Top Dissertation Apps & Tools

A dissertation or thesis takes a lot time, effort and hardwork to complete. While there is no shortcut to research success (or any other path), there are ways to optimize the process to work smarter.

A dissertation or thesis takes a lot time, effort, dedication and hard work to complete. There is no shortcut for research success. But there are ways to optimise your process and work smarter. You also can hire a writer from one of the best cheap dissertation writing services to save your own time.

The Best Apps for Writing Dissertation & Thesis

#1: Grammarly premium

Let’s face, Microsoft Word’s spellchecker is terrible. Missed errors, false positives, and bizarre suggestions are just a few of the many problems that spellcheck in Microsoft Word. You’re much better off spelling check your own work. Grammarly makes it simple to check your spelling.

Grammarly is so much more than a grammar or spelling checker.

Inconsistency in writing style and unclear sentence structure

Ineffective vocabulary, overuse of certain works

Impoliteness as well as insensitive or non inclusive language

Inappropriate tone and formality

Plagiarism

Grammarly is, simply put, the closest you can get to having someone proof-read and edit your work. Additionally, plagiarism checking is a great feature for those writing thesis and dissertations. Grammarly works in Word and Google Docs.

Although there is a free edition, it is quite limited and similar to Word. There is no plagiarism checker. Grammarly Premium is required. It costs less than $12/month and is well-worth it.

#2: Evernote & Penultimate

There is no doubt that you will take endless amounts of notes throughout your research. Some notes might be written, while others may be photos or audio recordings. A way to keep everything organized and on top of it all is essential. Evernote is an option.

Evernote allows you to take note in multiple formats. This includes text (typed, handwritten), photos, audio, and video (record the interview). It also allows you to attach files of any kind (e.g., Excel data sets), so everything is in one place. All data is synchronized across all devices, including your phone, laptop or desktop.
3: Dragon Anywhere

Writing a dissertation or thesis is a tedious task. You can spend hours sitting at the keyboard and become physically and mentally exhausted. Imagine you could talk instead of typing. Dragon Anywhere has made it possible.

A dissertation or thesis takes time, effort, dedication and hard work. Although there is no shortcut for research success, there are methods to optimise the process so that you work smarter.

Dragon naturally speaking

Dragon Anywhere, an app that lets you talk into your phone or tablet to convert audio into text format, is called Dragon Anywhere. You can put your thoughts onto paper faster than ever before, and you minimize the chance of losing your way. It’s great for getting work done while sitting in traffic. You can even use it as a transcribing aid during interviews.

4: Dropbox

The number of students who have lost hours/days/weeks’ worth of work (and missed submission deadlines) due to corrupted flash or hard drives, coffee-soaked notebooks, or stolen computers is staggering. If you don’t use cloud storage to save your data, you are at great risk.

A dissertation or thesis requires much time, effort, and hard work. There’s no shortcut to success in research. But there are ways to optimize the process so that you work smarter.

4: Dropbox

The number of students who have lost hours, days or weeks of hard work and missed the submission deadline due to corrupt flash drives, hard drives, coffee-soaked laptops and stolen computers is staggering. You’re taking a serious risk if you don’t use cloud storage to save your data.

Cloud storage apps available for dissertation backups

This is the most important thing that you can take away from this blog post. Sign up for one of the following cloud services. Most offer a no-cost version. Save your work!

Dropbox

Google Drive

OneDrive

iCloud Drive

This will keep your work safe (remember to press the Save button). It will also allow you to work across multiple devices by automatically synchronizing your files. No need to maintain a million versions of your files across all devices, including tablet, laptop and tablet. Everything stays at one place. All files are secure and protected.

5: Offtime

Writing and research are laser-sharp. Distractions are the number one enemy. The greatest threat to distraction is likely in your hand right now. Offtime makes it easy to remove distractions from your smartphone so you can regain control.

Offtime allows to limit certain functionality on your phone for a specified time. You could allow calls only from specific people. This allows you to disconnect without worrying in emergency situations. The countdown clock reminds you to remain focused and stick to the time-limit.

6: Mendeley

To have a polished dissertation, or thesis, you must use correct citations. The referencing can make even the best piece of research lose credibility (and marks). It’s terrible to see students losing marks because this is such an easy task with Mendeley, which allows you to manage your references.

Mendeley provides a free reference management tool that will take care of all your Word citations. Mendeley lets you load your journal articles. After that, all you have to do is drop in your references in Word. Mendeley then creates your reference book according to whatever format you choose (e.g. Harvard, APA, etc). Yes, there are other software products, but I find Mendeley to have the most features. Take a look at the video to get an idea of the functionality.

7: Freemind

When conducting your literature review or research, you will need to consider many theories, models and frameworks. This can make it hard to see the big picture clearly and connect the dots. Mind mapping is a powerful way to organize and connect information. However, this is so old-fashioned. Freemind.

Freemind is a mind map software that lets you easily create editable and visually rich mindmaps directly on your computer. It’s intuitive and simple to use.

A dissertation or thesis requires much time, effort, and hard work. There is no shortcut for research success. But there are ways to optimize the process so that you work smarter.

8: Udemy & Coursera

Although this is not an application or piece of programming, I couldn’t resist sharing it here.

There are many topics that you will need to know quickly while working on your dissertation. Examples of this include: how to use SPSS or NVivo analysis tools, how do you create statistically sound scales for surveys, and how to conduct structured interview. These skills are important for research quality, and they aren’t usually covered in university programs. You can enroll in Udemy or Coursera. Udemy or Coursera both offer an array of extremely short and digestible online courses. These courses are an excellent way to quickly learn specific skills, especially in software. Udemy was a lifesaver when I was writing the dissertation.

Wrapping up

This concludes the list of apps, services and software above that will greatly simplify your life when you are preparing for your dissertation.