You have one week left before submitting your dissertation!
Amidst the latent stress (hopefully not panic!), the last-minute readings and changes to your code and results, it’s easy to overlook a few fundamentals of dissertation writing. However, these fundamentals are crucial for the reader and, likely more important to you, the grading of your work.
Here is a checklist of relatively “low hanging fruits” — simple mistakes to avoid that could disproportionately affect your grade. These simple checks are much more important than, say, not being able to compute a very complex metric you want to add to the final figure of your paper.
This guide is intended for my postgraduate students at Bristol writing their final dissertations, but it could be useful to others as well.
Last-minute checklist: the “must haves”
The checks below are non-negotiable. Failing to abide by these simple checks will most likely prevent you from getting an outstanding mark. They are very easy to avoid: just go through the list!
- Stay healthy
- Check the submission guidelines to avoid last-minute surprises.
- Back-up your work regularly. A loss of data could be devastating.
- Work in a group — it helps to stay motivated!
- Take regular breaks and long, deep breaths — a 5-minute break every 30 minutes makes you much more productive and settled.
- Check the overall formatting
- Title, name, study program, and formalities required by the university guidelines.
- Section numbering (“Introduction” starts at “1”, the abstract is not numbered).
- Research questions (and hypotheses if relevant) are highlighted and easy to find (either bold or, more commonly, listed in their own subsection).
- References.
- Appendices (if any).
- Uniform font, font size, and overall consistency. Keep it professional and sober.
- Proofreading
- Grammar: use a word processor that highlights mistakes and typos.
- Sentence length: could this sentence actually be two? (Yeah, most of the time it can).
- References: are all datasets and methods you used referred to properly? Provide links to datasets, making sure the reader will understand what you’ve done.
- Plagiarism: are quotes (if any) properly formatted and referenced?
- Optional: have a friend proofread as well (proofreading is not writing for you).
- Abstract
- Somewhere between 150-250 words.
- It follows the overall structure of the thesis: big picture, motivation, what was done, main results and conclusions (one to three highlights), overall relevance, and, (optional) future research.
- Figures formatting
- All axes need labeling including physical units
- Figures are numbered and ordered.
- Figures have captions and, when appropriate, source.
- Subplots within a figure are numbered (a, b, c…).
- Curves or plot markers have legends.
- Figures and captions are self-contained and self-explanatory.
- Sample sizes are given in figures, legends, or captions if they can’t be inferred easily.
- Figures are mentioned in the text.
- The order in which figures are mentioned is roughly consistent.
Final week checklist: it’s never too late to check your introduction
The checks below should be initiated earlier in the process to give you ample time to act on them. At this stage, you ideally have most of your dissertation written—or, more likely, you have many bits and pieces scattered about. One week before your deadline is the right moment to ensure overall coherence and flow. If today is your final day before the deadline, you should probably steer clear of any last-minute major changes.
Remember the ‘Hourglass’ Model to Structure a Scientific Paper, but keep in mind that these are guidelines, not strict rules.
Illustration by abrilliantmind.blog/scientific-writing
- Introduction
- Does your introduction follow the “general to specific” thread?
- Have you clearly outlined the knowledge gaps that your research aims to fill?
- Are the research questions clearly formulated and introduced only after the research gaps are described?
- Do the methods adequately allow to address the research questions? If not, now might be a good time to revisit the research questions (since it’s too late to change the methods).
- Research questions
- Are they clear and specific? For instance, compare the vague “Studying the impacts of climate change” to the more specific “Quantifying projected glacier change by 2100 according to CMIP6 SSPA and B scenarios.”
- Are they researchable and achievable? Do they align with your results, or do they set completely unrelated expectations?
- Are they analytical and testable? Can you revisit your research questions in the conclusions or discussions of your dissertation? If your results do not relate to these questions, it might indicate that the research questions need redesigning.
- Discussion & Conclusions
- Are the research questions revisited in the discussion?
- Are your results discussed in a broader context without exaggeration?
- Have you critically assessed your results and discussed potential pitfalls or uncertainties?
- Do you suggest avenues for future research at the conclusion?
Most importantly: have fun writing your dissertation! I know it’s a stressful and difficult time, but you’re almost there, and you should feel proud of what you’ve achieved in these three frantic months. Congratulations on getting this far already!