i wrote my thesis in two days

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Write a Paper in Two Days: A Timeline

Last week, Yuem wrote about keeping track of his progress on his senior thesis —a project with distant deadlines. As an underclassman, I usually face shorter-term deadlines for class essays and problem sets, and these require a similar, but condensed approach.

This post has real-life inspiration. Next Thursday, I have a paper due for my philosophy class on Nietzsche. Weekdays are busy with problem sets and assignments. I do not expect myself to start consolidating material for the paper till this weekend, which leaves me plenty of time to plan an effective essay.

Here’s the schedule I successfully used last time, when I was looking at parts of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Gay Science.  Granted, the whole process I’m proposing is longer than just two days, but I promise if you use the pre-writing steps I suggest, you’ll be able to do the actual writing in a much shorter period of time!

5 Days before Due Date: Finish the core readings!

I spent about half of my weekend finishing the readings for the class that I had not been able to finish in time for lecture. Surprisingly few people realize how helpful this is. In a paper-based class, certain prompts will lend themselves to specific readings. You can write a decent paper–maybe even get a “good grade”– by reading only what is absolutely necessary for a paper, but it will fall far short of your potential. You are surrounded by world-class facilities and faculty–don’t waste your time on something sub-par. The best part about writing a paper is finding unexpected connections, after all.

4 Days before Due Date: Summarize the readings.

After I finished reading and highlighting parts of the books, I sat down with a notebook and wrote down the gist of each section using what I had previously marked in the books. I used to do this as I read, but found it to take a long time to finish the process. Now, I read in whatever small bursts of time I have, and revisit my books to quickly take notes in one go using what I have highlighted. Now, I had a short summary of the assigned works in front of me as a map of what to reference.

3 Days before Due Date: Finalize essay topic and write an outline.

I narrowed my essay topics down to two, and drafted points I had in mind for each one. I did some outside research as well, and chose the topic I felt better prepared with. I started to construct an outline by selecting relevant quotes (using my summary of notes) and finally had a blocked version of evidence for different points in the paper. At this point, I started to work around the pieces of evidence I had written down and formulate logical arguments and transitions.

2 Days before Due Date: Talk to my professor, revise outline, and start writing!

By this point, I realized what crucial questions I had for my professor. I ran through some of the main points I was going to make in the paper and discovered that a few of them were faulty. I adapted accordingly and started to write!

Writing an eight page paper in two days was surprisingly easy with a well-developed outline. Do yourself a favor and spend the bulk of your time in the “planning” stage of an essay: reading, summarizing, outlining, and discussing ideas with classmates and professors. The actual writing process will be a matter of a few hours spent at your computer transferring thoughts from outline to paper in a format that flows well. Have a friend or two help you edit your paper, and you will emerge feeling rewarded.

— Vidushi Sharma, Humanities Correspondent

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Ten things I wish I'd known before starting my dissertation

The sun is shining but many students won't see the daylight. Because it's that time of year again – dissertation time.

Luckily for me, my D-Day (dissertation hand-in day) has already been and gone. But I remember it well.

The 10,000-word spiral-bound paper squatted on my desk in various forms of completion was my Allied forces; the history department in-tray was my Normandy. And when Eisenhower talked about a "great crusade toward which we have striven these many months", he was bang on.

I remember first encountering the Undergraduate Dissertation Handbook, feeling my heart sink at how long the massive file took to download, and began to think about possible (but in hindsight, wildly over-ambitious) topics. Here's what I've learned since, and wish I'd known back then…

1 ) If your dissertation supervisor isn't right, change. Mine was brilliant. If you don't feel like they're giving you the right advice, request to swap to someone else – providing it's early on and your reason is valid, your department shouldn't have a problem with it. In my experience, it doesn't matter too much whether they're an expert on your topic. What counts is whether they're approachable, reliable, reassuring, give detailed feedback and don't mind the odd panicked email. They are your lifeline and your best chance of success.

2 ) If you mention working on your dissertation to family, friends or near-strangers, they will ask you what it's about, and they will be expecting a more impressive answer than you can give. So prepare for looks of confusion and disappointment. People anticipate grandeur in history dissertation topics – war, genocide, the formation of modern society. They don't think much of researching an obscure piece of 1970s disability legislation. But they're not the ones marking it.

3 ) If they ask follow-up questions, they're probably just being polite.

4 ) Do not ask friends how much work they've done. You'll end up paranoid – or they will. Either way, you don't have time for it.

5 ) There will be one day during the process when you will freak out, doubt your entire thesis and decide to start again from scratch. You might even come up with a new question and start working on it, depending on how long the breakdown lasts. You will at some point run out of steam and collapse in an exhausted, tear-stained heap. But unless there are serious flaws in your work (unlikely) and your supervisor recommends starting again (highly unlikely), don't do it. It's just panic, it'll pass.

6 ) A lot of the work you do will not make it into your dissertation. The first few days in archives, I felt like everything I was unearthing was a gem, and when I sat down to write, it seemed as if it was all gold. But a brutal editing down to the word count has left much of that early material at the wayside.

7 ) You will print like you have never printed before. If you're using a university or library printer, it will start to affect your weekly budget in a big way. If you're printing from your room, "paper jam" will come to be the most dreaded two words in the English language.

8 ) Your dissertation will interfere with whatever else you have going on – a social life, sporting commitments, societies, other essay demands. Don't even try and give up biscuits for Lent, they'll basically become their own food group when you're too busy to cook and desperate for sugar.

9 ) Your time is not your own. Even if you're super-organised, plan your time down to the last hour and don't have a single moment of deadline panic, you'll still find that thoughts of your dissertation will creep up on you when you least expect it. You'll fall asleep thinking about it, dream about it and wake up thinking about. You'll feel guilty when you're not working on it, and mired in self-doubt when you are.

10 ) Finishing it will be one of the best things you've ever done. It's worth the hard work to know you've completed what's likely to be your biggest, most important, single piece of work. Be proud of it.

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How To Write A Dissertation Or Thesis

8 straightforward steps to craft an a-grade dissertation.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Expert Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2020

Writing a dissertation or thesis is not a simple task. It takes time, energy and a lot of will power to get you across the finish line. It’s not easy – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be a painful process. If you understand the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis, your research journey will be a lot smoother.  

In this post, I’m going to outline the big-picture process of how to write a high-quality dissertation or thesis, without losing your mind along the way. If you’re just starting your research, this post is perfect for you. Alternatively, if you’ve already submitted your proposal, this article which covers how to structure a dissertation might be more helpful.

How To Write A Dissertation: 8 Steps

• Clearly understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is
• Find a unique and valuable research topic
• Craft a convincing research proposal
• Write up a strong introduction chapter
• Review the existing literature and compile a literature review
• Design a rigorous research strategy and undertake your own research
• Present the findings of your research
• Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Step 1: Understand exactly what a dissertation is

This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but all too often, students come to us for help with their research and the underlying issue is that they don’t fully understand what a dissertation (or thesis) actually is.

So, what is a dissertation?

At its simplest, a dissertation or thesis is a formal piece of research , reflecting the standard research process . But what is the standard research process, you ask? The research process involves 4 key steps:

• Ask a very specific, well-articulated question (s) (your research topic)
• See what other researchers have said about it (if they’ve already answered it)
• If they haven’t answered it adequately, undertake your own data collection and analysis in a scientifically rigorous fashion
• Answer your original question(s), based on your analysis findings

In short, the research process is simply about asking and answering questions in a systematic fashion . This probably sounds pretty obvious, but people often think they’ve done “research”, when in fact what they have done is:

• Started with a vague, poorly articulated question
• Not taken the time to see what research has already been done regarding the question
• Collected data and opinions that support their gut and undertaken a flimsy analysis
• Drawn a shaky conclusion, based on that analysis

If you want to see the perfect example of this in action, look out for the next Facebook post where someone claims they’ve done “research”… All too often, people consider reading a few blog posts to constitute research. Its no surprise then that what they end up with is an opinion piece, not research. Okay, okay – I’ll climb off my soapbox now.

The key takeaway here is that a dissertation (or thesis) is a formal piece of research, reflecting the research process. It’s not an opinion piece , nor a place to push your agenda or try to convince someone of your position. Writing a good dissertation involves asking a question and taking a systematic, rigorous approach to answering it.

If you understand this and are comfortable leaving your opinions or preconceived ideas at the door, you’re already off to a good start!

Step 2: Find a unique, valuable research topic

As we saw, the first step of the research process is to ask a specific, well-articulated question. In other words, you need to find a research topic that asks a specific question or set of questions (these are called research questions ). Sounds easy enough, right? All you’ve got to do is identify a question or two and you’ve got a winning research topic. Well, not quite…

A good dissertation or thesis topic has a few important attributes. Specifically, a solid research topic should be:

Let’s take a closer look at these:

Attribute #1: Clear

Your research topic needs to be crystal clear about what you’re planning to research, what you want to know, and within what context. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity or vagueness about what you’ll research.

Here’s an example of a clearly articulated research topic:

An analysis of consumer-based factors influencing organisational trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms.

As you can see in the example, its crystal clear what will be analysed (factors impacting organisational trust), amongst who (consumers) and in what context (British low-cost equity brokerage firms, based online).

Need a helping hand?

