How to Do Dissertation Research? A Step-by-Step Guide to Ace Your PhD Dissertation

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dissertation research

Dissertation research is a time taking, a tedious but substantial part of your final dissertation. The quality of your research will decide the value of your academic papers, ultimately affecting your final grades. In this article, we will give you advice on how to follow and keep track of your research by using a dissertation research plan, your supervisor’s guidelines, and the overall structure of your dissertation.

What Are The Types Of Dissertation Research You Can Conduct For Your PhD Dissertation?

There are different types of research you can perform for your academic papers. The kind of dissertation research you choose depends on your research question. Generally, you will need to survey the already present literature on the topic to obtain an overview of the existing data. It will add something meaningful to your research and help you derive several interpretations.

You can choose any type for your dissertation research:

  1. Primary Research
  2. Secondary Research

You might need to do either or both while working on your dissertation. Let us discuss both these research types in detail now.

Primary Research

Your dissertation research will be primary if you perform qualitative or quantitative research or experiments for your doctoral dissertation. Data collection will take time, so you should start as soon as possible. Finding the right people to participate and participate in the surveys you will conduct or questionnaires you design takes much more time than you might have imagined. When you are working on scientific experiments, they will particularly take longer to finish than you expected as they need ethical clearance, provision to special equipment and the learning of new methods.

How to Conduct Primary Dissertation Research for Your Doctoral Degree?

You should adopt the following ways to conduct primary research for your doctoral dissertation:

  • It would help if you designed and thoroughly planned your data collection methods. You can ask your supervisor to check and see if your chosen methods will be ideal for the methodology of your research process.
  • While collecting the relevant data for your dissertation research, you must identify any ethical issues that may arise and know how to tackle such issues.
  • You must test your questionnaire on a limited population to check their response. This way, you may get ideas to edit and improve your questionnaire or survey.
  • Before conducting surveys or circulating the designed questionnaires, you must plan and identify your sample size and control groups should be definite.
  • It would help if you had a contingency plan in case not many people are willing to participate in your surveys.
  • You must keep track of all the numerical data or any supporting evidence you get during the process. Do not just throw anything out in the bin until you graduate. Managing such data will help you in the future.

For scientific experiences, this sort of dissertation research takes much time, and you will have to wait before writing the results of your research. You can hire an online PhD dissertation writing service to assist you better with the data collection and research process.

Secondary Research

Conducting secondary research for your doctoral dissertation might not be as tough as it may sound. The key to effective and best secondary research is to control it. You should adopt a research approach that will make your notes, readings and observations worthwhile and meaningful the first time around.

You should follow the below dissertation research tips while going for this sort of research for your doctoral academic papers:

  • Remember to start small with one key text and build up the ideas. It will be best to keep it brief and concise.
  • Once you develop an overview, you should formulate research questions that will assist you in answering the dissertation research question better.
  • While conducting your research, stay attentive so that you are not adding any unnecessary data to your dissertation. It would help if you stayed pertinent to finding the answers to your research questions.
  • To fill in the existing literature gap or any noticeable gaps in your dissertation, you should broaden your reading. It will help you fill the gaps in a better way.
  • While going on with the experiments and research for your dissertation, you should keep thinking and analysing the relevance of the data you collect to your research question.
  • Remember to avoid adding too much information to your dissertation. You must be selective about the data you aim to collect and the information you choose to add to your papers.

How to Be Quick In Dissertation Research and Writing Process?

Are you struggling to speed up the dissertation research and writing process? The following tips can help you increase the speed of your work.

Give up Procrastinating

Procrastination is the killer of your progress. It would help if you prepared yourself to deal with it as much as possible. Once you identify that you are procrastinating, you should plan your dissertation research and writing process and set realistic expectations.

Realistic Planning

Realistic planning will save you from facing extra trouble trine to complete your papers on time. While planning the dissertation writing and research process, you must be realistic about what you expect of yourself and what you can do in the time you are left with. You should have clear and achievable goals and objectives for each week. Remember to focus on one thing at a time and reward yourself when you accomplish a goal.

Editing Should Be For The Last Days

It would help if you did not keep editing your drafts to make them look “perfect” at the start of writing your dissertation. Save the editing and revision process for the last few days. Once you finish your dissertation, give yourself a break for a few days and then come back to revise your work. You will be better able to revise and correct your papers after relaxing for a while!

Conclusion:

Following these tips while performing your dissertation research will only collect relevant data for your academic papers. Furthermore, following these guidelines will help you ace your PhD dissertation, and you will land your desired grade.

Read: 7 Ways Mixed Method Approach Is Helpful In Dissertation Research