message? I like the advice from Mark Twain: “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’
I want to share with you a strategy that helped me to write my PhD thesis in less than four months. And yes, at that time I was still finishing off some experiments and applying for jobs.
Start by reserving big, uninterrupted chunks of time for your writing. If possible, choose the time of the day when you are the most productive, whether you are an early bird, a night owl, or prefer the good-old nine to five.
Finally, plan several nice breaks every day. You will need them. When I was writing at home, I found out that assembling a jigsaw puzzle for just five minutes could recharge my batteries.
5. Productive procrastination
Just get something down on the page. It doesn’t have to be a well-written sentence to start with
Your time has come. You have finished your experiments and your PhD thesis outline is approved by your supervisor. You just need to sit down and communicate four years of your hard work. Just. I’ve heard many PhD students reminiscing about their days in the lab, preferring to do more experiments than writing their thesis.
Many factors may complicate how you feel as you approach the end-phase of your PhD. You may be stressed about applying for jobs. You may still be finishing some experiments for a publication (or for the final chapter of your thesis!). You may just be one of the many scientists who don’t enjoy writing. So how do you make the writing process more productive and fun?
While you are waiting for inspiration, why not enroll to “Writing in Sciences” on Coursera and watch a few videos? This course teaches scientists how to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. I wish I found this course before I had written my thesis.
Acknowledgements vary considerably in length. Some are a single paragraph whilst some continue for up to three pages. The length of your acknowledgement page will mostly depend on the number of individuals you want to recognise.
In terms of its structure, acknowledgements are expected to be ordered in a manner that first recognises the most formal support before moving onto the less formal support. In most cases, this follows the same order that we have outlined in the ‘Who Should I Thank’ section.
Although your acknowledgements will not be used to evaluate your work, it is still an important section of your thesis. This is because it can have a positive (or negative for that matter) influence the perception of your reader before they even reach the main body of your work.
First and foremost I am extremely grateful to my supervisors, Prof. XXX and Dr. XXX for their invaluable advice, continuous support, and patience during my PhD study. Their immense knowledge and plentiful experience have encouraged me in all the time of my academic research and daily life. I would also like to thank Dr. XXX and Dr. XXX for their technical support on my study. I would like to thank all the members in the XXX. It is their kind help and support that have made my study and life in the UK a wonderful time. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, my wife and my children. Without their tremendous understanding and encouragement in the past few years, it would be impossible for me to complete my study.
How Long Should My Acknowledgements Be?
As a general rule, try to keep your acknowledgements section to a single page. Although there are no word limits, creating a lengthy acknowledgements section dilutes the gratitude you’re trying to express, especially to those who have supported you the most.
Within these categories, who you thank will ultimately be your decision. However, it’s imperative that you pay special attention to the ‘professional’ group. This is because not thanking someone who has played an important role in your studies, whether it be intentional or accidental, will more often than not be seen as a dismissal of their efforts. Not only would this be unfair if they genuinely helped you, but from a certain political aspect, it could also jeopardise any opportunities for future collaborations.
Below are three PhD thesis acknowledgment samples from which you can draw inspiration. It should be noted that the following have been extracted from theses which are freely available in the public domain. Irrespective of this, references to any individual, department or university have been removed for the sake of privacy.
- …for their assistance at every stage of the research project.
- …for their insightful comments and suggestions.
- …for their contribution to XXX.
- …for their unwavering support and belief in me.
While most of your peers are asking themselves “who can write my dissertation,” you are already one step ahead when you realize that you don’t even need human assistance. Here is some software for writing dissertation that will make the job of writing a thesis so much easier:
While few tools have been designed to help specifically with dissertations, some software is very useful for academic writing. And other tools will surely help with organization and planning. Even a calendar is most helpful when you’ve got so many tasks to focus on each day. While some people do not need dissertation writing software to help them, we consider that these tools are a must-have. They will help you save a lot of time
In most cases, students don’t realize that they don’t have enough time to complete their PhD dissertation. And it’s not even their fault. If you think about it, students are not very experienced at academic writing. They are far from being professional writers. This means that it takes a lot more time for a student to write a dissertation that it would take a professional writer. However, there are ways you can speed up the process. For example, did you know that there is software for writing dissertation papers? Yes, there are tools that can help you be more efficient. Also, there is dissertation writing software that helps you be a better academic writer.
