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All-nighters and self-doubt: learn from our dissertation disasters

Recent graduates recall their dissertation slip-ups and share their advice on supervisors, footnotes and steering clear of the pub

I t’s likely to be the greatest academic challenge you’ll face as a student. Speak to a finalist working in the library at the moment and you’ll see from their gaunt and despairing facial expression that writing a thesis is not a fun thing to do.

These students take us through their hair-raising experiences - and share their tips for success.

I got the flu, and had to pull three all-nighters in a row

The dissertation was “a long, arduous process” for William Lloyd, a recent journalism graduate at Kingston University. “I caught the flu for the second time in my life, a week before it was due. That wasn’t ideal because I’d not really organised my time properly.

“True to form, I had left half of it to write with a few days left. I got a small extension due to the illness but had travel back to uni from home and do three all-nighters in a row at the library in order to get it done. Bloody hell, it took its toll.

“Whatever happens, my advice is not to panic. It was quite fun, in a way.”

My supervisor told me I was ‘not a scholar’

Cat Soave, a recent English literature graduate from the University of York, says: “I immediately encountered problems with my dissertation supervisor. They decided that I couldn’t write about the topic I had spent three years of education working up to. Their rationale was that I was “not a scholar” and would be unable to do adequate research for my topic.

“I was incredibly disappointed, and had to begin my research from scratch. In later meetings, I didn’t feel confident enough to be very vocal for fear of further criticism. I ended up completing my dissertation with next to no help or direction.”

What can we draw from Cat’s experience? It’s important to build a good relationship with your supervisor or try to find a different one if it clearly isn’t going to work.

Avoid unnecessary tinkering

Alys Key, a third-year English literature and language student at the University of Oxford, says: “The biggest problem I had with my dissertation was the final stages of drafting. The more I read it, the more it seemed to have problems, even if I’d been happier at an earlier stage.

“I think the key is to set yourself a cut-off point, at least a day or two before the deadline, and just limit yourself to proofreading. Everything seems bad when you’ve read it 100 times, so you have to have a bit of faith.”

I should have looked for more interesting research material

“Looking back, I should have researched more broadly,” says Emma Guest, an English literature and film studies graduate from Worcester University.

“I wrote my dissertation on two films by Guillermo del Toro. When I was looking for secondary reading to support my essay, I mainly focused on finding books on the topic. I think some people don’t realise that there are more interesting forms of secondary reading out there – such as archived papers, documentaries, and so on.”

Different tutors wanted different things - and some didn’t care

For Rupert McCallum, 21, a third-year biological sciences student at the University of Portsmouth, formatting his essay became an obstacle. “Different tutors within the department wanted different things - and some didn’t care,” he says.

“My advice would be to read up early on how to format your essay in case it becomes a pain closer to the deadline. Then double check, especially if the department is sending mixed messages. Although some of it may seem silly, sometimes it’s best just to jump through the hoops.”

I found it was easy to get sidetracked

Jessica Shales studied Anglo Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge – a specialist subject that can be difficult to research. “I found it was quite easy to become sidetracked, and to start reading lots in detail about stuff that wasn’t directly related to my question. If I were to start again, I think I would want to keep my overall aim more clearly in mind,” she says.

“I would also start writing it later than I did. I think I panicked a bit and wanted to get something down on paper, and so my argument wasn’t properly formed when I started writing. I think I was a bit scared by the fact that the dissertation was longer than anything I’d written before.

“I suppose my advice is to do whatever you’d try to do in a shorter essay, which is to pose a question, use relevant evidence to discuss it, and arrive at a conclusion accordingly.”

There’s nothing quite so soul-destroying as losing a page reference

Kate Wallis, 21, who studies arts and siences at University College London (UCL), learned the hard way to reference as she went along. “And I mean really reference, with page numbers. I cannot emphasise this enough.