Attribute #2:   Unique

Your research should be asking a question(s) that hasn’t been asked before, or that hasn’t been asked in a specific context (for example, in a specific country or industry).

For example, sticking organisational trust topic above, it’s quite likely that organisational trust factors in the UK have been investigated before, but the context (online low-cost equity brokerages) could make this research unique. Therefore, the context makes this research original.

One caveat when using context as the basis for originality – you need to have a good reason to suspect that your findings in this context might be different from the existing research – otherwise, there’s no reason to warrant researching it.

Attribute #3: Important

Simply asking a unique or original question is not enough – the question needs to create value. In other words, successfully answering your research questions should provide some value to the field of research or the industry. You can’t research something just to satisfy your curiosity. It needs to make some form of contribution either to research or industry.

For example, researching the factors influencing consumer trust would create value by enabling businesses to tailor their operations and marketing to leverage factors that promote trust. In other words, it would have a clear benefit to industry.

So, how do you go about finding a unique and valuable research topic? We explain that in detail in this video post – How To Find A Research Topic . Yeah, we’ve got you covered 😊

Step 3: Write a convincing research proposal

Once you’ve pinned down a high-quality research topic, the next step is to convince your university to let you research it. No matter how awesome you think your topic is, it still needs to get the rubber stamp before you can move forward with your research. The research proposal is the tool you’ll use for this job.

So, what’s in a research proposal?

The main “job” of a research proposal is to convince your university, advisor or committee that your research topic is worthy of approval. But convince them of what? Well, this varies from university to university, but generally, they want to see that:

• You have a clearly articulated, unique and important topic (this might sound familiar…)
• You’ve done some initial reading of the existing literature relevant to your topic (i.e. a literature review)
• You have a provisional plan in terms of how you will collect data and analyse it (i.e. a methodology)

At the proposal stage, it’s (generally) not expected that you’ve extensively reviewed the existing literature , but you will need to show that you’ve done enough reading to identify a clear gap for original (unique) research. Similarly, they generally don’t expect that you have a rock-solid research methodology mapped out, but you should have an idea of whether you’ll be undertaking qualitative or quantitative analysis , and how you’ll collect your data (we’ll discuss this in more detail later).

Long story short – don’t stress about having every detail of your research meticulously thought out at the proposal stage – this will develop as you progress through your research. However, you do need to show that you’ve “done your homework” and that your research is worthy of approval .

So, how do you go about crafting a high-quality, convincing proposal? We cover that in detail in this video post – How To Write A Top-Class Research Proposal . We’ve also got a video walkthrough of two proposal examples here .

Step 4: Craft a strong introduction chapter

Once your proposal’s been approved, its time to get writing your actual dissertation or thesis! The good news is that if you put the time into crafting a high-quality proposal, you’ve already got a head start on your first three chapters – introduction, literature review and methodology – as you can use your proposal as the basis for these.

Handy sidenote – our free dissertation & thesis template is a great way to speed up your dissertation writing journey.

What’s the introduction chapter all about?

The purpose of the introduction chapter is to set the scene for your research (dare I say, to introduce it…) so that the reader understands what you’ll be researching and why it’s important. In other words, it covers the same ground as the research proposal in that it justifies your research topic.

What goes into the introduction chapter?

This can vary slightly between universities and degrees, but generally, the introduction chapter will include the following:

• A brief background to the study, explaining the overall area of research
• A problem statement , explaining what the problem is with the current state of research (in other words, where the knowledge gap exists)
• Your research questions – in other words, the specific questions your study will seek to answer (based on the knowledge gap)
• The significance of your study – in other words, why it’s important and how its findings will be useful in the world

As you can see, this all about explaining the “what” and the “why” of your research (as opposed to the “how”). So, your introduction chapter is basically the salesman of your study, “selling” your research to the first-time reader and (hopefully) getting them interested to read more.

How do I write the introduction chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this post .

Step 5: Undertake an in-depth literature review

As I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to do some initial review of the literature in Steps 2 and 3 to find your research gap and craft a convincing research proposal – but that’s just scratching the surface. Once you reach the literature review stage of your dissertation or thesis, you need to dig a lot deeper into the existing research and write up a comprehensive literature review chapter.

What’s the literature review all about?

There are two main stages in the literature review process:

Literature Review Step 1: Reading up

The first stage is for you to deep dive into the existing literature (journal articles, textbook chapters, industry reports, etc) to gain an in-depth understanding of the current state of research regarding your topic. While you don’t need to read every single article, you do need to ensure that you cover all literature that is related to your core research questions, and create a comprehensive catalogue of that literature , which you’ll use in the next step.

Reading and digesting all the relevant literature is a time consuming and intellectually demanding process. Many students underestimate just how much work goes into this step, so make sure that you allocate a good amount of time for this when planning out your research. Thankfully, there are ways to fast track the process – be sure to check out this article covering how to read journal articles quickly .

Literature Review Step 2: Writing up

Once you’ve worked through the literature and digested it all, you’ll need to write up your literature review chapter. Many students make the mistake of thinking that the literature review chapter is simply a summary of what other researchers have said. While this is partly true, a literature review is much more than just a summary. To pull off a good literature review chapter, you’ll need to achieve at least 3 things:

• You need to synthesise the existing research , not just summarise it. In other words, you need to show how different pieces of theory fit together, what’s agreed on by researchers, what’s not.
• You need to highlight a research gap that your research is going to fill. In other words, you’ve got to outline the problem so that your research topic can provide a solution.
• You need to use the existing research to inform your methodology and approach to your own research design. For example, you might use questions or Likert scales from previous studies in your your own survey design .

As you can see, a good literature review is more than just a summary of the published research. It’s the foundation on which your own research is built, so it deserves a lot of love and attention. Take the time to craft a comprehensive literature review with a suitable structure .

But, how do I actually write the literature review chapter, you ask? We cover that in detail in this video post .

Step 6: Carry out your own research

Once you’ve completed your literature review and have a sound understanding of the existing research, its time to develop your own research (finally!). You’ll design this research specifically so that you can find the answers to your unique research question.

There are two steps here – designing your research strategy and executing on it:

1 – Design your research strategy

The first step is to design your research strategy and craft a methodology chapter . I won’t get into the technicalities of the methodology chapter here, but in simple terms, this chapter is about explaining the “how” of your research. If you recall, the introduction and literature review chapters discussed the “what” and the “why”, so it makes sense that the next point to cover is the “how” –that’s what the methodology chapter is all about.

In this section, you’ll need to make firm decisions about your research design. This includes things like:

• Your research philosophy (e.g. positivism or interpretivism )
• Your overall methodology (e.g. qualitative , quantitative or mixed methods)
• Your data collection strategy (e.g. interviews , focus groups, surveys)
• Your data analysis strategy (e.g. content analysis , correlation analysis, regression)

If these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these in plain language in other posts. It’s not essential that you understand the intricacies of research design (yet!). The key takeaway here is that you’ll need to make decisions about how you’ll design your own research, and you’ll need to describe (and justify) your decisions in your methodology chapter.

2 – Execute: Collect and analyse your data

Once you’ve worked out your research design, you’ll put it into action and start collecting your data. This might mean undertaking interviews, hosting an online survey or any other data collection method. Data collection can take quite a bit of time (especially if you host in-person interviews), so be sure to factor sufficient time into your project plan for this. Oftentimes, things don’t go 100% to plan (for example, you don’t get as many survey responses as you hoped for), so bake a little extra time into your budget here.

Once you’ve collected your data, you’ll need to do some data preparation before you can sink your teeth into the analysis. For example:

• If you carry out interviews or focus groups, you’ll need to transcribe your audio data to text (i.e. a Word document).
• If you collect quantitative survey data, you’ll need to clean up your data and get it into the right format for whichever analysis software you use (for example, SPSS, R or STATA).

Once you’ve completed your data prep, you’ll undertake your analysis, using the techniques that you described in your methodology. Depending on what you find in your analysis, you might also do some additional forms of analysis that you hadn’t planned for. For example, you might see something in the data that raises new questions or that requires clarification with further analysis.

The type(s) of analysis that you’ll use depend entirely on the nature of your research and your research questions. For example:

• If your research if exploratory in nature, you’ll often use qualitative analysis techniques .
• If your research is confirmatory in nature, you’ll often use quantitative analysis techniques
• If your research involves a mix of both, you might use a mixed methods approach

Again, if these words have got your head spinning, don’t worry! We’ll explain these concepts and techniques in other posts. The key takeaway is simply that there’s no “one size fits all” for research design and methodology – it all depends on your topic, your research questions and your data. So, don’t be surprised if your study colleagues take a completely different approach to yours.

Step 7: Present your findings

Once you’ve completed your analysis, it’s time to present your findings (finally!). In a dissertation or thesis, you’ll typically present your findings in two chapters – the results chapter and the discussion chapter .

What’s the difference between the results chapter and the discussion chapter?

While these two chapters are similar, the results chapter generally just presents the processed data neatly and clearly without interpretation, while the discussion chapter explains the story the data are telling  – in other words, it provides your interpretation of the results.

