Academic writing, particularly dissertation writing, is a crucial skill for scholars and researchers. Nevertheless, it is also a daunting task and a cause of anxiety and isolation for students, especially if they are doing independent research at this level for the first time.
Dissertation writing takes considerable preparation, planning, and determination. The scholar has to meet the expectations and standards of the academic community and overcome these thesis writing challenges, as these assessments are crucial for their course. Too many challenges added to high expectations and assumptions of students’ writing capacity by the supervisor cause anxiety and strain on the scholar’s mind.
In this article, we will discuss a few challenges students face repeatedly and give some proven tips by experts to overcome these obstacles and write professional dissertations. Continue reading if you want to avoid these challenges.
10 Common Dissertation Writing Challenges and Their Solutions
Students get demotivated when they face too many challenges in dissertation writing from start to end. If you are facing the same obstacles, let us tell you that every student has gone through the same. Actually, not every student, some are exceptions, hand their research and writing headaches over to professional dissertation writing services; you canbe one of them and get rid of the constant anxiety and pressure.
If you want to challenge your stress-handling capacity, continuing reading this guide may help you reduce your tensions and strain.
1. Misunderstanding the Guidelines
Being unable to understand the guidelines is a frequently faced challenge by students. Many students come to know that their dissertation was not in compliance with the guidelines provided by the institute. What do you say happened to all the efforts, hard work, and research? You might have heard that efforts are never in vain; well, now you know they can be in some cases.
To understand what the assignment demands, you need to understand the guidelines properly. This understanding will help you craft clear arguments and thesis statements. The dissertation instructions include the structure, procedure for submission of the work, due date, word count, and main purpose of the research.
To beat the challenge:
- Read guidelines multiple times
- Highlight key points
- Seek clarification from the thesis advisor
- Refer to the guidelines frequently
Using these tips will enable you to follow the advised format and structure guidelines.
2. Having Close Deadlines
Quickly approaching deadlines brings a sense of panic and pressure, which leads to students making nervous mistakes. Dissertations with close deadlines become more demanding and daunting. Scholars often find it strenuous to work under tight due dates.
They might complete the dissertation writing challenge just a night before the deadline, but a lot of things go into a thesis before finalising it for submission, including proofreading, editing, critical review, and advisor’s input.
To beat the challenge:
- Break down the dissertation (section-wise)
- Ask the advisor to review drafts timely
- Create fake deadlines
- Share the workload
These tips can help you meet the deadlines comprehensively; make sure to check the guidelines more often to stay ahead of time.
3. Time Management
Writing a thesis/dissertation is quite a lengthy and complex task. Managing time is the most daunting part of dissertation writing; nearly every student finds it difficult. In addition to poor time management, getting into writer’s block or being stuck during the writing process also causes the failure to meet the deadlines.
Time management becomes tougher if you have other commitments to fulfil, i.e., coursework, family or work responsibilities. Managing all these responsibilities along with your thesis can add to your anxiety, so you should consider hiring a professional dissertation writer to avoid the adventure of multitasking, as this can damage your mental health due to continuous stress and pressure.
To beat the challenge:
- Keep the plans realistic and flexible
- Keep the goals achievable
- Stop procrastination
- Avoid multitasking
Along with time management, you need to keep your work and life balance and find proper time to rest.
4. The Hunt for Credible Information
Another challenging feature of dissertation writing is finding reliable sources. It is easy to find thousands of sources with a single search, but identifying credible and authentic ones out of them is not everyone’s cup of tea. The most appropriate way of accessing reputed sources is by referring to reading lists provided by your instructors.
To beat the challenge:
- Access the institute’s digital library
- Reputed journals
- Published articles
- Research papers
Remember that Wikipedia may have good information but cannot be considered a credible source. However, you can still use Wikipedia to access reliable sources. Every Wikipedia article has a reference list at the bottom of the article, and you can use those links to access credible sources.
5. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are about the capability of solving problems using data, facts, and knowledge. Many students are unable to analyse the research question critically and, therefore cannot address the problem and find a solution to the finding/result. Dissertation writing involves a lot of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
To beat the challenge:
- Read more and more research papers
- Ask questions
- Solve problems
- Engage in debates
6. Quality of Research Environment
The environment that is faced by students during the process of writing the dissertation is another pitfall for the thesis’s success. Moral support or monitoring from experts or experienced persons from the field of research can improve the dissertation writing process. The research environment and support have a great impact towards the completion of the thesis.
To beat the challenge:
- Create a comfortable workspace
- Provide yourself with the necessary resources
- Have open communication
- Join a dissertation group
- Support knowledge sharing
7. Not Knowing How to Start
Many students seem to say, I have to start my dissertation but don’t have any clue where to start. Imagine what you will write and how far you will go in the completion of the task. If you also feel stuck and don’t know where to start the project, we would suggest you go for dissertation writing help online. You might get out of time when you realise where you will start writing.
To beat the challenge:
- Don’t panic
- Define objectives
- Start with freewriting
Writing Barriers
To complete your dissertation writing project, you need to overcome the writing barriers, or we would say writer’s block. Writer’s block is the state where writers get stuck on some topic and don’t know what to write and how to move forward. This can happen due to a lack of information available on the topic.
To beat the challenge:
- Write something else
- Try prose or poetry
- Do something else other than writing
It is important to overcome the writing barriers to complete your thesis writing project. Otherwise, you will be gazing at the black page at the end of the deadline.
Social Isolation
When writing academic papers, it’s common to get isolated due to the anxiety of completing and fighting the deadlines. Students, to complete the dissertation on time, dealing with multitasking, become socially isolated. These negative emotions can have severe effects on your mental and physical health. To fight this situation, students need to have a work-life balance. If you go into social isolation, even then, you will not be able to complete your academic paper due to depression and anxiety.
To beat the challenge:
- Join some dissertation writing group
- Attend workshops
- Build relationships with supervisors
Presentation Skills
Students with bad presentation skills face more challenges in completing their dissertations. Anything you write and the evidence you gather has to be presented in proper context and by building narratives. Students might be brilliant, but due to a lack of presentation skills, you may fail to convince the examiner of your skills.
Having a strong dissertation statement, a strong argument, and a good understanding of the research question can all go in vain if your presentation skills do not cooperate with yours. It is important to present the information efficiently so examiners or readers can have a better understanding of the arguments and discussions.
Presentation skills are also required even after completing the dissertation writing for your thesis defence presentation. If you lack these skills, in that case, it’s a better idea to acquire dissertation writing assistance from a reputed agency and let yourself focus on developing your presentation skills.
To beat the challenge:
- Use social media
- Storytelling
- Understand visual ads
Conclusion
To conclude the topic, dissertation writing is a long process and demands consistency and determination from the students. Being a team player can help you better understand the process and complete your dissertation.
In this article, we have tried to cover the main challenges student face in their most important stage of getting the degree, and possible solutions to overcome these challenges. We hope you will find this guide helpful.
