dissertation consultant

Meet Your Guardian Angel

Get hands-on help from your own dedicated Dissertation Coach, whenever you need it. It’s like having a professor in your pocket.

Students Helped

Client pass rate, trustpilot score, facebook rating, what is dissertation coaching .

Here’s a quick explainer…

Why Grad Coach ?

It's all about you

We take the time to understand your unique challenges and work with you to achieve your specific academic goals . Whether you're aiming to earn top marks or just need to cross the finish line, we're here to help.

An insider advantage

Our award-winning Dissertation Coaches all hold doctoral-level degrees and share 100+ years of combined academic experience. Having worked on "the inside", we know exactly what markers want .

Any time, anywhere

Getting help from your dedicated Dissertation Coach is simple. Book a live video /voice call, chat via email or send your document to us for an in-depth review and critique . We're here when you need us. 

A track record you can trust

8,000,000+ students have enjoyed our public lessons and online courses, while 3000+ students have benefited from 1:1 Dissertation Coaching. The plethora of glowing reviews reflects our commitment.

Chat With A Friendly Coach, Today

Prefer email? No problem - you c an  email us here .

Have a question ?

Below are some of the most popular coaching-related questions we're asked.

Dissertation Coaching

How does coaching work.

Working with Grad Coach means you get a dedicated, highly-qualified research specialist to help you through any stage of your research.

Whether you just want a little initial guidance to make sure you're headed in the right direction, or you want hands-on, ongoing support throughout your entire research journey, your coach will be there for you whenever you need help.

Your dedicated coach will work with you using three channels: live sessions, content reviews and email support.

Live Coaching Sessions

A live coaching session is a real-time online meeting (audio or video) with your coach. In these sessions, you can discuss anything you need assistance with. For example, you might discuss topic ideas, how to structure your next chapter, how to undertake a specific analysis, etc.

Content Reviews

A content review is an offline review, where you send your document to your coach and they’ll meticulously review it at the scheduled time. They will provide extensive commentary within the document (including what’s wrong, why it’s problematic and how to correct it), and then email it back to you (see an example here ). If you want to have a call in addition to the content review, you can do that too.

Email Support

In addition to these two options, you can also email your coach at any time to ask any questions you have, so you'll never be left feeling unsure.

How is coaching different from a university-allocated supervisor?

There are a few key differences:

On-demand access

A university-allocated supervisor can only spend a limited amount of time with each student and their support is usually limited to a certain amount of time per section of content. Also, support is often limited to one or two formats (e.g., email).

Conversely, we provide unlimited , multi-channel, on-demand support . You can book a live coaching session anytime you need to, get your work reviewed as many times as you like (see an example here ) and drop us an email whenever you have a question or concern.

Plain-language advice

Supervisors often communicate in complex “ivory tower academic-speak” that is difficult to understand and not particularly actionable. Students often struggle to make sense of their supervisor’s advice and feedback, due to this language barrier and experience gap.

Conversely, we provide you with plain language, actionable advice and feedback, with lots of examples and analogies to help you grasp concepts as quickly and easily as possible.

A safe, confidential space

The supervisor-student relationship is a tricky one to navigate, as the supervisor is often the first/primary marker or will be assessing you in some way. This creates an awkward dynamic, where it can feel somewhat risky to ask certain questions or propose ideas.

Conversely, your dedicated coach is your “partner in research” and there are no power dynamics. We create a 100% safe, comfortable space for you to ask questions, learn and grow. No question is a "stupid question".

Combined research expertise

Your supervisor will generally be allocated based on your area of research (your topic), not your methodology. This means that oftentimes (not always) they are not methodology experts and cannot provide the best possible guidance regarding your research design.

Conversely, the Grad Coach team consists of methodology experts across the spectrum of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. While you'll usually only work with one dedicated coach, you'll have access to the combined knowledge pool, which means you'll get the best possible advice.

How is coaching different from editing and proofreading?

Editing and proofreading services focus purely on language, formatting and technical presentation requirements, such as referencing. In other words, the focus is on the language , not the content itself. As a result, a dissertation can be perfectly edited and proofread but still fail, as the content itself is poor.

With coaching, on the other hand, the focus is on content . In other words, we focus on the quality of the research itself. For example, we look at things like:

• Is the research topic well-defined and justified?
• Are the research aims, objectives and research questions well-articulated and aligned?
• Is the literature review comprehensive, integrative and well-structured?
• Is the methodology well-considered and executed?
• Is the analysis sound and do the conclusions make sense?

Simply put – coaching focuses on the things that earn the majority of the marks . Additionally, we do offer a separate editing and proofreading service to polish the document, once the content is finalised.

Is coaching allowed by universities?

Yes . In fact, many universities refer students to us and some institutions even use our content (articles and videos) as part of their curriculum.

We provide dissertation coaching to help you improve the quality of your work. Importantly, all work must be your own – we do not write for you . While there are organisations that will cross this ethical boundary, we refuse to engage in any activity which may be considered as academic misconduct.

WARNING - If you are considering any academic writing service, please be aware that the use of such services can lead to expulsion or even revocation of your degree years after the fact. Many websites offering such services provide extremely low-quality work that is unlikely to pass and some websites are outright scams preying on desperate students.

What's included in the (free) initial consultation?

The purpose of the initial consultation is for us to assess your specific situation , needs and wants, and then e xplain how we can help you .

Please note that the initial consultation is not a coaching session. Naturally, we cannot provide accurate guidance without first having a sound understanding of your project, and we need to charge for such services.

Why should I work with Grad Coach specifically?

There are a few factors that distinguish Grad Coach from the alternatives:

On-demand, online service

Grad Coach was built to give you the help you need, whenever you need it, wherever you are. You can book live audio/video sessions, get your written work reviewed and sent back to you, or just drop your coach an email whenever you have a question. 1-on-1, hands-on help is always just a click away.

Friendly, plain-language coaches

At Grad Coach, our goal is to bring academia "back down to earth". While our coaches have over 100 years of combined experience within academia (including dissertation supervision, marking and lecturing), we always aim to simplify the content as much as possible, using plain language, actionable advice and feedback. You can download a sample content review here to see this in practice.

More than just coaching - a one-stop-shop

In addition to our flagship dissertation coaching service, we also provide a suite of time-saving services such as interview transcription, qualitative coding, survey design, statistical testing, and editing and proofreading. This means you get everything you need under one trusted roof. You can visit the services page to learn more about our full offering.

An accredited, award-winning operation

We take our work seriously, which is why we're accredited by the Tutors' Association UK and subscribe to their extensive code of ethics. We've also won multiple awards, including " Best Dissertation Coaching Service 2021 " (AI International), " Best Dissertation & Thesis Coaching Specialists 2020 " (MEA) and " Top 50 Student Blog " (Feedspot). To date, we've supported over 3000 students with private dissertation coaching and approximately 7 million students with video lessons.

To learn more about Grad Coach and the team behind it, visit the “About Us” page .

Which universities and degrees do you support?

We can provide coaching for a wide range of dissertations, theses and research projects/assignments at Bachelors , Honours , Master's and Doctoral -level degrees, especially (but not limited to) those within the social sciences.

Importantly, our expertise lies in the research process itself , especially research design, methodologies and academic writing – rather than specific research areas/topics (e.g. psychology, management, etc.). In other words, the support we provide is topic-agnostic , which allows us to support students across a very broad range of research topics.

If you’re unsure about whether we’re the right fit, feel free to drop us an email or book a free initial consultation .

Can I get a coach that specialises in psychology/marketing/etc.?

As we mentioned previously, our expertise lies in the research process itself , especially research design, methodologies and academic writing – rather than specific research areas/topics (e.g., psychology, management, etc.).

Simply put, the support we provide is topic-agnostic , which allows us to support students across a very broad range of research topics. That said, if there is a coach on our team that has experience in your area of research, as well as your chosen methodology, we can allocate them to your project (depending on availability).

Can I work with multiple coaches at once?

No. We work on a 1-on-1 basis, where each client has a dedicated coach assigned to their project, to ensure that they receive the highest possible quality of service.

How much does coaching cost?

Since our coaching services are completely custom-tailored for each student, they are billed on a time basis (as opposed to a project basis). This allows you to engage as much or as little as you want, with no long-term commitments or tie-downs.

The hourly rate itself depends on whether you purchase single hours or a discounted package. Please visit the pricing page for more information.

Do you have any testimonials or reviews?

Yes - you can view our Facebook and Trustpilot reviews here . You can also read about our accreditations and awards here .

Will my work be treated confidentially?