“There’s nothing quite so soul-destroying as a stack of 20 books next to you that you have to go through to work out which elusive page your trifling statistic came from,” she says. “It’s advice that probably applies to all essay writing , but the dissertation is where it really comes to the fore.”

Top tip: don’t drink and dissertate

Don’t follow the example of William Buck, 21, who studied history at Cardiff University. “A desire to be in the pub let me down a bit. I was out at a night club about five times a week,” he says.

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How to keep motivated when working on your dissertation or final project

Is your summer filled with research and writing rather than relaxing? Motivation for a long-term project can be challenging to maintain, especially when it feels like everyone else in on a break. So we’ve put together our top tips on keeping motivated when writing your dissertation.

Write something every (work)day

On the days when you plan to work, aim to write a set number of words a day without fail. Giving yourself this target will do wonders to keep yourself motivated, slowly seeing yourself finishing up section after section while nearing the word count will give you an immense sense of progress. You can always go back and edit, but getting the words down is often the hardest part.

Plan your working hours throughout the day

Doing a 10 hour shift without any objective may seem like a productive session because of all the hours you’ve done but in reality it isn’t. Instead, work out what you want to achieve each day and break your day down into sessions. Give yourself a time in which you’ll get a certain task done. Depending what you want to achieve that day you might have one session, or you might have three if you’re really busy.

Forcing yourself to work in designated time slots with specific aims will help you be more productive (and give you time to do other things too).

Take a proper break/ do other things

Taking a break could be the best thing to get your motivation back. Try taking a walk outside if the weather is nice,meet your friends in the park, or switch off and enjoy some well-deserved Netflix – you won’t regret it and you’ll feel even more recharged for your next bit of work.

Find study partners

In many cases, having a study partner(s) will keep you motivated and accountable to each other to keep going. Additionally, having someone else read your work could help identify any mistakes you missed.

Partnering up with someone who is committed as you will also make your study sessions go faster.

Create a progress chart

One of the most demotivating things is the feeling of putting the hard work in without seeing any return.

By tracking your efforts, the progress chart will remind you of where you are doing well and where you need to focus more. It could be a visual reminder that you are moving in the right direction. Do this however suits you – tick off a to do list, something bright and colourful – whatever will make you feel that sense of achievement as you progress.

Take a look at MLE courses on over summer and our pieces on  writing productively,   and  proofreading  for more advice. 

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Dissertation Stress: Don’t Ignore the Warning Signs

Writing a dissertation is a very lengthy and difficult process. The students working on a dissertation often become a victim of dissertation writing stress. Therefore, before the stress can worsen your dissertation, you need to identify the sign of dissertation writing stress and avoid them from occurring. The preventive methods suggested in this article will help you avoid the dissertation stress and its signs.

Writing a dissertation is not an easy task. You need to work right from the process of identifying the research topic, formulating the questions, selecting the right methodology, reviewing the literature, and analysing the results. With such a huge responsibility, the students often get stressed.

Need for Stress Management: Dissertation Writing Stress

The stress plays a very vital role in the success of PhD dissertation. Only those students succeed who are capable of dealing with their stress are successful with their dissertation. Therefore, the students need to focus on stress management for a successful dissertation.

Signs of Stress

The students working on their dissertation can experience two types of stress: emotional and behavioural.

1. Emotional Signs

• Loss of interest in the activities that you felt interesting
• Restless and anxious
• Angry, argumentative and irritable
• Concentration issues
• Mental Laziness
• Avoiding dealing with problems

2. Behavioural Signs

• Difficulty in accepting things
• Avoiding regular responsibilities
• Behaving Compulsively
• Poor self-caring
• Financial and legal issues
• Poor follow-through on task

Preventive Solutions

Now that you known the need and the signs of dissertation writing stress, it is essential that you deal with it to make your dissertation submission successful. The best way to deal with it is through preventive solutions rather than solving it after it occurs. The best preventive measures to avoid stress are

• Time Management

1. Meditation

Meditation is a proven method of avoiding stress. The best thing about it is that it helps you clear your mind of the unnecessary thoughts that become the factors of stress. Achieving a meditating state depends on from one person to another. Some might achieve it in a silent place while some might active it in a natural place. While you meditate yourself out of stress, you can get help from dissertation writers in UK from the best dissertation writing services. These dissertation services in UK can complete your dissertation with a very high quality.

