Dissertation Suite: Top Tips for Finishing a Dissertation

Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In the final episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Liz, Anthony, Emma, and Stefan share their top tips for finishing a dissertation. They discuss breaking the final stages down into manageable chunks, things to look for in the final editing stages, and the importance of letting it go. 

You might also find it useful to listen to our episode on Editing and Proofreading. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why It Feels Hard

Liz 0:09

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Skills Pod. My name's Liz Johnson. I'm one of the Academic Skills Advisors here at the University of Chester. And this is part of the dissertation suite. Today we're going to be talking about top tips for finishing your dissertation. And I'm joined by my colleague Emma. Hi. My colleague Tony. Hello. My colleague Stefan. Hello. So dissertations are kind of intimidating, a little bit overwhelming. People get to the end and it's all sort of it can be a bit of a rush. So it's trying to stop that anxiety, give people a few reassurances.

Sit With The Sick Of It

Stefan 1:08

Definitely. And I think it's where even people who will say that they are not perfectionists in any way, shape, or form. I feel like with anything that's kind of dissertation-shaped, everyone's inner perfectionist comes out.

Anthony 1:20

And I would say that everyone is sick of it. When you get to that point for submission, you are absolutely sick of it. And I think some students have that difficulty of they just want to get shut of it because they are sick of it. But it's important to sit with the sick of it and make sure that you are spending the time to reread it again for your fourth or fifth time because it is so vital. I'm just going to ship it off after doing one read-through. You are kind of losing marks, but it is annoying and it's frustrating because every single dissertation everyone's ever done, they are sick of it by the time they submit it. But you have to make sure that you are just sitting with that and making sure you do the rereads. What a lovely uh image I might give you all there, but yeah, sit with the sick.

Liz 2:13

So if we make a political drama that's like the thick of it, it would be sit with the sick of it, would it?

Anthony 2:18

Absolutely, absolutely.

Liz 2:20

But it's true, isn't it? You just never ever want to see the information again, and you're really grinding to try and get through it again.

Step Away To Proofread Better

Emma 2:27

Yeah. And I think as well, it's important to we've got another episode, shameless plug, on time management for dissertations. Um but it's making sure that in your overall plan for your dissertation, you've factored in some time away from it at this point. Because A, that gives you a break. But also you will come back to it as a reader and not a writer. So I always say put it, put it in a drawer for a while. Um, because then you'll come back and you'll be able to spot your, you know, where you might not have been critical, where you might have got a reference wrong, where you might have typos and and things like that. So it's important to sound weird, but make sure you're taking some time away from it before you submit it to catch those kind of errors that you might not catch if you haven't got that break.

Stefan 3:14

Definitely. Because your mind kind of does that thing when you're kind of deeply engrossed in a piece of work. And this is the same for a dissertation or an essay or whatever it might be. But if you're trying to go through something and either proofread it or just get it kind of fine-tuned, if you're fully engrossed in it and you're reading it, your mind is going to kind of think that you're saying what you want to say regardless, because it will kind of fill in the blanks for you almost. But having that time away, taking that little bit of space and then coming back to it, can can stop that from happening and can make it so that when you're rereading through it, you're you're really able to make sure that your logic and your sequencing and your kind of train of thought within the dissertation are actually as you want them to be. Um yeah, without your mind kind of playing tricks on you and leading you into thinking that it's doing exactly what you want.

Escape The Write Up Limbo

Anthony 4:07

I think as well that um there gets to a point in every dissertation journey where you feel like you're too far in to quit, but not far enough in to finish. And this is horrible limbo stage, I think a lot of students get to, particularly around the write-up phase where you've at this point you've done your literate review, your methodology, you might have collected data, and now you've got that daunting task of now I've got to go and write it and finish it and do my conclusion, but you don't feel like you have enough to be at that conclusion stage yet. And my advice for that would be you have to break it down into manageable chunks to make it easier to digest. If you think I've still got five, six thousand words left to write, that's quite daunting. But if you break it down by just a couple of paragraphs every day from now until the deadline, that does make it easier and get you over that kind of limbo phase that every student goes through. I'm sure we all did um on here, where you feel like, yeah, you don't have enough to finish, but you still feel like the finish line is far away, but you never climb a mountain in one step. So make sure you've got those little little goals to work towards is so important.

Draw A Line Under Research

Liz 5:16

Yeah, I mean things like the um the colour coding that we talk about a lot with editing and critical paragraphs, that's quite a good way to um do something sort of mundane, just to randomly check a few paragraphs if there's an area that you feel as though it's not quite hanging together or not doing what you want to. That can give you that separation between what's in your head and what's you've actually written on the screen and just can help you to get back into it without feeling like, oh, I've done this and the drudgery sort of setting in. Um it's it's it is, it's just taking the the time off from what you're doing, being able to come back with clean eyes, as it were, and trying not to overthink things as well. I mean, I in my masters I took a year out and I've spoken spoken to quite a few students who've had breaks for whatever reason and they've come back to their dissertation having had um maybe personal circumstances or whatever going on, and they've had a bit of a break of maybe a few months, and they always seem to get really uh worried about the literature review because more information's come out in those X number of months, and so they have to revisit it. That's always gonna happen. You're always gonna have people writing and publishing as you're trying to get your things ready to go. But there has to be a point where you say, Okay, I need to draw a line under this. If there is something new that's come out yesterday and I've not included it, then that's gotta be okay with me. You can't carry on going and going and going. That there is that deadline, otherwise it's just gonna be so much stress you're putting yourself under.

