Graduate students usually have different thesis or dissertation writing experiences. It all depends on how the process is managed and guidelines met.
Working on a graduate paper is a complex project and you should never underestimate the efforts and time you need to invest in it. But as practice shows, students rarely leave much time for it. Considering the importance of your graduate paper, you wouldn’t want to sacrifice its quality, right? You might be very tempted to write a high-quality graduate paper in a short time. Here are a few proven tips on how to do it right.
Do not play with time
Even if you start with small things like choosing your adviser and supervisory committee or a topic, it will give you a great push to move forward. Take some time to reconsider your topic and discuss it with your adviser. Take some notes about the paper structure or other details that may serve as a foundation for your dissertation. Choose an adviser who seems to really care about the process and expects good results from the students. This way, you will be motivated to constantly work on your paper in order to meet the expectations of a reputable for you personally.
Leave at least one month for writing your graduate paper. It is desirable to have more time, but if you do things right and follow all the guidelines from the very beginning, one month is enough.
Request help from your adviser
Quite often, the choice of a topic might get you stuck. Ask your adviser about the materials available on this topic, its novelty and his/her personal opinion about it. Narrow your topic after discussing the details with your professor.
Do not avoid or postpone meetings with your adviser. Keep in touch with him/her all the time and always ask for help. Before every meeting, create a list of issues you are uncertain about. Your adviser has a better understanding of a graduate paper writing process and if you want to move quickly with it, you can’t miss any chance to understand it better too. In addition, regular meetings will make you stay alert.
Follow the standard structure and guidelines
Whenever you get down to writing your graduate paper, study all the approved graduate work submission guidelines in your country and your educational institution. Check the recommended structure of your paper to make sure you include all the necessary chapters. Ask your professor to clarify all the issues that you are uncertain about. It will help you save significant amounts of time if you don’t need to rearrange your paper structure completely or partially.
Before writing, create a complete structure of your paper and hand it into your adviser for analysis. Do not ever write things that you are uncertain about. Your time is too precious, especially before your graduate work submission.
Reliable sources for your graduate paper
Finding reliable and useful sources for your graduate paper writing is a tricky task. Apart from books and the internet, there are a lot of materials that are easy to research and that you are allowed to use in your paper.
When you go to a library you will see that the card catalogue has been replaced with the computer search. However, for some older sources, you might need card catalogue too. Ask the librarians if card catalogues are still available. Computer systems will allow you to perform a search by the author, title and some keywords. Look for the books related to your thesis or periodicals.
The majority of libraries have a wide selection of scientific periodicals and you might use in your graduate paper. Some modern libraries store the materials in special databases. Ask the librarians about all the possible ways to get the information you need, including CDs and databases.
World Wide Web can be quite helpful in your research, yet time-consuming. In addition, there are a lot of sources that are not reliable and do not bring any value to you. Use only trusted sources of information, such as the National Institute of Health, Greenpeace, Britannica, etc. Use online scholarly databases, such as EBSCO or InfoTrac that give you access to the latest researches made in different areas.
Don’t forget to visit scientific conferences or other events related to the topic of your thesis or dissertation.
Written By: Lori Wade
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