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Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

*The Caveat *

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.  

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

• Acknowledgements page
• Abstract (or executive summary)
• Table of contents , list of figures and tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature review
• Chapter 3: Methodology
• Chapter 4: Results
• Chapter 5: Discussion
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

• The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
• The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
• The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
• The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question .

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

• Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
• Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
• Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

• The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
• The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
• Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or  mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

• Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
• Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
• Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
• Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

• Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
• Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
• Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
• Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

Table of contents

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

• What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
• Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
• What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
• What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
• How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
• How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

• What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
• Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
• How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
• How does your research contribute something original?
• How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

• Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
• Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics , etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings? In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

• Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the  Grad Coach Blog .

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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36 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

Very nice and easy to understand. Thank you .

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

This is so good

How can i arrange my specific objectives in my dissertation?

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A Guide to Dissertation Planning: Tips, Tools and Templates

Dissertations are a defining piece of academic research and writing for all students. To complete such a large research project while maintaining a good work-life balance, planning and organisation is essential. In this article, we’ll outline three categories for dissertation planning including project management, note-taking and information management, alongside tools and templates for planning and researching effectively.

For both undergraduates and postgraduates, a dissertation is an important piece of academic research and writing. A large research project often has many moving parts from managing information, meetings, and data to completing a lengthy write-up with drafts and edits. Although this can feel daunting, getting ahead with effective planning and organisation will make this process easier. By implementing project management techniques and tools, you can define a research and writing workflow that allows you to work systematically. This will enable you to engage in critical thinking and deep work, rather than worrying about organisation and deadlines. 

To get prepared, you can do two things: First, start your preliminary readings and research to define a topic and methodology.  You can do this in summer or during the first few weeks of university but the sooner, the better. This gives you time to discuss things with your supervisor, and really choose a topic of interest. Second, begin preparing the tools and techniques you’ll be using for your research and writing workflow. You can use the preliminary research phase to test these out, and see what works for you. 

Below, we’ll cover three key aspects to consider when managing your dissertation, alongside some digital tools for planning, research and writing. 

The 3 Categories of Dissertation Planning

Project Management and Planning 

Your dissertation is a project that requires both long and short-term planning. For long-term planning, roadmaps are useful to break your work down into sections, chapters or stages. This will give you a clear outline of the steps you need to work through to complete your dissertation in a timely manner. 

Most likely, your roadmap will be a mixture of the stages in your research project and the sections of your write-up. For example, stage 1 might be defined as preliminary research and proposal writing. While stage 3 might be completing your literature review, while collecting data. 

This roadmap can be supplemented by a timeline of deadlines, this is when those stages or chapters need to be completed by. Your timeline will inform your short-term plans, and define the tasks that need completing on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This approach, using a roadmap and timeline, allows you to capture all the moving parts of your dissertation, and focus on small sub-sections at a time. A clear plan can make it easy to manage setbacks, such as data collection issues, or needing more time for editing. 

Note-taking 

Whether you use a notebook, or digital tool, it’s ideal to have a dedicated research space for taking general notes. This might include meeting notes from supervision, important information from informational dissertation lectures, or key reminders, ideas and thoughts. It can be your go-to place for miscellaneous to-do lists, or to map out your thought processes. It’s good to have something on hand that is easy to access, and keeps your notes together in one place. 

Beyond this, you’ll also need a dedicated space or system for literature and research notes. These notes are important for avoiding plagiarism, communicating your ideas, and connecting key findings together. A proper system or space can make it easier to manage this information, and find the appropriate reference material when writing. Within this system, you might also include templates or checklists, for example, a list of critical reading questions to work through when assessing a paper. 

Information Management 

It’s important to consider how you plan to organise your literature, important documents, and written work. Note-taking is a part of this, however, this goes a step further to carefully organise all aspects of your dissertation. For example, it’s ideal to keep track of your literature searches, the papers you’ve read, and their citations but also, your reading progress. Being able to keep track of how many passes a paper has been through, how relevant it is, or where it fits within your themes, or ideas, will provide a good foundation for writing a well-thought out dissertation. 

Likewise, editing is an important part of the write-up process. You’ll have multiple drafts, revisions and feedback to consider. It’s good to have some way of keeping track of all this, to ensure all changes and edits have been completed. You might also have checklists or procedures to follow when collecting data, or working through your research. A good information management process can reduce stress, making everything easy to access and keep track of, which then allows you to focus on getting the actual work complete. 

Digital Project Management and Research Tools for Dissertation Planning 

Trello is a project management tool that uses boards, lists and cards to help you manage all your tasks. In a board, you can create lists, and place cards within these lists. Cards contain a range of information such as notes, checklists, and due dates. Cards and lists can be used to implement a digital kanban board system , allowing you to move cards into a ‘to-do’, ‘in progress’ or ‘complete’ list. This gives a visual representation of your progress.

This is a flexible, easy to use and versatile tool that can help with project management of your dissertation. For example, cards and lists can be used to track your literature, each card can represent a paper and lists could be 1st pass, 2nd pass, or be divided into themes. Likewise, you can use this approach to organise the various chapters or stages of your dissertation, and break down tasks in a visual way. Students have used Trello to manage academic literature reviews , daily life as an academic , and collaborate with their supervisors for feedback and revisions on their write-up. 

Notion is an all-in-one note-taking and project management tool that is highly customisable. Using content blocks, pages, and databases, this tool allows you to build a workspace tailored to your needs. Databases are a key feature of Notion, this function allows you to organise and define pages using a range of properties such as tags, dates, numbers, categories and more. This database can then be displayed in a multitude of ways using different views, and filters. 

For example, you can create a table with each entry being a page of meeting notes with your supervisor, you can assign a date, person, and tags to each page. You can then filter this information by date, or view it in a board format. Likewise, you can use the calendar to add deadlines, within these deadlines, you can expand the page to add information, and switch to ‘timeline’ view . This is perfect for implementing project management techniques when planning your dissertation. 

Although this may sound complicated, there are many templates and resources to get you started . Notion is an ideal tool for covering all three aspects of dissertation planning from project and information management to note-taking of all kinds. Students have used Notion for literature reviews , thesis writing , long-term PhD planning , thesis management , and academic writing . The best part, these students not only share their systems, but have also created free templates to help you build your own system for research. 

Asana is a project management and to-do list tool that uses boards, lists, timelines and calendars. If you’re someone who prefers using lists to organise your life and projects, Asana is ideal for you. You can use this tool to manage deadlines, reading progress, or break down your work into projects and sub-tasks. Asana can integrate with your calendar, which is perfect if you already use other calendar tools for organisation. If something like Notion is too overwhelming, using a mixture of tools with different purposes can be a more comfortable approach. 