Stefan 6:58

Definitely. And uh there's kind of particularly around that, Liz, in terms of the sense of uh almost the world moving on as you're writing your dissertation, there's particular kind of wording that you can drop in to kind of lock your dissertation in time. Things like at the time of writing, current research demonstrates X, Y, and Z or whatever it might be. And so using that kind of um temporally strategic writing or those kind of particularly strategic phrases um can really help to just kind of say, like, yep, at the time that I'm writing this, this is the case. Don't hold me to anything if anything changes beyond, right?

Emma 7:39

And I think with that you've got to it, it's again that letting it go, isn't it? Like you can't cram everything in, your dissertation is is essentially like a glimpse of something in time, isn't it? It's not it's not gonna go through your the rest of your life with you, unless you decide to research the same thing like some of us have done. But yeah, it's it's a snapshot of of research, your thinking, your ideas at a certain time. Um, and it's like I had a student yesterday who was asking me about how many references to include, and that's a really difficult question to answer. Um, and I said, probably not very helpfully, but you'll know. Like there is just a moment where you kind of know that you've got enough research and and a moment where you think actually, yeah, this is this is done. That doesn't help with the letting it go, but a moment where you think actually because sometimes you can go the opposite way where you're making those doing those edits, making those improvements, but you can also go completely opposite and make it you know worse essentially. Um so it's all about balance, really, isn't it? Which again isn't really a helpful thing to say, but that's how it is.

Stop Chasing Dissertation Perfection

Anthony 8:44

I was just gonna say there that yeah, with that editing is to watch out for is to not over-edit. You've got students who've got a decent enough dissertation, and then they spend they probably have too long in their schedule to edit, and then yeah, they are over-editing, and no dissertation is perfect. You are chasing something that does not exist, you will never have a perfect dissertation. Um, that's just not a thing. So get it to a place that you are proud of and that you are happy enough with, and then get it sent off. Don't be sitting there, like Emma said, uh, go the other end where you are nitpicking everything, and then you've kind of ruined something that might have been pretty decent because you've over-edited. So, yeah, get to a point where you can let it go. I was too. That's why I muted my mic because I was gonna go straight in there.

Emma 9:36

All together now.

Liz 9:39

So, Tony, if you got Tony's top tips,

Anthony 9:42

um yeah, it's sit with the sick. No, my my my top tip, it's it's uh get to a point that you are proud of and then submit it, and it's never gonna be perfect. But if you're like, I've tried my best, I've reread it enough times now, I'm I'm proud to submit this, just submit it, and then yeah, just enjoy enjoy your life uh you know until you get your uh your results back because um no one really talks about the dissertation blues, where you've you've worked on this for ages, and I guarantee in that week afterwards you'll have that moment of elation and then you'll feel really flat because you've worked so hard on it and now you've got nothing ready to work towards. So make sure my tip, my second tip would be go and do something fun or things that you couldn't do because you put off because you've been doing your dissertation in those weeks afterwards. So sit with the sick and then go have fun. That's my two top tips.

Emma 10:40

Normally it's the other way around, but yeah, I remember when I submitted my PhD thesis just being sat at the dining table just bereft because I was like, Yeah, what where does all my time and energy go now? And while it was a relief to get rid of it, although I'll be you know waiting for marks and all that kind of terror that comes with that, yeah, there was a sense a huge sense of kind of loss. So yeah, I think it's a really good thing to kind of make sure you've got something planned that you can look forward to and enjoy.

Stefan 11:09

Definitely. You need to find a way to sort of like fill that void. Um and also just I don't know, build in uh just a little bit of kind of mental capacity for reflecting on the achievement that you have made, right? Even if, like Tony says, you might not feel like it's perfect because no dissertation is ever perfect, and you kind of just you've submitted it, you're like, Oh, I could have done this differently, I could have done that differently. But ultimately, you've written a dissertation, you've submitted it, and that is a huge achievement in and of itself. So definitely, yeah, build in some sort of like mental space just to reflect on that and pat yourself on the back.

Liz 11:43

That's a really good point because we kind of rush towards the deadline and we're so focused on it, we don't necessarily give ourselves the grace to say, I did it. Yeah, that's a that's a really big deal, isn't it? I think. Yeah, because it's so exhausted as well, mentally exhausted, but possibly you've hardly left the house in the last couple of weeks, so you don't necessarily have time to um process what's going on.

After Submission Do Not Reread

Anthony 12:08

Can I throw one more top tip in for Tony's top tips? And that is unless you've got a viber coming up, once you've submitted it, don't go back and read it.

Liz 12:18

Oh, yeah.

Anthony 12:20

Because it's a bit don't do that because um, you know, yeah, you probably will spot things that you might not have seen, and you're like, oh no, typos, whatever. Yeah, I mean, so for example, I mean, I have to remind for my PhD viber, but I had an entire graph that was entirely wrong, um, despite looking at that for how any months, and you just start worrying about those little things. The examiner didn't even pick up on it, so but don't um it's like any when you're in the exam, you come out and you start comparing answers. There's no point because you don't know who's right and who's wrong. You've done your best, just yeah. If you don't have a virus, you don't have to reread things, just leave it, it's done, let it go.

Liz 12:57

I must have told this before, um, I'm sure I have, but um, my undergrad, it was so long ago that you had to send it in to get printed. And um I had mine printed at uh at an outside company, and they it was on the appetizing of Coca-Cola in the 20th century, and um I was talking about pop groups and things, and I'd got a reference to the beetles, and one of the helpful guys who was printing it out uh changed it to beetles, the insects, instead of the beetles, and I spotted that about 30 minutes after I'd handed it in, and I was a bit of a mess for quite a while. Yeah, you're like, no, but by then the deadline had passed, it was handed in, it was too late, uh, it was printed out, I couldn't afford to print it out again, so you just oh, oh dear. Yeah. These things happen.

Coherence Formatting References Word Count

Emma 13:52

Yeah. I have two slight top tips. They are top tips. Um but before you submit, I would make sure that you check your formatting and check your referencing as well. Um, because those are kind of ways that you can pick up some a few marks here and there.

Stefan 14:08

I would say read your dissertation for coherency, and that's coherency between chapters, because one thing that I have seen a lot over the years is that because students tend to work on kind of individual chapters at a time, they can sometimes end up like a bunch of individual chapters that are kind of talking about the same topic, um, but don't come together to make a coherent whole. So when you are doing your kind of last uh pass-throughs of editing and stuff like that, make sure that you're including enough signposting between the chapters. Um, and just reading the dissertation as a singular thing in and of itself. That the literature review should be speaking to the analysis, analysis should be speaking to literature review, even your methodology should be speaking to your kind of wider approach, right? These things should all come together to form essentially one little book. Um, and so be reading with that in mind to make sure that that coherency between all the individual chapters is there and that you're kind of signposting between them.

Liz 15:12

Well, I'd just say um maybe on word count, double check your word counts within where you need it to be. If you're over on your word count, particularly if it's getting to the last minute, don't start deleting sentences left, right, and centre in a panic. Um, maybe do control and F, see how many times you've got the word very in or the word more, have a look at some sentences and where you've maybe used a couple of words to introduce something, and can you cut it down to one word instead? Try those sorts of things rather than just chopping and panicking at the last minute and also book a one-to-one with an ask advisor or email in and say, My word count's over if you've got any tips and that sort of thing.

Emma 15:59

And I will link to our editing and proofreading podcast episode as well in the show notes. Like we planned it.

Liz 16:12

So that's it for the Skills Pod. Good luck finishing your decision. Not forever, for this episode.

Stefan 16:23

Never to be seen again.

Liz 16:24

Nearly a world exclusive there. No, no.

Anthony 16:28

So do you know something we don't, Liz?

Liz 16:30

No, I absolutely do not. It's gonna carry on forever and ever. Thanks for listening to our top tips for finishing on your dissertation. I've been Liz.

Emma 16:40

I'm Emma.

Anthony 16:41

I've been Tony and I still am Tony.

Stefan 16:44

I have been Stefan. I will continue to be Stefan in every way that I can be. Bye.

How To Get Academic Skills Support

Emma 16:50

If you're a University of Chester student, here are the ways you can access support from your academic skills team.

Anthony 16:57

On our Moodle pages, we've got lots of interactive resources for you to use. On our literacy's Moodle page, you'll find help with a range of skills from academic rating to revision. On our NAS and statistics Moodle pages, you'll find help with different statistical tests, calculations, and formulas.

Emma 17:14

You can also use our feedforward email assistance service. You can send 750 words, which is around three paragraphs, of your work, to ask atuk and we'll respond within three working days with generic developmental advice on aspects such as paragraph structure, criticality and referencing.

Anthony 17:34

You can also book a one-to-one with the Academic Skills Advisor via our Moodle pages. These appointments typically last 30 minutes and are available online and in editing video to see the campus that's around by looking at our working scheduler. You can send across an extract of your work for us to look at in preparation for the one-to-one, or you can book a one-to-one to discuss a generic skill such as references or critical thinking.

Emma 17:58

If you and a group of your course mates are struggling with the same academic skill, you can book an Ask Together session by emailing ask atc.uk with details of your availability, how many people are in your group, what skills you want to cover, and where you'd like the session to take place.

Anthony 18:15

You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook using the handle @acadskillsuoc, where we provide practical tips on a range of academic skills, but it's also a great way to see what the team will do.

Emma 18:27

And of course you've got The Skills Pod. If you look up things that you'd like us to cover, or you'd like be involved with a podcast, please email ask@chester.ac.uk