The Use Of Technology To Facilitate The Thesis Writing Process
If you’re reading this, you probably know what a thesis is. It’s a critical document for researchers, especially those wanting to get a doctorate.
When you submit your thesis, its quality is a major factor in determining whether you’ll get your degree or not. Unfortunately, writing a good thesis is hard work – it takes a lot of time and effort to get it right. Plus, different universities have different guidelines for writing a thesis, which can be confusing.
Working on a thesis also helps students develop important skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, research, and writing skills. These skills are transferable and can be useful in many other personal and professional life areas.
If you want to ensure your thesis is top-notch and shows off all your hard work, you need the right help. You probably think about hiring someone for this purpose; this approach also has the right to live. It’s okay to use a writing service to complete your thesis or hire an expert to write my annotated bibliography for me. However, today we’ll discuss another solution – technologies.
They can help with literally every stage of thesis writing. Let’s discover how!
The Assistance of Technologies On the Pre-Writing Stage
Technology is a broad notion, and here we include not only software but websites as well. The pre-writing stage consists of searching for information, generating your ideas, and organizing the sources you found.
Researching
Your road to writing a thesis starts with researching information. Fortunately, you don’t need to sit in the college library for hours because you have the Internet. That’s the main way the technologies assist you. One of the most convenient ways of gathering information is by using online databases and search engines.
Besides saving a lot of time, your search for information conveniently and have access to an enormous amount of data. When you use online databases and search engines, such as Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, and the like, you just formulate a query, and algorithms do everything for you. But, of course, you still need to read these books and research papers to ensure they are relevant.
Brainstorming
A thesis is an academic document that presents original research and ideas on a specific topic. A thesis aims to contribute new knowledge to the field and demonstrate the author’s ability to conduct independent research and analysis.
While conducting thorough research and reviewing existing literature on the topic is necessary, a thesis should not solely rely on existing ideas and findings. Instead, to find original concepts and perspectives that add to the existing body of knowledge in the field, a student needs to organize brainstorming sessions and generate their ideas.
Organizing them effectively is essential, and various mind-mapping software perfectly fits this purpose. XMind, Mindnote, MindMeister, and the like can benefit you in the following ways:
- Stimulates creativity. Mind mapping encourages free-flowing and creative thinking, which can lead to the development of new and innovative ideas.
- Help with the organization. Maps help to structure and organize complex information, making it easier to understand and recall.
- Visual representation. The software visually represents information, making it easier to understand and remember.
- Flexibility. Mind maps are flexible and can organize information in various ways, depending on the user’s preference.
- Collaboration. Tools allow collaboration, which is useful when working in a group or seeking feedback from others.
Organization of Sources
When writing a thesis, it is essential to keep track of all the sources used for research. This includes books, articles, journals, and websites. Reference management software can help to organize and manage these sources effectively. RefWorks, Endnote, Zotero, and the like allow you to store sources in various citation styles, export data, and access it from multiple devices.
What Can Help You During The Writing Stage?
Here we discuss the use of tools during the writing process, although many of you may already be aware of it.
Convenient Word Processing
When writing a thesis, having access to reliable word-processing software is crucial. The software should have features that allow formatting and structuring of the document, making it easy to read and understand. Some popular software includes Microsoft Word and Google Docs. In addition, finding a tool with a table of contents generator, templates, heading styles, footnotes, and other useful features would be good.
Plagiarism And Grammar Check
Thesis writing has high standards; before you defend it, you must ensure that the paper is impeccable. Therefore, checking for grammar mistakes and plagiarism is an obligatory writing stage. Grammarly, Hemingway App, Ginger, and Turnitin are the most popular among researchers.
These tools can help improve the quality of the writing and ensure it is free from plagiarism. However, it is important to note that these tools are imperfect and may not catch all errors or instances of plagiarism. Therefore, using them in conjunction with manual proofreading and editing is essential.
A Few Words About Post-Writing Stage
After completing your paper, several tasks must be done before submitting the final version. In this section, we will discuss the use of technology in the post-writing stage of thesis writing. The previous section touched on editing and proofreading aspects, so let’s move on.
Citing And Referencing
Creating proper citations and references is a crucial aspect of thesis writing. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all sources used in the thesis are properly cited and referenced according to the citation style recommended by the institution.
Citation generators are online tools that can help create proper citations and references. These tools can save time and effort by automatically generating citations and references in the desired citation style. Some popular citation generators include EasyBib, MyBib, and QuillBot.
Format Management
For some reason, you may need to have different formats for your thesis. Unfortunately, not all word processing software allows users to save paper in various formats. That’s why you may need a tool to convert the document. AVS Document Converter, Cloud Convert, and hundreds of other services help you do it in a blink of an eye.
The Bottom Line
Analyzing everything stated above, it’s possible to conclude that technology isn’t a way to facilitate the thesis writing process. However, technology is an irreplaceable component of the writing process in the 21st century.
Each stage can only be successfully completed with an app or website. From researching and gathering information to organizing and managing sources and from writing and editing to formatting and publishing, technology can help streamline the thesis writing process.
Read Also:
Share this article:
