Dissertation Writing Guide


WRITING YOUR DISSERTATION:
SOME GUIDELINES


 Getting started (Planning)
 Selecting a Supervisor
 Choosing a Topic
 Putting it all together (Research)
 Find Information
 Draft a Thesis Statement
 Make a tentative dissertation outline
 Writing it out (Writing)
 Writing the First Draft of the Thesis
 Revise the first draft: Organizing the Thesis
 Typing the final draft
Three Stages in Writing a Dissertation


 conform to accepted methodologies, university
policies, and style of presentation
 submit typed/printed manuscripts only
 have regular meetings
 be honest when reporting on progress
 follow advice given and incorporate suggestions for
improvement
Supervisor ‘s Expectations


 Choice of topic likely to be influenced by factors such
as:
Relevance
Supervision
Interest
Competence
Scale
Choosing a Topic


 Some tips
 Keep the following guidelines:
 Narrow down your topic into a specific title
 Be Concise
 Avoid waste words
 Do not indicate dates in the title
 Avoid jargons, symbols, formulas, acronyms, initials, and
abbreviations
Choosing a Topic


 Do not put the titles in sentence forms.
Change
“How Virginia Woolf Influenced Jeanette Winterson”
to
“The Influence of Virginia Woolf on Jeanette Winterson”
 Topic does not need to be totally new
 Avoid controversial topics
 Must be brief and grammatically correct
 Must be accurate and complete enough to stand alone.
Choosing a Topic


 A two- or three-word title may be too vague.
 A 14- or 15-word title is unnecessarily long.
 “Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, June Jordan, Maya Angelou,
and Rita Dove: A Critical Study of Black Consciousness,
Negritude, Black Feminism, Cultural Divide, and Crafted
Art”
 “A Study of Immigrants’ Journey Towards Self/Space in the
Selected Fictional Writings of M G Vaasanji, Neil
Bissoondath, Shyam Selvadurai, and Sky Lee”
Short and Long Titles


 Women’s Detective Fiction
 The Poetry of Richard Crashaw
 Tennyson and after
 South-Asian Diaspora Writing in Britain and America
 Shakespeare's Domestic Tragedies
 Middle English lyric poetry
 Creative Writing
 The English Epyllion
 Time and Space in H. G. Wells
 Psychology and the Modern Novel
Some vague titles

 A Reappraisal of the Short Stories of Mary Lavin
 Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney: A Study of Similarity and Contrast
 The British Boy Detective: Origins, Forms, Functions, 1860-1930
 Hospitality in Shakespeare's Problem Plays 1597-1603
 Domestic Iconography: Representations of Family Life in the Mid to Late
Victorian Period
 “Such Genius as Hers”: Music in New Women ‘s Fiction
 Roland Barthes and English-language Avant-garde Poetry, 1970-1987
 The Forging of Identity and Community in India and Welsh Writing from a
Postcolonial Perspective
 Medievalism in Virginia Woolf and Lynette Roberts: Ritualism, Spirituality, and
Community
 Representations of Women's Rage and Violence in Five Contemporary
American Films
Acceptable Topics


 You can choose to write about literature belonging to
different countries
American literature
 African-American literature
 Indian writing in English
 Commonwealth Literature
 You can write about the literature types of a particular
age.
 The most prominent forms, styles, and kinds of
poetry that make up that era.
Some Areas of Research in English
Literature


 You can write only about one author.
 You may have to research on the life of the
author
 his typical styles
 his famous literary works
 all his achievements etc.
Literature


 You can research on the different characters in a particular novel.
 You may study the different themes in a novel.
 You can write about the different literary devices used in a work of
literature.
 You can discuss the same literary term used differently in different
novels.
 Whichever topic you choose to write on, you are bound to face
some limitations.
Literature


 Find Information
Check out print and other materials
 Books
 Periodicals (for articles, critical essays, reviews, abstracts)
 Readers’ guide to periodical literature
 Computer-based materials and on-line resources
 Published and unpublished papers
 Dissertations and thesis
 Contemporary and classic works
 Edited collections and literature reviews
Research

The Broader Survey
 Typically includes more general works.
Should help you in several ways:
 to decide on the issues you will address
 to become aware of appropriate research methodologies
 to see how research on your topic fits into a broader
framework
 to help you not to “reinvent the wheel”
 to help you avoid any well-known theoretical and
methodological pitfalls
 to prepare you for approaching the critical review
Research


 Look at bibliographies of established scholars
 Look at recent research, constantly updating your
notes
 Use electronic sources
Research


Jot down full bibliographical information:

For books--author, full title including subtitle, place of
publication, publisher, date of publication, volume number,
edition, and page numbers.