Absolutely. Your work will be treated completely confidentially and will not be shared with any third parties, nor published anywhere. We can sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if you wish. Once you have completed your project, we can delete all content from our servers.

Do you offer other services?

Yes, in addition to dissertation coaching, we provide a suite of time-saving services , including:

• Interview transcription
• Qualitative data coding
• Survey design and hosting
• Statistical testing (SPSS & R)
• Editing and proofreading

If you have any other requirements, feel free to contact us to discuss them.

Can you write (or rewrite) sections for me?

No - all writing must be your own. We can hold your hand throughout the research process, but we cannot write for you as that would constitute academic misconduct.

WARNING - If you are considering any academic writing service, please be aware that the use of such services can lead to expulsion or even revocation of your degree years after the fact. Many websites offering such services provide extremely low-quality work that is unlikely to pass, and some websites are outright scams preying on desperate students.

English is not my first language (ESL student). Can you help me?

Yes , we can. In fact, many of our students are international ESL students. We can assist both with the academic aspects (e.g., coaching) and the English communication aspects (e.g., editing and proofreading).

My work is due in the next few days. Can you help me?

It’s not ideal, but we will do our best to help. Please email us or book an initial consultation as soon as possible.

Can you help me apply for a degree programme?

If your application requires a research topic or proposal (as is common for Master's and PhD applications), we can assist with that aspect of the application. However, if you require admissions-specific advice and guidance, that is not our area of expertise.

Please book a free initial consultation with us to discuss.

I still have questions…

No problem. Feel free to email us or book an initial consultation to discuss.

What our clients say

We've worked 1:1 with 3000+ students . Here's what some of them have to say:

David's depth of knowledge in research methodology was truly impressive. He demonstrated a profound understanding of the nuances and complexities of my research area, offering insights that I hadn't even considered. His ability to synthesize information, identify key research gaps, and suggest research topics was truly inspiring. I felt like I had a true expert by my side, guiding me through the complexities of the proposal.

Cyntia Sacani (US)

I had been struggling with the first 3 chapters of my dissertation for over a year. I finally decided to give GradCoach a try and it made a huge difference. Alexandra provided helpful suggestions along with edits that transformed my paper. My advisor was very impressed.

Tracy Shelton (US)

Working with Kerryn has been brilliant. She has guided me through that pesky academic language that makes us all scratch our heads. I can't recommend Grad Coach highly enough; they are very professional, humble, and fun to work with. If like me, you know your subject matter but you're getting lost in the academic language, look no further, give them a go.

Tony Fogarty (UK)

So helpful! Amy assisted me with an outline for my literature review and with organizing the results for my MBA applied research project. Having a road map helped enormously and saved a lot of time. Definitely worth it.

Jennifer Hagedorn (Canada)

Everything about my experience was great, from Dr. Shaeffer’s expertise, to her patience and flexibility. I reached out to GradCoach after receiving a 78 on a midterm paper. Not only did I get a 100 on my final paper in the same class, but I haven’t received a mark less than A+ since. I recommend GradCoach for everyone who needs help with academic research.

Antonia Singleton (Qatar)

I started using Grad Coach for my dissertation and I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for them, I would have really struggled. I would strongly recommend them – worth every penny!

Richard Egenreider (South Africa)

Kickstart Your Dissertation, Today

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Dissertation Editing

• Not Just APA Editing
• Online University Expertise
• Reference Audit

Precision Consulting was featured in the 2010 edition of Inc 500, establishing us as one of the 500 fastest-growing, privately owned companies in the United States.

Dissertation Editing – Precision Consulting

Precision Consulting has a team of experienced dissertation editors who come to us from top universities, such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, McGill, Cambridge, and Oxford (for our international clients). When they join our editing team after completing a highly competitive screening process, these editors are already experts at preparing documents for submission and publication. They then undergo a rigorous training program to ensure they are fully familiarized with the complexities of APA 7 and other major style guides, as well as with the university-specific requirements many of our clients must follow in order to receive full and final approval of their completed studies.

Dissertation Editing – References and Formatting

Comprehensive dissertation editing.

For researchers at the final stage of the dissertation or thesis journey (or those who want to provide a polished final draft for initial review), we’re proud to offer our comprehensive editing service. This extensive support includes sentence-level editing, formatting to style such as APA, and a reference audit.  Sentence-level editing includes attention to common proofreading needs, such as spelling, typos, and punctuation. In addition, final-stage dissertations commonly also require fine-tuning to ensure perfect grammar and sentence structure, and also to create a nice flow of content and to establish a scholarly tone. This sentence-level editing ensures that your writing has a smooth and polished presentation, meeting all scholarly writing expectations of your chair and other reviewers.  In addition to this sentence-level editing, you can be assured that all of your university’s formatting requirements will be addressed throughout, including formatting to APA 7 style, which is actually the style that we work within most frequently. We address the gamut of detailed formatting rules applying to all segments of your dissertation, from body text and headings to references, citations, tables, and figures. Note that if your program has not yet adopted APA 7, we can provide formatting to APA 6 upon your specific request.

There are 3 ways to initiate contact with us:

• Please review and submit the following form. Someone from our team will contact you within 1 hour (during business hours), or at your requested time.
• Alternatively, our consulting team is available via telephone Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M Eastern Time (5:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M Pacific Time), and from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Eastern Time on Saturday (5:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M Pacific Time). Feel free to call us on (702) 708-1411 !
• We also pride ourselves on our very prompt and in-depth e-mail responses, 365 days per year. We normally answer all urgent queries very promptly, including late-night and weekend requests. You can email us at [email protected]

Please be prepared to discuss the specifics of your project, your timeline for assistance, and any other relevant information regarding your proposed consultation. We respect the confidentiality of your project and will, at your request, supply you with a Non-Disclosure Agreement before discussing specifics.

Editing to Your University’s Requirements

Universities often impose their own specific requirements as well, which we also absolutely take into account. We’re familiar with the very exact specifications for the major online universities , in particular, and are also able to adjust our work to account for any other formatting guidelines outside of standard APA editing.

Reference Audits

Another form of assistance commonly required at the final stages of dissertation editing is the reference audit. This involves checking all citations in your work to make sure each has a corresponding source in the references list. Then, it also involves checking each source in the references list to ensure it is cited at least once in your dissertation. To the extent possible, this also includes identifying and including any missing sources in the references list.

The Dissertation Editing Process

We’re extremely proud of our comprehensive three-stage dissertation editing service for our clients, and here’s a closer look at this support in detail:

• Anthropomorphism
• Capitalization
• Consistency of style
• Contractions
• Effect vs. affect
• First-person elimination
• Identifying overly-subjective tone
• Over-quotation
• Parallelism
• Passive voice
• Punctuation
• Removing relative time reference
• Scholarly precision and tone
• Series commas
• Subject-verb agreement
• APA numbered lists
• Appendix formatting
• Automatic lists of tables and figures
• Automatic table of contents
• Body formatting
• Creating proper headers and footers
• Figure and table captions
• Front matter set-up
• Block quotes
• Preparing approval sheets
• Proper spacing
• Removing bullets and bolding
• Table formatting
• In-text citations, reference lists, and/or footnotes
• Identify missing references
• Construct your bibliography from scratch from your written draft
• Organize citations in bibliographic systems like EndNote and RefWorks

At Precision, we provide APA editing and other editing services to clients at every stage of the process and on every budget. Many of our dissertation editing clients are those in the final stages of their doctoral journey and feeling the financial pressure of many semesters of tuition. This is actually why we switched to a case-by-case approach for determining both the scope and cost of each client’s project–so we can work with your goals, timeline, and budget to meet your specific dissertation editing needs at an ideal (affordable) cost.  Our team of dissertation editors is experienced with editing everything from coursework and prospectuses, to concept papers, proposals, and final dissertations. This expertise means we’re able to provide in-depth, comprehensive editing services on a faster turnaround than any other dissertation editing service.

We know many of our dissertation editing clients are on a deadline, and so we’re committed to reviewing your work and providing a detailed plan and quote for assistance that same day–meaning that no matter how short your timeline, we can absolutely assist.

Once we review your draft and come up with a plan to edit and format your completed draft, we can provide you with a quote for our comprehensive editing support. Because of our extensive experience in academic and dissertation editing, we’re able to guarantee our work until approval. This means that our initial quote always includes any necessary revisions! In other words, if you receive any additional editing feedback or final adjustments from your committee or university reviewers, we can address all of that for you in full, at no additional cost.

