Dissertation Proposal: Formatting Your Paper Properly

When you are writing a dissertation and dissertation proposal you may be worried about formatting your paper properly. But have no fear...

Keeping Track of Your Bibliography

When you are working on a dissertation or thesis it is best for you to figure out an efficient method for organizing the bibliography early. Doing this can keep you from getting lost later on in all of the data that you have collected. It will also ensure you can write your thesis and include supporting evidence with ease. The best way for you to keep tabs on the articles you have read and sources you have reviewed is to create a database somewhere online or on a word document where each source is listed and summarized. Summarizing the relevant chapters or articles in bullet format will help you to recall faster what was contained in that article or chapter and figure out if it was the one that you were searching for.

Another tool that can help you with this is using reference management software on your computer. This software is quite simple to learn and can save you quite a bit of time when it comes to putting together your bibliography. When you find yourself nearing the deadline you will be grateful for this.

How to avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious concern when writing any paper because it can result in being kicked out of school. That being said some students may not realize that what they are doing can constitute plagiarism. This can take place unintentionally because something was copied directly into the thesis without being properly cited. As a rule of thumb whenever you present information that you did not think of originally and you read from somewhere else you need to include a citation. Rephrasing the work of another author still needs to be cited.

What kind of format should you use?

Each university will have different guidelines related to the format that you need to use for your thesis. It is important that you review these guidelines prior to submitting the thesis. This will protect you from penalties. Even if you are only beginning the research phase of your project you should review the guidelines ahead of time so that you do not waste any time having to go back and change things.

In general most schools require:

• Size 12 font
• 1.5-2 for line spacing
• And the use of A4 paper for the final product.