Steps in completing your dissertation
Listed below are the important steps one must take in writing a dissertation.
- Calculate your due date.
- Count backwards
- Set the milestones
- Subdivide the work
- Reward yourself
- Set a word count
- Free write
- Proof read
First of all figure out when the university has marked a deadline for the completion of the dissertation. This will help you in deciding whether you will be able to do a complete dissertation by then or will you submit a first draft and then revise it.
Calculate how many months and days you are left with. Every second counts when you are supposed to write a dissertation in six months. Calculate how many weeks or days you have and then divide your work as per each day.
Take out the holidays from the total number of days and then decide long term and short term milestones for yourself. You are the best judge of yourself so you can better know how much time you will need for doing certain tasks.
When you have set milestones on a monthly basis you can now divide them into four parts for each week. Furthermore you can divide each day’s work for instant results and better understanding of your tasks. The small milestones you set are of great help as they give you motivation when you complete each.
It is very important to acknowledge your small achievements and celebrate for yourself. These small breaks will help you in staying motivated and productive
It is very important to write on a regular basis for having continuity in your work. Determine a word count for yourself and achieve it on a regular basis. No matter how busy you are or the loads of semester assignments at the university you must complete your word count every day.
When you get stuck with the dissertation take a rough page and a pen and start free writing. Write about anything that comes to your mind. Do not worry about the grammatical errors, sentence composition and spelling mistakes during this free writing period. It is just to help you continue.
Finally when you are done with the writing process you must recheck it for grammatical mistakes and typos. You can do this along with writing process as well. When you complete a page you can stop writing, go to the start and re-read it to look for errors and fix them