For example, if you were researching the factors that influence consumer trust, you might have used a quantitative approach to identify the relationship between potential factors (e.g. perceived integrity and competence of the organisation) and consumer trust. In this case:

• Your results chapter would just present the results of the statistical tests. For example, correlation results or differences between groups. In other words, the processed numbers.
• Your discussion chapter would explain what the numbers mean in relation to your research question(s). For example, Factor 1 has a weak relationship with consumer trust, while Factor 2 has a strong relationship.

Depending on the university and degree, these two chapters (results and discussion) are sometimes merged into one , so be sure to check with your institution what their preference is. Regardless of the chapter structure, this section is about presenting the findings of your research in a clear, easy to understand fashion.

Importantly, your discussion here needs to link back to your research questions (which you outlined in the introduction or literature review chapter). In other words, it needs to answer the key questions you asked (or at least attempt to answer them).

For example, if we look at the sample research topic:

In this case, the discussion section would clearly outline which factors seem to have a noteworthy influence on organisational trust. By doing so, they are answering the overarching question and fulfilling the purpose of the research .

For more information about the results chapter , check out this post for qualitative studies and this post for quantitative studies .

Step 8: The Final Step Draw a conclusion and discuss the implications

Last but not least, you’ll need to wrap up your research with the conclusion chapter . In this chapter, you’ll bring your research full circle by highlighting the key findings of your study and explaining what the implications of these findings are.

What exactly are key findings? The key findings are those findings which directly relate to your original research questions and overall research objectives (which you discussed in your introduction chapter). The implications, on the other hand, explain what your findings mean for industry, or for research in your area.

Sticking with the consumer trust topic example, the conclusion might look something like this:

Key findings

This study set out to identify which factors influence consumer-based trust in British low-cost online equity brokerage firms. The results suggest that the following factors have a large impact on consumer trust:

While the following factors have a very limited impact on consumer trust:

Notably, within the 25-30 age groups, Factors E had a noticeably larger impact, which may be explained by…

Implications

The findings having noteworthy implications for British low-cost online equity brokers. Specifically:

The large impact of Factors X and Y implies that brokers need to consider….

The limited impact of Factor E implies that brokers need to…

As you can see, the conclusion chapter is basically explaining the “what” (what your study found) and the “so what?” (what the findings mean for the industry or research). This brings the study full circle and closes off the document.

Let’s recap – how to write a dissertation or thesis

You’re still with me? Impressive! I know that this post was a long one, but hopefully you’ve learnt a thing or two about how to write a dissertation or thesis, and are now better equipped to start your own research.

To recap, the 8 steps to writing a quality dissertation (or thesis) are as follows:

• Understand what a dissertation (or thesis) is – a research project that follows the research process.
• Find a unique (original) and important research topic
• Craft a convincing dissertation or thesis research proposal
• Write a clear, compelling introduction chapter
• Undertake a thorough review of the existing research and write up a literature review
• Undertake your own research
• Present and interpret your findings

Once you’ve wrapped up the core chapters, all that’s typically left is the abstract , reference list and appendices. As always, be sure to check with your university if they have any additional requirements in terms of structure or content.  

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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20 Comments

thankfull >>>this is very useful

Thank you, it was really helpful

unquestionably, this amazing simplified way of teaching. Really , I couldn’t find in the literature words that fully explicit my great thanks to you. However, I could only say thanks a-lot.

Great to hear that – thanks for the feedback. Good luck writing your dissertation/thesis.

This is the most comprehensive explanation of how to write a dissertation. Many thanks for sharing it free of charge.

Very rich presentation. Thank you

Thanks Derek Jansen|GRADCOACH, I find it very useful guide to arrange my activities and proceed to research!

Thank you so much for such a marvelous teaching .I am so convinced that am going to write a comprehensive and a distinct masters dissertation

It is an amazing comprehensive explanation

This was straightforward. Thank you!

I can say that your explanations are simple and enlightening – understanding what you have done here is easy for me. Could you write more about the different types of research methods specific to the three methodologies: quan, qual and MM. I look forward to interacting with this website more in the future.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions 🙂

Hello, your write ups is quite educative. However, l have challenges in going about my research questions which is below; *Building the enablers of organisational growth through effective governance and purposeful leadership.*

Very educating.

Just listening to the name of the dissertation makes the student nervous. As writing a top-quality dissertation is a difficult task as it is a lengthy topic, requires a lot of research and understanding and is usually around 10,000 to 15000 words. Sometimes due to studies, unbalanced workload or lack of research and writing skill students look for dissertation submission from professional writers.

Thank you 💕😊 very much. I was confused but your comprehensive explanation has cleared my doubts of ever presenting a good thesis. Thank you.

thank you so much, that was so useful

Hi. Where is the excel spread sheet ark?

could you please help me look at your thesis paper to enable me to do the portion that has to do with the specification

my topic is “the impact of domestic revenue mobilization.

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how I actually wrote my dissertation

One truly befuddling discovery that I made on academic Twitter was a mysterious and semi-terrifying breed of grad student: the kind who actually writes their dissertation steadily for 2–3 years, in the sense that they are constantly producing chapter drafts. What? How? Why? (I mean, good for them, and if this is you and this system feels right: more power to you.)

This post is for the rest of us.

I think there’s a myth among pre-ABD grads that dissertating is, indeed, a constant stream of activity, wherein one spends one’s days buried underneath piles of books and chipping away steadily at the beast. I certainly thought that was how it worked. As I got closer to finishing and my more senior friends did as well, the illusion was obliterated. I want us to talk about this more—not to “fix” it, because everyone works differently and prescribing a style as The One will only make people miserable—but to make clearer that, like most things in grad school, dissertating is not linear or straightforward. We know this intuitively, but we don’t often voice it, and so those experiencing disorientation or feeling lost may feel that way alone (when, in fact, community and support and commiseration would make the whole process a lot easier).

So, here is how I actually wrote my dissertation. The tl;dr: in about six weeks. (Yes, this hurt very much, and also less than I thought it might.) The longer version: more steadily over 3 years, but mostly through thinking, not putting words on paper.

Let’s go back to August 2018, when I defended my prospectus. That process was mentally and emotionally exhausting for me (I wrote about it here ), so I gave myself a month off from research-related work. That turned into four months, largely for personal reasons unrelated to the dissertation. In any case, I reached January 2019 and felt panicky. I had signed up to present at my department’s IR workshop in February as a deadline to get something done. I’d gotten nothing done. (This is not true: I’d rested and recovered and also developed some new neuroses. But, within academia, we are not taught that those things count. Hence the narrative of nothing.)

At that point in time, my dissertation included a chapter on how ISIS had responded to state-level discourse on terrorism in France and Germany, an analysis driven by computational methods and close reading of a bunch of French and German-language ISIS propaganda. (This chapter has since disappeared into the abyss.) Collecting that propaganda and starting to read it felt like a doable task, and so I did that, building an empirical chapter based on the implications of a theory I’d thought about but hadn’t written yet. This got thrown into sharp relief when I shared some of the in-progress chapter with a friend five days before I was scheduled to present it, at which point they said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Everything you just told me out loud that you think you’re arguing isn’t in this chapter, and you need to go write that first or nothing you’re doing here will make sense to anyone.”

This was, for many reasons I’m not going to discuss in public, an extremely emotional conversation—as in, I had a full breakdown at a coffee shop and then spent the next few hours on the floor of my apartment. Let’s just say I have long had a difficult time not equating my work and the entirety of my sense of self. I also felt that I had finally accomplished something, only to realize, nope, most of what I’d written wasn’t actually viable! Ugh. I can say “ugh” thanks to the benefit of distance; at the time, I was distraught. Eventually, though, I picked myself off the floor. I wrote out of rage. (Someone said of the result, “I get the sense writing this was cathartic for you.”) I go back and read that draft and think, wow, I was furious at everything . But what I wrote was also true and authentic and pandering to no one. It was also not terribly well-received at my department workshop, but for the first time, my dissertation felt like something I got to be excited about.

I didn’t write anything else that spring: I was doing other things (service!!!) and also prepping to go to the field that summer, which felt like another doable task with discrete steps. I did my fieldwork, came back, and felt like I had something to write about. Obviously it was more complicated than that, but I had data that I had collected and so felt like mine in a way that using secondary sources didn’t, and those data had blown my theoretical framework wide open. Finally, I felt that I knew what my project was about, other than spite. And that felt amazing.

It also meant, in our linear idealized projection of what dissertating is “supposed” to look like, that I was behind. I thought about this constantly. I stressed about it because I was concerned and no one else seemed to be, and I couldn’t understand that. I still hadn’t fully grasped the reality that many people write their dissertations in a flurry at the end. Most of my good friends were in their final year of grad school, and they did not seem panicked about not having the bulk of their dissertations done. I panicked for them, because I am insufferable. It would take me a good while longer to internalize lessons from what I was witnessing about how dissertating actually works.

One year in

One year into dissertating, I had done fieldwork for one case study and written the first draft of an article based on it. Nothing of the dissertation itself was written.

I have very little memory of what I was doing in the fall of 2019, besides revising that article and teaching. We’ll consider this time forgotten in light of the pandemic, which arrived rapidly in 2020 and proceeded to crowd out anything and everything else. The week before UW–Madison moved everything online, I finally spent some good time trying to build my theory chapter. When we went into lockdown, this got saved in a folder I didn’t open again until June 2021, over a year later. I ended up throwing most of it out, because by then my thinking had changed dramatically. More on that soon.

