The Features Of A Bad Undergraduate Dissertation: 7 Pitfalls To Avoid
Most people want to do the best that they possibly can when it comes to writing their dissertation. However, with the best will in the world things do occasionally go wrong from time to time and shock horror, a bad dissertation is produced. There are various different reasons why this might happen:
- The Student might have simply rushed through it
- They might lack certain knowledge
- May not have carried out all of their research.
The worst case scenario is when someone has handed in a dud paper thinking that they had absolutely nailed it. So, the purpose of this article is to walk you through the features of a bad undergraduate dissertation and spell out the 7 key pitfalls to avoid.
- A weak introduction - Your introduction is critical and success or failure often rides on this. If the introduction is weak, and the intentions of the author are too generic, or uninspiring then you may never regain the confidence of the reader.
- A poorly argued thesis. This is probably the most damaging of all of the things that can potentially go wrong. Your thesis is the skeleton on which everything else is hung. If this is poorly argued, or there is no merit for it, then the dissertation is destined to crash and burn.
- Lack of citations – Citations are important for several reasons, not least the fact that failure to include them could leave you open to allegations of plagiarism. Plus citations and references offer readers the chance to further reading beyond the taster that you are serving up in your dissertation
- A bad title – This might not seem like it is such a big deal, but trust me it is! A title has been known to make or break a paper and if you don’t put the time and effort into choosing a good one, then you can kiss goodbye to a decent grade.
- A boring topic – Clearly, you are never going to satisfy everyone. However, you really do need to do your best to choose one that will have the broadest possible appeal and will hopefully set you apart from the pack.
- A sloppy conclusion – I think the worst thing that you can do in your conclusion is introduce new arguments. You need to be sewing everything up as tightly as possible in your conclusion
- Bad Grammar/Spelling mistakes. Please make sure that you proofread your work as many times as possible. Even the best papers can fall apart if they are littered with errors that should have been picked up.