dissertation chapters humanities

How to Write a Social Science or Humanities Thesis/Dissertation

Writing a thesis/dissertation is a huge task, and it is common to feel overwhelmed at the start. A thesis and a dissertation are both long pieces of focused research written as the sum of your graduate or postgraduate course.

The difference between a thesis and a dissertation can depend on which part of the world you are in. In Europe, a dissertation is written as part of a Master’s degree, while a thesis is written by doctoral students. In the US, a thesis is generally the major research paper written by Master’s students to complete their programs, while a dissertation is written at the doctoral level.

The purpose of both types of research is generally the same: to demonstrate that you, the student, is capable of performing a degree of original, structured, long-term research. Writing a thesis/dissertation gives you experience in project planning and management, and allows you the opportunity to develop your expertise in a particular subject of interest. In that sense, a thesis/dissertation is a luxury, as you are allowed time and resources to pursue your own personal academic interest.

Writing a thesis/dissertation is a larger project than the shorter papers you likely wrote in your coursework. Therefore, the structure of a thesis/dissertation can differ from what you are used to. It may also differ based on what field you are in and what kind of research you do. In this article, we’ll look at how to structure a humanities or social science thesis/dissertation and offer some tips for writing such a big paper. Once you have a solid understanding of how your thesis/dissertation should be structured, you will be ready to begin writing.

How are humanities and social science thesis/dissertations structured?

The structure of a thesis/dissertation will vary depending on the topic, your academic discipline, methodology, and the place you are studying in. Generally, social science and humanities theses/dissertations are structured differently from those in natural sciences, as there are differences in methodologies and sources. However, some social science theses/dissertations can use the same format as natural science dissertations, especially if it heavily uses quantitative research methods. Such theses/dissertations generally follow the “IMRAD” model :

Introduction

Social science theses/dissertations often range from 80-120 pages in length.

Humanities thesis/dissertations, on the other hand, are often structured more like long essays. This is because these theses/dissertations rely more heavily on discussions of previous literature and/or case studies. They build up an argument around a central thesis citing literature and case studies as examples. Humanities theses/dissertations tend to range from between 100-300 pages in length.

The parts of a dissertation: Starting out

Never assume what your reader knows! Explain every step of your process clearly and concisely as you write, and structure your thesis/dissertation with this goal in mind.

As you prepare your topic and structure your social science or humanities thesis/dissertation, always keep your audience in mind. Who are you writing for? Even if your topic is other experts in the field, you should aim to write in sufficient detail that someone unfamiliar with your topic could follow along. Never assume what your reader knows! Explain every step of your process clearly and concisely as you write, and structure your thesis/dissertation with this goal in mind.

While the structure of social science and humanities theses/dissertations differ somewhat, they both have some basic elements in common. Both types will typically begin with the following elements:

What is the title of your paper?

A good title is catchy and concisely indicates what your paper is about. This page also likely has your name, department and advisor information, and ID number. However, the specific information listed varies by institution.

Acknowledgments page

Many people probably helped you write your thesis/dissertation. If you want to say thank you, this is the place where it can be included.

Your abstract is a one-page summary (300 words or less) of your entire paper. Beginning with your thesis/dissertation question and a brief background information, it explains your research and findings. This is what most people will read before they decide whether to read your paper or not, so you should make it compelling and to the point.

This section lists the chapter and subchapter titles along with their page numbers. It should be written to help your reader easily navigate through your thesis/dissertation.

While these elements are found at the beginning of your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation, most people write them last. Otherwise, they’ll undergo a lot of needless revisions, particularly the table of contents, as you revise, edit, and proofread your thesis/dissertation.

The parts of a humanities thesis/dissertation

As we mentioned above, humanities and some social science theses/dissertations follow an essay-like structure . A typical humanities thesis/dissertation structure includes the following chapters:

References (Bibliography)

The number of themes above was merely chosen as an example.

In a humanities thesis/dissertation, the introduction and background are often not separate chapters. The introduction and background of a humanities thesis/dissertation introduces the overall topic and provides the reader with a guide for how you will approach the issue. You can then explain why the topic is of interest, highlight the main debates in the field, and provide background information. Then you explain what you are investigating and why. You should also specifically indicate your hypothesis before moving on to the first thematic chapter.

Thematic chapters (and you can have as many of them as your thesis/dissertation guidelines allow) are generally structured as follows:

Introduction: Briefly introduce the theme of the chapter and inform the reader what you are going to talk about.
Argument : State the argument the chapter presents
Material : Discuss the material you will be using
Analysis : Provide an analysis of the materials used
Conclusion : How does this relate to your main argument and connect to the next theme chapter?

Finally, the conclusion of your paper will bring everything together and summarize your argument clearly. This is followed by the references or bibliography section, which lists all of the sources you cited in your thesis/dissertation.

The parts of a social science thesis/dissertation

In contrast to the essay structure of a humanities thesis/dissertation, a typical social science thesis/dissertation structure includes the following chapters:

Literature Review
Methodology

Unlike the humanities thesis/dissertation, the introduction and literature review sections are clearly separated in a social science thesis/dissertation. The introduction tells your reader what you will talk about and presents the significance of your topic within the broader context. By the end of your introduction, it should be clear to your reader what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why.

The literature review analyzes the existing research and centres your own work within it. It should provide the reader with a clear understanding of what other people have said about the topic you are investigating. You should make it clear whether the topic you will research is contentious or not, and how much research has been done. Finally, you should explain how this thesis/dissertation will fit within the existing research and what it contributes to the literature overall.

In the methodology section of a social science thesis/dissertation, you should clearly explain how you have performed your research. Did you use qualitative or quantitative methods? How was your process structured? Why did you do it this way? What are the limitations (weaknesses) of your methodological approach?

Once you have explained your methods, it is time to provide your results . What did your research find? This is followed by the discussion , which explores the significance of your results and whether or not they were as you expected. If your research yielded the expected results, why did that happen? If not, why not? Finally, wrap up with a conclusion that reiterates what you did and why it matters, and point to future matters for research. The bibliography section lists all of the sources you cited, and the appendices list any extra information or resources such as raw data, survey questions, etc. that your reader may want to know.

In social science theses/dissertations that rely more heavily on qualitative rather than quantitative methods, the above structure can still be followed. However, sometimes the results and discussion chapters will be intertwined or combined. Certain types of social science theses/dissertations, such as public policy, history, or anthropology, may follow the humanities thesis/dissertation structure as we mentioned above.

Critical steps for writing and structuring a humanities/social science thesis/dissertation

If you are still struggling to get started, here is a checklist of steps for writing and structuring your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation.

Choose your thesis/dissertation topic
What is the word count/page length requirement?
What chapters must be included?
What chapters are optional?
Conduct preliminary research
Decide on your own research methodology
Outline your proposed methods and expected results
Use your proposed methodology to choose what chapters to include in your thesis/dissertation
Create a preliminary table of contents to outline the structure of your thesis/dissertation

By following these steps, you should be able to organize the structure of your humanities or social science thesis/dissertation before you begin writing.

Final tips for writing and structuring a thesis/dissertation

Although writing a thesis/dissertation is a difficult project, it is also very rewarding. You will get the most out of the experience if you properly prepare yourself by carefully learning about each step. Before you decide how to structure your thesis/dissertation, you will need to decide on a thesis topic and come up with a hypothesis. You should do as much preliminary reading and notetaking as you have time for.

Since most people writing a thesis/dissertation are doing it for the first time, you should also take some time to learn about the many tools that exist to help students write better and organize their citations. Citation generators and reference managers like EndNote help you keep track of your sources and AI grammar and writing checkers are helpful as you write. You should also keep in mind that you will need to edit and proofread your thesis/dissertation once you have the bulk of the writing complete. Many thesis editing and proofreading services are available to help you with this as well.

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What are the parts of a social science thesis/dissertation? +

A social science thesis/dissertation is usually structured as follows:

How long is a typical social science thesis/dissertation? +

What are the parts of a humanities thesis/dissertation +.

Humanities theses/dissertations are usually structured like this:

Thematic Chapters

What is the typical structure of a thematic chapter in a humanities thesis/dissertation? +

A thematic chapter in a humanities thesis/dissertation is structured like this:

How long is a typical humanities thesis/dissertation? +

A typical humanities thesis/dissertation tends to range from 100 to 300 pages in length.

Library Guides

Dissertations 2: structure: thematic.

In the humanities, a thematic dissertation is often structured like a long essay. It can contain:

Title page

Abstract

Table of contents

Introduction

Literature review (which can be included in the introduction rather than as a separate chapter. Check with your supervisor if you are unsure).

Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices

Abstracts are used by other researchers to establish the relevance of the study to their own work. Therefore, they should contain the what, why, who, where and how of your project.

They are typically between 250 – 300 words long, offer a summary of the main findings and present the conclusions, so you should attempt to write an abstract (if requested), after you have finished writing the dissertation.

A typical abstract summarises:

What the study aimed to achieve

The methodology used

Why the research was conducted

Why the research is important

Who/what was researched

The table of contents should list all the items included in your dissertation.

It is a good idea to use the electronic table of contents feature in Word to automatically link it to your chapter headings and page numbers. Attempting to manually create a table of contents means that you will have to adjust your page numbers every time you edit your work before submission, which may waste valuable time!

This useful video will walk you through the formatting of longer documents using the electronic table of contents feature.

Introduction

The introduction explains the how, what, where, when, why and who of the research. It introduces the reader to your dissertation and should act as a clear guide as to what it will cover.

The introduction may include the following content:

Introduce the topic of the dissertation

State why the topic is of interest
Give background information on the subject.
Refer to the main debates in the field

Identify the scope of your research

Highlight what hasn't already been said by the literature 
Demonstrate what you seek to investigate, and why
Present the aim of the dissertation.
Mention your research question or hypothesis

Indicate your approach 

Introduce your main argument (especially if you have a research question, rather than hypothesis).
Mention your methods/research design.
Outline the dissertation structure (introduce the main points that you will discuss in the order they will be presented).

Normally, the introduction is roughly 10% of a dissertation word count.

Literature Review

The term “literature” in “literature review” comprises scholarly articles, books, and other sources (e.g. reports) relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory. In a dissertation, the literature review illustrates what the literature already says on your research subject, providing summary and synthesis of such literature. 

It is generally structured by topic, starting from general background and concepts, and then addressing what can be found - and cannot be found - on the specific focus of your dissertation. Indeed, the literature review should identify gaps in the literature, that your research aims to fill. This requires you to engage critically with the literature, not merely reproduce the critical understanding of others.

In sum, literature reviews should demonstrate how your research question can be located in a wider field of inquiry. Therefore, a literature review needs to address the connections between your work and the work of others by highlighting links between them. In doing so, you will demonstrate the foundations of your project and show how you are taking the line of inquiry forwards.

By the end of your literature review, your reader should be able to see:

The gap in knowledge and understanding which you say exists in the field.

How your research question will work within that gap.

The work other researchers have carried out and the issues debated in the field.

That you have a good understanding of the field and that you are critically engaged with the debates (Burnett, 2009).

For more detailed guidance on how to write literature reviews, check out the Literature Review Guide.

Theme Chapters

In a thematic structure, the core chapters present analysis and discussion of different themes relevant to answer the research question and support the overall argument of the dissertation. The chapters will include analysis of texts/ research material. They can explore and connect academic theories/research to develop an argument. Stella Cottrell offers some good guidance on how to structure your theme chapters. Each chapter should have the following elements (Cottrell, 2014, p183):

Theme: What is the theme of this chapter? Sequence your themes logically (e.g. from general to specific).

Argument: What argument does this chapter present?

Material: What material you will be using for this chapter?

Clustering: What are the main points you want to make? Deal with one point at a time, and don't jum around? Dedicate your points to sub-headings and paragraphs.

Sequence: In what order are you going to present the points you want to make in this chapter? Draw an outline of the chapter before starting writing it.

Introduction and Conclusion: Each chapter should have a short introduction and conclusion.

The conclusion is the final chapter of your dissertation. It should flow logically from the previously presented text; therefore, you should avoid introducing new ideas, new data, or a new direction.

Ideally, the conclusion should leave the reader with a clear understanding of the discovery or argument you have advanced.

This can be done by:

Summarising and synthesising your main findings and how they relate to your research question or hypotheses

Demonstrating the relevance and importance of your work in the wider context of your field. For example, what recommendations would you make for future research? What do we know now that we didn’t know before?

Link your conclusion to your introduction as both frame your dissertation.

A conclusion is roughly five to ten percent of the word count of the dissertation.

Avoid excessive detail. Decide what your reader needs to know.

Don’t introduce any new information such as theories, data or ideas.

Sum up the main points of your research.

Bibliography

While writing your dissertation, you would have referred to the works and research of many different authors and editors in your field of study. These works should be acknowledged in the bibliography where you will list writers alphabetically by surname.

For example:

Poloian, L.R. (2013). Retailing principles: global, multichannel, and managerial viewpoints. New York: Fairchild. Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university . Maidenhead: Open University Press. Ramsay, P., Maier, P. and Price, G. (2010). Study skills for business and management students . Harlow: Longman.

Unless otherwise specified by your module leader, the University uses the Harvard (author-date) style of citing and referencing. For more guidance and support on how to reference effectively check out the Referencing Guide . You can also book an appointment with an Academic Engagement Librarian for extra help with referencing.

While the main results of your study should be placed in the body of your dissertation, any extra information can be placed in the appendices chapter. This supplementary information, for instance, can consist of graphs, charts, or tables that demonstrate less significant results or interview transcripts that would disrupt the flow of the main text if they were included within it.

You can create one long appendix section or divide it into smaller sections to make it easier to navigate. For example, you might want to have an appendix for images, an appendix for transcripts, and an appendix for graphs. Each appendix (each graph or chart, etc.) should have its own number and title. Further, the sources for all appendices should be acknowledged through referencing and listed in the bibliography.

Don’t forget to mention each appendix at least once during your dissertation! This can be done using brackets in the following way: (see appendix 1).

