The Student's Guide to Preparing Dissertations and Theses

Brian Allison, Phil Race

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781134312238
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

When writing a dissertation or thesis, it is essential to produce a work that is well-structured and well-presented. Giving clear examples throughout, this book offers all the practical advice that students will need, when writing a dissertation or thesis.

• Part 1: Content - from the layout order of contents to the compilation of the bibliography and appendices
• Part 2: Presentation and Style - the details of how work should be presented and covering aspects such as writing styles, page numbers, margins and abbreviations.

The first edition of this book contributed to improving countless dissertations and this new edition will continue to do the same - using the practical advice and guidance it offers could mean the difference between success and failure.

Part I: An overview of the task

1 Getting things in the right order

2 Title page

3 Abstract

4 Author declarations

5 Acknowledgements

6 Main body of the dissertation

7 Appendices

8 Bibliography

Chapter 1: Getting things in the right order

The content of the whole dissertation includes essential preliminary information and relevant support material in addition to the main body of the text. The order of presentation of the contents is normally prescribed along the following lines.

1. 1 Title page
2. 2 Abstract of the research
3. 3 List of contents
4. 4 List of tables
5. 5 List of figures
6. 6 List of appendices
7. 7 Glossary of symbols (for mathematical and scientific researches)
8. 8 Author declarations
9. 9 Acknowledgements (Preface)
10. 10 Text (main body of dissertation)
11. 11 Appendices
12. 12 Bibliography

Note that the actual List of contents itself does not normally come right at the beginning. The Title page and Abstract come first, then the ‘List of contents’ which presents the headings of the chapters and any sub-headings exactly as they appear in the text, along with page numbers. It should be noted that any pages preceding the List of contents are not normally included in the list.

If your dissertation or thesis contains tables, figures (drawings, screen-dumps, diagrams and so on), and appendices, you will also need to prepare separate pages for List of tables, List of figures and List of appendices showing the exact details of the captions of each table and figure, and the exact titles of each appendix, all with the up-to-date page numbers, so that all of these parts can easily be located in your dissertation by readers.

Naturally, the final versions of your ‘Lists’ are necessarily done in their final form right at the end of your work on your dissertation, when you know exactly what is on each page. However, it is useful to keep ‘running’ versions of these lists from quite an early stage, but to pay particular attention to getting the page numbers right as the work develops. Even a minor change in your dissertation can throw the page numbering on each and every one of these lists out!

It is also really important to make sure that your various lists correspond exactly with what they refer to. In other words, use ‘copy and paste’ in word-processing to ensure that each heading, sub-heading, figure caption, table caption, and appendix title are present in your lists exactly word-for-word as they appear in the dissertation itself.

Chapter 2: Title page

The information to be given on the Title page is normally rigidly prescribed by the degree awarding body. Typically, the required information consists of:

• the full title of the dissertation;
• the full name of the author and, if desired, any qualifications or distinctions held already (which should be included in an abbreviated form);
• the qualification for which the dissertation is being submitted as part of a statement that it is ‘submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of …’;
• the degree awarding body;
• the name of the institution in which the research is registered; if different to the degree awarding body, and that of any collaborating institution;
• the month and year of submission;
• the number of volumes comprising the dissertation, if more than one.

The layout of the Title page is centred between the prescribed margins. The vertical centre line is approximately 110 mm from the left-hand edge of the page. An example of a Title page is shown in Figure 2. In the days when dissertations were normally typed, the size of the print was uniform on this page, but nowadays with word-processed work some regulations allow different font sizes for the information. It is best to look at a number of recent successful dissertations or theses to check out local precedents and styles.

Figure 2 Example of a Title page

Chapter 3: Abstract

There is no second chance to make a good first impression! The Abstract of your dissertation is critically important, and it is well worth drafting this many times and checking and rechecking it. Essentially, your Abstract is an overall summary of the entire work in your dissertation. In fact, although the Abstract comes first in your dissertation, it is the thing you should write lost as you can write it much more safely when you know exactly where your dissertation led to.

The Abstract summarises what the research question or problem is, and how the work you have done addresses this. Sometimes you will be expected to indicate in your Abstract the nature of your findings or conclusions, but more often the Abstract is much more general, and is intended to whet the reader's appetite enough to want to read your conclusions in due course.