I had once again signed up to present at a department workshop because I find deadlines motivating and it had become very clear that no one else would set them for me, no matter how much I asked for regular check-ins and gentle shaming. This deadline was for a different chapter, because I figured I’d have the theory done by then (lol). I do not recommend trying to tease apart the discursive games of the U.S. foreign policy establishment and also wrangle a bunch of Python code into submission during the first few weeks of a global crisis while confined to your house where you live by yourself. I think I ended up with 17 pages of crap? I didn’t touch that chapter again for six months.

My original plan had been to spend the summer of 2020 in Washington, DC doing field research for my second case study, and I expected that to unfold much like my research in Germany: collect data, rethink everything I thought I knew, write article or chapter in a blaze of glory. Obviously this didn’t happen, and my pivot to virtual interviews and the limitations I ran into led me to rethink much of the research strategy for that chapter. And even if it had happened, the uprisings following the police murder of George Floyd would likely have changed my thinking anyway. The logics of abolition and the deeper work of Black and brown activists are central to my now-completed dissertation, and I do not think that would be the case had national events not led me to explore that work further. As it stood, we were in a pandemic and I was going on the job market and also I ended up having to move and also some of my close friends moved out of the state and also there was an extremely consequential national election coming up and also there was impetus behind anti-racist organizing in a way I’d never witnessed.

All of which is to say: I’d set lots of deadlines to get things done, and once again, the narrative my brain told me was that I’d done nothing. I was also now two years into dissertating, allegedly, and more stressed, more tired, and floundering about while trying to get a job. And, I felt, I had so much more to do.

Two years in

Two years into dissertating, I had finished most of the data collection for my dissertation and published one article that was “from” the dissertation, though that felt disingenuous to say because the chapter versions of neither the theory nor the empirics from Germany actually existed. I had 17 pages of nonsense on Iran that would have to be reworked entirely, and so, for all intents and purposes, that chapter didn’t really exist either. Nothing of the dissertation was written.

I’m sure people at this point will be thinking “but you had an article” and “pages that need revising are still pages” and so on and so forth. I heard it from faculty advisors last fall as well. In my mind, though, another year had passed and I had almost nothing to show for it and no one else seemed concerned about that . I was panicking; why was I the only one? By that point, I understood that the bulk of a dissertation often gets written in a frenzied haze in two or three months before one’s defense. I’d just watched four very close friends go through that exact process, and they were all brilliant and incredible and hardworking (independent of my bias as their friend). So, it seemed, rushing at the last minute was just how it worked for many people, and the line that you’re supposed to have a bunch of chapters done ahead of time was a load of malarkey. It took me a while to internalize that and apply it to myself, and in the meantime, my anxiety was having a moment , let me tell you.

I knew that, for me, being “done” with part of the dissertation meant having chapters refined to a state that they were coherent and not completely embarrassing. As a writer, I revise constantly, and almost no one has ever seen a true first draft of something I’ve written; most things I choose to share for the first time are on at least their third revision. That is a lot of upfront work, but it saves me the trouble of getting comments on things I know I need to do but just haven’t done yet. I also knew that I was operating at about half capacity already in the fall, because, surprise, a global crisis takes a lot out of you, and I figured the market would also take a lot out of me, so I had no idea what sort of state I’d be in come the spring. Starting early and chipping away at things seemed to make sense, logically, if I ever wanted to finish the damn thing.

I proceeded to…not do that. I started and finished a coauthored project in fall 2020 that I liked doing and don’t regret at all, but it was a side project, so I spent time writing that instead of writing my dissertation. I implemented some additional deadlines—conference presentations and a special issue article, all connected to dissertation chapters—and only sort of met them, in that I revised the 17 pages of crap into 30some pages of slightly less crappy crap and dropped out of a conference because I was trying to write, I was really trying, and it just wasn’t working. I set some ambitious goals over the winter break of converting my published article into chapter form, which felt like a small task that I knew would make me feel better, and finishing a draft of my U.S. chapter. I ended up not getting a job I interviewed for, being crushed by that, and also having to do teaching prep while continuing to be on the job market, so I gave up on the dissertation for a month. That distance was good, and healthy, but it was not enough.

I had some more deadlines. An article that would form part of the U.S. chapter was due to a special issue at the end of March, so I wrote what I thought was a truly atrocious version of that by sheer force of will. (It got an R&R with minor revisions, so it was clearly not as awful as I remembered; even my panic brain can do okay work, it turns out.) The 30 pages of slightly less crappy crap was scheduled for presentation at ISA, so I revised it again into something I also ended up mostly trashing, in the end. We hit May. We hit June. I had no job, no dissertation, no mental or emotional health, and a lease that was up on August 15. I knew that the dissertation would get done, because it had to, but I also feared it would be absolute shit, and I wasn’t here to produce shit, I told myself. If I was here for six years and ended with shit, what was it all for.

Two things happened that drastically changed the course of events for me. First and foremost, I got a job. I knew where I was going to live in August. I knew I’d have an income in August. A good chunk of the panic was gone. And, I stopped fighting the way I know I always write—in bursts, usually at the last minute, because I trained as a journalist and that’s kind of how it works—and did one long burst from late May until the end of June.

I’ll tell you I wrote 215 pages from scratch in June, and that’s sort of true. It’s true insofar as no dissertation chapters existed prior to June, and I legitimately wrote the introduction, theory, and conclusion from scratch during that month. But I did not write them from nothing. The act of “writing” is actually a conglomeration of reading, musing, discussing, engaging, thinking, and then maybe putting words on a page in something resembling their final form. I may not have been making sentences in a Word doc named “Chapter Whatever,” but for three years (and, realistically, longer than that), I was immersed in discourses of terrorism and white supremacist violence, because I genuinely like my topic and engage with it for fun as well as for work. So much of my dissertating process was like ethnography, in that I placed myself in the settings I needed to engage with in order to write and soaked and poked day in and day out. So when I did sit down to formulate the final thing, the ideas were all there, and they were ready because of that constant engagement, because writing is not just writing.

A large chunk of my U.S. chapter is drawn from the coauthored paper I pursued during fall 2020 that I initially thought was a side project that had nothing to do with the dissertation. Another bit comes from a piece of public scholarship I got solicited to write the previous summer. (Many thanks, Lawfare .) A few paragraphs in my introductory chapter are pulled directly from that rage-fury workshop paper that poured out of me in February 2019. The opening hook is the same one I wrote for my job talk, before I knew for sure how I wanted to begin the dissertation. It’s all relevant. Everything builds.

Someone told me that it was possible to sleepwalk through the last stages of dissertation-writing. The process for me felt a bit more active, but the idea of something automatic does resonate. I’ve described it to others as “magical exhaustion” in that you are tired, so tired, but your brain somehow still brings everything together, and you look back and go, how the hell did I do that. How the hell did I write 215 pages in a month. How did I synthesize conference papers, articles, talks, years and years of immersion, into a coherent thing. How was this messy process actually one whole.

(And if this is you, staring down the barrel of a mostly-unfinished dissertation: it can be finished, and it will be. It is far further along than you realize. You may not believe that now, but you’ll come to. I did.)

That was way too much sap; just tell me your timeline.

Fair! For those who want an actual breakdown, here’s mine, by chapter. Like I said, every iota of turning things into chapters happened in six weeks in spring 2021. But the foundations of that process have deeper roots.

• How it works

How to Write a Dissertation in Ten Days or Less

Published by Owen Ingram at January 27th, 2023 , Revised On April 19, 2024

Can you Complete your Dissertation in Ten Days?

Most students struggle at some point with deadlines, and we regularly get asked questions such as ‘Can you write a dissertation in a month?’ and ‘Can you write a dissertation in three days?’ We do not judge why you are in this situation, we’re here to help you get your dissertation done. The answer to the questions is yes. But of course, the less time you have, the more pressure you are under.

How Long Does it Take to Write a 10,000-word Dissertation?

This is a common question, as is “How long does it take to write a 7,000-word dissertation?” There is no figure in hours or days that answers this; it differs for everyone.  “Is it possible to write a 10,000-word dissertation in two days?” Well, yes. But you will only find out if you can do it when the two days are up. You need to get started immediately, follow our advice and use our dissertation guides . But we are not claiming it’s easy.

Can I Complete my Dissertation in 3 Days? How Fast do I Need to Write?

If you have to produce 10,000 words in ten days, you have to average 1,000 a day. If you have two days, then 5,000 per day and if you work on it for 12 hours each of those days, you need to turn out 417 words per hour. A tall order, but it can be done. Do not let panic or pressure overwhelm you; and remember, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for help . You can stop asking your friends ‘How quickly can you write a dissertation?’ You are going to show them how quickly.

Can I Really Produce 10,000 Words in a Week?

How long d oes it take to write a 10k word dissertation? To give you some perspective, most people speak this many words in a day with no effort. You probably have more than enough words in your notes. It will make a big difference if you have your research project results analysis done already. If this is the case, you ‘only’ need to write them up. If you already made a good start but you are having trouble progressing, maybe you just need to focus on writing up your findings or certain chapters or areas.

