Seven Major Steps in Formatting a Dissertation Without Any Assistance

Somehow it seems that formatting is one of the hardest things for students. Either because there are so many things to take care of, or because the requirements do vary from course to course and college to college. Is formatting your own dissertation always so painful and tame-taking process that will make you stressed out and anxious? Not at all, there are simple secrets that will make the process easier for you and you’ll feel ready to do it all yourself.

Dissertation Formatting Without Stress: 7 Steps

  1. Get the manual.
  2. There are some special criteria in a college or from your professor, and you should get a printed or electronic manual describing all of that. The document might be big and wordy, but don’t let it scare you.

  3. Highlight all the criteria.
  4. Highlight all the important details in the document, you can even jot them down on sticky notes and pin somewhere near your working place. This will show you exactly what you need to include.

  5. Create a plan.
  6. Look at the calendar and make some checkpoints in your work to follow your progress and have a daily goal.

  7. Start working.
  8. Don’t try to do everything at once, but spare a couple of hours a day to work on formatting in a quiet and comfortable place. Turn some slow music, be attentive, you could use Pomodoro technique to improve concentration. But make sure no-one bothers you.

  9. Revisit the manual.
  10. Reread the instruction to see if you’re missing something. Do it a couple of times if needed, to lower your anxiety.

  11. Finalize formatting.
  12. Finish your layout and look for some common mistakes, check the spacing, margins, fonts everywhere and the presence of all the pages needed.

  13. Check things one more time.
  14. Before you send you dissertation, be sure to check everything not to get your stuff rejected.

Things to Avoid While Creating Your Layout

Try to stay focused on your work and don’t let others bother you. Find a place you could be alone and work there. Avoid excessive use of caffeine and try to keep your mind clear to be precise and objective. Don’t play around with fonts and remember that the text editor might contain some defaults in it, so don’t rely on its formatting.

As you see, it’s not that hard in the end if you know what to do and where to start from. It’s important to remember things to watch out too, since they are easy to forget about, but can lower your grade. Follow the list and focus on the process to ace it without worries.

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