2. Exercise

Exercise is one of the most important tips that everyone provides. It is a very important and priceless tool to manage one’s stress. Moreover, as students working on dissertation have to sit for a long time, they definitely need some exercise to keep themselves physically active. Regular exercise increases the endorphin count in our body. This endorphin is responsible to energise you and elevate your mood. Moreover, doing exercise regularly reduces your cholesterol, which is one of the key chemical ingredients driving stress.

During your exercise, if the fitness freak within you awakens and you need to spend more time on fitness, you can get dissertation writing help from cheap dissertation writing services. These services will provide you dissertation services in UK at very reasonable prices without disrupting the quality.

Along with regular exercise, a well-structured diet plan is essential. The saying “you are what you eat” perfectly applies in this case.

When you eat junk food, your body will behave like a junk. While, feeding on a healthy diet will keep your body fit, active and healthy.  The best ways to stay focused on your dissertation and avoid stress is to snack on fruits and vegetables and avoid deep-fried foods.  In addition, some bottle of vitamins can keep you energized for your dissertation.  While some might suggest caffeinated beverages, you should always to consume a small amount of caffeine.

Sleep is important element in human life that is difficult to ignore. Being a student working on a dissertation, you should sleep for around seven hours a day to remain active and avoid stress. Moreover, you need to ensure that you sleep regularly at the same time to maintain the circadian rhythm of your body. Keep in mind that oversleep is equally harmful as lack of sleep.

Have you wondered why to waste your time while sleeping? In that case, you must get help from dissertation writing services in UK who can provide you with best dissertation writing service in UK .

Stress might be a huge blocker for your dissertation and it is essential that you do not ignore the warning signs. However, why wait for the signs to appear? You can take the precautionary steps discussed in this article to avoid stress and their signs. On the other hand, if need dissertation help from someone, you can reach out to Uniresearchers , one of the dissertation writing services in UK. It provides dissertation writing help to all the students looking for cheap dissertation writing services.

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No need to stress when the dissertation deadline approaches

We find that students are not more stressed or handle their stress differently at different points during the dissertation year. However, stress and coping are connected to tasks and challenges at hand. Additionally, students change their thinking about the dissertation over time. First, the dissertation is new and negatively perceived, then as a challenge and in the end negatively again.

Max Korbmacher is PhD Student at Faculty of Psychology, Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Max Korbmacher is also an author of the original article

Isa Ozdemir

Senior Scientific Editor

At most universities, students are supposed to write a dissertation at the end of their studies. Previous studies suggest that students perceive writing such dissertations as stressful. Such perceptions are dependent on a process called cognitive appraisal - the subjective reaction to what happens around a person- during which students will assess whether a situation is relevant and whether they are able to handle the situation. Students likely perceive their dissertation as relevant as it will influence a considerable part of the final grade. Students might also not feel like they have full control, sufficient knowledge or resources at all times and stages while writing their dissertation. These may cause stress which students can cope with different coping strategies , often grouped into emotion-focussed or problem-focussed coping. Subsequently, the process of appraisal and then coping is being repeated when the situation has not successfully been coped with. Hence, different appraisal and coping styles contribute differentially to students’ stress levels, and in the long run wellbeing and health. Nevertheless, the connection between appraisal, coping and stress has not yet been observed previously. We were therefore interested in how appraisal, coping and stress interact during the dissertation year, which we assumed to be a stressful time.