You might think your notes are messy and disorganised or that they lack the right academic sound. Regardless, do not think of this task as producing all 10,000 words, rather, it is laying out your notes, organising them, and giving them a more formal, academic tone.

Can you Write a Dissertation in a Day?

Can you write a dissertation in a day? This is surely the most demanding academic writing challenge. It means 100% focus and work: Type up your notes, ensuring they have an academic/formal tone to them. Keep going, section by section and as it grows, you will start to see your dissertation appear.

Preparing to Write your Dissertation Fast

Prepare to start work.

You know your subject well, and you have probably written many essays on it by now. The main difference is that this assignment is longer. So, let’s get started. You need to prepare well; normal life can be suspended for the time you will spend working. The first preparations to make concern you and where you are going to work.

Distractions and Interruptions

Turn off your phone and avoid TV. If you are really serious, you will really do it. When you procrastinate or allow yourself to be distracted, what do you do? Gaming? Staring out of the window? Baking? Make these things difficult or impossible to do. Be aware of something called productive procrastination. This is when you do something productive but it’s not what you are meant to be doing. Do not mistake activity for productivity. When you find yourself vacuuming around your desk, snap out of it.

I’m Writing my Dissertation all Week. Quiet, Please

Some people can work with music playing, and some need silence. Listening to words, whether sung or spoken, can distract you when producing text. If there is something that will help you, such as instrumental music, use it. Make sure everyone knows what you are doing and ask them to leave you alone (except for bringing you food and drinks). Can someone else handle your duties and obligations for a while?

Create a Work Area

Set up a workplace and de-clutter it. Remove irrelevant books and anything you can fiddle with. Gather all your materials: this means textbooks, notes on paper and in digital form. Your research is likely over, but you will need everything to hand.

Give all materials specific places and keep them there. As you use them, you will remember where they are. Putting them down in different places will mean time lost looking for them, which will add frustration to the work.

Do All of your Legwork Before Starting

Getting up and walking away from the desk unnecessarily uses time you do not have. Do not let shopping trips interrupt your work. If you do not have enough food and supplies in before starting, get them first. Certain foods/snacks can help get you through, maybe you can suspend your usual health regime for a while. You need to feel comfortable in this. But do not overdo the caffeine or sugar .

Make a Work Schedule

Look ahead at your available time and make a schedule. If you work 21 hours on the first day, you might find yourself burnt out the next day. Sleep when you have to, work when you feel good. How long can you realistically work each day? Be careful not to create an unrealistic schedule, you will not keep up to it and will become demoralised. Remember that writing the dissertation is only 1% of your entire course; it is acceptable to get help at this late stage.

Where to Start

Start here – write an outline.

As well as a work schedule, you need a dissertation structure . You may be tempted to think that making an outline for your dissertation is extra work, that it would be quicker to just start writing. That would be like going on a driving tour to every European country with no plan. Without regular destinations, you will drift about aimlessly.

You can save time by focussing only on the main parts of the dissertation. If you run out of time, it will be better if the parts not completed are the less significant ones, although ideally nothing should be left unfinished. This is an exercise in prioritisation: Write the most valuable, points-scoring parts first.

Sacrifices May be Necessary

With a tight time limit, you might have to make sacrifices. People with the luxury of time will spend a day or more on just the table of contents or references section . You might not have this option. The focus has to be on the rapid production of text and its quality; things like detailed formatting and page layout will be secondary.

Prioritising your Order of Work

In the detailed plan below, skip the greyed-out parts to start with. You can use this to create an outline by adding a note under each part of the different sections stating what you are going to include there. This is where the job starts to appear less daunting; 10,000 now becomes 2,000 for this section, 1,000 for that section… The mountain becomes a set of smaller hills. And the introduction section can be written after the body, it is easier and quicker that way.

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Writing the Dissertation Body

When you have an outline, you need to put some meat on those bones and build a body. Working from start to finish may be best (skipping the introduction), but the order you work in is your choice. If your notes are not in order, a quick way to identify notes that apply to the different sections is to mark them with different coloured highlighters as in the table above. This will draw your eyes to the relevant notes quickly. You can do this on your computer screen by highlighting similarly.

After the main body, the introduction is next. This will be easier to write because all the information will be fresh in your mind. What next? The appendices or the parts at the front? This should be your decision based on remaining time.

Good Practices for Writing your Dissertation

Ignore spelling and grammar.

Do not pay attention to spelling, grammar, and language rules at this stage. Attending to spelling and grammatical details as you work will distract you and spoil your flow. Spelling and grammatical mistakes do not matter in a work in progress. You can turn checking functions off until you reach the editing and proofreading stage. Concentrate only on writing up your notes, do not switch between tasks.

Attend to One Part of the Dissertation at a Time

Constantly switching between research, writing, and tidying up the reference section is inefficient. Each time you switch, your mind needs time to catch up then settle into that activity. By focussing, we mean you should do all the analysis in one session until it is finished, all the writing of major sections in another, and sorting out the reference section can be done in one sitting. Less switching saves time and usually turns out a better job.

Take Regular Short Breaks

Save and Back up Routinely

When you leave the desk, click to save your work. Also do this after any burst of writing, and at regular intervals. Back up your work on another drive too. This is one of the most important things you will write. Treat it as the valuable document that it is.

For when you resume work, make sure you know where you left off, highlight it if that helps. When you come back to your work the next day, sometimes you can’t remember where you were; it can be difficult to resume the same line of thought. A habit of Ernest Hemingway was to leave an unfinished sentence to come back to so that he could…

Have a Strict but Simple Method of Noting Sources

Every time you quote or paraphrase something, note the source. Use a simple referencing technique while writing that does not demand much time. One such method is for the first in-text reference, just put (1) after the quote, use (2) for the second and so on. Start a list of sources that correspond to each number. You could highlight the numbers in a specific colour so you can attend to them later and not miss any. Missing just one reference, even accidentally, will still count as plagiarism . Before you start, be absolutely clear whether you are including a reference list or bibliography . Completing your list according to the required style ( Harvard , Chicago, etc.) can be done in one session.

Get a Qualified Appraisal of your Work

You will need someone to read your finished work. Having it read by someone unfamiliar with the subject and the structure of dissertations will be unproductive. Ideally it should be someone who understands the topic. And these days that person need not be physically present; you can email your draft to someone to get an opinion on changes & improvements .

Writing your Dissertation in Days

We are not going to sugar-coat the task of producing a dissertation in days rather than months and weeks. It is not easy, and regardless of what caused you to have such a short time remaining, it puts all your work in jeopardy. When someone asks us “Can I complete my dissertation in three days?” we have to answer yes, you can, but… It depends on the individual, how much work you have done so far, your personal circumstances, your other obligations, how much of those three days can you dedicate to the task.

How to Write a Dissertation Fast Checklist

Frequently asked questions, can i write my dissertation in under a week.

The short answer is yes but there are several factors to consider that may help or hinder you. Few people have the support around them to allow them to drop all commitments and focus on just one task. Also, few people will have taken on such a large a task in such a short time before, and might become overwhelmed.

The dissertation is where your study course culminates; all the time, effort, and expense you have invested should come to fruition here. This might not be a good time for  maybe I can do it . Maybe you can make it to the bank before it closes. No? Oh, well, you can go tomorrow. Maybe I can write 10,000 words in a week. If the answer is no, the consequences are more serious.

This guide and all the other  dissertation guides  on this site are here to help you with every aspect of dissertation writing. You can also contact us directly through the chat box or Whatsapp.

I have to write my dissertation in three days. Where do I start?

Start by getting organised. Gather all the materials you need, create a work area, get rid of distractions, and if possible, delegate any obligations or chores to someone else for the duration. Then read this guide from the start. If you need further help when you are deep into the writing, just ask us. We exist just for this purpose. Our team and expert writers have handled almost every kind of dissertation emergency.

Can I do my research, analysis, and write my dissertation in ten days?

The more time you have, the better. But carrying out the research and analysis in such a short time will be very demanding. It can be done though; our team can do this in under a week. You would need a great level of support around you and an impressive level of determination and focus. If you supply the determination, we can provide the support .

What helped you finish your dissertation quickly?

To finish your dissertation quickly, prioritise tasks, set realistic goals, maintain a consistent work schedule, minimise distractions, seek feedback from advisors regularly, and break down the writing process into manageable chunks. Use effective time management techniques, such as the Pomodoro Technique, and stay organised with thorough planning and research strategies.

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• How It Works

How to write a whole research paper in a week

Writing up a full research article in a single week? Maybe you think that’s impossible. Yet I have done it repeatedly, and so have students in my courses. This is an exceptionally joyful (even if demanding) experience: being so productive just feels great! You are not wasting any time, and a paper produced in one go is typically coherent and nice to read. Even if you are a slow writer, you can write a whole paper in a single week — if you follow my strategy. Read below about what you need to prepare and how to approach this project.

I wrote my first scientific research article in 7 days. It started as a desperate effort to stop my procrastination and “just do it”. But I was surprised what a positive experience it was: focused and efficient, I was making daily progress, feeling motivated and content. Finally, the fruits of my hard work were gaining shape — and they did it so quickly!