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How to Structure a Dissertation – A Step by Step Guide

Published by Owen Ingram at August 11th, 2021 , Revised On September 20, 2023

A dissertation – sometimes called a thesis – is a long piece of information backed up by extensive research. This one, huge piece of research is what matters the most when students – undergraduates and postgraduates – are in their final year of study.

On the other hand, some institutions, especially in the case of undergraduate students, may or may not require students to write a dissertation. Courses are offered instead. This generally depends on the requirements of that particular institution.

If you are unsure about how to structure your dissertation or thesis, this article will offer you some guidelines to work out what the most important segments of a dissertation paper are and how you should organise them. Why is structure so important in research, anyway?

One way to answer that, as Abbie Hoffman aptly put it, is because: “Structure is more important than content in the transmission of information.”

Also Read: How to write a dissertation – step by step guide .

How to Structure a Dissertation or Thesis

It should be noted that the exact structure of your dissertation will depend on several factors, such as:

Your research approach (qualitative/quantitative)
The nature of your research design (exploratory/descriptive etc.)
The requirements set for forth by your academic institution.
The discipline or field your study belongs to. For instance, if you are a humanities student, you will need to develop your dissertation on the same pattern as any long essay .

This will include developing an overall argument to support the thesis statement and organizing chapters around theories or questions. The dissertation will be structured such that it starts with an introduction , develops on the main idea in its main body paragraphs and is then summarised in conclusion .

However, if you are basing your dissertation on primary or empirical research, you will be required to include each of the below components. In most cases of dissertation writing, each of these elements will have to be written as a separate chapter.

But depending on the word count you are provided with and academic subject, you may choose to combine some of these elements.

For example, sciences and engineering students often present results and discussions together in one chapter rather than two different chapters.

If you have any doubts about structuring your dissertation or thesis, it would be a good idea to consult with your academic supervisor and check your department’s requirements.

Parts of a Dissertation or Thesis

Your dissertation will start with a t itle page that will contain details of the author/researcher, research topic, degree program (the paper is to be submitted for), and research supervisor. In other words, a title page is the opening page containing all the names and title related to your research.

The name of your university, logo, student ID and submission date can also be presented on the title page. Many academic programs have stringent rules for formatting the dissertation title page.

Acknowledgements

The acknowledgments section allows you to thank those who helped you with your dissertation project. You might want to mention the names of your academic supervisor, family members, friends, God, and participants of your study whose contribution and support enabled you to complete your work.

However, the acknowledgments section is usually optional.

Tip: Many students wrongly assume that they need to thank everyone…even those who had little to no contributions towards the dissertation. This is not the case. You only need to thank those who were directly involved in the research process, such as your participants/volunteers, supervisor(s) etc.

Perhaps the smallest yet important part of a thesis, an abstract contains 5 parts:

A brief introduction of your research topic.
The significance of your research.
A line or two about the methodology that was used.
The results and what they mean (briefly); their interpretation(s).
And lastly, a conclusive comment regarding the results’ interpretation(s) as conclusion .

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Tip: Make sure to highlight key points to help readers figure out the scope and findings of your research study without having to read the entire dissertation. The abstract is your first chance to impress your readers. So, make sure to get it right. Here are detailed guidelines on how to write abstract for dissertation .

Table of contents is the section of a dissertation that guides each section of the dissertation paper’s contents. Depending on the level of detail in a table of contents, the most useful headings are listed to provide the reader the page number on which said information may be found at.

Table of contents can be inserted automatically as well as manually using the Microsoft Word Table of Contents feature.

List of Figures and Tables

If your dissertation paper uses several illustrations, tables and figures, you might want to present them in a numbered list in a separate section . Again, this list of tables and figures can be auto-created and auto inserted using the Microsoft Word built-in feature.

List of Abbreviations

Dissertations that include several abbreviations can also have an independent and separate alphabetised list of abbreviations so readers can easily figure out their meanings.

If you think you have used terms and phrases in your dissertation that readers might not be familiar with, you can create a glossary that lists important phrases and terms with their meanings explained.

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Introduction

Introduction chapter briefly introduces the purpose and relevance of your research topic.

Here, you will be expected to list the aim and key objectives of your research so your readers can easily understand what the following chapters of the dissertation will cover. A good dissertation introduction section incorporates the following information:

It provides background information to give context to your research.
It clearly specifies the research problem you wish to address with your research. When creating research questions , it is important to make sure your research’s focus and scope are neither too broad nor too narrow.
it demonstrates how your research is relevant and how it would contribute to the existing knowledge.
It provides an overview of the structure of your dissertation. The last section of an introduction contains an outline of the following chapters. It could start off with something like: “In the following chapter, past literature has been reviewed and critiqued. The proceeding section lays down major research findings…”
Theoretical framework – under a separate sub-heading – is also provided within the introductory chapter. Theoretical framework deals with the basic, underlying theory or theories that the research revolves around.

All the information presented under this section should be relevant, clear, and engaging. The readers should be able to figure out the what, why, when, and how of your study once they have read the introduction. Here are comprehensive guidelines on how to structure the introduction to the dissertation .

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Literature Review

The literature review chapter presents previous research performed on the topic and improves your understanding of the existing literature on your chosen topic. This is usually organised to complement your primary research work completed at a later stage.

Make sure that your chosen academic sources are authentic and up-to-date. The literature review chapter must be comprehensive and address the aims and objectives as defined in the introduction chapter. Here is what your literature research chapter should aim to achieve:

Data collection from authentic and relevant academic sources such as books, journal articles and research papers.
Analytical assessment of the information collected from those sources; this would involve a critiquing the reviewed researches that is, what their strengths/weaknesses are, why the research method they employed is better than others, importance of their findings, etc.
Identifying key research gaps, conflicts, patterns, and theories to get your point across to the reader effectively.

While your literature review should summarise previous literature, it is equally important to make sure that you develop a comprehensible argument or structure to justify your research topic. It would help if you considered keeping the following questions in mind when writing the literature review:

How does your research work fill a certain gap in exiting literature?
Did you adopt/adapt a new research approach to investigate the topic?
Does your research solve an unresolved problem?
Is your research dealing with some groundbreaking topic or theory that others might have overlooked?
Is your research taking forward an existing theoretical discussion?
Does your research strengthen and build on current knowledge within your area of study? This is otherwise known as ‘adding to the existing body of knowledge’ in academic circles.

Tip: You might want to establish relationships between variables/concepts to provide descriptive answers to some or all of your research questions. For instance, in case of quantitative research, you might hypothesise that variable A is positively co-related to variable B that is, one increases and so does the other one.

Research Methodology

The methods and techniques ( secondary and/or primar y) employed to collect research data are discussed in detail in the Methodology chapter. The most commonly used primary data collection methods are:

questionnaires
focus groups
observations

Essentially, the methodology chapter allows the researcher to explain how he/she achieved the findings, why they are reliable and how they helped him/her test the research hypotheses or address the research problem.

You might want to consider the following when writing methodology for the dissertation:

Type of research and approach your work is based on. Some of the most widely used types of research include experimental, quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
Data collection techniques that were employed such as questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, observations etc.
Details of how, when, where, and what of the research that was conducted.
Data analysis strategies employed (for instance, regression analysis).
Software and tools used for data analysis (Excel, STATA, SPSS, lab equipment, etc.).
Research limitations to highlight any hurdles you had to overcome when carrying our research. Limitations might or might not be mentioned within research methodology. Some institutions’ guidelines dictate they be mentioned under a separate section alongside recommendations.
Justification of your selection of research approach and research methodology.

Here is a comprehensive article on how to structure a dissertation methodology .

Research Findings

In this section, you present your research findings. The dissertation findings chapter is built around the research questions, as outlined in the introduction chapter. Report findings that are directly relevant to your research questions.

Any information that is not directly relevant to research questions or hypotheses but could be useful for the readers can be placed under the Appendices .

As indicated above, you can either develop a standalone chapter to present your findings or combine them with the discussion chapter. This choice depends on the type of research involved and the academic subject, as well as what your institution’s academic guidelines dictate.

For example, it is common to have both findings and discussion grouped under the same section, particularly if the dissertation is based on qualitative research data.

On the other hand, dissertations that use quantitative or experimental data should present findings and analysis/discussion in two separate chapters. Here are some sample dissertations to help you figure out the best structure for your own project.

Sample Dissertation

Tip: Try to present as many charts, graphs, illustrations and tables in the findings chapter to improve your data presentation. Provide their qualitative interpretations alongside, too. Refrain from explaining the information that is already evident from figures and tables.

The findings are followed by the Discussion chapter , which is considered the heart of any dissertation paper. The discussion section is an opportunity for you to tie the knots together to address the research questions and present arguments, models and key themes.

This chapter can make or break your research.

The discussion chapter does not require any new data or information because it is more about the interpretation(s) of the data you have already collected and presented. Here are some questions for you to think over when writing the discussion chapter:

Did your work answer all the research questions or tested the hypothesis?
Did you come up with some unexpected results for which you have to provide an additional explanation or justification?
Are there any limitations that could have influenced your research findings?

Here is an article on how to structure a dissertation discussion .

Conclusions corresponding to each research objective are provided in the Conclusion section . This is usually done by revisiting the research questions to finally close the dissertation. Some institutions may specifically ask for recommendations to evaluate your critical thinking.

By the end, the readers should have a clear apprehension of your fundamental case with a focus on what methods of research were employed and what you achieved from this research.

Quick Question: Does the conclusion chapter reflect on the contributions your research work will make to existing knowledge?

Answer: Yes, the conclusion chapter of the research paper typically includes a reflection on the research’s contributions to existing knowledge. In the “conclusion chapter”, you have to summarise the key findings and discuss how they add value to the existing literature on the current topic.

Reference list

All academic sources that you collected information from should be cited in-text and also presented in a reference list (or a bibliography in case you include references that you read for the research but didn’t end up citing in the text), so the readers can easily locate the source of information when/if needed.

At most UK universities, Harvard referencing is the recommended style of referencing. It has strict and specific requirements on how to format a reference resource. Other common styles of referencing include MLA, APA, Footnotes, etc.

Each chapter of the dissertation should have relevant information. Any information that is not directly relevant to your research topic but your readers might be interested in (interview transcripts etc.) should be moved under the Appendices section .

Things like questionnaires, survey items or readings that were used in the study’s experiment are mostly included under appendices.

An Outline of Dissertation/Thesis Structure

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FAQs About Structure a Dissertation

What does the title page of a dissertation contain.

The title page will contain details of the author/researcher, research topic , degree program (the paper is to be submitted for) and research supervisor’s name(s). The name of your university, logo, student number and submission date can also be presented on the title page.

What is the purpose of adding acknowledgement?

The acknowledgements section allows you to thank those who helped you with your dissertation project. You might want to mention the names of your academic supervisor, family members, friends, God and participants of your study whose contribution and support enabled you to complete your work.

Can I omit the glossary from the dissertation?

Yes, but only if you think that your paper does not contain any terms or phrases that the reader might not understand. If you think you have used them in the paper, you must create a glossary that lists important phrases and terms with their meanings explained.

What is the purpose of appendices in a dissertation?

Any information that is not directly relevant to research questions or hypotheses but could be useful for the readers can be placed under the Appendices, such as questionnaire that was used in the study.

Which referencing style should I use in my dissertation?

You can use any of the referencing styles such as APA, MLA, and Harvard, according to the recommendation of your university; however, almost all UK institutions prefer Harvard referencing style .

What is the difference between references and bibliography?

References contain all the works that you read up and used and therefore, cited within the text of your thesis. However, in case you read on some works and resources that you didn’t end up citing in-text, they will be referenced in what is called a bibliography.

Additional readings might also be present alongside each bibliography entry for readers.

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Knowledge Base
Dissertation

How to Write a Dissertation | A Guide to Structure & Content

A dissertation or thesis is a long piece of academic writing based on original research, submitted as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

The structure of a dissertation depends on your field, but it is usually divided into at least four or five chapters (including an introduction and conclusion chapter).

The most common dissertation structure in the sciences and social sciences includes:

An introduction to your topic
A literature review that surveys relevant sources
An explanation of your methodology
An overview of the results of your research
A discussion of the results and their implications
A conclusion that shows what your research has contributed

Dissertations in the humanities are often structured more like a long essay , building an argument by analysing primary and secondary sources . Instead of the standard structure outlined here, you might organise your chapters around different themes or case studies.

Other important elements of the dissertation include the title page , abstract , and reference list . If in doubt about how your dissertation should be structured, always check your department’s guidelines and consult with your supervisor.

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Acknowledgements, table of contents, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations, introduction, literature review / theoretical framework, methodology, reference list.

The very first page of your document contains your dissertation’s title, your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date. Sometimes it also includes your student number, your supervisor’s name, and the university’s logo. Many programs have strict requirements for formatting the dissertation title page .

The title page is often used as cover when printing and binding your dissertation .

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

The acknowledgements section is usually optional, and gives space for you to thank everyone who helped you in writing your dissertation. This might include your supervisors, participants in your research, and friends or family who supported you.

The abstract is a short summary of your dissertation, usually about 150-300 words long. You should write it at the very end, when you’ve completed the rest of the dissertation. In the abstract, make sure to:

State the main topic and aims of your research
Describe the methods you used
Summarise the main results
State your conclusions

Although the abstract is very short, it’s the first part (and sometimes the only part) of your dissertation that people will read, so it’s important that you get it right. If you’re struggling to write a strong abstract, read our guide on how to write an abstract .

In the table of contents, list all of your chapters and subheadings and their page numbers. The dissertation contents page gives the reader an overview of your structure and helps easily navigate the document.

All parts of your dissertation should be included in the table of contents, including the appendices. You can generate a table of contents automatically in Word.

If you have used a lot of tables and figures in your dissertation, you should itemise them in a numbered list . You can automatically generate this list using the Insert Caption feature in Word.

If you have used a lot of abbreviations in your dissertation, you can include them in an alphabetised list of abbreviations so that the reader can easily look up their meanings.

If you have used a lot of highly specialised terms that will not be familiar to your reader, it might be a good idea to include a glossary . List the terms alphabetically and explain each term with a brief description or definition.

