Inspiration for Graduate Dissertation

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Guide to Graduate Studies

Graduate Dissertation Topics

To ensure sufficient originality and promote feasibility within the desired timeline, Graduate dissertation topics must be approved by the student's Advisory Committee and at least one member of the Graduate Program Committee (see Timeline below). The Graduate dissertation topic need not exclude the general field of the student's research but should use some primary sources outside his/her specific graduate dissertation topic. In general, Graduate dissertation topics should go at least one step beyond what has been published. In addition, to the student's knowledge, work on the same hypothesis should not have been proposed before. In order to produce work distinct from the thesis topic and to facilitate an oral exam of appropriate scope, depth and rigor, students are encouraged to propose work that could conceivably be done in their lab or group (however not restricted to the instrumentation currently available). Students who wish to pursue work relatively distant from their field of interest are advised to ensure that faculty members with relevant expertise are available to consult and/or serve as an additional examiner.

One-page descriptions of Graduate dissertation topics are due November 25 for students under the new Ph.D. requirements approved in fall 2000. Proposed topics should be submitted to the Advisory Committee and at least one member of the GPC at that time. If a student has not received his/her entire committee's approval and the approval of one member of the GPC by February 15, the student will need to have an Advisory Committee meeting within the next 1-2 weeks. The purpose of this meeting is to allow faculty to resolve directly any concerns or differences of opinion about the topic. Note that typical reasons for rejecting a topic would include insufficient chemical content involved in addressing the question, lack of feasibility, or lack of sufficient distinction from the student's graduate dissertation research. If the committee's concerns are not typical ones, the committee chair must clarify their concerns to the student and to the GPC, in writing, at the end of the meeting. If the student is not able to address their Advisory Committee members' concerns successfully by February 28, the student will be put on probation. One significance of this probation is that subsequent failure to write and adequately defend the proposal by the end of the semester would be grounds for termination from the program. Note that students entering in January will have their deadlines on May 15 of their fifth semester for topic submissions and July 15 for final topic approval.

Written proposal

Like proposals submitted to a funding agency, students' original proposals will be expected to:

1. Include an abstract,

2. State the motivating scientific hypothesis,

3. Justify the importance of the scientific problem,

4. Review the relevant theoretical and/or experimental background literature,

5. Propose the specific research, including details about the theoretical and/or experimental techniques and an estimate of capital costs if nonstandard or specialized equipment is required,

6. Predict results, including discussing possible outcomes and demonstrating that the approach is feasible by calculation or reference to previous literature, and

7. Discuss the significance of the research.

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How To Write A Graduate Dissertation

We know writing a graduate dissertation can be a nightmare. Graduate dissertation writing requires planning and progressing meticulously and methodologically.

You will find a brief below on what the various parts of a graduate dissertation consist of.

Proposal Development

Writing the proposal can be the most difficult part of a graduate dissertation. It should clearly indicate the proposed area of research, aim and objectives of the project, the methodology chosen, scope and limitations, resources and references.

Literature Review

Literature review is a critical look at the existing literature and research that is significant and relevant to your project. It should be able to provide the context for your research. Literature reviews are very important because they lead the way forward for further research. They should discover areas of controversies explain the similarities and differences between different works and present an overview of the subject.

Research Design and Research Methodology

Research Design and Research Methodology is the most challenging part of the graduate dissertation. The research design has several possibilities. It could be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods research. A mixed methods project is a mixture of both a quantitative and qualitative study. The method section should reiterate the research questions and hypotheses, present the research design, discuss the participants, the instruments to be used, the procedure, the data analysis plan, and the sample size justification.

Data Collection, Statistics and Data Analysis

Data collection is a bridge between the investigative issue and the conclusion of dissertation. Only if sufficient and correct data is obtained, will its analysis ensure good findings and good conclusions. Statistics and data analysis involves the breaking down of complex statistics and numbers in order to prove the thesis and is done using highly precise methodologies. This is very technical and follows strict rules, tests, and methodology. These tools for graduate dissertation data analysis include t-tests, ANOVA, descriptive statistics, etc.

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Graduate Dissertation Writing Concerns

A piece of writing that has vexed graduate students for centuries is that of the graduate dissertation. It is distinguished from master's level work which is called a thesis. The graduate dissertation must be a completely original piece of research in the student's chosen field. The two levels of research required for the dissertation are primary and secondary. Primary research is original work based on the collection of data that does not already exist. Secondary research is sometimes called tertiary research and is based on already existing documents. These can be from a wide range of sources including published materials, journal articles, unpublished graduate dissertations, and audio or visual presentations. All data must come from credible sources, and here is where the Internet has begun to play a dubious albeit critical role in graduate dissertation research.

An unfortunate reality of university education is that most academic institutions expect students to have strong writing skills, but professors and teaching assistants have no time to teach these skills. If you have not availed yourself of your institution's skills development services, then you will have a huge quandary to resolve. A graduate dissertation is not like any other essay or piece of writing you've ever completed. It is, by its very nature, the most original piece of work you may ever create. The graduate dissertation does not simply require you to repeat your data in written form. You are expected to analyze this data and provide insights into the ramifications of this information.

The crucial aspects of a successful graduate dissertation are that you approach it as the practical document that it is, take great care to ensure all your citations are 100% accurate, that you are completely familiar with the citation style required, and that you submit drafts of your work while it is in process to ensure that you are on the right track. Graduate dissertations are not meant to sound like a novel or popular book, but as the expression of your academic research. It is the culmination of all your studies, the accumulation of knowledge, and your ability to elucidate on a highly complex topic.