I realized it was highly effective to write up a paper like this: writing for the whole day, every day until the first draft was finished. My writing project was firmly present in my mind — I didn’t lose time catching up with what I have written in the last session. Since I was not doing anything else, my wandering mind settled in very fast, and I was getting into a routine. The daily progress was clearly visible and motivated me to continue. And the result was a coherent paper that was easy to revise.

Meanwhile, this paper-a-week approach is my favorite. That’s how I write my papers, and that’s what I teach to students. In on-site courses young scientists draft a whole paper in 5 days, writing one major section per day. At the beginning of the week, many participants have doubts. But at the end of the week, they are all excited to see how much they managed to write in just a single week.

If you would also like to try out this approach, then read on about the necessary preparations, the optimal setting, and a productive writing strategy.

If you would like to get support during the preparation, drafting and revising of your research article, check out my online course Write Up Your Paper .

Prepare well

• First, think about your audience and pick a suitable journal . This is an important step because the audience and journal determine the content & style of your paper. As a reference, pick two recent papers on a similar topic published in your target journal.
• Create a storyline for your paper. What is the main message you want to convey, and how are you going to present your results?
• Put together all the results that you need to present your story convincingly: collect the necessary data, finish analyses, and create figures and tables.
• Select and read the relevant background literature as well as studies you want to compare your work with. As you read, note down any point that comes to your mind as something to be mentioned in the Introduction or Discussion section.
• Draft a preliminary Abstract : it will help you keep the direction and not get distracted by secondary ideas as you write the individual sections.

Depending on how complete your results already are, you might need 2-4 weeks to finish all these preparations. To help you keep an overview, I created a checklist with detailed steps that you need to take before you attempt to write up your paper in a week. Subscribe to our Newsletter and get your copy of the checklist.

Reserve a whole week for writing

Now, writing a paper in a single week is a serious business. You can’t do it if you don’t focus solely on the writing and create good writing conditions. Therefore, I recommend the following settings:

• Find a place where you can write without distractions. I have written my first paper over the Easter holidays when there was nobody in the office. You might choose to write at home or in a library. Though if possible, the best is to go for a retreat: removing yourself from your everyday settings immensely helps focus on the writing.
• Cancel (all) social obligations for the week. While it’s crucial to relax in the evening, you want to avoid disturbances associated with social events. Anything that makes your thoughts drift away from your work because it requires planning, exchanging of messages with others, or simply because it’s too exciting is better left for some other week. On the other hand, a quiet meeting with a good friend over a glass of wine or beer might be just the perfect way to unwind and rest after a productive, yet exhausting day of writing.
• Get support from the partner, family or friends — if possible. It’s best when you don’t need to run errands, cook and clean during this week. If you live alone, you can probably easily arrange yourself for undisturbed work. If you live with other people, ask them for consideration and support.

What I described above are the *ideal* conditions for undisturbed writing. But don’t give up if you can’t create such conditions for yourself. Work with what is possible — maybe it will take you 7-8 instead of 5-6 days but that’s still a great result, right?

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin?

Get your Revision Checklist

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts.

Maybe you think that you can never ever draft a research article in a single week. Because you write so slowly, producing only few paragraphs per day. Well — I agree that if you don’t optimize your writing strategy, it would be hard to impossible to write up a whole paper in a week.

• Separate the processes of writing and revising. That’s the most important principle. Resist the urge to revise as you write the first draft. Moreover, don’t interrupt your writing to look up missing information. Work with placeholders instead. This allows you to get into the state of flow and proceed much faster than you can imagine.
• Start your writing day with 10 minutes of freewriting . Write without stopping about anything that comes to your mind. This helps you to warm up for writing, clear your head of any unrelated thoughts, and get into the mood of writing without editing.
• Take regular power breaks. I recommend to follow the Pomodoro technique : write for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After 3-4 such sessions take a longer break of 0.5-1 hour. During the breaks get up, walk a bit, stretch, look around, and breathe deeply. These breaks help you sustain high focus and productivity throughout the whole day.
• Eat and sleep well. What you are doing is similar to a professional athlete. So take care of your brain and body, and they will serve you well.
• Reward yourself. Every day celebrate the progress you have made. You have full right to be proud of you!

Write the individual sections in a reasonable order

If you have written a research paper before, you have probably realized that starting with the Introduction and finishing with the Discussion is not the ideal order in which to tackle the individual sections. Instead, I recommend the following procedure:

• Start with the Methods section. This is the easiest section to write, so it’s great as a warm-up, to get into writing without the need to think (and procrastinate ;)) too much. Look at your figures and tables: what methods did you use to create them? Then describe your methods, one after another.
• Results section: Writing the Methods section refreshes your memory about the research you have done. So writing the Results section next should not be too hard: Take one display object (figure or table) after another, and describe the results they contain. While you do so, you will come across points that need to be discussed in the Discussion section. Note them down so you don’t forget them.
• Introduction : When your results are fresh in your mind, you are in a great position to write the Introduction — because the Introduction should contain selected information that gives the reader context for your research project and allows them to understand your results and their implications.
• Discussion : When you have taken notes while writing the Results section, the Discussion section should be quite easy to draft. Don’t worry too early about the order in which you want to discuss the individual points. Write one paragraph for each point , and then see how you can logically arrange them.
• Abstract and title : On the last day, revise the preliminary Abstract or write a new one. You could also take a break of a few days before tackling the Abstract, to gain clarity and distance. Generate multiple titles (I recommend 6-10), so that you and your co-authors can choose the most appropriate one.

Just do it!

Once you have written the whole draft, let it sit for a week or two, and then revise it. Follow my tips for efficient revising and get your revision checklist that will guide you step-by-step through the whole process.

Now I am curious about your experience: Have you ever written up an academic article quickly? How did you do it? Please, share with us your tips & strategies!

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7 thoughts on “ How to write a whole research paper in a week ”

Thank for your guide and suggestion. It gives to me very precious ways how to write a article. Now I am writing a article related to Buddhist studies. Thank you so much.

You are welcome!

excellent! it helped me a lot! wish you all best

Hi Parham, I’m happy to hear that!

I have never written any paper before. As I am from very old school.

But my writing skill is actually very good. Your help is definitely going to help me as this has inspired me alot. Will let you know, once done. I really like the outline that you have given. Basically you have made it so easy for me .

Hope fully will be in touch with you soon.

Thanks and ki d Regards, Shehla

Dear Shehla, that sounds great! I’m looking forward to hearing about your paper!

Comments are closed.

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How to write a masters thesis in 2 months [Easy steps to start writing]

Writing a master’s thesis is completely possible to write a thesis within two months as long as you stay completely focused on your writing and you do a little bit every single day. I was able to write my thesis (master’s and PhD) in approximately two months – but I did have some of the sections already prepared.

To complete your master’s thesis in two months you should start by creating an outline of the sections and headings of your thesis. Then, worked diligently to fill in the gaps with data and analysis.

It would help if you create a schedule of how many sections you need to complete a day to write up in two months.

Also, it is important that you get your supervisor on board from the earliest opportunity so that they understand the urgency and their responsibility of getting any drafts back to you in a timely fashion.

How long does it take to write a master’s or graduate thesis?

Writing a graduate thesis can be a long and arduous process that can take anywhere from one month to many years.

It is essential to start writing your thesis early in your final year of graduate school, as it requires extensive research, data collection and analysis, in addition to the actual writing.

It is important that you go into the thesis writing portion of your degree with as much of the data analysis done as possible.

When you are writing you want to focus 100% on the production of words on a page.

Depending on the topic and depth of study, it can take anywhere from six weeks to two or three months just to complete the first draft.

This is followed by further revisions and edits before finalizing the dissertation.

My 8 tips on how to write a thesis or dissertation in two months

Writing a thesis or dissertation in two months can be a daunting task, but it is certainly possible. This assumes that you have all of the data analysis done and you are literally just writing up what you have found.

Here are eight tips that can help you finish writing your thesis in 30 days:

• Start by breaking up the task into manageable chunks and set deadlines for each stage of the process. This will make it easier to stay on track and not become overwhelmed by the whole project.
• Make sure to give yourself enough time to do a thorough literature review, as this is an important part of any thesis or dissertation. Many people have already completed the literature review in the early stages of their graduate degree. Revisit and use as much of this literature review is possible and add the research from recent years.
• Write your first draft as quickly as possible; don’t worry too much about grammar and spelling right now, that comes later. It is all about getting the words out onto the page as quickly as possible.
• Set aside some time every day for writing your thesis; even if it’s only an hour or two, this will help you stay focused and motivated throughout the entire writing process. I used to work in two hour blocks. I was able to squeeze three of these in a day which meant I got a lot of writing done.
• Don’t forget to use helpful tools like Grammarly to ensure the quality of your work is at its highest level before submitting it for review.
• Take regular breaks during your writing sessions; this will help you stay fresh and focused on what needs to be done next. I used to take a break every two hours away from my screen and ensure that I refuelled with good food and caffeine.
• Seek feedback from other PhD students or experts in your field; getting constructive criticism can help you improve the quality of your thesis significantly before submitting. However, do not allow people to sit on the draft for ages. We need a quick turnaround if we are going to complete your thesis in two months.
• Finally, plan ahead and stick to deadlines; this will help keep you on track with completing your thesis in a month’s time!

If you want to know more about how to finish a masters thesis in two months check out my other video where I show you the unglamorous trues about writing a thesis.