Let’s keep it a secret…

Hi there! In this video I’m going to talk with you about editing and formatting, which are essential steps in refining your thesis or dissertation manuscript so that this work meets the standards of your university. If you’ve moved very far into the graduate research process, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that thesis or dissertation editing and formatting are required throughout the process, but definitely at both the proposal and final approval stages. Also, editing and formatting are essential to preparing any manuscripts you submit for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

So no matter where you are in your career as a researcher, editing and formatting are ongoing requirements if your work is to be successful. As for journal articles, though, do note that this video is only about editing and formatting, and if you’re interested in learning more about how we can assist more broadly with your journal article manuscripts, be sure to have a look at our video on Journal Publication.

Although there are many styles that might be applied within scholarly writing, I’ll be talking today about the one that is most commonly used in graduate level research, which is APA style. Now, for someone with an editor’s disposition, editing to APA–in particular, reference and citation formatting–can be a comforting ritual, in that there is exactly one way to do everything. There are some distinct advantages to use of such consistency in formatting your citations and references, which is why going to the trouble of completing your APA formatting perfectly is worth the effort.

For one, this consistency ensures that any future reader of your work, English speaker or not, whether living in the U.S. or on the moon, can locate the work you are citing or referencing (provided that the internet service on the moon is sufficiently developed to support access to research databases, but that’s a minor detail). There are also elements of space saving and presentation that apply within APA style (such as our dear friend the ampersand, which we’ll talk about in a bit).

Although some lovely people who are inherently detail-oriented might find the specificity and consistency of APA style comforting, there are those of us who find the minute requirements related to every little space and semicolon to be maddeningly strict. But, I hope that my explanation of the particulars of editing your dissertation to APA style to be helpful, and with some practice, you can definitely get the hang of it. And yet, if you’re finding that you would like more personalized help with your dissertation, thesis, or journal article with APA or editing to other styles like Chicago or Harvard, feel welcome to give us a call or send a quick email to learn more.

So, let’s get into the specifics of formatting and editing to meet APA style. Because we provide editing services to thesis and doctoral candidates so often, we have developed a system for comprehensive editing that you might also find very helpful as you prepare your work for review. As a general approach to our work with thesis and dissertation manuscripts (both at proposal and final stages), we take a 4-tiered approach to dissertation editing: These 4 tiers are:

• APA formatting (which also incorporates any university-specific formatting requirements),
• sentence-level editing,
• references formatting, and
• a thorough reference audit.

Let’s start off by talking about the first tier, which is APA formatting. To make this video as helpful as possible, we’ve actually asked our best APA editors for some key tips to share, and I hope you find these helpful! Getting the formatting right on your thesis or dissertation can be a total headache, which you’ve likely figured out by now. Even if you hire an APA editor, he or she may have varying comfort levels navigating formatting in Microsoft Word. So here are a few key areas to make sure you double check before you submit your draft for final review. APA uses a system of progressive headings, which are formatted differently depending on the level of the heading.

As you create subsections within your larger sections throughout your dissertation or thesis, you need to use progressive levels of headings to visually convey the overall organization of content in your chapters. So, if you are working within a section headed with a level 1 heading, and you create a subsection within this larger section, then you would progress to a level 2 heading. If you created a subsection within that section, then you would progress to a level 3 heading, and so on. Each level of heading has its own particular formatting, which of course has to be followed to a “t.” Here are the formatting specifications for APA levels 1 through 5. Notice that each level differs in terms of:

• bold versus normal font
• italicized versus non-italicized font
• title versus sentence case
• whether it ends with a period or not
• and placement on the page and in relation to the text.

Let’s look at some examples to give a sense of how these different levels of headings should look in your work. In this example of a slightly narcissistic dissertation, you can see examples of level 1, 2, and 3. Note that these progress to show that “Impressive features of my dissertation” — as a level 2 heading — is a subsection of the larger section “My awesome dissertation,” — which is a level 1 heading. Similarly, you can see that “Perfect APA formatting” — as a level 3 heading — is a subsection of the “Impressive Features of my dissertation” section, which is a level 2. So, what this indicates is that formatting your headings isn’t just about getting the stylistic features correct, but that it’s also about having a solid command of the organization of your content throughout the work.

For APA headings, your headings toolbar in Word is definitely your best friend. If you go into this toolbar, you’ll see that you can add new heading styles, and then as you write your headings throughout your dissertation, all you’ll have to do is select the heading and then click on the APA level you want from the toolbar, and it will format it perfectly.

It saves you a bit of time and also makes things easier when it comes to setting up an automated table of contents, which we’ll talk about a bit later. I’ve showed you correct examples of APA headings, but it might also be instructive to check out an incorrect example and then think about what about needs to be corrected to mesh with APA style. So, have a look at this one: What do you notice here? Well, what I see is that this heading is sort of a hybrid of levels 2 and 3, and such mixing of formatting is not OK under APA style, or any other style for that matter.

Notice that the heading is in title case, like a level 2, but it’s indented and the text starts on the same line immediately following, like a level 3. Also, it ends with a colon, which isn’t used for any APA headings. Let’s see how we would format this if it were a level 2 heading. Using bold font is perfect for either level, but if this were level 2, we would place it flush left on the line above the paragraph, and it would not end with any form of punctuation. Can you see the differences between the incorrect heading up top and the corrected one below? On the other hand, if this were to be level 3, it would not be in title case, as in the incorrect heading up top here. Instead, it would need to be indented, use sentence case, and end with a period, just like it does in this example on the bottom.

As I’m sure is clear by now, APA style is quite detailed, and with our experience with the major online universities, we know that their reviewers can be especially picky about formatting of headings, right down to every detail. Taking care of your headings in terms of both stylistic formatting and also determining which is the correct level to use, is something that we can definitely help you out with if you’re struggling with this or just don’t have the time to worry about these little details.

Another one of these little details you’ll need to take care of as part of formatting your dissertation is setting up paragraph spacing. Taking the time to set up your paragraph spacing will help you to avoid another issue we see quite a lot in our dissertation editing–ghost spaces! APA or dissertation editors use the term “ghost spaces” to refer to those empty lines that sometimes seem to pop up magically between your paragraphs. And, when you’re working on a document that is well over 100 pages, it can so easy to miss these before you submit for review — but, invariably, your reviewers will catch these and require that they’re fixed before approval. To prevent this issue, click on the “Format” button and select “Paragraph.” Make sure that the “Special option is set to “None,” that the before and after spacing is set to 0, and that line spacing is set to double. It’s just that easy!

Another important part of formatting is setting up your table of contents. As I mentioned earlier, once you’ve formatted all of your headings correctly, you can now fairly easily create an automated Table of Contents. Most universities require an automated Table of Contents to be added to your proposal or finished research, as this aids in quick referencing for your reader. Microsoft Word has a number of preset Table of Contents formats, but any experienced dissertation editor knows that none of these is APA compliant. Thus, it is up to you to create an automated Table of Contents in the correct format. To do this, go to the Modify tab, then TOC1, and set to 0 before and after, with no Special elements, and double spacing. Then select TOC2 and click options for indenting ½ inch, 0 before and after, and double spaced. For an APA-compliant table of contents, you should include only headings that are formatted to levels 1 and 2. Be sure to also select Time New Roman 12 as your font.

This is what makes setting up your APA levels in the heading bar such a great time-saver in the end, because you can just right-click on the table of contents any time to select the option to update your table of contents after making updates to your work. And, if you notice that long segments of text are showing up in your table of contents after you update it, that probably means you accidentally set these segments as headings. There’s certainly a bit of a learning curve the first time you go through these steps for headings, spacing, and table of contents formatting, and if our experienced APA editors can assist you in any way with adjusting your formatting in Word, please let us know!

Moving on, let’s talk about the another main issue to be sure you address as you complete the final formatting and editing of your dissertation: Tables and Figures. The primary formatting issues we encounter in dissertation editing here are title placement and formatting of lines in tables. We all know that the results of your statistical analysis need to be presented in tables and figures. And, if you are conducting a qualitative study, you might not think that tables are so important for your work.

But, with our specialization in qualitative analysis, we know that presenting your thematic findings in tables is required, and these must be formatted with the same attention to APA style as those in a quantitative study. For title placement under APA style, you need to place a numbered table title above the table, with the table and number on a line above the italicized title. Also, the table itself should have no vertical lines, and just 3 horizontal lines. Finally, tables should fit on one page. Let’s have a look at an example of an APA-formatted table.

