5 Keys To Selecting Successful Dissertation Topics


Many Ph.D. students who are facing writing their dissertation have trouble choosing a topic to write about. This paper has an enormous impact on your future in the career field you choose, so the topic is a tremendous challenge to students. Below are five tips to help you find the successful topic you are struggling to find.

5 keys to a successful dissertation topic


  1. One piece of advice everyone has heard at one point is “think outside of the box” this statement has never been truer than in the case of choosing a topic. By choosing a topic that is new or a new spin on something old you can gain the attention of plenty of people because they could read your paper and go “wow that is so interesting.” If you make that impact on those who read your paper, then, your topic will be pretty successful. When writing a dissertation, you do not want the reaction of “oh another one about this?” You need to make a point about what you have been studying your school career and by making the topic out of the box and bold you can make your point and make a name for yourself.
  2. You may want to do something you are incredibly passionate about that no one has written about for; well that right there is a red flag. Why has it never been written about before? Sometimes that topic you really want to write about is not writable, due to lack of research. Sometimes a topic will just not work. By getting advice from your advisor you can choose a topic you can write about passionately that will still work for you. Keeping the advice given to you by someone who has written a dissertation before can keep you off the track of choosing a topic that is hard to write it could mess up your paper completely.
  3. This may seem obvious to some people more than others but keep in mind, do not choose a topic that is a yes or no question. This can cause issues in your work, by choosing a topic that has a straightforward yes answer it makes it seem like “why even write this when the answer is straight in front of you” and it is even worse if the answer is no because then your whole dissertation is out the window. By staying away from yes or no questions you can choose a satisfactory topic that works for you.
  4. Your paper should be the highlight of your academic career and the one you wish to pursue. By combining your past studies with what you want to do in the future, you can choose something that is both interesting to you and will set the tone for your future career. Take two or three interesting topics you have learned about and see if you can find questions in time. Sometimes you can find a question that interlinks them together and that could be promising for it would tie together what you have learned and what you wish to learn as you grow and work. By combining what you know and what you want to know you set the stage for a successful dissertation topic that can be used to set you up for where you want to go.
  5. Above all else, choose something you are confident in researching and writing about. If you choose a topic, you are iffy on at best then the dissertation may not show what you are capable of to the best extent. Choosing that topic that you are confident you can research with and write about. This can make you have a successful work because the confidence you have will be transferred into your research and later into your writing. It will show what you are capable of and give your career a better start because you know what you can and what you cannot do, and you have demonstrated that with confidence.

Keeping these five tips in mind while trying to think up a topic can help you find a topic you can do research for easily and write a successful, strong paper about that will influence your future in a good way.

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