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Who Can Explain Me What a Doctoral Dissertation Is

Are you going to complete your Masters and want to do some further research? Many graduates consider applying for a PhD program which involves writing a doctoral dissertation. It may sound easy: you choose a topic, do some research and then write a paper, go over a defense procedure and receive a degree. However, statistics says that only 10 % of PhD students in some countries actually become philosophy doctors. One of the reasons is that applicants do not understand what a doctoral dissertation is.

Therefore, the first step for you to make is to do some research and gain solid understanding about how doctoral dissertation differs from other academic papers. Several sources below provide the needed information for everyone:

Student offices.

Every university has some kind of a student office where current and prospective students can get some help, including information about degree programs. There one finds information about departments, areas of research and, what is the most important, about prospective PhD supervisors. You can get the contacts of a professor and schedule a meeting. Remember to check the application deadlines first.

University professors.

University professors have valuable knowledge about the process of writing a doctoral dissertation; they can share their personal experience and give a valuable advice. Dissertation supervisors also explain what a dissertation proposal is, why it is necessary to prepare a great proposal, and help to choose a topic. The latter takes some time and a bunch of questions to be answered.

Dissertation research groups.

A doctoral dissertation raises issues and provides further study on a subject. It is common for PhD students to make a writing group where they create a special environment to support each other. Visit one of the meetings and ask questions. How do students usually come up with new ideas? Why is it so important to have strong writing skills? What motivates them? Study groups are extremely helpful; many supervisors insist on student participation in a study group.

University libraries.

Sometimes students prefer having an example of an academic paper in order to understand the requirements. The samples of doctoral dissertations can be found in online repositories or university libraries. Visit a library and look over the theses. You will find out general requirements, a paper’s structure, see popular formats and more. Besides, the studied dissertations can merge into your literature review later, so write down the initial data about the papers.

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