Genei is an AI-powered research tool for note-taking and literature management. Your research and reading material can be imported, and organised using projects and folders. For each file, genei produces an AI-powered summary, document outline, keyword list and overview. This tool also extracts key information such as tables, figures, and all the references mentioned. You can read through documents 70% faster but also, collect related articles by clicking on the items in the reference list. Genei can generate citations, and be used alongside other popular reference management tools, such as Zotero and Mendeley . 

This tool is ideal for navigating information management and literature notes for your dissertation. You can compile notes across single documents or folders of documents using the AI-generated summaries. These notes remain linked to their original source, which removes the need for you to keep track of this information. If you find it hard to reword content, there’s also summarising and paraphrasing tools to help get you started. Genei is a great tool to use alongside project management solutions, such as Trello and Asana, and note-taking tools like Notion. You can define an efficient research and writing workflow using these range of tools, and make it easier to stay on top of your dissertation. 

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• Dissertation
• Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Published on 8 June 2022 by Tegan George .

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process . It helps you to lay out and organise your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation, such as:

• Your anticipated title
• Your abstract
• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review, research methods, avenues for future research, etc.)

In the final product, you can also provide a chapter outline for your readers. This is a short paragraph at the end of your introduction to inform readers about the organisational structure of your thesis or dissertation . This chapter outline is also known as a reading guide or summary outline.

Table of contents

How to outline your thesis or dissertation, dissertation and thesis outline templates, chapter outline example, sample sentences for your chapter outline, sample verbs for variation in your chapter outline, frequently asked questions about outlines.

While there are some inter-institutional differences, many outlines proceed in a fairly similar fashion.

• Working Title
• ‘Elevator pitch’ of your work (often written last).
• Introduce your area of study, sharing details about your research question, problem statement , and hypotheses . Situate your research within an existing paradigm or conceptual or theoretical framework .
• Subdivide as you see fit into main topics and sub-topics.
• Describe your research methods (e.g., your scope, population , and data collection ).
• Present your research findings and share about your data analysis methods.
• Answer the research question in a concise way.
• Interpret your findings, discuss potential limitations of your own research and speculate about future implications or related opportunities.

To help you get started, we’ve created a full thesis or dissertation template in Word or Google Docs format. It’s easy adapt it to your own requirements.

 Download Word template    Download Google Docs template

It can be easy to fall into a pattern of overusing the same words or sentence constructions, which can make your work monotonous and repetitive for your readers. Consider utilising some of the alternative constructions presented below.

Example 1: Passive construction

The passive voice is a common choice for outlines and overviews because the context makes it clear who is carrying out the action (e.g., you are conducting the research ). However, overuse of the passive voice can make your text vague and imprecise.

Example 2: IS-AV construction

You can also present your information using the ‘IS-AV’ (inanimate subject with an active verb) construction.

A chapter is an inanimate object, so it is not capable of taking an action itself (e.g., presenting or discussing). However, the meaning of the sentence is still easily understandable, so the IS-AV construction can be a good way to add variety to your text.

Example 3: The I construction

Another option is to use the ‘I’ construction, which is often recommended by style manuals (e.g., APA Style and Chicago style ). However, depending on your field of study, this construction is not always considered professional or academic. Ask your supervisor if you’re not sure.

Example 4: Mix-and-match

To truly make the most of these options, consider mixing and matching the passive voice , IS-AV construction , and ‘I’ construction .This can help the flow of your argument and improve the readability of your text.

As you draft the chapter outline, you may also find yourself frequently repeating the same words, such as ‘discuss’, ‘present’, ‘prove’, or ‘show’. Consider branching out to add richness and nuance to your writing. Here are some examples of synonyms you can use.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organise your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever using numbers in your dissertation .

All level 1 and 2 headings should be included in your table of contents . That means the titles of your chapters and the main sections within them.

The contents should also include all appendices and the lists of tables and figures, if applicable, as well as your reference list .

Do not include the acknowledgements or abstract   in the table of contents.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

George, T. (2022, June 08). Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved 2 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/outline-thesis-dissertation/

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Dissertation Planner: Dissertation Planner

Dissertation planner.

• Learning from lectures
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• Problem solving
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• Primary research
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• Managing data
• Research ethics
• Citing and referencing
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• What is academic integrity?
• Referencing software
• Integrity Officer/Panel
• Intellectual property and copyright
• Digital skills home

This Dissertation Planner is a step-by-step guide to help you write a dissertation from starting to think about your question through to final submission. At each stage you will find useful tips and support. You can return to the planner by bookmarking the URL. 

• Last Updated: Mar 13, 2024 3:14 PM
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• Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Published on June 7, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on November 21, 2023.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process . It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to your field.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:

• Your anticipated title
• Your abstract
• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review, research methods, avenues for future research, etc.)

In the final product, you can also provide a chapter outline for your readers. This is a short paragraph at the end of your introduction to inform readers about the organizational structure of your thesis or dissertation. This chapter outline is also known as a reading guide or summary outline.

Table of contents

How to outline your thesis or dissertation, dissertation and thesis outline templates, chapter outline example, sample sentences for your chapter outline, sample verbs for variation in your chapter outline, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis and dissertation outlines.

While there are some inter-institutional differences, many outlines proceed in a fairly similar fashion.

• Working Title
• “Elevator pitch” of your work (often written last).
• Introduce your area of study, sharing details about your research question, problem statement , and hypotheses . Situate your research within an existing paradigm or conceptual or theoretical framework .
• Subdivide as you see fit into main topics and sub-topics.
• Describe your research methods (e.g., your scope , population , and data collection ).
• Present your research findings and share about your data analysis methods.
• Answer the research question in a concise way.
• Interpret your findings, discuss potential limitations of your own research and speculate about future implications or related opportunities.

For a more detailed overview of chapters and other elements, be sure to check out our article on the structure of a dissertation or download our template .

To help you get started, we’ve created a full thesis or dissertation template in Word or Google Docs format. It’s easy adapt it to your own requirements.

 Download Word template    Download Google Docs template

It can be easy to fall into a pattern of overusing the same words or sentence constructions, which can make your work monotonous and repetitive for your readers. Consider utilizing some of the alternative constructions presented below.

Example 1: Passive construction

The passive voice is a common choice for outlines and overviews because the context makes it clear who is carrying out the action (e.g., you are conducting the research ). However, overuse of the passive voice can make your text vague and imprecise.

Example 2: IS-AV construction

You can also present your information using the “IS-AV” (inanimate subject with an active verb ) construction.

A chapter is an inanimate object, so it is not capable of taking an action itself (e.g., presenting or discussing). However, the meaning of the sentence is still easily understandable, so the IS-AV construction can be a good way to add variety to your text.

