An accessible guide to the most important academic writing skills a student needs to write successful undergraduate dissertations and project reports on any HE course. This book will give the reader a sound grounding on what the whole business of dissertation and report writing is about, and will provide instantaneous, easily accessible answers to specific questions on all of the most important areas of planning, researching, writing, revising and referencing a successful dissertation or report.
Introduction: Do as we say not as we do
Part 1: Getting ready
Chapter 1: The challenges
Chapter 2: Deciding what to write about
Part 2: Getting organised
Chapter 3: How to prepare and submit a proposal
Chapter 4: Ways to stop wasting time
Chapter 5: Dissertation planning
Chapter 6: Planning your experimental project
Part 3: Finding and using information
Chapter 7: Information literacy
Chapter 8: Learning how to read
Chapter 9: Assessing the value of source material
Chapter 10: Turning reading into notes
Part 4: Research techniques
Chapter 11: Quantitative research
Chapter 12: Qualitative research
Chapter 13: Experiments and field trips
Chapter 14: The importance of critical thinking
Part 5: Numbers and data
Chapter 15: Working with numbers
Chapter 16: Working with and presenting data
Part 6: Plagiarism, referencing and ethics
Chapter 17: Never ever plagiarise
Chapter 18: Citations and references
Chapter 19: The ethical dimension
Part 7: The first draft
Chapter 20: Structuring your dissertation
Chapter 21: Structuring your report
Chapter 22: Academic writing
Part 8: Editing, revising and presenting
Chapter 23: The importance of the post-writing phases
Chapter 24: Making the most of feedback
Chapter 25: The importance of presentation
