Category Archives: Dissertation Writing

How to Choose an Adviser for Your Dissertation

Many doctoral students face difficulty choosing their advisers and committee members. Every university has different parameters about the choice of advisers. Sometimes scholars have advised their supervisors upon entry to the programme and recommended to stick to those advisers until viva preparation. Some departments provide liberty to scholars to keep switching their advisers. You should think the following questions at the time of considering an adviser and a dissertation topic as the answers to these questions will help you decide about choosing an adviser.

Does the adviser have expertise and interest in the topic?
Which theoretical approaches does the faculty member use?
Which research methods does the faculty member use?
Will the adviser have funding to support you?

If you are planning to pursue research in your professional field, for instance, research based on your practical knowledge built while in the workforce, you will have more latitude in choosing a dissertation topic. Your professors will appreciate your expertise in the field and will allow you to advance your knowledge with professional training and career prospects. Your constraint will naturally be the availability of an adviser. However, this constraint lingers even though you have the flexibility to choose an adviser. This is because your adviser will constrain your choice of topic, research methodologies, and conceptual approaches for analysis.

So you can conclude that though you have rights to decide your adviser, some decisions will be influenced by the common practices of the programme or university. Therefore, you have to balance your own interests with the resources available to you.

Here is a matrix designed to balance between working on a research topic and working with an adviser.

Chances are your adviser will be involved in your research topic and help you with issues related to the literature review, data sources, conceptual approaches, methodologies, and the like. It is called a mentoring approach. This is the best situation irrespective of your research area and topic because you get full and acute support from your supervisor.

Your approach will navigate from mentoring to coaching if your interest in a topic is more important than the involvement of your adviser. Implicit in the coaching model is helping you with practices in your research field. However, your adviser will not guide you the latest developments in the field and identify areas where the field needs improvement. The coaching model is embraced if you are pursuing your research in your professional field. You will benefit from your work experience to meet your research objectives.

Another option is an inadvisable model. This is the approach when you have limited interest in the topic and your adviser has limited involvement in your research. You will spend several days and nights, holding caffeinated drinks, and eventually end up with giving up your research in the middle.

It is better if you choose either mentoring or coaching model. If you do not want to suffer from the torturous grip of a PhD, you should select a topic that keeps you engaged and a dissertation adviser who helps you persist.

How editing can do wonders to your writing

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Let me start this by asking you a simple question: What are the important consideration to look up to for academic writing?

We recommend candidates to consider the following aspects, such as:

The required word limit
The desired level of academic writing
The requirement to present content in a clear and logical order
The necessary high standard in grammar & spelling
Citation & References

All the above mentioned aspects may fit well into editing and yes, it definitely can do wonders to your thesis/ dissertation.

But the point is, how?

We advise researchers to make a clear separation between the process of writing and editing. Editing takes care of the critical attention and refinement that ensures your writing will reach the required standards. The editors at AccuEdit suggest the following process to work on during editing:

The logical structure and balance of the dissertation/thesis
Observance to the stated topic(title)/ research question/ plan
Linking of content
Checking the headings for appropriate content
The consistency of the line of argument
Use of tenses, active and passive voice
Clarity of expression
Length of sentence
Economy of word use.

Editing can be more positive than writing as it is a process where candidates can really raise the standard of academic writing, here is how:

1) Reducing Redundancy: Simplifying and Shortening

The major part of academic writing may be true, interesting and well written but the redundancy may affect the value of a well writing thesis. Editing helps in reducing the redundancy and simplifying the content by identifying and removing unnecessary duplication, explanation and irrelevant material. See few examples of removing the redundancy and simplifying the sentences.

Longer Version	Shorter version
On a regular basis	Regularly
If at all possible	If possible
During the month of May	In May
During the time that	While
Has an ability to	Can
It may well be that	Perhaps
Take into consideration	Consider
Conduct an investigation into	Investigate

2) Checks for consistency:

A dissertation/thesis is a large document that takes almost a year or more to be completed. The problem with consistency is inevitable in this case and editing solves this inevitable mistake.

Consistently avoiding the use of first person and using third person in the writing.
It checks for consistent use one tense throughout a section.
It checks for consistent use and formatting of heading & subheading.
It checks for consistent use of bullet or number list
It checks for consistency in referencing style.
It checks for consistency in labelling images, tables, figures and other items.

3) Achieving Academic Rigour through Editing

This feature is typically related to the essence of academic writing and one prime thing that makes editing wondrous (though, it takes a lot of time). The three basic aspects to ‘editing for academic rigour’ are as:

The first one focuses:

® What did I plan to do and did I do it?

® What am I trying to convey and do I convey it.

It helps in checking whether you are going in the right direction or not.

The second aspect checks for:

® Overall reason for your research

® What did you find?

Basically, it helps in check for a well-supported and clear thread of logical reasoning throughout your research.

The third aspect challenges:

® Why should I believe this?

This makes you an awkward reader of your own writing which helps in ensuring that initially the claims you have made are either supported or removed.

4) Linking:

Editing takes care of linking that is an essential aspect of any writing. It guides the reader through different sections or paragraphs to highlight the logical structure of writing.

There are some words that are used for linking:

® As described in the previous chapter…..I’ll

® The method just presented is the……the next section describe

® This is the background as far as……the next section will explore.

I hope, it is clear by now that editing a boon to the researchers and makes wonders to the writing copy.

For any query and suggestion, write us at info@accuedit.com.

