Dissertation writing is a long term engagement that started with dissertation introduction. The students often find it difficult to write 200 pages in an academic year. As they have to write the things they had not heard before. It helps students to submit their academic findings before exiting from the university. The purpose of the dissertation is to check the critical thinking skills of students. Yet, the problems students face depends on the type of dissertation. Supervisors demands about the type of dissertation depend on the natural discipline. Common types of dissertations are as follows;
- Empirical dissertation
- Non- Empirical dissertation
Components of the Structure of the dissertation
All types of dissertations often follow five basic components. The names of five components of dissertations are as follows;
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Methods
- Results and findings
- Conclusion
The Introduction is the first chapter in every type of dissertation. There are many common myths about introduction writing. One of them is students often thinks they can write anything in this section. But, in reality, this is not true. The introduction is not a platform for dumping your previous knowledge. The students have to follow a proper structure while writing the introduction. The impressive introduction will help you to impress the external supervisors. Because the first impression is the last impression, it is true in dissertation writing. Except for the dissertation, there is no other evidence of your academic efforts. Hence, this article will tell seven mistakes a student must avoid in introduction writing.
7 Mistakes That A Student Should Avoid In Writing The Introduction Of A Dissertation
There are many different types of mistakes in a student’s dissertation. Such mistakes are frequent, especially in the first dissertation of every student. In graduate or PhD level dissertations, students often cater such mistakes. Still, the common mistakes often present in student’s dissertations are as follows;
- Using the title of the dissertation
- Lack of logical flow
- Adding unnecessary details
- Writing too lengthy Introduction
- Copy-paste work
- Missing Rationale of the study
- Introduction without aims and objective
Using the title of the dissertation
Often undergraduate dissertations, the students start introduction with the title of the dissertation, which is a bad practice. Introduction aims to write, what do the key components of the title mean? So the division of the components of the title should be the first step of the introduction. At the same time, the second step must be the brief introduction of each keyword in a different paragraph.
For example; your dissertation topic is the
“Expression analysis of metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the onset of cardiovascular diseases.”
Then, in the instruction, you can give a brief description of the following components;
- What are cardiovascular (CV) diseases?
- Epidemiology of CV diseases
- You can add details on different markers of CV diseases
- What are MMPs?
- Classification of MMPs
- Relation in MMPs and CV diseases
- Methods of identification
Hence, you can give a brief description of these points. But the use of the title as a whole instead of problem statements is one of the common mistakes.
Lack of logical flow
According to Affordable-Dissertation.co.uk, Fluency is one of the most important demands of all types of academic writings. In Universities, students even don’t know the meaning of logical flow in the text. Hence, lack of logical flow stands at the second position of the list of mistakes. The purpose of the introduction is to give a little background about the terms you will use in the thesis. But, to do so, you need to maintain a logical flow in it. Sometimes, the students do not know the structure of paragraphs and commit such mistakes. Yet, the lack of logical flow in the text often irritates readers.
Unnecessary details
Most of the time, the students at the start of their writing career commit many mistakes. Among them, putting unnecessary details is very frequent. Let suppose, you ask students to write introduction on Covid-19 breakout and its effect on mental health. Many students will put the complete history of Covid-19 in the introduction. Some will add only one paragraph on the impact of covid on mental health, which is a bad practice. The details of different keywords must follow a proper structure. The length of the introduction must be 10% of the length of the whole paper.
Too lengthy introduction
Writing 200 pages, in a thesis after proper research is a difficult task. At the end of the thesis writing, some students often add too lengthy details in the introduction section. The reason for this is to complete 200 pages. The satisfaction of submitting a thesis with more than the other fellow is also the main cause of this practice. The students need to know that the number of pages will not give you a good score. Instead, the quality of the text you wrote on each page will help you secure good scores. So, please follow the tutor’s instructions to produce good quality work.
Copy and paste work
The shortcut of producing long text in a limited time is ‘Copy and Paste’ other’s work. This is the most annoying thing for a tutor. Pasting too many things in a document without reading it can create many problems.
- The paraphrasing of lengthy text reduces the learning outcomes of students.
- Copy and paste is a part of the ethical code of conduct of writings.
- This practice is a hurdle in the Critical thinking development of the students.
Missing Rationale of the study
Most undergraduate students are unaware of the term ‘Rationale.’ The ‘rationale of the study is an essential part of chapter one of the dissertation. In this section, you have to write the following things;
- Why there is a need to discuss the matter understudy?
- What makes your study different from another similar one?
- How your study will help humans in the future?
Introduction without aims and objectives
Like, ‘Rationale of the study’, ‘aims and objectives’ is another essential part of the introduction. There must be a separate head for the Aims and objectives section at the end of the first chapter of the study. But, some undergraduate students don’t know the importance of this information and commit mistakes.
