Dissertation submission time can be extremely stressful. If you’re about to submit your proposal or dissertation, you’re probably using Word to set up your document and a style guide like APA7, or equivalent, for formatting. Your document needs to be formatted correctly – heading levels 1, 2, 3, and maybe 4 and 5, double line …
Do you know how smart Google Scholar can be? With Google Scholar you can: 1. Do an Advanced Search so you can combine keywords easily. 2. Save your searches in your own library with folders so your sources are well categorized. 3. Do backward searches so you can find articles that have cited other articles. …
5 SMART Ways to Raise the Level of Your Literature Review. 1. Update your references to show that you’re informed of current research in your field. At least three-quarters of your references should come from the last five years. 2. Focus on what the authors are saying with references, rather than who is saying it. …
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A great test of how well you understand your research problem is whether you can explain clearly and concisely what your study is about. Ideally, you should be able to explain it in a few seconds, without hesitation. In ‘Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation’, Bloomberg (2023, p.25) describes the concept of Elevator Speech to illustrate how clearly …
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First impressions are said to influence important future events like your job opportunities and relationships. Likewise, the first impression that your proposal creates is very important. Think of the proposal document that you need to complete when you apply for masters or PhD acceptance. The document has guidelines on content, formatting and referencing. It also …
Be a Star student. Make a great first impression. Read More »
Doing a thesis or dissertation isn’t easy. Academia may be a new world for you. There are lots of things to learn, lots of work to do and deadlines to meet. You have a supervisor, advisor, or lecturer, but many other students around you also need their attention. So why not stand out? Be an …
The end of October was thesis submission time for many postgraduate students. And last week was the week before submission time for several other students (schools usually take a few days for admin). Some of these students were genuinely out of time, having extended their stay as long as their schools allowed. They simply had …
Imagine a golden thread that runs through your thesis, from start to finish. It weaves your argument through theory and literature, linking your research questions, your conceptual framework, your methodology and analytic framework, and finally, your skilful answers to the research questions. This is the coveted golden thread of your thesis. Let’s think more about …
In the methodology chapter, the focus of the thesis is different from the previous chapters. In Chapter 1, you described mainly the problem and purpose of your research, the key debates in the associated literature, and the knowledge gap. In Chapter 2, you reviewed the relevant literature and arrived at your conceptual framework. But Chapter …
The KEY to Writing a Successful Methodology Chapter in Your Thesis Read More »
If you’re writing your thesis or dissertation, it is a very good idea to know about applying Word’s Styles to your headers. It may be a bit intimidating to begin using styles, but you will bless yourself forever if you take the plunge! In fact, you can’t not use them – here’s why… …