Sixty-four participants filled in an online survey at the beginning, middle and end of the academic year. The survey asked about the stress levels and how often different coping strategies were used during the last month, such as getting emotional support from others or alcohol and drugs. Another questionnaire addressed the students’ dissertation appraisal directly, or in other words, how much they agree/disagree with statements about the dissertation, such as “this dissertation has negatively affected my life”. Finally, students were asked to write down what concerned them about the dissertation, what in their lives caused stress at the moment, and how they personally coped with dissertation related challenges.

Interestingly, students did not get more stressed towards the end of the year with deadlines and exams approaching. Problematically, although our stress questionnaire is an established instrument, it did not do well in measuring stress reliably. However, students’ thinking about the dissertation and their stress coping strategies explained their stress levels well. The contribution of specific types of appraisal and coping strategies to stress levels remains however unclear, as their impact changed over time.

Students did also not change how they were coping with stress. Yet, their perception of the dissertation did. In the beginning of the dissertation year, students perceived the dissertation as harmful and connected feelings of loss, benign or irrelevance to it. Towards the middle of the year, the dissertation was perceived more positive, as a challenge. And in the end of the year, the rather negative perception of the year’s start returned.

As we were interested in the underlying individual and student-population-specific mechanisms, we looked at the responses students gave to open questions. These data are more difficult to interpret as they were only supplied by circa ¼ of the participants. The biggest concerns about the dissertation of those who answered were time management, data collection, feedback and the final grade. The top three coping styles were to do sports, work more on the dissertation, and to count on the support from others. Those partly reflect the questionnaire on coping. Stress besides the dissertation was mainly induced by having to work on courses besides the dissertation, in a job or volunteering position, or by planning the future after achieving the degree. Based on our observations, it can be assumed that students had less time for activities which help coming with dissertation-related stress towards the end of the year. This seems to have affected some students’ coping styles.

This study might be a valuable source of information, specifically for teachers and supervisors but also for family and friends. How students think about the dissertation and cope with related stress will influence their stress-levels. As this can impact students’ wellbeing, it is important to support students where possible. Time management seems to be a struggle during the dissertation. We suggested therefore to help with the planning process from the very beginning of the dissertation. Additionally, open dialogues and creating awareness about stress and health, and continuous contact between supervisor and student might be a recipe for a successful and healthy dissertation year. This can be arranged by a study module which accompanies the dissertation.

Original Article:

Next read: Finding Zika’s Achilles heel by Beata Kusmider

Isa Ozdemir , Senior Scientific Editor

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How To Write A Dissertation Or Thesis

8 straightforward steps to craft an a-grade dissertation.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2020

Writing a dissertation or thesis is not a simple task. It takes time, energy and a lot of will power to get you across the finish line. It’s not easy – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a painful process. If you understand the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis, your research journey will be a lot smoother.  

In this post, I’m going to outline the big-picture process of how to write a high-quality dissertation or thesis, without losing your mind along the way. If you’re just starting your research, this post is perfect for you. Alternatively, if you’ve already submitted your proposal, this article which covers how to structure a dissertation might be more helpful.

How To Write A Dissertation: 8 Steps

• Clearly understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is
• Find a unique and valuable research topic
• Craft a convincing research proposal
• Write up a strong introduction chapter
• Review the existing literature and compile a literature review
• Design a rigorous research strategy and undertake your own research
• Present the findings of your research
• Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Step 1: Understand exactly what a dissertation is

This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but all too often, students come to us for help with their research and the underlying issue is that they don’t fully understand what a dissertation (or thesis) actually is.

So, what is a dissertation?