Notice that the table and number are not italicized but the title itself is. Also, in this table, notice that there are just 3 horizontal lines and no vertical lines at all. For figures, we place the title underneath the figure, and in contrast to tables, the figure number and title are placed on the same line. Italicize the table and number, but put the actual title in normal font. Again, let’s look at an example of a figure formatted to APA style here. Noted that the figure number and title are below the figure, that figure and the number are italicized but the title is not.

Also, as with tables, figures should be formatted to fit within a single page, as this is a requirement of APA style. There are some exceptions, but typically longer tables and figures that go over a page should appear in your appendices, not the body of the text. Formatting your tables and figures to meet APA style requirements can definitely be tricky, and if you’d like to talk to a dissertation consultant about how we can help with this, feel welcome to reach out.

One important thing to consider here, is that even the most meticulous dissertation editors may overlook a misaligned heading or an incorrect Figure Title during one full review. This is why we make the commitment to stick with you through revisions when we provide help with editing your dissertation. And, with our experience with the major online universities, we know that this comes in handy given how picky their reviewers tend to be!

Okay, let’s move forward from the first tier of APA formatting to the second tier of our approach, which is sentence-level editing. Many thesis and doctoral candidates do not realize that obtaining a professional edit for their work at both the proposal and final approval stage is an expected step in developing their studies. And, this type of assistance with your thesis or dissertation is not only very common, but it is actually often required.

This next segment should help to clarify what is meant by sentence-level editing, which I’m hoping you find helpful as you complete this type of editing in your own work. Sentence-level editing involves reading through your work on a line-by-line basis to identify any errors in grammar, spelling, or sentence structure, which we will then correct. This also involves editing for correct verb tense, which can be a real challenge when switching from proposal to final dissertation stage. Use of correct verb tense is also important when reporting the past findings of different studies versus current implications of research you discuss. This form of editing also addresses little errors such as typos and punctuation mistakes. Finally, we can edit for issues such as excessive use of passive voice and anthropomorphism, which are contrary to APA and strongly frowned upon by many of the major online universities.

Let’s talk about some examples here to clarify what exactly sentence-level editing entails. Errors in grammar and sentence structure are actually very common in thesis and dissertation manuscripts, and they’re nothing to be embarrassed about. The truth is that the ways that we are expected to write to meet scholarly standards are often quite different from how we normally express ourselves on an everyday basis. This means that you are essentially having to translate your normal way of communicating into what often seems like a foreign language when writing up your research. Here is an example from a hypothetical chapter 5 to consider: “The Role of District Oversight: One participant shared that their experiences with the school district during MTSS implementation was not helpful, and that they struggled with data-based decision making due to lack of training, insufficient planning time, and they were understaffed.

This perspective was confirmed by other’s in the sample, who stated a poorly developed plan of implementation at the district level. Previous research also found that elementary school teachers in multiple states indicated that a lack of district oversight and coordination had adversely impacted their abilities to conduct data-based decision making and other aspects of MTSS programs in their schools (Emersen & Jones, 2014; Zorgon, 2017).” Not so bad, right? Well, actually, this little passage is full of errors that would definitely keep this work from being approved, and we see these kinds of issues all the time through our dissertation consulting with clients.

Even though the qualitative analysis has been done nicely, and the findings have been tied back in with the research literature on the topic, there are several areas that will need to be fixed through editing and formatting before this work has a chance of approval. This is a very common area where we help out with the presentation of dissertation and thesis studies. And, even though I won’t get into specifics about qualitative research and analysis in this video, if you want to learn more about this great method and how to apply it in your study, have a look at our Qualitative Methods video!

Now, returning to our example, what needs to be fixed? Let start with grammar. Have a look at this sentence: “This perspective was confirmed by other’s in the sample, who stated a poorly developed plan of implementation at the district level.” Note here that this sentence kind of seems like it’s going somewhere, but it ends in an incomplete state. Sometimes this happens after you’ve written hundreds of pages about your research, and you quite simply forget to finish your sentence. To complete this sentence, you might say something like, “…who stated a poorly developed plan of implementation at the district level left them feeling confused and under-prepared to carry out data-based processes.” What else can we find in this sentence?

Well, for one it uses the possessive form of “other’s” when it should just use the plural form “others.” Also, this is an example of passive voice, where it reads, “This perspective was confirmed by…” To edit this to achieve active voice, we might instead say, “Other participants shared perspectives that were consistent with this sentiment…” Believe it or not, there are even more errors in this little passage. Let’s look a little more closely at this sentence: “One participant shared that their experiences with the school district during MTSS implementation was not helpful, and that they struggled with data-based decision making due to lack of training, insufficient planning time, and they were understaffed.”

First of all, the pronoun “their” is plural and so does not match your singular subject, “one participant.” The difficulty this writer is probably trying to work around is the discouragement from using gender-specific pronouns in graduate research manuscripts to refer to subjects that are gender-neutral. But, what you can do here is actually talk about the participant more specifically, using then a gender-specific pronoun, which is perfectly acceptable. This might read, “Participant 12 shared that her experiences…” What else is problematic in this sentence? Look at the phrase that goes, “…their experiences with the school district during MTSS implementation was not helpful…” Do you notice that “experiences” is plural, but that the corresponding verb “was” is not? This is subject-verb disagreement, and of course we would need to say that these “experiences…were not helpful” to be correct here. How about sentence structure?

Check out this bit of the sentence: “…and that they struggled with data-based decision making due to lack of training, insufficient planning time, and they were understaffed.” Notice that “they were understaffed” does not fit in with the previous two factors in the series. This is a failure to establish parallel construction, and might be fixed by saying, “…and that they struggled with data-based decision making due to lack of training, insufficient planning time, and understaffing.” Let’s look at one more error in this passage that is actually quite common. Consider this phrase: “Previous research also found that elementary school teachers…” This sounds just fine, doesn’t it? But, it’s actually an example of anthropomorphism, which means that you’re attributing distinctly human behaviors to non-humans.

If you think about this, you’ll recognize that “research” is not human, but researchers of course are human. Given this, it is technically incorrect to state that research “found” anything. You’ll see this quite a bit in the peer-reviewed literature, and so it might be surprising to find that it is strongly discouraged in master’s or doctoral research at many universities. So, how do we get around this? One common way to do this is to revise the phrase so that the relevant human actors are in the active role. So, we might instead say, “Multiple researchers have previously found that…”

We’re a bit unusual among data analytics companies given that we also specialize in qualitative research, but because of this we know that many programs prefer that you speak of yourself as the researcher in first person — or by saying “I” did this or that in my study. This is another great way of avoiding anthropomorphism as well. As you can see from the many errors in just this one little passage, editing your dissertation to meet the expectations of your reviewers can be an extremely detailed and time consuming process.

With our experience providing dissertation help to clients as they work toward degrees from the major online universities, we know for certain that they each carry their own particular and always picky requirements for editing. If you working on your proposal or finished dissertation or thesis, and you are finding that no matter how many times you submit, you just can’t get it right, give us a call or send an email to learn how we can help. We can definitely provide you with a thorough sentence-level edit to really shine up your work, and we’ll stick with you with revisions to make sure you move forward with your research.

Moving on to the third tier now, we’re going to talk specifically about references formatting, which also includes attention to citations, and then later on I’ll explain the reference audit. Formatting the references list to APA style is a task that is so incredibly detailed, and so it’s no wonder that this is a super common area where we’re asked to provide assistance for candidates working on their dissertations or thesis research.

So, let’s start by discussing some different types of examples, so that you can see how these should look when formatted properly. This first example that you see here is a reference list entry for a book. Note several things here: The entry begins with the last name of the author, followed by his/her initial(s). Be sure to include a period after each initial and exactly one space between initials and surrounding information. You next put the year of publication, followed by a period. The title of the work follows and is italicized. It is in sentence case, with only the first word and all proper nouns capitalized.

Note, however, that the first word after the colon is also capitalized, which is a detail that online sources almost always get wrong — so be careful to proofread for such errors when you cut and paste your references from online sources. Next comes city and state (or country) of publication, followed by a colon. Following the location comes the name of the publisher, and the entry ends with a period. This formatting applies for all books that you use as sources, but you’ll definitely want to note that a different formatting style applies to different types of sources. So, to illustrate this, let’s move on to our next example!

This example that you see here is a journal article, which is the most common type of source you will be referencing. Present the author’s name in the same way as you would for a book, along with the date of publication. The title is in sentence case as with the book reference, but notice that in contrast to the book title, you do NOT italicize the title of a journal article. Present the full title of the journal without abbreviations. And, be sure to Italicize it. After the journal name, insert a comma, then put the volume number, also italicized. If there is an issue number, you’ll want to put that in parentheses, without an intervening space and not italicized, immediately after the volume number.

