Writing a dissertation for your Master’s Degree can be a very daunting task.  This is because a Master’s Degree dissertation depends solely on the capacity of the student for comprehensive research. Dissertations are the last stage necessary for the student to complete before he/she can be awarded a Master’s or Doctoral certificate.  For most students, it is the longest, hardest part of the study as you are required to conduct an in-depth study into the nature of the topic.

What is a Dissertation?

Cambridge Dictionary has defined “dissertation” as “a long piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one that is done in order to receive a degree at college or university”.  In other words, dissertations are treatises advancing a new point of view as a result of adequate research and it is usually a requirement for an academic degree.

 Which is Correct: Dissertation or Thesis?

Often times, the words “dissertation” and “thesis” are often interchangeably used. There are variations, however, across countries and universities or colleges. In some academic arena, the word “dissertation” refers to the final project writing required of prospective Master’s and Doctorate Degree students before they can be awarded the degree for which they are studying. It excludes the Undergraduates. In some other countries and academic parlance, it refers to both the Undergrads and the Master’s Degree writing requirement. In some countries and universities belonging to the third category, however, “dissertation” is exclusively used to refer to only Doctoral Degree program writings with the exclusion of both Undergrads and Masters.

Some Academics have gone further in using the two nomenclatures to differentiate the constituent of the research work itself. Some argue that “dissertation” refers to the work as a whole, while “thesis” refers specifically, to that statement or sentence which conveys the issue or subject matter of the research. Whichever is the case in your country and university, it is more prevalent in the UK for both terminologies to be used interchangeably.

Dissertation in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a student is often required to write a dissertation and then appear before the Dissertation Committee for the defense of the Dissertation. The thesis defense is often called viva voce which in Latin roughly translates to “by live voice”. This depicts the oral defense style that is often employed in which the Masters’ Student would be required to stand before a dissertation committee of two to three Supervisors. The first Supervisor would be a lecturer in the student’s university department. The second defense supervisor would be an external supervisor from another University entirely. At times, there could be a third supervisor who would often be “The Chair”, ensuring that the dissertation examination process is fair.

All three supervisors are knowledgeable Academics in the area of focus of the thesis. While the first and second lecturers are both allowed to ask questions and examine the student, the third supervisor – “The Chair” is not to ask, answer or contribute to the examination of the student. He/she is more or less an inactive observer. A lecturer depending on the bulky or complex nature of the dissertation would have been assigned to monitor, review, and render any form of academic guidance to the student in the process of carrying out the research. The Supervisor who was directly involved in assisting the student in the research process is not mandated to be present. And if present, such a supervisor is not allowed to ask, answer, or make any comment during the thesis defense.

The Importance and Purpose of the Master’s Dissertation

The importance of a Master’s Thesis can never be overstated. It should be categorically stated here that your Master’s thesis can prevent you from being awarded your Master’s Degree if you fail to meet the required standards. It is as important as that. There’s virtually no university you will attend where you won’t be required to engage in dissertation writing when you are nearing the completion of your course. This is why some Universities would write on the cover page of the dissertation “…in partial fulfillment of his/her M.A. …” Dissertations are a requirement before students can be awarded their Master’s Degree.

The purpose of a Master’s Dissertation is that, firstly, a Master’s Dissertation grants you an opportunity to develop or prove that you have gained a deep knowledge and understanding regarding a specific area of study. The thesis should be sufficient to prove that you are skilled in identifying area/areas suitable for research. It teaches you the art of locating, setting research objectives, selecting and adopting the right research methodology, analyzing data, and the ability to give relevant recommendations.

In addition, though not always, it can also serve as the stepping stone for your doctoral work. Furthermore, it is a demonstration of your research and writing skill; both of which are necessary for every Masters’s student.

Building a Dissertation for Master’s Degree

To build a dissertation for a Master’s Degree requires the following thesis structure.

• Title Page: Your thesis must have as its first page – a title page. This contains the title of your dissertation (ensure it is concise and not too broad), your name, and the type of degree for which it is meant. You can also check how to create the perfect dissertation title.
• Content Page: This is the page that gives an outline of all your chapters, sections, and subsections that the reader will come across throughout your thesis.
• Abstract: This is a single-page summary of all that is contained within the dissertation.
• Introduction: This section introduces the dissertation topic by using a concise, brief, simple language thesis statement and declares the type of methodology to be adopted in the gathering and analysis of research data.
• The Body: This is the bulkiest section which addresses the dissertation topic across a number of chapters. It often does this within 3-4 chapters. Different aspects of the topic are expected to be treated but ensure they are all cohesively tied to the central subject matter.
• Conclusion: This is an extremely crucial part that gives a summary of the whole work while restating your thesis, highlighting the results of the research, recommendations, and prospects of the research.
• Bibliography: This is the section where you provide and cite all forms of research materials used throughout the process of gathering and analyzing your research data. If possible, divide it into two such that a part of the bibliography is meant for primary sources, while the second part is meant for secondary sources. Ensure every source(s) used is adequately cited so as to avoid allegations of plagiarism.
• Appendices: This section is not always necessary in all dissertations. If you need to give extra information on a particular term, slang, or informal word usage or expressions, this is where you do it.

You do not necessarily have to go through all these processes before your Master’s Thesis can be ready, simply contact Peachy Essay today to order for your Master’s Degree Dissertation writing.