Example 3: The “I” construction

Another option is to use the “I” construction, which is often recommended by style manuals (e.g., APA Style and Chicago style ). However, depending on your field of study, this construction is not always considered professional or academic. Ask your supervisor if you’re not sure.

Example 4: Mix-and-match

To truly make the most of these options, consider mixing and matching the passive voice , IS-AV construction , and “I” construction .This can help the flow of your argument and improve the readability of your text.

As you draft the chapter outline, you may also find yourself frequently repeating the same words, such as “discuss,” “present,” “prove,” or “show.” Consider branching out to add richness and nuance to your writing. Here are some examples of synonyms you can use.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever using numbers in your dissertation .

The title page of your thesis or dissertation goes first, before all other content or lists that you may choose to include.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review , research methods , avenues for future research, etc.)

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How To Plan and Write the Best Dissertation Possible

Writing a dissertation is something that many students dread when they begin their studies. Your dissertation often makes up a large proportion of your final grade , so it’s important to work as hard as you can to get the best marks possible. While a dissertation requires thousands of words and countless hours of research, the task shouldn’t be something that fills you with fear. If you’re able to start early, plan out your research effectively and remain productive throughout the process, you will find it easier to complete your dissertation in plenty of time to an excellent standard. If you’ve already started thinking about your dissertation, or you are preparing to write it, here is our ultimate guide to help you through each stage.

1. Pick a research topic that interests you

Our first tip may sound like an obvious one, but it’s also one of the most important. Your dissertation is a large piece of work – few people want to spend hours writing about something that doesn’t interest them. Your dissertation is one of the few chances that you have at university to exercise complete freedom around the topic of discussion. It’s an opportunity to showcase your thoughts, share your opinions and prove to your professors how much you have learned during your studies. If you’re struggling to think of a topic, go back and think about some of the previous classes that you’ve taken during your studies . Which of these classes was your favorite? Which class did you look forward to going to? What was it about these classes that interested you? By asking yourself these questions, it can help to clarify which topic should be the subject of your dissertation.

2. Start as early as you can

As it’s such an important piece of work, professors usually give you the brief for your dissertation many months before the deadline. It can be tempting to ignore your dissertation until the deadline becomes closer, but this can lead to unnecessary stress . The later you leave your work, the more likely it is that you’ll have to rush to complete it, which can prevent you from getting a higher grade. While you don’t need to start writing everything straight away, if you can start to think about the topic, structure or arguments that you want to use in your dissertation (and keep a record of all the prep work you do) you will find it much easier to get started.

3. Don’t be scared to ask your professors for advice

Your professor may not be able to go through your dissertation in detail, but that doesn’t mean they can’t provide you with help. Before you start writing or planning anything, ask your professor if they can guide you in the direction of resources, information or advice that could be useful throughout the dissertation writing process . You may also be assigned a dissertation supervisor, a specific member of staff with whom you can schedule sessions to go over your work. Your supervisor’s help will be an invaluable part of the process and can ensure you remain on the right track.

4. Set goals for yourself early on

The planning stage of your dissertation is one of the most important, and it can set you up for a successful project. During this stage , it’s a good idea to set some initial goals for yourself . This will give you targets to work towards throughout the process and keep you motivated. Your goals can include how many words you aim to have written by a given day, what you want to achieve in your dissertation, and which skills you would like to improve on. When it comes to word count, it’s usually better to set manageable goals. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to write thousands of words in one sitting – breaking the process into shorter sections means you’re much more likely to make progress . You can refer back to your goals and check them off a list as you complete them, which will also help you to stay productive and avoid rushing your project.

5. Keep a clear record of all the research you’ve done

Writing a dissertation involves a lot of research, and if you don’t have a thorough record of all the websites, journals and references that you’ve used, it can be hard to track them down again later on. Create a spreadsheet in which you can place all the links, authors, and titles of the resources that you’ve used , so you can list them in your bibliography easily, and refer back to them whenever you need to find information.

6. Never stop questioning yourself

No matter what stage of writing you’re at, you should never stop thinking critically about your work . Constantly ask yourself if you’re convinced by the answers you are giving, whether references support your conclusions and if all your sources are relevant to the topic that you’re writing about. By questioning everything you write, you’ll be able to produce a compelling, professional dissertation.

7. Ask others to proofread your work

Once you’ve finished the majority of your writing, our final tip is to ask a friend or someone else that you trust to proofread your dissertation. When you’ve been working on something so closely, it can be hard to spot small mistakes that can impact your grade. When you give your work to someone to read with a fresh pair of eyes, they may be able to help you find improvements that can improve your writing . Make sure you ask your friends to proofread your work with plenty of time to spare before the deadline . This way, if they do notice any improvements that could be made, you have enough time to make the necessary changes.

Learning at EU Business School

At EU Business School , our student services team works hard to ensure that every student has the tools and resources they need to progress through their studies smoothly. If you have any questions about dissertations or our study programs, feel free to get in touch .

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Top 11 Dissertation Writing Software For Students 2024

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Dissertation Writing Software: Your Research, Streamlined.

Writing a dissertation or thesis plays an important role in one's academic career. However, it is also a rigorous task that students often struggle with. Writing a thesis requires a lot of research, dedication, and organisation which needs to compile a lot of information together. To create a well-crafted and cohesive dissertation, it’s important to equip yourself with the right tools that will make the writing process easy for you. Well, here’s the good news for you: there are many dissertation writing software available that will help you up your game & increase your chances of producing a top-quality thesis. In this blog, we will be covering some of the top thesis-writing software that will help you write a dissertation that will stand out. 

Top 11 Dissertation & Thesis Writing Software 

To write an effective thesis, one needs to do extensive research and consider many factors that will help one’s dissertation stand out. We are covering some of the best dissertation writing software that will help you stay organised and write an effective dissertation. These tools will help you with meticulous research and planning. Without further ado, let’s check out some of the amazing dissertation writing software. 

Top Feature: Organize and Label Items

Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, Android (beta)

Rating: 9.1/10

Review: Excellent Open Source Citation Software with Multiple Integration Plug-ins Available

The first one on our list of dissertation writing software is Zotero, which helps you organize and label items. Zotero is a reference management software that helps in managing bibliographic data and research-related materials. This is one such dissertation writing software that will make your research task easy and organize & label items. The user-friendly interface and additional features such as web browser integration and collaboration options. 

Top Feature: Translation

Platform: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix

Rating: 4.7/5

Review: Latex is very helpful for preparing the documents. It has high-quality typesetting system.

Another of the best dissertation writing software is the open-source document preparation system that was exclusively developed for scholarly and technical writing. This software is known for its highly customizable and powerful typesetting system. Students can take the utmost advantage of this software when writing a dissertation or thesis using its strong reference manager, BibTex. 

