In searching for materials for your assignments, you have included journal articles and books, among others. However, literature search for thesis writing is more comprehensive. You must include materials from other libraries because your reference list should be more extensive. This way, you are able to see to it that you have read about your topic as broadly as possible.

When you do a literature search, you need to define the boarders of your topic range, plan your search, search systematically, review the materials you have gathered and talk with the librarian. You start your search with having a clear picture of the scope of the range of your general subject. With this, make a preliminary search. Look for information that will help you narrow down your topic. Get some ideas from published literature and make your own ideas based on them.

So that you can plan your search well, break down your topic into keywords. Make a detailed analysis of your topic and the keywords. Make a list of the keywords and use it as a guide when doing your research. Also, prepare a list of which library catalogues, databases and internet gateways, among others which you will search. Research is very crucial in writing the thesis. The whole process of writing the thesis involves planning, research, writing and proofreading. Each phase is an important part of the whole. In other words, dissertation writing guidelines include research guidelines.

Your advisor or tutor will help or guide you to make your dissertation proposal. Your working relationship with him should be the correct mix of mentor-apprentice, overseer-overseen, superior-subordinate and not manager-worker. Mentor-apprentice because you will be working on your own craft but with the counsel of your advisor’s wisdom. Overseer-overseen because as your advisor or tutor, he will see to it that your are working in the path towards the right direction. Superior-subordinate because you still need to follow his pieces of advice. Even though they are pieces of advice, you must follow them because they are the only ways in which you will succeed in your goals.

In preparing and writing your dissertation proposal, your advisor or tutor is not your manager and you are not his worker. You work for your own goal and manage your own work. He will not manage you and your work; it is not his function. Managers, especially in the corporate environment, manage a certain work and the people involved because they will be directly benefited of the work’s success. On the other hand, advisors and tutors actually derive just a very little amount of benefit from the success of the work and this is the fulfilling feeling of having helped you.

The dissertation format requirements and guidelines include not only the page layouts like margins, fonts and font sizes but also what chapters you will use and what specific name you will give to them. This also includes how you will write some specific parts. Thus, you need to know all of these to be able to do everything right at the first time. This way, you will avoid wasting time, effort and resources.

Again, you do not have to obsess on the dissertation format requirements and guidelines. However, you just need to know them and simply apply as you go along. This is the simplest aspect of your dissertation and it will greatly help if you can put this concern away by simply knowing and complying them.

To be able to deal with the format requirements and guidelines of your dissertation means you reduce your concerns and can give more time and effort to your research and writing. You can work more effectively and freely knowing that you have put away having to worry about being able to comply with formatting. You will be rest assured that, after your writing phase, you just need to continue to the next phase and not go back by rewriting to be able to comply with formatting.

You can do your writing right the first time by knowing the formatting requirements and guidelines of your dissertation. You do not need to worry about having to assign time to rewrite your writing to take into account the formatting. Know the formatting right from the start and always comply with them.

1. Title Format – Many titles have two stages the university continues in its discussion of the dissertation format. The first stage gives the general direction and the second gives the particular concentration. Examples are, “New approaches to teaching MFL: an analysis of the role of communicative approaches to language learning within school text books,” “Obstacles to collaborative working: a comparison of Y9 pupil attitudes to cooperative team work in schools in England and New Zealand,” and “Learning styles and the curriculum: an exploration of the difficulty in addressing preferred learning styles amongst a set of underachieving Y6 pupils.

2. Format of Introduction, Part I, Personal Interest – For the introduction and / or background portion of the dissertation format, you should be willing to explain what personal interest you have in the study. For example, the topic you are writing about has direct effects to your education. Another possible interest is that you have been motivated by a work you have seen. Here are some specific examples you can base your own from. “I am interested in the area of learning styles as I could see from my own experience that I had a preferred way of learning which was not being addressed in school. I found school challenging and frustrating and this led me to find out more about other learners who had felt that schools were not catering for them.” “I am interested in gender and pupils talk as my experience has been that discussions are dominated by men. I wanted to know whether this was really the case and if so why it was happening and what the consequences were for learning.

