Dissertation abstracts: main goal

A dissertation abstract is an all-inclusive summary of the whole project so that a very busy reader can look through it and understand at a glance what your dissertation is about and what are its main findings and ideas. A dissertation abstract usually consists of 250-300 words, but covers the most important points of your dissertation. It should be a powerful statement encouraging readers to look into the thesis itself.

Dissertation abstracts: what to include

The main elements to include in dissertation abstracts can vary from university to university and from subject to subject. However, the common elements usually found in dissertation abstracts are:

• purpose of the research;
• rationale for investigating this question;
• brief background;
• a hypothesis or research question(s);
• methodology used;
• findings (this is why you cannot write dissertation abstracts before the rest of the project: you do not know your findings before completing the research).
• implications;
• conclusions.

Dissertation abstracts: questions to cover

These are the main questions that a powerful dissertation abstract answers:

1. What is the problem you chose to investigate in your dissertation?
2. Why did you choose this problem? Why is it important?
3. What have you done to investigate this problem?
4. What have you found out?

Dissertation abstracts: constructions to use

If you wonder how to write a dissertation abstract, you might want to check these constructions that will help you in thesis writing:

• This dissertation describes…
• This experiment was performed to determine…
• There is a need for further research…
• Because of this problem…
• Existing research assumes that…
• The given problem is solved through…
• Results can be used to improve…

You may want to complete these sentences to write particular sections of your abstracts.

Dissertation abstracts: example

Now that you clearly understand what the main goal and components of dissertation abstracts are, you might want to see a fragment from a sample dissertation abstract:
 
E.g. This dissertation describes the importance of proper conflict management within an organization. Existing research assumes that conflict management should be used for reducing the negative effects of conflicts and enhancing learning processes and group outcomes. There is a need for further research of the potential negative impact of conflict avoidance. An experiment was performed to determine the negative aspects of avoiding conflicts as a coping strategy used by managers…
 
Please note that the above is only a fragment from a sample dissertation abstract. Congratulations! Now you have a complete understanding of how to write a dissertation abstract and will surely write good abstracts for dissertations.

Reading and writing connection

Reading and writing are similar processes because they require a clear understanding of the meaning of words. There is a strong relationship between these two processes in your mind. For this reason, the connection between reading and writing is the best tool for learning languages or any study material. However, making notes of the most important points when reading texts is only one technique that can be used to combine reading and writing.

Reading and writing techniques

Here are the innovative techniques that can be helpful for gaining the maximum effects from your reading and writing sessions:

1. “Talk to the author”. When reading the texts, imagine that you write a letter to the author of the text. Discuss the most interesting or confusing spaces, agree or disagree with the author.
2. “Personalizing content”. Whenever possible, create links between the concepts discussed in the text and your personal experiences, and write down these associations.
3. “Focused notes”. Find the most important themes or concepts in the text and write them down in the form of tables or mind maps.
4. “Summary/response writing”. Divide the page into two equal parts. In one part summarize what you have read, and in the second part respond to it.
5. “Genre switching”. Provide a creative response to what you have read by using a new genre. For example, after or when reading study materials, you can write an autobiography of one tooth, a romantic story of a triangle and a rhombus or draw a comics story summarizing a book.
6. “Flash cards”. You may want to use flash cards and write on them important pieces of information from study materials as you read them.
7. “Translations”. Use your own words to summarize what is written in your books. Deliberately avoid the words used by the author.
8. “Visual aids”. Write a detailed explanation for tables you find in the text or create tables or graphs for the most difficult passages.
9. “Visual to verbal projects”. Read a text, create a visual representation for it (graphs, tables, power point slides, posters) and then use this visual representation to give a speech.

Reading and writing: sentence starters

These are a few constructions that can help you when using the above discussed techniques. You may want to use these sentence starters if you need to read and write about what you have read.

