A dissertation is the crowning achievement of years of graduate study. But many graduate students struggle long hours with formatting their dissertations properly. This book guides a graduate student, step by step, thorough the process of using Microsoft Word to produce a dissertation that meets the requirements of the student's graduate school -- the first time it's submitted. Throughout, the book uses real-world examples of formatting requirements from actual graduate schools, and is amply illustrated to provide a visual guide to working through Microsoft Word. Tips and tricks about Word will help a graduate student devote time to the content of the dissertation, not its formatting.
Research fuels innovation—and with this focused guide to Microsoft Word, you can help increase your team’s collaborative power and effectiveness, and bring new research to life. Writing proposals, reports, journal articles, theses, and other technical documents as a team poses unique challenges, not the least of which is consistent presentation and voice. You must also manage the formatting and accuracy of figures, equations, and citations, and comply with the style rules of external publications. In this book you’ll learn from the authors’ extensive experience managing the authoring and publication of technical content, and gain specific practices and templates you can apply right away. Focuses on the unique challenges of writing and producing documents in an academic or commercial R&D setting Demonstrates how to use Microsoft Word to increase the quality of collaborative document preparation—including formatting, editing, citations management, commenting, and version control Includes downloadable templates that help automate creation of scientific documents Offers best-practices guidance for writing in teams and writing in the scientific genre
If you are studying at undergraduate or masters level it's likely that you will have to write a dissertation, critical essay or project report before you can graduate. Unfortunately, many good pieces of student research and inquiry are devalued - and sometimes even fail - because they are badly planned, structured or written. Make all that hard work count! This new guide looks directly at the processes, techniques and objectives of writing the dissertation itself. It covers longer term aspects - such as planning, scheduling, structuring - and more immediate ones - such as style, detail and managing the length. - Learn how to understand and decode the academic language of research questions, learning outcomes, objectives and assessment criteria, and translate them into the right form of words. - Discover how to maintain that essential focus on your objectives and research question or hypothesis, and their connection to your discussion and eventual conclusions. - Develop a schedule, identifying the tasks and milestones that will keep you on track, and update the plan as you go. - Find a style and structure that will help shape your writing to satisfy the examiners. - Manage the overall length and chapter lengths, and learn how to cut excess content and avoid repetition. - Master the technicalities of dissertation writing, such as methodologies, literature reviews, note systems, referencing...- Learn to how to transform an adequate dissertation into a good one by attending to fluency and detail - grammar, accuracy, consistency, punctuation - and the controlled use of aids such as spellcheckers and style checkers. - Avoid plagiarism and other evils. How can you avoid falling into cheating, either by accident or by carelessness under pressure? With examples and self-checking exercises to help you to stay on the right track, this essential guide will also serve as a valuable aid to all types of academic writing.
A growing number of both established and newly developed doctoral programs are focusing on the preparation of practitioners rather than career researchers. Professional doctorates such as the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Doctor of Education (EdD), Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), Doctor of Professional Studies (DProf or DPS), and the Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) are, in fact, just a few of the professional doctorates being offered today. Professional doctorates are the fastest growing segment of doctoral education. The nature of the dissertation and the process of completing a dissertation can be quite different in a professional practice doctoral program but there are few resources for both students and faculty involved in completing and mentoring such dissertations. This book was written specifically for students and faculty involved in professional practice dissertation work. It addresses both the tasks and procedures that professional practice dissertations have in common with dissertations in "research" doctoral programs as well as the tasks and issues that are more common in professional practice doctoral programs. For example, negotiating entry into applied settings and securing the cooperation of practicing professionals is covered, as are alternative models for the dissertation (e.g., the "three article dissertation" or "TAD"). The book also covers tasks such as getting IRB approval for applied dissertation research conducted in the field and how to propose and carry out studies based on applied and professional models of research. This book, written by three experienced mentors of professional practice dissertation students, is the comprehensive guide for both students and faculty.
According to the Council of Graduate Schools, only 57 percent of students who start their Ph. D.s complete them within 10 years, and many times it's the thesis or dissertation that is holding them back. But if you're equipped with How to Write an Exceptional Thesis or Dissertation, you won't waste precious time deliberating how to organize and execute a persuasive, thorough thesis or dissertation for both master's and doctorate levels. Even if you have never written a paper that spanned more than five pages or spoken in front of a committee, you will learn how to easily formulate and utilize the correct research methodology, organization, citation styles, formatting options, submission guidelines, and presentation pointers to ensure that the academic world will notice -- and respect -- your hard work. With this book, you will learn everything from the ground-level basics to the more detailed breakdown of the research process. You will gain a strong understanding of the difference between a thesis and dissertation, and you will grasp the components expected of your work -- regardless of the subject matter of your research. This book will walk you through the entire process step-by-step, teaching you how to structure a planning and writing schedule that will keep the process manageable and not overwhelming. You will learn how to locate and recognize a topic that is appropriate for your thesis or dissertation, and you will discover how to expand on the subject matter to ensure it's unique and distinct from any other research out there. How do you know if your research proposal is too broad or too narrow? How do you know what academic assistance is available to help you further? How to Write an Exceptional Thesis or Dissertation will break it all down. In this book, you will gain insight regarding the entire research process, from organizing your literature and materials most effectively to analyzing and evaluating the big picture for defense. This book will ensure that your argument is strong, sound, and persuasive throughout your entire thesis or dissertation, from the introductory chapter through the summarizing conclusive statements, and you will learn how to do so without plagiarizing or cutting corners. You will master how to write ethically, objectively, and properly according to your academic subject's standards, as well as how to work within a committee, work with the aid of your advisor, present your defense, and get your work published worldwide. Understand how to undergo a formal peer review and how to revise your writing to be accurate and up-to-date. With this book as your guide, you will even find out how your research can take you from a proposal to a published writing career. Within the pages of this easy-to-understand manual are countless interviews conducted with experienced, published academic writers and researchers who dispense valuable advice that will help you succeed. Read about their trials and errors through the thesis -- and dissertation -- writing process from proposal to defense, and apply this knowledge to your own academic career. With this book as your guide, your thesis or dissertation will be a pleasure for you to write -- and a pleasure for your academic audience to read. If you don't think you are capable of being a groundbreaking writer and researcher in your field, think again.