3. Format of Introduction, Part II, Other Authors’ Opinions – After stating your personal interest, you should go beyond it. Discuss other authors’ propositions about the topic. During this stage, you are not yet to assemble a comprehensive literature review. However, you should cite the key issues and the key authors. Organise your knowledge in a coherent way. If you have difficulties, you can get some more dissertation help.

• Reverse Time – One good way to plan and lay out a timetable for your dissertation writing is to do it in reverse. This is because the latter parts should be given more time and more allowance time. Start with the deadline backwards. The sequence, from the end, can be deadline, cushion time, final writing with its components, research with initial writing and planning as the start.

• Working with Your Advisor – In planning your timetable, you need to consider the schedule of your dissertation writing supervisor. You need your supervisor to read and discuss your manuscript with you before you start the final printing. Plan ahead with your supervisor the time you will give for the reading and discussion. Set work completion milestones or frequency of updating. It is also better to add to the discussion the length and structure of the dissertation and the dissertation format before you start writing.

• Place and English – Before you start writing, you need to evaluate how good your written English is and think about where you are going to do your writing. For your writing locations, you need to choose those in which no one can disturb you and in which your materials should always be safe. Your home or your bedroom will do. Just see to it that you can manage your time and focus when you write in these places. You can also go to the library and bring your materials if permitted. The library is sure to be quiet and it offers more additional materials. About your written English, you can use different kinds of help. These could be from writing guidelines recommended by your university, department, professor or advisor. You can also get writing help from professionals.

A dissertation outline could be divided into five main parts – introduction, literature review, research methodology, results and conclusion. The parts will eventually make up the whole dissertation. A short discussion about the five basic parts of the outline will follow.

Introduction

The introduction is the main door to the dissertation. The writer must state the problem that needed to be resolved and provide some background. He could provide an overview of why the dissertation was undertaken. The writer must then provide a summary of questions and formulate a hypothesis. One must also define the scope and limitations of the study, as well as the terms to be used in the dissertation.

Literature review

In the literature review, the writer must first explain the purpose of the review. He will then provide short summary of the review methods. The writer must then discuss and analyse the literatures and explain its relevance to the dissertation.

Research methodology

Herein, the writer must describe the procedures in collecting empirical data and how relevant they are in resolving the dissertation problem. The writer must divulge where and how he will get the data needed for the dissertation.

Results

The writer must present the findings of the study here. He must be able to clearly describe the results. The writer must then discuss and interpret the results.

Conclusion

The conclusion provides the summary of the whole dissertation. The writer must be able to show that his aims and objectives were met by the dissertation findings. He could also provide suggestions for future dissertations.

A dissertation outline is powerful tool that lets the writer organize his work. It is a great dissertation help that allows the writer to create a quality piece.

As the student writing the dissertation, you should be acquainted with the dissertation proposal and the preparation for the preliminary oral examination processes. To be able to progress in your proposal writing, you should refine your writing, your literature synthesis and critique and your peer review skills. You can base your improvement on the scheme used by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The scheme is embodied in their Research and Proposal Writing Process for Doctoral Students II at http://www.jhsph.edu/courses/course/410.871/01/2011/14862/.

Their course involves sessions focusing on specific stages of dissertation proposal development. The stages are the development of a comprehensive conceptual framework, formulating research questions and hypotheses, choosing appropriate study design and methodologies, identifying reliable and valid measures, developing a sound data analysis plan and ensuring compliance with subject regulations.

Your proposal writing process should be able to take into account departmental and school-wide requirements for thesis proposals and preliminary examinations. Your proposal writing process should be able to equip you with thesis proposal and examination preparation skills which you can apply to professional activities like manuscript development and conference presentations.

It would be better if you can take a course like this in which you will trained in proposal writing through class participation, individual presentations on dissertation titles, written exercises and initial draft of the proposal. As a student who will venture in dissertation writing, you need to have the skills required in it like peer review and manuscript development which enhance your proposal development. Oral presentation and defense skills are also important because the presentation and defense are components of the proposal process.

