10 Tips To Keep In Mind When Using The Five-Chapter Dissertation Format
Every professor has their own personal preferences for how they like to see their student's papers presented. Dissertations can be done in a variety of ways, but one of the simplest is the 5-chapter format. When students are using this format for their paper they tend to find that it keeps the writing much more focused than when other styles are used. While many students are of the opinion that "more is better", when unnecessary portions are added it only distracts from your pages and draws the audience's attention from where it should be. Only having the use of five chapters means that there is no time to waste with what you have to say and it is even more important to be certain that everything has been done correctly.
Tips for the 5-chapter format
When you are expected to complete your dissertation using with only 5 chapters, the ones you should be including are the introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and your conclusion/ summary. Here are 10 essential tips that you are going to want to keep in mind:
- Keep an academic tone throughout the entire paper. There should be no clichés, jargon, expressions that are idiomatic, or contractions used.
- All of the ideas should be presented in an order that flows perfectly from one to the next with the active tone of voice. If you do not use transitional words to help the reader you may end up losing the momentum that you had going.
- The chapter headings should be done in Arabic numerals but keep in mind that there are four accepted heading levels, so ask your instructor how they prefer to see them done.
- Use a proper em dash when required as opposed to the en dash. There should be no spacing on either side of the dash.
- If there is a need for statistical abbreviations they should be done in italics.
- Get feedback from your advisors and committee members often as you progress through your work.
- Set goals that are reasonable to meet and which give you enough time to make changes as needed.
- Don't be concerned when the results you get are unexpected. This can often be the best way to make new discoveries.
- When doing the proofreading and editing, make sure that you are able to justify each one of the choices you have made along the way. Your reader needs to know why you made the choices that you did.
- Leave plenty of time for binding at the end if this has been requested.