7 TIPS ON YOUR MATER’S DISSERTATION WRITING

If you intend to write a better Master’s Dissertation than your colleagues, then the following 7 tips may be useful in your writing. Completing a Thesis requires that you appropriate the following tips:

1. Choose an Interesting, Narrow Topic
2. Prepare a Good Dissertation Proposal
3. Plan a Workable Schedule
4. Gather Extensive Research Materials
5. Your First Draft Cannot Be Perfect
6. Write Your Introductions Last
7. Consult Your Dissertation Supervisor/ Academic Tutor Regularly

1. Choose an Interesting, Narrow Topic

Before you begin writing or anything else, choose an interesting topic that is narrow and not too broad. Many students increase their workload and encounter difficulty in the writing of their Master’s Thesis because they chose the wrong topic. When choosing a topic, limit the scope of the topic. Remember that dissertations are supposed to be products of extensive research. If therefore, you choose a topic that is too broad, then, the implication is that you now have on your hands, extensive broad research to conduct. Take, for example, two students who decided to write their Master’s dissertation on “Maximizing Waste Recycling technology”. The first student phrases his topic as “Maximizing Waste Recycling Technology; the Case of Europe” and a second student phrases her own as “Maximizing Waste Recycling Technology; the Case of London”.

If we are to face the obvious truth, the second student would be able to achieve her research objectives much more sufficiently and would be able to cover the research area much more closely than the first student who decided to pick a whole continent as his research domain. Choose a topic that you find interesting and which is very limited in scope to a particular research area. Otherwise, your research won’t be comprehensive even though you’ve analyzed such a huge chunk of materials.

2. Prepare a Good Dissertation Proposal

A dissertation proposal is a document that you prepare and submit to the Research/Dissertation Committee of your institution before your dissertation research can be accepted. More often than not, some research proposals are fine-tuned by the Research Committee so as to make the research feasible. An example is the first tip discussed above. In such cases, the Research Committee often trims and narrows down research topics that are too broad.

If, however, your research proposal is totally not feasible, your research proposal will be rejected and you will have to go seek another one, otherwise, the Committee gives you one.

Reasons, why departments require students to submit a research proposal, include:

• The Research Committee or Department has to ensure that your chosen topic of research is a feasible field for research purposes.
• Submitting your research proposal also enables your Department’s Research Committee to determine and assign an expert Supervisor who would monitor and assist in your research process.

If, however, you feel less inclined to submit your research proposal, how then will you be assigned an expert in that field who would put you through difficult stages in your research process? If your chosen topic isn’t a feasible research area, you will only keep going around in circles, wasting your time.

3. Plan a Workable Schedule

One thing that is common to almost everybody is that you won’t always feel like writing. This is why you create a workable schedule. Do not create a schedule by simply writing the words “work on your dissertation” or “write your thesis today”. No! Be more specific. Write something like “Write Chapter 2 today”, “Write the conclusion today”. These are more specific. If you generalize your schedule, you will simply keep looking at your screen because you wouldn’t know where to start from and how to proceed.

By “workable schedule” we mean you should create a schedule that would be easy for you to follow through with. It is a fact that it is not every day that you would be able to write or work on your thesis; the body needs rest. Do not wait to be inspired, go out, and search for that inspiration.

4. Gather Extensive Research Materials

A student that hasn’t gathered enough research materials before starting a dissertation will get stuck along the line. A dissertation is basically for the purpose of research, you cannot avoid that.

Before you even start writing at all, you have to ensure that you have enough research materials already.  If you do not, you will get to a point when your research materials get exhausted and you’ll get stuck. In fact, the availability of research materials should be one of your major considerations before choosing a topic. If you choose a topic with scanty or inaccessible research materials, then you will definitely get stuck mid-way.

5. Your First Draft Cannot Be Perfect

Many Masters Students miss out because they aim to be perfectionists right from the onset of their first dissertation draft. Many are discouraged from writing further because they feel that their first draft should be perfect and error-free. Hence, when they realize the universal truth that man is bound to make mistakes, they become discouraged at the fact that they keep committing errors.

Be informed, however, that making mistakes is part of the learning process. Why in the first place would you be assigned an Academic Tutor or Supervisor if not to help in correcting those inevitable, expected mistakes? Feel free therefore to correct those poor word choices, wrong syntax, inappropriate punctuations, and incorrect spellings. It is part of the learning process.

6. Write Your Introductions Last

Another mistake student often makes is to spend so much time on the introductory aspect. When you try to write your introduction first before the other parts of the body, you may probably get stuck. It is much easier to write your introductory pages last.

It is usually much easier to write an introduction for something you have already written based on the simple fact that you now know what you are introducing.

You might labor so hard in trying to capture your reader’s attention with a catchy introduction while refusing to move further until you have a flawless introduction. More often than not, it leads to time wastage and can even end in you being frustrated since the inspiration for the perfect introduction is not coming up easily.

7. Consult Your Dissertation Supervisor/ Academic Tutor Regularly

Whatever you do, and at every stage of your Master’s Dissertation writing, ensure your Dissertation Supervisor is updated. This is because he/she is an expert in that field and can easily see mistakes where you see perfection.

Secondly, it is the colleagues/tutors like your Academic Tutor that would probe you with questions on the day of your Thesis Defense. Hence, he/she knows the likely areas where the internal and external supervisor may find fault and it is his/her job to help you work on such areas.

Thirdly, in most universities, if your assigned Supervisor does not certify your dissertation as worthy of appearing for final defense, you will have to keep re-writing and re-writing which in turn means you won’t graduate on time. Why not take him/her as a friend and run a smooth research process?

In all, completing a Thesis is not dependent on these 7 tips and clues alone, there are more than time and space would permit us. The best decision you can therefore take today is to contact professional writers like Peachy Essay that know all the pros and cons of writing a good Master’s Dissertation. Instead of doing a not-so-good job or giving it to shabby writers thereby jeopardizing your timely graduation, why not give that Master’s thesis to Peachy Essay today and pay just a token?