Dissertation Hierarchy.

Dissertation Hierarchy

The various components of the dissertation should describe the work at different levels of abstraction.

Learning how to convey the essence of your work at different levels of dissertation is probably the single most important skill that you can cultivate for effectively communicating your ideas both in academia and in the workplace.

Selection of Content for dissertations

A characteristic example of hierarchical selection of content that should exist in all dissertations is the literature review. It is important to give an overview of the field to show where the approach you have chosen fits in amongst related work.

Providing a Framework for dissertations

Provide a framework that can go through your work. The introduction should also give a more concrete roadmap of the dissertation, saying what can be expected in each chapter. This will typically be provided in the last subsection of the introduction with a title such as "Structure of the Dissertation".

Telling a Story of your dissertation

It is often stated, as indicated above, that your thesis should "tell a story". It should tell a story in the sense that it should have a plot - tying together the strands of your argument to provide an outcome.

Terminology of your dissertation

Technical terms relating to the area of study, and terms that are not in common usage or are used differently from their common usage, should be defined or explained in your dissertation. (This does not necessarily apply to the title and abstract.) It is conventional to write terms being introduced and defined in italics.

Paragraphing your dissertation

Do not begin paragraphs with joining words like however and but.

Do not begin paragraphs with sentences that rely on the context of previous paragraphs to make sense.

General Grammar

Beware of switching between present and past tenses. It is usually safest to stick to present tense.

Beware of changes in plurality in sentences and paragraphs. For example:

In words such as "optimum/optima" and "datum/data" the mum form is singular and the ma form is plural. For example a function may have a global optimum and many local optima. Also in this case "optimal" is the adjective - thus we would have an optimal solution (as opposed to an optimum solution).

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