It is common knowledge that a dissertation should be written in a form of a scientific research paper. It should include an introduction, literature review, and discussion part. Other parts should not be used since they are usually used for journal articles [if there is no other option]. If you have already written your article, keep reading this guide to find out what you should do in order to avoid plagiarism and use it as a dissertation. Here you’ll know How to write a dissertation in Biology.
How to write a dissertation in Biology?
Check the title and the introduction of your article
The first thing that you should do is go back to your article and read everything once again. Pay special attention to the title since it will be your dissertation’s title, too [so make sure that you won’t use the same title]. If you are not sure what your dissertation’s title should look like, check other dissertations. There will be a lot of them online and it should be easy to find some examples.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism
As you probably already know, any piece of work that contains plagiarism should be rejected. If you want your dissertation to be accepted, it should not contain plagiarism. One of the ways of checking if there is any plagiarism is using anti-plagiarism software like Grammarly, Copyscape, or Research prospect Plagiarism checker. They will compare your work to trillions of other papers that are available online. If they find even a tiny similarity, it will be highlighted and you should revise your dissertation before submitting it.
Check the introduction part of your article
The introduction should include the aim of your research [what question you tried to answer], background information [knowledge about topic/methods, etc.], methods [how did you do your research], and results [what you found out during your research].
What happens if there is not an introduction part in my article?
It’s true that some articles don’t have an introduction section but it does not mean that you can skip this step completely. You should still put something to let your readers know why you are writing this dissertation. Also, include the aim of your research and say a few words about what will be discussed in the next parts of the dissertation. If you followed step 2 already, it should not be that difficult to write an introduction.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism
You might think that it is unnecessary to check the introduction part of your dissertation since you already did so when you read through the article. Well, there is a catch. If you checked it even once before submitting your work, there would be no plagiarism in it [even if it happened by accident].
Make sure that there is no plagiarism for the second time
Even if you checked the introduction part just now, there is a possibility that your dissertation still contains plagiarism. It is because Google has indexed the pages of your dissertation even though it wasn’t submitted yet. To check this out, you should look for something that looks completely irrelevant to your dissertation [e.g. “training review” if your dissertation is about cloning] and … you got it! Check if there are any similarities. If so, revise your work before submitting it.
Write the literature review part of your dissertation
The next step in writing a dissertation is doing a literature review which should cover all the published articles related to your topic. You can distinguish them into two groups: the ones you used and the ones that were not used in your dissertation.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism for the third time
Even if you checked everything twice before submitting, it doesn’t mean that you are done with checking plagiarism. You should still check your literature review one more time by looking for something that doesn’t belong there [e.g. “training review” if your dissertation is about cloning].
Write the methodology part of your dissertation
The next step in writing a dissertation is doing a literature review which should be followed by the methods section. It should include research design, statistical analysis, and all other methods used to answer your dissertation’s aim.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism for the fourth time
Even if you checked everything three times before submitting, it doesn’t mean that you are done with checking plagiarism. You should still check your methods one more time by looking for something that doesn’t belong there [e.g. “training review” if your dissertation is about cloning].
Write the results part of your dissertation
Your dissertation should have a results section that includes all the research findings obtained from previous steps [the literature review, methods, and introduction]. They should be very detailed. Make sure to mention every piece of information in chronological order.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism for the fifth time
Even if you checked everything four times before submitting, it doesn’t mean that you are done with checking plagiarism. You should still check your results one more time by looking for something that doesn’t belong there [e.g. “training review” if your dissertation is about cloning].
Write the discussion part of your dissertation
The last step in writing a dissertation is doing a literature review which should be followed by discussing results. It should include all possible interpretations of your research findings and their possible applications in practice.
Make sure that there is no plagiarism for the sixth time
Even if you checked everything five times before submitting, it doesn’t mean that you are done with checking plagiarism. You should still check your discussion one more time by looking for something that doesn’t belong there [e.g. “training review” if your dissertation is about cloning].
Submission and proofreading of the completed dissertation
Before submitting, make sure to read it at least once or twice, preferably more to improve your language and style.
Make final revisions of the dissertation
Just before submitting your dissertation, make sure that you made all the revisions suggested by your supervisor [or professor]. You can do them in a text editor or ask someone else to help you with checking plagiarism. If this is done, you have finished writing a dissertation in biology! Congratulations!