• To personalize materials: this reminds me of; this is relevant to my life because; I experienced this once…
• To summarize: the main idea is that; in a nutshell, this article says that…
• To interpret: I think this represents; the message I’m getting is…
• To analyze: this word stands out for me because; I like how the author uses… to show…
• To evaluate: I like/ dislike; I agree/disagree… because…

Unless your teachers assign you particular writing and reading tasks, you are free to use any of the techniques offered here to better understand texts and improve your achievements. Even if you need to complete different reading and writing assignments, feel free to use any of the sentence starters above to direct your thinking process and make your essays flow.

Travel writing: literature genre

Travel writing is a genre of literature describing real or imaginary places. Here are a few classical examples of most famous travel literature samples of all times. You must have heard of them, but probably you did not pay much attention to their genre:

• The Odyssey by Homer;
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway;
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain;
• the latest bestseller Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Your instructor may assign you an analysis of one of these or other travel fiction books. Numerous guide books and reviews are good travel writing examples as well. By the way, when your school teachers told you to write a traditional essay “How I Spent My Summer Holidays”, you frequently practiced travel writing.

Travel writing career

Today, good old travel writing is not only a literature genre, but also an attractive career option. Have you already received invitations to expensive travel writing courses promising stunning success and a glamorous life on permanent vacation? If not yet, you will surely receive them later. In fact, some people truly make a living as travel writers. However, they belong to a tiny minority.
 
Why nobody mentions thousands of travel writers who have negative income because most travel trade publications and magazines do not pay them in advance? Why not discuss those who receive hundreds of letters of rejection from different publications before deciding to give up? The supply far exceeds the demand. There are too many writers, but much fewer readers.
 
Moreover, traveling with the purpose to write about it is not always what you expect it to be. Do you think travel writers really enjoy their hasty tours and evenings spent on typing up accounts of a new town? Certainly, they do not. You should not rely blindly on all those sugar-coated advertisements. Instead, try to face the truth and learn from the mistakes of others.
 
Yes, you can make travel writing an exciting hobby, travel and write about the places you have visited for pleasure, but you should not expect to make a fortune on it.

Travel writing competitions

In fact, travel writing as a hobby is much more rewarding. You can enjoy your travels and share your impressions with others on Facebook, Twitter or on your personal blog. You may want even to participate in travel writing competitions. May good luck be your friend in this undertaking! Importantly, participation in competitions and blogging would not distract you from study and your accustomed lifestyle and will do no harm. You may even improve your writing skills by working on your travel posts.
 
The idea of becoming a travel writer and traveling for free is the latest fad. The tiny minority of successful travel writers and aggressive strategies of marketers can make people think that everything is possible. Remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch and try to be realistic when making important decisions.

1. Does the title of the book or article reveal much about its content?
2. For whom is the book intended? Will these people find this book useful?
3. Does the author clearly state his or her ideas?
4. Are the examples offered by the writer relevant to the topic that he or she discusses? Are these examples accurate?
5. Does the author explain all terms and concepts that might be unfamiliar to intended readers?
6. What are the main premises of the authors’ arguments? Are these premises made explicit
7. Was this book useful to you? Did you learn anything new from it?

How to Critique: Dos and Don’ts of Academic Writing
 
There are several principles and rules of thumb that will help you when you write papers from a critical perspective. Although some of them may appear to be self-evident, they have been of great use to many students:

1. Never overuse block quotes in your paper. You can always express even the most complex idea in your own words. Overall, you should use the author’s words directly only in those cases, when you need to refer to a very specific term or expression that best describes a certain idea.
2. Try to look from different angles at every idea or theory that the author advocates. For example, you can look at it from a social, economic, psychological or cultural standpoint. In this way, you’ll better see the strengths and weaknesses of any theory.
3. Avoid making subjective and ungrounded statements. For example, if you say that the writer’s ideas are trivial, you need to explain why they are trivial and offer concrete arguments and examples.
4. Avoid summarizing. Remember that the purpose of a critique is to assess the writer’s ideas, not to retell them.

How to Critique: Closing Remarks
 
So, now you know how to make critique more interesting and objective. In the course of your academic studies, you will write plenty of papers and many of them will have elements of critical evaluation. So, the knowledge of how to critique is something you will always need.