Failing to complete a thesis can lead to several repercussions for both master’s and doctoral students. A delay in the thesis submission can impact the attainment of your degree. As a result of this oversight, the academic disciplinary committee may cut funding and postpone graduation.
Franklin University reveals that,
- 50% of the students don’t complete their doctorate due to intellectual, emotional, and academic stress.
Another statistical analysis presented by Wordsdoctorate portrays that,
- Due to inappropriate writing skills and lack of organization, the rejection rate for the Ph.D. thesis is 10-12% for every submission.
There are several circumstances which contribute to the incompleteness of the thesis. Students may face financial, psychological, and societal problems preventing them from proceeding. Other than this, some might lack appropriate research skills and writing practices.
Completing a thesis poses numerous challenges for students. Many seek assistance from professional thesis writing services to alleviate these difficulties. These experts offer valuable insights and guidance to improve quality and finish incomplete papers.
Let us first read the strategic plan to implement those tips for completing an unfinished thesis.
10 Strategies to Restart an Unfinished Thesis for Sure Completion?
Poor research skills and inadequate academic and writing practices make the thesis incomplete. Moreover, poor time management and inappropriate planning are the major factors in incompletion. Although restarting the thesis may sound very hectic, it is the requirement for successful degree completion.
You must follow the correct strategies to restart and complete an unfinished thesis. Here, we have gathered some practical strategies to boost students’ confidence for successful thesis completion. Read all the ten tips to achieve excellence.
1. Set Your Priorities
Before you start to complete an unfinished thesis, analyze what your significant priorities are. Whether you want,
- To publish a research paper?
- Complete a degree?
- Score excellent grades?
- Contribute to society?
- Move forward to post-PhD?
- Time-saving?
Whatever the reason, you must become habitual in setting priorities. Set weekly, monthly, and long-term goals to initiate thesis writing. Be highly specific, measurable, and attainable. For instance, if you have created an outline but the literature research is half done, first prioritize completing the study.
For instance, if the methodology is half-written, resume this section first, as it will help you maintain the upcoming flow. Focusing on the manageable chunks can help you develop excellence over time and let you complete an unfinished thesis effectively.
See the benefits of prioritizing your tasks in the image below:
Image source: USQ
2. Organise Your Writing Desk
Another important thing you can do to complete an unfinished thesis is to organize your writing desk. Discipline is the key, and following it in your writing habits will surely benefit you in achieving milestones. Having a neat and organized writing desk will save you time to find missing documents and misplaced files.
Allot specific portions to pens, plugs, and supplies to avoid distractions. It increases the focus and enhances the writer’s productivity. Make sure to include the following things while organizing your workspace:
- Use a comfortable revolving chair. Ensure that it maintains the correct posture while working on a computer.
- Your elbows should be 90 degrees or slightly obtuse while typing. Hence, height adjustment matters a lot while writing.
- Make sure to use a laptop stand, keyboard, and mouse to make the gadget’s usage flawless.
3. Adhere to the 80/20 Rule Seriously
The 80/20 rule dictates spending 80% of the time on the research process and the remaining 20% on the writing process. A thesis requires prolonged writing. You can dedicate much time to writing.
For instance, if you devote 10 hours to writing, you will write 2 hours in actual writing. Similarly, adhere to this timeline if you want to restart an unfinished thesis in 30 days.
In this regard, U.OSU describes some fantastic hacks to stick to the deadline while thesis writing:
- Thesis writing is not a linear process. There is no universal law to write an ordered thesis. You can start from whatever chapter, for instance, the methodology chapter.
- The academic experts advise writing the first chapter at the last, which is an introduction. Writing an introduction at the latest to complete an unfinished thesis is beneficial because, at that stage, you have much clarity of ideas.
- Determine the length of each chapter and divide the word count accordingly. For example, 3000 words are required for chapter three; you must write 152 words three days per week. It will constitute 152×3 days = 456 words, for writing 3000 chapter 3/456 words, which is 6.6 weeks. Hence, it concludes that about seven weeks are required to register for Chapter 3.
Following the above-discussed tactics can help to complete the thesis. You could overcome the fear of not meeting the paper using the manageable strategy.
4. Distinguish the Different Writing Stages
Before jumping directly into the writing process, you must differentiate between the writing stages. There are three main stages of writing such as:
- Planning
- Writing
- Editing
Adhere to the solid layout of the thesis, select which chapter or section you want to write first, and complete an unfinished dissertation. The University of Liverpool describes the typical plan and structure of a thesis:
Once you complete the half-done research and appropriate planning, proceed directly to the writing stage. When writing a thesis, write; don’t bother with the vocabulary. Be focused on presenting the research ideas and accurate experimental analysis in your own words.
Don’t edit while writing; it will detract you from the path and cause ambiguity in clustering thoughts. All these tactics will help you confidently complete an unfinished thesis. Editing of the content is performed after finishing the whole writing.
5. Avoid Perfectionism
The experts believe that perfectionists are considered unproductive as their Perfectionism paralyzes them. It is regarded as an unrealistic and high standard to attain. Although Perfectionism is essential in thesis writing, don’t be to stick to it. Many students think their supervisor should approve their first draft without any mistakes.
