When you are writing your thesis, it is not uncommon to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of organization and sections involved with the format. In order to keep you from feeling too much stress from the writing process of your thesis, we’ve gathered five tips of things you must know when you are writing.

Three Questions You Should Ask Yourself

When you are first formulating your thesis, there are three things you should ask yourself so make sure you are on the right track. Once you have gathered your thesis statement you should ask three questions. These three questions are:

1) Is my thesis statement general or specific? : You want to make sure that your thesis statement is very specific. Not only to make it clear and to the point, but a specific thesis statement will allow you to stay within the strict formatting. Getting to the point of your thesis is what the dissertation is about. If you make a statement that is too general you will not have success in sticking to the style format and explaining or proving your statement. An example of comparing specific and non-specific statements would be:

Non-Specific: “People are more likely to object to horror films than they did before.”

Specific: “The horror films of today do not provide audiences the same emotional catharsis as the horror films of the 1930’s-1950’s.”

2) Is my thesis statement clear? To be sure you are very clear with your thesis statement, follow these tips:

– Do not use technical language (unless your dissertation is based on a technical subject).
– Do not use jargon.
– Do not use words that are vague – (interesting, unusual, negative, exciting, difficult, etc.)
– Do not use abstract words – (culture, society, values, etc.)

Did I make sure my thesis is original? Originality is absolutely essential. In all cases you should avoid formula sentences and generic arguments.

Placing the Thesis Statement

While you will follow a specific structure, you need to be aware of the placement of the thesis statement. The purpose of the thesis statement will structure the entire dissertation. Your thesis statement should appear at the beginning. The statement should be in the introduction or the last sentence of the paragraph. You should also keep in mind that your thesis statement should be no more than two sentences long.

In addition, your thesis should not be a question. Thesis statements are designed to ask questions, not be one.

The Topic is Important

While it might seem obvious, you should be careful when choosing your topic. If you are writing an educational subject, make sure the topic is something you are very well versed in and have a lot of knowledge about. In contrast, if you are writing an objective dissertation, make sure that you choose a topic that you are passionate about.

Throughout the thesis, it is important to remember:

– do not bring in ideas or topics that will not be discussed.
– Do not write in first person
– Avoid being combative.

Strict Structure is a Must

Depending on the institution or department you are a part of will determine the style manuals that you can choose from. Most often your committee, board, or any other dissertation writing services will advise you to use the style that is most popular or most often used in your field of study. You should follow their guidance to ensure you start off writing your thesis in the correct format for your department.

Once you have chosen a style manual that is the structure you will need to follow throughout the entire thesis writing and formatting. It is absolutely vital to stick to the strict structuring in order to follow the guidelines of your department and for easy binding as well.

When you format your thesis the following items will need to be assured that they are in accordance to the manual style:

Font (styles and sizes)
Margins and spacing
Page numbering
Citations
Using tables, charts, pictures, etc.
Using bibliographies
Implementing a table of contents

In addition, you will need to follow the exact layout of the manual style you have chosen. For the most part, manual styles will provide a layout such as:

Cover or title page
Copyrights
Section of Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of any: charts, tables, illustrations, graphs, etc.
Preface – if you are using one
Actual text of your thesis (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion)
Bibliographies
Appendices (if applicable)

Drafts and Reviews

When you are drafting your thesis it is not uncommon for your view to change slightly. This happens naturally as you learn more about the subject and discover more in your research. If you find this happening to you, adjust accordingly to ensure you do not stray from your original thesis with the supporting information in your paragraphs.

You will also write several drafts to make sure the final product is perfect. Along the way you need to make sure of:

Spelling errors
Grammatical errors
Overall flow of the dissertation
Making sure to connect ideas or facts appropriately so your thesis is not disjointed
Analyze your thesis to make sure you avoid mistakes that will weaken the thesis statement.

Once you have had the chance to draft your thesis and make adjustments accordingly, give yourself time to read it out loud. When you read it out loud, you will hear the flow of your thesis and it will be clear if it is making sense or is suddenly disjointed. Reading it out loud will also allow you to see the strength of your argument and you can adjust as needed. After you are sure you are happy with the final result, turn it in- and be sure to turn it in on time!

About the Author
Laura Carter has decent experience in educational field. Right now she works with dissertationwritingservices.org. She’s keen on academic, creative writing and passionate about language learning. Follow @carterlaura15 to hear more from her!

Can’t average writing skills meet your needs in most situations? I’m afraid the answer is “no.” If you want to move ahead in your career and personal life you need above-average writing skills.

