No matter if you are a PhD candidate, a graduate student, a post-doc, or an assistant professor, you will sooner or later face the dreaded task of writing your dissertation. Some students say that this is the most horrible part of their academic career since it takes time to finish and also costs money. If you are worried about getting your dissertation done on time, worry no more.
I this article, I have listed out a number of best tools in writing your dissertation. Start using them and thank me later!
Grammarly Premium
Let’s face it – the spell checker in Microsoft Word just plain sucks. False positives and negatives abound, missed errors, ridiculous suggestions – you’re often better off spell checking yourself. Thankfully, you don’t need to do that, thanks to Grammarly.
Grammarly is much more than just a spelling and grammar checker – it picks up much more complex issues such as:
- Inconsistent writing style and unclear sentence structure
- Overuse of specific works and ineffective vocabulary
- Impoliteness and insensitive or non-inclusive language
- Inappropriate tone or formality level
- Plagiarism
Simply put, Grammarly is the closest thing you’ll get to having a real-time editor and proof-reader looking at your work. Plus, the plagiarism checking functionality is a huge bonus in the context of writing a dissertation or thesis. Grammarly works in Word, Google Docs and Chrome, so it’s extremely versatile.
Note that there is a free version, but this is very limited (quite similar to Word, and no plagiarism checker), so you’ll need to go for Grammarly Premium. Fortunately, its less than $12/month – well worth it!Get Grammarly (Free or Pro)
Evernote & Penultimate
No doubt, you’ll be taking an endless stream of notes throughout the research process. Some will be written notes, some will be photos, some might even be audio recordings. You’ll need a way to stay on top of it all and keep things organised. Enter Evernote.
Evernote is the ultimate note-taking app, as it allows you to take notes in various formats, including text (typed and handwritten), photos (snap that workshop slide) and audio (record that interview). You can also attach files of any format (for example, an Excel data set), so absolutely everything stays in one place. The text in any note is fully searchable, and all data is synchronised across your phone, laptop, desktop and tablet.
Dragon Anywhere
Writing up a good dissertation or thesis requires a lot of, well, writing. Spending hours upon hours hunched over a keyboard can be really draining (and potentially physically harmful). Imagine you could just speak instead of type. Well, now you can, thanks to Dragon Anywhere.
Dragon Anywhere is an app that allows you to simply speak into your smartphone or tablet and it converts that audio into text format. This means you can get your thinking on to paper faster than you usually would and minimise the risk of losing your train of thought. It’s also great for getting work done while you’re sitting in traffic, and it can double as a transcribing aid for your interviews. Get Dragon
Dropbox
The number of times I’ve seen students lose hours/days/weeks’ worth of hard work (and even miss the submission deadline) due to corrupted flash drives or hard drives, coffee-soaked laptops, or stolen computers is truly saddening. If you’re not using cloud storage to save your work, you’re running a major risk – and it’s totally unnecessary.
If you take only ONE thing from this post, let it be this point. Go sign up for any of the following cloud services (most offer a free version) and save your work there:
Not only will this ensure your work is always safely stored (remember to hit the Save button, though!), it will make working on multiple devices easier, as your files will be automatically synchronised. No need to have a million versions between your desktop, laptop, tablet, etc. Everything stays in one place. Safe, secure, happy files.
MindMup
Have you ever had that lightbulb moment when everything suddenly made perfect sense to you only to revisit the subject later and be unable to recall that train of thought? Writing a thesis can be a bit like following a mysterious white rabbit down a dark hole. You may end up in all kinds of mind-opening places, but keeping track of them and how they fit together can be overwhelming. Heralded for its intuitiveness and user-friendliness, MindMup acts as an online mind-mapping canvas perfect for representing ideas and concepts visually. Want to share your thoughts with others? MindMup is also a terrific collaborative tool.
iA Writer
Hailed by The Guardian as “beautiful and simple” and by The New York Times as “clever,” iA Writer provides a focused, writing-conducive environment free of “bells and whistles”-type distractions.