Top Feature: Mind Mapping

Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux

Rating: 8.2/10

Review: A unique approach for organizing literature, focusing on your annotations instead of documents. It allows you to find the information you are looking for much faster.

While writing a dissertation, students often face a blocker in keeping multiple documents organized and sorted. Docear’s single-section user interface lets you sort documents and annotations. It contains a variety of tools, including PDF management and mind mapping, which allow its users to connect with new literature related to their area of research.  

4. Otter.ai

Top Feature: Custom Vocabulary, Playback Control

Platform: iOS or Android app

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Great alternative to manual transcription services as it is faster and easier to access.

Another one of the best dissertation writing software is Otter, which develops speech-to-text transcription. Otter, developed by Otter.ai, was founded in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu who has a history of working in artificial intelligence. Otter does the hours of work with just a click; instead of writing for long hours and spending most of your time on the keyboard, you just have to speak, and Otter will do the rest of the work for you. This simple yet powerful app converts the audio into text format and ta da you on your way to writing the best dissertation. 

5. SpellCheckPlus

Top Feature: Spelling, Grammar, and Vocabulary Checks.

Platform: Web App

Rating: 4.1/5

Review: Grammar checker that finds common spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in English.

While writing such a long thesis or dissertation, mistakes are bound to happen well, what if we tell you that there is a tool that will not only edit but will give you suggestions to make your writing better? Isn’t it great? SpellCheckPlus is one of the best dissertation writing software that gives a summary of the suggestions that can make your writing better. It has a free version that gives you suggestions based on the content, whereas you can opt for an upgraded “pro” option, which includes additional features. 

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Top Feature: Bibliography & Citation Maker

Platform: Windows, MacOS

Rating: 2.6/5

Review: This is a great plagiarism checker at a good price.

A dissertation or thesis is incomplete without bibliographies; however, it takes a lot of time to manually find and write them. With BibMe in frame, this has become easy. The fully automated system generates citations and cited pages for you with just one click. All you have to do is select the format of your choice—APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian—and choose from a database that provides a wide range of options. Click “add” and download the bibliography of your choice. 

Top Feature: Different Controls & No Annoying Installation

Platform: Google Drive

Rating: 4.2/5

Review: Easy to use, lots of different controls, and no annoying installation.

With so many thoughts and ideas to make one's thesis better, it becomes too difficult to keep track of it becomes overwhelming. With Mindmup in the picture, you can easily connect the dots and your ideas and create an amazing thesis. Mindmup is one of the best dissertation writing software that works as online mind-mapping that makes it easy for students to put down their thoughts into action. MindMup is also a terrific collaborative tool.

8. iA Writer

Top Feature: Focus Mode, Content Blocks

Platform: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android

Rating: 4.4/5   

Review: A pleasing minimalist tool for short-form writers, content creators, and bloggers.

Received recognition from The Guardian and The New York Times, iA Writer is one of the best dissertation writing software. It allows students to focus more by providing them with a writing-conducive environment. It has some of the best features, like focus mode, version control, cloud support, and insightful metrics. With broader clarity as to what it needs to rectify, it keeps the focus on the text and focuses on improving the content. 

9. Grammarly Premium

Top Feature: Tone Adjustments; Plagiarism Detection

Platform: Windows, iOS

Rating: 4/5

Review: Yes, the premium version of Grammarly is worth every penny.

Another one of the best dissertation writing software is Grammarly Premium, which can make your dissertation better with its amazing features. Grammarly Premium proofreads your content and gives you suggestions based on the analysis. It also has a handy feature of plagiarism check that will help you in making your thesis better. Another good feature is it easily integrates with Word, Google Docs and Chrome and gives you instant suggestions for rectification.

10. RefWorks

Top Feature: Stores and Organizes all forms of information

Rating: 4.3/5

Review: It is a useful program for managing citations and has helpful features for organisation.

RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool that helps you organize and store your references. It has amazing features like citation formatting, collaboration options, and document sharing. RefWorks is one of the best dissertation writing software that will help you keep your references handy and well-organized. 

Top Feature: Text Editor

Platform: Safari, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge

Rating: 4.8/5

Review: Notion is a good note-taking app for collaborating and is packed with features.

Writing a thesis or dissertation requires extensive planning and research. This leads to organizing and keeping things on track, which, if not handled properly, can lead to confusion. Notion allows you to organise your ideas and provides a flexible and customizable workspace. You can use a combination of text, tables, lists, media, and more. The notion also allows you to color-code text to keep the content highlighted. 

Writing a thesis requires a lot of research, which can often make it difficult for students to keep their research material organized. This dissertation writing software will let you organize and create an outstanding thesis or dissertation. These thesis writing software will make the process of writing dissertation easy for you and stand out.   

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best dissertation writing software, what are some of the features that notion offers, is there any dissertation writing software that can help with checking spelling or grammar, can i use ai to write my dissertation, which software is used for phd thesis.

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Dissertation planning

Information on how to plan and manage your dissertation project.

What is research?

A dissertation project is an opportunity to pursue your own ideas in an environment of relative intellectual freedom.

It also present a number of new challenges relating to the scale, scope and structure of a piece of work that is likely to be more substantial than any you have undertaken before.

These resources will help you to break the process down and explore ways to plan and structure your research and organise your written work.

A research-led university

Sheffield prides itself on being a  research-led university . Crucially, this means that teaching is informed by cutting-edge research in the academic field.

It also means that you are learning in an environment where you develop and use research skills as you progress. The most successful students tend to develop research skills early and use them consistently.

Research in higher education

Research sometimes just means finding out information about a topic. However, in the HE setting, specific understandings of 'research' carry a lot of weight.

The classic definition is that research leads to an original ' contribution to knowledge ' in a particular field of inquiry by defining an important question or problem and then answering or solving it in a systematic way.

You will build this contribution on the foundation of a robust structure of primary and secondary sources and evidence.

Differences across disciplines

Depending on the discipline you work in, there will be different ways of designing and articulating a research problem and different methods for answering these problems.

Not everything about research is 'original'. Sometimes the majority (or even all) of a research project will involve documenting or summarising information or ideas that are already available.

Not all research leads to answers. Sometimes research produces unusable results, or the inquiry leads to only more questions. Sometimes the originality of a research project is that it straddles more than one field of inquiry.

Some examples of approaches to research and what that contribution to knowledge might look like include:

• Explore an under-researched area
• Develop or test out a new methodology or technique
• Extend or develop a previous study
• Review the knowledge thus far in a specific field
• Makes connections between disciplines
• Replicate an existing study/approach in a different setting
• Apply a theoretical idea to a real world problem

This all adds up to the fact that research is a complicated topic that seems to mean a lot to academic experts but is very difficult to understand intimately when you are a novice.

