Chapter 1 Defining the Dissertation You are asked to write a term paper,a library paper,a review,or a book review in order to demonstrate that you have learned the necessary skills of a general academic ability in the subject taught during the semester.
How to define the terms like thesis,dissertation,paper(all be translated into Lun wen论文) vs their relationship.
Dissertation is used to refer to "a long essay that you do as part of a degree or other qualification"that you are studying for -that is,a BA or an MA. Thesis is used to refer to "a long piece of writing,based on your own ideas and research that you do as part of your university degree,especially a PhD. So if the assay is part of a BA or MA degree,we call it a dissertation,if a part of a PhD degree we call it a thesis.You write an essay for a certain course during your university studies,we it a paper.
BA dissertation学士论文,an MA dissertation硕士论文,a PhD thesis博士论文, term paper论文.Here is in line with the British educational tradition.
In America,thesis means a BA lun wen or MA lun wen. Dissertation means a PhD lun wen. thesis,dissertation, and paper,their writing process is more or less the same,the major difference between them lies at the level of originality.
Difference and relationship between a summary of information (easier to prepare)and an evaluation of information(include a summary)
.
Academic writing,term paper or research article can aim at summarizing other's studies in the field and presenting the ideas or arguments put forward by other scholars.By contrast,a dissertation or thesis requires more than an acknowledgement of existing studies,it must involve a critical evaluation of research information and this is where the originality of the study lies. When summarize existing studies in the field,you are expected to present to the reader what you have read,how much you have understood,the way you organize all the information.
When expected to evaluate previous studies,you must show ability in understanding ,commenting in a scholarly way,consider what factor,how and why factors.
A dissertation involves both summarizing and evaluating other's studies in this field,this part of the work is called Literature review.
The process of writing a dissertation,steps:we need a kind of yo-yo approach (go backward and forward)proposed by Sorenson ,do not think research process is direct or straightforward.
Writing a dissertation is going through a process of doing research.3 steps in process:1.prewriting 2.writing 3.editing and completion.
Chapter 2 Basic Writing and Academic Writing
Two types of writing(different genre types and reflect different level of difficulties):
1.Basic Writing or practical writing (every day writing and all of us do it)
2.Academic Writing(only required in an academic environment)
Purpose of Basic Writing:help students learn to write well for everyday purpose,focus is on general writing skills and strategies.Different types of essays:narration,description,exposition,argumentation.
Precis writing:(abstract the main points of an essay ,report,book). It is similar to the writing of summaries(the condensation of information)
