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How to Remove ABD Status? – 3 steps which you should take now

The ABD status or the ‘All but dissertation’ status is something that forms part of your challenge if you are a student aspiring to get your doctorate and are in the process of starting a dissertation. This is a level at which you may have finished all the skeletal processes of completing your doctorate and may be left with just the dissertation project. Here are 3 major steps that help you in removing the ABD status for good.
Get the dissertation chair involved: The best way to make the ABD removal process a safe one is to make sure that the supervisors or the advisors for your project are kept in the loop. Having discussions with the supervisors ensures that you know what they expect and the steps you plan to take may comply with the demands or the requirements of the chair. This method also helps in keeping you exposed towards the chair and each step that you take may be noted with a positive attitude if the supervisors are involved right from the beginning.
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Ask a statistician: If you are at the helm of your dissertation and need to create a statistical study to support your work, you will be required to make certain assumptions and along with that you will need solid proof to complement your assumptions and inferences. Though it may sound simple, the data analysis and statistics process is one that requires in-depth knowledge and expertise, the safest bet for you in such a situation is to get a statistician on board and get their help to create a statistical data analysis.

Hire a mentor: You may be provided with a mentor or supervisor who looks into the progress of your work, but they may or may not give you essential inputs to make your work better. On the other hand, if you hire a coach or a mentor who is a professional, he or she may not only be able to help you with your project but may also contribute as an editor in the course of the project.

Choosing the right methods and techniques of work may go a long way in providing you with relief in your dissertation project and the making of your statistical data analysis.

Some Clues for Research Paper Writing

Research paper writing is a task of effort so the first thing you need to do is give yourself enough time to work. For a research paper of average length, a month should be given to yourself to be able to collect data and library research material. If you organise your tasks better would help you to maximize the output of your tasks much better than ever before. Effective time management for different activities involved with research writing can help you in a very good way to get maximum productivity.

It is necessary that you write a very strong thesis statement. A thesis statement is a formal way to put up the question that you desire to give an answer to in your paper. Mostly, an involved supervisor would want to approve your thesis statement before you actually begin with your research. Some general hints can help to strengthen the thesis statement. It should be on a simple subject to work upon with a narrow perspective. Try to have a sharpened thesis statement. Before you actually give it for approval or start to further work on it, make sure your idea can be executed. Some amount of preliminary research is helpful here.

Another useful tip is to familiarise yourself well with the sources from where you will be getting the reference material. Get tuned to your university library system so that your precious time isn’t wasted trying to locate the material.

When you begin to write the outline of your research paper, never take it lightly. Remember that your paper standard will match with the standards you create with the outline of the document. At the extreme top write your introduction which is the thesis statement expanded into a paragraph. It should be definite and concise and remember not to put opinionated statements as that brings down the credibility of the facts and the content. Do a very systematic review of each resonant point in your argument. Below the introduction, write the main heading followed by the subheading and ensure it matches with the material that has been gathered by you.

When you come to the conclusion, it should be the synopsis of the paper, a summary of the thesis statement with which you started the document.

Before you go ahead with finalising the outline of your paper, ensure that each point is specified clearly and you have worked upon creating a flow in the paper and have not missed onto any point that has been mentioned in the thesis statement.

Best Practices for a Data Analysis Chapter as per APA Formatting

So, you have done your research and performed analysis on your data to verify it for reliability. You might have used tools like SPSS, STATA, ANOVA, SAS, etc. But, are all your efforts thrown out the window if not presented correctly? Yes, it’s all about presenting your data and formatting it in an approved manner to spotlight the ideas being presented. The outcome of the statistical tests performed in data analysis is organized and presented in tables and figures. APA formatting is used for the proper construction of tables and figures (graphs, pictures, charts, drawings and maps) of data analysis chapter. It consists of rules of style that are used to enhance this presentation so that other researchers can find it easy to understand your research ideas. The goal of this article is to point out the problems encountered and their respective solutions to perform appropriate APA formatting for your data analysis chapter. Here’s how you can construct tables and figures of data analysis chapter as per APA formatting.

The format of all the tables and figures in a data analysis chapter should be the same with same name and scale. They should appear before the appendices. One table should fit on one page and if not, then try to reduce or increase its data or line spacing. You can use landscape orientation if the table is too long. Set uniform margins of at least 1 in. (2.54 cm) on the top, bottom, left, and right of every page.

The following descriptive table is an example of an APA formatted table describing all the major parts.

Table number: This part of the table lies at the left most corner above the title in non-italic form. It should be numbered using Arabic numerals in a sequential manner. For example Table 1, Table 2, etc.

Title: It should be very precise describing the contents of the table in an italic form. For journal publication, double-spacing is required else single spaced can be applied.

Headings: They should be kept brief while explaining the organization of the table. All the columns must have a heading. The first heading of the first column is referred to as stub head. Abbreviations can be used for better presentation.

Table Body: It consists of the actual content of the table. The unit of measurement and number of decimal places should never be changed throughout the table. They should be consistent.

Table Notes: Notes are placed at the bottom of the table. They are meant to elaborate the contents of the table, or to eliminate any redundancy of data, or to indicate statistical significance. They are of three types, general, specific, probability. They should be listed with general notes first, then specific notes, and concluded with probability notes, without indentation. They may be single-spaced for better presentation. Explain all uses of dashes and parentheses. Abbreviations for technical terms, group names, and those of a similar nature must be explained in a note to the table.

Note: The vertical lines are generally not used whereas horizontal lines are used under the table title, headings and after body.

Step by step example to format a SPSS output table:

An SPSS output is generated while performing statistical tests during the data analysis of your research. Following is a step by step guide on how to format a SPSS output according to APA format in MS Word 2013.

The above SPSS output table is converted into an APA formatted table through following steps:
1. Inserting Table in MS Word 2013
• Type the table number and table title in the document before inserting the table
• Click on Insert and make a 6X7 table

2. Adding the horizontal lines
• According to APA format, only horizontal lines are required
• At Home go to the Paragraph section, click on Border and enable View Gridlines

• Right click on the table and select Borders and Shadings

• Select Custom in the Setting section and on the Preview section, select the upper and lower buttons to insert upper and lower horizontal lines of the table.
• Apply to Table
• Click Ok
• Select the first row of your table and right click to go to Borders and Shading tab
• Select Custom and lower button on the preview section
• Apply to cell
• Click Ok

3. Correcting the line spacing
• Select the table and click on paragraph dialog box button
• In the Indents and Spacing section, set Line spacing to Single
• Set Before and After Spacing to 6pt

• Enter the contents of the table
This is how your table will look like:

4. Adjusting the column widths
The headings in the APA table should be center aligned, the stub headings should be left aligned while the cell content should be decimal aligned and in center under the headings.
• Select the first row of your table and enable Center alignment from the toolbar

Also, there should be no wrapped text in the APA formatted table. In the above example, “Statistical Tests” is in wrapped form. To unwrap text, increase the column width.
• Right click on the first column and select Table Properties

• Go to the Column section and tick the checkbox beside Preferred width
• Set it on 2”
• Click Ok
• For aligning the cells of the table, select them and click the paragraph dialog box button.

• Select Tabs button
• Click Clear all and set Alignment to Decimal
• Enter the Tab stop position 0.2”

This is how your table will look like:
• Now disable the View gridlines by selecting the Border button of the Paragraph section
• With the table number and title, this is how the APA formatted table should look like:

Formatting of Figures

Figures are the graphical presentation of data. They can be graphs, charts, photographs, maps or diagrams. Generally, the construction of tables and figures requires same concepts of implementation. Figures are the best visual presentation for information that is hard to interpret through text. Following are some guidelines to follow while formatting any type of figure:

1. Figures are numbered using Arabic numerals in a sequential manner. Each table and figure should be numbered separately. For example, Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, etc.
2. The figure caption should be very precise with proper explanation of the figure content.
3. The figure number should be italicized, but not the figure caption.
4. The figure caption text should be in sentence case with the first letter capitalized.

If you are still doubtful and in dire need of any assistance for formatting your data analysis chapter as per APA formatting, feel free to contact us at info@statisticsconsultation.com

What It Takes to Make a Good Proposal and Dissertation Title?

The beginning of the proposal should emphasise on the problem statement that will be covered in the thesis and the foundation for it which is the background information that you have gathered and compiled for it. After that the next expected heading is the Literature Review. Remember that the proposal is made for a study which is proposed so it should be written in future tense where by whatever you state should be not generalised but very specifically pertaining to your research. The more focused you are the better it is and at the same time be realistic as in do not try to cover up a wide area of the topic. It is always better to go more deep on one specific problem rather than just scrap the surface of a wider area of study.

The proposal requires the researcher to also propose a good title to the research. The purpose of the title is to make the reader understand what is intended to be told in the study. The title should be so framed that gives some quick and early depth about the argument that has been placed in the study.

What are the features of a good dissertation title?

It should be original and strong: It is important that the title is strong indicating the conclusions about the subject. From the beginning of the research, the title itself should express the point that will be supported by the dissertation.

It should justify the discussion: One important trait of a good title is that it should provoke and ignite controversy creating substantive room for discussion. A good title that ignites room for discussion creates interest in the reader to read the entire document to understand how the point is supported.

Should only express one idea and that should be the main one: The paper or dissertation should revolve around one plot only and it should be expressed in the title. If it doesn’t happen then the reader loses patience while reading.

It has specificity: The dissertation topic should be like a woman’s skirt, long enough to cover the topic and short enough to arouse curiosity. It should necessarily address the important issue so should be sufficiently broad at the same time thoroughly focused on that plot.

Work on creating a link between your research and the existing research at the beginning stage…time to go!

Practice and Practice for Outstanding PhD VIVA

Other then all small little things that you have to take care of in your preparation for the VIVA, a lot of practice and practice is required all the time.

Your VIVA is primarily concerned with the content of your PhD, but at the same time a lot of questions would be asked to you related to various aspects of your PhD. Some key questions of related to your thesis could be:

* Details about your argument/ counter arguments
* The limitations of your thesis
* The scope for future research
* The method and the methodology adopted by you
* The structural approach that you have followed

You may have realised that questions like these are largely open ended and it is nearly impossible to revise what can be asked. Prepare hard to be very familiar with your thesis but the only best way to perform well is to do lots and lots of practice. Work around arranging as many as possible opportunities where you can practice in a formal VIVA situation. Insist and find ways to convince your supervisor to give you a formal practice, at least once. In addition to this, practice to present your thesis in a formal manner. Try to work around to grab an opportunity to present your thesis in any of the department seminars, if possible. This can become a very good and invaluable learning experience to be able to defend your work to open ended questions which can be of a similar genre that you can expect in your main PhD VIVA. Talking about your research and answering questions can instil a great deal of confidence in you and can be a very valuable learning ground.

Other than these formal opportunities, talk about your thesis with others, as much as possible. It can bring up questions and queries that may not occur to you otherwise and you may also recognise certain strengths of your thesis with the feedback you receive from others. These things may help you to talk about your thesis and its individuality with more confidence.

Have you also, ever thought about doing your own VIVA? Talk to yourself and question your own self, the more you familiarise yourself with your thesis, the closer you are to a successfully done up VIVA. So what are you waiting for, go ahead, start practicing and clear your oral examination with flying colours.