Understanding what you are going into and what is likely to happen is half the battle.

If you want to know more about how long a Masters’s thesis and PhD dissertation is you can check out my other articles:

• How Long is a Masters Thesis? [Your writing guide]
• How long is a PhD dissertation? [Data by field]
• Is writing a masters thesis hard? Tips on how to write a thesis

What are the common structures of a Masters’s thesis?

The common structure of a thesis or dissertation usually includes:

• the main text,
• literature review,
• methodology,
• results and discussions
• conclusions

Depending on the school and field of study, there may be additional elements such as appendices.

Generally speaking, the first step in writing a thesis or dissertation is to create a literature review that assesses relevant academic sources related to the topic at hand. This is typically done in the early stages of your research project so you can reuse many parts of your literature review in your thesis. Just make sure you update it with new information.

Then, the methodology section outlines how research was conducted and what methods were used.

The main text presents your findings and conclusions based on your research and the final part of the thesis is to summarise everything you have just written in an abstract.

Each section must be written with clarity and accuracy in order to be accepted by graduate school. However, initially you only have to worry about getting your ideas out onto the page – you can refine them for clarity and accuracy in the editing stage.

Here are all of the sections of a typical master’s thesis and how to write them quickly.

Introduction/literature review

The introduction and literature review are an important part of any academic paper. It outlines the topic, provides background information, and introduces the research question.

The introduction is typically the first section of a paper and should explain the general context and importance of the research being undertaken.

The literature review follows the introduction and provides an overview of relevant previous studies, theories, or debates related to the paper’s research question.

This section may include summaries of key articles or books that have been published on the topic, as well as alternative perspectives and arguments.

A strong literature review will provide a comprehensive summary of prior work while also identifying gaps in knowledge that can be addressed by the current study.

Reuse your literature review from the early stages of your project and update it with more recent publications.

Methodology in a thesis

this is the part of the thesis which details the methods used in researching and writing the paper.

The methodology should include information on how data was collected, analyzed, and interpreted.

I quite often like to start with the methodology because it feels like I am making a lot of progress whilst it being a relatively easy to write.

Feel free to look at other people’s theses that have used the same techniques and follow a similar format that they used. It is common for research groups to share their methodology sections with each other including any schematics required to describe your research process.

You can republish these as long as you reference the appropriate studies and people.

It can also explain why certain methods were chosen over others and provide justification for any assumptions made during the research process.

Results and discussion

Results and discussion provide a platform to present the findings of a research study.

They are essential components of any research paper as they provide an opportunity to analyze and interpret the data collected during the study.

Results typically include descriptive statistics, tables, figures, or graphs that display the main outcomes of the research.

These are what you should place under the headings first.

Create a story with the figures and tables you have already created throughout your research. If you haven’t done them already, create the figures and tables that display your data before writing.

The discussion section should explain how these results relate to prior studies and answer the original research question posed in the introduction.

It should also discuss any limitations or unexpected findings that emerged from the study, as well as potential implications for future research.

Conclusions in a thesis

Conclusions in a thesis are important because they provide readers with a final summary of the main points and themes discussed throughout the thesis.

The conclusion should not introduce any new information, but rather draw on existing evidence to summarize the overall argument presented in the thesis.

It should also reiterate the main points of the paper and include implications for further study or action that could be taken based on the findings.

Conclusions should be written in clear language, using strong arguments and evidence to support their claims.

It is really important to avoid making broad generalizations or unsubstantiated statements in one’s conclusions as this could weaken an otherwise sound argument.

The abstract of a thesis

The abstract of a thesis is a concise summary of the contents of the entire thesis.

And it should be written as one of the last parts of your thesis.

It should give an overview of all the major aspects discussed in the thesis, such as the research question, methodology, findings and conclusions.

The aim of an abstract is to give potential readers a clear idea of what the full dissertation contains without having to read it word for word.

An effective abstract should be concise and self-contained; it should be able to stand alone without needing any explanation or clarification from outside sources.

It should provide enough detail so that readers can determine whether they have an interest in reading the full dissertation.

Writing motivation

If you want to know more about how to increase your writing motivation check out my other video below.

Wrapping up

this article has been through everything you need to know about if you can write a Masters thesis in two months.

It is completely doable as long as you have all of the appropriate data and figures ready and you are committed to writing consistently throughout the two months.

Another really important part of completing your master’s thesis on time is getting buy in from your supervisors so that they return any drafts as quickly as possible.

Work diligently and consistently and in no doubt that you will be able to finish your master’s thesis in two months.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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8 Tips to Write a Thesis in 30 Days (Bonus Tip Included)

Every student wants to know how to write a thesis in a month . Before sharing the tips that I’ve used in my writing journey, we first need to ask: is it possible to write a thesis in one month, and actually finish it? The answer to this question is yes! You absolutely can write a thesis in 30 days. And you can write your thesis, from start to finish, without the emotional distress that often comes with such a monumental task. And, before you ask, no you’re not going to pay anybody to write a thesis for you. You’re going to write your thesis by yourself.

I’ve written two Masters’ theses, a PhD dissertation and a draft of a book. Here are the 8 tips that have helped me write my thesis as quickly as possible and get to the other side.

3.1 Use Grammarly: An Online Writing Assistant

My 8 tips on how to write a thesis or dissertation in a month.

Before we start, let me say that no one is born knowing how to write a thesis. My professors were not born knowing how to write a thesis and I wasn’t born knowing how to write a thesis either.

I learned how to write a thesis. It was not easy, and I struggled a lot in writing my first thesis. That’s until I discovered what I needed to do to push through and finish writing it.

I then used those lessons and applied them to my second thesis and every writing assignments since then. Writing became fun. 

In fact, I was having so much fun writing my second thesis that I took on extra writing assignments. Hence the birth of this blog.

1. Adjust Your Expectations

If you want to finish writing your thesis in a month, the first thing you need to recognize is that you don’t need to break new grounds in your thesis for your thesis to be acceptable.

If for some reason you think you need to break new grounds, then you need to quickly adjust your expectations. The point of a thesis is to demonstrate mastery of the literature and show that you’re able to competently synthesize  and present those works persuasively.

That’s all you need to do.

If you’re aiming for more, then consider these two points:

• You don’t have the advanced training or the experience yet to “contribute” to the field. It’s certainly not impossible, but that’s not what’s expected of you in your M.A thesis (and even in your PhD thesis). In fact, if you can just slightly “advance” the research, that’s considered a great accomplishment!
• You need much longer than 30 days or 3 months or even 3 years to come up with something new. Why? Because you need to read literally everything on your subject. And that’s what you’re expected to do when you’ve already finished writing your thesis, and decided to pursue an academic career.

For these two reasons, I think it’s best to view your thesis as something that reflects what you’ve been trained to do, which is to write a good thesis using the skills you already have. You are enough and you probably already have what it takes to write your thesis. So don’t be too hard on yourself. Think of this: Just like you can’t run a marathon if you’ve been training for a 5k, you also can’t “contribute to the field” when you’re still in the process of being trained on how to write a thesis. Most probably, this is your first time writing a masters degree thesis, so take it easy. (More on writing a PhD dissertation below).

So, adjust your expectations accordingly.

Now, if you are trying to write your PhD thesis in a month, let me first say that it’s almost impossible. But if you have certain circumstances (say like a serious illness), then talk to your advisor about it and see what he/she suggests.

2. Don’t Be a Perfectionist

A professor once told me, if you want to write a perfect thesis, “you will never finish writing.” And he was right. I can’t begin to tell you just how much time I wasted trying to write a flawless thesis (AHHH!). In the end, it was not worth it. I ended up procrastinating and wasting time. I wish I could have that time back. Please, don’t make the same mistake I made.

After that emotionally draining experience, I changed my approach. I strove to write something good (and not perfect). I then got feedback on my ideas from my professors and went back and made them better. Eventually, they were, in my eyes, perfect. I was happy.

If you still think you need to be a perfectionist, consider this: there’s always more you can say about your topic. There are more examples you can discuss, more evidence to support your arguments with, and there is an infinite number of ways to organize your ideas, paragraphs and chapters to eventually turn your thesis into a “masterpiece.” You literally can go on forever writing and re-writing your thesis.

If you’re tight on time and you want to finish writing your thesis in 30 days, then do yourself a favor and focus on being done . Write something that’s good enough and move on knowing that you will get back to it later. 

So stop fixing things day in and day out. The goal is to make linear progress every single day until you’re done.

Remember, a mediocre finished thesis is better than a perfect unfinished one.

3. Take the 80/20 Rule Seriously

Each writing assignment will take you as much time as you’re willing to give it.

So if you give yourself 10 hours to write what usually takes 2 hours, then you will spend 10 hours working on it.

And the opposite is true.

If you have an assignment that usually takes 10 hours to finish, and I give you 2 hours to work on it, you will probably finish it in 2 hours.

On this basis, if you want to write your thesis in 30 days, you have to decide that 30 days is all you have to finish writing it. Be firm about this deadline, and work with the aim of finishing.

To help speed up the writing process, you can benefit from using a powerful writing assistant like Grammarly . ( Disclosure : these are affiliate links which means I will receive a commission if you make a purchase using my referral links.) Please know that I only talk about services that I believe in and can stand behind. And this is one of those amazing products that can be of tremendous benefit to you if you are looking to get over writer’s block and avoid unnecessary slowdowns .

