# Help with my dissertation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610 "2013-02-17T18:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/21 "2013-02-18T22:00:35Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Put all of your research and notes into the dissertation. Every survey, every response (properly anonymized), all the plans, all the summaries - every single character. They want [shovelware](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovelware)? Give them shovelware. This. Whatever your discipline is, make sure that you have copious quotes (tied back to the subject matter, of course) from Alice In Wonderland. Alice can be made to fit with damn near everything. And bonus points if you manage to insert Jabberwocky in its entirety. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/22 "2013-02-19T02:11:19Z")
I hear Annette Schavan and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg are real experts in this area. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/23 "2013-02-19T03:25:33Z")
[QUOTE=Saint Cad] Help with my dissertation [/QUOTE] Hey! I thought we’re not supposed to help posters with their homework! [sub]I kid. Nothing of substance to add, not having done a dissertation. Best of luck! 🙂 [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/24 "2013-02-19T03:33:06Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > This. Whatever your discipline is, make sure that you have copious quotes (tied back to the subject matter, of course) from Alice In Wonderland. Alice can be made to fit with damn near everything. And bonus points if you manage to insert Jabberwocky in its entirety. “As we all know, Charles Dodgson was a brilliant mathematician, so I believe his astounding analysis of the non-intuitiveness of certain higher maths, as highlighted in Jabberwocky, is incredibly relevant here.” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/25 "2013-02-19T14:48:08Z")
Sounds like my best bet is to take my dissertation after I add some more to the lit review (I’m adding a section that should serve to tie my variables together viz. why did you pick these to study) then go through and add notes to everything. I mention the Dunning-Kruger effect so at least another paragraph on that. I mention Likert scales so another couple of paragraphs. I also have a lot of charts so if a picture is worth a thousand words then . . . ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/26 "2013-02-20T08:12:31Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Einstein’s paper on the photoelectric effect is 24,946 characters long with spaces when translated into English. Published in 1905, it won him the Nobel Prize for 1922. The theory of general relativity (again, translated into English) is 195,552 characters long with spaces. > > I don’t know what your dissertation topic is, but perhaps extensive quoting of material in the public domain, properly attributed would be in order. A minimum number of words or pages is the mark of someone who doesn’t have the slightest clue when to shut the fuck up and vastly overestimates the importance of what is being said and the level of interest in the audience. Allow me to surprise you, then. I’m currently working on a certain qualification with an English academic institution known for its annual Thames-based activity with one other such institution, and the next assignment I have to hand in must be 8000 words give or take 500, no more and no less (discounting appendices). ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610/27 "2013-02-20T10:18:53Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > must be 8000 words give or take 500, no more and no less . WOW. This requirement certainly enhances the academic reputation of the university, upholds a 700 year tradition of excellence, and ensures that all graduates of such a famous institution will continue to reflect the honor and glory of true scholarship . Geez—what’s the point of the word limit? Journalists count words to fit column inches, because the content has to fit into the financial limitations of the format. But scholarly research doesn’t have to fill in between advertisements. The content is supposed to be, well, scholarly. (chappachula.. a once-proud author, 30 years ago, of maybe 2 dozen undergraduate liberal arts papers at a university with a fine reputation— for partying. Papers of mostly 7 or 8 pages. But (aha!!)with no artificially imposed limits on the number of words, which would have interfered with the scholarly content .Which was of , well,…inconsistent… quality. 🙂 ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-my-dissertation/650610.md?page=1)