A dissertation is one of the most important pieces of writing in your academic career and you must work day and night to make it the best of them all. But what if, despite your best efforts, you still receive poor grades?
Yup, we know. No one wants this but still, so many dissertations end up with bad grades and, in some cases, rejections just because of some common yet deadly mistakes.
To save you from scoring badly in your dissertation, UK assignment writers provided a list of the most common errors they noticed in dissertations and thesis submitted by doctoral candidates. Not only that, but we’ve also discussed how to avoid these mistakes in your dissertation. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
1. Using Inaccurate Data And Unreliable Sources
This is a mistake that could have serious consequences for your dissertation grade. Good research relies on the right sources, so you can’t get away with using poor-quality information.
But how do you ensure that the sources you’re using are reliable? The easiest way to check is by checking if your university subscribes to the journal in which the source was published. If it does, you can be sure that it will be considered a reputable place for academic papers to be published.
2. Poor Referencing
Not referencing the sources properly is one of the biggest mistakes students make. This applies to all information that you include in your dissertation or thesis, including:
- all direct quotes
- all paraphrased content
- any images or tables you’ve used (including those taken from books, journals, websites, etc.)
To avoid this mistake, always use quotation marks around words and sentences that are added exactly as they were said or written. When summarizing someone else’s thoughts and ideas, put them in your own words. This way it will be clear whether you’re using a direct quote or paraphrasing.
In addition, if you want to include an image or a table that was also used by another author (for example when they published it in their book), make sure that this is clearly indicated on the figure itself with a reference number and caption.
3. Lack Of Originality
Another common mistake that many students make is not getting the right balance between original work and existing literature. You need to strike the right balance, making it clear what your contribution is, without pretending that you’re producing something new.
To do this, you need a clear idea of what the key concepts and debates are within your topic, as well as where your own ideas fit in with these. Then you can use these key concepts/debates plus a few of your own contributions to structure your discussion section around.
As a professional online dissertation writing service provider, I’ve seen plenty of dissertations that simply summarize other people’s research for each chapter or section. This demonstrates a lack of originality and an inability to think critically about the topic – it’s more like a book report than an academic dissertation (or any other kind of academic writing).
However, I’ve also seen plenty of dissertations where students pretend they have done loads of original research when they clearly haven’t. If you don’t have enough data based on your own research then just be honest about it and focus on discussing other people’s work in detail instead.
4. Unnecessary Repetition
Students are often guilty of this one, especially when they’re tackling longer assignments such as dissertations. If you have a habit of using the same words over and over in your writing, it will be obvious to your dissertation checker and count against you.
Using the same words can include synonyms, too. For example, if you’ve written about a character in a book being “ambitious” four times in five paragraphs, the next time you mention their ambition you should find another way to express the idea.
When editing your work for unnecessary repetition, look out for phrases and sentences that appear repeatedly. It is common to find that there are 2 or 3 ways of saying the same thing because we tend to repeat things when we talk so it’s also likely to happen when we write!
5. Lack Of Attention To Presentation And Styling
Presentation and styling might seem like an insignificant formality to you right now, but your supervisor will definitely not think so. He or she will probably spend a significant amount of time scrutinizing the formatting and styling of your dissertation.
The formatting and styling you choose for your dissertation should be consistent throughout the paper. Use standard fonts such as Times New Roman and Calibri (nothing fancy) in 12 pt. size throughout the dissertation. All pages should be numbered, including the title page and appendices.
Your Ph.D. supervisor will also check whether all pages are formatted correctly, with the right margins at the left, right, and bottom. The same goes for headings and sub-headings: if you use Roman numerals for one section then follow it everywhere else in the paper.
Finally, make sure that your tables have proper column headings, figure captions are correct, and charts have clearly marked axes with units identified on them (if necessary).
6. Plagiarism
To fully avoid plagiarism, it’s important to know what plagiarism is. Plagiarism is defined as copying someone else’s work without attributing them and passing them off as your own. It includes:
- Copying verbatim passages from another person’s paper without using quotation marks and citation marks
- Changing a few words here and there from someone else’s paper and presenting it as your original research
- Buying term papers from online essay mills to pass off as original pieces of work
- Presenting someone else’s ideas, arguments, or findings without proper attribution.
You‘ve to avoid all these points to make sure your dissertation paper will not be marked as plagiarized work. Also, make sure to cite all the sources correctly because incorrect citations can also be considered plagiarism.
7. Spelling, Grammar, And Punctuation Mistakes
Proofreading is necessary to avoid common mistakes. When you’re tired, your brain is more likely to skim over errors, so you don’t even notice them. However, a spelling mistake or punctuation error can really hurt your overall grade because it’s something a marker will notice.
Luckily there are fixes for this! A grammar and spell checker like Grammarly is a great place to start. The software will pick out basic errors and misspellings for you. You can also ask someone else to read through your work — it’s easier for an outsider to spot mistakes in something they haven’t written themselves.
If you have the time, take a break from your work and come back again later with fresh eyes. And finally, proofread backward sentence by sentence. That way the sentence structure won’t distract from the actual words on the page which may help you catch small but important spelling mistakes.
Conclusion
Writing a dissertation can be a work that is accomplished with ease if the above vital elements are always kept in mind. Doctoral candidates will lose grades if they make harmful common blunders in their dissertation writing. If you want to get high grades in your dissertation then you must need to avoid these mistakes and must write your dissertation paper attentively, without any errors.