Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you’ve ever done
and it can be intimidating to know where to start.
This video will help you work out exactly what you should include and where to include it.
Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals.
Before we go into each section, let's take a quick overview of the elements that are
included in a dissertation or thesis.
Dissertations can take many different forms
you might include different chapters or
use different headings depending on the type of research you're doing.
But for empirical research in the sciences or social sciences, this is the most common structure.
Title page Acknowledgements
Abstract Table of contents
List of figures and tables List of abbreviations
Glossary Introduction
Literature review/ theoretical framework Methodology
Results Discussion
Conclusion Reference list
Appendices
How long should each section be?
This is a really common question!
Although it really depends on the type of research you do, here is a rough idea of the
proportions.
Generally speaking, the literature review and discussion should take up a bigger portion
of your dissertation.
Whereas the methodology, results and conclusion are usually relatively short.
If you ever need extra information for a specific section, we have lots of videos on our YouTube
channel.
In the Scribbr Knowledge Base linked in the description, you can find dozens of free resources:
how-to articles, templates, checklists and examples.
Just click this little exclamation mark, we've got your back!
Now let's go through each section.
The very first page of your document contains your dissertation’s title, your name, department,
institution, degree program, and submission date.
The acknowledgement page is where you thank everyone who helped you, like your supervisors.
The acknowledgements are followed by an abstract.
The abstract is a short summary of your dissertation, around 150-300 words long.
Include a table of contents so your readers can easily navigate through your dissertation..
If your dissertation contains a lot of figures, tables or abbreviations, you can also include
lists of these to make them easily findable.
But this is often optional!
Same goes for the glossary - it's optional, but if you've used a lot of highly specialized
terms that will not be familiar to your reader, it might be a good idea to include one.
Now we’ve arrived at the most important part - the text of your dissertation itself.
The introduction is where you set up your topic, purpose and relevance, and tell the
reader what to expect in the rest of the dissertation.
In your literature review, you don’t just summarize existing studies, but develop a
coherent structure and argument that leads to a clear basis or justification for your
own research.
In the methodology section, you describe how you conducted your research, allowing your
reader to assess its reliability and validity.
Next, you report the results of your research.
Only report results that are relevant to your objectives and research questions.
Pay attention, if you're doing qualitative research, this section might be woven together
with discussion.
In the discussion, you explore the meaning and implications of your results in relation
to your research questions.
Here you should interpret the results in detail, discussing whether they met your expectations.
If any of the results were unexpected, offer explanations for why this might be.
The dissertation conclusion should concisely answer the main research question, leaving
the reader with a clear understanding of your central argument.
Throughout your dissertation, you built upon the research of others.
This research needs to be cited in the running text and the reference list.
It’s important to follow a consistent citation style.
You can generate sources and manage your reference list super easily with Scribbr's citation
generator.
If you want to include any documents that do not fit into the main body, such as surveys,
interview transcripts, etc., you can add them as appendices.
Now before you go, here's a tip to kick start your dissertation.
Create a Word document Insert the headings of each section
Write down in bullet points what you want to write in each section
this way you will have a clear view of what you need to write.
Good luck with your dissertation, you've got this!
Make sure to subscribbr for more videos related to dissertation writing!
Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one!