Thus, if this article by Cross and Funke was published in volume 76, issue number 4 of the Journal of Innovation in Education, we would put the 76 in italics and then the non-italicized 4 in parentheses immediately following the volume. See how crazily detailed APA is? Next, put page numbers where applicable, including both the first and last pages of the article. But, for journal articles, just use the page numbers alone, without “p.” or anything of that kind. And then immediately following the last page number, end the entry with a period. Finally, where available, always include the doi number for journal reference entries.

Moving forward, let’s now talk about editing to APA style in cases where you’re using sources with multiple authors, and also for when you’re using sources other than scholarly articles or monographs. At this point in our discussion, you might not be at all surprised to learn that APA style has different rules for formatting sources depending on the number of authors. Specifically, for sources that have two to seven authors, you’ll want to list all authors, with the last name followed by initials, one space between initials when there are multiples, using the serial, or Oxford comma, and preceding the name of the last author with an ampersand.

To illustrate this, let’s look at a couple of examples. Our first example is a source authored by: Jerry, M., & Tom, C. — watch the punctuation carefully. Notice that even in this source with two authors, we still include a comma after the first author. This is different from the rule for citations, which can be kind of confusing. Now, consider the punctuation and spacing in this source authored by Duck, D., Duck, H., Duck, D., & Duck, L. Again, there are commas after each author leading up to the ampersand. For those sources that have more than seven authors, use this format: As you can see in this example, you’ll list the first six authors, Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones, and Palin, followed by an ellipsis (…) and then Thatotherguy, which is actually the last author’s name, even if he is actually the fifteenth author. Never list more than seven authors, as this represents an unforgivable violation of all things APA.

No matter what your focus or method, you’ve probably noticed that it’s become more commonplace for studies to have 3-5 and sometimes six or more authors. If you’re completing quantitative or qualitative research and are feeling a bit bewildered navigating in-text citation rules for your many sources, we can certainly draw on our APA editing expertise to help with refining your dissertation or thesis. This will ensure the focus remains on your hard work (and not your formatting)!

Now, let’s move forward to formatting requirements for sources that fall outside of the more commonly used scholarly books and peer-reviewed articles. Often it makes sense to cite sources that do not have explicitly named authors, but instead are simply referenced by the organization that developed the material. Very common examples of this are materials provided by government agencies. How do you format the author section if there are no identified authors? Let’s consider that you need to cite educational policy that was provided by the department of education. You would list the author as the U.S. Department of Education, followed by a period, and then the year of the material you used in your study.

What you might be thinking at this point is that formatting to this level of detail can be an extremely time consuming process — and, trust me, you are absolutely correct about this! Now, with our experience providing dissertation help to doctoral and master’s candidates from the major online universities, we know for certain that they each carry their own particular and always picky requirements for dissertation or thesis editing. So, if you’re thinking you might not want to take on all of this formatting yourself, we can certainly provide you with help to format your dissertation or thesis to meet your university’s high expectations! And, we’ll stick with you through any revisions to make sure you move forward with your work.

Let’s return to our discussion of references list formatting. Now that we’ve discussed how to format commonly used types of sources within your reference list, let’s now talk about how to format the full list. Before getting into the APA rules for references lists, let me just caution you that if this is your first experience with editing to APA style, you should note that the following rules can be trumped by specific school guidelines. To get started, you’ll want to format your references list so that you have a hanging indent of ½ an inch.

The best way to do this is to use Word’s ruler bar. If you normally do not see it, click on the little box thingy on the upper right side, just above the slider arrow. What you’ll notice is that there are indicators for adjusting the margin for first line indent (on top) and also for adjusting the hanging indent (on bottom). So, to set your hanging indent, move the bottom indicator inwards ½ inch from your margin. Leave the upper one alone, which you’ll note is the exact opposite of what you would do when formatting a normally indented paragraph. Single-space the entries themselves but double-space between entries, but again, watch out that school guidelines do not dictate you do this differently.

There are certain universities that require consistent double-spacing throughout the entire references list, although they follow APA style pretty consistently through most areas of the dissertation. In the course of our experience with editing dissertations, we’ve found in working with different versions of Word and university templates, that 1.5 line spacing looks a little better when using Times New Roman. So, let’s look at an example so that you can see how this formatting should look when done correctly.

Notice the hanging indent and the line spacing both within and between each source. Of course, you will need to list your sources in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author listed. If you have multiple entries by the same author, present them in chronological order, with the earliest work first. See for example here how we’ve presented these works of the esteemed Timberlake in chronological order, starting with the noteworthy 2007 “Bringing sexy back: The early years” and then moving forward to the much more controversial 2017 “Still bringing sexy back: The ‘hot dad’ years” to follow.

Now, what you’ll undoubtedly come across are those prolific authors who publish both on a single-author basis and also alongside multiple co-authors. And by the way, if you’re needing some tips on finding great sources for your work, check out our video on the Literature Review chapter — I explain much more about this search process there! But, back to the topic at hand, when you have multiple sources in your references lists that are both single- and multiple-author, you’ll want to place single-author entries before multiple-author entries in which the same name appears first.

Let’s stay with that prodigiously gifted author JT for just another moment to demonstrate. Notice that the single-author source, “Bringing sexy back” comes first, even though it was published later than the multiple-author source, “We’re so hot right now.” Now, another somewhat confusing situation happens when you have two works by the same author (or the same exact dyad or group of authors) that were published within the same year. So, when this happens, you’ll want to differentiate between these sources by assigning a letter to each, which follows the publication year — for example, two sources by the same author both published in 2009 would be differentiated as 2009a and 2009b. You would order these alphabetically by the title of the article.

Perhaps, to demonstrate this, we should turn to an even more prolific scholar of our times, Beyonce. Note that the book title, “I woke up like this” would precede “We be all night” alphabetically — this is why these two sources are denoted as 2013a and 2013b, respectively. There are various rules for sources such as newspapers, online, and so forth. You can look up the proper format using your APA 6.0 reference book (which I’m sure you ran out and bought as soon as you started to watch this video) or Purdue Owl (which is an online reference guide). Of course, as always, you should make sure there aren’t any funky school-specific rules for these citations, and for any other aspect of editing your dissertation.

Alright, so I’m sure it’s not surprising that APA has slightly different rules for formatting citations as compared with sources in the references list. So, let’s move on to in-text citations: First of all, you will continue to list authors in citations in alphabetical order, as you do in the references list. But, you do not include initials in citations. Now, if the citation is part of the sentence, you will use the word “and”; but, if it is a parenthetical citation you will use the ampersand. Here’s an example to illustrate this: “Supporting the work of Fonebone and Laughinggas (2011), recent research on farm animals falling into wells has confirmed that “goats float” (Penn & Teller, 2015, p.22).” This is what is referred to as the Ampersand Mandate of 1994, and it is not to be violated — ever. Notice also in this example that there is a page number included — this is because we used a direct quote from the source here when we stated that “goats float.”

Another feature of citations that you did not see included in the references is the phrase “et al.” — this is Latin (“et aliud”) for “and others.” Thus, al. is an abbreviation, so put a period after it. Use of “et al.” saves space in your manuscript and has two specific applications. First, you will use et al. when you are citing a source that has three to five authors, with the exception of the first time you cite the source in each chapter. In your first citation of sources with three to five authors, do list them all. Thus, in this example citation that you see here, in your first citation it is correct to list all three authors (Huey, Dewey, & Louie, 2015), but you list only first author and “et al.” after this.

So, your citation of Huey, Dewey, and Louie would becomes (Huey et al., 2015) in subsequent citations of this source in the chapter. In the second application of et al. in your work, you will ALWAYS use et al. when the source has six or more authors, even from the very first time you cite the source. Thus, as this example shows, for Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey’s 2017 book Snow White: A Little Perspective, this source will always be referred to you in your text as Doc et al. (2017).

Another important point is to make SURE that the period that ends the sentence goes after the citation that ends it, as the citation is part of the sentence. By the way, this was actually nominated by our APA editors for Most Frequent Error in our clients’ writing as far as in-text citations go. If citing multiple sources, separate the entries with semicolons. As you can see in this example, the works of Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato are separated from one another with semicolons. Also, what you’ll notice is that these sources are presented as they would be in your reference list–in other words, in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name.

Now, let’s imagine that you’re citing two works by the same author in the same sentence/citation. In this case, and as you’ll see in my example here, you’ll name the author, Einstein, once and then list multiple publication years, which are separated by commas. And, yes, he’s still at it. Just to reiterate for those of you new to formatting and editing under APA: the et al. number of authors rule for in-text citations is: never list more than five authors.