In the introduction, you set up your dissertation’s topic, purpose, and relevance, and tell the reader what to expect in the rest of the dissertation. The introduction should:

Establish your research topic , giving necessary background information to contextualise your work
Narrow down the focus and define the scope of the research
Discuss the state of existing research on the topic, showing your work’s relevance to a broader problem or debate
Clearly state your objectives and research questions , and indicate how you will answer them
Give an overview of your dissertation’s structure

Everything in the introduction should be clear, engaging, and relevant to your research. By the end, the reader should understand the what , why and how of your research. Not sure how? Read our guide on how to write a dissertation introduction .

Before you start on your research, you should have conducted a literature review to gain a thorough understanding of the academic work that already exists on your topic. This means:

Collecting sources (e.g. books and journal articles) and selecting the most relevant ones
Critically evaluating and analysing each source
Drawing connections between them (e.g. themes, patterns, conflicts, gaps) to make an overall point

In the dissertation literature review chapter or section, you shouldn’t just summarise existing studies, but develop a coherent structure and argument that leads to a clear basis or justification for your own research. For example, it might aim to show how your research:

Addresses a gap in the literature
Takes a new theoretical or methodological approach to the topic
Proposes a solution to an unresolved problem
Advances a theoretical debate
Builds on and strengthens existing knowledge with new data

The literature review often becomes the basis for a theoretical framework , in which you define and analyse the key theories, concepts and models that frame your research. In this section you can answer descriptive research questions about the relationship between concepts or variables.

The methodology chapter or section describes how you conducted your research, allowing your reader to assess its validity. You should generally include:

The overall approach and type of research (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, experimental, ethnographic)
Your methods of collecting data (e.g. interviews, surveys, archives)
Details of where, when, and with whom the research took place
Your methods of analysing data (e.g. statistical analysis, discourse analysis)
Tools and materials you used (e.g. computer programs, lab equipment)
A discussion of any obstacles you faced in conducting the research and how you overcame them
An evaluation or justification of your methods

Your aim in the methodology is to accurately report what you did, as well as convincing the reader that this was the best approach to answering your research questions or objectives.

Next, you report the results of your research . You can structure this section around sub-questions, hypotheses, or topics. Only report results that are relevant to your objectives and research questions. In some disciplines, the results section is strictly separated from the discussion, while in others the two are combined.

For example, for qualitative methods like in-depth interviews, the presentation of the data will often be woven together with discussion and analysis, while in quantitative and experimental research, the results should be presented separately before you discuss their meaning. If you’re unsure, consult with your supervisor and look at sample dissertations to find out the best structure for your research.

In the results section it can often be helpful to include tables, graphs and charts. Think carefully about how best to present your data, and don’t include tables or figures that just repeat what you have written – they should provide extra information or usefully visualise the results in a way that adds value to your text.

Full versions of your data (such as interview transcripts) can be included as an appendix .

The discussion is where you explore the meaning and implications of your results in relation to your research questions. Here you should interpret the results in detail, discussing whether they met your expectations and how well they fit with the framework that you built in earlier chapters. If any of the results were unexpected, offer explanations for why this might be. It’s a good idea to consider alternative interpretations of your data and discuss any limitations that might have influenced the results.

The discussion should reference other scholarly work to show how your results fit with existing knowledge. You can also make recommendations for future research or practical action.

The dissertation conclusion should concisely answer the main research question, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of your central argument. Wrap up your dissertation with a final reflection on what you did and how you did it. The conclusion often also includes recommendations for research or practice.

In this section, it’s important to show how your findings contribute to knowledge in the field and why your research matters. What have you added to what was already known?

You must include full details of all sources that you have cited in a reference list (sometimes also called a works cited list or bibliography). It’s important to follow a consistent reference style . Each style has strict and specific requirements for how to format your sources in the reference list.

The most common styles used in UK universities are Harvard referencing and Vancouver referencing . Your department will often specify which referencing style you should use – for example, psychology students tend to use APA style , humanities students often use MHRA , and law students always use OSCOLA . M ake sure to check the requirements, and ask your supervisor if you’re unsure.

To save time creating the reference list and make sure your citations are correctly and consistently formatted, you can use our free APA Citation Generator .

Your dissertation itself should contain only essential information that directly contributes to answering your research question. Documents you have used that do not fit into the main body of your dissertation (such as interview transcripts, survey questions or tables with full figures) can be added as appendices .

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Planning & Structuring your Chapters

This guide offers advice on the dissertation structure, how to plan and structure your chapters and how to develop your argument throughout your dissertation.

1. Dissertation Structure

A dissertation in the arts and humanities is usually a largely theoretical examination of a subject. The traditional structure of an arts and humanities dissertation is outlined below:

Introduction
Chapter 3....etc
Bibliography

The content and structure of the main chapters will be determined by you. There are different ways of structuring these chapters which will be outlined in this guide. Choose a structure that best suits your dissertation topic.

In an arts & humanities dissertation you are aiming to have a clear argument throughout. The chapters are like a series of interlinked essays with a clear flow between them. You don't want them to feel like three isolated essays, your argument must be threaded through them all and tie them all together in your conclusion . There will be more advice on developing your argument later in this guide.

Dissertation structure varies between departments so make sure you check your module handbook for the preferred format. Past student dissertations are available through EPrints .

Dissertation Writing Groups

The invites applications for Humanities Dissertation Writing Groups. These competitive grants will encourage supportive and critical discussion of dissertation prospecti and drafts of dissertation chapters in the humanities.

The funds will provide support for small groups of interdisciplinary graduate students to convene regularly to share drafts of dissertation chapters and to discuss research and writing strategies for approaches to the group's common interdisciplinary focus. The selected groups of graduate students will meet throughout the 2024-25 academic year and, preferably, through the summer of 2025.

Grants of $250 per participant will be made available to groups of 4-5 participants who can demonstrate that their research interests productively converge. These groups would include students working in at least two different humanities graduate fields or groups within a single field whose research lends an interdisciplinary approach to their fields. The use of these funds will be flexible, from copying and dinner/refreshments to financial support for special research materials or trips to be shared by the group.

Applications should include a schedule of meetings (roughly one every 2-3 weeks) to be held in the course of the academic year, which would necessarily include regular circulation to the group of chapters-in-progress by each member. Such sessions should offer substantive response and discussion by the group of each individual chapter. If the groups consist of students who have very recently passed the A-Exam, their sessions could be focused on penning a prospectus.

All applicants must have completed the A-Exam by September 15, 2024, with at least two members of the group having completed the A-Exam by September 1, 2024.

The competition will be adjudicated by the Humanities Council.

Application Guidelines

Applications for Humanities Dissertation Writing Groups should be submitted by one member who will assume organizational responsibility for an additional stipend. Each writing group should consist of a minimum of four members (with no more than five) . Groups should be prepared to convene by September 1, 2024.

Applicants should submit the following materials as one .pdf file :

1. A dissertation writing group title and statement of no more than 750 words describing a rationale for linking the work of participants from different disciplines or disciplinary perspectives. The statement should show how each participant's perspective would contribute to elaborating and enriching a common context for writing.

2. A one-paragraph description of the dissertation project from each participant.

3. A CV for each member of the group.

4. A schedule of meetings and activities for the coming year. The basic requirement is a series of meetings organized around the circulation, presentation, and discussion of 2 chapters in progress by each member (a prospectus counts as a chapter).

No budget proposal is necessary.

Deadline: March 22, 2024

Please send all application materials in a single .pdf to Amanda Brockner at [email protected] .

How To Write A Dissertation Introduction

A Simple Explainer With Examples + Free Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Reviewed By Dr Eunice Rautenbach (D. Tech) | March 2020

If you’re reading this, you’re probably at the daunting early phases of writing up the introduction chapter of your dissertation or thesis. It can be intimidating, I know.

In this post, we’ll look at the 7 essential ingredients of a strong dissertation or thesis introduction chapter, as well as the essential things you need to keep in mind as you craft each section. We’ll also share some useful tips to help you optimize your approach.

Overview: Writing An Introduction Chapter

The purpose and function of the intro chapter
Craft an enticing and engaging opening section
Provide a background and context to the study
Clearly define the research problem
State your research aims, objectives and questions
Explain the significance of your study
Identify the limitations of your research
Outline the structure of your dissertation or thesis

A quick sidenote:

You’ll notice that I’ve used the words dissertation and thesis interchangeably. While these terms reflect different levels of research – for example, Masters vs PhD-level research – the introduction chapter generally contains the same 7 essential ingredients regardless of level. So, in this post, dissertation introduction equals thesis introduction.

Free template for a dissertation or thesis introduction

Start with why.

To craft a high-quality dissertation or thesis introduction chapter, you need to understand exactly what this chapter needs to achieve. In other words, what’s its purpose ? As the name suggests, the introduction chapter needs to introduce the reader to your research so that they understand what you’re trying to figure out, or what problem you’re trying to solve. More specifically, you need to answer four important questions in your introduction chapter.

These questions are:

What will you be researching? (in other words, your research topic)
Why is that worthwhile? (in other words, your justification)
What will the scope of your research be? (in other words, what will you cover and what won’t you cover)
What will the limitations of your research be? (in other words, what will the potential shortcomings of your research be?)

Simply put, your dissertation’s introduction chapter needs to provide an overview of your planned research , as well as a clear rationale for it. In other words, this chapter has to explain the “what” and the “why” of your research – what’s it all about and why’s that important.

Simple enough, right?

Well, the trick is finding the appropriate depth of information. As the researcher, you’ll be extremely close to your topic and this makes it easy to get caught up in the minor details. While these intricate details might be interesting, you need to write your introduction chapter on more of a “need-to-know” type basis, or it will end up way too lengthy and dense. You need to balance painting a clear picture with keeping things concise. Don’t worry though – you’ll be able to explore all the intricate details in later chapters.

The core ingredients of a dissertation introduction chapter

Now that you understand what you need to achieve from your introduction chapter, we can get into the details. While the exact requirements for this chapter can vary from university to university, there are seven core components that most universities will require. We call these the seven essential ingredients .

The 7 Essential Ingredients

The opening section – where you’ll introduce the reader to your research in high-level terms
The background to the study – where you’ll explain the context of your project
The research problem – where you’ll explain the “gap” that exists in the current research
The research aims , objectives and questions – where you’ll clearly state what your research will aim to achieve
The significance (or justification) – where you’ll explain why your research is worth doing and the value it will provide to the world
The limitations – where you’ll acknowledge the potential limitations of your project and approach
The structure – where you’ll briefly outline the structure of your dissertation or thesis to help orient the reader

By incorporating these seven essential ingredients into your introduction chapter, you’ll comprehensively cover both the “ what ” and the “ why ” I mentioned earlier – in other words, you’ll achieve the purpose of the chapter.

Side note – you can also use these 7 ingredients in this order as the structure for your chapter to ensure a smooth, logical flow. This isn’t essential, but, generally speaking, it helps create an engaging narrative that’s easy for your reader to understand. If you’d like, you can also download our free introduction chapter template here.

Alright – let’s look at each of the ingredients now.

#1 – The Opening Section

The very first essential ingredient for your dissertation introduction is, well, an introduction or opening section. Just like every other chapter, your introduction chapter needs to start by providing a brief overview of what you’ll be covering in the chapter.

This section needs to engage the reader with clear, concise language that can be easily understood and digested. If the reader (your marker!) has to struggle through it, they’ll lose interest, which will make it harder for you to earn marks. Just because you’re writing an academic paper doesn’t mean you can ignore the basic principles of engaging writing used by marketers, bloggers, and journalists. At the end of the day, you’re all trying to sell an idea – yours is just a research idea.

So, what goes into this opening section?

Well, while there’s no set formula, it’s a good idea to include the following four foundational sentences in your opening section:

1 – A sentence or two introducing the overall field of your research.

For example:

“Organisational skills development involves identifying current or potential skills gaps within a business and developing programs to resolve these gaps. Management research, including X, Y and Z, has clearly established that organisational skills development is an essential contributor to business growth.”

2 – A sentence introducing your specific research problem.

“However, there are conflicting views and an overall lack of research regarding how best to manage skills development initiatives in highly dynamic environments where subject knowledge is rapidly and continuously evolving – for example, in the website development industry.”

3 – A sentence stating your research aims and objectives.

“This research aims to identify and evaluate skills development approaches and strategies for highly dynamic industries in which subject knowledge is continuously evolving.”.

4 – A sentence outlining the layout of the chapter.

“This chapter will provide an introduction to the study by first discussing the background and context, followed by the research problem, the research aims, objectives and questions, the significance and finally, the limitations.”

As I mentioned, this opening section of your introduction chapter shouldn’t be lengthy . Typically, these four sentences should fit neatly into one or two paragraphs, max. What you’re aiming for here is a clear, concise introduction to your research – not a detailed account.

PS – If some of this terminology sounds unfamiliar, don’t stress – I’ll explain each of the concepts later in this post.

#2 – Background to the study

Now that you’ve provided a high-level overview of your dissertation or thesis, it’s time to go a little deeper and lay a foundation for your research topic. This foundation is what the second ingredient is all about – the background to your study.

So, what is the background section all about?

Well, this section of your introduction chapter should provide a broad overview of the topic area that you’ll be researching, as well as the current contextual factors . This could include, for example, a brief history of the topic, recent developments in the area, key pieces of research in the area and so on. In other words, in this section, you need to provide the relevant background information to give the reader a decent foundational understanding of your research area.

Let’s look at an example to make this a little more concrete.

If we stick with the skills development topic I mentioned earlier, the background to the study section would start by providing an overview of the skills development area and outline the key existing research. Then, it would go on to discuss how the modern-day context has created a new challenge for traditional skills development strategies and approaches. Specifically, that in many industries, technical knowledge is constantly and rapidly evolving, and traditional education providers struggle to keep up with the pace of new technologies.

Importantly, you need to write this section with the assumption that the reader is not an expert in your topic area. So, if there are industry-specific jargon and complex terminology, you should briefly explain that here , so that the reader can understand the rest of your document.

Don’t make assumptions about the reader’s knowledge – in most cases, your markers will not be able to ask you questions if they don’t understand something. So, always err on the safe side and explain anything that’s not common knowledge.