For periodical articles—author, full title of the article
including subtitle, full title of the periodical, volume number
and issue number (if any), date of issue, inclusive page
numbers of the article.
 For electronic sources—author, title, print source, URLs,
creation or modification dates on Web pages, page numbers
and volumes etc., if available and your date of access.
Research


Drafting a Thesis Statement
 The Thesis Statement marks the transition from the research
process to the writing process.
 is the core essence of the dissertation.
 can be defined as a statement advancing an original point of
view as a result of research—expresses the controlling idea of
the dissertation.
 states the subject, indicates the purpose, uses specific
language, and specifies the scope of the topics and subtopics.
Research


The thesis statement must be adequately limited in scope.
 “Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.”
 “In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast
between life on the river and life on the shore.”
 “Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of
American ideals, one must leave ‘civilized’ society and go
back to nature.”
Guidelines for Writing a Thesis Statement


A thesis must contain a point or an assertion.
The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of
which were the same and some different.
While both sides fought the Civil War over the issue of slavery, the North
fought for moral reasons while the South fought to preserve its own
institutions.
While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against
tyranny and oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of
slaves while Southerners defended their own right to self-government.


A thesis on a controversial subject should not be wishy-
washy.
 Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play about a young
man who seeks revenge.
 Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is
in love with his mother.
Guidelines for Writing a Thesis
Statement


 A thesis should reflect understanding of a subject based
on fairly extensive reading.
Obvious: “There is a lot of symbolism in The Scarlet
Letter.”
Better: “Hawthorne’s use of symbolism in The Scarlet
Letter falters and ultimately breaks down with
the introduction of the character of Pearl.”


The current study investigates the relationship between . . .
The focus of this study will be on . . .
The objective of this research is to determine . . .
The purpose of the present study is . . .
This research concentrates on . . .
This thesis will deal with . . .
My thesis is . . .
This study examines . . .
This study is an attempt to . . .
Opening words for thesis statements


The present study endeavours to investigate how
Gwendolyn Brooks’ inscrutable mind evolves from ego-
centricism to ethno-centricism, and how this evolution
settled the subject matter of her poetry, especially her
perception of race, sex, and aesthetics of art, as
delineated in her poetry.
Sample thesis statement


An outline
 Helps you achieve a unified, supported, well-organized
thesis.
 Shows the order of the various topics, the relative
importance of each, and the relationship between the
various parts or the order in which the points will be
arranged.
Outline


 Writing the First Draft
 Write this draft as quickly as possible
 Put down everything you know about your topic
 Do not stop to make corrections, check facts or look
up words.
 Forget about spelling, grammar, and other issues
The Writing Process


Tips
 Start with the easiest material first.
 Write as much as you can initially, then refine it later
 If you get stuck at some point, leave a space on the
page and continue
Writing the First Draft

 Review your rough draft and make any changes or corrections before
writing the final copy.
 Arrange and rearrange ideas
 Get someone else to read over what you have written.
 Fresh thoughts on texts are essential.
 Quotations, should appear as an integral part of writing
 Use good Standard English
 Final draft should never contain typographical, grammatical, punctuation or
spelling errors.
 Make several back-ups
Revise Your First Draft: What Makes a Good Thesis


The text of the thesis is divided into chapters
Most theses are five chapters long.
Begin with an introduction stating your thesis
statement, develop your argument over a
series of chapters, and finish with a
conclusion.
Organization of the Thesis

 Presents an overview
 Includes a rationale
 Usually
 Serves as the frame within which the reader reads the rest of the thesis
 Provides background information
 Builds an argument for the research and presents research question(s)
and aims, and
 May present a theoretical starting point
Introduction


 The purpose of the literature review is
• To show that you are familiar with issues and current
debates in the field
• To show that there is an area in this field to which you
can contribute
• To discuss relevant theory
Reviewing the Literature

