How To Write Dissertations And Project Reports: 6 Tips To Keep In Mind

Writing dissertations and project reports are highly detailed projects that can quickly overwhelm students. The best way to successfully navigate these challenging tasks is to take each step one at a time. In most cases, it is too difficult to do several steps at once. Here are six tips to keep in mind when writing these long and tedious papers:

1. Decide on a topic you can tolerate for an extended period of time. Since you will be working with this topic for a few weeks, months, or years, it is a good idea to pick something that fascinates you. Otherwise, you will be bored and you will fall behind in the process. Once students fall behind and get bored with their topics, they tend to fail. No one wants to fail a dissertation, it is simply too much work to have to do twice.
2. Record all of your research and sources. Another problem that students have is losing track of their research and sources. It is vital to develop a system that you can use to organize all of the information you find. Some students will color code, others will use a numbering system. Whatever you do, pay close attention to what you find and do not lose it.
3. Organize around the thesis. Your thesis statement will guide you through the project. Be sure that every part that you write continues to prove that point. Even if you are proving the opposite of the thesis, that guiding opinion is all you need to worry about throughout the paper.
4. Write a rough draft. This is vital. Once you have the paper organized, you have to write it. This might seem like an obvious thing to say, but it is easy to say that writing the paper is too hard. You just have to do it and finish it. Even if it is terrible, you must get the words on paper and out of your head. Once this happens, you can make any adjustments that are necessary.
5. Follow the assignment format. Whether you use MLA, APA, or something else, be sure that you know exactly what goes where and put it there.
6. Proofread several times and in several ways. Hire someone, read your dissertation backwards, read it aloud to yourself. Whatever you have to do to proofread, do it. And, do it several times to insure that your paper is well written.