Researching Your Dissertation

Workshop

17 February 2010

Someone help me!

Your dissertation project – an overview of the different stages

• Find a topic, agree it with a supervisor and formulate it into a research proposal; carry out a preliminary search of the literature

• Decide how you are going to carry out your research – by primary research (interviews, questionnaires, etc.) or by carrying out your research on the literature in the given area

• Once decided upon your methodology, carry out the research (always having due regard for ethical considerations)

• Write up your findings, providing analysis and conclusions

What we will cover today• Choosing a topic

• Planning your research and writing; managing your time

• Finding potential sources

• Understanding how to present your work

• RefWorks : how it can help you with your references and bibliography

What kind of topic should you choose?

• Something which interests you!

• The topic should be substantial enough for a Masters level dissertation....

• ....but not something which is far too big for the time allotted!

• It should be a new piece of research

• It must conform to the requirements in your Programme Handbook

How do I choose a topic?

Top tips for choosing a dissertation topic

• Writing Law Dissertations (Salter & Mason) contains some ideas as to how to find a topic

• Think what you have studied so far on your course – interesting or controversial areas?

• Are there any interesting issues in the news which might spark an idea?

• If you can’t think of a topic, or need help in formulating your research question, seek guidance from a supervisor.

Developing your idea: mind-mapping

• Mind-mapping techniques can be useful for planning the avenues that your research will take

• Mind-mapping can help you to map out the structure of your dissertation

• Inspiration software is available on student computers (available in Programs under ‘I’)

Inspiration

Managing your time

• Create a week-by-week plan/ timeline

• Make (and adhere to!) appointments with your supervisor

• When planning your dissertation project, set yourself some hard personal deadlines and stick to them!

• Remember that things often don’t go according to plan: build in some time for contingencies

Gantt chart

1/6/10 11/6/10 21/6/10 1/7/10 11/7/10 21/7/10

Literature review

Send out questionnaires

Carry out interviews

Write up results

Carry out statistical analysis

What is a literature review?

•Comprehensive and systematic review of published material on a particular topic or subject of interest

•Contains data, ideas and evidence that are interpreted and evaluated to support your research proposal, aims and chosen methodologies

Information comes in all shapes and sizes…

Sources

• Key materials required for any legal research would be:

• case law

• legislation

• journal articles

• books

…but where do we get these from?

Fee vs Free

Fee

The University subscribes to a number of academic resources for your subject.

vs

Free

Lots of information on the web – just think about the information in articles you find

What paid-for e-resources do we have at City?

•LexisLibrary•Westlaw•HeinOnline• i-law•PLC

….access via Lawbore Pro, www.lawborepro.net

Free stuff

“…But everything’s on the web for free isn’t it?”

Databases rock!

What free resources are recommended then?

• Government departments• International organisations• Law Commission• Pressure groups

• Official documents - http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/ (for command papers, green/white papers, House and departmental papers)

Getting the balance right…

• Things to consider when looking at a freely available source:

• Accuracy

• Authority

• Currency

• Objectivity

• Audience

Accuracy

Is the information correct?

Authority Who is the author?

Currency

Is the information up to date?

Objectivity Watch out for websites which are

extreme in their views!

AudienceWho is the information aimed at?

Google scholar

Here’s a link to some full text – just click the Full Text @ City link

Resources outside City: SCONUL

Locating material in other libraries

Inter-library loans

Get books and articles sent to you

from other libraries!

£3 for each item…books you can

usually borrow for 3-6 weeks…

Crossover resources

Exercise

Find the following e-journal article:

Knox, J.H. (2008) Horizontal Human Rights Law, The American Journal of International Law, 102(1), pp. 1-47

Writing style

• Formal/ academic style of writing

• Importance of narrative

• Structure

• Look at journal articles for an idea of formal writing style

• Look at previous dissertations to see how they are set out

Copyright awareness

• Single copies.....

• ....for private study or research for a non-commercial purpose

• One article from a journal or one chapter (or 5%) of a book

• Separate rules for e-journals and e-books

• Remember always to acknowledge the source you have copied if you refer to it in your dissertation

Plagiarism: what is it?

• Copying and pasting

• Concealing your sources

• Collusion

• Misinterpreting common knowledge

• Self plagiarism

Plagiarism: detection and sanctions

How to avoid plagiarism

• Quoting

• Paraphrasing

PLUS

• Correct citing and referencing

Referencing and creating bibliographies

• Many different systems available, but you will probably use Harvard or OSCOLA

• RefWorks online reference management system can help you to manage your references

Harvard and OSCOLA: some examples of references

Harvard style reference for a book

Hart, C. (2005) Doing your masters dissertation: realizing your potentialas a social scientist, London: SAGE

OSCOLA style reference for a book

Chris Hart, Doing your masters dissertation: realizing your potential as a social scientist (SAGE, London 2005)

Harvard and OSCOLA: some more examples

Harvard style reference for a journal article

Morrison, S. (2009) Allowing the death of a vulnerable adult, Law Quarterly Review, 125(Oct), pp.570-573

OSCOLA style reference for a journal article

Samantha Morrison, ‘Allowing the death of a vulnerable adult’ (2009) 125LQR 570

RefWorks

• A way of keeping all your references in one place

• Works as a direct export from some of the databases

• Works from Google Scholar and the Library catalogue too!

• Saves all the necessary information you will need…

• …and then formats a bibliography for you

• With Write-N-Cite, you can incorporate citations into your work as you are writing, then create a bibliography

RefWorks demonstration

RefWorks Exercise

• Set up your RefWorks account

• Create a new folder called “Test”

• Export the citation for the article you found earlier from JSTOR to RefWorks:

Knox, J.H. (2008) Horizontal Human Rights Law, The American Journal of International Law, 102(1), pp. 1-47

Conclusion and further sources of assistance

• Support is available from the library staff and your supervisor

• Dissertation writing books available in the library

• Handouts (e.g. Upgrade Plagiarism Guide)

• Online tutorials on Refworks

Image Credits – all images licensed under Creative Commons

• Slide 1: ‘12.15.08’ by aprilzosia http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprilzosia/3111836905/

• Slide 3: ‘Magnifying glass’ by andercismo http://www.flickr.com/photos/andercismo/2349098787/

• Slide 5: ‘Fear’ by stumayhew http://www.flickr.com/photos/stumayhew/3747070194/

• Slide 7: ‘The brain typography’ by labguest http://www.flickr.com/photos/labguest/3302264930/

• Slide 12: ‘Tiny, big, bigger, biggest’ by Chee Meng Au Yong http://www.flickr.com/photos/auyongcheemeng/95769332/

• Slide 17: ‘Information Hydrant’ by Will Lion http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2595497078/

• Slide 18: 'October 6th 2008 - Rock 'N' Roll Ain't Pretty’ by Stephen Poff http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenpoff/2920198159/

Image Credits – all images licensed under Creative Commons

• Slide 21: ‘Ruler’ by Balakov http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/315193729/

• Slide 22: ‘Courtroom One Gavel’ by Joe Gratz http://www.flickr.com/photos/joegratz/117048243/

• Slide 23: ‘14. after 3 days’ by auntjojo http://www.flickr.com/photos/7682623@N02/3345809522/

• Slide 24: ‘balance’ by WoK111 http://www.flickr.com/photos/wok_design/2499217405/

• Slide 25: ‘Audience’ by k4r10 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilbarbaricore/1256937674/

• Slide 31:• Slide 38: ‘Dissertation’ by papertrix

http://www.flickr.com/photos/papertrix/38028138/