Okay, so quickly: what should you expect from Grammarly?

Grammarly can help save you a lot of time – especially when you are stuck looking for the right word, or the right way to phrase a sentence. Grammarly gives you a list of context-specific vocabulary suggestions/enhancements/corrections and allows you to make an informed decision about what’s best in your specific writing context. This makes your writing flow better and allow you to move forward at a faster rate.

Here are testimonies by students about how Grammarly has helped them with writing their thesis.

Just downloaded Grammarly for the first time and it has transformed my essays. I sound so smart! #Grammarly #Student — Lucy Jade ANutr (@lucyj_nutrition) March 2, 2019

#WhiteSmoke online editor combined with #Grammarly Chome extension..genius… Why didn't I discovered that earlier #Writing #Thesis #PhD — Quirina de Ruiter (@QuirinaDeRuiter) June 28, 2016

Here are some statistics on how Grammarly has helped students and writers get better results.

With Grammarly, you don’t have to worry about proofreading. It will do that for you. You don’t have to worry about manually checking for plagiarism , style, punctuation, and even wordiness. Grammarly can help you do all of that and will also offer explanations for the reasoning behind each correction.

You can also use Grammarly for better and more professional sounding emails – especially when you want to email your advisor and your committee. You can also use Grammarly across pretty much all of your social media platforms including twitter, facebook, linkedin and more.

In order to get access to all the tools that will help you write your thesis efficiently, I recommend their premium plan . The total cost comes out to 2 – 3 cups of cappuccinos… it’s worth it.

4. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Here’s a dose of realism.

As original as you would like to be in your thesis, someone has already written on your topic… and that’s a great thing!

Someone has read the same sources, summarized them and put them in their literature review. You can save yourself a whole lot of time by reading literature reviews. There, you will see exactly how they used those sources and how they might fit into your work. Consult the original sources briefly, but as much as necessary to get the main ideas out of them, and move on.

A literature review shouldn’t take you more than a week to complete if you plan to finish writing in 30 days, and that’s totally doable.

5. Complete a Quick First Draft

The fastest way to finish writing is to write quickly…duh.

What I mean by that is if you’re stuck and you can’t quite round up the paragraph or idea you’re working on, don’t dwell on it. Move on to other topics within your thesis and write them out. 

The most helpful tip that I can share with you is to force yourself to write a quick high school draft (first draft) of the entire thesis. Go all the way through until you have a completed first draft of your thesis in your hands.

This is going to be tremendously helpful for your progress because if you can see the conclusion of your thesis, you will a have better sense of which parts of your thesis need work, and which parts need to be completely cut out. 

In fact, that’s, in my opinion, the only way to know what your thesis really needs. I say this because imagine if you had spent tens of hours fixing a paragraph only to discover later on (or be told by your advisor) that you really don’t need it.

Let me tell you, it freakin sucks!

6. Journal Articles Are Your Best Friend

Journal articles are usually less than 25 pages in length and sometimes even less than 15 pages long. The best part about them: they’re succinct. You can pretty much read the abstract and you’ll know exactly what the main argument is and the strategy of the paper.

All you need to do then is to look for the evidence in the paper itself. It shouldn’t take you anything more than 3 hours to get this information out of the paper. And when you get good at this, it will take you even less than 3 hours.

Moreover, journal articles are a great way to help position your thesis within the literature on the topic, and you will have a much clearer destination when you do so.

See my post on  how to read faster .

7. Write (Your Thesis) Everywhere

If you’ve been following my blog, then you know that I champion using free time effectively.  

Plan to read or write everywhere : whether you’re waiting on a friend, waiting for the bus, or eating lunch. It will help you address what I’ve called elsewhere as the “familiarity deficit.” Read that post here . Don’t underestimate the value of that time. It will give you a much needed head-start when it’s time to sit down and work on the relevant chapter within your thesis.

The key to finishing your thesis in 30 days is to keep writing even when you don’t feel you’ve got much to say. It will come to you, just don’t give up too soon.

If you experience some mental roadblocks and you’re dealing with procrastination, then give this article a quick read to help you overcome procrastination and take action.

8. Bonus Tip – Join Online Writing Communities

Yes. Join online writing communities. They’re free and you will get a whole lot of support from people who are going through the same thing. Try Phinished . I’ve used it when I wrote my first thesis and it helped me a bunch. 

I need to caution that it is easy to spend a lot of time on Phinished reading what others have to say. You might find yourself reading page after page about the challenges others are going through: including what they’re doing to move through the process, and how far they are in their thesis writing. 

If you want to finish, then use it with the intention to finish  and not to waste more time or procrastinate.

Hope this will help you finish your thesis in 30 days!

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Can I Write A Dissertation In Two Weeks? (Quick Answer)

by  Antony W

January 31, 2022

Imagine this:

Your dissertation is due in about 14 days. It’s 8,000 to 10,000 words long assignment and you haven’t written even a single word yet.

You know you should have started sooner, but the year has been quite tough for you. What do you do? Is two weeks even enough to write a dissertation this long?

You can write and complete a dissertation in two weeks if you dedicate yourself to working on it every day. Provided you’ve done your research and you already know what you want to talk about, it should be easy to put the words down.

You don’t have to fret if you seem already late with the project.

Sometimes being paranoid and scared of what would happen now that you’re running out of time can easily result in a writer’s block ,  which can make it even more difficult to complete your work.

In this guide, we give you some tips that you can use to complete your dissertation in just 14 days.

How to Write a Dissertation in 14 Days

1. start with proper planning.

The best way to write a comprehensive dissertation in two weeks is to write down a plan first.

Students who write 2,000 words in one sitting do so because they’ve mapped out their plans in a way that allows them to achieve such major milestones.

In your plan, determine what you need to include in the assignment, the right order to include them, and the number of words for each section.

Spend at most 4 days doing further research and reading, and then the next 5 to 7 days writing 1,000 to 2,000 words a day.

Make sure you’re sticking to the plan from the first to the very last day. Two weeks is a short time, so you can’t have time for procrastination in your plan.

With a high degree of discipline, it should be easy for you to use the plan to write the entire dissertation within the limited period.

2. Write Every Day and In Bits

The golden rule to getting a 10,000 to a 15,000-word dissertation completed in just 14 days or less is to write every day and do so in bits.

Rather than trying to write 4,000 words or more once, try to limit yourself to completing 2,000 words a day without fail.

You will need effective study habits   to get this done in good time. That means writing in a space free from distraction so you can meet your daily target.

If you can’t focus in your room, for example, go to the park, local library, or school library and write from there.

If your director or supervisor expects you to complete a 10,000-word dissertation, and you limit yourself to writing 2,000 words a day, you’ll finish writing in just 5 days.

That means you’ll have at least another full week to proofread, edit, and crosscheck your work for clarity, authenticity, and comprehensiveness.

There are days when you won’t hit the 2,000 words mark, and that’s completely fine, especially if you can write half that word limit.

The key thing here is to develop the habit of writing every day and, in the end, still have enough time left to do your editing. 

3. Write Section by Section

Two weeks is a limited time to write a dissertation fast. So you have to lay the foundation early after research to complete the project in good time.

Lay out each section and heading of the assignment, starting with the question, followed by objectives, and then the layout.

The layout of your dissertation should be as follows, exactly in the order presented below:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Discussion and analysis
• Limitations
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Bibliography

Laying out your assignment in sections simplifies the project, especially since it allows you to add content with ease as you continue to write.

It even helps to break the monotony of sitting through hours of writing because you can focus on another section when you feel lost in one.

There’s no specific formula for writing each section, except to make sure you spent at least an hour in each section.

As long as you’ve done prior research and you know exactly what you’d like to say, this shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what is the hardest part of working on a dissertation .

The hardest part of working on a dissertation assignment is the literature review section.

It’s also the most important part of the project that should take most of your time to research and write.

Be sure to check out our guide on how to write a literature review   if you need a refresher.

2. How many words should a dissertation have?

While there are several factors that determine the length of a dissertation ,  the assignment can be between 8,000and 15,000 words long.

Check with your director or supervisor to be sure of the expected word count because some programs have a variation in word count.

3. How many hours should you spend on a dissertation?

The answer to this question really isn’t black and white. In other words, how much you spend writing your dissertation depends on when you started working on the project.

If you’ve done in-depth research early and you already know what you want to write down, spending at least 4 hours a day working on the assignment can get you to finish the work in the shortest time possible.

Assuming you write 2,000 words every day, you should take about 10 days to complete your dissertation. 

Final Thoughts

There’s more to writing a dissertation than meeting the number of works. You have to research your topic thoroughly and make sure you get the structure and flow of the assignment right. 

Remember that you have a limited time already, so you cannot afford the luxury of procrastination.

Every day you delay brings you closer to failing the dissertation and missing the doctorate degree.

So spend a lot of your time researching, writing, and consulting until you get the work done. 

Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance if you feel stuck somewhere along the way. The team at Help for Assessment to guide you in any way you need.

Also, you can hire our dissertation writing service to get a team to work along with you so you get your dissertation completed within the 14-day period.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.