Preparing and Presenting Written Sections of Your Dissertation to Your Advisor and Committee

All sections of the students’ thesis and dissertation proposals and final drafts are interdependent and form a logical and linear description of their planned or completed research. Sections such as the Introduction and Methods are often best written and submitted to students advisor sequentially. The Title Page might include the names of committee members. Key words are sometimes part of dissertations and are always part of journal articles. As with the abstract, key words serve to summarize and give readers an introduction to the major focus, concepts, and sometimes methods in students’ dissertation. The abstract has several purposes. The main purpose is to give readers a concise overview of the focus, background, methods, results, and conclusions of students study. The Table of Contents usually comes after the abstract and should be sufficiently specific to help readers locate the pages associated with major topics. It often includes a “List of Tables, Figures, and Appendices” in the same format.