At its simplest, a dissertation or thesis is a formal piece of research , reflecting the standard research process . But what is the standard research process, you ask? The research process involves 4 key steps:

• Ask a very specific, well-articulated question (s) (your research topic)
• See what other researchers have said about it (if they’ve already answered it)
• If they haven’t answered it adequately, undertake your own data collection and analysis in a scientifically rigorous fashion
• Answer your original question(s), based on your analysis findings

In short, the research process is simply about asking and answering questions in a systematic fashion . This probably sounds pretty obvious, but people often think they’ve done “research”, when in fact what they have done is:

• Started with a vague, poorly articulated question
• Not taken the time to see what research has already been done regarding the question
• Collected data and opinions that support their gut and undertaken a flimsy analysis
• Drawn a shaky conclusion, based on that analysis

If you want to see the perfect example of this in action, look out for the next Facebook post where someone claims they’ve done “research”… All too often, people consider reading a few blog posts to constitute research. Its no surprise then that what they end up with is an opinion piece, not research. Okay, okay – I’ll climb off my soapbox now.

The key takeaway here is that a dissertation (or thesis) is a formal piece of research, reflecting the research process. It’s not an opinion piece , nor a place to push your agenda or try to convince someone of your position. Writing a good dissertation involves asking a question and taking a systematic, rigorous approach to answering it.

If you understand this and are comfortable leaving your opinions or preconceived ideas at the door, you’re already off to a good start!

Step 2: Find a unique, valuable research topic

As we saw, the first step of the research process is to ask a specific, well-articulated question. In other words, you need to find a research topic that asks a specific question or set of questions (these are called research questions ). Sounds easy enough, right? All you’ve got to do is identify a question or two and you’ve got a winning research topic. Well, not quite…

A good dissertation or thesis topic has a few important attributes. Specifically, a solid research topic should be:

Let’s take a closer look at these:

Attribute #1: Clear

Your research topic needs to be crystal clear about what you’re planning to research, what you want to know, and within what context. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity or vagueness about what you’ll research.

Here’s an example of a clearly articulated research topic:

An analysis of consumer-based factors influencing organisational trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms.

As you can see in the example, its crystal clear what will be analysed (factors impacting organisational trust), amongst who (consumers) and in what context (British low-cost equity brokerage firms, based online).

Need a helping hand?

Attribute #2:   Unique

Your research should be asking a question(s) that hasn’t been asked before, or that hasn’t been asked in a specific context (for example, in a specific country or industry).

For example, sticking organisational trust topic above, it’s quite likely that organisational trust factors in the UK have been investigated before, but the context (online low-cost equity brokerages) could make this research unique. Therefore, the context makes this research original.

One caveat when using context as the basis for originality – you need to have a good reason to suspect that your findings in this context might be different from the existing research – otherwise, there’s no reason to warrant researching it.

Attribute #3: Important

Simply asking a unique or original question is not enough – the question needs to create value. In other words, successfully answering your research questions should provide some value to the field of research or the industry. You can’t research something just to satisfy your curiosity. It needs to make some form of contribution either to research or industry.

For example, researching the factors influencing consumer trust would create value by enabling businesses to tailor their operations and marketing to leverage factors that promote trust. In other words, it would have a clear benefit to industry.

So, how do you go about finding a unique and valuable research topic? We explain that in detail in this video post – How To Find A Research Topic . Yeah, we’ve got you covered 😊

Step 3: Write a convincing research proposal

Once you’ve pinned down a high-quality research topic, the next step is to convince your university to let you research it. No matter how awesome you think your topic is, it still needs to get the rubber stamp before you can move forward with your research. The research proposal is the tool you’ll use for this job.

So, what’s in a research proposal?

The main “job” of a research proposal is to convince your university, advisor or committee that your research topic is worthy of approval. But convince them of what? Well, this varies from university to university, but generally, they want to see that:

• You have a clearly articulated, unique and important topic (this might sound familiar…)
• You’ve done some initial reading of the existing literature relevant to your topic (i.e. a literature review)
• You have a provisional plan in terms of how you will collect data and analyse it (i.e. a methodology)

At the proposal stage, it’s (generally) not expected that you’ve extensively reviewed the existing literature , but you will need to show that you’ve done enough reading to identify a clear gap for original (unique) research. Similarly, they generally don’t expect that you have a rock-solid research methodology mapped out, but you should have an idea of whether you’ll be undertaking qualitative or quantitative analysis , and how you’ll collect your data (we’ll discuss this in more detail later).