There’s more to writing than you might think

Writing and its associated skills form a complex network of competency that rests upon many other important abilities. To be a competent writer, you need to have mastered spelling and proper grammar usage, you need to have a rich and deep vocabulary, and you must have the ability to express yourself with clarity and eloquence.

What this means is that good writing skills will be the proof of your skills in many other areas as well. You will come across as a smart, competent person — a prerequisite for any job on today’s competitive market. It’s not an exaggeration to say that there’s no better self-promotion tool than impeccable writing skills.

Your writing is a reflection of who you are

Even if your job doesn’t require a lot of day to day writing, whenever you’re required to write something, whether that’s an email or even a simple text message, people will still judge your intelligence and competence based on your writing.

While it may sound condescending and presumptuous to judge a person solely on their writing skills, it happens. People use the written word to see how a person thinks, what their values are, and what principles and ethics their lives are governed by.

Great writing skills help you construct and project a competent, intelligent, and persuasive personal brand. Bad writing skills will more likely cost you a shot at better career prospects.

The written word is supreme

Most office-based jobs require that you master written communication skills. In fact, most formal communication in companies is through the written word. Government proceedings, legal documents, and contracts are not orally communicated, they’re always expressed through formal writing.

Everything worthwhile and binding is in written form so it’s crucial that you’ve mastered writing skills by the time you start your career. In fact, the earlier you learn these skills, the better, since they will help you get the education you need to succeed in that career. You need to be able to write and communicate in a variety of contexts — a Q3 report is not the same as writing a grant proposal— but also be able to understand and process formal language content and avoid any misunderstandings and errors.

Read voraciously to improve your vocabulary, and when you are writing, try keeping your sentences short and simple even when using that advanced vocabulary. Follow formal style and format rules to get the most professional end result, and always spell-check and proofread your content. Writing skills are valuable, and worth the effort they take to acquire them.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments

Take advantage of the resources around you. A supportive learning community is critically important for learners, whether they’re adults or children. However, many adults feel uncomfortable in what they see as “beginner” classes, and might be embarrassed to make mistakes in front of other people. It’s important to remember that ESL classes provide good study materials, a chance to practice the language with other people, and a teacher who can help with any questions. Look for community college courses, or free classes which are often organized by libraries, churches, or social services organizations. If your child isn’t getting enough English practice in their school, these classes are a good way to help them keep up with the other students.

Use games to make learning fun. Spelling games are great ways to keep kids interested and occupied, and the challenge and interactivity will keep them involved in the learning process. They’ll be having so much fun, they’ll forget they’re actually learning something! Learning vocabulary is fun and easy if you have a “word of the day” app that you can download onto your smartphone, or set up to run on your computer at work. You can also practice both spelling and vocabulary skills by doing crossword puzzles – one of the daily crosswords published on line and in many local newspapers is usually short enough to complete during a lunch break or on your commute.

Stay focused on your goals. It’s hard to make enough time in an already-busy day to improve your literacy skills, but you’ll get your motivation back when you think about all the ways that a good vocabulary will help you get ahead at work. It’s sometimes harder to keep children motivated towards an intangible (to them) goal of success in school, so use rewards that they can appreciate right away for their time spent working on their spelling lists or English homework. Every goal, whether short-term or long-term, should be celebrated when it’s met. Even adults need a reward, so when you’ve finished your class or made it through your vocabulary list, give yourself a treat or a break, and get your energy back for the next step in your self-improvement program.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

US: You said that you’ve just started as of January this year as the editor of the website. Were you involved with the homeschooling website before this as well, or just with your personal website?

KS: Prior to January, I was a contributing writer at the Homeschool Village and a few other homeschool sites. I also wrote daily (and still do) at www.notconsumed.com which is a website for all parents. I write there about homeschooling at least once a week.

US: For many families, the decision to homeschool is only possibly because one parent stays home to teach while the other parent goes out to earn the family income. When it’s a single-parent household, how does homeschooling work out?

KS: Homeschooling as a single mom is no easy task. I’ve known moms who have worked all night and schooled during the day just to make it work. For me, I work from home during the day. My primary source of income is blogging, social media, and consulting work online. I have a very tight schedule everyday in order to make this work, but God has always provided enough!

US: Parents who choose to homeschool often come from a background of conventional public education, so they grew up with classrooms, schedules, recess breaks, and cafeteria lunches. How much of this format is transferred over to homeschooling?

