A thesis is one of the compulsory components of a PhD education, as it concludes the research conducted during the coursework years of the program. It is one of the most significant processes and requirements that qualify one for the degree. Writing a thesis and reviewing it is a challenging task, but it is almost impossible to avoid the process. Editing the thesis is necessary to bring clarity to it. In this blog, we will be discussing the five effective ways of editing a Ph.D. thesis to make it better and guarantee a successful submission.
Importance of Editing During Thesis Writing
Revising and editing something like a PhD research is highly crucial and cannot be warded off at any cost. The importance of refinement for a dissertation is quite extensive and significant. Firstly, the process helps in checking and identifying the intended flow and sequence, which is crucial for any kind of writing, not just a dissertation. Secondly, it helps eliminate some of the unwanted flaws that can impact the credibility of the dissertation and contribute to carelessness during writing. Such flaws are commonly grammatical and related to citations. Lastly, the heeded and corrected mistakes can notably increase the chance of the thesis acceptance.
Proven and Effective Ways to Edit a PhD Thesis
-
Taking a Break after Creating the First Draft
Writing a thesis involves several steps to complete. The writing of a research draft can be divided into the creation of several chunks, wherein the first draft typically comprises most of the writing errors, including grammatical mistakes. It is, hence, recommended to leave the first draft as it is after its completion and avoid editing immediately after writing. You can typically wait for a few minutes to a few hours or even a day to get back to it. Leaving the first draft unedited immediately after writing helps to edit the thesis more effectively, as taking a break for some time after writing clears one’s head and enables more objective editing.
-
Document the Editing Process
In addition to actually going through PhD thesis editing service, it is advised to document and record the editing steps already taken or those that need to be taken in the future. For this kind of documentation, you can create a checklist to mark the steps. This process helps keep track of editing so that you don’t get confused or feel the need to recheck things repeatedly. Keeping a timeline along with the checklist also works as a schedule that you can follow to organise your editing process.
-
Go Section-Wise
It is recommended to make the thesis edit section-wise. Do not rush in dealing with the entire dissertation or an entire chapter of it in a single sitting, as it is not a constructive way of editing, and the chances are that you might miss out on some of the parts and bits that need to be edited. Break down each chapter into manageable sections. For example, you can start by breaking down the parts that share the same kind of idea or topic sentence. You may begin by addressing spelling and grammatical errors, structural and citation issues, and even checking the clarity and completeness of the content. You can also go for PhD thesis writing help UK, as they also offer assistance with polishing already written papers.
-
Don’t Forget the Overlooked Details
Some of the details that one tends to forget during editing are checking the content of the acknowledgments section, rechecking the organization of the appendix, looking for mistakes in citations such as punctuation mistakes, mistakes in the placement of the parenthesis, checking whether the citation follows a proper suggested format of the research, for example, APA, Chicago or MLA formats. During editing, one should also look for errors and mistakes in headings, subheadings, and capitalisation. The introduction and conclusion can also be easily overlooked, as attention during revising is mostly focused on the rest of the thesis details. Hence, it’s recommended to pay attention to the clarity and organisation of the introduction and conclusion parts.
-
Look for the Plagiarism
Look for the mistakes in your thesis that can be categorised as plagiarised content. Mistakes include not paraphrasing the content adequately, failing to quote the author’s references, and overlooking citation errors, which can easily contribute to plagiarized content. It is not always possible to get plagiarism-checking resources. Thus, rather than hustling during the last minute or waiting for the final check, you can still work on the mistakes mentioned above to avoid any inadvertent plagiarism. Furthermore, you can also avail of the custom thesis writing help service to get plagiarism-free thesis preparation.
FAQs
-
How important is maintaining an editing timeline for a PhD thesis?
Maintaining an editing schedule will help you keep a record of the editions that have already been worked on and those that need to be worked on in the future. In this way, you feel more organised and less burdened.
-
How to improve the credibility of the thesis?
Working on the accuracy of the references in the thesis and properly citing the authors’ work to credit their contributions in a particular research field helps maintain the writer’s credibility and the accuracy of the research.
-
How important is a draft creation in a thesis?
Draft creation is particularly important as it facilitates a more detailed identification of errors. When you create several drafts and go through the editing of them every time, it will help you eliminate most of the errors, even the ones that you overlooked initially.
Final Thoughts
The process of writing a thesis and then editing it can be quite draining; however, it is almost unavoidable. To ease the pressure of this, you can follow the above-listed tips and suggestions to make the process less stressful. It is recommended to create at least two drafts. After writing the first draft, you don’t need to rush for the editing but can wait for a day to do so. It is advised to go bit by bit without panicking and break the chapter into various sections. Go through these sections meticulously for rechecking and making all possible revisions. Lastly, go check the referencing and citation errors. Failing to do so might result in the addition of plagiarized content later.