#3 – The research problem

Now that you’ve given your reader an overview of your research area, it’s time to get specific about the research problem that you’ll address in your dissertation or thesis. While the background section would have alluded to a potential research problem (or even multiple research problems), the purpose of this section is to narrow the focus and highlight the specific research problem you’ll focus on.

But, what exactly is a research problem, you ask?

Well, a research problem can be any issue or question for which there isn’t already a well-established and agreed-upon answer in the existing research. In other words, a research problem exists when there’s a need to answer a question (or set of questions), but there’s a gap in the existing literature , or the existing research is conflicting and/or inconsistent.

So, to present your research problem, you need to make it clear what exactly is missing in the current literature and why this is a problem . It’s usually a good idea to structure this discussion into three sections – specifically:

What’s already well-established in the literature (in other words, the current state of research)
What’s missing in the literature (in other words, the literature gap)
Why this is a problem (in other words, why it’s important to fill this gap)

Let’s look at an example of this structure using the skills development topic.

Organisational skills development is critically important for employee satisfaction and company performance (reference). Numerous studies have investigated strategies and approaches to manage skills development programs within organisations (reference).

(this paragraph explains what’s already well-established in the literature)

However, these studies have traditionally focused on relatively slow-paced industries where key skills and knowledge do not change particularly often. This body of theory presents a problem for industries that face a rapidly changing skills landscape – for example, the website development industry – where new platforms, languages and best practices emerge on an extremely frequent basis.

(this paragraph explains what’s missing from the literature)

As a result, the existing research is inadequate for industries in which essential knowledge and skills are constantly and rapidly evolving, as it assumes a slow pace of knowledge development. Industries in such environments, therefore, find themselves ill-equipped in terms of skills development strategies and approaches.

(this paragraph explains why the research gap is problematic)

As you can see in this example, in a few lines, we’ve explained (1) the current state of research, (2) the literature gap and (3) why that gap is problematic. By doing this, the research problem is made crystal clear, which lays the foundation for the next ingredient.

#4 – The research aims, objectives and questions

Now that you’ve clearly identified your research problem, it’s time to identify your research aims and objectives , as well as your research questions . In other words, it’s time to explain what you’re going to do about the research problem.

So, what do you need to do here?

Well, the starting point is to clearly state your research aim (or aims) . The research aim is the main goal or the overarching purpose of your dissertation or thesis. In other words, it’s a high-level statement of what you’re aiming to achieve.

Let’s look at an example, sticking with the skills development topic:

“Given the lack of research regarding organisational skills development in fast-moving industries, this study will aim to identify and evaluate the skills development approaches utilised by web development companies in the UK”.

As you can see in this example, the research aim is clearly outlined, as well as the specific context in which the research will be undertaken (in other words, web development companies in the UK).

Next up is the research objective (or objectives) . While the research aims cover the high-level “what”, the research objectives are a bit more practically oriented, looking at specific things you’ll be doing to achieve those research aims.

Let’s take a look at an example of some research objectives (ROs) to fit the research aim.

RO1 – To identify common skills development strategies and approaches utilised by web development companies in the UK.
RO2 – To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and approaches.
RO3 – To compare and contrast these strategies and approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

As you can see from this example, these objectives describe the actions you’ll take and the specific things you’ll investigate in order to achieve your research aims. They break down the research aims into more specific, actionable objectives.

The final step is to state your research questions . Your research questions bring the aims and objectives another level “down to earth”. These are the specific questions that your dissertation or theses will seek to answer. They’re not fluffy, ambiguous or conceptual – they’re very specific and you’ll need to directly answer them in your conclusions chapter .

The research questions typically relate directly to the research objectives and sometimes can look a bit obvious, but they are still extremely important. Let’s take a look at an example of the research questions (RQs) that would flow from the research objectives I mentioned earlier.

RQ1 – What skills development strategies and approaches are currently being used by web development companies in the UK?
RQ2 – How effective are each of these strategies and approaches?
RQ3 – What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these strategies and approaches?

As you can see, the research questions mimic the research objectives , but they are presented in question format. These questions will act as the driving force throughout your dissertation or thesis – from the literature review to the methodology and onward – so they’re really important.

A final note about this section – it’s really important to be clear about the scope of your study (more technically, the delimitations ). In other words, what you WILL cover and what you WON’T cover. If your research aims, objectives and questions are too broad, you’ll risk losing focus or investigating a problem that is too big to solve within a single dissertation.

Simply put, you need to establish clear boundaries in your research. You can do this, for example, by limiting it to a specific industry, country or time period. That way, you’ll ringfence your research, which will allow you to investigate your topic deeply and thoroughly – which is what earns marks!

Need a helping hand?

#5 – Significance

Now that you’ve made it clear what you’ll be researching, it’s time to make a strong argument regarding your study’s importance and significance . In other words, now that you’ve covered the what, it’s time to cover the why – enter essential ingredient number 5 – significance.

Of course, by this stage, you’ve already briefly alluded to the importance of your study in your background and research problem sections, but you haven’t explicitly stated how your research findings will benefit the world . So, now’s your chance to clearly state how your study will benefit either industry , academia , or – ideally – both . In other words, you need to explain how your research will make a difference and what implications it will have .

Let’s take a look at an example.

“This study will contribute to the body of knowledge on skills development by incorporating skills development strategies and approaches for industries in which knowledge and skills are rapidly and constantly changing. This will help address the current shortage of research in this area and provide real-world value to organisations operating in such dynamic environments.”

As you can see in this example, the paragraph clearly explains how the research will help fill a gap in the literature and also provide practical real-world value to organisations.

This section doesn’t need to be particularly lengthy, but it does need to be convincing . You need to “sell” the value of your research here so that the reader understands why it’s worth committing an entire dissertation or thesis to it. This section needs to be the salesman of your research. So, spend some time thinking about the ways in which your research will make a unique contribution to the world and how the knowledge you create could benefit both academia and industry – and then “sell it” in this section.

#6 – The limitations

Now that you’ve “sold” your research to the reader and hopefully got them excited about what’s coming up in the rest of your dissertation, it’s time to briefly discuss the potential limitations of your research.

But you’re probably thinking, hold up – what limitations? My research is well thought out and carefully designed – why would there be limitations?

Well, no piece of research is perfect . This is especially true for a dissertation or thesis – which typically has a very low or zero budget, tight time constraints and limited researcher experience. Generally, your dissertation will be the first or second formal research project you’ve ever undertaken, so it’s unlikely to win any research awards…

Simply put, your research will invariably have limitations. Don’t stress yourself out though – this is completely acceptable (and expected). Even “professional” research has limitations – as I said, no piece of research is perfect. The key is to recognise the limitations upfront and be completely transparent about them, so that future researchers are aware of them and can improve the study’s design to minimise the limitations and strengthen the findings.

Generally, you’ll want to consider at least the following four common limitations. These are:

Your scope – for example, perhaps your focus is very narrow and doesn’t consider how certain variables interact with each other.
Your research methodology – for example, a qualitative methodology could be criticised for being overly subjective, or a quantitative methodology could be criticised for oversimplifying the situation (learn more about methodologies here ).
Your resources – for example, a lack of time, money, equipment and your own research experience.
The generalisability of your findings – for example, the findings from the study of a specific industry or country can’t necessarily be generalised to other industries or countries.

Don’t be shy here. There’s no use trying to hide the limitations or weaknesses of your research. In fact, the more critical you can be of your study, the better. The markers want to see that you are aware of the limitations as this demonstrates your understanding of research design – so be brutal.

#7 – The structural outline

Now that you’ve clearly communicated what your research is going to be about, why it’s important and what the limitations of your research will be, the final ingredient is the structural outline.The purpose of this section is simply to provide your reader with a roadmap of what to expect in terms of the structure of your dissertation or thesis.

In this section, you’ll need to provide a brief summary of each chapter’s purpose and contents (including the introduction chapter). A sentence or two explaining what you’ll do in each chapter is generally enough to orient the reader. You don’t want to get too detailed here – it’s purely an outline, not a summary of your research.

Let’s look at an example:

In Chapter One, the context of the study has been introduced. The research objectives and questions have been identified, and the value of such research argued. The limitations of the study have also been discussed.

In Chapter Two, the existing literature will be reviewed and a foundation of theory will be laid out to identify key skills development approaches and strategies within the context of fast-moving industries, especially technology-intensive industries.

In Chapter Three, the methodological choices will be explored. Specifically, the adoption of a qualitative, inductive research approach will be justified, and the broader research design will be discussed, including the limitations thereof.

So, as you can see from the example, this section is simply an outline of the chapter structure, allocating a short paragraph to each chapter. Done correctly, the outline will help your reader understand what to expect and reassure them that you’ll address the multiple facets of the study.

By the way – if you’re unsure of how to structure your dissertation or thesis, be sure to check out our video post which explains dissertation structure .

Keep calm and carry on.

Hopefully you feel a bit more prepared for this challenge of crafting your dissertation or thesis introduction chapter now. Take a deep breath and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day – conquer one ingredient at a time and you’ll be firmly on the path to success.

Let’s quickly recap – the 7 ingredients are:

The opening section – where you give a brief, high-level overview of what your research will be about.
The study background – where you introduce the reader to key theory, concepts and terminology, as well as the context of your study.
The research problem – where you explain what the problem with the current research is. In other words, the research gap.
The research aims , objectives and questions – where you clearly state what your dissertation will investigate.
The significance – where you explain what value your research will provide to the world.
The limitations – where you explain what the potential shortcomings and limitations of your research may be.
The structural outline – where you provide a high-level overview of the structure of your document

If you bake these ingredients into your dissertation introduction chapter, you’ll be well on your way to building an engaging introduction chapter that lays a rock-solid foundation for the rest of your document.

Remember, while we’ve covered the essential ingredients here, there may be some additional components that your university requires, so be sure to double-check your project brief!

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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42 Comments

Thanks very much for such an insight. I feel confident enough in undertaking my thesis on the survey;The future of facial recognition and learning non verbal interaction

Glad to hear that. Good luck with your thesis!

Thanks very much for such an insight. I feel confident now undertaking my thesis; The future of facial recognition and learning non verbal interaction.

Thanks so much for this article. I found myself struggling and wasting a lot of time in my thesis writing but after reading this article and watching some of your youtube videos, I now have a clear understanding of what is required for a thesis.

Thank you Derek, i find your each post so useful. Keep it up.

Thank you so much Derek ,for shedding the light and making it easier for me to handle the daunting task of academic writing .

Thanks do much Dereck for the comprehensive guide. It will assist me queit a lot in my thesis.

thanks a lot for helping

i LOVE the gifs, such a fun way to engage readers. thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Thanks a lot Derek! It will be really useful to the beginner in research!

You’re welcome

This is a well written, easily comprehensible, simple introduction to the basics of a Research Dissertation../the need to keep the reader in mind while writing the dissertation is an important point that is covered../ I appreciate the efforts of the author../

The instruction given are perfect and clear. I was supposed to take the course , unfortunately in Nepal the service is not avaialble.However, I am much more hopeful that you will provide require documents whatever you have produced so far.

Thank you very much

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I was looking for some good blogs related to Education hopefully your article will help. Thanks for sharing.

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You just saved me from going astray in writing a Dissertation for my undergraduate studies. I could not be more grateful for such a relevant guide like this. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much Derek, this has been extremely helpful!!

I do have one question though, in the limitations part do you refer to the scope as the focus of the research on a specific industry/country/chronological period? I assume that in order to talk about whether or not the research could be generalized, the above would need to be already presented and described in the introduction.

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Thank you very much for these valuable introductions to thesis chapters. I saw all your videos about writing the introduction, discussion, and conclusion chapter. Then, I am wondering if we need to explain our research limitations in all three chapters, introduction, discussion, and conclusion? Isn’t it a bit redundant? If not, could you please explain how can we write in different ways? Thank you.

Excellent!!! Thank you…

Thanks for this informative content. I have a question. The research gap is mentioned in both the introduction and literature section. I would like to know how can I demonstrate the research gap in both sections without repeating the contents?

I’m incredibly grateful for this invaluable content. I’ve been dreading compiling my postgrad thesis but breaking each chapter down into sections has made it so much easier for me to engage with the material without feeling overwhelmed. After relying on your guidance, I’m really happy with how I’ve laid out my introduction.

Thank you for the informative content you provided

Hi Derrick and Team, thank you so much for the comprehensive guide on how to write a dissertation or a thesis introduction section. For some of us first-timers, it is a daunting task. However, the instruction with relevant examples makes it clear and easy to follow through. Much appreciated.

It was so helpful. God Bless you. Thanks very much

I thank you Grad coach for your priceless help. I have two questions I have learned from your video the limitations of the research presented in chapter one. but in another video also presented in chapter five. which chapter limitation should be included? If possible, I need your answer since I am doing my thesis. how can I explain If I am asked what is my motivation for this research?

Thank you guys for the great work you are doing. Honestly, you have made the research to be interesting and simplified. Even a novice will easily grasp the ideas you put forward, Thank you once again.

Excellent piece!

I feel like just settling for a good topic is usually the hardest part.

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Happy to help 🙂

I am so glad I ran into your resources and did not waste time doing the wrong this. Research is now making so much sense now.

Gratitude to Derrick and the team I was looking for a solid article that would aid me in drafting the thesis’ introduction. I felt quite happy when I came across the piece you wrote because it was so well-written and insightful. I wish you success in the future.

thank you so much. God Bless you

Thank you so much Grad Coach for these helpful insights. Now I can get started, with a great deal of confidence.

It’s ‘alluded to’ not ‘eluded to’.

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Formatting Your Dissertation
Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

Application for Degree
Credit for Completed Graduate Work
Ad Hoc Degree Programs
Acknowledging the Work of Others
Advanced Planning
Dissertation Advisory Committee
Dissertation Submission Checklist
Publishing Options
Submitting Your Dissertation
English Language Proficiency
PhD Program Requirements
Secondary Fields
Year of Graduate Study (G-Year)
Master's Degrees
Grade and Examination Requirements
Conduct and Safety
Financial Aid
Non-Resident Students
Registration

On this page:

Language of the Dissertation

Page and text requirements, body of text, tables, figures, and captions, dissertation acceptance certificate, copyright statement.

