Have to choose either dissertation or another module? (Law)

liamcov

For my final year I'm lucky enough to be able to choose if I want to do a dissertation or not (my degree is Law & Spanish but the dissertation would have to be for law) but i'm not sure after reading things people have wrote and what others have said about theirs! Are dissertations really that bad? or would I be better to do an ordinary module?

I'm inclined to do a dissertation because I'm currently in Spain for the year so I can start research/writing it now so I will be ahead of schedule & if will save me doing another law module next year meaning I can concentrate on my other modules more?

So what would all you other students recommend me to do?

Aileen_Una

I'd suggest a module all the way, you'll simply spend every free minute on a dissertation whereas modules stay more in perspective.

Although if you want to go on to postgraduate study I'd recommend doing the dissertation as it would be great experience.

melancholly

it depends on what you want to do after your degree - you have to weigh up what the module will cover over what you gain from doing some extended personal research and having a supervisor spend time with you on it... they will both have value! i'd say adding extra exams to finals is madness and a dissertation all the way but i know a lot of people would pick it the other way around.

The_One_Who

It really depends on what you want to do after you have graduated and the way your departmental timetable is structured. If you want to go on to further study then a dissertation is highly recommended, and even if not then having something like to talk about at interviews etc is very useful. A dissertation teaches you a lot of things a module does not. But if the module you choose would be directly relevant then go for it.

However, a lot of departments like to have their dissertation deadlines just before Easter, and therefore not too long before the final exams. This can cause problems for organising your time effectively.

I personally would always choose a dissertation.

liamcov

Well the only reason I'm thinking about a dissertation is because I'm in Spain this year so can spend time researching it/starting it this year before I actually start my last year in the UK so I would hopefully get it out of the way by Feb/Mar time and thus concentrate on my actual modules.

If I don't do it I would do the only other modules I am interested in Intellectual Property and Family Law (my other modules are compulsory: Equity & Trusts, Criminal and 2x Spanish modules) whereas if I did do it I can only choose one of them.

So can anyone give any help? My career plans after uni are doing a BVC and (hopefully) becomming a barrister

The_One_Who

Although ideally everyone wants to start a dissertation early, you need to get a lot of things sorted before you can even begin to start researching. You need to get a topic decided and approved, supervisor assigned, proposal forms completed and ethical approval granted. Then you can start the research stage.

Voyager2002

I don't think it would be easy to research a dissertation on English law while you are in Spain.

dmg24

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I don't think it would be easy to research a dissertation on English law while you are in Spain.

As long as you have an Athens login I can't see any problem with doing this. I do 90% of my (postgrad) research online.

OP, how disciplined are you? I went for a dissertation because I thought I would be able to get a good headstart, but life events took over and I ended up being completely disorganised and eventually did my dissertation is 48 hours flat (but still didn't do too badly)! I would say to go for the dissertation if you are confident that you can motivate yourself, if not choose a module that will compliment any future plans that you may have.

amy_lou_4

Like dmg24 says, it does depend on whether you are disciplined enough! We were all advised by the foreign languages dept to start work on our dissertations during our year abroad but it is more difficult when you are away from your university to communicate with your tutor. If we didn't manage that, we were also advised to get a supervisor sorted out just after Easter, when we came back. I was doing mine in the Politics dept, so they weren't as bothered about starting early (as most pol students were not abroad and didn't have the time to research before)

The dissertation for me wasn't as bad as I had thought! It was obligatory, but shorter than the ones single Politics students had to do. We had some compulsory meetings in September and then had to go away and think of our topics. This meant finding a supervisor in our topic area and talking to them, trying to work out a specific question. By the beginning of November we had to get a sheet signed by our tutor with our title and
the plagiarism agreement.
We then had until April to write it in chapters, with monthly or so meetings with our supervisors to check we were going in the right direction and get more suggestions for reading. I really enjoyed my reading (I did mine on far-right parties in UK and France) and talking to people about their views on the BNP and Front National, looking at the news and reading looooaads of books and articles (I can't remember how many now)
I am a really last minute person but this was the first time I felt like I had learnt from all the rushed jobs I had done in the past and not been proud enough of. I was still checking it over and printing it out the night before, but at least I wasn't making up a conclusion on the hoof like normal! Typical that I just got the hang of essays and it was my last one.

Other major factors in making your decision (as well as your motivation) will be thinking of a topic area and a question that meets your supervisor's approval. If you start thinking about this now, before you even have to decide whether you want to do the diss in the first place, you are on the right track!
Another aspect is your supervisor him or herself and how much you enjoy working with them. Mine used to talk a LOT in our meetings and I would end up using a lot of what he suggested and adding to it- he ended up giving me a great deal more help than I had imagined in the actual material of it.
Do you have a topic area, question and supervisor in mind yet? Not all lecturers accept diss students every year so it is worth finding out from your first choices before you make any concrete decisions.

Let me know if you have any questions or want to bounce ideas

dmg- I don't know how you did it in 48 hours! My boyfriend did his in 3 weeks (while I was in France and couldn't kick him uo the !!!! to get on) and got 56% but it was on Sparta, which he absolutely loved. I am surprised his supervisor didn't give him a wallop!