That’s not to say that this simple text editor lacks tools aimed at making the writing process both more enjoyable and efficient. In fact, iA Writer has been elegantly designed to do exactly that thanks to features like “focus mode,” version control, cloud support, and insightful metrics.
With clarity, an overarching requirement of all advanced writing, iA writer keeps the focus where it should be: on the text itself. It’s hardly a surprise that this “joyously simplistic” tool is the brainchild of two Swiss designers.
Just because your thesis is largely a solitary endeavor doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own. These five tools can help improve your research and writing processes — both for a better outcome as well as a more positive and productive experience along the way.
ThinkWell
One of the most important factors to writing a dissertation is sticking to a timetable. The timetable should be designed in such a way that it is achievable as well as practical. ThinkWell provides logistic support to design custom schedules, keeping in mind the objectives which need to be achieved. Students can use their assistance to schedule their activities for the next 6 months to even over a year in some cases. This is an ideal tool for students who are working on their thesis as well as taking classes.
ThinkFree
Almost all students are anxious to start writing the introduction of their dissertation. In some cases, they are unable to find the proper tools to help them compose their project. ThinkFree provides you a stable and efficient platform for all sorts of documents from spreadsheets to presentations and even regular word processing documents. The best feature of this software is that it allows you all in one access to your documents from several locations, for example, a smartphone, tablet, laptop or even a desktop.
MHR Writer
Sometimes due to unavoidable circumstances, student are unable to complete their assigned academic work. It just so happens that they might have completed half or just the brainstorming session for the given assignment and they are unable to complete the project. MHR Writer provides expert academic assistance to complete your dissertations or assignments to meet your deadline. They provide comprehensive guarantees regarding plagiarism as well as a guarantee to meet your deadline. Around the clock customer support is also a standard feature of their assistance.
Crocodoc
In the course of writing your dissertation, there will come times when you need to design certain pages or illustrations which need attention to minute details. With the help of this application, you can embed complete images and pictures using 360 views. You can edit the background as well as each and every layer in the final document. You can use both the 2D view and the 3D view to make sure that your images are designed perfectly. This is an extensive tool which can provide pertinent assistance in the completion of a final project.
Docear
If you’re like most graduate students, you’re probably drowning in paper. The struggle to keep this material organized within one streamlined and intelligible system can inhibit both your writing process and progress. Enter Docear. This unique literature management tool designed specifically for academics just might be your new best friend when it comes to discovering, organizing and ultimately creating academic literature.
Docear’s three-part solution comprises a single-section user-interface which lets you sort documents and annotations and simultaneously view multiple annotations of multiple documents; a “literature suite concept” containing a variety of tools — from pdf management to mind mapping — into a single application; and a recommender system which connects users with new literature tailored to their specific area of research.
The best part? Docear is free, open source, and available for a number of different platforms. One user described the tool as, “Exactly what I needed, incredible, really! Now I can have a clear global view of the literature and can work way faster than before. More of that, Docear is compatible with numerous other software. It’s an incredible timesaver.” Other words used in discussing Docear? “Genius,” “wonderful,” “extraordinary” and “revolutionary.”
SpellCheckPlus
We’re all familiar with some version of the proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” SpellCheckPlus applies the same concept to the writing process. Rather than simply correcting your mistakes, it summarizes them into distinct categories. Available in a free version as well as in an upgraded “Pro” option which includes additional features. SpellCheckPlus offers feedback which not only improves your current project, but your writing and grammar at large.
In other words, SpellCheckPlus is no mere editing tool; rather, it’s a teaching tool. And as even the very best writers know, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to how you deliver your message.
Conclusion
It’s the end of the academic term and students everywhere are scrambling to finish their research papers, essays, thesis work before heading out for summer. There is no time to waste if you want to give yourself enough time for feedback, revision and proof-reading.