how to writing Dissertation:Production of your Dissertation

Taken from the Good Practice Guide:
Production of your Dissertation
The work has to be typed and bound in accordance with the university regulations forhigher degrees (University of Manchester. Regulations for the Presentation of Thesesand Dissertations). You should 留學(xué)生dissertation網(wǎng)receive such information when you complete the Noticeof Submission form.
MSc AM and AS students present their thesis at the Awards and Exams office in JohnOwens Building, MSc EA students, at the Post-graduate Office.
Dissertation Checklist
You need to check your draft for what might be termed continuity errors. Roughlyspeaking, this means checking that the whole text is consistent with itself frombeginning to end. If you have changed some sections, there might be section headingsto re-number, for example. To help you eliminate such errors, here is a checklist:
• are the headings & sub-headings in the contents list the same as those in thetext?
• have you given lists of tables and figures as well as chapters in your contents?
• are they all numbered consecutively? numberings from earlier versions maypersist and you may have two chapter 4s or no chapter 6.
• are all the cross-references to other sections of the study correct?
• do all the references in the text have a corresponding entry in the bibliography,with the same date as the reference in the text?
• where you refer to an article within an edited collection, have you included thefull book reference, with editors, as well as the chapter reference?
• are all the references complete, i.e. have you included the publication date and
place, as well as the publisher's name?
• tables: check that their numbers and titles are correct, and that references to
them in the text are correct;
• figures: as for tables
• have you checked all the calculations in your tables?
• have you got correct totals in the tables?
• is there enough labelling information in your tables and graphs? (eg if you referto percentages, is it clear exactly what they are percentages of? Do you make itclear whether raw scores or percentages are being referred to?)
• have you calculated all the figures to the same number of decimal places?
• are you consistent about abbreviations?
None of these proof-checking tasks are the responsibility of your supervisor.
Taken from the Good Practice Guide:
http://www.man.ac.uk/goodpractice/
Typing your Dissertation
If you can work on a word-processor yourself, so much the better. If not, there are anumber of typists available through university channels who type theses; many arelisted in 'This Week, Next Week'. When you find a typist willing to take on your piece ofwork, establish with care where and when you will be able to contact them and returnproofs to them for error-correction. Charges will include the correction of errors madeby the typist but if there are a large number of errors and changes initiated by you,then there will be an extra charge.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#
Tables cost more than continuous text. You may find it best to do your tables yourself,or a joint production involving your drawing and the typist's labelling. Increasingly,students are producing high quality tables and graphs from the graphics packages thatare often available along with word-processing facilities. It is, of course, yourresponsibility to produce such material if you wish to include it.If you have been conscientious with your reference cards, as suggested in section9.2.5, you or your typist can type the bibliography straight off the cards. Make sure theappropriate regulations concerning margins, spacing, etc. are used.If you are not entirely confident about your standard of English, make sure that thisproblem has been ironed out before you take your work to the typist. Correcting
ungrammatical English is not the job of your supervisor nor of the typist, and if youneed this service, there are plenty of individuals and specialist firms who provide it (ata fee - again, some advertise in 'This Week, Next Week'.Collaborating with a typist can be a complicated business; in a specialist piece of work,the potential for error is great. A significant number of typing errors arise because thetypist cannot read your hand-writing. This has to be completely unambiguous: readersof texts normally make use of context to help them interpret words they are not sureof, but in difficult texts, the context may be of no use to the reader, and individualwords must therefore be written clearly. This will go some way towards preventingavoidable errors, such as 'Patient Guidance' appearing instead of 'Parent Guidance', or'modular genetics' instead of 'molecular genetics', for example. Even a wordprocessor'sspell checker will not weed out such errors and it is sometimes difficult to
spot them once they are in.
Do spend adequate time proof-reading, and all the better if you can find a secondreader - it's difficult to spot errors in a text yourself when you are beginning to getweary of seeing that text. Don't imagine that the examiners will not notice the errors -they will. In particular, be conscientious about spelling names in the reference list, anddouble-check all the figures in the tables. Inaccuracies give an extremely badimpression and if there are too many of them, your thesis will end up in category 3(major corrections) rather than 2 (minor corrections) regardless of the quality of itscontents.
Some typists may be able to produce a long piece of work during a short period of timebut in general, your thesis has to take its place amongst other commitments. Youcannot expect your typist to move mountains to meet your deadlines if they areunreasonable, and it is best to establish at the outset exactly what the time-scale willbe. Four weeks should be adequate, but this does of course depend entirely on yourtypist.
Taken from the Good Practice Guide:
http://www.man.ac.uk/goodpractice/
Page 3
Word-processing has its advantages: particularly if you can keep your thesis on discand also keep a backup copy. Corrections are easier and even more importantly, it iseasy to carry out minor corrections to your dissertation if you have the disk. Finally, ifyou wish to publish your findings, an academic paper can be produced from adaptingyour thesis to appropriate dimensions for publication.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#
Binding your DissertationYou are required to present two copies of your thesis, with lettering on the spine andformat according to the regulations. These copies can be in soft or hard binding of aspecific 怎么寫DISSERTATION regulatory style (done at the library). It is advisable to initially present yourthesis in soft binding. If you prefer hard binding this is only advisable after you havedone all corrections required by the examiners.Binderies vary, but usually you need 4-5 working days to a week for binding. If youintend to leave Manchester, either use binders local to you and post on, or check with
the Manchester bindery before you leave to see if you can post your work. Even then,you will have the problem of picking it up.In these latter stages, most people's instinct is to become increasingly attached to theirwork, and they try to avoid leaving it anywhere, or entrusting it to the post. If youwere to leave it in your car and the car should be stolen, for example, the chances arethat you would feel far worse about the loss of your thesis than about the loss of yourcar. The story of the student who put an entire thesis (printed but not bound) on theback seat of the car and then drove off - with the windows open - is probablyapocryphal - as indeed is the well-known tale of the gourmet academic who had amishap with a bottle of red wine inside a briefcase.Bear in mind that the practical task of completing your thesis may become problematicif you are no longer in Manchester. It is not your supervisor's job to check references inthe library or take your dissertation to the bindery