The Real Reason So Many Final Year Students Struggle to Finish Their Dissertations

There is a time in nearly every dissertation when students think, "I'm not the only one who feels like I'm behind.

They're probably not. The majority of them are in the same trouble, but they don't want you to know. The dissertation is different from the other components of the degree in this particular respect: you can't see any other people doing that work. There are lots of people who have difficulties in seminars and lectures. Asks basic questions, and at times makes mistakes. The Dissertation removes all that from the equation! Your mind makes up the rest. It produces pictures of fellow students who have been writing since October. They are perfectly aware of where they are going.

It is a lonely experience, and a lonelier one in the silence of all the world.

The Structure You Didn't Know You Needed

Your degree works for you for three years — without your asking. Reading lists indicate what to read. Essay questions indicate what is important. Word counts inform you when you've had enough. Mark schemes provide information on what good answers will look like.

That is almost eliminated by the dissertation.

You choose the question, you make up your method, and you choose what evidence is important. You can also decide what to include or exclude. Then, you find a way to tie it all together in more words than you’ve written on any topic before. There are no weekly check-ins. You may be seen by your supervisor once a month. It is left open, with very little noise from it, for about a year.

A study in the Journal of Further and Higher Education revealed that there is a significant difference between the level of anxiety experienced by learners working on self-directed projects compared to guided projects in all ability groups. Not just among students who were already finding it hard. Everyone. The structure you had been given was not only helpful, but it was helpful. Of course, it was Carrying a Heavy Mental Burden every week without you knowing it.

Once you remove it, and capable, motivated students begin to question everything. The question. The argument. Is there enough reading to do? Did they read the right things? Have they 'gone in circles' or a coherent case they built over six weeks?

For what it's worth, that final situation is much more prevalent than admits.

The following situations can make it difficult to decide on a starting point.

There is one common habit among many students who successfully complete the dissertation. They need to see practical examples before they start writing a lot. Review completed dissertations from their department or related subject areas. It is not intended to be copied, rather to become an idea of how a well-structured argument can look on a page, aside from a methodology handbook. It's one thing to say that a dissertation needs a research question and quite another to watch it materialize in action. The first is abstract. The latter is helpful.

Students (particularly those with technical or interdisciplinary writing assignments) seek out information outside their department. Specialized websites provide assistance to students during the research-based writing process and provide structured assistance not offered at a single supervisor meeting. A trusted dissertation writing service like dissertation writing help from EduBirdie can be a good choice, providing students with access to experts in their field. Examining the argument structure and the integration of evidence by an expert can make the concepts of argument structure and integration of evidence in your work clearer. It isn't so much a matter of changing your thoughts, it's more about how you understand the standard. For a lot of pupils, that's the outside stimulus that spurs them on to progress.

At the heart of the dissertation is not a test of working in isolation. It's a trial to determine whether you can endure a difficult challenge that requires a prolonged period of open-ended effort. There is a need to focus during the whole process. There is a need to converse with multiple individuals. This includes your supervisor, other students and the wider literature. In some cases, you will even deal with people outside of your department. When students approach the entire process in isolation, it can make the project more difficult than necessary.

The Mental Reality of the Final Year

Over half of the final year students indicated in a 2022 Student Minds survey that they felt overwhelmed during their dissertation. More than half. I'm only counting the ones that have said it in a survey, and that's already a pretty high threshold.

It's a busy final year. You have now completed a degree, are definitely considering your next steps, and are creating the most challenging assignment of the course, while also watching your social network at the university fall apart as everyone heads in different directions. While not a part of most dissertation strategy discussions, the context influences every aspect of the feeling of the dissertation work.

Several things which work better than people think:

  • Write something every day, even if it's bad. Two hundred rough, unpolished words of thought. Quality isn't the point, it's just keeping the material inside, so it doesn't go cold.
  • Be a good student, come to your supervisor early, not late. The question is a half formed one that is worth bringing. The almost completed chapter is not the time to meet.
  • Avoid passive reading periods that are trying to be three hours of reading but aren't. Forty focused minutes and actually winning every time.
  • Be aware that it is OK to have a rough first draft. Weeks of fighting are lost by students. Students who take it don't.
  • Monitor, don't wait for, what you have accomplished. The progress that's made is never compared to the rest of the way.

The Things Most Students Get Wrong about Supervisors

They are treated as "final" reviewers, i.e., a person they go to when something is almost finished. The useful meeting is the one you arrive at, and read yourself into, with a question that isn't exactly correct, but it is useful. That's not embarrassing. It's accurate. But it's in the conversations that do the work.

Why Writing Daily is a Better Option than Writing a Lot

It helps to stay within the substance. You are able to approach the desk with your own argument in mind, even when you're not at the desk. Connections happen faster. The subject becomes more familiar and becomes “your” topic. 20 minutes in the morning, when you're being honest with yourself, is better than 6 hours on Saturday, that you've been dreading since Tuesday.

The Perfectionism Problem: Stated Plainly

A dissertation is a thing that is clear, honest and coherent. Makes an argument and supports it with evidence. You don't have to be as close to the ideal as you think you are or are not allowed to criticize; that's not the standard. It is an idea you've created in your mind because of your perfectionism. The earlier you can wean those two apart, the better the whole process will be.

It Doesn't Stay This Hard

Students who persevere, particularly when they have been challenged but conquered, tend to state that it was worthwhile. Not because it was fun. Because they discovered that they had the ability to think their way through something with no instructions.

It's the doubt at the beginning, the grinding weeks in the middle, and the moment when it finally clicks that's normal. It's the way things happen on the inside. A few people don't realize that until after they become part of it!