KS: Being a former public school teacher, this was one of the most difficult hurdles for me to overcome. It’s tempting to try and make homeschool look like the classroom, but it usually ends in a dismal mess! We school at the kitchen table, so there is no “classroom” in the traditional sense. Really the whole house is our classroom. Everything we do is a learning experience. However, we do have “formal” or written learning… usually, between 9am and noon. If something comes up during that time, it’s no big deal. We’ve been known to school at the doctor’s office, the park, or even on weekends. As far as recess goes, there are no complaints here. On a typical day, my children have the entire afternoon to explore their own interests and usually that is done outside.

US: When you teach, do you have separate times and sessions for spelling, for history, for biology, or for any other topic, or do you use a more integrated approach that touches on multiple educational areas at the same time?

KS: The answer to this question varies by age. When students are younger, I think that an integrated approach is a wonderful way to teach. There is nothing like authentic literature to create a lifelong love of learning. The exception to this is spelling/reading and math. Beginning around 1st grade, I pull out a systematic approach that teaches reading through spelling. Once the student is a solid reader, I move back to the integrated approach. For math, I always keep the subjects separate.

US: Do you have any resources you would recommend for parents who need a good lesson plan for teaching spelling?

KS: I’m not sure how you would like me to answer this question. I have used several great programs and could recommend a few based on a family’s particular needs. However, that would be in direct competition to yours I believe. Since I have not heard of Ultimate Spelling until you send me this email.

Pronouncing the Letter Y

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: pronunciation is an important tool in any spelling study program. Even if it seems at first like the sound of a word or letter makes things more confusing, the more you practice these words out loud while writing them out for spelling practice, the easier they’ll be to remember.

The letter Y is used for four sounds in English:

the E sound (city, unhappy, beauty, country)
the I sound (hygiene, typing, cycle, style)
the IH sound (myth, typical, cryptic, gymnast)
the Y sound, pronounced “yuh” and represented by the IPA symbol /j/, at the beginning or middle of words (yacht, lawyer, yes, young) and also at the end of certain words (gray,toy)
the schwa sound (martyr, syringe)

Spelling With the Letter Y

As you can see from the word lists above, the letter Y often occurs at the end of a word. When you add a suffix to the word, you may need to change the Y to another letter.

If there is a consonant before the Y, change the Y to an I before adding the suffix …

angry + ly = angrily
happy + ness = happiness
industry + al = industrial
study + ed = studied

… but if the Y comes after a vowel, don’t change it …

joy + ful = joyful
repay + ment = repayment

… unless you’re looking at an exception to one of those two rules …

dry + ly = dryly
gay + ly = gaily
pray + ed = prayed

… and no matter what letter comes before the Y, if the suffix is -ing, keep the Y.

say + ing = saying
dry + ing = drying
study + ing = studying

The final Y usually gets changed to IE when you’re making words plural, if there is a consonant before the Y.

funny / funnies
puppy / puppies
sky / skies

You’ll also change Y to IE when adding the suffix -est to words:

happy / happiest
lovely / loveliest
busy / busiest

If you’re wise you’ll practice your Ys and then you’ll win the spelling prize.

Think about it. What if you went to the doctor because you’d hit your head, and the doctor said:

Here’s a medicine that will help you relive your pain.

You probably wouldn’t take that medicine – or go back to that doctor! Instead, you’d look for someone to provide a medicine that would help you relieve your pain. One single letter, but a world of difference. What would this breakdown in communication do to a doctor’s client list? What will a spelling mistake end up costing in your business if you lose the ability to communicate with your clients because of one missing letter?

On a lighter note, we found some “missing letter” examples where people took popular book titles and dropped one of the letters to make the titles mean something entirely different. Have you read “The Da Vinci Cod”? How about that celebrated work on the topic of Chinese cuisine, “A Heartbreaking Wok of Staggering Genius”? Check out these funny spelling errors for a laugh – and then get serious about working on your spelling skills.

US: Tell us about your ESL classes – do you teach children at school, or do you have adult students who take private lessons?

DD: At the moment I work for Binh An Secondary School, which is a state school located 30 minutes away from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I teach English for 14 year old students (they are in eight or ninth grade).

On Mondays I teach English for kids (3-4-5 years old) at Lan Anh Nursery School (kindergarten).

US: Why did you start the ESLVietnamZone website?

DD: Long time ago (I believe it was the summer of 2010) I tried to learn graphic design with the help of my wife (she is a graphic designer). In order to remember all of the techniques she taught me, mostly for retouching photos, I decided to create different files and write every step there. Soon, my computer became a complete mess and searching through all these file was painfully. So, I decided to create an online website (better organized) and be able to access everything from any of my devices. This is how I created my first website (it does not exist any more now). Everything was written in English since I communicate with my wife in English.

