Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT have become increasingly popular among graduate students, raising an important and timely question: Can ChatGPT replace human dissertation guidance? While AI tools can be useful in limited and responsible ways, dissertation research remains a complex academic process that requires judgment, context, and ethical decision-making. Understanding the appropriate role of AI—and its limitations—is essential for students navigating doctoral and … [Read more...]
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Six Essential Elements for an Effective Results Chapter
The ‘Results’ chapter is usually the fourth chapter of your dissertation and it is indeed a vital one. In your Results chapter, the goal is to acquaint your audience with the vital parts of your research. Keep in mind that, in this chapter, you do not interpret the meaning behind these results or connect them to the literature. You simply present the most important data and results. The interpretation of this data is reserved for the next Discussion chapter. Unless your school requires it, the … [Read more...]
Dissertation Help: Choosing a Research Method:
Part 1- The Basics of Methodology & Research Design This is the first of a two-part article on choosing the right research method for your dissertation. Knowing the various research methods and their differences can help you choose the right method; this article focuses on the basics of methodology and design. After gaining a solid understanding of the different research methods, part two of this series will help you determine how to go about choosing the methodology that is best for your … [Read more...]
Dissertation Defense Preparation Power Series
Part 2: Dealing with Technical Requirements Welcome to part two of a four-part power series on successfully preparing for your dissertation (or thesis) defense. Each part in this power series helps you adequately prepare for each stage in the dissertation defense process. This way, by the time you read and implement the strategies of all four parts, you should walk into your dissertation defense and let all hell break loose! In a ‘successful’ hell kind of way of course. The four-part series … [Read more...]
A Dissertation Checklist: 5 Questions to Check Your Progress
“This article provides advice you help you reduce the gap between your dissertation goals and your actual progress.” How hard do you work? How hard do you study? As a student who has reached the doctorate level, you have certainly worked very hard to get to this point. With that being said, do you feel like no matter how hard you work, you are still behind on the dissertation goals and timeline you set for the coming months or year? If this is the case, you may think to yourself that you … [Read more...]
Dissertation Defense Preparation POWER Series: Part One
Preparing the PowerPoint The good news has finally arrived! You’ve spent hundreds of hours (but what probably has felt like millions of hours) working on your dissertation. You’ve been planning, brainstorming, proposing, outlining, drafting, researching, writing, screaming, kicking, crying, celebrating, and everything in between, in order to finally get your initial draft completed. You’ve submitted this draft to your adviser and other committee members and, finally, you’ve received the … [Read more...]
Introduction to Research Questionnaires: Advantages & Disadvantages
Every research method has its advantages and disadvantages. Doctoral students and researchers are often at a loss as to which method to choose. When choosing a method (or methods) for your research you must consider the most appropriate method (or combination of methods) that would be most effective for investigating your research problem and answering your research question(s) while working within the resources at your disposal. Toward this end, this article focuses on the advantages and … [Read more...]
SPSS Help: A Brief Tutorial
What is SPSS? Do you need SPSS help? SPSS is an IBM creation and stands for the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. It is an effective yet simple software for analyzing data inputs. This data can come from just about any source you can imagine: dissertation research, a customer resource management database, in-house marketing research, or even the server log data of a website. SPSS is also able to open numerous file formats, usually those related to structured data such as Microsoft … [Read more...]
A Dissertation Checklist: 5 Questions to Check Your Progress
A Dissertation Checklist: 5 Questions to Check Your Progress How hard do you work? How hard do you study? As a student who has reached the doctorate level, no doubt you’ve worked very hard to get to this point. With that being said, do you feel like no matter how hard you work, you are still behind on the dissertation goals you set for the coming months or year? If this is the case, you probably think to yourself that you simply must work harder and longer. Or maybe you are questioning … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Meet your PhD Deadlines
Do you find it really difficult to meet dissertation deadlines that you set? Do you find it hard to fulfill your personal deadlines especially when there is no great amount of extrinsic motivation coming from colleagues, dissertation supervisors and others? If so, this article discusses different ways that will greatly help you meet your deadlines and finally achieve those dissertation goals. In my experience, I found that there were 7 steps that I keep taking in order to stay motivated and on … [Read more...]
