Writing Your Dissertation with Microsoft Word

Vincent Kiernan PhD, has written an extremely useful and very thorough guide to assist the PhD and Masters student to tackle the hard yards of actually writing their papers. While many works I have read dealt with the overall task of tackling a PhD/Masters program, this reference work deals with the actual writing task confronting the student. The computer has evolved from a 'nice to have' to 'essential' piece of kit for a student completing higher studies and the author recounts the time when students paid typists to write up their dissertation papers. Besides allowing the student to complete the task in less time, the computer also allows the student to self-edit; without having to write up several copies and manually edit them with a typist. The book explains the steps to setting up a template for your paper; with numerous computer display windows to assist (ahem!) those of us who are somewhat 'computer challenged' at times. Formatting chapters, tables and using figures are follow-on chapters to allow students of many disciplines to benefit from this book. I found the text easy to read and very helpful; especially where the author explains how various Universities have different, but stringent, guidelines to layout of pages and presentation requirements. In summary, a very useful and beneficial guide for those students completing papers for higher studies, if there is one request I would have; is that the author could include sample layouts of the various settings as an Annex to his book, to allow the reader to gain a clearer concept of layouts. However, a very useful reference book for any graduate's library. Well done, Vincent Kiernan!