Table of Contents

Front and Back Matter

Supplemental material, dissertations comprising previously published works, top ten formatting errors, further questions.

Related Contacts and Forms

When preparing the dissertation for submission, students must follow strict formatting requirements. Any deviation from these requirements may lead to rejection of the dissertation and delay in the conferral of the degree.

The language of the dissertation is ordinarily English, although some departments whose subject matter involves foreign languages may accept a dissertation written in a language other than English.

Most dissertations are 100 to 300 pages in length. All dissertations should be divided into appropriate sections, and long dissertations may need chapters, main divisions, and subdivisions.

8½ x 11 inches, unless a musical score is included
At least 1 inch for all margins
Body of text: double spacing
Block quotations, footnotes, and bibliographies: single spacing within each entry but double spacing between each entry
Table of contents, list of tables, list of figures or illustrations, and lengthy tables: single spacing may be used

Fonts and Point Size

Use 10-12 point size. Fonts must be embedded in the PDF file to ensure all characters display correctly.

Recommended Fonts

If you are unsure whether your chosen font will display correctly, use one of the following fonts:

If fonts are not embedded, non-English characters may not appear as intended. Fonts embedded improperly will be published to DASH as-is. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that fonts are embedded properly prior to submission.

Instructions for Embedding Fonts

To embed your fonts in recent versions of Word, follow these instructions from Microsoft:

Click the File tab and then click Options .
In the left column, select the Save tab.
Clear the Do not embed common system fonts check box.

For reference, below are some instructions from ProQuest UMI for embedding fonts in older file formats:

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2010:

In the File pull-down menu click on Options .
Choose Save on the left sidebar.
Check the box next to Embed fonts in the file.
Click the OK button.
Save the document.

Note that when saving as a PDF, make sure to go to “more options” and save as “PDF/A compliant”

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2007:

Click the circular Office button in the upper left corner of Microsoft Word.
A new window will display. In the bottom right corner select Word Options .
Choose Save from the left sidebar.

Using Microsoft Word on a Mac:

Microsoft Word 2008 on a Mac OS X computer will automatically embed your fonts while converting your document to a PDF file.

If you are converting to PDF using Acrobat Professional (instructions courtesy of the Graduate Thesis Office at Iowa State University):

Open your document in Microsoft Word.
Click on the Adobe PDF tab at the top. Select "Change Conversion Settings."
Click on Advanced Settings.
Click on the Fonts folder on the left side of the new window. In the lower box on the right, delete any fonts that appear in the "Never Embed" box. Then click "OK."
If prompted to save these new settings, save them as "Embed all fonts."
Now the Change Conversion Settings window should show "embed all fonts" in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and it should be selected. Click "OK" again.
Click on the Adobe PDF link at the top again. This time select Convert to Adobe PDF. Depending on the size of your document and the speed of your computer, this process can take 1-15 minutes.
After your document is converted, select the "File" tab at the top of the page. Then select "Document Properties."
Click on the "Fonts" tab. Carefully check all of your fonts. They should all show "(Embedded Subset)" after the font name.
If you see "(Embedded Subset)" after all fonts, you have succeeded.

The font used in the body of the text must also be used in headers, page numbers, and footnotes. Exceptions are made only for tables and figures created with different software and inserted into the document.

Tables and figures must be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text. They may be placed on a page with no text above or below, or they may be placed directly into the text. If a table or a figure is alone on a page (with no narrative), it should be centered within the margins on the page. Tables may take up more than one page as long as they obey all rules about margins. Tables and figures referred to in the text may not be placed at the end of the chapter or at the end of the dissertation.

Given the standards of the discipline, dissertations in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning often place illustrations at the end of the dissertation.

Figure and table numbering must be continuous throughout the dissertation or by chapter (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.). Two figures or tables cannot be designated with the same number. If you have repeating images that you need to cite more than once, label them with their number and A, B, etc.

Headings should be placed at the top of tables. While no specific rules for the format of table headings and figure captions are required, a consistent format must be used throughout the dissertation (contact your department for style manuals appropriate to the field).

Captions should appear at the bottom of any figures. If the figure takes up the entire page, the caption should be placed alone on the preceding page, centered vertically and horizontally within the margins.

Each page receives a separate page number. When a figure or table title is on a preceding page, the second and subsequent pages of the figure or table should say, for example, “Figure 5 (Continued).” In such an instance, the list of figures or tables will list the page number containing the title. The word “figure” should be written in full (not abbreviated), and the “F” should be capitalized (e.g., Figure 5). In instances where the caption continues on a second page, the “(Continued)” notation should appear on the second and any subsequent page. The figure/table and the caption are viewed as one entity and the numbering should show correlation between all pages. Each page must include a header.

Landscape orientation figures and tables must be positioned correctly and bound at the top so that the top of the figure or table will be at the left margin. Figure and table headings/captions are placed with the same orientation as the figure or table when on the same page. When on a separate page, headings/captions are always placed in portrait orientation, regardless of the orientation of the figure or table. Page numbers are always placed as if the figure were vertical on the page.

If a graphic artist does the figures, Harvard Griffin GSAS will accept lettering done by the artist only within the figure. Figures done with software are acceptable if the figures are clear and legible. Legends and titles done by the same process as the figures will be accepted if they too are clear, legible, and run at least 10 or 12 characters per inch. Otherwise, legends and captions should be printed with the same font used in the text.

Original illustrations, photographs, and fine arts prints may be scanned and included, centered between the margins on a page with no text above or below.

Use of Third-Party Content

In addition to the student's own writing, dissertations often contain third-party content or in-copyright content owned by parties other than you, the student who authored the dissertation. The Office for Scholarly Communication recommends consulting the information below about fair use, which allows individuals to use in-copyright content, on a limited basis and for specific purposes, without seeking permission from copyright holders.

Because your dissertation will be made available for online distribution through DASH , Harvard's open-access repository, it is important that any third-party content in it may be made available in this way.

Fair Use and Copyright

What is fair use?

Fair use is a provision in copyright law that allows the use of a certain amount of copyrighted material without seeking permission. Fair use is format- and media-agnostic. This means fair use may apply to images (including photographs, illustrations, and paintings), quoting at length from literature, videos, and music regardless of the format.

How do I determine whether my use of an image or other third-party content in my dissertation is fair use?

There are four factors you will need to consider when making a fair use claim.

1) For what purpose is your work going to be used?

Nonprofit, educational, scholarly, or research use favors fair use. Commercial, non-educational uses, often do not favor fair use.
A transformative use (repurposing or recontextualizing the in-copyright material) favors fair use. Examining, analyzing, and explicating the material in a meaningful way, so as to enhance a reader's understanding, strengthens your fair use argument. In other words, can you make the point in the thesis without using, for instance, an in-copyright image? Is that image necessary to your dissertation? If not, perhaps, for copyright reasons, you should not include the image.

2) What is the nature of the work to be used?

Published, fact-based content favors fair use and includes scholarly analysis in published academic venues.
Creative works, including artistic images, are afforded more protection under copyright, and depending on your use in light of the other factors, may be less likely to favor fair use; however, this does not preclude considerations of fair use for creative content altogether.

3) How much of the work is going to be used?

Small, or less significant, amounts favor fair use. A good rule of thumb is to use only as much of the in-copyright content as necessary to serve your purpose. Can you use a thumbnail rather than a full-resolution image? Can you use a black-and-white photo instead of color? Can you quote select passages instead of including several pages of the content? These simple changes bolster your fair use of the material.

4) What potential effect on the market for that work may your use have?

If there is a market for licensing this exact use or type of educational material, then this weighs against fair use. If however, there would likely be no effect on the potential commercial market, or if it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work, then this favors fair use.

For further assistance with fair use, consult the Office for Scholarly Communication's guide, Fair Use: Made for the Harvard Community and the Office of the General Counsel's Copyright and Fair Use: A Guide for the Harvard Community .

What are my options if I don’t have a strong fair use claim?

Consider the following options if you find you cannot reasonably make a fair use claim for the content you wish to incorporate:

Seek permission from the copyright holder.
Use openly licensed content as an alternative to the original third-party content you intended to use. Openly-licensed content grants permission up-front for reuse of in-copyright content, provided your use meets the terms of the open license.
Use content in the public domain, as this content is not in-copyright and is therefore free of all copyright restrictions. Whereas third-party content is owned by parties other than you, no one owns content in the public domain; everyone, therefore, has the right to use it.

For use of images in your dissertation, please consult this guide to Finding Public Domain & Creative Commons Media , which is a great resource for finding images without copyright restrictions.

Who can help me with questions about copyright and fair use?

Contact your Copyright First Responder . Please note, Copyright First Responders assist with questions concerning copyright and fair use, but do not assist with the process of obtaining permission from copyright holders.

Pages should be assigned a number except for the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate . Preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents, list of tables, graphs, illustrations, and preface) should use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages must contain text or images.

Count the title page as page i and the copyright page as page ii, but do not print page numbers on either page .

For the body of text, use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) starting with page 1 on the first page of text. Page numbers must be centered throughout the manuscript at the top or bottom. Every numbered page must be consecutively ordered, including tables, graphs, illustrations, and bibliography/index (if included); letter suffixes (such as 10a, 10b, etc.) are not allowed. It is customary not to have a page number on the page containing a chapter heading.

Check pagination carefully. Account for all pages.

A copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC) should appear as the first page. This page should not be counted or numbered. The DAC will appear in the online version of the published dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same.

The dissertation begins with the title page; the title should be as concise as possible and should provide an accurate description of the dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same.

Do not print a page number on the title page. It is understood to be page i for counting purposes only.

A copyright notice should appear on a separate page immediately following the title page and include the copyright symbol ©, the year of first publication of the work, and the name of the author:

Alternatively, students may choose to license their work openly under a Creative Commons license. The author remains the copyright holder while at the same time granting up-front permission to others to read, share, and (depending on the license) adapt the work, so long as proper attribution is given. (By default, under copyright law, the author reserves all rights; under a Creative Commons license, the author reserves some rights.)

Do not print a page number on the copyright page. It is understood to be page ii for counting purposes only.

An abstract, numbered as page iii , should immediately follow the copyright page and should state the problem, describe the methods and procedures used, and give the main results or conclusions of the research. The abstract will appear in the online and bound versions of the dissertation and will be published by ProQuest. There is no maximum word count for the abstract.

double-spaced
left-justified
indented on the first line of each paragraph
The author’s name, right justified
The words “Dissertation Advisor:” followed by the advisor’s name, left-justified (a maximum of two advisors is allowed)
Title of the dissertation, centered, several lines below author and advisor

Dissertations divided into sections must contain a table of contents that lists, at minimum, the major headings in the following order:

Front Matter
Body of Text
Back Matter

Front matter includes (if applicable):

acknowledgements of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions
a dedication
a list of illustrations or tables
a glossary of terms
one or more epigraphs.

Back matter includes (if applicable):

bibliography
supplemental materials, including figures and tables
an index (in rare instances).

Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the end of the dissertation in an appendix, not within or at the end of a chapter. If additional digital information (including audio, video, image, or datasets) will accompany the main body of the dissertation, it should be uploaded as a supplemental file through ProQuest ETD . Supplemental material will be available in DASH and ProQuest and preserved digitally in the Harvard University Archives.

As a matter of copyright, dissertations comprising the student's previously published works must be authorized for distribution from DASH. The guidelines in this section pertain to any previously published material that requires permission from publishers or other rightsholders before it may be distributed from DASH. Please note:

Authors whose publishing agreements grant the publisher exclusive rights to display, distribute, and create derivative works will need to seek the publisher's permission for nonexclusive use of the underlying works before the dissertation may be distributed from DASH.
Authors whose publishing agreements indicate the authors have retained the relevant nonexclusive rights to the original materials for display, distribution, and the creation of derivative works may distribute the dissertation as a whole from DASH without need for further permissions.

It is recommended that authors consult their publishing agreements directly to determine whether and to what extent they may have transferred exclusive rights under copyright. The Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) is available to help the author determine whether she has retained the necessary rights or requires permission. Please note, however, the Office of Scholarly Communication is not able to assist with the permissions process itself.

Missing Dissertation Acceptance Certificate. The first page of the PDF dissertation file should be a scanned copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC). This page should not be counted or numbered as a part of the dissertation pagination.
Conflicts Between the DAC and the Title Page. The DAC and the dissertation title page must match exactly, meaning that the author name and the title on the title page must match that on the DAC. If you use your full middle name or just an initial on one document, it must be the same on the other document.
Abstract Formatting Errors. The advisor name should be left-justified, and the author's name should be right-justified. Up to two advisor names are allowed. The Abstract should be double spaced and include the page title “Abstract,” as well as the page number “iii.” There is no maximum word count for the abstract.
The front matter should be numbered using Roman numerals (iii, iv, v, …). The title page and the copyright page should be counted but not numbered. The first printed page number should appear on the Abstract page (iii).
The body of the dissertation should be numbered using Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, …). The first page of the body of the text should begin with page 1. Pagination may not continue from the front matter.
All page numbers should be centered either at the top or the bottom of the page.
Figures and tables Figures and tables must be placed within the text, as close to their first mention as possible. Figures and tables that span more than one page must be labeled on each page. Any second and subsequent page of the figure/table must include the “(Continued)” notation. This applies to figure captions as well as images. Each page of a figure/table must be accounted for and appropriately labeled. All figures/tables must have a unique number. They may not repeat within the dissertation.
Any figures/tables placed in a horizontal orientation must be placed with the top of the figure/ table on the left-hand side. The top of the figure/table should be aligned with the spine of the dissertation when it is bound.
Page numbers must be placed in the same location on all pages of the dissertation, centered, at the bottom or top of the page. Page numbers may not appear under the table/ figure.
Supplemental Figures and Tables. Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the back of the dissertation in an appendix. They should not be placed at the back of the chapter.
Permission Letters Copyright. permission letters must be uploaded as a supplemental file, titled ‘do_not_publish_permission_letters,” within the dissertation submission tool.
DAC Attachment. The signed Dissertation Acceptance Certificate must additionally be uploaded as a document in the "Administrative Documents" section when submitting in Proquest ETD . Dissertation submission is not complete until all documents have been received and accepted.
Overall Formatting. The entire document should be checked after all revisions, and before submitting online, to spot any inconsistencies or PDF conversion glitches.
You can view dissertations successfully published from your department in DASH . This is a great place to check for specific formatting and area-specific conventions.
Contact the Office of Student Affairs with further questions.