 The reviews should be integrative (broad summaries) rather than detailed
examinations
 Don’t simply provide a long list of separate descriptions of weakly related studies.
 “Smith (2007) did this,”
 “Jones (2009) did that ...”
 "Raines (1990) found ...," etc.
Each section should draw on previous ones
 "Using an older group of students, Brown (1986) found ..."
 "Walton (1982), however, failed to replicate those results with small classes."
 "In summary, the above work shows ..."
 Grouping studies together by type is better
 Should have a logical structure
Reviewing the literature


 What should you include in a literature review?
 Refer only to research projects which are closely
related to your own topic
 Focus on the most recent papers.
 Include key studies which are widely cited by others
Reviewing the Literature


 The remaining chapters should clarify and amplify the thesis
with well-researched statements, documented wherever
necessary.
 Each stage of the dissertation should focus on an individual
aspect of the topic and build an argument leading to a
summation and synthesis of thought in the conclusion.
 Each chapter should open with a brief discussion of the portion
of the problem to which the chapter is devoted and an
enumeration of the points to be covered.
 The concluding paragraphs of each chapter should summarize
the main ideas of the chapter.
The Body of the Thesis


 Every point you make must be supplemented by evidentiary
support
 Using quotations effectively is important
 Focus of the thesis must be your argument, based on primary
sources.
 There should be no gaps in the flow of logic and sense of
continuity.
 Avoid repeating yourself.
The Body of the Thesis


 The Conclusion
 Draws all arguments and findings together
 Summarizes major findings; does not merely restate the thesis
 Provides answers or solutions – to the extent this is possible –
to the questions or problems raised in the introduction
 Presents limitations
 Presents implications
 Suggests directions
Conclusion


 The list of sources used in the of the thesis.
Usually, it
 is written in alphabetical order
 may be annotated, though usually is not
 should not include works you found of no use
The “Works Cited”


 Implement all the changes to transform your rough draft
into a final copy.
 Good writing is hard to define. Bad writing is easy to spot.
 A badly-written thesis will have:
 Misspelled words
 Missing words
 Sentences that don’t make sense
 Poor use of punctuation
Type the Final Draft


While writing the final draft
 Arrange and rearrange ideas to follow your outline.
 Correct all errors that you can spot
 Know the conventions of thesis layout
 Consult MLA Handbook to find the correct forms of use
 Proofread the final copy carefully
 Ensure that the final draft is clean, tidy, neat, and attractive.
 Get feedback on them from your supervisor(s).
 Finally, be prepared to write and re-write.
Type the Final Draft


 Double space the text throughout
 Each page should have at least 27 (9 inches) typed lines.
 Observe well-balanced margins of one inch at top,
bottom, and right side of the paper and one and half inch
on the left.
 Do not right justify the lines. Do not divide words at the
end of a line
 Indent the first line of every paragraph five spaces.
Presentation of the Thesis


 Short quotes (fewer than four lines) should be
located within the text and enclosed by double
quotation marks.
 Single quotation marks are for quotes within quotes.
 The source of the quote must be written in
parentheses immediately after the closing quotation
marks, but before the main punctuation that closes
the sentence or clause.


 Leave one space after all punctuation as follows:
 after commas, colons, and semicolons
 after punctuation marks at the end of sentences
 after periods that separate parts of a reference citation
 after the periods of the initials in personal names
 Exception: Do not leave a space after internal periods
in abbreviations (e.g., a.m. i.e., U.S.)


 Commas and periods are placed inside the closing
quotation marks; colons and semicolons are placed
outside the closing quotation marks.
 Question marks and exclamation marks, not
originally in the quotation, go outside the quotation
marks; when they are part of the quotation, they go
inside the quotation marks.


 Hyphens, dashes, and minus signs are each typed differently.
 hyphen: use no space before or after
(e.g., trial-by-trial analysis)
 dash: type as two hyphens with no space before or after
(e.g., studies--published and unpublished--are)
 minus: type as a hyphen with space on both sides
(e.g., a – b)
 Page number should be typed half an inch from the top and one inch from the right
edge of the paper.
 Follow deadlines strictly.