Writing for that website I realized how important writing is. It helped me learn new vocabulary, practice spelling, use grammar etc. It was a totally different experience than just communicating with friends in English. I felt (and I still feel) it was the best way of learning English. So, in 2011, I created ESL Vietnam Zone website, an informative blog related to learning and teaching English as a Second/Foreign language.

US: Should people concentrate on vocabulary and spelling first, or is it more important to get comfortable speaking English at the beginning?

DD: Everybody wants to speak first but it is impossible to speak if you don’t know vocabulary. In my opinion, people should concentrate on vocabulary first. Of course, spelling comes hand in hand with vocabulary. Using vocabulary in speaking (or writing) is equally important.

US: Your website provides information for ESL teachers as well, including lesson plans. Are these the same tools you use in your classes?

DD: Yes, mostly they are. I say mostly because sometimes it is just not possible.

US: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone who isn’t enjoying their English classes in school?

DD: This is a difficult question. There might be many reasons and identifying these reasons is the first step. Learners usually complain about teachers … “My teacher is not funny”. This is true in some cases and it can make a class less enjoyable. The vast majority of learners learn English because they have to learn not because they have a motivation. I believe that the lack of motivation is what makes someone not enjoying their English classes. Most of the learners don’t see results after a period of hard studying. My advice for someone who is not enjoying their English classes is: be active in the class and use English outside the class. In this way you see the benefits of learning English and it creates a strong motivation to continue studying English. These make your English classes more enjoyable.

Take a look at some of the words that knocked contestants out of the most recent Scripps National Spelling Bee (for the full list, click here). Can you pronounce, spell, and define these words?

cynosure
pergameneous
diplodocus
nubuck
witloof
pekoe
douane
prerogative
jicama
totipotency

Contestants in the Scripps Spelling Bee have been winning with words as well, ever since the competitions started in 1925. Here are some of the words that helped early champions win the match. How many of them can you define, pronounce, and spell correctly?

asceticism
chlorophyll
autochthonous
kamikaze
deification
vignette
canonical
meticulosity
gladiolus
appoggiatura

If you’d like to get involved in the 2014 Scripps Spelling Bee then you need to make sure that your school (or your child’s school) is registered before October 15th. You can get more information on enrollment, registration, and rules for the competition at the official Scripps site.

English homophones are usually one of the more challenging parts of learning the language, because they’re words that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently. Make sure that your words don’t get lost in translation, and study these easily-confused word pairs so that you’re able to communicate clearly, no matter where you are.

aisle / isle
(corridor / small piece of land surrounded by water)

brake / break
(stop or slow down / fall to pieces, ruin)

capital / capitol
(upper-case letter / seat of government)

chord / cord
(set of musical notes / string or line)

coarse / course
(rough / schoolwork or study)

feint / faint
(distraction / lose consciousness)

flair / flare
(skill or ability / flash of light)

horde / hoard
(mass of people / to store or hide away)

peace / piece
(calm, quiet / section or part of something)

shear / sheer
(to cut off / absolute, certain)

taut / taught
(pulled tight / instructed)

waist / waste
(center of the body / careless use)

vain / vein
(full of pride / blood vessel)

dense + ITY = density (not “denseity”)
surprise + ING = surprising (not “surpriseing”)
move + ABLE = movable (not “moveable”)
large + EST = largest (not “largeest”)
pore + OUS = porous (not “poreous”)
diverge + ENCE = divergence (not “divergeence”)
ignore + ANCE = ignorance (not “ignoreance”)

The exception to this rule is that if the base word ends in a CE or a GE then you need to keep the final E so that you can keep the same pronunciation of the last consonant in the base word.

outrage + OUS = outrageous
service + ABLE = serviceable

Notice that in all of the base words above, the final E is both silent and preceded by a consonant. If the final E is preceded by another E or an O, you don’t usually drop the E.

hoe + ING = hoeing (not “hoing”)
shoe + ING = shoeing (not “shoing”)
canoe + IST = canoeist (not “canoist”)
agree + ABLE = agreeable (not “agreable”)

For the purpose of this rule, we’ll treat the Y as a vowel, and apply the same rule with this letter-final E combination:

dye + ING = dyeing (not “dying,” which is the present participle of the verb “to die”)

Because all spelling rules have exceptions, there are times when you’ll drop the second E before adding a suffix:

free + EST = freest (not “freeest”)

Usually, the incorrect spelling of these words will look so strange that you’ll find it easy to remember the correct one!