Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Writing chapter outlines
Moore and Searcy’s (1998) ‘Theses and dissertations: a guided tour’ provides
many useful suggestions for students to analyse sample dissertations in prepa-
ration for planning the organization of their own theses and dissertations. In
this activity, students analyse a dissertation with a similar research perspec-
tive to their own to identify its organizational structure. This analysis takes
them through the major sections of their sample dissertation, considering
both the content and organization of the stages of the text as they go. They
are then asked to consider the reasons for the various organizational choices
the writers of their texts have made. Students then use the results of their
analyses as a guide for preparing the writing of their dissertations. This use of
models not only gives students a guide to conventional forms of texts
(Dudley-Evans 1997), but also provides ‘valuable clues to the status of knowl-
edge in the field’ (Charney and Carlson 1995: 116). The activity in the
following Application is based on Moore and Searcy’s (1998) guidelines.