How to Writing a dissertation?

1. Writing a dissertation
Introduction
Most undergraduate business courses and post-graduate MBAs require students to
complete a dissertation. This is an extended piece – often structured like a report – which
usually involves undertaking research or a project (this may be based your placement or
previous work experience) as well as reflection on and discussion of that work.
The focus of this article will be on writing the dissertation – that is, producing the
finished report.
The whole project and dissertation process can cause students a lot of grief. It differs
from what most have previously produced in requiring more of most things – more
research in greater depth, more reading, more time, more independence (students select
their own topics and work on them in isolation), more planning, and above all, a more
extended piece of writing.
As distinct from an essay, where you critically evaluate other people’s ideas, you will
need to report on your own research or work and offer your own thoughts and
interpretation. However, you will also need to include and critique the ideas of other
writers in order to provide a theoretical framework for your own ideas.
Planning
The first thing to say – and hopefully it is not too late for those of you reading this – is
that you need to allow yourself sufficient time for the writing process. You may have
done all the right reading, have a waterproof design and brilliant data, but if you don’t
allow yourself sufficient time for the write-up you will let yourself down. Writing a
dissertation is a much more involved process than the average assignment; you might
occasionally have been able to burn the midnight oil over an essay but you are unlikely to
be able to be able to keep up that level of intense writing for a longer piece of work.
In fact, it’s best to start thinking about the writing from the start of the project. Probably
the first thing to do is to get dissertation guidelines from your institution which should
tell you the requirements on length, as well as what academic qualities you are expected
to show.
Anglia Business School (Cambridge, UK) requires its students to produce
a dissertation of maximum 8,000 words, which should demonstrate:
• Evidence of scholarly research, which can be empirical (i.e. consciously obtained
through surveys etc.) or library-based.
• Evidence of independent thought.

2. • Interpretation of evidence – mere description is not sufficient.
• An understanding of the topic’s conceptual and theoretical framework.
• Clarity and lucidity of argument.
• Ability to use appropriate referencing and bibliographic style.
Once you have determined the length of the dissertation, ensure that it does not remain an
abstraction by calculating the number of pages involved – at 300 words per page double
spaced, an 8,000 word dissertation would have around 26 pages, more with the addition
of prelims and end matter, which do not come within the word count.
Dissertations vary enormously in length – in the UK, some professional bodies require a
piece of work of around 5,000 words (17 pages) while a higher level dissertation could be
as long as 40,000 words (140 pages) although the latter would be unusual at
undergraduate level. Also, note requirements as to what should go into the main body of
the text – some organizations require you to put your methodology in the appendix for
example.
You should also have a plan for how you do the writing, taking account of:
• Your available time to write, noting the times you are likely to be relatively alert.
• What you have to write – do a plan of your chapters and their sections and what
you aim to achieve in a given time.
• The stages of writing: the various drafts, time for your supervisor to comment,
time for editing.
• The final stages – proof reading, and binding (check with your university repro
department how long this is likely to take).
You should start to think fairly early on how you will organize your work. This will
depend on the basis for the dissertation – research, project, work experience, whether you
are exploring one issue, or several, or taking a critical overview – and we shall describe
below different types of structures.
If you will be carrying out some kind of research or an organization-based project, you
should be able to do some of the writing – at least in draft form – before or while you are
doing your field work. Except in some projects which use grounded theory – which
involve going back into the field several times with a new perspective – you will
establish your research or project design fairly early, and in quantitative research, you
will do your literature review before your field work. These chapters can be written up
front, which will have the double advantage of getting some of the writing out of the way
and also helping you practice the type of writing you will need to master.
Structure
Various structures are possible for your report depending on the type of project and the
audience. The main ones are outlined below: others are possible, and you should always
discuss your proposed structure with your supervisor.

