Writing a dissertation is a serious and lengthy task, with so many steps to complete, revise, and perfect. The NU Dissertation Template provides a lot of helpful info, but students still often have many questions and need additional guidance. Seeing completed examples helps a lot. This guide will help you to access completed NU dissertations in the NU library to inspire and inform your own research and writing.
Accessing completed NU dissertations can help students with the following common issues:
- Finding examples/inspiration for methodology, focus, topic, and other “big-picture” concerns.
- Identifying specifics on length/depth/breadth of each section of the dissertation.
- Seeing examples of formatting in context, such as APA style headings.
- Understanding specific dissertation committee expectations.
- Finding new references on completed reference lists.
- Supporting your peers’ scholarly work by reading their dissertations and participating in the scholarly community.
It’s easy to locate completed NU dissertations in the NU Library!
- Log into NCUOne and click on the NU Library link - https://resources.nu.edu
- Access the pull-down menu on left entitled “Research Resources” and click on “Find Dissertations”.
- Access the pull-down menu for Vendors/Providers in the top middle of the page and click on “ProQuest”.
- Click on ProQuest Dissertations & Theses @ Northcentral University.
Narrow your search
Once you have located the published NU dissertations, you can narrow your search, just like you would with any other library resource. Try the following strategies to start:
- Keywords/terms that you are using in your own research.
- General area of focus (for example, “Special Education”).
- Methodological approach (for example, “Phenomenology”).
- Dates (Tip – Consider narrowing your search to only the past 5 years).
- Advisors (Dissertation Chairs).
- Committee members.
- References/citations you plan to use.
- Just like with any other library resource, you can perform an advanced search using a combination of these strategies.
- In addition to the NU dissertations, you may want to consider accessing non-NU dissertations via the general ProQuest link on the pull-down menu (see steps outlined above). This can be helpful if your topic is extremely specific, if you are very far along in your work, and if you need to broaden your search.
Now that you have accessed the completed NU Dissertations in the NU Library, the possibilities to inspire and guide you in your own work are endless. Be excited that one day soon, your own dissertation will be published in the NU library!
