How to exit and excel on an exam- Write a thesis

Using Excel for Analyzing Survey Questionnaires is an independent publication and is not . Using “Wrap Text” will make your narrative data look like the text in Column E, Row 4 of Figure 6. leave the cells for unanswered questions blank.
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Become familiar with the course content. However, this thinking process does not reflect the reality of the situation.

Therefore, if you take the time to review your notes and ensure you understand everything that was discussed, it should be difficult for the essay question to catch you off guard. Start planning if you can. After all, professors want to mark high-quality essays written by well-prepared students! This heads-up gives you a great chance to prepare for the exam. Consider practicing writing under time pressure.

For this reason, it can be helpful to simulate the conditions of a timed exam before the actual day: Before You Start Writing: Read the question carefully. The most critical part of the essay-writing process actually happens before you write your first word. Make a clear and specific plan. While it might seem counter-intuitive, taking five or ten minutes before you start writing in order to draw up a plan will be an enormous time saver.

Decide on your thesis, the topic of each paragraph, and the arguments which you intend to cover, then jot down some quick point-form notes. Schedule a set time for each paragraph. Take note of the amount of time allotted for the exam and split it into reasonably-sized segments, leaving some time at the end for revision if possible.

Write clearly and double-space. If you have time left at the end of the exam for review, having the ability to skim quickly through your work and write revisions in blank spaces will be incredibly helpful. Keep yourself on schedule. Remember the paragraph-based schedule we discussed above? Perfecting paragraphs is a time-consuming process, and, if you spend too much time editing before the essay is finished, you might have to rush through the last few sections or leave them out entirely.

Even if you made sure you were interpreting everything correctly before you began, you may have forgotten to address a subquestion or integrate an example as you were writing. Before you submit, read the prompt again and make sure your completed essay matches up! Edit if you have time. If you have enough time left over, read your essay again and make corrections. Remember to have the right perspective. The reoccurring focus by participants on the need for more teachers demonstrates [insert critical thought here]. By embedding your examples in the context, you are essentially highlighting to the reader what you want them to remember.

Aside from determining what to include, the presentation of such data is also essential. Participants, when speaking in an interview might not do so in a linear way. Instead they might jump from one thought to another and might go off topic here and there. So the quotes need to be paired down to incorporate enough information for the reader to be able to understand, while removing the excess.

Dissertation findings and discussion sections

Finding this balance can be challenging. You have likely worked with the data for a long time and so it might make sense to you. Try to see your writing through the eyes of someone else, which should help you write more clearly. Something to consider first with numeric data is that presentation style depends what department you are submitting to.

In the hard sciences, there is likely an expectation of heavy numeric input and corresponding statistics to accompany the findings. In the arts and humanities, however, such a detailed analysis might not be as common. Therefore as you write out your quantitative findings, take your audience into consideration.

Just like with the qualitative data, you must ensure that your data is appropriately organised. Again, you've likely used a software program to run your statistical analysis, and you have an outline and subheadings where you can focus your findings. There are many software programs available and it is important that you have used one that is most relevant to your field of study.

For some, Microsoft Excel may be sufficient for basic analysis. Whatever program you have used, make sure that you document what you have done and the variables that have affected your analysis. One common mistake found in student writing is the presentation of the statistical analysis.

During your analysis of the data , you are likely to have run multiple different analyses from regressions to correlations. Often, we see students presenting multiple different statistical analyses without any real understanding of what the tests mean. Presentation of quantitative data is more than just about numbers and tables.

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You could also explain how they relate to the research question. However, depending on how you have organised your work, this might end up in the discussion section. Students who are not confident with statistical analysis often have a tendency to revert back to their secondary school mathematics skills. They commonly document the mean, median, and mode for all of their results. Now, these three outcomes can be important. But having a good understanding of why you are proceeding with this strategy of analysis is going to be essential in a primarily quantitative study.

That noted, there are different expectations for an undergraduate dissertation and a PhD thesis, so knowing what these expectations are can be really helpful before you begin. Depending on the presentation of your dissertation, you may be required to print out a final copy for the marker s. In many cases, this final copy must be printed in black and white.

Dissertation findings and discussion sections | Oxbridge Essays

This means that any figures or graphs that you create must be readable in a black and white or greyscale format. This can be challenging because there are only so many distinct shades of grey. In a pie chart, you might show one section as purple and the other as green. Yet when printed, both the purple and the green translate to approximately the same shade of grey, making your graph suddenly unreadable. Another common error is overwhelming the reader with graphs and tables. Let's think about your outline and subheadings. If you're including a table under each subheadings, it needs to be relevant to the information that is being discussed in that chapter.

