5 Common Mistakes When Writing a Thesis or Dissertation

While composing a thesis or dissertation, a student must experience some predicted traps. Falling into these traps can affect one’s academic career. However, handling potential blunders and pitfalls wisely, while developing a thesis, can lead you to success. The process of writing may be frustrating but learning about the probable pitfalls may ease your stress. Here, we bring you the list of the most common mistakes we have noticed as a professional proofreading and editing service provider.

30.07.2021

5 Common Mistakes When Writing a Thesis or Dissertation

This guide discusses the common 5 mistakes when writing a thesis or dissertation. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.

Writing a thesis or dissertation is not just about collecting data and jotting it down. While writing, students need to organize the thesis statement and gather enough logical data to support the statement. Therefore, organizing all relevant information and maintaining the academic guidelines at the same time is no less than a struggle.

While composing a thesis or dissertation, a student must experience some predicted traps. Falling into these traps can affect one’s academic career. However, handling potential blunders and pitfalls wisely, while developing a thesis or dissertation, can lead you to success. The process of writing may be frustrating, but learning about the probable pitfalls may ease your stress. Here, we bring you the list of the most common mistakes when writing a thesis or dissertation.

Mistakes while writing a thesis/dissertation

Addressing all the mistakes is not an easy task. There are some common errors, but flaws vary from person to person. Lack of research while choosing the topic, lack of strength in the thesis statement, problems in formatting, writing bland information, mistakes in referencing and citation, failures in proofreading and editing, etc., are some common errors. However, Best Edit & Proof has drafted all these blunders into 5 sections for you.

1. Choosing the wrong thesis/dissertation topic

Choosing the wrong thesis/dissertation topic can weaken the entire plot of the thesis. Most of the time, it seems like students are in a hurry while choosing the topic. It leads them to choose the wrong thesis/dissertation topic. While picking up the topic, make sure to follow the following points:

  • Do proper background research.

  • Brainstorm different concepts. If the concept doesn’t interest you, the journey of writing will be boring.

  • You need to form your topic as a research question.

  • Research about the initial approaches to the chosen topic and think about the topic from different aspects of society and academics.

Dynamic research is always appreciated while choosing the thesis topic.

2. Failure to write an impactful thesis statement

Choosing the topic and developing a research question is not enough. A student needs to create a strong thesis statement. Students often make mistakes while forming this part. The process may be critical, but a student needs to avoid any mistakes while stating the viewpoint.

Take a note that the thesis statement must be precise, bold, and to the point. The statement must be reliable and attractive. A poorly written thesis statement disinterests readers to go through the thesis furthers.

  • Understand and analyze the thesis/dissertation topic.

  • The statement of the thesis/dissertation must give hints of further discussion.

  • Avoid grammatical and punctuation errors in this part.

  • Restrain yourself from writing anything that doesn’t have any concrete base or references.

3. Lack of rational association between thesis statement and written information

Making a logical connection between the chosen statement and supporting information is necessary to execute a successful thesis or dissertation. Due to a lack of research and brainstorming, many researchers often fail to build this connection. A well-versed research paper meets all the inquiries and fixes all the loopholes in it.

The initial explanation for this issue is the inability to discover supporting ideas or information that possess relevant resources. All the supporting statements must compliment your main topic. The entire paper should look like a photocopy where the thesis statement and supporting information are properly synchronized.

All the supporting information must be cited from trusted scholarly sources. Committing errors in citing references is not appreciated.

· 7 Tips to Write an Effective Research Paper

· How to Write the Best Theoretical Framework for Your Dissertation

· How to Structure a Dissertation: A Brief Guide

· How to Formulate Research Questions

4. Violating academic integrity

The study of academics holds strong integrity. Violating academic integrity is not entertained at all while preparing a thesis or dissertation. How can one break this integrity? Let’s have a look at them.

Violating university guidelines: Violating university guidelines while writing is nowhere allowed.

Plagiarizing content: Plagiarizing content from other sources is strictly prohibited.

False information: Making false claims is not a good practice for academics.

· What is Plagiarism | How to Avoid It

· How to Choose the Right Plagiarism Checker for Your Academic Works

· 5 Practical Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

5. Avoiding expert’s help for proofreading and editing

Proofreading and editing are an integral part of thesis writing. Committing mistakes refers to compromising the quality of a thesis/dissertation. Experienced proofreading and editing services check the entire thesis from beginning to end and make all the necessary changes in terms of grammar, punctuation, referencing, and even sentence construction. Especially, non-native English speakers make mistakes in terms of language and style.

However, irrespective of native or non-native speakers, they meet failures in formatting, referencing, and keeping the consistency of the thesis or dissertation from each aspect.

· 8 Reasons Why You Need Professional Proofreading and Editing Services

· How to Find a Reliable Proofreading Service: A Brief Guide

· Why Do You Need Academic Editing?

· How Much Do Proofreading and Editing Cost?

· 8 Things to Consider Before Hiring Online Editing or Proofreading Services

· Importance of Academic Referencing and Citing

Common thesis mistakes

6. Other common mistakes while writing a thesis or dissertation

  • The use of first or second person: Writing sentences in the first person and the second person is not an academic practice.

  • Fragment sentence: Using long and bland sentences can affect the tone of the article.

  • Grammatical errors: Mistakes in grammar and punctuation are considered substandard.

If you need us to make your manuscript shine, contact us unhesitatingly!

Best Edit & Proof expert editors and proofreaders focus on offering manuscripts with proper tone, content, and style of academic writing, and also provide an upscale editing and proofreading service for you. If you consider our pieces of advice, you will witness a notable increase in the chance for your research manuscript to be accepted by the publishers. We work together as an academic writing style guide by bestowing subject-area editing and proofreading around several categorized writing styles. With the group of our expert editors, you will always find us all set to help you identify the tone and style that your manuscript needs to get a nod from the publishers.

English manuscript formatting service

You can also avail of our assistance if you are looking for editors who can format your manuscript, or just check on the particular styles for the formatting task as per the guidelines provided to you, e.g., APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian styles. Best Edit & Proof editors and proofreaders provide all sorts of academic writing help, including editing and proofreading services, using our user-friendly website, and a streamlined ordering process.

Get a free quote for editing and proofreading now!

Visit our order page if you want our subject-area editors or language experts to work on your manuscript to improve its tone and style and give it a perfect academic tone and style through proper editing and proofreading. The process of submitting a paper is very easy and quick. Click here to find out how it works.

Our pricing is based on the type of service you avail of here, be it editing or proofreading. We charge on the basis of the word count of your manuscript that you submit for editing and proofreading and the turnaround time it takes to get it done. If you want to get an instant price quote for your project, copy and paste your document or enter your word count into our pricing calculator.

Common thesis mistakes

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Common thesis mistakes

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