Long story short – don’t stress about having every detail of your research meticulously thought out at the proposal stage – this will develop as you progress through your research. However, you do need to show that you’ve “done your homework” and that your research is worthy of approval .

So, how do you go about crafting a high-quality, convincing proposal? We cover that in detail in this video post – How To Write A Top-Class Research Proposal . We’ve also got a video walkthrough of two proposal examples here .

Step 4: Craft a strong introduction chapter

Once your proposal’s been approved, its time to get writing your actual dissertation or thesis! The good news is that if you put the time into crafting a high-quality proposal, you’ve already got a head start on your first three chapters – introduction, literature review and methodology – as you can use your proposal as the basis for these.

Handy sidenote – our free dissertation & thesis template is a great way to speed up your dissertation writing journey.

What’s the introduction chapter all about?

The purpose of the introduction chapter is to set the scene for your research (dare I say, to introduce it…) so that the reader understands what you’ll be researching and why it’s important. In other words, it covers the same ground as the research proposal in that it justifies your research topic.

What goes into the introduction chapter?

This can vary slightly between universities and degrees, but generally, the introduction chapter will include the following:

• A brief background to the study, explaining the overall area of research
• A problem statement , explaining what the problem is with the current state of research (in other words, where the knowledge gap exists)
• Your research questions – in other words, the specific questions your study will seek to answer (based on the knowledge gap)
• The significance of your study – in other words, why it’s important and how its findings will be useful in the world

As you can see, this all about explaining the “what” and the “why” of your research (as opposed to the “how”). So, your introduction chapter is basically the salesman of your study, “selling” your research to the first-time reader and (hopefully) getting them interested to read more.

How do I write the introduction chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this post .

Step 5: Undertake an in-depth literature review

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to do some initial review of the literature in Steps 2 and 3 to find your research gap and craft a convincing research proposal – but that’s just scratching the surface. Once you reach the literature review stage of your dissertation or thesis, you need to dig a lot deeper into the existing research and write up a comprehensive literature review chapter.

What’s the literature review all about?

There are two main stages in the literature review process:

Literature Review Step 1: Reading up

The first stage is for you to deep dive into the existing literature (journal articles, textbook chapters, industry reports, etc) to gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of research regarding your topic. While you don’t need to read every single article, you do need to ensure that you cover all literature that is related to your core research questions, and create a comprehensive catalogue of that literature , which you’ll use in the next step.

Reading and digesting all the relevant literature is a time consuming and intellectually demanding process. Many students underestimate just how much work goes into this step, so make sure that you allocate a good amount of time for this when planning out your research. Thankfully, there are ways to fast track the process – be sure to check out this article covering how to read journal articles quickly .

Literature Review Step 2: Writing up

Once you’ve worked through the literature and digested it all, you’ll need to write up your literature review chapter. Many students make the mistake of thinking that the literature review chapter is simply a summary of what other researchers have said. While this is partly true, a literature review is much more than just a summary. To pull off a good literature review chapter, you’ll need to achieve at least 3 things:

• You need to synthesise the existing research , not just summarise it. In other words, you need to show how different pieces of theory fit together, what’s agreed on by researchers, what’s not.
• You need to highlight a research gap that your research is going to fill. In other words, you’ve got to outline the problem so that your research topic can provide a solution.
• You need to use the existing research to inform your methodology and approach to your own research design. For example, you might use questions or Likert scales from previous studies in your your own survey design .

As you can see, a good literature review is more than just a summary of the published research. It’s the foundation on which your own research is built, so it deserves a lot of love and attention. Take the time to craft a comprehensive literature review with a suitable structure .

But, how do I actually write the literature review chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this video post .

Step 6: Carry out your own research

Once you’ve completed your literature review and have a sound understanding of the existing research, its time to develop your own research (finally!). You’ll design this research specifically so that you can find the answers to your unique research question.