As someone new to research, you will need to do some work to find out how research is conceived of and done in your discipline.

301 Recommends:

Our Dissertation Planning Essentials workshop will look at the initial stages and challenges of preparing for a large-scale dissertation project.

Our Dissertation Writing workshop will break down the process of writing a dissertation and explore approaches to voice and style to help develop a way of writing academically.

Our Creativity and Research interactive workshop looks at how to identify, develop and apply your creativity and innovation skills to the research process, whatever stage you're at. In our Creativity and Problem Solving interactive workshop you'll learn how to identify and develop your creativity and innovation skills, address problems and challenges, explore creative models and strategies, and look at how you can apply this to your academic work.

Our Part 1 workshop on Setting Research Priorities will help to break down the research process by identifying the key information that you need to have in place to develop your project. It will help you to prioritise key tasks and create a project workflow to set targets, track progress and reach key milestones. Part 2 will revisit that workflow to assess progress. It will encourage you to reflect on your project so far, identify opportunities for feedback and review your intermediate targets to ensure that you stay on track towards your deadline.

Explore this Illustrated Guide to a PhD  by Matt Might as a visualisation of research to help you identify how you can develop your research ideas.  

Our Video Dissemination workshop will give you an insight into the best practices for using video to disseminate research and communicate your ideas. It will look at styles, common communication techniques and the pedagogy of visual mediums, as well as top production tips for making your content engaging, informative and professional.

Research proposals

A research proposal often needs to encompass many things: it is part description, part analysis, part review, part guesswork, part advert, part CV.

Writing a research proposal that can achieve all these things is an important first step towards realising your project idea. Your research proposal will allow you to receive some early feedback on your ideas and will act as a guide as you plan and develop your project more fully.

But how can you explain what you hope to discover in the project before you’ve done the research?

There are a number of things that you can do to make sure that your research proposal is professional, realistic and relevant:

• Read around your topic of interest as much as possible. Getting a feel for what other kinds of research have been done will give you a much clearer idea of where your project might fit in. 
• Create a mind map of relevant topics to explore the links and connections between themes. Which branches of your mind map seem most promising as an area for enquiry?
• Be realistic. You may dream of making the next big breakthrough in the field, but this is probably unlikely! Set your self aims and objectives that are realistic within the timescales of your project. 
• Finally, make sure you follow your department guidelines and include everything that you need to in your proposal. 

301 Recommends: Research Project Design Template

Make a copy of this Research project design template (google doc) to capture the key information you need to complete your research proposal.

Research ethics

Whenever you undertake research, no matter what level you are working at, it is always important to consider the immediate and continued impact of your project.

All research should be designed to ensure that individuals involved in the project as subjects or participants are treated with respect and consideration. In practice, this means that:

• Participants have a right to full knowledge about the project and what its results will be used for.
• You should also be mindful of an individual's rights to privacy and confidentiality.
• You should consider the issue of data protection, how you will store project data safely and how long you will need to retain the data
• The physical, emotional and psychological well-being of participants and researchers should be prioritised in your research design.
• Environmental impacts of the research should be considered and mitigated where possible.
• Longer-term impacts, for example, if you are planning to publish findings from the project, should also be considered. 

It is perhaps easy to think that working directly with living participants raises the most pressing ethical questions.

However, you equally need to give very important consideration to the ethics of working in text-based subjects, especially when considering unpublished material (see also copyright).

Your department will have its own guidelines on the area of research ethics and you should certainly consult your tutor or supervisor as s/he will be able to give you detailed topic-specific guidance. More more guidance on ethics in research, visit Research Services Ethics and Integrity pages here . 

Project management

The key to completing a research project successfully is to invest time in planning and organising your project.

A student research project, whether a dissertation or a research placement, will usually involve tight timescales and deadlines. Given the wealth of tasks involved in a typical dissertation project, this can seriously limit the time available for actual data collection or research. 

Setting yourself clear and achievable aims and objectives will help to ensure that the project is manageable within the timeframe available.

As an early stage of the planning process, have a go at breaking your project down into its constituent parts: i.e. all of the tasks that you will need to complete between now and the deadline. How long will each of them take? For example:

Every project will have its own specific tasks, but breaking them down in this way will allow you to start planning ahead, adding milestones to your calendar and chipping away at the project task by task. 

301 Recommends: Trello

Trello is an online planning tool that allows you to create a project workflow. It is a simple and accessible tool that allows you to set yourself deadlines, colour code tasks and share your project plan with collaborators. View our example Dissertation Planning Trello board here and some guidance for students on using Trello (Linked In Learning) .

Working with your supervisor

Your supervisor will be your first point of contact for advice on your project and to help you to resolve issues arising. 

Remember, your supervisor will have a busy schedule and may be supervising several students at once. Although they will do their best to support you, they may not be able to get back to you right away and may be limited in their availability to meet you. 

There are a number of things that you can do to make the most out of the relationship. Some strategies to consider include:

• Share plans/ideas/work-in-progress with your supervisor early 
• Plan for meetings, sketch out an informal agenda 
• Write down your main questions before the meeting. Don’t leave without answers!
• Be receptive to feedback and criticism
• Take notes/record the meeting on a smartphone with your supervisor’s permission!)

301 recommends: Supervisor and supervisee relationships interactive digital workshop

This interactive resource will help you to develop a positive and productive working relationship with your supervisor. 

Top Tips and resources

• Read other dissertations from students in your department/discipline to get an idea of how similar projects are organised and presented. 
• Break your project down into its constituent parts and treat each chapter as an essay in its own right.
• Choose a topic that interests you and will sustain your interest, not just for a few days, but for a few months!
• Write up as you go along - writing can and should be part of all stages of the diissertation planning and developing process. 
• Keep good records – don’t throw anything out!
• If in doubt, talk to your supervisor.

Internal resources

• Library -  Research and Critical Thinking Resources
• Library –  Digital Skills for Dissertations : Information, resources and training on developing your dissertation projects, including finding and referencing sources, your literature review and creating and using images and infographics.
• ELTC -  Writing Advisory Service
• 301 -  Dissertation Essentials lecture recording
• 301 -  Dissertation Writing lecture recording

External resources

• The Theis Whisperer -  Writing Blog
• Gradhacker -  When it comes to dissertations, done is best

Related information

Scientific writing and lab reports

Proofreading

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Dissertation Planner: Write & Edit

• Getting Started
• Prepare & Propose
• Plan & Research
• Write & Edit
• Defense & Closure
• Help & Resources

Dissertation Sections

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Research Results

Your dissertation introduction will be similar to your proposal introduction, so you can use your proposal introduction as the starting point for it. The introduction needs to introduce your topic to the reader, establish the context of how you conducted your research, and summarize past and present formulations of the topic. The introduction should also cover your rationale, theoretical perspective, and research design and methodology. Remember to explain the significance of your research question and potential outcomes.

