Steve Tippins Ph.D.Helping doctoral students get their dissertation accepted, succeed in their careers, & change the world | Academic Career Advisor | Dissertation Chair & Founder, Beyond PhD Coaching | 35 + years of experience.

What Your Committee is Looking For in Chapter 5

12 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief advisory segment, the speaker, Steve Tippins Ph.D., explains that many dissertation students struggle with Chapter 5 not because of weak research or statistical analysis, but because they fail to effectively tell their story and promote their own contributions. He clarifies that Chapter 5 refers to the final, concluding chapter of a dissertation—whether the work has five, six, or more chapters—where the summary, findings, and overall conclusions are presented. He emphasizes the importance of narrative and self‑advocacy in this chapter and invites viewers to comment "help" to receive a link to his free dissertation help community.

Chapters

I've looked at lots of Chapter 5s over the years, and the reason people fall down or don't move forward with their Chapter 5 is not because their study was bad, and it's not because of statistics they've done. It's because they don't tell their story. They don't actually toot their own horn. Chapter 5 is different than the previous chapters in your dissertation. And by saying Chapter 5, I just want to clarify. Typically a dissertation has 5 chapters. The last chapter being the conclusion, the summary, the findings, things things like that. Now you could have a 6 or 7 chapter dissertation and it's the last chapter. So I'm just going to call it Chapter 5 here. Drop the word "help" in the comments and I'll send you the link to my free dissertation help community.