What Is Dissertation Submission? 5 Things You Need To Know

Most graduate students have no clue about how to do a dissertation. They get help from their advisors, but there are some things that they might not tell them like the submission guidelines. Submissions guidelines can vary from school to school, but this list will give you some of the general rules that you should know when you are preparing and submitting your final paper.

5 Things to Know

• You want to plan ahead. Most schools want you to submit your final work a few weeks before you have to defend it. That means you have to complete your paper early. You should plan to have your paper done at least 4-6 weeks before you have to defend it. That way you have time to go over all of it again after you submit it.
• Do you send a hard copy or electronic one to the committee? Some schools will tell you which one they prefer, but if it isn’t specified, you might want to send an email to all of the committee members and ask which one they prefer a few weeks ahead of time.
• The final format is very important to your dissertation. Each school has their own special format that they want to see in their final papers. You need to find what kind of style they want APA, Chicago, MLA, and so on. And if you can’t figure out how to format it after you find out the right one, you might want to consider looking at past students work to figure it out.
• You might be asked to make changes to your defense or your paper from the committee. Most committees won’t allow someone to defend their final paper if they aren’t confident they can pass, so it is important that you know the material well and that you fix any edits that the committee tells you to do and resubmit it.
• Almost all schools require that the person submitting their paper choose an editor from the school to edit their paper. This is actually a great thing because then you can give your work to someone else and they can fix errors that you might have missed, and they will be able to give you great feedback on your paper.

All of these submission requirements should be able to help you when you are submitting your dissertation for review and don’t be scared to ask for help if you are unsure of all of your school’s requirements.