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Innovative Dissertations

Learn more about planning and evaluating innovative dissertations: Next-Generation Dissertations : New Approaches to Humanities Scholarship (Syracuse University) and Next-Generation Dissertations—New Projects for an Engaged Academy (virtual roundtable).

Pitt has a variety of innovative scholarship resources and support for projects.

Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences, 1999–2021

Digital-only or hybrid digital/analog dissertations, video / multimedia, audio (including podcast, rap albums, etc.), comics / graphic novels, portfolio / thesis by practice, artifacts & installations, experimental texts, collaborative and/or community-engaged dissertations, geospatial visualizations / gis database.

Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation format: “Her dissertation will incorporate ethnographic storytelling and visual methodologies to create an interactive web-based platform” ( 2020 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation format: Will include “a webspace to house interviews with Karen refugees from Burma” to expand cultural and historical record and educate general public ( 2019 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. in American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021
Current position: Project Manager , Tribesourcing Southwest Film Project
Dissertation format: Multimedia dissertation ( 2018 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. in History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, 2022
Dissertation format: Two complementary equally weighted components: 1) A website Weaponized Landscapes to contain an exhibit and archive of multimodal artworks by Mary Kavanagh, which will serve as a blueprint for future issues of a journal and case studies; and 2) a 100-page intellectual package containing a metacritical essay that contextualizes the theoretical and technical decisions and offering the mission statement for Weaponized Landscapes that will support the intellectual mission moving forward.
Ph.D. in Humanities, York University, Canada, 2021
Current position: Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies , Brock University, Canada
Dissertation format: “poetics, the ready-made avant-garde and hypertext in an interdisciplinary process Henay calls mash-up methodology” Article including Henay
Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Computer Science (Human Computer Interaction), Bath Spa University, 2021
Current position: Narrative Experience Designer , Bonfire Dog
Dissertation format: Academic thesis and two complementary artworks : one text-based, the other a real-time computer simulation
Ph.D. in American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019
Current position: Unknown
Dissertation format: Documentary website with essays, oral history clips, audio-visual materials, including a map, archival materials, and embedded footnotes. Fryar ’s essay about dissertation process
Ph.D. in English, University of Virginia, 1999
Current position: Professor , University of Maryland
Dissertation format: “ five interrelated electronic essays (plus a VRML installation)” (abstract)
Ph.D. in English, City University of New York, 2019
Current position: Director of the Digital Media Lab , Bard Graduate Center
Dissertation format: Location-based mobile experience game and blog about dissertation
Ph.D. in History, George Mason University, 2019
Current position: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies , University of Alabama
Dissertation format: Digital dissertation , including a Model Browser, Essays, Notebooks for code and data, Bibliography, Process Statement, etc
Ph.D. in History of Art, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2018
Current position: Heritage Account Manager , Noho Dublin
Dissertation format: Written thesis with “ practice-based component , the art-historical thematic research collection… to investigate paintings…” (not currently accessible).
Ph.D. in French Literature, Princeton University, 2018
Current position: Academic Manager , SAE Institute Paris
Dissertation format: Three primary methodologies: 1) Literary, 2) Historical, and 3) “Digital Humanities, using exploratory programming to understand the effect that electronic literature has on a reader as well as leading the transcription and encoding of the Oulipo archives.” More details on her methodology and her experience .
Ph.D. in English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018
Current position: Educational Client Manager and product owner for Pressbooks
Dissertation format: “Print analogue” and “a public-facing website which includes additional interactive and multimedia resources” (viii, " The ‘Objectivists’ ")
Ph.D. in History, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (ENS-Lyon), France, 2017
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher , European Research Council (ERC)
Dissertation format: “a two-faced dissertation, with a digital platform on the one hand, and a rather conventional text, on the other hand, which connects to the platform through a simple system of hyperlinks” (123, Shaping the Digital Dissertation )
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, City University of New York, 2017
Current position: Digital Humanities researcher at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University
Dissertation format: “interdisciplinary digital humanities project that included source code for data visualizations, text mining and a static website ” (165-66, Shaping the Digital Dissertation )
Ph.D. in History, George Mason University, 2016
Current position: Academic Technologist for Instructional Technology , Information Technology Services, Carleton College
Dissertation format: “This project is presented through the digital publishing platform Scalar in an alternate structure for the elements required of a historical dissertation—historiography, artifacts, data, analysis, citations.” Dissertation is password-protected due to image permissions
Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo, Canada, 2016
Current position: Assistant Professor , Game Design and Development, Wilfrid Laurier University
Dissertation format: Text with accompanying video game . More information i n his abstract .
Ph.D in Artistic Research, Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, 2016
Current position: Senior Scientist , Doctoral School for Artistic Research, University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz
Dissertation format: Website (natively digital dissertation) (Chapter 15, Shaping the Digital Dissertation )
Ph.D. in English, University of Maryland, College Park, 2015
Current position: Managing Director of the Scholars’ Lab , University of Virginia Library
Dissertation format: Website "How can you love a work, if you don't know it?": Critical Code and Design toward Participatory Digital Editions and “actual digital edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses with various experimental interface features”
Ph.D. in Communication, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015
Current position: Associate Director of Digital Learning Projects and Assessment at Center for Teaching and Learning, LaGuardia Community College CUNY
Dissertation format: Written thesis with Tumblr archive and “digital performance piece” (not currently available online)
Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, 2014
Current position: Teaching Assistant Professor of Asian Studies , The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation format: “ electronic and non-linear ” using Scalar
Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2013
Current position: Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies , Fordham University
Dissertation format: Involved “collaborative design of an open source social network” with New Yorkers ages 14-19 as co-researchers and archived online content . Public dissertation defense
Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, University of Maryland, 2012
Current position: Deputy Director of Digital Initiatives , Director of Digital Fellowship Programs, City University of New York
Dissertation format: “Part II introduces a digital humanities project called “ Revising Ekphrasis ,” which establishes best practices for using LDA topic modeling and social network analysis to read the ekphrastic genre at scale using a curated dataset of more than 4700 poems” (abstract).
Ph.D. in English, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2005
Current position: Professor of Cinema , Media Arts + Practice Division, University of Southern California
Dissertation format: Used TK3, a hypertext-based program. More descriptions in this article : “My dissertation included more than two hundred “pages” filled with words as well as still and moving images, hyperlinks, and densely layered annotations.”
Ph.D. in Human Development, Virginia Tech, 2001
Current position: Associate Professor, Marriage and Family Therapy, Mercy College
Dissertation format: A “dissertation web”
Ph.D. in English, City University of New York, 1999
Associate Professor of English , Lehman College
Dissertation format: “This is a two-part dissertation: an electronic, multi-media CD-ROM edition of Pound's Italian cantos; and a paper which serves as a textual companion and explores my theoretical approach to this material” (iv) (ProQuest document ID: 304497855)
Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada, 1999
Position: Assistant Dean , Faculty of Graduate Studies and College for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2000-2009
Dissertation format: CD-ROM that includes “full transcripts and video clips of participant conversations and work spaces; extensive field notes; five multi-voiced tales created out of, and linked back to, transcripts; analyses of the public performance of organizational discourses; participant and examiner critiques of study framework and content; connections to past studies of the same organization; and conversations made possible by electronic notes added by readers to the computer network” (abstract). (ProQuest document ID: 304572397)
Ph.D. in Music, York University, 1999
Professor of Communication , Concordia University 1999-2016
Dissertation format: Written document with a CD-ROM that includes “a website and an interactive installation”
Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1998
Current position: VP - Lead UX Architect, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Dissertation format: A “hypertextual performance in nonlinear form”
Ph.D. in Archaeological Theory , University of Wales, Lampeter, 1998
Current position: Professor , Linnaeus University
Dissertation format: "electronic monograph that includes a searchable multimedia database of megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, links to related topics and ideas which are published elsewhere on the WWW, an extensive bibliography, and numerous colour images and maps" (abstract). Abbreviated version
Ph.D. in Semiotics, University of Delaware, 1997
Current position: Head of Client Experience Strategy , Nasdaq
Dissertation format: CD-ROM for Macintosh: “a hypermedia volume about hypermedia” (abstract) (ProQuest document ID: 304343613).
Description in Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Sourcebook for Educators: Students, and Librarians (eds. Fox, Feizabadi, Moxley, and Weisser.)
Ph.D. in Art History, University of Virginia, 1997
Dissertation format: Hypertextual presentation
Ph.D. in History, University of Virginia, 1996
Position: Senior Associate Editor at the Papers of George Washington
Dissertation format: Written document with an “electronic database consist[ing] of 1,750 manuscript documents” ( abstract )
Ph.D. candidate in Music, University of Pittsburgh
Dissertation format: Written document with public-facing documentary film.
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships 2021
Ph.D. candidate in English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation format: Will include three distinct video essays to make her research more accessible ( 2020 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh
Dissertation format: Documentary film, Doyenne , and written component
Ph.D. in Anthropology, City University of New York, 2020
Current position: Lecturer , Pratt Institute
Dissertation format: Written document with two ancillary digital components: “One is a video slideshow , designed to be projected as a visual background to performative reading versions of material from the text…The other consists of webpages with interactive and non-interactive demonstrations of potential functionalities offered through digital document metadata” (xviii).
Ed.D. in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2020
Current position: Associate Professor at Defense Language Institute
Dissertation format: “The dissertation contains a series of videos and the website format allows readers to watch the videos directly on the page, side-by-side with the text without having to leave this site.”
Interview of Sonia Estima, Ivan Gonzalez-Soto, Justin Schell, and Anna Williams .
Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2019
Dissertation format: Interactive multimedia installation, “ Still Life with a Suitcase ” and written text. CAGS profile on Gan .
Ph.D. in Radio-Film-Television, University of Texas, Austin, 2010
Current position: Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of the Department of Communication’s Media & Gaming Lab, Texas A&M
Dissertation format: Written document and published online with video chapters
Ph.D. in History, Michigan State University, 2017
Current position: Digital Scholarship Librarian, University of Delaware
Dissertation format: Written thesis with a documentary film and a platform for “digitizing all of his sources and developing an online persona around the work he was doing” ( Galarza profile article and C hronicle of Higher Education article )
Ph.D. in Communications and Culture, Ryerson University and York University, Canada, 2015
Current position: Assistant Professor of Education , California State University, Sacramento
Dissertation format: “This dissertation is in mixed media format to present half of the content in American Sign Language (ASL) in the form of videos held at online forums within the TerpTube website and the rest in English text in the form of .pdf, also located at the same website.” Article on Hibbard thesis
Ph.D. in Education, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada, 2014
Dissertation format: F ive videos and a self-reflexive blog
Ph.D. in Education, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, 2010
Current position: Principal Research Fellow (Research Associate Professor) in the School of Education and the Design and Creative Practice ECP, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Dissertation format: Seven films (six co-participant films and my own reflexive film) and text exegesis
Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, 2008
Current position: Adjunct Lecturer of Theology and Religious Studies , Georgetown University
Dissertation format: This “digital, multimedia dissertation explores Indian visual culture of the last two thousand years; it traverses ritual, classical dance-drama, folk theatre, sculpture, film and television narratives and creates a new version of the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata.” A rticle on Tiwari
Ph.D. in Politics, Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics, University of Brighton, UK, 2020
Current position: Independent Researcher
Dissertation format: Written thesis with a companion soundtrack composed from her 143 field recordings. “Some tracks are to be listened to with full attention, others are to accompany the reading of parts of the written thesis. She uses poetic writing, improvisation, and music-making as both practices and themes in her thesis, and also uses photographs to illustrate her work” (Helen Kara blog ).
Ph.D. in English, University of Iowa, 2019
Current position: Producer, “What's Ahead with Steve Forbes” podcast
Dissertation format: Podcast .
Interview of Sonia Estima, Ivan Gonzalez-Soto, Justin Schell, and Anna Williams
Ph.D. in Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design, Clemson University, 2017
Current position: Assistant professor in Hip-Hop and the Global South , University of Virginia and performance artist
Dissertation format: A digital archive that features a 34-track rap album and website
Article about first peer-reviewed hip-hop album published by an academic press, University of Michigan Press.
Ph.D. in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society, University of Minnesota, 2013
Current position: Learning Design Specialist , University of Michigan Library
Dissertation format: Multimodal scholarship that uses embedded media (photos, audio, and video); documentary components of the dissertation
Ph.D. Candidate in English, Stony Brook University
Dissertation: “a graphic autoethnography,” “in simple terms, it is a long comic book that extensively talks about race, illness and sexuality from a personal perspective” Article by Kumar .
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships 2021 . Sample pages .
Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition, Texas Christian University, 2021
Current position: Doctoral Teaching Lecturer , English Department, Texas Christian University
Dissertation format: Almost entirely a comic. MLA Article and profile on Brown
Ph.D. in English, City University of New York, 2020
Current position: Digital Scholarship Specialist , NYU Libraries
Dissertation format: Book of drawings
Interviews and more information
Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017
Current position: Cartoonist | Ethnographer | Teacher
Dissertation format: “dissertation as a comic (mostly)”
Ph.D. in Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK, 2017
Current position: Lecturer in Education , Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Dissertation format: Contains a comic strip version of the abstract and several comic figures to present data excerpts
Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Sussex, UK, 2016
Current position: Senior Fellow , Department of Development Studies, SOAS University of London, and Founder and Executive Director, PositiveNegatives , which produces literary comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and humanitarian issues
Dissertation format: Graphic novel accompanied by written text . CAGS profile on Dix .
Ph.D. in Visual Art and Education, University of Granada, Spain, 2014
Current position: Senior Lecturer in Animation, Sheffield Hallam University; graphic artist
Dissertation format: “The overall structure of the dissertation was traditional, and included an abstract, a theoretical framework, a description of the research methodology and results, and an interpretation and conclusion. The format was highly unusual, however: It was published online in three volumes similar to a graphic novel trilogy, it incorporated many forms of visual data (including photos and watercolour illustrations) and was in part presented in the forms of a comic book, graphic novel, and story book” (Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), “ The Doctoral Dissertation – Purpose, Content, Structure, Assessment ,” 9). A/r/tography article on Madrid-Manrique .
Ed.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2014
Current position: Associate professor of Humanities & Liberal Studies , San Francisco State University, comics artist and educator
Dissertation format : Unflattening , a published comics book and website
Ph.D. in Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design, Clemson University, 2010
Current position: Associate Professor of Rhetoric , Texas Christian University
Dissertation format: “This dissertation combines Gregory Ulmer's post-criticism with multimodal composition resulting in a work that critiques the medium of comics in comics format. Six traditional text chapters forge a theoretical and practical foundation; punctuated within and without by occasional visual interludes and three comic sections. I advocate teaching multimodal composition through comics' interplay of image and text" (abstract).
Also published Rhizcomics: Rhetoric, Technology, and New Media Composition (2017), an open access “digital monograph that composes multimodal arguments about rhetoric and comics”
Ph.D. in Education, University of Melbourne, Australia, 2017
Current position: Senior Lecturer in Art Education , University of Melbourne, Australia
Dissertation format: Curated portfolio : “This site is both a digital Phd thesis … a living a/r/tographic digital exhibition and digital object.”
Ph.D. in Art, Goldsmiths University of London, UK, 2017
Current position: unknown
Dissertation format: “Cristina created the open platform http://www.desarquivo.org , which give access to documents, articles and images around the production of collective and common artistic and non artistic practices in Brazil. Her practice in the broadest sense provokes articulations between cartography, memory, history, archives, politics and the common.” Goldsmiths description
Ph.D. in Art, Goldsmiths University of London, UK, 2016
Current position: Lecturer, School of Architecture Design and the Built Environment , Nottingham Trent University, UK
Dissertation format: Includes “practice is made up of videos, text-based pieces, installations, image manipulations and lecture-performances; these have been presented in the UK, Europe and Colombia.” G oldsmiths description .
Ph.D. in Art, Goldsmiths University of London, UK, 2014
Current position: Postgraduate theory supervisor , Wintec - Waikato Institute of Technology
Dissertation format: Includes “practice engages with archival material and the dispersal of images, through the mass media, working with multi-media technologies such as video and three dimensional printing processes” ( Goldsmiths description ). Kerr's website .
Ph.D. in Environmental Studies, York University, Canada, 2021
Current position: Assistant Professor , School of the Arts, McMaster University, Canada.
Dissertation format: Twenty 12-foot by five-foot graphite portraits of disabled arts activists and an exegesis of scholarly articles about critical race theory and reflections on disabled arts in Canada. Article including Ware
Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education Department, The University of Georgia, 2018
Current position: Assistant Professor of Literacy Education , Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Dissertation format: “written solely outside the written word in the form of a museum exhibition” (from her abstract). [Text]ure exhibition description .
Ph.D. in Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, University of Toronto Harrison, Canada, 2014
Current position: Unknown, but he has been instructor in the Department of Drawing and Painting at OCAD University; Director of Camp fYrefly, a camp for LGBTQ2S&A youth
Dissertation format: A “full-sized painted circus tent [that] forms the basis of the research and the accompanying written thesis is in the form of an artist's catalogue” (abstract); written thesis is presented in a storied form to make it accessible to a broad range of readers and to leave space for readers to consider their own stories. Through this research I came to understand how I made sense of my world, ways my community can change the narratives that are told about them through telling their own, and the value of art as a mechanism for social change. This research contributes to fields of art for social change, history of sexual and gender minority people, notions of belonging, and furthers Arts-informed and Autoethnographic methodologies.
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, 2020
Current position: ESOL Faculty at Baltimore City Public Schools
Dissertation format: “series of essays focused largely on her public-facing work, which included building a translators’ collective that prints books and creating translation workshops for immigrant high schoolers learning English. She hopes to place the pieces in broad-audience publications rather than academic journals.” From Chronical of Higher Ed article
Ph.D. in English, City University of New York, 2018
Current position: Senior Developer Educator , Digital Ocean
Dissertation format: “Though the final form of the dissertation appears much like any traditional, print-oriented dissertation (apart from its afterword and appendix detailing the #SocialDiss process), it was profoundly influenced by the experimental use of different digital writing and networking technologies” (153, Shaping the Digital Dissertation ). She solicited public peer review throughout her dissertation writing through #SocialDiss
Ph.D. from Performance and Cultural Industries School, The University of Leeds, UK, 2017
Current position: Stand-up poet, broadcaster and speaker
Dissertation format: “The thesis sometimes takes the form of a dialogue- with an interrupting, comedic voice pointing out the limitations of academic monologue” and includes original poetry. Description from Fox's website .
Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada, 2015
Current position: Architect
Dissertation format: His 52,438-word dissertation contains almost no punctuation or uppercase letters: “For the writing style to not follow standard or conventional academic English, the formatting and punctuation or lack thereof, has grown out of my need to privilege Indigenous knowledge in resistance to the colonizing provincial education system that continue to traumatize indigenous peoples in this province” (xi, “ Indigenous architecture ").
Ph.D. in English, CUNY Graduate Center, 2011
Current position: Assistant Professor , Hostos Community College
Dissertation format: Uses “rules and procedures (such as: a chapter written entirely in interrogatives; a chapter written using aleatory procedures; a recorded and edited transcription of my dissertation defense) in order to write poetic and autobiographical criticism about works of literary constraint”
Ph.D. in Educational Studies, McGill University, Canada, 1999
Current position: Poet, Creativity Coach, & Dancer
Dissertation format: “structure as a set of letters between Hussey and H.D., whose letters were written by Hussey based on Doolittle’s theories about poetry and the poetic imagination” (Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), “ The Doctoral Dissertation – Purpose, Content, Structure, Assessment ,” 8).
Ph.D. in English with Specialization in Rhetoric and Writing, Bowling Green State University, 2015
Current position: Assistant Professor of Communication , The University of Findlay and Founder + CCO, Homeplace Creative
Dissertation: Multimedia dissertation using participatory, digitally-driven methods incorporated into a documentary project with media input directly into her dissertation for audiences to experience the stories of community members as they articulated them. Article on Adams .
Ph.D. in Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Birmingham, UK, 2014
Current position: Head of Collections & Interiors at the National Trust for Scotland
Dissertation format: Collaborative Dissertation; applied, practice-based, quantitative research in the humanities; practitioners in independent charity organization as non-traditional mentors/collaborators. CAGS profile on Hopes .
Dissertation format: Includes an online, interactive story map ( 2019 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Dissertation format: Will use digital technologies to manage, map, analyze, and present this large quantity of data ( 2020 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. candidate in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation format: Will digitally map parades for analysis and to make her research more publicly accessible ( 2020 Digital Dissertation Fellow )
Ph.D. in English, University of Pittsburgh, 2021
Current position: Assistant Professor of English, United States Naval Academy.
Dissertation format: Written thesis with a digital memorial
Ph.D. in American Studies, University of Iowa, 2019
Current position: Assistant Teaching Professor , University of Notre Dame
Dissertation format: Digital humanities dissertation using data analysis, visualization, and mapping
Current position: Adjunct Assistant Professor , Queen’s College, CUNY
Dissertation format: Written document and a digital component containing “interactive and static maps, charts of quantitative data, written text, and images.”
Ph.D. in American History, Stanford University, 2015
Current position: Assistant Professor, History Department , Northeastern University
Dissertation format: “The written narrative of Chapter One is based on an online visualization that allows ‘readers’ to interact with the underlying data by mapping the geography…. Taken together, Chapter One and the online visualization offer both a synthesis and a starting point” (20). Online visualization: “ The Geography of the Post ”
Ph.D. in History of Art and Architecture, University of Virginia, 2015
Current position: Lecturing Fellow of Art, Art History & Visual Studies and a member of the Wired! Lab for Digital Art History & Visual Culture , Duke University
Dissertation format: Chapter two discusses “two digital projects created as part of this dissertation”: a geospatial database and a GIS database

