Dissertation Research Guide – Outlining the Results

After all the data is collected for your dissertation, it is time to start making sense of it all. For this stage, take three by five cards or obtain a mind-mapping program such as FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) or a data organization program such a TreePad (http://www.treepad.com). You will definitely need one of these methods for organizing your information at this stage, though in truth, FreeMind or TreePad can help much earlier in the research process.

Using Index Cards for Organization

For each factoid obtained during your research, create an index card. Starting on the third line of the card, record the factoid found in a complete or semi-complete sentence to catch the flavor and meaning of the factoid. On the first line, write a brief phrase describing the fact. Keep this no longer than three or four words.

On the back of the card, record the source of the fact in detail if you do not have a proper list of your sources yet or a Harvard-type (Name-Date-Page) notation of the source if you have. As you go through your collected research preparing and sorting these cards, a number of clear topics should begin to emerge. As you create these cards, put them into similar-topic piles. Do not attempt to put them into order quite yet. This is merely the sorting phase that will allow you to detect areas that you may need additional research. If any sorted stack seems “weak,” consider repeating the research process for that area to bolster its strength.

Once you are satisfied with the strength of each general topic stack, begin organizing each stack in an order that makes sense to you. Focus on the content of each stack, not the order of the stacks themselves at this point. Once the individual stacks make sense, examine the general topic of each stack and think about how it relates to the other stacks. Begin putting the stacks into a sensible order based on these relationships. Now that you have the basic information somewhat organized, start a rough draft outline of the information. Make each stack of information a primary category in the outline. Students often find it helpful to place each primary category on a separate sheet of paper to allow subsequent reordering of the categories. Subtopics that have developed within each stack can be placed in the secondary category level for the outline. For the detail level, copy the sentences from each card as the final level of the outline.

At this point you have the basic outline for your dissertation’s existing materials chapter and perhaps something of an idea of what direct research you need to do or a basic idea of the outline needed for your discussions and argument chapters.

Using FreeMind

With today’s rapidly changing environment, the use of software support in the educational field is growing rapidly at both the instructional-level and the student’s level. When performing research, the design and capabilities of FreeMind and TreePad both allow a student to collect the information they need from resources, to organize that information, and to document the resources in a real time manner. This can help speed the entire process of research and writing, thus their use is highly recommended. FreeMind seems to be the more useful of the two programs, so let us take a look at the procedures for its use and explore some of the abilities of the program.

FreeMind uses an advanced mind-mapping protocol, allowing a student to build “thought-“ or “idea trees” of their work as it is being performed. Details of sources are store in tree nodes (entries) that can be reordered in almost any fashion imaginable. The layout may seem a bit cumbersome at first, but with a little practice the incredible power of this software quickly becomes apparent. FreeMind also allows the tagging of each node with a limited array of icons to mark the importance of a given topic, to mark topics in need of additional research, and even note which nodes have sentence or paragraph ideas for use in your final document.

The techniques below will allow you to collect the citation information and research factoids quickly as you come across it using FreeMind. Also described is the technique that will allow you to organize the data into a rough outline “on the fly,” as they say, and to highlight or indicate the importance and/or status of a particular node or node family.

Collecting the Data

When using FreeMind, begin by creating a single node and marking it “citations.” To do this, press the “Insert” key once. This will open the first major node in edit mode. To create a child node at any time, make sure the node you wish to be the parent is highlighted and use this process. You can also create a “sibling” node to the highlighted node by simply pressing “Enter.”

Under the “citations” node, create a child node and enter your citation information in the citation style for your dissertation. Do not worry about the length; FreeMind has an extended node ability to accommodate this. For each factoid drawn from the source, create a child node and record the information in the same manner as for index cards. Make two child nodes under each factoid node. In the first, put a topic note to indicate the general topic of the factoid node. In the second, put a Harvard-style (name-date-page) notation for the factoid.

Organizing the Data

Create a second node tree above or below the citation node tree. You can do this either by going to the mind-map core and pressing “Insert” or by highlighting the citation parent and either pressing “Enter” to create it below or “Shift-Enter” to create it above the citation node. Label this node “Outline.”

Create one child node under the outline node for each topic identified in the factoid nodes. Drag-and-drop each factoid node to its associated outline node. As you drag-and-drop each, you will notice the target node highlight in a new manner – only half of the node will highlight. If this half-highlight is the upper half of the target node, the item dropped will be inserted above the target node. If this half-highlight is the right (or left) half of the target node, the item dropped will be inserted as a new child node of the target node. Please note that moving a node with children will move the entire node family to the new location.

Highlighting Nodes

If you wish to use an icon on any node simply highlight the node and press “Alt-I.” This will open a pop-up icon menu from which to select. Note that the small “X” is actually a function button that will erase the last icon added to the node and the “trash can” icon will erase all the icons linked to the node.

Another means of marking nodes is with color and font styles. Using “Ctl-B” or “Ctl-I” will change the font style to bold or italicized, just as the Microsoft Office programs do. Certain F-Keys can alter the color or font size as well. In FreeMind, the F-keys operate in the following manner:

• F1 – Reset all parameters to basic color/size and remove all icons
• F2 – enter node edit mode
• F3 – Colorize font green
• F4 – Colorize font dark red
• F5 – Colorize font bright red
• F6 – Colorize font grey and reduce font size
• F7 – Colorize font dark blue
• F8 – Colorize font olive drab

You can also highlight an entire node family by selecting the “cloud” mode. For “cloud” mode, highlight the parent node of the section you wish affected and press “Ctl-Shift-B.” To remove a cloud, simply repeat the process – the function acts as a toggle switch.

A Word about Our Writers

FreeMind is a program used by many of our writers to assist them in the development of academic and professional assignments. Its functionality allows them to rapidly research and organize information of all kinds, using the very techniques described above. Yet students, with their limited time resources, still find it difficult to meet many of the deadlines in today’s fast-paced academic environment. Our writers stand ready to assist you with any aspect of your dissertation or other written assignment, from basic research right through to pre-submission review and editing.

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