There are two steps here – designing your research strategy and executing on it:

1 – Design your research strategy

The first step is to design your research strategy and craft a methodology chapter . I won’t get into the technicalities of the methodology chapter here, but in simple terms, this chapter is about explaining the “how” of your research. If you recall, the introduction and literature review chapters discussed the “what” and the “why”, so it makes sense that the next point to cover is the “how” –that’s what the methodology chapter is all about.

In this section, you’ll need to make firm decisions about your research design. This includes things like:

• Your research philosophy (e.g. positivism or interpretivism )
• Your overall methodology (e.g. qualitative , quantitative or mixed methods)
• Your data collection strategy (e.g. interviews , focus groups, surveys)
• Your data analysis strategy (e.g. content analysis , correlation analysis, regression)

If these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these in plain language in other posts. It’s not essential that you understand the intricacies of research design (yet!). The key takeaway here is that you’ll need to make decisions about how you’ll design your own research, and you’ll need to describe (and justify) your decisions in your methodology chapter.

2 – Execute: Collect and analyse your data

Once you’ve worked out your research design, you’ll put it into action and start collecting your data. This might mean undertaking interviews, hosting an online survey or any other data collection method. Data collection can take quite a bit of time (especially if you host in-person interviews), so be sure to factor sufficient time into your project plan for this. Oftentimes, things don’t go 100% to plan (for example, you don’t get as many survey responses as you hoped for), so bake a little extra time into your budget here.

Once you’ve collected your data, you’ll need to do some data preparation before you can sink your teeth into the analysis. For example:

• If you carry out interviews or focus groups, you’ll need to transcribe your audio data to text (i.e. a Word document).
• If you collect quantitative survey data, you’ll need to clean up your data and get it into the right format for whichever analysis software you use (for example, SPSS, R or STATA).

Once you’ve completed your data prep, you’ll undertake your analysis, using the techniques that you described in your methodology. Depending on what you find in your analysis, you might also do some additional forms of analysis that you hadn’t planned for. For example, you might see something in the data that raises new questions or that requires clarification with further analysis.

The type(s) of analysis that you’ll use depend entirely on the nature of your research and your research questions. For example:

• If your research if exploratory in nature, you’ll often use qualitative analysis techniques .
• If your research is confirmatory in nature, you’ll often use quantitative analysis techniques
• If your research involves a mix of both, you might use a mixed methods approach

Again, if these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these concepts and techniques in other posts. The key takeaway is simply that there’s no “one size fits all” for research design and methodology – it all depends on your topic, your research questions and your data. So, don’t be surprised if your study colleagues take a completely different approach to yours.

Step 7: Present your findings

Once you’ve completed your analysis, it’s time to present your findings (finally!). In a dissertation or thesis, you’ll typically present your findings in two chapters – the results chapter and the discussion chapter .

What’s the difference between the results chapter and the discussion chapter?

While these two chapters are similar, the results chapter generally just presents the processed data neatly and clearly without interpretation, while the discussion chapter explains the story the data are telling  – in other words, it provides your interpretation of the results.

For example, if you were researching the factors that influence consumer trust, you might have used a quantitative approach to identify the relationship between potential factors (e.g. perceived integrity and competence of the organisation) and consumer trust. In this case:

• Your results chapter would just present the results of the statistical tests. For example, correlation results or differences between groups. In other words, the processed numbers.
• Your discussion chapter would explain what the numbers mean in relation to your research question(s). For example, Factor 1 has a weak relationship with consumer trust, while Factor 2 has a strong relationship.

Depending on the university and degree, these two chapters (results and discussion) are sometimes merged into one , so be sure to check with your institution what their preference is. Regardless of the chapter structure, this section is about presenting the findings of your research in a clear, easy to understand fashion.

Importantly, your discussion here needs to link back to your research questions (which you outlined in the introduction or literature review chapter). In other words, it needs to answer the key questions you asked (or at least attempt to answer them).

