Theses and dissertations

Edit and proofread

Ross Woods, rev. 2018-25  

Writing as you go

In many institutions, students hand in their work to their supervisors part by part, often in chapters. You will normally need to have edited each chapter into good enough shape so that the supervisor will want to read it. While it doesn't need to be perfect, it needs to be free of grammmatical mistakes, typographical errors, and layout glitches. Research supervisors generally want to discuss the research aspect of your dissertation and don't want to talk about annoying writing errors. In fact, if they find lots of writing errors, they are quite entitled to return your draft and ask you to make those corrections before they will even read it.

However, the main part of the editing is the last stage before submission, where you will read and re-read the whole dissertation many times.

When writing a first draft, your main task is to get everything into words on the screen. Many advisors say that you shouldn’t edit at all during this stage, although I don’t mind it a little. The problem with editing at this stage is that it is easy to get distracted by imperfections and then have difficulty getting the first draft written.

When you are satisfied, put it away for at least three days, and preferably a week. This will give you the opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes. Then re-read it. You will probably see small errors that you missed before. (It is difficult to check your own writing, because you read what you think you meant or what you remember, not what is actually written.) You might find yourself saying Why did I say that?, What did I mean by that?, or That's not what I meant to say. or This seems jumbled and confusing. This gives you a chance to fix these errors while you can still remember enough and before anybody else sees them.

Note: Keep backups, because computer data can be lost very easily.

Edit and proofread

With thanks to Dαwιe Vαn Vuuνen

The standard for dissertation presentation is nearly the same that of a published book, and academic writing standards are generally based on publishers’ standards. In fact, one of the purposes of a dissertation program is for the student to demonstrate that he/she could write an original academic book. This is no longer simply a standard; most dissertations in accredited institutions are now published, even if non-commercially in a research repository on the internet.

You might feel that re-writing and editing are a frustrating waste of time, but an essential part of the task is polishing the manuscript and gettting the details right. This is the stage to get meticulous. Get details in logic and terminology correct, and make sure your spelling, punctuation and references are as close to perfect as you can make them. It is a basic academic skill, and is almost the same as writing a book for a publisher. According to one source, theses and dissertations are frequently rejected for small errors that are overlooked at the editing and proofreading stage. (Lyn Wαlden, 2017.)

It is comforting to know that software can now do much of the editing for you, even though it cannot do everything.

Unless you notice a serious mistake, it is now too late to add any new discovery, late data, or interesting discussion topic to yur proposal or dissertation. You really have to go with what you have, and can only make minor changes.

Your readership

Theses and dissertations have two main kinds of readership:

• A dissertation for a research degree is written for a readership of researchers. (This includes supervisors and assessors and non-PhD degrees that are equivalent to a PhD, such as many Doctor of Education programs.) As a result, the writer can assume that readers have a certain amount of background knowledge. It is not possible to write dissertations in some fields without making these assumptions, for example, the use of mathematical notation.
• A dissertation for a professional degree is usually written for a professional readership. For example, a Doctor of Ministry dissertation is written for other senior Christian leaders to read.

What do supervisors and assessors generally prefer to read?

Supervisors and assessors generally want to sit down and enjoy reading something that is pleasant and easy to read, informative, and interesting. They don't want reading to feel like hard, grinding work. Enjoyable dissertations generally have the following characteristics:

1. They only need to read it once.
2. The grammar, typing, layout, and punctuation are correct; they are not annoyed by frequent errors.
3. The language follows the conventions of good written expression, for example, sentence length, economical number of words, clarity, transitional paragraphs, and use of common words when they are adequate.
4. The structure is logical so that readers can easily follow the train of thought.
5. Complex, new ideas are presented element by element, not as confusing verbiage.
6. It is often helpful to include direct quotes when analysing first-hand accounts and interviews. This has the advantage of humanizing the research, as well as exposing readers to the primary information, rather than to only your interpretation.
7. A picture is still worth a thousand words. Some dissertations can be more visual with graphs and diagrams.
8. Admittedly, a few sections might be harder to read, such as routinized reporting, or necessary but uninteresting details. (Readers usually skim these sections quickly.)

Different kinds of editing

Editing usually comprises at least five different kinds of activities, and software can help with some of them:

1. Developmental editing
2. Line editing
3. Copy editing
4. Feedback
5. Final proof reading

Developmental editing: Flow, structure, and logic

By the end of this stage, the logic of the whole dissertation should be sound. It has to make sense to someone who reads it afresh, who has a good background on the field of study, but in not your particular topic.

The primary concern is the flow, structure, and logic. Edit these at this early stage because there is little value in perfecting the details of a large section that you might later delete.

You might need to improve the structure, for example, shrinking long-winded sections and expanding sections that are too brief. Don't worry if it reduces the page count; it's progress even if it doesn't feel like (Students often fear that deletions will reduce the word total and give assessors a bad impression.) For each thing that needs to be condensed or cut, you will probably have to add more than you delete to fill gaps that you hadn't seen before. You can learn something through each of these changes so that the final product is better.