We welcome you to reach out to us with additional dissertations to add to this list.

University of Iowa Press

Revising humanities dissertations for publication.

So you've finished your dissertation. Your committee has approved it. Now you can just box it up, send it to a publisher, and receive a book contract, right?

In reality, even the best dissertations must be revised before being accepted for publication. Because they receive so many unrevised dissertations a year, most editors can spot one soon after opening the package. To guard against an immediate rejection, you'll need to spend a lot of time rethinking and reworking your manuscript. The press's acquisitions editor, the expert readers to whom the press sends the manuscript for evaluation, and the editorial board will all be evaluating not only the validity of your argument and the depth of your research, but also the book's potential appeal to a substantial number of educated lay readers outside a narrow field of interest.

The first step for you is to take a look at your topic. Is it interesting to more than just a handful of scholars? Is it unique? Is it timely, but not faddish? Where does it fit with other books published lately in your discipline? Chances are you'll have to broaden it, or narrow it, or take a different angle on it than you did in the dissertation.

Some quick and easy revisions:

Cut the part where you thank your dissertation committee. You can still acknowledge them, but as individual scholars rather than as part of your committee.
Cut the review of literature or, if you feel you must keep some of it, work parts of it into the text at relevant points.
Cut the number of quotations, especially long ones. In general, your book needs more of your own voice and less of others' voices, so utilize paraphrasing and summarizing skills.
Comb through the manuscript and replace the jargon with more fluid and clear language. One easy way to find the clunky language is to read the chapters aloud. Another is to discuss your work with an educated person who is not in your field.
Cut a third to a half of the notes. If the information can't be seamlessly incorporated into the text, dump it!
If you have divided your chapters into sections and subsections, each with their own headings, take out this outline structure and instead work on transitions from one idea to the next. This will make your book more unified and more readable.
Pare down the bibliography. As a student, you wanted to show your committee the depth and breadth of your research. As a book author, to keep from overwhelming your readers, give them just the most pertinent sources. (If you have referred to a source directly, you will need to keep it in the bibliography.)
Chances are you'll need to update your research using the new articles and books that have appeared since you finished your dissertation. Work these ideas into your text and add them to your bibliography.

Selected Bibliography of Books and Articles on Changing a Dissertation into a Book

Derricourt, Robin M. An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Germano, William P. From Dissertation to Book . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

_____. Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Harman, Eleanor, et al., eds. The Thesis and the Book: A Guide for First-Time Academic Authors . 2d ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.

Lanham, Richard A. Revising Prose . 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2006.

Luey, Beth, ed. Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

McMillen, Liz. “A Doctoral Dissertation Is Not Yet a Book, Young Tenure-Seeking Scholars Are Told.” Chronicle of Higher Education , 5 February 1986.

Also, various university presses have author guidelines that will help you focus on matters most important to that particular press.

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Summer Dissertation Programs 2023

The Graduate Writing Center holds several programs during the summer to support graduate students who are at the dissertation, dissertation proposal, or master's thesis writing stages. Programs are free of charge to UCLA graduate students who participate. Note: All summer programs will be held via Zoom. We encourage you to participate and have a productive summer!

How to Apply: Submit an application by the deadline indicated for the specific program. We screen to make sure participants are in the appropriate fields and at the appropriate stages, but we otherwise accept as many people as we can.

Eligibility: Only UCLA graduate and professional students are eligible to apply. Participants should also be at the appropriate stage and in an appropriate field for the program to which they apply.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

1) Dissertation Boot Camp (Humanities & Arts)

This program targets humanities and arts graduate students who have advanced to candidacy and are at the dissertation-writing stage. The program will teach writing strategies and provide structure to help participants produce a draft of a dissertation chapter. Graduate students from social science fields who use humanities approaches, such as historians or political science students who focus on theory, may also apply to this program. This program will meet Mondays, 1:00–4:00 PM via Zoom, for the 6 weeks of Summer Session A (June 26–July 31), except the session on Monday, July 3rd will be moved to Wednesday, July 5th, 1:00–4:00 PM. Deadline extended to: Friday, June 23rd.

CLICK to see application instructions and program details.

How to Apply for the Humanities & Arts Dissertation Chapter Boot Camp : Interested graduate students must fill out the application Google form linked here (your application will be kept confidential) by Friday, June 23rd . Space is limited.

Preparation for the Humanities & Arts Dissertation Boot Camp (for those accepted)

First Session Preparation and Homework :

Before the first session, participants should

read/skim a dissertation recently completed in your department, preferably one chaired by your dissertation committee chair, to get a sense of overall structure (search ProQuest Dissertations/Theses database by advisor);
a) type of content (primary source analysis, secondary criticism, theory, historical or biographical background, etc.); and
b) form (narrative arc, argument, and language that signposts what the writer is doing);
organize your notes, sources, and data for the analytical dissertation chapter you will work on during the program. Bring all relevant materials into a single physical and/or electronic location to simplify your workflow.

Participants should bring to the first session

your brief sketch of the sample dissertation chapter you reviewed; and
a 1-2 page outline of the analytical dissertation chapter you will work on during the program. If you are in the very early stages, a bulleted list of the topics and ideas you plan to address in the chapter would be fine.

Homework for Subsequent Sessions: Each session after the first will require 5 to 10 pages of new writing (of the dissertation draft). There may be additional reading and homework assignments to reinforce writing strategies.

Strongly Recommended Reading: Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day . 1998. (Available at the UCLA bookstore.) We recommend a more careful reading of chapters 3, 4 and 8, but the entire book is worth skimming.

Not sure whether you should apply to the Humanities or Qualitative Social Sciences Dissertation Boot Camp?

Your dissertation fits well with the humanities if one or more of the following applies:

you study texts, aesthetic objects, or theories;
you don't have separate chapters on literature review and methods;
you don't work with human subjects (in a manner requiring IRB approval);
and/or your chapters are organized in a purely topical way.

Your dissertation fits well with the qualitative social sciences if one or more of the following applies:

you have separate methods and literature review chapters;
you work with human subjects and went through the IRB process;
you do descriptive or ethnographic research based on interviews and observations;
your data analysis involves coding;
and/or you write your findings in results and discussion chapters.