There is no correct or incorrect number of graphs that should exist within the section, but you should use your judgement about what looks appropriate. The final mistake we see is the duplication of writing or absence of writing when presenting a graph. Some students will present their findings in a graph or table and then write out this information again below the graph.

This defeats the entire purpose of using the graph in the first place. So avoid this at all times. Conversely, other students sometimes include a graph or figure but nothing else. Doing this denies the reader of context or purpose of said graph or figure. At some point, a balance needs to be struck where the reader has the information they require to really understand the point being made within the section.

The structure of your discussion chapter is really going to depend on what you are trying to do and how you have structured your findings. If you chose to structure your findings by theme, it might make sense to continue this into the analysis chapter. Other people might structure it according to the research questions. This clearly indicates to the reader how you have addressed your study. Marking a dissertation usually requires the marker to comment on the extent to which the research questions have been addressed.

So by structuring a dissertation that lays out each research question for the marker, you are making their job easier. Needless to say, this a great thing.


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Like any other chapter in your thesis, an introduction is an essential component of your discussion. By this point, the reader has gone through your findings and is now looking for your interpretation. Therefore, at the end of your discussion introduction you should highlight the content that each of the subsections will cover.

A conclusion to your discussion section or a chapter summary is also going to be beneficial. The length of the analysis chapter is usually quite long, so a wrap up of the key points at the end can help the reader digest your work. It can also help ensure that the reader actually understands the points you are trying to highlight within your project. Without any critical thinking, you are really doing yourself a disservice. It will affect the mark that you obtain on your overall dissertation.

This is why the analysis chapter is usually weighted quite heavily on the marking rubric. We tell students about critical thinking and the importance of it on a daily basis. And yet, there does seem to be a general confusion about what critical thinking entails, i. Critical thinking asks you to provide your own opinion on your topic, which can be daunting at first.

For much of your academic career, you've likely been asked to use research to justify a position that has already been set. But even if you're new to it, try and get to grips with what critical thinking entails and use it in your work. Subheadings need to be informative but not too long. It is possible to layer your subheadings, so you might have a Chapter 2, a Section 2.

Usually anything after 3 numerical points does not get a number and would not appear in your table of contents. When creating titles for your subheadings, consider how they are going to look in the table of contents. They need to fit on one line, ideally, so putting your research question as the subheading might end up being too long. Conversely, one- or two-word subheadings usually doesn't give enough information about the purpose of the section. Finding this balance is important.

But remember you can always edit your subheadings retrospectively. Ideally, you will be able to concisely and effectively link your research to what has been researched previously. But this can be a challenge. You don't want to repeat what has been said in your literature review or the findings. But you need to pull examples from both of these sections in order to make the points that you need to.

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One way is by referring the reader back to previous chapters, sections, or subsections. This process can generally be done at the end. You can put in a place holder until you know how your sections will be numbered. For example you might write: Findings from this study indicate…. This also makes the proofreading process easier. If you are submitting an electronic version of this document, you may also consider hyperlinks to take the reader to the different sections. But be aware that this can be considerably more work, so you should allow for this in your timescale if it's something you wish to implement.

The findings chapter is essentially the describe part. You need to ensure that you have clearly identified data that relates to your research questions, hypotheses, or themes of your study. If you have qualitative data, ensure that you have edited the quotes and examples to a reasonable length. Pick quotes that accurately represent your theme. Try not to focus solely on one or two participants if possible. Ensure that you are demonstrating links between multiple instruments, if you used them. If you are using quantitative data, be careful about how many statistical tests you run. Make sure you can justify why you chose one particular test over another.

When presenting graphs, use a colour scheme that's appropriate for the reader when printing in black and white. Ensure that graphs and tables are appropriately explained, but that the information provided is not duplicated. These parts usually appear in the discussion and ask you to employ your critical thinking skills to demonstrate how your research fits into the bigger picture.

It is often the case that your analysis holds the most weight in the marking scheme. So you should spend considerable time ensuring this section is appropriate. It needs to demonstrate how you have attempted to answer your research questions. Finally, create an outline before you begin. While this might seem tedious at first, filling in the sections with the appropriate information will mean that you are not writing things over and over again. It'll also make sure you do not go wildly off topic. In terms of presentation, both the findings and discussion chapters will benefit from a clear and logical introduction and chapter summary.

Remember that both of these chapters are meant to inform. You are leading the reader on a journey, so make sure they stay on the path and arrive at the final destination with you!