Your dissertation is a very important document that will make or break your university experience. However, writing a text this long can be an intimidating task, which may lead to common dissertation mistakes that may beget further spelling or grammar issues. Eventually, a culmination of these mistakes may lead to the essay becoming nearly unmanageable.
Common dissertation mistakes must be avoided to ensure that your draft gets accepted by your committee, allowing for further clarity and better dissertation structure.
In this article, we have listed some of the most common dissertation mistakes made by academic writers as well as what can be done to avoid them.
1. Formatting Issues in the very First Pages:
The formatting of your dissertation is as critical as the content. You should be familiar with your Ph.D. program’s formatting rules by the time you write your dissertation. Despite carrying a doctoral degree, you may still make errors, especially in a lengthy paper.
Generally, several dissertation authors make tons of mistakes in the preliminary pages of their work, that is, the pages that appear prior to the main text of their work. While it’s easy to overlook these pages, they are what pave the way toward the rest of the main body.
Hence, the preliminary pages must be formatted properly and in the proper order. Rather than presuming the format of these pages, seek guidance from the dissertation template provided by the program.
2. A Lengthy Abstract:
You have conducted extensive studies for your manuscript and may have reached interesting conclusions that you’re eager to share with the world. Although this enthusiasm is certainly commendable, it may challenge your ability to condense your thesis into a single-page abstract.
An abstract must always fit within a single page and is generally within the word count range of 150-300 words. You may approach a detailed guide to structure your dissertation better.
3. Unevenness in the Content:
A robust dissertation maintains a precise balance between various chapters to successfully fulfill all of its purposes. It is important to attribute a deserving amount of text to each section, ensuring that your study, literature review, conclusion, and other sections receive appropriate weightage.
4. Language-Related Errors:
Language-related errors make up one of the most common dissertation mistakes authors make. While writing such a long piece, you are bound to make syntactical, grammatical, or typographical errors. Hence, it is always good practice to send your draft to an editing and proofreading service after completion.
These services have writing professionals on board who will gladly peruse your work. These expert proofreaders and editors ensure that all issues are correct and help you ensure that you would not make such mistakes again – a service that will benefit you, throughout your dissertation and in your career as well.
5. Poor Structure:
Despite the emphasis and relevance of the dissertation focus that you succeed in highlighting in the draft, a loosely structured paper will easily render it in vain. The style of the paper is also an important aspect that must be maintained.
To maintain a comprehensive and consistent flow of ideas and ensure meaningful connections between passages of the content, you must use subheadings that will outline the intent and scope of each section. A detailed guide to structuring your dissertation may help you with the same.
6. Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a major offense, one that you do not want on your academic record. It is very bad practice to copy-paste text from various sources onto your dissertation draft.
To avoid plagiarism, make use of in-text citations and ensure that you list the references at the end of your article in an authentic and appropriate manner, as suggested by the relevant style guide.
7. Lack of Relevance:
The focus and relevance of the subject are important considerations in concluding your dissertation. A subject that is irrelevant to the field of literature will fail to make waves in scholarly research.
The length of a dissertation may prompt authors to peregrinate into irrelevant topics and subjects, which may divert attention away from the goals of the paper. This is another very common dissertation mistake that has been observed by our structural editing professionals.
8. Inappropriate Topic Selection:
The choice of the research topic is crucial to the success of a dissertation. In comparison to undergraduate assignments, every extensive piece of writing requires much more in-depth knowledge study of the subject.
Insignificant, superficial, or limited research questions will not generate enough credibility in the discussion and, consequently, will create barriers to achieving the goal.
9. Lack of a Fine-Tuned Literature Review:
A literature review is an essential aspect of writing a dissertation. Summaries tend to be a common difficulty for students, which can prevent them from demonstrating their ability to think critically and analytically.
This may cause the reader’s interest in your subject can subside. The literature review is used to demonstrate your understanding of a topic. It needs to put the presentation and study subject into context. Keep in mind that any dissertation requires extensive study.
10. Poor Conclusion:
Students also feel depleted of willpower and resources after completing a dissertation. Yet, it is integral for them to conclude their paper appropriately. In a published dissertation, the conclusion connects the concepts and theories.
The dissertation should strive to teach the audience about an original finding through the explanation of significant observations. You cannot conclude by simply summarizing the intent of the thesis and attempting to clarify inferred ideas.
A gripping conclusion should assist readers in grasping the dissertation’s main points. Conclusions and literature reviews that are poorly written will detract from the dissertation’s quality.
To Conclude
Rather than wasting your time struggling to fine-tune your lengthy dissertation, reach out for the help of an editor who will help you polish your thesis so that it’s the best it can be. This will ensure that you do not make any of the common dissertation mistakes listed above. Availing of an editing and proofreading service will enable your editor to guide you through the process of writing the dissertation, guaranteeing that your work is flawless and submission-ready. These services make your dissertation writing an easier job.
We hope that the most common dissertation mistakes listed in this article have cautioned you against what to look out for in your dissertation drafting process. You can check out our dissertation proofreading and editing services by visiting our website – CLICK HERE!
-Arthur Solomon
