Health Professions Division Dissertation Guide

48 DISPOSITION OF VERSIONS OF FINAL DISSERTATION REPORT Copyediting Candidates must follow program requirements for copyediting: The committee-approved dissertation must be copyedited by a program-approved copy editor prior to sending it to the binder or the online dissertation repository. The committee is responsible for the content of the dissertation, but the copy editor’s thorough line-by-line review assures that the technical details of the dissertation are accurate and consistent, and that the dissertation meets APA/AMA style guidelines as well as the program’s format requirements. The candidate is responsible for the costs of copyediting and for a high-quality dissertation report. Check with the Program Director if a copy editor from PCHCS is available. The dissertation is considered completed (but not final) only after the candidate has done the following: (a) successfully defended his or her dissertation, (b) received post-defense revised version approval by the committee chair, and (c) the dissertation has been signed by all committee members. The dissertation is considered final only after the copy-edited revisions have been successfully completed, approved by the chair, and it is then ready for the uploading of the electronic version and printing. One-on-One Writing Help If the candidate needs help with the writing of the paper before it is considered complete, the services of the writing coaches in the Writing & Communication Center (WCC) may be appropriate. Here is the link to the WCC ( https://www.nova.edu/wcc/index.html ) . The purpose of the WCC is to improve students’ writing skills by identifying problem areas, such as grammar, punctuation, and APA or AMA formatting issues. In addition, awkward sentences can be revised to language that is more scholarly or to eliminate anthropomorphism. Due to time constraints of the 45-minute appointment time frame, the paper cannot be read line by line; however, formatting will be demonstrated, so the student will be able to apply the “rules” to the rest of the paper. Students may have two appointments per week with any of the writing coaches in the WCC. Here is the link to make an appointment ( https://nova.mywconline.com/ ) . Submission of Final Dissertation Reports Candidates will need to submit copies of the final report as an electronic version (pdf) to ProQuest/UMI. Candidates may want bound copies of the final dissertation report. Please see the instructions for each. After the committee members, the Program Director, the Department Chair, and Dean have signed the Dissertation Approval Form, the candidate will receive information from the program office about how to submit the report for electronic submission and/or binding and the fees associated with it. Do not submit the final copies until instructed to do so.