How to structure a dissertation
The structure of a dissertation presents a complicated issue. Basically, it is the list of your objectives, research methods and personal findings. Opposed to an essay, the structure of the dissertation resembles an academic book rather than textbook or an essay, and the process should always be supervised by the teacher. The structure of a dissertation also includes the thesis, which should not exceed the 800-word summary of the whole work. Your academic department specifies the instructions and the word limit.
The structure of the dissertation should contain basic elements like the title page, abstract, introduction, methodology and literature review. In order to avoid inconveniences, it is written according to the guidelines, provided by your professor, which may vary from university to university. In other words, the structure of a dissertation is an independent element and an authentic research, aimed to possess academic quality and contents. The content page is what you write after you have provided your readers with the outline.
Introduction and methods
Introduction is what we call the preface of the dissertation. It gives your readers the main idea about the topic and how it should be handled later in the work. When writing an introduction, do not forget to include major elements of your future presentation and create a draft to accentuate the body paragraphs.
It is typical for the students to provide audience with a brief summary in the first part of the dissertation to deliver a more complicated layout later. An introduction should lead the readers smoothly into the next paragraph and serve as a bridge between two supporting points, which in our case stands for the substantive chapters. Accentuate the relevance to the current issues and ensure that the audience understands the main point before moving on to the next part.
Methodology is a part of the dissertation, which includes qualitative and quantitative research. Depending on the topic of the research, it may be secondary to the content, especially in theoretical disciplines. If you write an academic paper with the focus on an empiric finding, bringing methodology to the game can help. If you decide to focus on this section in more than one paragraph, provide your readers with a decent explanation and make your point about the relevance of your study process together with the issue researched.
Literature review
Literature review is an obligatory part of the substantive research themes and dissertations. It presents a brief survey of literature on the dissertation topic. It also serves the purpose of giving your audience a legitimate reason to explore the dissertation, stating that the research is original and the paper is written from scratch.
In other words, a review is created to fill the gap in the choice of the literature and give the full list of sources that have been informative and relevant to the current work. Literature review is often specified in the beginning of the dissertation, as it determines the structure of the work. Unless you conduct additional research, you might need to include the review in further findings. Remember the body of the dissertation should present a consecutive list of sections, which prove your thesis and the main point and act as the supporting statements.
Inquire about the style and representation of this type of work, as many universities demand their students to use Harvard referencing only, which may later turn into a problem if you didn’t pay attention to the key elements. The body of the dissertation requires an informative analysis of the material and cannot be underrated, as it is a mark of how well you are doing in terms of research statistics. You can modify theories at wish, but make sure your readers understand the theme.