Academic Writing Hints: A Dissertation Time Line

Dissertations take up a lot of your time and energy, your graduation completely depends on it. Depending on the quality of your dissertation you will either have stellar recommendations from your professors and possible dean of the college, or will have a lackluster amount of recommendations. Your dissertation can also help determine how much money you will make in your profession or what universities will want you to work for them. It is essential for your success to plan ahead how long you will work on your dissertation and to work on it as efficiently as possible.

  1. As soon as you begin taking courses at your university it would be most helpful to introduce yourself to a few of the librarians. They know where to look for certain topics and are up to date in the some of the newest developments in educational findings, studies, or books. Becoming acquaintances with your librarian from the beginning of your coursework will help save time later in the semesters.
  2. Research various topics during your first semester, try to read one new finding or issue every other day to become acquainted with what your options are and to start honing in on what you might want as a topic.
  3. During your second semester you need to pick a topic and who you would like to guide or mentor you during the length of your dissertation. It is important you let this person know as soon as possible that you are interested in them being your director, so they may read up on what your choice is and decide if they deem it worthy. No professor will want to guide you if you have waited until the last minute to write your dissertation, and to them waiting until the third semester is a reflection of you not caring enough about your academic work.
  4. By your third to last semester you should have a rough draft written and have the open mind that you will have to revise and edit the rough draft infinitely. Nobody gets their dissertation perfect the first time, making it essential you have the rough draft ready. This way you will know what improvements and what research to begin for the second to last semester.
  5. During the second to last semester you should be finalizing your dissertation so its ready to submit during your last semester.
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