This article will guide you through ten invaluable tips to help you write an award-winning PhD dissertation. Read on to unlock the secrets to achieving dissertation success!
The PhD dissertations are academic projects undertaken by PhD students to conduct in-depth research on a specific topic. These formal papers are focused on advancing knowledge in a particular field and demonstrate the student’s expertise and original contributions to their area of study. According to Inside Higher Ed, there are currently 113,000 post-grad research students based in the UK.
Several organisations offer dissertation awards to these students. These awards are reserved for those who meet specific criteria. To win a dissertation award, it is important for students to craft an excellent doctoral thesis. Winning such awards can amplify your worth and value in academia and can also assist you in furthering your career.
Let’s explore the award-winning dissertation tips. First, briefly define the dissertation awards.
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What Are Dissertation Awards?
A dissertation award, according to the EISA, recognises the outstanding work of young scholars in their respective fields. Such awards are usually presented to the papers that make a significant contribution to the field of research. Usually, these papers are original and cover the research gap in academia. The awards vary with each institute and the degree requirements.
To increase their chances of winning a dissertation award, students need to master both their research and writing skills. Achieving this level of quality goes beyond just writing; it requires meeting specific academic standards that set a dissertation apart. Resources that help with writing a PhD dissertation can make a real difference by guiding research, structure, and overall presentation, helping students reach their academic goals with confidence.
What It Takes to Write an Award-Winning Dissertation?
Are you wondering what it takes to craft an award-winning dissertation? Well, we have all the relevant information for you. The important thing to remember is that your PhD dissertation should be able to communicate effectively.
Here are the top 10 tips for you to follow when writing an award-winning dissertation:
1. Choose the Research Topic
Your dissertation is an opportunity to present your thoughts and ideas to the readers you have. You also have to conduct extensive research and utilise previous knowledge to establish the context of the research work.
The topic you choose should be broad enough to assimilate all the research ideas. If you are stuck for ideas, look through academic journals, newspapers, course materials and more. From these sources, you can get an idea about the right PhD dissertation topic.
2. Learn What’s Needed of You
Apart from crafting a research topic, you should also learn what is needed of you. Ensure to acquaint yourself with the module handbook and ethics protocols of your university. You must also check the referencing guide to see what citation style you should follow.
Based on this understanding, you will have to start asking the right questions. Before you sit down to craft the research questions, ensure to learn about the policy problems and get the skills using the technical methods.
3. Write a Winning Research Proposal
The next step in the process is to persuade the given faculty that the proposed research is feasible. No matter how fantastic you think your topic is, you must get it approved before the research work starts.
The research proposal can persuade the committee, advisors or the university that your research idea is worthy of approval. A rough plan must be put in place for the collection and analysis of data. The topic should also be unique, significant and well-articulated.
4. Write a Strong Introduction
The introduction chapter of a dissertation can set the stage for the research so that the reader can understand what you are researching and what its importance is. It also explains the what and why of your research. In the introduction, you basically sell the idea to the readers to pique their interest.
To add more depth to the process, you can add a problem statement that describes the issue with the current research stage. All in all, an introduction section should be brief and concise.
5. Conduct Deep Literature Review
Once you have reviewed the literature, you will need to delve much deeper into the details and write a thorough literature review chapter. To understand the current level of research in detail, read the journal articles and other academic publications in detail.
While you will not need to read every article, you must ensure that you have covered the entire literature related to your core research questions. Creating a comprehensive catalogue of the information will also be helpful.
6. Carry Out the Research
After finishing the literature review and understanding the level of existing research, it will be time to conduct your own research. To win dissertation awards, it is important to stay focused on the research design.
Also, you should be focused on devising an entire structural layout for the papers you have to craft. Usually, when conducting research for a PhD dissertation, students spend months. It is a long and tiring process.
7. Make a Research Strategy
Writing a methodology chapter that explains how your research design works is important. It will explain your approach to the analysis of the data and describe in detail the regression or correlation analysis.
Also, you will be discussing in detail the approaches you follow to collect the data for writing a project that can win dissertation awards. Furthermore, you must not forget to discuss whether the overall strategy is qualitative or quantitative. A good strategy can make you finish your dissertation faster.
8. Show the Results
Data collection is divided into multiple stages and types, such as conducting online surveys, locating focus groups, or requesting document reviews. Data collection problems can be really time-consuming, so you must plan accordingly. After collecting data, you will have to prepare yourself for the analysis.
You may also have to transcribe the given audio text in the written form. The nature of your research questions determines the type of analysis that you will have to use. For instance, if your research is exploratory, you can apply qualitative analysis techniques.
9. Discuss the Findings
In a PhD dissertation, the results are typically presented in two chapters. The results chapter and the discussion chapter are all about the deep exploration of the results. Generally, the processed data is neatly expressed in the results chapter. Students do not have to provide the readers with any kind of interpretation.
While in a discussion chapter, the readers have to explain the data and the results. In other words, students have to dive deep into the details here and shed light on the potential findings you get. After that, you will end up with the key findings of your study and link those back to the initial research questions. This way, your work can qualify for the dissertation awards.
10. Final Edits and Proofreading
The final part of writing papers that can win dissertation awards is the strict editing and proofreading of papers. A strict review of the overall written work is important so that all the formatting, logical, thematic and contextual discrepancies can be ruled out.
Hence, you must review the work you craft in enough detail and check it for proofreading mistakes. Only a flawless and perfectly written dissertation can make the award-winning process easier for the students.
Examples of the Best Dissertation Awards UK
As we discussed above, the awards for research projects vary according to the requirements of the university. There are individual demands that must be met before you start aiming for a given dissertation award.
Some of the examples of the dissertation awards in the UK are mentioned here:
- The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award
- BERA Doctoral Thesis Award
- UKLA Student Research Prize
- EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award
- UK Data Service Dissertation Award
- Informatics Europe Best Dissertation Award
Conclusion
We are done with the discussion of the top 10 award-winning tips for crafting a dissertation. You have also reviewed the examples of dissertation awards in this article. For further insights into this, you can look into the requirements of the specific dissertation research award that you aspire to achieve.
When students require personalised assistance, professional PhD dissertation writing companies in the UK can provide invaluable assistance in conducting thorough research. With experienced research writers in their teams, these companies can help students create high-quality papers that not only meet academic standards but also enhance their chances of achieving top grades and winning prestigious awards.
All in all, even if your dissertation fails to win an award, the credibility of your research work will speak for itself. A well-crafted paper can enhance the worth of research scholars in academia.