Select the Right Journal: Rely on Journal Selection Services

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When you decide to get your paper published in a journal, the first question striking you is about the right journal to which you should submit your hard work. There are types of publications that can give space to your research study. However, you need to find a journal that suits your creation well. If you are confused about finding an appropriate journal for your purposes, then we can help you sort out this problem.

Selecting the Right Journal

Our journal search service is launched to look out for journals in different academic fields that are suitable for a variety of publishing needs of our varied clientele. We consider every client’s personalized requirements and suggest the right fit. An insight to the systematic Journal Search service that we provide is as follows:

Receiving your manuscript
Initial search of the journals according to the subject area
Studying the Journal’s scope
Comparing your findings with the scope of the target journals
Shortlisting the journal for paper submission

Our research professionals consider each individual study and assess its scope. Our team also evaluates the reputation and popularity of different journals in your academic area.

We judge each journal by its impact factor and target readers. Accordingly, we suggest high-ranked journals for you. While searching the right fit for you, we also consider your time and budget. We try to find such reputed journals in which your study could be timely and easily published. You may rely on our services if journal search seems to be a complex task. Simply contact us at info@accuedit.com .

Impact Factors & Citations

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Impact factors are heavily criticized as measures of scientific quality. However, they still dominate every discussion about scientific excellence. They are still used to select candidates for positions as PhD student, postdoc and academic staff, to promote professors and to select grant proposals for funding. As a consequence, researchers tend to adapt their publication strategy to avoid negative impact on their careers.

The importance of high impact

Young researchers are well-advised to strive for publications in journals with high impact factors especially if they are not sure yet whether they want to pursue a career in academia or in the non-academic job market. Several funding organizations worldwide started to reduce the influence of this parameter on their strategy to fund excellent science.

One of the many critical points is that impact factors describe the average quality of a journal and should not be used for single publications.

Alternative metrics

Many alternatives for impact factors have been suggested for example the h-index (or h-factor) which are primarily based on citations and not on the impact factor of a journal where a paper is published.

Young researchers often wonder whether the impact factor or the number of citations is more relevant. This question is difficult to answer, however citations become increasingly important with increasing maturity of the career of scientists. Young researchers often have only one or two publications which are pretty new, thus, the number of citations is limited. Therefore, for pragmatic reasons, funding institutions and universities will use the impact factor of the journal as a proxy of their scientific excellence. To evaluate the output of more mature scientists the h-index or the m-index may be used which are both based exclusively on citations and not on impact factors.

Thus, young researchers are confronted with the problem that their scientific quality will be judged based on the impact factors of their publications, especially in contexts which are highly relevant for their early careers.

Meeting the Word Count Rules for a Post-Graduate Essay

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One of the aspects that students have to keep in mind when they are working on their post-graduate essay is the word count. Whether it is too little or it is too much, it can cause trouble for the students either way. The colleges give what the correct word count should be in their regulatory documents. The students should read it religiously and make sure they follow it to the last letter.

Each department will have its own style guide rules. If the students are part of the history program then they should read the rules that have been laid down by the history department. One of the rules that some departments would laid down is that the word count should be written on the title page or the cover sheet.

The word length is calculated by including all the main text and footnotes. However, it is important to note that many universities do not insist that the title and the bibliography be included as part of the word length. In fact, the statement that describes the word length is also not part of the overall count. Quite a few departments have lain down that while images do not constitute a part of the overall word count, tables do.

Students include appendices in their dissertations. However, this content does not go as part of the overall word count if they are providing illustrative reference material. On the other hand if they are including substantive argument as part of the appendices then it is necessary that this content should be part of the word count.

Many students use the word check facility in MS Word to calculate their word count. When they are doing this, it is essential that they set it in a way that it calculates the words in the footnote as well.

On Line Bibliography Tools

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Bibliography is a list of sources referred by the author and needs to be listed in accordance with prescribed or chosen style of writing such as APA, MLA, Harvard etc. Bibliographies which run into several pages say more than ten can be especially difficult to compile, online tools not only compile bibliographies as per prescribed styles but also have tools for recording and identification of source and information. Some of these tools are equipped with features which can be used to create a bibliography library.

Some of the tools are:

Easy Bib: can be used for developing reference list, citations including parenthetical citations, footnotes and checking source credibility.

Citelighter: besides creating bibliography also enables select webpage sections and save them.

Refdot: enables quick recording of online sources in the bibliography, upon finding an online resource researcher needs to just click on the RefDot icon in the browser to create a bibliography, this tool also suggests inclusion of important information within the source.

Noodle Tools : enables creation of bibliography from almost all sources, users need to fill a form to get their desired bibliography or citation style.

Google Docs Bibliography Templates: enables formatting of created bibliographies, there is no need for using a browser extension or signing up for an account or paying for the services, this tool however does not provide any prompter to the users.

BibMe: can be used to create a bibliography, citation guide and also saves the created bibliographies, it is equipped with a prompting feature and when users enter the information they have they can get suggestions for the information they need for each type of citation.

Other tools available are citation machine, citefest, citelighter, Illionos Mathematics and Science Academy, citation wizard, Oregon Public Education Citation Maker, Recipes 4 Success, Zotero, End note etc.

Importance of Writing Skills in Research

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While it may not sound so important to some people, but writing skills play an integral role in the process of research. Whether you need to write a research proposal or a complete dissertation, it is essential to write it clearly and flawlessly.

Your abstract or journal paper is of no use if it is not written well. Good writing not only offers structure and organization to your research documents, but also makes them friendly to your readers. It shapes your research documents in a presentable manner.

A crisp, concise and comprehensive document are the backbone of your research project. Thus, possessing good writing skills help you weave ideas excellently and make your mark.