3. Generic structure
The following is possibly the most common and assumes an academic audience. The
research is likely to be deductive and quantitative, with the literature review preceding
data collection.
Structure
What is the scope of the research and why is it important? What are its
objectives? What is the research question/hypothesis? Some essential
Introduction background, but not too much. Should end with a brief summary of
findings and the conclusion. The introduction is a very important part of
your dissertation and is worth getting right.
This will set the research problem in its conceptual framework and gives
Literature a critical perspective. It should be a discussion rather than a description,
review and you should highlight concepts and theories which have a particular
bearing on the research.
Your research design: what data did you collect; where did you collect it;
Research how did you analyse it; why did you use those methods and what
methodology alternative approaches could you have taken. You could also discuss here
the setting of the research, and how you selected your sample.
Summarize the data, possibly with charts and tables, indicating the main
Findings
themes that emerge.
Note: may be combined with the above. This should be an analysis of the
findings, relating back to the conceptual models and the research
Discussion question. Has the latter fully been answered? Is the research hypothesis
supported? Are there any weaknesses or limitations? What is the main
contribution to knowledge?
What are the main lessons to be learnt from your study? What would you
have done differently? What were the main problems and how did you
Conclusions
overcome them? What are the implications for the stakeholders
concerned, and what are the possible future directions of the research?
Structure for a multi-issue or qualitative dissertation
The above structure assumes a linear progression for the research, and may not be
suitable for situations when:
• You are adopting a qualitative approach, where research and literature review are
more interwoven.
• You are looking at several themes, and the dissertation will benefit from
separating these out structurally.
In this case, you may wish to follow a more thematic structure:

4. Thematic structure
Introduction As above
Literature
Provides an overview
review
Issue A
Issue B Literature review and description of data collection methods
Issue C
Research Design
Issue A
Issue B Presentation and analysis of data; conclusions
Issue C
Discussion Summary of findings, along with critique of method, implications for
corporate setting, research etc.
An alternative to the above would be to combine the literature review, but have separate
chapters/sections for the data.
Structure for a report aimed at a business sponsor
If you have been sponsored by a specific organization, or your college has arranged for a
placement on which your dissertation will be based, they may want a different kind of
report or presentation. The structure of the report will depend on the scope you have been
given, in particular to recommend or implement changes.
If you are limited to analysing a situation and making a proposal for change, or you are
reflecting on a project from the past, Maylor and Blackmon (2005, p. 407) recommend
that you should concentrate on:
• analysis of the practical problem
• potential solutions
• recommendations and suggestions for implementation.
The academic parts such as the literature review and the research methodology should be
either condensed or put in an appendix, although you should include (in the body of the
report) enough to show the validity of your recommendations.
If you are tasked with solving a business problem and expected to lead (to some extent)
the resulting change, you are into the realm of action research. This is different to applied
research and the structure of your report may be able to reflect this – speak to your
supervisor to confirm. If so, Dick (1993) recommends:
Dick (1993)

5. Describe the situation and the reason for the project or study. Explain the
Introduction
structure of the thesis and the reasons for it.
Research Outline and justify your approach. Explain the topic then consider
methodology possible research approaches, emphasizing the need for responsiveness.
Iteration A Action research generally consist of a number of ‘plan-implement-
Iteration B review’ cycles. For each stage/major finding, clearly summarize then
Iteration C discuss the conclusions you have reached, your reasoning, the relevant
etc. confirming and disconfirming literature, and the implications.
What are the overall conclusions of the research or project? What
Conclusions ultimately happened? What does the study contribute – what is now
understood that was less well understood before?
Prelims and end matter
The inclusion of prelims and end matter is another way in which the dissertation differs
from the more run of the mill piece of written work. The former require Roman as
opposed to Arabic numerals for page numbers.
Here is a rough guideline as to what should be included:
Prelims and end matter
Title; author surname and initials; ‘A thesis submitted to…in partial
Title page fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of…in month/year’
(wording as directed by institution).
A short summary covering the topic, the rationale for choosing it,
Abstract
the methodology and the conclusion
A short summary giving a background to the issue discussed, the
Executive summary main recommendations, evidence for them, and the methods used to
arrive at them.
Contents page List main chapters/sections
List of main figures
and diagrams
Thank the people who were especially helpful to you in compiling
Acknowledgements
the report.
Main body See above.
All the works referred to in the body of the report, with full
References
citations.
Bibliography Other sources which you used but did not quote, also listed in full.
Material that is relevant but not essential to the main report: could
Appendices
include your research instrument, background information etc.

