Top Tips for Surviving Your Dissertation
A dissertation is one of the single most stressful things you'll write in your life. Unless you go on to do a PhD or another qualification, it will, most likely, be the longest, most in-depth essay you'll ever produce.
Given its extensive length and complex material, it can be easy to feel a little overwhelmed when you come to actually sit down and write the piece, but by taking on some of my top tips for surviving a dissertation, you'll soon be well on your way to a masterpiece (so to speak, haha).
I have a degree in English Language and Creative Writing and my dissertation was all about whether we're born with the ability to acquire language naturally or we need to be taught it in order to master it.
Where the conclusion didn't draw to a definitive close as the study and debate is still very much ongoing (and has been since the fifties), the general consensus was that we're conditioned to learn the language we speak.
We aren't born with the natural ability to pick up our native language without any interaction with another human who speaks our language. But again, there's evidence out there to suggest otherwise, hence the complex nature of some dissertations.
Regardless of the degree you're doing or the topic you're writing about, these tips are universal, so you don't have to be doing English Language and Creative Writing at university to benefit :) I hope they help you!
Try to stay positive
It can feel like a never-ending, up hill battle when you're writing your dissertation. It feels as if you'll never reach the end and you can't remember a time before the dissertation and you can't imagine life afterwards because it feels like that dissertation-free time will never come.
It's a difficult position to be in and it's one that you've been dreading for the past three years, but you should be writing about something that you enjoy and that you find interesting so treat it like a hobby that you do in your spare time rather than something you have to bang out with the right amount of words in it.
It's easier said than done to be positive with this, but trust me, it is possible. Something else you have to think about is the end result. Once it's done and it's done to a point you're happy with, that's it, you're finished with your final year of university and you can finally start looking forward to the graduation.
Set realistic goals & deadlines
When it comes to writing a dissertation, you're aiming to hit one giant deadline as opposed to lots of little ones, but sometimes, setting lots of little deadlines along the way can be beneficial.
I liked to write a couple of chapters and then arrange a meeting with my dissertation supervisor to go through what I'd written and ask for their feedback. Those meetings acted as those small deadlines. You'll find that you'll procrastinate less by doing that and you'll get far more done.
Having goals and lots of small deadlines will also help you to pace yourself. You'll end up feeling far less flustered and pressured by having a very big piece of work to do in, really, very little time.
With only a few months to write 10,000 words in, possibly the most important 10,000 words of your life so far, it really can feel like a monster task. Give yourself goals and deadlines to meet along the way and that huge task is suddenly broken up into lots of little ones and it suddenly feels more manageable.
Request feedback sessions
It's super important that you request feedback sessions along the way. For every three or four chapters you write, send a copy to your supervisor or request a face-to-face meeting with them to go through what you've done already. Where they can't actually give you the answers, they'll point you in the right direction so you know that you're not just rambling on with very little gain.
Find a balance
Writing a dissertation shouldn't be treated like a continuous struggle. You shouldn't be writing it day in, day out. But at the same time, you shouldn't be leaving it to the last minute. No matter how hard you try, you cannot write a dissertation in three days and hope to get a good mark (mainly because you won't have finished it in that time).
Use that time wisely by chipping away at it a bit at a time and make sure to work in some feedback sessions with your supervisor. This also allows for a more reasonable balance when it comes to seeing family and friends and making sure you give enough time to your uni work. Don't spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week writing your dissertation, but don't spend all that time partying either - it's not a good idea!
Get enough rest
Don't burn yourself out when writing your dissertation. Refrain from staying up until the early hours to get your work done, get enough sleep and try and find some balance in your life, even with a dissertation to write. Look at it more as a marathon rather than a sprint. If you prepare properly for it and don't leave things until the last minute otherwise you will be cramming it all in at the end and you will end up exhausting yourself.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments below how you're getting on with your dissertation or whether you have any tips of your own to share. I'll see you again very soon with a brand new blog post :)
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