A doctoral dissertation is arguably the most important journey that students will embark upon in their professional careers, so smart travelers will want E. Alana James and Tracesea H. Slater’s Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation or Thesis Faster: A Proven Map to Success at their fingertips. James and Slater identify the key places and challenges that create extra stress during the dissertation process, and offer effective strategies and tools to address those challenges and ensure academic success. Their map walks readers through each step of the process, including: • determining the research topic, • choosing appropriate methods, • turning a hypothesis into a study, • completing a literature review, • writing and defending a proposal, • collecting and analyzing data, • writing up the study, and • ultimately defending the dissertation. Building on years of experience with doctoral students, the authors provide a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use tool that encourages student reflection; includes student stories, hints, and writing tips; and provides end-of-chapter checklists and ideas for incorporating social media. With the proven techniques and guidance of this indispensable book, doctoral students will finish their thesis or dissertation—faster!
Conducting good research is critical to any student today. Writing good research papers is equally important—yet many students have not been given the proper tools to convey cogently the results of their research. This book is for you or anyone who needs a step-by-step approach to the writing of a research paper in the field of economics. Most books concerned with research writing are broadly applied. They approach the subject generally, which is to say that they don't lay out a particular path to conducting research. Yet a specific path offering a specific focus to writing research is exactly what is needed for most students. This book provides that focus. For example, this book doesn’t cover a dozen different search engines to perform a literature review; it specifies only EconLit. Nor are you left to decide what scholarly publications are important ones to review; the book emphasizes only the use of journal impact factors found through RePEc to rank journal articles and their importance to the literature at large. Whereas other books provide an overview of how to present research, with only cursory suggestions and tips, inside this book, the authors provide precise details on all aspects of research writing, including how many PowerPoint slides one should prepare for presentations and how much content should be on each slide. In short, unlike other books, this book provides a specific approach to conducting research, writing a paper, and presenting its material.
This accessible guide equips students to succeed in their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation in psychology. The authors provide concrete assistance to the myriad tasks and requirements that students will encounter as they plan, conduct, and present their dissertation or thesis research. Drawing upon their many years of experience in working with graduate students, the authors address the multiple stages of the dissertation and thesis process. They take you through drafting the proposal, the advisor-advisee relationship, interacting with committee members, the writing process, handling obstacles, and the final presentation. Chapters provide guidance on using a research team, collecting data, conducting a literature review, and even acquiring financial support. Finally, students will find additional resources such as practical information on copyright issues, research methods, case analyses, and teleconferencing. This is an essential book for both graduate psychology students working on their master’s theses or doctoral dissertations and their advisors.
You don’t have to be a genius to write a PhD. Of course, it will always involve a lot of hard work and dedication, but the process of writing is a whole lot easier if you understand the basic ground rules. This book is a guide through the dos and don’ts of writing a PhD. It will be your companion from the point when you decide to do a PhD, providing practical guidance to getting started, all the way through the nuts and bolts of the writing and editing process. It will also help you to get - and stay - in the right mental framework and establish good habits from the beginning, putting you in a commanding position later on. Examples are tailored to the biological sciences, offering a unique reference for PhD students in these disciplines. Embarking on a PhD doesn’t need to be daunting, even if it’s your first experience working within academia. Each short section focuses on writing - considered by many to be the most difficult aspect of a PhD - and delves into a practical detail of one aspect, from the title to the supplementary material. Whether you’re a student just starting your studies, an early career researcher or a supervisor struggling to cope, the book provides the insider information you need to get ahead.
The relationship of supervisor to student has traditionally been seen as one of apprenticeship, in which much learning is tacit, with the expectation that the student will become much like the tutor. The changing demographics of higher education in conjunction with imperatives of greater accountability and support for research students have rendered this scenario both less likely and less desirable and unfortunately many supervisors are challenged by the task of guiding non-native speaker students to completion. This handbook is the ideal guide for all supervisors working with undergraduate and postgraduate non-native speaker students writing a thesis or dissertation in English as it explicitly unpacks thesis writing, using language that is accessible to research supervisors from any discipline.
