Ten Steps of Dissertation Writing

Search the term “dissertation process” on Google and you’d find a bulk of literature on it. The process I am providing here is the process I use while writing dissertations for students. It’s quite a simple one and is more practical. In most of the literature you’d find the drafting of dissertation at the last step. However, each step, provided below, will end on a draft and the final step is the compilation of all drafts to make the complete dissertation. 

Step 1: Select the Reseach Problem and Research Questions/Objectives

You cannot simply pick up a topic and start working on it. Selection of reserach problem should be based on:

• Deciding the area of your interest
• An initial review of recent issues of journals published on your decided research area
• Selection of important unsolved problems or knowledge gaps

Once you’ve decided you the reserach problem, the next important thing is to list the important questions you want to answer and/or objectives. So you end with a draft of reserach statment, RQs and ROs.

Step 2: Critically Review the Recent Scholarly Literature

Here is the most lengthy and commonly known as the most difficult step of dissertation writing. Before searching the material, make a list of key terms from reserach questions and be foccused on it. Try to seeks answers of your reserach questions in the previous literature and do point out the reasons why the answers are not sufficiant to highlight the importance of your study.

Step 3: Plan the Methodology

While reviewing the literature, examine the method adopted by previous scholars for answering your reserach questions. Keep in mind, that the methodology of your reserach should be planned in accordance to your resources. For instance, don’t choose case study, if you don’t have acces to any organisation in the field.

Step 4: Collect Data

Once you have finally decided how’d you conduct the study, start collecting data. Data can be primary or secondary. It can be quantitative or qualitative. Whatever it is, take into account all ethical and legal consideration. Let me tell you one thing: This is the most enjoyable step of dissertation writing. Enjoy it!

Step 5: Analyse Collected Data

If your data is quantitative use proper statistical techniques, or graphs for analysis. If it is qualitative, you can use thematic analysis, grounded theory, discource analysis and many other analytical techniques. Once analysed, report your findings. 

Step 6: Link your Findings with Findings Obtained from Literature Review

Once your findings have been finalised, link them with the findings you have reported during literature review. Do not just compare and contrast them, linke them – meaning one can be explaination of other or the other can be justification for the one. Don’t just do it superficially, note down all the links you have find and report them as a draft. It’s an important part of your dissertation

Step 7: Note the Limitations and Implications of your Findings

Each finding can have many limitations and implications. If your findings contradict the previous studies and you’ve failed to find the reason behind this contradiction, your findings is limited and caution must be applied while using it. Similarly, if you have found something that has not yet been found, its implication is for reseracher – they can conduct future reserach studies on it. 

Step 8: Draw Conclusions

After thoughly discussing your findings – their relations with previous study, their scope, limitation, and theoretical and practical implications, conclude your reserch by answering your reserach questions.

Step 9: Write Introduction

This is important. Introductory chapter of the dissertation provides an overview of reserach so it should be write at the very end. You can tell your supervisor at the very start that you’d write this chapter after completing the reserach process and I am sure he/she will not object. 

Step 10: Draft your Final Report

Now you have written the introductory chapter, you have a detailed draft of literature review and methodology, you have reported your findings and its discussion, you have written teh drawn conclusion as a chapter. Compile them all, format them as asked in your dissertation manual/students handbook and hurrah! you are ready to submit your work