Dissertations are mostly submitted in the final stage of a degree program. These are highly advanced documents that present the author’s research and finding.
Dissertation shows the level of skill and understanding that the author (the student) has developed in the academic years. If you search your university library for a good Dissertation Example you will come across highly detailed documents. The dissertation documents will exude painstaking efforts, intensive research, and lengthy word count.
Students often struggle with dissertations more than they do with any other type of document and that is understandable. Any regular dissertation on an average is mostly 100 pages long and they are structured in a very strict manner. Unlike essays, dissertations are strictly objective pieces while the essays can be subject and/or objective.
These documents require extensive research. This could mean at times months of interviews, surveys, internet browsing, and library visits. Every single argument being presented in a dissertation has to be supported by factual evidence. This evidence should consist of data that is statistical data in the form of tables and graphs.
As we have mentioned above, dissertations have a page count of somewhere 100 pages and they are the lengthiest academic documents. Any average dissertation is as long as a novella in length. As you might have realized by now, writing a dissertation will require great command over subject and language. Depending on the instructor and department’s requirements, a dissertation can have varied types of structural rules. However, if we look at the basic dissertation structure, then there are two main types. Here, we will call these two types of structures for dissertations as the traditional and loose dissertation structure.
Traditional Dissertation Structure
This way of structuring is the most by the book style of dissertation structure. It is most extensively walked on the path for dissertation writing. Most statistics heavy dissertations, whether they are sciences, engineering, or business follow this structure. You will see some minor variations to this structure on each blog or article you come across. This is the basic form of a traditional dissertation structure.
Introduction
Introduction is where you introduce the topic of your dissertation, well that sounds quite an obvious right? That’s not the only thing you accomplish through your introduction. The introduction is at least 10 to 15 pages long and it comprehensively fulfills various tasks. The introduction puts forward the thesis statement and research questions of your dissertation.
It sets up the tone and flow of your dissertation. Your readers will get a sense of the structuring and direction you are moving in through the introduction too. Imagine the introduction of your dissertation as the first 25 minutes of a one and a half-hour long movie. The movie introduces you to the pivotal characters, sets up the tone, genre, drama, and the dramatic question in the first 25 minutes. That is what you do with your dissertation’s introduction. You introduce everything that is fundamental to it.
Literature Review
Literature review is where you put forward the research that you have conducted while preparing for your dissertation. Why do we write a literature review? So that we can show that our dissertation is serving a purpose since its topic is significant. You will highlight the areas that were left undiscovered in past research or the research questions that were left unanswered. A literature review is quite significant because it makes your reader understand why you choose this specific topic of research.
Methodology
As we have mentioned before, dissertations are extensively research-based documents. The methodology is where you put forward the method through which you were able to conduct research for your dissertation. Your method of carrying out the research will express to the reader that the research is credible. This is where you show whether the research was qualitative or quantitative. Also, you will show the methods through which you collected that research data. For example, you might have conducted interviews, and/or surveys. This is where you talk about all that.
Results
All the research that you have conducted must have led you to some results. This section of your dissertation is where you put out all the results for your readers. Naturally, the result section will consist of a great amount of data and the data will mostly be in the form of tables and figures. Every research that you have conducted must have been to find answers to your research questions. In this section, you will put out all the research and its results for the readers.
Conclusion
As the name suggests, this is where you wrap things up. In the conclusion section, you will have to briefly discuss how your results are connected to the research question. You will also discuss the final research answers and how they all legitimize your thesis statement. Conclusion words as a summary of your overall dissertation while it also provides the reader with a necessary closure.
Loose Dissertation Structure
This method of dissertation structuring is often utilized in humanities-based topics which are not very mathematical in nature. By not being mathematical, we mean that they might be somewhat subjective documents. For example, a subject like philosophy will quote the works of philosophers but won’t utilize statistical data that much to answer research questions. This loose dissertation structure is most similar to the structure of essay writing. Once again, this is not the only way a loose-structured dissertation is written, but this might be the most basic form of that structure.
You must have heard of the three-act structure of writing that is often utilized in storytelling mediums. There are countless graphs on the internet explaining the three-act structure. However, we are describing it here in the most basic way possible. The three acts are the setup, the confrontation, the resolution. We can also describe them as introduction, body, and conclusion.
Introduction
Introduction is where you set-up the thesis statement and research questions of your dissertation. This is where you set-up the tone, the flow, and the purpose of your dissertation. The introduction has to be written in an effective and engaging manner so that the reader becomes curious to read further. A good introduction will set up the goal and purpose of the dissertation effectively.
Body
Body is the lengthiest part of your dissertation. This is where maximum action happens, as it will constitute at least 50% of your dissertation’s word count. The body section is where you explore the arguments being made. You will put forward the research and its results in this section. You will be expressing how the results are answering the research questions. The body section ends when you have made your case clear in front of the readers.
Conclusion
The conclusion is mostly as long as the introduction in this structure of dissertation writing, as it constitutes 25% of the dissertation’s word count. Conclusions have to be clear and concise. This is where you put out the results of each research that has been carried out and how it is answering the research question. The conclusion should reinstate the thesis statement and provide a proper closure to your dissertation. This is the dissertation example for writing a loose-structured dissertation.