The writing of a dissertation proposal document involves several stages or phases of planning, preparing, actual writing, and proofreading and editing of the document. If you are an undergraduate degree or master’s degree student who is writing a proposal document for the first time, there are several tips or guidelines that you should learn. Among the most important tips would be the brainstorming for the thoughts, ideas, and information that should be included in the proposal document. Before the brainstorming, write down the chapters or sections of the proposal, which consists of the title page, table of contents, abstract, introduction, literature review, research aims and methodology, assessment or evaluation of data, expected findings or results, schedule, budget and resources, bibliography, and appendices. Then, you should think and determine the thoughts, ideas and other information that should be included in each chapter.

However, the brainstorming for the information that should be included in the dissertation proposal document would not be the only initial factors to consider in writing your proposal document. Another factor you could possibly include in the writing of the proposal would be the style of creative writing for the document. When you have finished in brainstorming and determining the applicable and relevant information that should be included in each chapter of the proposal document, you could also consider on how you write the discussions and information for each chapter of the proposal.

Although the supervising committee and the supervisor who are overseeing your dissertation project would recommend that you use a formal style of writing for both the dissertation project document and the proposal document, you could also include your own personal style of creative writing for each or some of the chapters of the proposal document. For example, the prose and narrative styles are two forms of writing that could be applicable for the creative writing style for the proposal document. The prose is the style of writing that uses an ordinary grammar structure and natural flow of speech. Since the proposal document consists of several chapters that are structured in a logical order, the discussions and information in each chapter could be written in a flow of reading that has a definite beginning, middle and end.

The process of selecting a dissertation topic that is effective and interesting does not happen overnight. You should not be too hasty in selecting a topic because you could discover later that the topic is difficult to research, and it is not feasible to write about it. So I will share several general dissertation writing guidelines or tips for choosing good dissertation topics so that the students reading the tips could overcome their difficulties in making the right decision for their choice of topic.

The general dissertation writing tips for choosing a topic:

• Select a topic that is familiar for you, but you should also make sure that the topic is interesting for your supervisor and the dissertation committee. You could make a list of initial topics that are interesting and you feel passionate about. Show the list of initial topics to your supervisor and get his feedback about the list. Take note that the quality and outcome of your research study, the writing of the document, and on how you discussed and argued the topic could depend on the topic you selected.

• Choose a topic that is relevant and useful for the career you would pursue. You could also select a topic that is related or relevant to the job specialisation you are taking. Choose field of study in research that is unique or has not been written before since originality and innovation are factors that would be noticed by the dissertation committee.

• Choose a research problem that is solvable, within the range of your budget, feasible to research, and could be performed under the resources available for you. The topic should also be possible to complete within the duration provided for you.

1. Choose your position well. Which side of the issue or problem are you going to write about, and why? What solution, if any, can you offer? This helps you determine the purpose of your essay.
2. Analyse your audience. Decide if your intended audience agrees with your position, is neutral, or disagrees with your views on the topic.
3. Structure your essay. Determine what evidence you will include to support your argument and how you will present it. Remember to consider your purpose, your audience, and your topic.
4. Research your topic. In order to achieve your goal of persuading your audience, you must provide specific and convincing evidence. Besides your own knowledge and experience, you may also be required to do online research, go to the library or interview experts or specialists in your topic. The arguments presented in persuasive essays should likewise be supported well. Below are some elements that can support an argument:

• Facts. These can come from your reading, observation, or personal experience. They are a powerful means of convincing your readers, as they indicate that your arguments are hinged on established truths and knowledge.
• Statistics. This will show that your argument is supported by other people with a similar view on the subject. When including statistics in your essay, be sure that your figures come from reputable sources, and cite them whenever necessary. This is to indicate that the statistics you have given are not your own fabrication.
• Quotes. Direct quotes, especially from leading experts in the subject are invaluable. This shows that your arguments are backed by individuals who are credible to discuss and give analysis on the topic.
• Examples. These enhance your argument and make your ideas concrete. These would also serve as the proof of the veracity of your argument.