Peer-Orientation on Dissertation Writing, Series I

Peer-Orientation on Dissertation Writing, Series I  

Refining the ‘Chapter One’ of Dissertation

Presented By: Abhisek Pradhan, Dibya Shrestha & Rosy Shrestha

Presented On:

1. Background

1. It allows the reader to know the concept, theme and the reason for choosing the concerned topic along with what your analysis includes and why the given analysis is important.
2. This section gives reader a concept on the topic you are writing including your context, drawbacks and criticisms along with historical data/perspective if that supports your paper.
3. This section must include the analysis and interpretation on the very topic including the different interpretations if given by various authors/writers/researchers. 
4. More primarily, this section demands researcher to give a structured history of the concept or issues being researched.
5. It is better to limit the section within 600 to 700 words.

2. Introduction:

1. It acts as trailer of your paper on how you are analyzing the concerned topic you mentioned in the background.
2. It should reflect your paper or should give overall overview of your dissertation and your supervisor will also be based upon given introduction to guide on your respective dissertation.
3. Consistency should be maintained between background and introduction and the flow should not be broken between the two.
4. Where the background (especially history) ends and then the introduction (present) starts.
5. Here, the major terms brought into title should be elaborated along with the relation if applicable.
6. Better to limit this section too within 700 to 1000 words

Do’s and Don’ts

1. When you cite and give references about the data make sure you crosscheck the data before final submission.
2. We might have tendency of explaining our own ideas in intro and background however, there is definite definitions given by the authoritative body.
3. Background and introduction should never be over lengthy, stick yourself to the given word limit given in the guideline.
4. Never copy the introduction part from the body of the paper as the intro portion should deal with the overview of the paper being language sensitive.

Research Objective:

1. It is one of the most crucial parts that show what you want to achieve from the research.
2. The researcher should answer 5 most important questions: what, why, how, when and where?
3. Try to take the research in the right direction and should narrow down the research from broad area to small chunks making it specific.
4. It should align with the conclusion and analysis.
5. It should always start with to…..and have an action verb to follow.

Research should be SMART: specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Rational of Study

1. Also known as sub-proposal as it gives the reasoning for conducting the research.
2. Shows what the previous researcher lacks in the research.
3. The gap between the previous research and the research you are conducting should be addressed.
4. The most important part of rational of study is the potential impact and can give certain recommendations it in the future study.
5. List out the study’s benefits in course of knowledge formation, to help the regulatory bodies, and to the other beneficiaries if there are.

Research Problem

1. Gives a road map of the whole paper being based on the research question which we have to investigate in our paper.
2. Research problem and objective are interlinked to each other; the number of research question and the number of research objectives should be of equal in number (and sequential too) as one suggests the question while the other answers the given questions.
3. Frame the research question in ‘Wh’ form rather than yes/no or imperative form.

Limitation

1. The problems we faced during our dissertation should be mentioned in our research.
2. Example: time and literature limitations are interlinked as the given time amounts to the number of literature we deal with.
3. Validity of interview: the researcher should mention that if the answers given by the respondents are not true then the researcher is not responsible for the answers.      
4. Confidentiality limitation: the name or the details of the interviewee should be kept confidential as per the topic of the research.

Organization of the Dissertation Paper

1. It guides the supervisor and panelist about total components of research work as it shows the glimpse of the complete dissertation i. e. what chapters are included and how is their order.

*** Important Note:

1. Use present or present perfect tense; omit copying the simple future that you have presented in proposal.
2. Use of word dissertation throughout the work.
3. Using first person pronoun I is not very impressive in dissertation, rather the word ‘this researcher’ should be used.