Alright, enough about formatting references and citations. Let’s move forward to talk about the reference audit, which is the fourth part of our 4-tiered editing approach I wanted to explain in this video. The reference audit involves reviewing every single citation in your entire proposal, thesis, or dissertation, and making sure that every one of these corresponds with a source in your references list. Similarly, you then need to go through and check each source in your references list to ensure that it has been cited at least once somewhere in your work.

Then after that, you have to determine the appropriate sources for any citations which lack a corresponding entry in the references list. It’s a tedious and time-consuming last step in your work, but it’s definitely essential for ensuring approval. Many dissertation editors are unprepared to provide the editing, formatting, and reference audit assistance to meet the standards of the major online universities, and this is particularly so at the finished dissertation stage. This is where working with a dissertation consultant with our level of experience with these universities comes in very handy, as we can ensure that your work meets the specific standards required to move your work forward.

So, if you’ve edited your draft, but would like a dissertation editor to make sure you’ve got a polished final version to submit–or if you can’t see the forest for the trees at this point, and would like dissertation help with these final details, let us know. We’ll stay with you through any revisions for this editing and formatting to APA or any other style–so that you have time to prepare for what’s next! I hope that you’ve found this video to be very helpful as you completed your editing and formatting. And, if we can help out with refining your dissertation or thesis through editing and formatting to APA or any other style, give us a call or send a quick email — we’d be happy to help!

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Our mission at ARC is to embody the Wall Street work ethic to get your dissertation 100% completed and approved in an effective, efficient manner. Beyond just dissertations, we provide total assistance for other academic projects including journal publication and data analytics . We are here to help and guide you ! Our personalized coaching & consulting services are geared toward meeting all of your individual requirements for every step of your unique dissertation journey. For this journey, ARC has got you covered!

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ARC provides comprehensive, customized support for all your dissertation needs. Whether you need support for your Literature Review , help with devising the proper Research Methodology , assistance with Data Analysis , or professional Academic Editing services, ARC is here to provide the expert help that you need. Working with ARC, rest assured that your dissertation project will be fully approved ! We also devise and implement personalized Dissertation Editing Plans to meet your project’s editing and formatting needs.

For students who are at the very beginning of their dissertation process, our personalized dissertation assistance begins with Topic Approval where we work with you to construct a viable research gap for your study. This includes full support for devising and justifying the qualitative or quantitative (or mixed!) methodologies that your study will utilize. For more information on our approaches to developing research methodologies , please check out our Qualitative Research Design Guide  and  Quantitative Research Design Guide . If you prefer a more deeply collaborative approach centered on interactive learning , then find out more about our individualized Thesis Coaching and Tutoring services.

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No matter where you are in your  dissertation journey , ARC can work with you to secure the  dissertation approvals  that you need. We comprehensively assist with all aspects of  Thesis Research  and complete  all needed revisions  until you obtain  100% approval  from your department chair or PhD committee. We even provide  customized coaching  for your  Final Defense  and can help you to pursue  Journal Publication  for your  completed doctoral study . If you are still in the  pre-dissertation phase , ARC can help with completing your  Coursework  and the  Comprehensive Exam . Start to finish, we can put you on track to graduate within 10-12 months. We won’t stop until we can finally refer to you as  Doctor!

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Our expert team at Optimum Research can provide you flexible, responsive dissertation help as you navigate your doctoral journey. Since 2018, we’ve helped hundreds of candidates become doctors through highly individualized, hands-on support . We offer help at each stage of your journey, leveraging the expertise of our team to provide doctoral-level research , qualitative and quantitative methodology, statistical analysis, and dissertation editing.

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These principles guide all the dissertation help we provide, through all the stages of the journey. Our assistance starts with the exploratory research needed to find a current and significant gap in the literature to motivate your study, and it culminates in comprehensive support in preparing for the defense of your final dissertation .

In between, we can help with all the research you’ll need to situate your study in the context of work in the field and justify its focus and research design . We can also develop a full methodology to help guide you through recruitment, data collection, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis that will help you construct the results and discussion chapters. We can also take on comprehensive dissertation editing and formatting to ensure that your manuscript adheres to APA editing conventions or any other formatting guidelines you must use.

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We do! Because of the planning we do at the start of each project, we can take on all revisions until final approval . All reviewers have individual preferences–we learn and align our work with the m, all the way to the finish line .

What will it cost ?

Unlike other consulting firms, we don’t price on a per-hour or per-page basis. Doing so results in costs that aren’t stated clearly upfront and continue to creep upward during the course of a project. At Optimum, our expert dissertation coaches share a specific, to-the-dollar quote after diagnostic review and planning. The result is a tailored cost to match what you need to reach approval, including all revisions to get there.

Where are your consultants located ?

All of our staff–dissertation coaches, researchers, qualitative and quantitative analysts, statisticians, and APA editors–are based in the United States. Optimum is a cloud-based company, as this allows us to leverage the expertise of professors and researchers in a wide variety of fields. However, we insist that our team is US-based , as this ensures that we keep our work at doctoral level . Again, our clients’ work matters, and reaching approval quickly is the best way we can help.

Do you have subject-matter experts in my field of study?

We certainly do. Given the way we leverage doctoral-level resources, we have subject-matter experts in psychology, education, business, nursing, healthcare, organizational leadership, and a host of other fields. When a client reaches out for dissertation help in a field we don’t work in–say, electrical engineering–we’re happy to refer to another service.

What is the policy concerning confidentiality ?

Your privacy is important to us. In the first email we send to you, we’ll include a n on-disclosure agreement , guaranteeing that the information you share with us is used only for our consultation together. We take other precautions, as well–our email servers are with Google, whose email and cloud storage solutions adhere to ISO 27001 and other independent security standards.

Will the price be reduced if I don't urgently need the work?

In determining the cost for the dissertation assistance we provide, we assess both (a) what’s needed and (b) the timeline. We’re pretty fast : Our work is done within 2-3 weeks. During that time, we ensure that we adhere to all guidelines —this reduces the number of revisions that would come with work thrown together hastily, resulting in much faster approval.

When we can have flexibility in our normal time frame, we’re able to leverage resources more efficiently and pass those savings to you . Of course, what’s needed to reach final approval won’t change, but we can certainly provide at least a modest discount when we get more time.  

Can you reduce the plagiarism score of my dissertation ?

It’s common for candidates to struggle with high similarity scores from checkers like Turnitin. We can address plagiarism issues so that you can resubmit and reach approval.

Can I set up a payment plan ?

Of course! We do this automatically for clients, as we divide the cost of each project into installments. Specifically, we use milestone-based payments where, after an initial payment for us to get started, all subsequent payments come with the receipt of work from us. This way, you make payments only as you progress toward approval.

Through comprehensive support that lasts to final approval, the team at Optimum can help you save on tuition costs and expand your bandwidth so you can devote time and attention to what matters . We’d love to talk about our dissertation research expertise and share insights that light the way forward. Reach out by phone at 984-222-7122 or email us at [email protected] .

Name Email Tell us how we might assist you. If you would like a call back please leave your number.

At Optimum, our expert dissertation coaches are here to help. There’s no commitment after your free phone consultation . It matters to us to learn–about your study, your needs, and how we can help.

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We know that meeting deadlines with high-quality work matters. We guarantee on-time submission and alignment with guidelines for each project, and revisions are included at no additional charge . We develop comprehensive plans before sharing quotes or accepting payments to make sure our dissertation help leads to final approval. We believe in open communication to earn your trust– so if you have questions, just ask!

Optimum’s research team is composed of qualitative and quantitative analysts who have extensive, doctoral-level research experience. We stand behind our expertise and guarantee approval for all the dissertation assistance we provide.

Optimum Research is available 7 days a week, 365 days a year to serve you. Our office is open from 9:00am to 6:00pm Eastern time, Monday through Friday . We’re always available via email and can work around your schedule to connect.

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The process of getting approved by the Institutional Review Board can be vexing for most students because of the intricacy of the ethical considerations that one must adhere to while doing their research.

Partnering with QuestionPro to be your doctoral program consultant means we ensure that your participants remain anonymous, confidential, and safe at all times; enabling you to go through the IRB process swiftly and smoothly.

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QuestionPro’s academia research consultation will not only enrich and help with your dissertation or academic research project, but ensure that you get fast approvals during your grant funded research, doctoral program, or university research project!

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Whether it is the IRB process or your respondent’s concerns, our dissertation assistance and academic research assistance will cover all your issues. We’re here to provide all the dissertation tutoring you need for your student research project!