The introduction might include acknowledgement of the previous work on which you are building. It might also provide an explanation of the scope of your research, i.e., you may want to explicitly state what will and will not be included due to any circumstantial limitations or conscious decisions about coverage. The introduction can be a road map of sorts that helps you construct a table of contents of the completed dissertation.

Here are some tips for writing your introduction:

• The introduction will be the first section your readers see, but consider leaving it as the last section of your dissertation to write. Until the rest of your dissertation is complete, you may not be able to write with certainty about what exactly you are introducing.
• Your proposal should have been written in future tense ("Through my research, I will investigate ..."). If you reuse parts of the introduction from your proposal, make sure to update the tense to past tense ("Through my research, I investigated ...").
• This handout from the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has many strategies for how to maximize the effectiveness of your introduction.

The literature review should provide background for your research, explain your research question, and elaborate how your contribution will fit into the existing literature.  Further, through your literature review, you should:

• Develop an in-depth understanding of the topic and clarify why your research is significant;
• Ensure that your research is a distinctive contribution;
• Understand the broader discipline(s) of which your topic is a part;
• Position or frame the topic in your field and establish the link between existing research and your question;
• Explore important methodologies, controversies, and research issues;
• Identify key researchers by name, relevant research centers, core journals that publish research bearing thematic or methodological similarities to yours, and possible sources of funding; and
• Explain your rationale for your research design and methodology.

Be aware of the need to be selective and strategic. Trying to include every article and source that you found on your topic is unnecessary (and is a quick route to making yourself crazy). Think of yourself as a curator at a museum. Select the most meaningful and representative works for the literature review. You will, however, read and critically evaluate many more sources.

The extent to which your dissertation will or will not include a separate and discrete literature review may depend on conventions within your department and/or discipline. As always, consult with your advisor!

The results section of your dissertation is the place to report your findings based on the data you gathered. This section should appear in a logical sequence based on your methodology. State your findings without interpretation.  

Use non-text objects, including tables, figures, images, and visualizations, to illustrate your findings.  These 10 simple rules show you how to generate better figures.  The University of Kentucky offers a variety of software for free download that can assist you in creating effective illustrations and graphics.

Below is a video about presenting information in a visually appealing way.

The discussion section is often considered to be the core of your dissertation.  It explains what your results mean and highlights the significance of your research. Consider having these elements in the discussion:

• Include your research question identified in the introduction;
• Incorporate notable elements of your literature review into the discussion; 
• Explain how your results relate to existing literature and if they are consistent with previous research;
• Describe the significance and implications of what you found;
• Identify any unexpected or contradictory findings;
• Explain how your research enhances or fills a gap in existing research and/or literature;
• Describe how your research has advanced the discipline;
• Describe how your results can be applied. This commentary could take a variety of forms, such as a real world application, a summary of best practices, or other recommendations.  

This section should contain the conclusions you have reached because of your research, an explanation of any limitations in your research, and some possibilities for future studies of the topic.

Reviewing & Editing

• Part of Writing
• Seeking Feedback
• Tips on Editing
• Copyediting & Formatting

Seeking feedback, reviewing, and editing your draft will assist you in:  

• Examining the overall organization to identify what is no longer relevant and what needs further development;
• Synthesizing sections written at different times to create a coherent and connected whole;
• Seeing your work from a reader’s perspective;
• Clarifying your ideas for others, which will aid readers' understanding of your research; and 
• Planning and discussing your progress in consultation with your advisor and committee members.

Feedback can help you immensely along the writing process.  Think about how to connect with your dissertation support network and members of your committee to solicit constructive feedback. 

You may receive more helpful feedback if you:

• Discuss with your advisor and members of your committee to establish a process and a timeline to receive timely feedback on your drafts. 
• Identify potential readers’ skills and expertise when deciding which part(s) of your dissertation you want them to review. For example, perhaps only people in your department can comment constructively on your methods and general conclusions while friends in other disciplines might be better-positioned to give useful feedback on your introductory chapter.
• Give your readers some directions, e.g., explain what you want to accomplish in the draft and list your specific questions and concerns. 
• Respond to all comments even though you may decide not to incorporate the reviewers' suggestions.

You should be editing and revising throughout the writing process, and you should also budget sufficient time to return to your draft for full-scale revision.

When making early edits, make large changes in organization and content ("Higher Order Concerns") first rather than spending time fiddling with a sentence ("Lower Order Concerns") that might end up being removed in the end.  Purdue University's Online Writing Lab offers helpful advice on managing higher order and lower order editing concerns . 

When it comes time to do your final small-scale editing and proofreading, pay attention to some common errors.  The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison has created a list of common errors in its Writer's Handbook . 

Additionally, you can hire an editor to help you. The Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky provides a list of editors available for hire . 

Copyediting can be tedious, but make sure to:

• Correct mistakes with spelling, punctuation, and grammar; 
• Check all calculations, visual details, and citations for accuracy and validity;
• Update the reference section if you have added and/or removed citations in the dissertation; and
• Prepare and/or edit the bibliography, appendix, title page, and acknowledgements last to ensure they account for last-minute changes.
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• Next: Defense & Closure >>
• Last Updated: Jan 23, 2024 10:01 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uky.edu/dissertation-planner

Library Guides

Dissertations 1: getting started: planning.

• Starting Your Dissertation
• Choosing A Topic and Researching
• Devising An Approach/Method
• Thinking Of A Title
• Writing A Proposal

Planning Your Time

The dissertation is a large project, so it needs careful planning. To organise your time, you can try the following:  

Break down the dissertation into smaller stages to complete (e.g., literature search, read materials, data collection, write literature review section…). 

Create a schedule. Working backwards from your deadline, decide when you will complete each stage. 

Set aside time to regularly work on the dissertation. 

Consider what times of day you are most alert and what makes a suitable space to study. 

Identify a specific task to work on. 

If overwhelmed, try to identify one task that needs doing rather than focusing on the larger project. 

Leave time to redraft, proof-read, format, and complete the reference list. 

Gantt Charts

As the dissertation project involves certain processes to take place simultaneously, rather than in a sequence, you can use a Gantt chart to organise your time.  

A Gantt chart is a bar chart which shows the schedule for a project. The project is broken down into key tasks/elements to be completed. A start and finish date for each task/element of the project is given. Some tasks are scheduled at the same time or may overlap. Others will start when a task has been completed. 