Use appropriate verb tenses.
Keep the verbs you use in the same tense.

eg. Mrs. Mallory sees her returning son and, in
her excitement, twisted her ankle rather badly. Her
sister calls the doctor immediately.
Switching verb tenses upsets the time sequence
of narration.
Little Writing Tips: Some Dos and
Don’ts


 When you quote directly from a text or allude to the
events in a story (as in a brief plot summary), use
"the literary present." Quoting an essay, you would
write,
 Annie Dillard wrote Pilgrim at Tinker Creek when she
lived in Virginia's mountains. In the book's chapter,
"Seeing," Annie Dillard contends that "vision . . . is a
deliberate gift, the revelation of a dancer who for my
eyes only flings away her seven veils" (17).
Writing Tips


 When you write about fiction, use the present tense.
 At the end of Of Mice and Men, Lennie sees an enormous
rabbit that chastises him, making him to think of George.
 Mrs. Mallard, in "The Story of an Hour," whispers "'free, free,
free!'" after learning of her husband's supposed death.
 The above examples are a plot summary and a direct
quotation, both of which use the literary present.
Writing Tips


 Use the active voice
 Poor: The shelter is owned by the town, but the facility is
run by members of the humane society and supported, in
part, by funds raised by them. Most of the operating
expenses, however, are paid by the town.

Better: Although the town owns the shelter
and pays most of the operating expenses,
members of the humane society run the
facility and provide additional support
through fund raising.
Writing Tips


 Use first person when it helps to keep your meaning
clear and to express a purpose or a decision.
 Jones reported xyz, but I (or we) found . . .
I (or we) present here a detailed study . . .
My (or our) recent work demonstrated . . .
Avoid phrases such as “we believe,” “we feel,” “we
concluded,” and “we can see,” as well as personal
opinions. (Don’t use the royal “we”)
Writing Tips


 Avoid informal wording, don't address the reader
directly, and don't use jargons, slang terms, or
superlatives
 Be brief
Writing Tips


 Omit phrases such as

As already stated
It has been found that
It has long been known that
It is interesting to note that
It is worth mentioning at this point
It may be said that
It was demonstrated that
Writing Tips


 Use single words instead of phrases
a number of many, several
a small number of a few
are in agreement agree
are found to be are
at present now
if it is assumed that if
of great importance important
Writing Tips


 Use simple short words. “Use” not “utilize,” “several” not
“diverse.”
 Eliminate Redundancies and Repetitions
 (already) existing introduced ( a new)
 (alternative) choices mix (together)
 at (the) present (time) never (before)
 (completely) eliminate period (of time)
 (continue to) remain (private) industry
Writing Tips


 Cliches, slangs, and jargons are to be avoided in writing.
Cliches are hackneyed, worn-out, over-worked words or
phrases

quick as a flash (quickly)
 last but not least (last, finally)
 as plain as day (clear, obvious)
 the modern business world (business today)
 Crack of dawn (early morning)
 Dead of night (late night)
 First and foremost (in the beginning)
 To make a long story short (to summarize)
Writing Tips


 Do not try to impress people by using words most people
have never heard of.
 Do not use contractions: for example, "don't" must be "do
not" and "isn't" must be "is not" etc.
 Ensure quotation marks are paired.
 Don't say "Section X discusses"; you discuss things, not
the section!
Writing Tips


 Don't say:
a. "a lot of"
b. "absolutely"
c. "are going to"
d. "in real life"
e. "in recent years"
f. "in today's world"
g. "nowadays"
h. "on the other hand"
i. "on top of"
j. "would like to"
Writing Tips



 Avoid numbers starting a line
 Avoid starting a paper or section by quoting material
 Don't start a sentence with "Also," "And," "But," "Especially," "So," "Specially,"
"Whereas," "Yet," "Then," ...
 When starting a sentence with "Therefore," "However," "Moreover," and
"Hence," follow this word with a comma.
 Don't use the apostrophe for plurals such as MDs and 1970s.
 Don't use the "/" (slash) character, as in "A is better/faster than B."
 Don't wax lyrical!
Writing Tips


 "et al." needs a full stop after the "al.“
 For numbers less than hundred, write the number out in words, especially
numbers less than twenty; for example, write "two items" rather than "2
items."
 If you're quoting, keep the citation outside the quote, e.g. Bloggs says, "blah
blah" (93).
 Make large numbers easier to read by inserting a small space after every
three digits, for example: 850 123 456. Don't use commas for this.
 Substantiate every assertion.
Writing Tips


 Do not use another thesis/dissertation as a
model for your work since a particular style or
example in a previous year may not meet current
guidelines.
Writing Tips

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