By the time you’re ready to write a dissertation, academic writing will already feel familiar. You’ll have written essays using Harvard referencing, critical thinking and structured analysis. The key difference between an essay and a dissertation is its length and depth. That’s why choosing your topic carefully- and planning it well - is essential. A strong foundation will help you stay focused, explore ideas fully and feel confident in your direction.
Checklist Guide
- Picking your topic: Many dissertations struggle simply because the topic wasn’t chosen with care. If you’ve decided a dissertation is right for you, pick a subject you genuinely care about. You’ll be working with it for an entire academic year, so it needs to hold your interest and spark your curiosity. Passion for your topic will help you stay motivated - especially when energy dips later on. In many ways picking a dissertation topic is like choosing a long-term companion. A topic that looks appealing at first glance might not be the right fit if, a few weeks in, you realise there’s no real connection.
- Be realistic: It’s tempting to choose a dissertation topic that tries to cover everything you’re interested in - but that’s a fast track to overwhelm. A dissertation is not your life's work, even a 100,000 word PhD thesis is nowhere near everything that you will ever be able to say on a topic. Success lies in narrowing your focus so your research stays manageable and meaningful. Consider, for example, a dissertation on cats. You may be very keen on cats and with this in mind you decide on a dissertation project entitled "Cats of the world a study of their lives and behaviour". You begin your research by typing "cats" into Google and immediately break the internet. You visit the library and search for every book and article they have on cats and return home with a mountain of textbooks that you have no chance of reading in the time available. Suddenly, even ironing your socks feels more doable.
- Establish a research focus and methodology: Like any major task, a successful dissertation starts with clarity: what you’re doing, how, when, and in what order. There are a number of possible research foci and approaches that can help you structure a successful piece of research and selecting the one or ones most appropriate to your topic can mean the difference between a tightly argued and well-presented dissertation and a scattered collection of loosely connected ideas. Consider these for instance:
- The question – what problem are you trying to tackle?
- The themes – select key themes to provide focus, don't try and tackle everything,
- The time – pick a time period, don't try and cover the whole history of something.
- The location – Often it is best to select a single geographical location rather than the whole world. Limit your research to the UK for example.
The important thing is to work smart – identify what and how you plan to deal with your project before you try to gather resources and information.
So, returning to our cat project example, rather than attempting a dissertation on the almost impossible topic of "Cats in the World" you could narrow the topic and bring the research into greater focus with a title like this:
"A Study of cats with special reference to the territorial behaviour of Siamese cats in the UK during the period 2000 to 2010"
- Writing up: In writing up your dissertation the same advice apply as that given in our essay writing article. In brief you need organise your work in this way:
Introduction: Clearly explain what you’re exploring and how you’ll approach it. If you can’t express this simply, revisit your plan - clarity here sets the tone for everything that follows.
Main Body: Use formal academic language and structure your ideas in clear paragraphs. Support every point with evidence and avoid unsupported claims. Reference thoroughly to show what you’ve studied and how it informs your thinking. Your research matters just as much as your conclusions.
Conclusion: Make sure that you end up with an opinion of your own, tutors want to see that you have a voice of your own that has been informed by your research.
Final Comments
A dissertation need not be as intimidating as it might first appear. The skills needed to complete a successful dissertation are those you have been developing during your undergraduate essay writing assignments.
The size of the project and its duration means that greater care needs to be taken in the planning and organisational stages to insure that you keep your research focused and in control.
Regular meetings with your Dissertation supervisor are a must to help keep you on track.
