Starting your Dissertation this calendar year;

this means Year 2 students and many Post

Graduate students

LQSU

©The Learning Quality Support Unit, 2013

What does this mean for you?

Most dissertations are

individual in nature, which

means that you will often

work on your own over quite

a long period of time

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The Dissertation itself!

What is it?

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The Dissertation .......

• Some academic book writers on this topic describe ‘dissertations’ as very long essays with a specific in depth focus.

• The word allowance can vary within different disciplines; they tend to range from 5000 to 10000 words; but it’s not as frightening as you think.

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Planning the research schedule

• Become an active participant; don't just sit and wait for things to happen, because it wont!

• Think about the time you can realistically give to the task.

• Remember the 168 hours in the week; many students have a variety of responsibilities.

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Some thoughts• Consider the area where you wish to

undertake your research.• Think about and consider what you aim

to achieve.• What are the practical uses of the

research?• What background do you possess?• How will you collect data and analyse

it?• Identifying and reviewing key studies.

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A suggested timetable7

Area Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7

Agree topic with Supervisor

Aims & Objectives of Topic

The Opening Sections

Draft initial outline

Literature Reviews

Methodology/Approaches

Analysis of exercise/Results

Discussion/Conclusion

References/Acknowledgements

Binding

Submission

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Activate the process

You must be the initial ‘driver’, but you are not on your own. Help is available; try the Learning Quality Support Unit!

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The proposal

The proposal is often introduced towards the later stages of an undergraduate course.

However, ‘top up’ or higher postgraduate timetables may be different. Your tutors will advise you accordingly.

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Getting started

• In most cases you are required to submit the ‘Proposal’ outlining your intentions and much of this will be focussed around the ‘what, why, where, when and who’.

• Most dissertations are individual, but there some that are collaborative and even interdisciplinary.

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Tips on generating a research question

• What do you want to establish?• Making it researchable.• Making it ‘critical’ rather than

‘descriptive’.

So:1. Where are my interests?2. How will these lead to an investigation?

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