To produce a Gantt chart, you can use Word, Excel (see example in the attachment) or an online planner.

• Tom's Planner . There's  an example  for you to use to complete your plan. 
• Excel:  example of Gantt Chart in Excel . This is an example of a Gantt chart which can be used to generate a plan of work (timeline) for your dissertation. You can download and edit it as you please. The chart has been created by the University of Leicester. 

Research Data Management

This video helps you to understand the importance of research data management and how you can plan, organise, store, preserve, and share your data.

• Link to video on Research Data Management
• Feedback Form Please give us feedback on our videos!
• << Previous: Thinking Of A Title
• Next: Writing A Proposal >>
• Last Updated: Aug 1, 2023 2:36 PM
• URL: https://libguides.westminster.ac.uk/starting-your-dissertation

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Center for Rural Engagement

Need help planning for the 2024 solar eclipse in your community?

The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Planning Toolkit can help you prepare yourself and your community for the anticipated excitement surrounding this event, both logistically and creatively.

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Share the magic of your community during the 2024 solar eclipse

Communities across southern Indiana will align directly with the path of totality during the 2024 solar eclipse. This provides a unique opportunity for  Hoosiers and tourists alike to explore the cultural dimensions and creative inspiration of a solar event that will remain in our memories for a lifetime.

With funding support from the Simons Foundation as part of its   In the Path of Totality initiative , the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement is leading IU’s   rural solar eclipse initiative, providing staff support, resources and outreach for community activities that unite residents around the historic astronomical event.

Microgrant Awardees

See the awardees of the 2024 Eclipse Microgrant.

Eclipse Scholars

Meet the students working with community organizations.

The Path of Totality

Indiana counties in the path of totality will experience a period when the sun is 100% covered. Other counties in Indiana will experience 90% coverage. 

Counties in the path of totality include: Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Daviess, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Dubois, Fayette, Franklin, Gibson, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Posey, Putnam, Randolph, Ripley, Rush, Scott, Shelby, Spencer, Sullivan, Tipton, Union, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, Warrick, Washington, Wayne, and Wells.

About the Total Solar Eclipse Planning Toolkit

The precise alignment required for a total solar eclipse to cross over a specific region, such as Indiana, is a rare and awe-inspiring celestial coincidence. Despite total solar eclipses occurring approximately every eighteen months worldwide, they only occur about every 400 years in the same place.

Indiana’s rural communities will face large crowds, traffic, and congestion, but we are also presented with an exciting opportunity to engage with locals and tourists. Planning early will allow community leaders to make the most of the total solar eclipse.

The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Planning Toolkit is organized to provide background on the next total solar eclipse and resources to help you prepare yourself and your community for the anticipated excitement surrounding this event—both logistically and creatively.

Browse resources from the guide

Know the facts.

Information by state The Great American Eclipse website provides a depth of information on solar eclipses in general, with pages covering basics of the eclipse, logistics and safety considerations, and state-specific statistics based on previous eclipses. https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com

Resources and eclipse information The American Astronomical Society provides a variety of resources relating to the eclipse, covering topics ranging from eye safety to photography. Additional resources for apps, maps, books, articles, and more are located on their website. https://eclipse.aas.org

Timing the Solar Eclipse Visit the interactive Time and Date website to find when and where the eclipse crosses your area. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8

Assessing the weather Locate historical and projected weather data, to get a sense of what to expect on April 8, 2024. https://www.weather.gov/wrh/climate https://www.timeanddate.com/weather

Get eclipse glasses and handheld solar viewers Visit the American Astronomical Society website to find a list of safe manufacturers and importers of eclipse glasses and handheld solar viewers, as well as their resellers and distributors. https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters

Eclipse activities Science-Technology Activities and Resources for Libraries (STAR net) has numerous activities on their website, including methods for how to indirectly view the total solar eclipse. https://www.starnetlibraries.org/about/our-projects/solar-eclipse-activities-libraries-seal

Create a plan

Lessons learned from the 2017 eclipse Materials from the Solar Eclipse Planning workshop hosted by the American Astronomical Society are available on their website. Experts speak on topics ranging from community experience to traffic and safety. https://eclipse.aas.org/workshops/jun2023

General guidance for safe eclipse planning The Homeland Security Digital Library is a great resource for fact sheets, checklists, locally developed guidance documents, and news articles on eye safety, injury treatment, and planned mass gatherings in rural and urban areas. The Solar Eclipses: Planning Resources [September 2022] document compiles many of these sources. https://www.hsdl.org/c/view?docid=880095

Eclipse planning in Indiana The May 2023 issue of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security magazine, The Hoosier Responder, includes a section on eclipse planning in Indiana. https://www.in.gov/dhs/files/Hoosier-Responder-2023-05.pdf

Safety planning Uncover public safety planning information from the State of Indiana, including guidance for first responders, emergency management, and state agencies. https://www.in.gov/dhs/solar-eclipse-2024/planning/

Finding eclipse experts Discover amateur astronomers who may be interested in supporting your community’s eclipse planning. https://lovethenightsky.com/astronomy-clubs-in-indiana https://www.go-astronomy.com/astro-clubs-state.php?State=IN

Engage with the community

Eclipse planning and communication Dr. Kate Russo’s Community Solar Eclipse Planning guide provides further information on assembling a task force, developing a strategy, and planning for your community through the knowns and unknowns. https://www.beingintheshadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/WHITE-PAPER-SECOND-EDITION.pdf

Facilities and preparedness Mark Howell, Director of Grounded Truths LLC, created a quick guide for best practices in estimating facilities needed at eclipse events. Consider how to implement the 3 “T”s and 2 “C”s for your eclipse events. https://eclipse.aas.org/sites/eclipse.aas.org/files/Howell_Jun2023_Poster.pdf

For libraries In collaboration with the STAR Library Network, astronomers Andrew Fraknoi and Dennis Schatz created “A Guide For Public Libraries and their Communities.” This double-header contains eclipse information, safe viewing activities, ideas for eclipse events, and links to finding science-literate partners. https://eclipse.aas.org/sites/eclipse.aas.org/files/SEAL-Booklet-for-Libraries.pdf

For educators and administrators In collaboration with the National Science Teaching Association, astronomers Andrew Fraknoi and Dennis Schatz also produced two solar eclipse guides. Educators https://static.nsta.org/pdfs/SolarEclipses2023_Educator.pdf Administrators https://static.nsta.org/pdfs/SolarEclipses2023_Administrator.pdf

Additional resources and information

Learn about best practices and safety.

