10 Common Mistakes Students Make When Writing A Master's Dissertation

A dissertation should come across as a finished product; with no errors whatsoever. It should also strike as an authoritative paper giving an impression that the writer knows the subject deeply.

Yet, most students fall in the habit of committing errors while preparing this substantial paper. Here are some of the common ones –

  1. Inconsistency with the format style – You may feel that the format style is only for the Reference and Appendix page. Thus, you may either leave other segments un-formatted or formatted in a different style. This is a major error.
  2. Not sticking by the topic – While the topic may be streamlined, the paper may actually take a broader look. This happens because you may be more comfortable with the broader connotations than the specific ones.
  3. Confusing with thesis – A dissertation is actually a set of theses and not a single one. This is another common mistake.
  4. Creation of data – You may create certain data to bypass the laborious venture of looking for them. This may cost you dearly in the long run.
  5. Imitating Methods – You may imitate methods from sample papers only changing the numbers to give it an authentic look. This is almost an academic crime.
  6. A random progression – You should ideally progress sequentially. However, some students do have this habit of proceeding randomly and getting confused.
  7. Missing the time-frame – You may not pay attention to the time-frame you suggested to the instructor. In the end, you may transgress it by a wide margin. This is not done.
  8. Grammatical and structural errors – You may not have worked on your writing style and thus mottled your paper with grievous grammatical errors. You may also err in the structure or in not conforming to the layout or template.
  9. A confused conclusion – You may have spent up all your energy through the paper and don’t even have energy for a decent conclusion. This results in a messed-up culmination and a bad end.
  10. Casual proofreading – You may not take the proofreading bit seriously resulting in the errors keeping their position.

Solution for mistakes

You should, as a student, make sure that you don’t commit these mistakes. If at all you commit them, you should weed them out through a thorough proofreading. Listen to what the instructors have to say and put their advice into active mode.

Absorb and gather as much you can about the topic you choose. It helps to be full with fuel while on the runway.