6. Exactly what to include will depend on your audience and the length of the report: the
contents page, list of figures and acknowledgements can be omitted for a short report,
while a business-orientated report should have an executive summary rather than an
abstract (you may find it useful to leave in the former in an academic report for the
benefit of any sponsors).
Presentation
Writing style, presentation and layout are all important in gaining you a good mark.
Layout
We have already talked about how the dissertation will be divided into chapters or
sections: within those divisions, there will be others, marked by headings and
subheadings. This is another difference from the essay, but one that will work in your
favour as these headings can serve as ways of organizing your thoughts as you plan.
Use a font that is easy to read (and one you like as you will get very used to seeing it on
the screen!), and make sure you have wide margins.
Writing style
This should be formal, concise and academic. Here are a few guidelines:
• As you are writing in an academic style, you will be building an argument, which
you should support with evidence. Back up assertions with sources, and make
sure you give credit for the ideas of others.
• Avoid illogicalities and errors in reasoning. These include contradicting
something you said in one paragraph in the next (or even the same paragraph),
complete jumps of sense between or within paragraphs, so that one statement does
not follow on from another, deducing incorrect conclusions from evidence.
• Make sure that everything is relevant to your case. Don’t go off at tangents, and
don’t elaborate on points that are secondary.
• Don’t over justify – all research has constraints. Be honest about yours. Be critical
about the limitations of your research, and look at other ways of doing things. The
ability to see things from all sides is one of the features of academic writing.
• Don’t go overboard on political correctness but avoid terms that may be
offensive, for example using ‘man’ to refer to either gender.
• Assume knowledge on the part of the reader – those examining your dissertation
will only need definitions of terms that are peculiar to your subject.
• Provide the reader with signposts. For example, refer to relevant points dealt with
in other sections, and provide summaries and rough précis of your intentions for
the forthcoming section. Judicious use of headings (see layout, above) will also
provide a roadmap through your report.
• Use tables and diagrams where these will illustrate your point, but use them
wisely and not just because they will look decorative.

7. The stages of writing
It’s helpful to consider writing as a reverse pyramid, in which you start off working on
the more conceptual aspects and finish off with the detail of grammar, punctuation and
spelling. Here are some stages you might go through:
1. Make a plan of your dissertation, with your main chapters, and within the
chapters, the main sections.
2. Get your main ideas for your core chapters down on paper, and try and get the
argument right.
3. Read through for logic and structure.
4. Edit for clarity and readability, making sure that your style is approachable and
concise.
5. Look at grammar, punctuation and spelling, consulting a good dictionary or style
guide if you know that you are weak in these areas.
Writing is also a process of pruning – of bits that are not essential to your main thesis,
and above all of excess words so you can meet your word length (remember how you
never thought you could write that many words?). You will probably find that you can
get rid of ‘nice to have but not essential’ material at stage 3, and that at stage 4 you prune
your style so that you get rid of unnecessary verbiage. Writing to word limit is very
important and is considered a key management attribute.
Putting in references is something best not left to the end – if you have kept good notes
on your sources you should be able to put these in as you go along. But you will
obviously need to check that all your references are correct before finally submitting your
report.
Writing as a group
Group projects can provide particular interpersonal challenges, as teams cope with
difference of views, non-performing team members etc., and particular problems can
arise at the writing stage. If you split up the chapters amongst different people, then you
will get different writing styles and even ideas about what the report is about. Ways of
ensuring consistency included swapping around writing and editing, so that the text gets
seen by a different pair of eyes, or having an overall ‘master editor’.
Getting to the finishing line
We’ve already mentioned the importance of planning; we can’t over emphasize the
importance of allowing yourself enough time at the end for printing and binding –
remembering that everyone else will be mobbing the repro department and monopolizing
the printers. The other thing to avoid is endlessly tinkering with an otherwise complete
report – if you have met your objectives, hand it in.

8. References
• Dick, B. (1993), You want to do an action research thesis? Available online at:
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/art/arthesis.html
• Maylor, H. and Blackmon, K. (2005), Researching Business and Management,
Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK
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