Some research--such as oral histories, ethnographic studies, and studies of language and performance--falls in between humanities and qualitative social sciences, but we usually group projects involving human subjects with qualitative social sciences. Oral historians who don't code their interviews may fit better with the humanities. If you are not sure which section to choose, please consult with the GWC Director (Marilyn Gray: [email protected] ).

Deadline extended to: Friday, June 23rd.

2) Dissertation Boot Camp (Qualitative Social Sciences)

This program targets graduate students using qualitative social science research methods or mixed methods with a qualitative emphasis. Graduate students who apply to this program should have defended their proposals, completed the majority of their data collection and analysis, and be ready to write (or already writing) the results and discussion chapters (or sections). The program will address writing issues specific to qualitative research as well as general writing and organizational strategies. You are also welcome to apply if you use mixed or quantitative methods but intend to work on a descriptive or qualitative section. This program will meet Tuesdays, 10:00 AM–1:00 PM via Zoom, for the 6 weeks of Session A, June 27–August 1, except the session on Tuesday, July 4th will be moved to Wednesday, July 5th (10 AM–1 PM). Deadline extended to: Friday, June 23rd.

How to Apply for the Qualitative Social Sciences Dissertation Chapter Boot Camp : Interested graduate students must fill out the Google application form linked here (your application will be kept confidential) by Friday, June 23rd .

Preparation for the Qualitative Dissertation Boot Camp (for those accepted)

a) type of content (data analysis, relevant empirical literature, theory, historical background, cultural context, etc.); and

3) Dissertation Proposal Boot Camp (Social Sciences)

The Social Sciences Dissertation Proposal Boot Camp is designed to help graduate students make substantial progress on a draft of their dissertation proposals. Sessions will cover strategies for writing the components of the proposal as well as managing the process. For guidance concerning research design, methodology, and other field-specific issues, please consult with faculty mentors. This program will meet Tuesdays, 3:00–5:00 & Thursdays, 3:00–4:00 PM via Zoom, for the 6 weeks of Summer Session A, June 27th–August 3rd, except the session on Tuesday, July 4th will be moved to Wednesday, July 5th. Deadline extended to: Friday, June 23rd.

How to Apply : Interested graduate students must fill out the Google application form linked here (your application will be kept confidential) by Friday, June 23rd . Space is limited.

Homework for those accepted to the Social Sciences Dissertation Proposal Boot Camp:

For the first session , participants must bring the following:

Annotated Bibliography : bring a bibliography of your secondary and theoretical sources. Select four or five of the most important theoretical and secondary sources and write a paragraph or two about each. Also make sure that you have organized notes for your other sources. For the other sources that will be discussed in your literature review, we recommend writing at least a short annotation (2-3 sentences) for each one.
Project description (from application): bring a 200-300 word description of your dissertation project. Please be prepared to articulate your research topic succinctly.
Research questions: bring in a printout of your specific research questions, or if appropriate, your hypotheses and aims.
Recommended Reading : Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day . 1998. Chapters 1, 3 and 4. (Available at the UCLA bookstore.)

For subsequent sessions : Each session will have a required writing assignment related to your proposal. There may also be required readings that we will make available electronically.

Not sure whether you should apply to the Humanities Prospectus or Social Sciences Proposal Boot Camp?

4) Dissertation Prospectus Boot Camp (Humanities & Arts)

The Humanities Dissertation Prospectus Boot Camp is designed to help graduate students in the humanities and/or those conducting interdisciplinary research make substantial progress on a draft of their dissertation prospectuses. The goal is to demystify the dissertation prospectus. Sessions will cover strategies for writing the components of the prospectus as well as managing the writing process, deadlines, and committee. Guidance will include field-specific components like research design and methodology; however participants will also be encouraged to consult with their faculty advisors/mentors throughout the process. This program will meet Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:00–5:45 PM, via Zoom for 6 weeks (July 25–August 31). Deadline Extended to: Friday, July 21st.

How to Apply : Interested graduate students must fill out the Google application form linked here (your application will be kept confidential) by Friday, July 21st .

Homework for those accepted to the Humanities & Arts Prospectus Boot Camp:

For the first session, participants must bring in the following:

Annotated Bibliography: bring a bibliography of your secondary and theoretical sources. Select four or five of the most important theoretical and secondary sources and write a paragraph or two about each. Also make sure that you have organized notes for your other sources. For the other sources that will be discussed in your literature review, we recommend writing at least a short annotation (2-3 sentences) for each one.
Reading Assignment : In preparation for the first session, please read: Joan Bolker. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day . 1998. Chapters 1, 3 and 4. (Available at the UCLA bookstore.)

For subsequent sessions: Each session will have a required writing assignment related to your prospectus. There may be additional required readings that we will make available electronically.

Your dissertation fits well with the social sciences if one or more of the following applies:

Deadline to Apply Extended to: Friday, July 21st.

5) Summer Writing Retreat (All Fields)

For various reasons, we have decided to cancel the 2023 Summer Thesis Retreat. We apologize for any inconvenience. We encourage you to register for summer online writing groups and mindful writing retreats ( linked here ).

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

Previous Workshops and Programs

Click here to see an archive of past programs and workshops .

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9 phd students were named 2024 humanities engage fellows.

Nine PhD students at the University of Pittsburgh have received research funding from the Pitt’s Humanities Engage project, which is committed to broadening and deepening the intellectual and professional development of all PhD candidates.

Six of the recipients pitched their own Summer Immersive Fellowships, which offer the chance to gain experiences with host organizations in collaborative, mission-focused project work drawing on their high-level skills as researchers and writers. They will be co-mentored by the host organization supervisors, a cohort of faculty mentors and the senior director for graduate advising and engagement for the humanities.

This year’s Summer Immersive Fellowship recipients are:

Juwon Adenuga (Music)
Monica Daniels (History of Art and Architecture)
Luis Delgado (Music)
Frederick Miller (Theatre Arts)
Senjuti Mukherjee (Film and Media Studies)
Ernest Owusu-Poku (Music)

The two-term Immersive Dissertation Research Fellowship supports Humanities dissertation projects that involve substantial professional development and will likely result in dissertation formats other than the conventional proto-monograph. The fellowship carries a competitive stipend, a tuition scholarship and professional development funds for its duration.

The Immersive Dissertation Research Fellowship awardees are:

Rahul Kumar (Film and Media Studies)
Apala Kundu (English)
Warner Sabio (Music)

Pitt is updating its Campus Master Plan

Employees, benefits open enrollment is may 1-15, pitt is launching an office of sustainability in the health sciences.

IMAGES

1. Overview of chapters of the dissertation
Simple Ways to Compile the Main Chapters of a Dissertation https://www
3.: Overview of parts and chapters of the dissertation.
Dissertation Structures
The five chapters of a dissertation
Dissertation Structure

VIDEO

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW OF DISSERTATION
How To Find Bibliographies on Your Topic in Dissertations and Theses
What is library dissertation
How to write Conclusion Chapter of Thesis
L-23/2 Chapter 01 of Thesis
grad school vlog

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How to Write a Social Science or Humanities Thesis/Dissertation
A typical humanities thesis/dissertation structure includes the following chapters: Introduction; Background; Theme 1; Theme 2; Theme 3; Conclusion; References (Bibliography) The number of themes above was merely chosen as an example. In a humanities thesis/dissertation, the introduction and background are often not separate chapters. The ...
Dissertation Structure & Layout 101 (+ Examples)
Chapter 1: Introduction. 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…
Dissertations 2: Structure: Thematic
In the humanities, a thematic dissertation is often structured like a long essay. It can contain: Title page . Abstract . Table of contents . Introduction . Literature review (which can be included in the introduction rather than as a separate chapter. Check with your supervisor if you are unsure). Theme 1 . Theme 2 . Theme 3 . Conclusion ...
How to Structure a Dissertation
The discipline or field your study belongs to. For instance, if you are a humanities student, you will need to develop your dissertation on the same pattern as any long essay. This will include developing an overall argument to support the thesis statement and organizing chapters around theories or
How To Write The Methodology Chapter
Do yourself a favour and start with the end in mind. Section 1 - Introduction. As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, the methodology chapter should have a brief introduction. In this section, you should remind your readers what the focus of your study is, especially the research aims. As we've discussed many times on the blog ...
How to Write a Dissertation
The structure of a dissertation depends on your field, but it is usually divided into at least four or five chapters (including an introduction and conclusion chapter). The most common dissertation structure in the sciences and social sciences includes: An introduction to your topic. A literature review that surveys relevant sources.
What Is a Dissertation?
The structure of your dissertation depends on a variety of factors, such as your discipline, topic, and approach. Dissertations in the humanities are often structured more like a long essay, building an overall argument to support a central thesis, with chapters organized around different themes or case studies.
Planning & Structuring your Chapters: Dissertation Structure
This guide offers advice on the dissertation structure, how to plan and structure your chapters and how to develop your argument throughout your dissertation. 1. Dissertation Structure. A dissertation in the arts and humanities is usually a largely theoretical examination of a subject. The traditional structure of an arts and humanities ...
Dissertation Writing Groups
Please send all application materials in a single .pdf to Amanda Brockner at [email protected]. The Society for the Humanities invites applications for Humanities Dissertation Writing Groups. These competitive grants will encourage supportive and critical discussion of dissertation prospecti and drafts of dissertation chapters in the humanities.
Writing in the Humanities and Arts
From Concept to Completion: A Dissertation-Writing Guide for History Students. 2008. Twelve historians offer advice on the dissertation-writing process in the field of history. Includes chapters on choosing a topic, obtaining funding, managing the dissertation committee, organizing archival materials, using sources, and overcoming writer's block.
Dissertation & Thesis Outline
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 ...
Dissertation layout and formatting
Next go to "Page layout" and then "Breaks". Next, choose the submenu "Next page". Switch to the side, where the numbering should begin (in this case, page 2). In the edit mode of the header or footer, choose "link to previous", after that click on "Move to footer" and click on the "Link to previous" again.
PDF A Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing
Chapter 1 2 What is a dissertation or a thesis? Many academics and even more students like to use the terms "dissertation" and "thesis" to describe the research work they are doing to meet university requirements for being conferred a Masters or Doctoral degree. The fact is these terms are often interchangeable and their use
How To Write A Dissertation Introduction Chapter
Craft an enticing and engaging opening section. Provide a background and context to the study. Clearly define the research problem. State your research aims, objectives and questions. Explain the significance of your study. Identify the limitations of your research. Outline the structure of your dissertation or thesis.
Tips for writing a PhD dissertation: FAQs answered
A PhD thesis (or dissertation) is typically 60,000 to 120,000 words ( 100 to 300 pages in length) organised into chapters, divisions and subdivisions (with roughly 10,000 words per chapter) - from introduction (with clear aims and objectives) to conclusion. The structure of a dissertation will vary depending on discipline (humanities, social ...
Formatting Your Dissertation
Most dissertations are 100 to 300 pages in length. All dissertations should be divided into appropriate sections, and long dissertations may need chapters, main divisions, and subdivisions. Page and Text Requirements Page Size. 8½ x 11 inches, unless a musical score is included; Margins. At least 1 inch for all margins; Spacing. Body of text ...
How to write your PhD thesis discussion and conclusion chapters
The discussion chapter digs into the details of your findings and how you got them. The conclusion chapter zooms out to look at the broader implications and what comes next. As you tackle these chapters, remember to keep things clear and straightforward. Take the time to really think about what your research means and why it matters.
Innovative Dissertations
Ph.D. in Humanities, York University, Canada, 2021. Current position: Assistant Professor in Women's and Gender Studies, Brock University, Canada. Dissertation format: "poetics, the ready-made avant-garde and hypertext in an interdisciplinary process Henay calls mash-up methodology" Article including Henay.
PDF SUGGESTED DISSERTATION OUTLINE
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces and provides an overview of the research that is to be undertaken. Parts of Chapter 1 summarize your Chapters 2 and 3, and because of that, Chapter 1 normally should be written after Chapters 2 and 3. Dissertation committee chairs often want students to provide a 5-10 page overview of their proposed
Humanities Dissertation Prospectus Workshop
PLAN for the dissertation that includes summaries of its major components: the introduction, individual chapters (usually 3-4), and your conclusion. • The chapter breakdown is NOT a contract that you'll have to follow explicitly when you sit down to write the dissertation • The shape that the individual chapter summaries take
Revising Humanities Dissertations for Publication
From Dissertation to Book. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. _____. Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Harman, Eleanor, et al., eds. The Thesis and the Book: A Guide for First-Time Academic Authors. 2d ed. Toronto: University of Toronto ...
Summer Dissertation Programs 2023
How to Apply for the Humanities & Arts Dissertation Chapter Boot Camp: Interested graduate students must fill out the application Google form linked here (your application will be kept confidential) by Friday, June 23rd. Space is limited. Preparation for the Humanities & Arts Dissertation Boot Camp (for those accepted)
9 PhD students were named 2024 Humanities Engage fellows
The two-term Immersive Dissertation Research Fellowship supports Humanities dissertation projects that involve substantial professional development and will likely result in dissertation formats other than the conventional proto-monograph. The fellowship carries a competitive stipend, a tuition scholarship and professional development funds for ...

How to Write a Social Science or Humanities Thesis/Dissertation

How are humanities and social science thesis/dissertations structured?

The parts of a dissertation: Starting out

What is the title of your paper?

Acknowledgments page

Table of contents

The parts of a humanities thesis/dissertation

The parts of a social science thesis/dissertation

Critical steps for writing and structuring a humanities/social science thesis/dissertation

Final tips for writing and structuring a thesis/dissertation

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How to Structure a Dissertation – A Step by Step Guide

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Planning & Structuring your Chapters

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How To Write A Dissertation Introduction

Overview: Writing An Introduction Chapter

A quick sidenote:

Start with why.

The 7 Essential Ingredients

#1 – The Opening Section

#2 – Background to the study

#3 – The research problem

#4 – The research aims, objectives and questions

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#5 – Significance

#6 – The limitations

#7 – The structural outline

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