So it’s that time of the year for those who’ve enrolled in postgraduate degrees in January. The most substantial event of the year is right ahead of them; writing a thesis. A lot of students get dreaded by the mere thought of writing a 5k word assignment let alone a 20k word thesis. But a student got to do what a student got to do, right?
Understandably, no matter how good grades you have been getting on all of your assignments, the dissertation will always appear like something scary. And there is nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s quite understandable because it’s not like any other assignment. The weightage it carries in making an average of your total scores coupled with all the intricacies of research make it a lot more complicated than a theoretical essay.
No matter how much you prepare for it and the number of preoperational seminars you take, you will still end up making major mistakes. This is why it’s important for you to get some mentorship from an expert essay writer and also follow the below mentioned points.
1- Make small, doable deadlines
So the foremost thing you should do to avoid a pitfall is to make deadlines for yourself. You don’t necessarily have to complete one big milestone for one deadline. It could be as minor as reading 5 research papers and then your second milestone could be writing bibliographies on them. This way, living upto your deadlines will be more practical and give you some motivation too.
Whereas, if you aim for one whole chapter, you will readily lose motivation and concentration because one chapter is big enough for it.
2- Write every day for staying focused
Instead of thinking about starting to start writing once you have finished reading all of the relevant papers for the concerned chapter, make sure you write every single day. It could only be done if you read at least 2 papers everyday because only then you will have ample data to paraphrase.
Moreover, it doesn’t have to be paraphrased if you find it dull and boring. You can jot down your own reflections of what you read. Trust us, this is going to save you a lot of time and energy. Almost every big gun researcher recommends making writing a personal habit. Some researchers like Creswell suggest writing at least 250 words while some even make it to 450. So do whatever’s more convenient for yourself.
3- Adopt anything that stops you procrastinate
Students mostly ask around what is the biggest challenge in completing the dissertation on time so they don’t end up doing it. Let us tell you that it is your procrastination that will get you killed. Never ever take the time you have as ample enough even if you have a 6-month period for completing your dissertation.
There will be a lot of revisions, deletions and changing of plans in your way that will consume all of your extra time. So, if you procrastinate, you lose that and end up submitting a rough draft.