This is in our opinion the best software for students who are working on their dissertation. Of course, there are many more tools online. And of course, one could always use a dissertation writing service to get some help. The professional academic writers from an online writing service can provide you with some assistance quickly, for a price.
Is Dissertation Writing Software Really Necessary?
- Wunderlist – this is a simple and effective to-do list software that will help you stay organized and keep track of all your tasks and goals.
- Mendeley – this is a literature management tools that will help you keep track of all your literature and all citations (plus it syncs automatically with a cloud service so you can access your literature from anywhere).
- LaTeX – This software was designed to help students prepare their documents for scholarly writing and technical writing. You can typeset, cite and cross-reference, among other things, effortlessly using it.
- Dragon Naturally Speaking – This is a must-have speech-recognition tool. You just speak into the microphone and the program transforms your speech to text. It can even search the Web using your voice only.
- Docear – This program can be integrated into Microsoft Word and can help you discover academic literature effortlessly. Even if you don’t know how to write dissertation papers, you can use this add-on to get all the literature you need.
- Evernote – A free program that helps you create and organize any kind of notes on your computer. It’s very easy to create multimedia notes and organize them in any way you like. You can even sync notes on your mobile device.
Are you a good academic writer? Most students will consider themselves to be expert writers. However, you need to be aware that writing a dissertation is quite a difficult task. It takes months of hard work to pull it off. The amount of research and organization is immense. This is why you definitely need some tools for writing dissertation. Don’t worry
The list of dissertation writing software should help you find some good, reliable tools. Of course, not all of the programs listed above are free. However, you can save a lot of money by using some of these programs instead of using a dissertation writing service. The downside is that you need to do all the work when using software. On the other hand, outsourcing some of the writing to an expert writer online is a lot easier. At the end of the day, what matters is that you get the job done. If the deadline is just around the corner, you definitely need a dissertation writing service. If you have enough time, use these tools to become more productive and keep yourself organized.
In the final chapter of the dissertation, you will summarize the study and you'll briefly report the results. Don't forget that you have to explain how your findings make a difference in the academic community and how they are implied in practice.
When you get to the point of writing a dissertation, you're clearly near the end of an important stage of your educational journey. The point of this paper is to showcase your skills and capacity to conduct research in your chosen discipline and present the results through an original piece of content that will provide value for the academic and scientific community. You should also make the dissertation interesting and unlike any other academic paper that's already been published.
To understand how to write a dissertation introduction you need to know that this chapter should include a background of the problem, and a statement of the issue. Then, you'll clarify the purpose of the study, as well as the research question. Next, you'll need to provide clear definitions of the terms related to the project. You will also expose your assumptions and expectations of the final results.
You'll need another timeline, but this one will be focused on the writing process. Plan how to complete your dissertation chapter by chapter. When you have attainable goals, it will be easier for you to write the project without getting overwhelmed by its length and complexity.
Step 3: Write a mind-blowing dissertation
Now that you've completed the first draft of the paper, you can relax. Don't even think about dissertation editing as soon as you finish writing the last sentence. You need to take some time away from the project, so make sure to leave space of at least few days between the writing and editing stage. When you come back to it, you'll be able to notice most of its flaws.
This guide will be useful both for undergraduate and PhD students, who are working on their dissertation projects, as well as for students developing theses for MA programs.
As the term itself suggests, this is a proposal for the final dissertation project, which should persuade the committee members that you're going to commit to a valuable, interesting, and complex questions. This is a shorter paper than the final dissertation, but it's equally as important because this is the point when you'll think of a significant question and you'll set up a plan for assembling information and writing the paper. Even if the proposal is not mandatory in your university, you should still write it and discuss the points with your mentor.
Many students fall into a trap: they think they have to read everything that was ever written regarding the dissertation question they are about to elaborate. How much time do you plan to spend in the research stage? Make a timeline and stay committed to it.