For example, if we look at the sample research topic:

In this case, the discussion section would clearly outline which factors seem to have a noteworthy influence on organisational trust. By doing so, they are answering the overarching question and fulfilling the purpose of the research .

For more information about the results chapter , check out this post for qualitative studies and this post for quantitative studies .

Step 8: The Final Step Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Last but not least, you’ll need to wrap up your research with the conclusion chapter . In this chapter, you’ll bring your research full circle by highlighting the key findings of your study and explaining what the implications of these findings are.

What exactly are key findings? The key findings are those findings which directly relate to your original research questions and overall research objectives (which you discussed in your introduction chapter). The implications, on the other hand, explain what your findings mean for industry, or for research in your area.

Sticking with the consumer trust topic example, the conclusion might look something like this:

Key findings

This study set out to identify which factors influence consumer-based trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms. The results suggest that the following factors have a large impact on consumer trust:

While the following factors have a very limited impact on consumer trust:

Notably, within the 25-30 age groups, Factors E had a noticeably larger impact, which may be explained by…

Implications

The findings having noteworthy implications for British low-cost online equity brokers. Specifically:

The large impact of Factors X and Y implies that brokers need to consider….

The limited impact of Factor E implies that brokers need to…

As you can see, the conclusion chapter is basically explaining the “what” (what your study found) and the “so what?” (what the findings mean for the industry or research). This brings the study full circle and closes off the document.

Let’s recap – how to write a dissertation or thesis

You’re still with me? Impressive! I know that this post was a long one, but hopefully you’ve learnt a thing or two about how to write a dissertation or thesis, and are now better equipped to start your own research.

To recap, the 8 steps to writing a quality dissertation (or thesis) are as follows:

• Understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is – a research project that follows the research process.
• Find a unique (original) and important research topic
• Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal
• Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter
• Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review
• Undertake your own research
• Present and interpret your findings

Once you’ve wrapped up the core chapters, all that’s typically left is the abstract , reference list and appendices. As always, be sure to check with your university if they have any additional requirements in terms of structure or content.  

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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20 Comments

thankfull >>>this is very useful

Thank you, it was really helpful

unquestionably, this amazing simplified way of teaching. Really , I couldn’t find in the literature words that fully explicit my great thanks to you. However, I could only say thanks a-lot.

Great to hear that – thanks for the feedback. Good luck writing your dissertation/thesis.

This is the most comprehensive explanation of how to write a dissertation. Many thanks for sharing it free of charge.

Very rich presentation. Thank you

Thanks Derek Jansen|GRADCOACH, I find it very useful guide to arrange my activities and proceed to research!

Thank you so much for such a marvelous teaching .I am so convinced that am going to write a comprehensive and a distinct masters dissertation

It is an amazing comprehensive explanation

This was straightforward. Thank you!

I can say that your explanations are simple and enlightening – understanding what you have done here is easy for me. Could you write more about the different types of research methods specific to the three methodologies: quan, qual and MM. I look forward to interacting with this website more in the future.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions 🙂

Hello, your write ups is quite educative. However, l have challenges in going about my research questions which is below; *Building the enablers of organisational growth through effective governance and purposeful leadership.*

Very educating.

Just listening to the name of the dissertation makes the student nervous. As writing a top-quality dissertation is a difficult task as it is a lengthy topic, requires a lot of research and understanding and is usually around 10,000 to 15000 words. Sometimes due to studies, unbalanced workload or lack of research and writing skill students look for dissertation submission from professional writers.

Thank you 💕😊 very much. I was confused but your comprehensive explanation has cleared my doubts of ever presenting a good thesis. Thank you.

thank you so much, that was so useful

Hi. Where is the excel spread sheet ark?

could you please help me look at your thesis paper to enable me to do the portion that has to do with the specification

my topic is “the impact of domestic revenue mobilization.

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