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Dissertation consulting, research paper consulting, and doctoral program consultants are plenty. But at QuestionPro, our thesis analysts and research design consultants work personally with you to write the perfect academic dissertation or academic research surveys!

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Dissertation Genius

Qualified Dissertation Consultants – What They Do and Where to Find Them

August 24, 2015 by Dissertation Genius

It goes without saying that at some point during the thesis/dissertation process, you may be forced to seek help from an external party. This is true even for the most seasoned dissertation veterans and is nothing to be ashamed about. Usually, this help comes in the form of a fellow student, colleague, and your dissertation adviser. However, especially when implementing more technical studies, it may be very difficult to find quality help especially if your dissertation supervisor is not available, or is too busy to help. So, in this case, it is a very good idea to get the help of a professional dissertation consultant. But, who exactly are dissertation consultants? How can they help you? And, how to find those most qualified for your particular study?

Who are Dissertation Consultants and What Do They Do?

Dissertation consultants are full-time professionals that provide expert guidance and support for masters and doctoral students that need help on their dissertation or thesis. A dissertation consultant has a PhD in his or her respective field of study and usually has lots of experience in helping clients with their dissertations. Dissertation consultants can help in any phase of the dissertation from the planning and proposal stages to the presentation & defense. Whether you are looking for help on your overall study or on a particular chapter, dissertation consultants can help you.

Furthermore, dissertation consultants can help you plan and guide you as you draft your proposal, choose a sample, decide on a research method, develop research questions, implement research, analyze data, and so much more. Basically, if it has to do with a dissertation or thesis, a dissertation consultant can help. Moreover, the help that credible & experienced dissertation consultants  provide is always within the bounds of the law as well as university regulations. Dissertation consultants do not write dissertations.

In addition, dissertation consultants may be composed of one person or a professional team belonging to a dissertation consulting firm. Regarding the latter, a dissertation consulting firm, like Dissertation Genius , has numerous members on staff, each with a PhD in his/her respective field of study so, it doesn’t matter your field of study, finding a consultant or firm should be easy.

Where Do I Find a Dissertation Consultant?

Dissertation consultants will have offices where you can meet in-person or, the choice that has been gaining so much popularity lately, you can find dissertation consultants online . This is probably the easiest way.  A third way you can find dissertation consultants can be personal references from a colleague, family member, or friend. Although the most convenient way to find a consultant is online, you must be vigilant and avoid falling into the snares of ‘fake’ consultants or dissertation writers who will steal your money, give you poor work, or worse, give you plagiarized work that will get you kicked out of your university.

Online Dissertation Consultants – Things to Look For and Avoid

First of all, you should differentiate between the term ‘dissertation consulting’ and ‘dissertation writing.’ These are two different sets of services. The first one was described above and the second one is simply hiring a writer to write your dissertation. Getting someone to write your dissertation is cheating and is grounds to get you instantly expelled from your school. Don’t do it.

Secondly, make sure you find a consultant that has a PhD in your area of study. Usually, going with a dissertation consulting firm is your best bet since there will be a wide variety of highly-qualified consultants from diverse backgrounds to choose from.

Thirdly, and this may be obvious although so many people still fall for it, avoid dissertation consultant sites that ask you for your credit card information before you’re even serious about buying! Beware of sites that ask for this and other personal information simply to have you ‘register’ or to continue browsing the site. This is a scam that your wallet will deeply regret. So be careful.

Next, look for websites that have testimonials from other students. Also, to ensure that these testimonials are real, look for a full name, location, and position for the person offering the testimonial. If you find this, then it is a good indicator the dissertation consulting firm is credible.

Another thing is how long has the dissertation consultant been in business for? Of course, the more experienced, the better.

Finally, even though you may not visit the dissertation consultant in-person, make sure that there is a specific and valid address and phone number on the website. A lack of this information indicates that the site is a scam and is out only for your money.

With these dos and don’ts in mind, you are able to maximize your chances at finding a credible, experienced, high-qualified dissertation consultant that can get you the help you need. But, if you have yet to find one, there is no need to keep searching. You have already found one!

Dissertation Genius – Two Decades of Highly-Specialized Dissertation Consulting Services

At Dissertation Genius , we have an established reputation and have helped hundreds of students from all over the world in successfully submitting exceptional dissertations.

We have been in the business for over twenty years and all our consultants have a PhD in their specialized area of expertise. Moreover, these consultants have each, at some point, served on a dissertation committee, giving us a competitive edge in knowing the thinking process of those in charge of judging your work.

We are extremely specialized, experienced, and can help with just about any subject in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Here are some of the areas we specialize in:

• Anthropology
• Business & Technology
• Criminal Justice
• Educational Leadership & Management
• Information Systems & Technology
• Health Sciences
• Human Services
• Political Science
• Public Administration
• Public Health
• Social Work

For a free consultation and quote, contact dissertation genius today by calling 877-875-7687 or by emailing us through our contact  page.

We do not write dissertations, theses, or papers. This is not a writing service; our services are consistent with ethical guidelines for academic conduct.

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Enjoy a completely custom, expertly-written dissertation. Choose from hundreds of writers, all of whom are career specialists in your subject.

Dissertation Consulting Services

A thesis or dissertation is an extended form of academic writing based on original research. It is for the conferment of a doctoral, master's, or bachelor's degree - they are probably the most extended writing pieces at the college or university level.

Handling such a task can be intimidating, especially when you don't know where to start. That is why dissertation consulting services are necessary, not only for beginners but for pros as well. They help you work out your dissertation effortlessly to achieve the best results.

Dissertation Consulting – How We Help

Dissertation consulting services are necessary for crafting excellent dissertations. Starting from the conception of the research problem to content to copy, you need these services. Our company works with all levels of students at a much more economical price than other online firms.

Working with excellent (and expensive!) counselors such as ours ensures that you don't get stuck as you write your dissertation. We achieve this task by conducting the following activities:

• We get aquatinted with the student – their biography, goals, and timeline.
• Students then send us what they have at hand
• Our dissertation coach gives feedback and comments
• The student either incorporates our suggestions or not and returns the work to us.
• We continue with the process until the student is satisfied.

Our dissertation consulting, therefore, makes your writing much more robust and smoother. Do you have an aspect of dissertation writing that you find challenging? Let us help you sail through this swiftly. In the end, you will come out more confident and happier in your writing.

How To Get Our Professional Dissertation Consulting Services

Follow these simple and practical steps to get our dissertation coaching service:

• Sign up and fill in the requirements
• Upload your dissertation that you need assistance on
• Our dissertation consultant will get in touch with you
• Based on the information you gave, you will get an initial outline
• You will use the method to draft a rough copy and then upload it for review
• After going through it, our dissertation consultant will suggest any necessary improvements
• You will then make a revision based on the suggestions and upload it
• Our consultant will then provide you with a finalized dissertation
• Consultation is complete, and you can rate your coach

The duration for the coaching dissertation session will vary depending on the pace of revisions. The longer the work you submit, the longer it may take to finalize the consultation session. However, time should not be a factor if you want quality work. Remember, good things take time.

Benefits of a Dissertation Consultant

There are a lot of goodies that come with our dissertation consulting services. Among the many, here are the top four benefits:

• Expert Consultants : Our top-rated online dissertation consulting does not result from an amateur level's labor but of a real pro. We train our consultants on how to be naturally interesting, informative, and articulate to the student's needs. Our dissertation consultants are all holders of at least a Master's degree in their area of specialization.
• Moral Component : A student should complete his dissertation by himself. However, there is no ethical or moral wrong in seeking the help of specialists. After all, you are not plagiarizing anyone's content; you are only seeking a second opinion from an experienced person. Take it like going to consult your lecturer.
• The dissertations' relevance : Our dissertation coaches are well-experienced professionals who have a firm grip on dissertation techniques. Therefore, they will guide you in line with your supervisor's directives. With this, you will remain on course without deviating in any way.
• The price implications and time : Writing a dissertation is a tedious process comprising of many stages. With the help of a dissertation coach, this process can take less than a month, depending on its magnitude. Once you opt for our coaching service, you will not have to spend much time searching for and collecting materials. Yours will be to master it.

The end goal of dissertation coaching is to save you time, energy, and money. If you hadn't thought of this, then it would be wise to reconsider.

Which Areas of Dissertation Consulting Do We Offer Help?

You will probably get nervous when your deadline is tight. Sometimes, you may be overwhelmed about the type of dissertation you want us to help you with at that moment. Nevertheless, our decades of dissertation consultation enable us to understand your problem from one sentence.