An Abstract of the dissertation is normally required to be bound into each copy of the dissertation and, in addition, it is an occasional requirement for some additional loose copies of the Abstract to be submitted with the dissertation for examination.

The Abstract should not normally exceed about 300 words and be typed single-spaced on one side of A4 paper. The heading of the Abstract, which is additional to the 300 words, should give the name of the author and title of the dissertation in capital letters and the year of submission. The margins should be the same as in the body of the text.

Reducing a dissertation to a mere 300 words is often a difficult and demanding task. However, a well written Abstract demonstrates the capacity of the author to present the main aspects of an often lengthy study in a coherent and economical form. The Abstract, in essence, should provide a brief synopsis of the study by identifying the nature and scope of the work, the major outcomes and the particular contribution it makes to knowledge in the field as shown in the example given in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Example of an Abstract

A good Abstract should be comprehensive and succinct.

Dissertations are not normally published, and access to them is invariably limited (though dissertations are often used as the basis for preparing journal articles later). Abstracts of research degree dissertations and theses, however, are frequently published in national research databases. The Abstract, therefore, is important because it can signify whether or not the study is of relevance to a potential reader and, consequently, if it is worthwhile for the reader to seek out the complete work so that it could be read in full.

Chapter 4: Author declarations

A dissertation is produced for the exclusive purpose of the award for which it is submitted. To ensure the safeguarding of this academic matter, it is necessary to include in the dissertation a formal statement that the author has not been registered for any other academic award during the period of study and also to state whether any material included in the dissertation has previously been submitted for any other academic awards. An example of the latter might be the inclusion of material in a PhD dissertation that had previously been part of a MPhil study.

It should be added, however, that it is permissible to publish material arising from a study registered for an academic award prior to the submission of the dissertation. Indeed, where some of the content of a dissertation has already been published during the course of the research work, or is already in the process of publication, the refereeing processes associated with such publication are in themselves taken as significant authorisation of the work itself. Any material published should be referred to in the text and copies of it should be included in the appendices.

As a dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of an academic award, a statement is included in the Author declarations that identifies the nature of the advanced studies of research programme of which the dissertation is part.

Some universities do not require the Author declarations for a dissertation submitted for a higher degree by research to be bound into the dissertation, but to be made separately on a prescribed form. In such cases, three copies of the form are normally required to be submitted along with the dissertation.

When included in the dissertation itself, Author declarations are placed immediately after the List of appendices. An example of Author declarations is given in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Example of Author declarations

Chapter 5: Acknowledgements

It is customary to acknowledge any assistance or support that has been given during the research. In general literature, Acknowledgements are often included in a section called the Preface, but in dissertations it is customary to use the heading ‘Acknowledgements’.

There is no set pattern for acknowledging help and assistance in the work. In general, however, Acknowledgements should be brief with an avoidance of flowery language, giving recognition without sentimentality.

Acknowledgement of the contributions and assistance of individuals by name should only be made when such assistance has been of a specific kind, which should be briefly indicated. Examples of forms of acknowledgement are given in Figure 5.

Acknowledgements are contained within the normal side margins of the page, but the top and bottom margins may be adjusted depending on the length of the statement, providing those normal margins are not exceeded.

The Acknowledgements page normally follows the Author declarations or, when the Author declarations are not required to be bound into the dissertation, the List of appendices.

Figure 5 Examples of forms of acknowledgement

Chapter 6: Main body of the dissertation

The order of some of the contents of the text or main body of your dissertation is firmly established while others depend upon the individual nature of a study. A general guide to the order of presentation of material may be seen as following a logical sequence:

1. 1 Introduction
2. 2 Method of approach or attack
3. 3 Presentation and analysis of evidence
4. 4 Summary and conclusions

How this structure is developed in terms of chapters depends on the nature of the research being reported. However, in general, the flow of the dissertation would be expected to incorporate the following elements in more-or-less the following order (though the actual section or chapter titles are usually tailored to the subjec...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Figures
• Foreword to this edition
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: An overview of the task
• Part II: Getting your act together – the key processes
• Part III: Nuts and bolts – more detail about the main elements
• Further reading