Phd Thesis Writing: Terminology Hints

If you’re in graduate school pursuing a Master’s degree or a PhD, you are expected to do a lot of academic writing. Whether it’s for class, for a comprehensive exam, for an internship, or for your actual degree requirement, you are writing almost constantly. Every writing assignment in graduate school is held to a rigorous standard of quality and professionalism, which makes the work extra daunting and time consuming to complete.

When writing your PhD thesis or dissertation, it’s important that you remember all the proper terminology from your graduate courses. Using the proper jargon and lexicon in your thesis will show your committee that you have attained mastery of the subject area, and fluency in your ability to communicate academic information. Here are some hints for polishing up your terminology usage. While it’s especially relevant to dissertations and theses, it also applies to graduate papers of every other level.

Know Your Statistical Jargon

In your dissertation or thesis, you will probably be expected to display statistical acumen. The results section of your paper is one long exam in statistical skills. Not only must you know the proper statistical methods and the proper ways of representing them in text and tables, you must also know how to explain statistical results in a fashion every reader can follow.

Before writing your paper, brush up on your statistical terminology. Pay extra attention to terms and concepts that are easy to get confused or switched around. Do you know the difference between a Type I and a Type II error? What is the nature of the relationship between alpha and beta, and how are these values related to power in a study? What is the difference between moderation and mediation? Can you illustrate these differences with a graph or chart? Focus on these issues and get some practice before you write.

Practice Research Methods Vocabulary

You should also place emphasis on your ability to communicate research designs and empirical methods. Quickly, ask yourself right now how you would describe your study design. Are you employing random assignment? What is your sampling method -- random, convenience, stratified, or something else? Is your study an experiment, a survey, a quasi-experiment, archival research, or a meta analysis?

You should be able to quickly, effortlessly use the language from your research methods courses to describe your planned method. Do not use overly casual language when outlining your procedure, method, or materials, as this can lead to confusion. If you are uncertain about the proper terms, consult your professors.

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