The dissertation motivator

ultimatedingbat

Our brief is pretty broad to be honest. All it says is you are required to produce 7000 words of creative writing if in prose for, or equivilent in poetry form as agreed with your tutor.
You are then required to write 3000 analysis on this work.

ali-t

What a great thread, I had no idea so many people on here were doing dissertations. I am just starting my MSc dissertation and still have no idea what to do it on - it is due in next June! I am a total procrastinator and struggle to juggle life when the lure of the internet, phone and tv are around.

My best tip that I have picked up over the years is to treat studying like a job. If you have a study day, get up at your usual time, follow your usual routine and be at the desk studying by 8.30am with a break for lunch and back to it until 5pm. I am definitly not the kind of person who can stay up all night studying but I do find things easier if they are compartmentalised.

Good luck to everyone.

The_One_Who

The_Intellectual wrote: »

How to write a successful dissertation: A brief Guide

Choosing a topic

This can be a source of problems for many students. It is often difficult to determine what to write about as you may have some many ideas in your head (or sometimes none at all). But the key is to pick a topic you are interested in and one you feel you can engage with – but more importantly it should be a topic that you are able to find a lot of information on. Your supervisor should help you to narrow down the topic to a manageable area. At this stage you do not need to worry so much about the Title as this can be decided upon after completion of the work. However, you need to identify a problem or an issue that you want to shed more light on or resolve - another approach might be to critique (critically evaluate) or previous research/study etc.

You missed the most important bit - choosing a topic you can actually research. Going off to some far flung place and researching a glacier sounds like an amazing idea, but in reality you'll probably find that it is impossible to do, especially once you take in to consideration things like cost, equipment and time limits. Undergraduate students usually only have a couple of months available for research, if that.

My best advice for anyone struggling is to arrange to see their supervisor as soon as possible. Go with specific problems, not just a "I can't do this, everything I write is rubbish", because they can't really help with that.

Helen_T

Intellectual - Thanks very much for posting that. I've been wondering where to start and your post has given me some inspiration. Now I just need to actually do it!

The_Intellectual

ultimatedingbat wrote: »

Our brief is pretty broad to be honest. All it says is you are required to produce 7000 words of creative writing if in prose for, or equivilent in poetry form as agreed with your tutor.
You are then required to write 3000 analysis on this work.

Well, to be honest with you I have not come across something like this before as a dissertation assignment. Nevertheless if I were doing somethign such as you described I would approach it this way:

• Write an introduction describing the aim and purpose of the dissertation
• Write a brief literature review surrounding creative writing techniques, use of language, audience etc
• Write the creative part - story/journalistic article/feature article etc whatever idea you have
• Analyse the article in light of the lit review - but I see this analysis part as a sort of evaluative critique of your own writing in light of the empirical underpinnings.

I hope this helps! Good luck with it.

The_Intellectual

The_One_Who wrote: »

You missed the most important bit - choosing a topic you can actually research. Going off to some far flung place and researching a glacier sounds like an amazing idea, but in reality you'll probably find that it is impossible to do, especially once you take in to consideration things like cost, equipment and time limits. Undergraduate students usually only have a couple of months available for research, if that.

My best advice for anyone struggling is to arrange to see their supervisor as soon as possible. Go with specific problems, not just a "I can't do this, everything I write is rubbish", because they can't really help with that.

Well I offered a brief guide - of course the topic must be researcheable and this criteria will be satisfied in agreement with the supervisor anyway. You cannot research a topic without the knowledge or agreement of your supervisor.

The_Intellectual

Helen_T wrote: »

Intellectual - Thanks very much for posting that. I've been wondering where to start and your post has given me some inspiration. Now I just need to actually do it!

Helen T - you are most welcome. Writing a dissertation is like baking a cake. But often times what I see with discussions on such subjects is that most people give you tips on what oven mark should be used, how you should flour the pan, how much time it should take to back ect but what they don't give you is the actual ingredients and how to mix them together. So I was trying to change that by offering some hopefully useful suggestions as to how to actually go about writing the paper.

The_One_Who

Another tip for choosing a research topic (only really relevant for 'traditional' subjects): try not to do something that has already been done to death. Have a look in current journals to see if there are any 'trends' in research, and if you can find a gap in knowledge all the better! Ideally your dissertation should be adding something new to the knowledge base.

ali-t

The_Intellectual wrote: »

, how you should flower the pan, .

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I am never one of those pedants on threads who picks people up on spelling and grammar but this one made me laugh. I am glad you won't be marking my dissertation Was your mind elsewhere when responding - the garden perhaps.

The_Intellectual

ali-t wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I am never one of those pedants on threads who picks people up on spelling and grammar but this one made me laugh. I am glad you won't be marking my dissertation Was your mind elsewhere when responding - the garden perhaps.

I have retracted my previous comments now that you have admitted it was said in jest. It is not that I have a chip on my shoulder but I don't take too kindly at being laughed at hence the nature of my response. My apologies for any offence caused.