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Dissertation Book

Sample chapters

The PDF* files below are chapters from Constructing a Good Dissertation: A Practical Guide to Finishing a Masters, MBA or PhD on Schedule by Dr Erik Hofstee.

Table of Contents   (38 KB)
Introduction   (42 KB)
Supervisors   (59 KB)
The Literature Review   (524 KB)
Editing   (87 KB)

If you seriously doubt whether you can write a good dissertation, feel depressed about the whole business, or worse yet, are on the brink of giving up, please read the chapter "Dissertation Blues" before you do anything drastic.

Dissertation Blues (83 KB)

The 21 ways to sabotage one's degree ambitions (below) come from the chapter "What Not To Do". They are tried and tested, and will work! While they are presented in a humorous way, you might be surprised at how popular they are. Don't fall for any of them!

21 Ways to Sabotage Your Dissertation

You can download the referencing guide to the Harvard style contained in Constructing a Good Dissertation here (161 KB). The APA, MLA and Chicago styles are in the Free Tools section of this website, as is a marking sheet and the checklists that supplement the chapters "Marking Your Own Dissertation" and "Editing".

The price of the book is R289.00 when ordered from Exactica (including shipping to any postal address in South Africa). It is also available from online retailers. Their precise links may change (then you will need to search) but at the time of writing were found here at takealot.com (international delivery only while it remains a UNISA prescribed textbook), at loot.co.za (delivery in South Africa only) and at exclusivebooks.co.za, whose international delivery options were found on this page. You can convert South African rands to any other currency here. Constructing a Good Dissertation is also available in bookshops nationwide at a recommended retail price of R349.00.

Click here to order Constructing a Good Dissertation.

* How to deal with PDF files: You should right-click on the link and then select 'Save Target As...' or it might try to open within your browser instead of downloading. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4 or higher). If you don't have it, you can download a copy here. It is a big download though, so first check whether it's already installed by double-clicking on one of the downloaded files.