You Should Always Write Your Dissertation Introduction Last: Here’s Why
Yep, we did it. We mentioned the dreaded word. The dissertation needs to be done and you don’t have a clue where to start. We have a piece of advice for you, don’t start it at the start. Confusing, right?
Have you ever heard the essay writing tip that the introduction should be written last? It is exactly the same for a dissertation. This article runs through a few reasons as to why your dissertation should finish rather than start with your introduction.
1. You don’t know what you are doing
You might think that your dissertation proposal is perfect and has planned out the exact path your dissertation will take. It may well be that your proposal is great, but this is (probably) your first dissertation and you should take advice from the experts. If professional essay writers agree that it’s best to wait until later to do your introduction, then you should take note.
2. Get to the good stuff
Starting with a summary of what your dissertation is and what it achieves is really daunting. If you stress over the details of your introduction before getting to the body of the work, then you are going to put yourself under unnecessary pressure. And people do make more mistakes under pressure.
If you’re passionate about the subject of your dissertation (which you should be) you don’t want to be stuck on the introduction, you want to be getting stuck into the body of the work. That’s why you chose the topic after all. The middle of the dissertation is the fun part and the area where you really get to show off what you’ve learned through your reading. This is the area that needs most care and attention because it’s part in which you are teaching the reader, where you’re supposed to be the expert.
3. Things will change
Through the course of writing any substantial piece of work it is likely you might read something that will change your mind. If you are changing your arguments throughout the course of the dissertation, then it is obvious that the statements made in the introduction will need to change too. If the introduction needs to be edited over and over, then you are wasting valuable time revisiting something which would be best accomplished once you have a fully-fledged understanding of your topic as a whole.
4. It makes it easier
The most obvious reason for writing your introduction last is that it makes it ten times easier. Think of it like this, if you’ve just written 9,000 words working your way through your dissertation then a 1,000 word summary of what you’ve written will be a piece of cake.
So, writing your introduction last can make your dissertation both better quality and easier. It really is a no brainer! If you’re still unsure about how to best tackle your dissertation, check out our article on How to write a dissertation or How to write a dissertation introduction. We are sure that once you get started on your dissertation you won’t look back. Good luck!