IU Solar Eclipse 2024 Initiative

Find and share eclipse events in Indiana

Visit Indiana Eclipse event map

Get additional resources

Purdue Extension Resource Hub

Upcoming events

Eclipse 2024 in Greene County, Indiana

Gibson County Eclipse Celebration

Gibson County Fairgrounds, 709 N Embree Street, Princeton, IN

The Hidden Sun | Vincennes, IN

4 p.m. — 5 p.m.

Red Skelton Performing Arts Center, 20 W Red Skelton Blvd, Vincennes, IN 47591

Dark Side of the Moon Festival | Metamora, IN

19067 US-52, Metamora, IN 47030

Discover Downtown Washington Solar Eclipse Festival

301 E Main St, Washington, IN 47501

John Hay Center 2024 Total Solar Eclipse | Salem, IN

The Depot Railroad Museum, 206 S. College Avenue, Salem, IN

Total Eclipse of the Art 5k Fun Run | Crawfordsville, IN

Starts at 8 a.m.

300 W South Blvd, Crawfordsville, IN

Total Solar Eclipse Festival | Washington, IN

Starts at 10 a.m.

301 E Main Street, Washington, IN 47501

Left in the Dark in English, Indiana

Starts at 12 p.m.

Main Street English, IN 47118

Huntingburg Eclipse | Huntingburg, IN

412 N Jackson St, Huntingburg, IN 47542

Indiana Forest Alliance 2024 Solar Eclipse Hike | Yellowwood State Forest

10 a.m. — 6 p.m.

Yellowwood Lake

The Hidden Sun | Martinsville, IN

2 p.m. — 3 p.m.

The Venue, 183 N. Jefferson Street, Martinsville, IN 46151

Edinburgh Eclipse | Edinburgh, IN

John R. Drybread Community Center, 100 E Main Cross Street, Edinburgh, IN

Solar Eclipse with Spencer Pride | Spencer, IN

Spencer Pride, 17 E. Franklin Street, Spencer, IN 47460

Cosmic Art Gallery | Versailles, IN

9 a.m. — 12 p.m.

220 E US Hwy 50 Versailles, IN

Rural Eclipse Showcase at Maxwell Hall

10 a.m. — 4 p.m.

Maxwell Hall

Indiana Forest Alliance 2024 Solar Eclipse Viewing | Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center

11 a.m. — 5 p.m.

Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, 3655 S Snoddy Rd, Bloomington, IN 47401

Totally Awe-SUN Solar Eclipse Watch Party | Daleville, IN

12 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Hilltop Pavilion, 1590 North 900W Road, Daleville, IN 47334

KCARC Community in Totality | Vincennes, IN

12:30 p.m. — 4 p.m.

The Baker Center Field, 2900 East Carney Avenue, Vincennes, IN

Total Solar Eclipse at Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary

1 p.m. — 4 p.m.

3499 South Bird Sanctuary Road,Connersville, IN 47331

Recent news

Solar eclipse grant application opens to support arts, cultural activities in rural Indiana communities

Micro-grants for eclipse-related activities now open

2024 solar eclipse initiative to support arts, cultural activities in rural Indiana

Unlocking the mysteries of animal behavior during cosmic events

30 rural organizations receive grants to support solar eclipse arts, cultural activities

Connect with an IU faculty eclipse or astronomy expert

Center for rural engagement social media channels.

• Faculty & Staff Portal

Total solar eclipse forecast shows who has best chance for clear skies on April 8th

A clear sky is key to watching the april 8th total solar eclipse. the fox forecast center has put together a forecast showing areas more or less likely to be impacted by cloud cover during the eclipse..

Total solar eclipse forecast shows better viewing conditions for Northeast

Four days away from the total solar eclipse, the forecast continues to look better for the Northeast with increasing cloud cover concerns for the Southern Plains, including Texas.

Forecasts for the total solar eclipse still show a higher probability of clouds threatening parts of the southern and central U.S. , while the Northeast and New England trend in the right direction with an improving outlook for less cloud coverage.

On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will be visible across parts of Mexico , Canada and the U.S., from Texas to Maine . A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth , completely blocking the face of the Sun for several minutes. It will be the last time a total solar eclipse passes over a large part of the U.S. until 2044 .

To experience the full eclipse, you'll need a pair of solar glasses and to be located along the more than 100-mile-wide path during totality. A clear sky is also key to watching a total solar eclipse . 

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE LIVE TRACKER: CLOUD FORECASTS FOR CITIES, STATES IN PATH OF TOTALITY

The FOX Forecast Center has put together the cloud cover forecast shown on the map below, showing areas with an overcast sky, many clouds or few clouds during the eclipse. As the eclipse nears, computer forecast models will improve and be able to give forecasters a better idea of what the sky will look like on the big day.

PLANNING AN ECLIPSE ROAD TRIP? AAA SHARES TRAVEL ADVICE, SAFETY TIPS AHEAD OF APRIL 8TH

With April 8th just days away, the FOX Forecast Center says the trend for clearer skies is improving at the northeastern end of the path of totality but is getting worse for clouds at the southwestern end of the eclipse path. 

Buffalo , New York , is currently forecast to have some clouds on the day of the event, but less cloud cover is expected to the north and east. The forecast is looking favorable for Caribou , Maine and Burlington , Vermont, among the last cities to see the eclipse in the U.S. before the path of totality heads into Atlantic Canada.

For the Midwest , cloud cover could be less around Paducah , Kentucky , and near St. Louis but will increase closer to the Great Lakes region, including Cleveland .

For now, clouds remain most probable around the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast, with greater confidence in less cloud cover around Florida and New England. 

Severe thunderstorms possible in South on eclipse day

Many of the prime viewing spots of Texas through the mid-Mississippi and Ohio valleys are currently forecast to have overcast skies or many clouds. Popular viewing spots, including San Antonio , may have trouble from clouds on April 8th.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has highlighted parts of North and East Texas, southeastern Oklahoma , northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas for a potential severe weather threat on the day of the eclipse .

This risk zone includes the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex and other towns in the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley along the path of totality.

According to the FOX Forecast Center, the good news is that the severe weather may not arrive until late afternoon after the eclipse is over. Totality in Dallas begins at 1:40 p.m. CT. However, eclipse viewers will likely be dealing with heavy traffic for hours after the eclipse, which could coincide with thunderstorms .  

DALLAS AREA IN EARLY SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WARNING FOR MONDAY'S TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

It's also important to note that even if it's cloudy, you will likely still see at least some of the eclipse. 

The details will become clearer as the event draws closer, so stay tuned, the FOX Forecast Center says.

WHAT HAPPENS TO CLOUDS DURING A SOLAR ECLIPSE? NEW RESEARCH MAY SURPRISE YOU

Check back with FOX Weather for updates to the forecast as April 8th approaches, and add your viewing location to the "Events" tab in the FOX Weather app.

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• Solar Eclipse
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