Dissertation Writing Advice: How To Start Your Paper


Writing a dissertation is a serious and long-time project. However, it’s one great step higher. It will show you new horizons and open new doors. Once you decided to write the dissertation, you just need to be motivated enough and follow your goal. Read these easy tips to start your paper:

  1. Talk with your supervisor.
  2. The main and the very first step to do is to select the topic. Try to do it on your own. Prepare several topics to select from and then go to your tutor. He or she will help you to formulate the topic properly, choose the topic that is worth writing and meets all the requirements.

  3. Create an outline.
  4. Just before the start of the work, you should develop an outline. Write down, what elements your work should contain (introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion) and give a short description for each one. The introduction should tell what you are going to research and why it is important. Prove that your theme is new and actual. Body paragraphs contain the research information supported with facts and examples. Conclusion confirms that research was conducted successfully and all the goals were achieved.

  5. Gather information.
  6. Visit libraries or browse the Internet to collect books and articles that can be used in your research. Write down a short description with the main facts for each of them. Further, you should analyze each of these sources and make notes that will be used in the body paragraphs. This literature will also form your bibliography so mind proper formatting from the very beginning to save time.

  7. Manage your time.
  8. After you know what you are going to write about, organize your schedule. Surely writing a thesis is not your only task! You have to create a schedule that will allow you to write a certain portion of pages every day. To know how many pages to write per day, just divide the total number of pages in the paper on the number of days you have for the whole period of writing. It will ensure that you wouldn’t have to write everything at the last moment.

  9. Find a place with no distractions.
  10. Writing a research paper requires complete concentration. Communication with your roommates, playing video games, surfing social networks, watching films – all these things should be banned while you work on the paper. Try different places to find the best one. Mind that it should not only be a quiet, but also a comfortable place for you that will give you inspiration and energy to work.

What To Do If Tutorials Are Not Enough?

Ask For Advice

You will probably need some help on different stages of your writing process. For someone is difficult to edit his own text, someone need advice on topic or research materials. There are a lot of ways to get on and offline advice.