We can handle any dissertation paper because of our broad team of elite consultants. We ensure that every area is covered so that we are ready to retaliate with a well-informed answer when you shoot a problem.

Here are some of the dissertation sections you can seek help on:

• How to define and outline a research topic
• Ways of coming up with a straightforward research question
• How to identify the salient issues
• Coming up with the relevant information
• How to evaluate its reliability and validity
• We help weigh up the evidence on all sides of a debate
• Our consultants help you arrive at a well-argued conclusion
• How to organize and give the results of your dissertation coherently, critically, and cogently.

All your dissertation questions have an answer with us. Even better, our qualified professional experts can write a custom dissertation from scratch for you in a matter of days. Grab the opportunity while it lasts!

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Make an Appointment with a Thesis/Dissertation Writing Consultant

The Thesis/Dissertation Writing Consultants have been trained to help graduate students across the disciplines plan, write, revise, or format their thesis or dissertation. They operate within four dimensions, assisting graduate students in the following ways: 

Jessica Parker, EdD

Owner of The Dissertation Coach 

EdD in Organizational Leadership Northeastern University

Alison Miller, PhD

Founder of The Dissertation Coach 

PhD in Clinical Psychology University of Illinois

Kirstie Eastwood, MSc

Managing Director of The Dissertation Coach MSc in Mathematical Statistics Nelson Mandela University

Chris Aberson, PhD

Dissertation Consultant and Statistician

PhD in Quantitative and Social Psychology Claremont Graduate University

Amelia Andrews, PhD

PhD in Political Science Purdue University

Rhonda Erica Baylor, PhD

Statistician and Dissertation Consultant PhD in Educational Psychology Howard University

Jane Berger, PhD

Dissertation Coach, Faculty Coach, and Consultant

PhD in History Ohio State University

Chris Deason, EdD

Dissertation Consultant and Statistician EdD in Educational Instructional Technology Texas Tech University

Kari George, PhD

Dissertation Consultant and Statistician PhD in Higher Education and Organization University of California, L.A.

Angela Glymph, PhD

PhD in Social Psychology Howard University

Katie Gough, PhD

Dissertation Coach and Consultant PhD in Performance Studies University of California, Berkeley

Kevin Hylton, PhD

Dissertation Consultant

PhD in Sociology Howard University

Kristine L. Jones, M.P.H., PhD

Dissertation Consultant PhD in Latin American and Native American History University of Chicago

Jimmy Jung, PhD

Dissertation Consultant and Statistician PhD in Educational Psych The Gradate Center, City University of New York

Tess Lawrence, BA Hons.

Integrated Operations Coordinator Honors Degree in Psychology Nelson Mandela University

Ani C. Moughamian, PhD

Dissertation Consultant PhD in Educational Psychology University of California, L.A.

Kathryn Peterson, PhD

PhD in Creative Writing and Literature University of Houston

Nicole Prause, PhD

PhD in Clinical Science Indiana University, Bloomington

Veronica Richard, PhD

Dissertation Consultant and Qualitative Methodologist PhD in Applied Statistical Research and Research Methods University of Northern Colorado in 2010

Deirdre Rogers, PhD

Dissertation Consultant, Statistician and Faculty Coach PhD in Sociology Bowling Green State University

Karen Rosenberg, PhD

Dissertation Coach, Faculty Coach, and Consultant PhD in Women’s Studies University of Washington

Christina Schulz, PhD

Dissertation Consultant and Statistician PhD in Behavioral Science University of Rhode Island

Rebecca Schuman, PhD

Dissertation Coach PhD in German University of California-Irvine

Michael Sikes, PhD

PhD in Education Florida State University

Melinda Valente, EdD

Dissertation Coach EdD in Organizational Leadership Pepperdine University

Louise Vincent, PhD

Consultant and Qualitative Methodologist PhD in Political Philosophy and Political Psychology Oxford University

Pam Watters, PhD

Statistician and Dissertation Consultant PhD in Education University of Rhode Island

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Discoveries on the eastern railroad: Nizhniy Novgorod and Perm (Part 2)

Source: Ferran Mateo

Every layer of the city added to the excitement of getting closer to the centre. For a change, Lenin Square was not in the middle of the city. Lenin's statue looked more relaxed than in Petersburg and Moscow. And this time, Lenin wasn't alone either. To his left were tiny metal members of the proletariat, referred to as "reptiles" by the locals! The Kravinsky Bridge, spanning the Oka river, connects the two parts of Nizhniy while the Oka snakes below and surrenders her embankment to the bigger Volga. The Kremlin's gates ushered me into the massive grounds that housed local government buildings and, more importantly, museums, cathedrals and war monuments. My personal favourite was the `Museum of People's Unity', a one-room miracle at the Ivanovskaya tower that retraced Nizhniy's steps through the Mongol invasions, the Times of Trouble and its rise to an important trade centre.

"How much is one student ticket?" I asked the supervisor. He looked up at me through his glasses and grey fringe, and said, "For our students, it's 20 roubles, but for international..." "...Nu ya vasha," I interrupted, showing my St Petersburg State University student card. No one can appreciate price discrimination more than students in Russia - even compared to prices for international students, students enrolled in Russian universities pay a fraction! "So where are you from?" he asked. This is my favourite question because it always leads to royal treatment. And it did! I would have loved to explore all his suggestions, but, considering I was there for just a day, I had to stick to my itinerary and head to Flat 3, 214 Prospekt Gagarina. This is where Soviet Nuclear Physicist and Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov was imprisoned under internal exile from 1980-86 for criticising the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. Today, the flat is the Sakharov Museum and has exhibits on his life, work and the support extended by Vladlen Pavlenkov of US-based `Freedom of Communications' to ensure that Sakharov's struggle was known to the world, and to lobby with the Gorbachev administration for his release. I spent the afternoon walking about `Shvitsariya' (Switzerland) - a park nearby running at least a couple of kilometres along the Oka embankment. I snailed my way through the city and got to Gorky Square. During the Soviet period, Nizhniy was named Gorky after the Communist writer, Maksim Gorky, and in the middle of the Square is a small park with a statue of the city's former namesake.

Yamal was a big mistake! This could unarguably have been the Russian Railways' best train, with immaculate velvet cushioned seats, brand new fittings and linen that could turn the best of us into Sleeping Beauties! That's why Yamal was a mistake - any train after this was going to be a disappointment and I had five more to go before getting to Vladivostok!

14 hours later, I stepped onto Perm's soil. "Perm is a city most travellers could bear to miss." My first steps in the city saw me already echoing my guidebook's sentiments! I had expected Nizhniy to be small; instead, she surprised me with her size and energy. And now, when I thought Perm would be like the Nizhniy I saw, Perm was determined to be the Nizhniy I had initially imagined. I checked into Hotel Ural on Lenin Street, the city's spine, and almost immediately started exploring. I didn't feel the city had much to offer a tourist except, perhaps, an attractive setting in the Urals and a lot of theatres and philharmonic concert halls! But the people factor was the unexpected winner. Everyone from the hotel staff to random people on the street was very friendly and ready to go out of their way to help! But there was bummer - Perm was freezing and my two sweaters were finally coming in handy! The lack of tourist attractions didn't bother me much. After all, Perm was just an excuse to go to Perm-36, the only surviving Gulag (Soviet forced labour camps) museum, located in Kutchino village about 80 km east. That's where I headed the next morning.  

Lyubov Tretiakova, a co-ordinator with Perm-36, had organised my visit. She suggested which buses to take from Perm and even sent her car to pick me up from the point where the road to the museum branched off from the bus's route. Moreover, when I got there, she said she would drop me to the next village, 20 km away, from where I could get a bus back to Perm. Narrow wooden plank beds; single toilets shared by over 50 people; possibility to take the day off only if temperature dipped below -55˚C; worn-out shoes and gloves; electric fences; one-year old Larissa's grave - this was Perm-36. On my way back, as the bus moved along the grassy hills sprinkled with yellow flowers, I remembered Lyubov mentioning that Perm-36 is primarily funded by the Perm regional government, which in turn must receive some funds from the Kremlin. It suddenly occurred to me that the journey from Nizhniy to Perm was a lot longer than the thousands kilometres I had covered a couple of days ago. It was the journey from Sakharov's exile for speaking against the government to the restoration of a former Gulag camp dedicated to the victims of political repression with support and funding from the very same government! The West doesn't acknowledge this journey and I don't know what former Gulag prisoners think of it either. It's probably not enough. But, at least, like a foetus's first heartbeats, it is alive!

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