However, professors may suggest some valuable changes to clarify the concepts. Constructive feedback encourages students to think critically and modify their work rather than strive for perfection. Some of the examples of updating the thesis errors include:
- Clearly articulate the theories and concepts.
- Paraphrase the information extracted from primary and secondary research resources.
- Write well-organized and fluent sentences.
- Build a connection between the paragraphs and different sections.
- Make sure the argument is strong and dictates the primary purpose.
- Cite the sources of information to sound authoritative.
So, rather than focusing on perfection, integrate the above-discussed practices to complete an unfinished thesis.
6. Stay in Contact with the Supervisor
Your supervisor can give the most honest support to complete an unfinished thesis. Supervisors are the closest persons who have a deeper understanding of your research. Hence, they can better guide you to the best writing direction. They have an excellent knowledge of your style, research and other abilities.
Therefore, being a student or research scholar, you must stay in regular contact with your supervisor. The general rule for meeting the supervisor is once a month, but in case of incompletion, you must arrange some additional meetings, too.
The University of Sheffield presents the following core responsibilities of supervisors:
- Provides them with practical procedures for proper planning and time management.
- Suggests and corrects the contextual errors in a thesis.
- Make students understand their graduate research.
- We guide them to portray the originality of a thesis’s concepts, form, and structure.
- Inform the students about accurate referencing.
- Monitoring and reporting students’ progress.
7. Allocate Specific Hours for Writing
Make a proper schedule and allot different time slots to complete an unfinished thesis. Designing a timetable will help you write flawlessly. If you are a night owl, prioritize composing the timeframe according to your peak time. For the early morning person, noting when there is much clarity of thoughts and ideas is recommended.
See the set of tips advised by Arkansas State University on time management in thesis writing:
- Decide the appropriate hours to complete an unfinished thesis. Allocate the specific time frame, for instance, two hours per day.
- Ensure the development of an appropriate thesis goal. For example, I completed the literature review and formatted the table of contents. Accomplishing these minor goals will help you build connections in your thesis.
- Monitor the progress of your thesis writing. Evaluate how many timeframes you have written in the prioritize section.
8. Finish Research Before
The primary reason to complete an unfinished thesis is half-done research. Research is the most critical part of writing and students who ignore its importance regret when the deadline is reached. Rather than completing the whole thesis, focus on finishing the research process.
For instance, your thesis topic is “the latest digital marketing trends in the e-commerce industry.” First, divide the topic into manageable chunks and then conduct profound research.
Highlight the importance of online platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat and correlate marketing with these apps. If you are writing an introduction section, provide the contextual background of traditional and digital marketing.
To extract valuable information, surf the internet and explore credible research websites. The most popular are Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, NCBI, and PubMed. These online resources will help you assemble questionnaires, interviews, surveys, and research articles.
9. Meditate and Relax
We are humans, not robots; therefore, we must meditate. Students often get exhausted, worried, and less focused on thesis completion. Thus, the experts advise practicing meditation to complete an unfinished thesis.
Meditation involves combining mental and physical techniques to help increase the human mind’s focus. It reduces stress and anxiety levels and retains the focus aligned with great creativity. Clinically, it has been proved that meditation helps the student in the following ways:
- Enhancing student’s memory
- Evoking curiosity and critical awareness
- Promoting the social skills of students
- Fast forwarding the academic writing process
It is advised to do meditation away from your writing space. Select some specific area or a garden where you can inhale the freshness and exhale the stress. Hence, taking breaks while accomplishing the final thesis task is obligatory. Although the writing process is tedious, practicing the little things can make it engaging. So, relax and meditate when you get bored of writing. Indeed, this will help you to increase productivity.
10. Thesis Proofreading
To complete an unfinished thesis, proofreading is the core practice to implement. Proofreading is part of thesis writing. It helps the students to spot the various grammatical and syntactical errors. It helps to review the contextual flaws and ensure its technical consistency. The following errors should be highlighted to increase the readability:
- Spelling and sentence structuring.
- Grammatical and typographical errors.
- Repetitive and omitted words
- Slang and informal academic language.
After finishing the writing process, it is evident that students may feel stuck with thesis proofreading. Some might feel exhausted, and some may lack the appropriate skills to spot the errors. In this challenging situation, they seek help from expert thesis editors. They ensure a well-edited and high-quality thesis.
What Happens if You Don’t Finish Your Thesis?
If you do not finish your thesis, you may only be awarded a degree if you spend your thesis. Moreover, there will be a delay in your academic funding.
How Many People Don’t Finish Their Thesis?
According to Franklin University, 50% of people must finish their thesis.
Conclusion
You can now quickly complete an unfinished thesis based on the above discussion. Use an appropriate writing plan and chronological order to reflect coherence. Finish the half-done research and reconstruct the remaining sections. Maintain focus on a particular chapter to be on the track of flawless writing. Therefore, getting your thesis done will lead to a successful degree completion. Be vigilant in completing the contextual gaps and sound proficient in your original research.
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