For example:

1. Is the sequence the most logical for your readers? Do you need to move sections?
2. Do you have evidence to support all your statements and conclusions? If it is not your own empirical evidence, you need facts from recent sources. Beware, however, that you need to evaluate your sources; a quotation from a credible source is not necessarily conclusive.
3. Do you need to delete sections? (Some sections might turn out to be irrelevant to the actual topic. It is always frustrating and disappointing to find out that you have to delete sections, especially if they are very long and you have worked hard on them.)
4. What should you do to sections that say the same thing in different ways or are redundant? Do you need to amalgamate them or delete one of them?
5. Are there contradictions or inconsistencies? These can be subtle and difficult to spot.
6. Are all sections at the right level of section heading? For example, do you have any major points hidden under minor headings?
7. Do the amount of words given to a point reflect its significance to the whole dissertation?
8. Have your statements been qualified or have you over-generalized?

Line editing

This is editing at the level of writing. Simple, direct, concise is still good advice; even academics want to read something engaging and interesting.

You might have noticed that some of the language in dissertations is quite complex. The question is then, “How complex should the language be?” The answer is, “Only as complex as the topic requires.” At times you might need to be complex because you use specialist terminology and deal with difficult topics or necessary details. But that is no excuse for convoluted writing that is unpleasant to read. It is still best to use simple, clear, concise writing. Do not use lengthy verbiage to conceal a lack of real thought or to increase the word total. Instead, use good language to make your point more clearly and to engage your readers.

1. Is there any clumsy, unclear, imprecise, or long-winded language that you should re-write?
2. Do sentence lengths vary enough?
3. Do you need to make the text flow for your readers?
4. Is it the same voice speaking throughout the dissertation? Does it follow a consistent academic tone, or is it sometimes informal or inconsistent?
5. Could something be better expressed as a story rather than a collation of concepts?

Using your software

Let software do some of the checking for you. This will save you lots of time and effort, and will pick up errors that you simply didn't see. You'll normally find that the software is imperfect, so you should be willing to overrule its suggestions at times:

1. Use your spellchecker and grammar checker. Most word processors can do a basic check, but it is reportedly not as good as Grammarly.
2. Try this simple procedure to easily and quickly correct hundreds of small typos in just a few seconds. You can eliminate incorrect character combinations with the Search and replace feature in your word processor. In this list of examples of incorrect character combinations, • represents a space, and | is used to separate examples: •• | • . | • , | “• |•”
3. Use software to check your language style. Wordrake is available for a free seven-day trial. Use it when you have checked the manuscript as thoroughly as you can. ProWritingAid can check grammar, spelling, and language style. Its dictionary and thesaurus also checks word selection. A free trial version is available.
4. Software can also check your references. See reciteworks.com. Colleagues have recommended it, but it does not guarantee perfect accuracy. Some experts recommend you do them by hand and use software as a checker. (If you use software such as Zotero to generate them, your references will probably be more accurate anyway.)

Copy editing

Your dissertation might be looking good, but you need to go through it looking for errors in grammar, punctuation, and layout. This calls for attention to detail and this is the stage to get meticulous. Get details in logic and terminology correct, and make sure your spelling, punctuation and references are as close to perfect as you can make them.

1. You need to do this manually, even though you should also use software. Despite the spellchecker, you still need to read it yourself. For example, form and from are both spelled correctly, but the spellchecker cannot pick your typo.
2. Save yourself some work by using the styles feature in your word processor.
3. Take particular care with citations and references, which are very easy to get wrong. The punctuation and layout requirements are very detailed, and some requirements vary greatly between different style guides. Using a service like Zotero can save time and ensure greater accuracy.

Feedback

Have someone read the whole manuscript and give you honest feedback. Tell them what you want them to do, because some expect to be only a proof-reader rather than a general critic.

1. At first, it might be someone close whom you trust to be constructive and not devastatingly critical.
2. Then get feedback from people of your target readership who have some distance from you and your work. For example, if you are doing original research, then it will be other researchers. If you are writing for a professional degree, then your audience might be professionals.

Final proof reading

Readers will be annoyed if they keep finding small mistakes in an otherwise good dissertation. Go through looking for the little errors you've missed so far. These might be typographical errors that the spellchecker missed, grammar that’s not quite right, punctuation errors, and clumsy sentences.

How long should it take someone else to proof-read your dissertation?

First, you need to get it done soon if a deadline is closing in on you. Second, it depends on the reader’s expertise and attention to detail. A careless reader achieves little, but some people are quite accurate and still quite fast.

For the most part, the goal of a writer is to have something that is a quick, pleasant read where your readers feel, I learned something new and helpful. Consequently, proofreaders need not be so conscientious that they get bogged down with details. They don't need to let the task take forever or become a stressful burden. Proof-readers are not co-authors and it's not their role to find solutions to problems. They only have to tell you if they see something wrong.

In most cases, a dissertation is in bad shape if reading it is a slow and laborious task. The exceptions are those parts where the writer's priority is to plod through lengthy (a.k.a. boring) details and get them right.

Final stages

When should you stop? The purpose of the final editing is to get the details right, but don't let perfectionism or lack of confidence prevent you from graduating. It is always easy to do one more edit or to look for one more journal article but you have to draw the line somewhere. It is better to have a dissertation that is not completely perfect and to graduate, than to have a good dissertation that never gets submitted.

When you are ready, run your paper through turnitin.com and show your supervisor the output.

If your supervisor agrees, you can now print off the final version and submit it to the committee. For fully online institutions, you'll more likely submit a pdf software version.