Assistance with dissertation topic

Poverty_stricken_student

Hi there I am doing a mock dissertation of about 1500-2500 words which is due in on 28th August. I have decided on an area of research but have not specified a final topic statement as of yet as i am encountering some difficulties in doing so. Can anyone with experience of writing dissertation assist me in this, any help would be greatly appreciated. Please PM me. Thanks.

dmg24

What is your area of research?!

phlash

"Biodiesel, a climate saver or taker?"

Is that anywhere close to what you might be studying?!

Poverty_stricken_student

My area of research is the link between cannabis use and mental health

dmg24

My dissertation was in a very different area (Law), but I have just spoken to a friend who works in your field, and they suggested working from a hypothesis e.g. Is there a proven link between cannabis and mental health conditions? Discuss.

Poverty_stricken_student

Thanks DMG ur a star! my only concerns are that there may already be tonnes of studies that have covered this already, and i'm just going over the same thing as opposed to a finding a gap in existing knowledge. What do u think?

bestpud

Is it an undergrad dissertation? If it is and it's a practice run, I wouldn't have thought it would be essential to re-invent the wheel.

I may be wrong but I'm guesing it's more about preparing you for the process of the real thing?

The only way to truly find out what has been done though is to do a lit review and find out!

dmg24

bestpud is right, if it is an undergrad dissertation then I wouldn't worry about coming up with anything new. Also, in the area you have chosen, it would be very difficult to come up with anything that would hold any weight without endless research and clinical studies.

For my dissertation I was told that whilst it would almost be rude to make claims that contradicted those already established, it is ok to critique information already available. For instance, whilst you should not say that the results of a clinical study are wrong, you could question how useful the findings of the study are, due to it being over a limited time, or an ineffective control being used etc.

As well as researching current theories (and obviously statute for mine!), I also did a survey on public opinion of the subject, and analysed it and presented it with some pretty graphs. I personally found my results a bit meaningless, but nonetheless got marks for use of different research and presentation styles.

Best of luck with it. If you do this subject, it is something that interests me very much (having personal experience in both the areas!), so if you need anyone to read it through I would be happy to x

Errata

Poverty_stricken_student wrote: »

My area of research is the link between cannabis use and mental health

On the one hand this, on the other hand that, both with evidence. Include recent studies and recent changes in law and proposed changes in law and suggest why they have happened, with evidence. You could add a bit about available treatment, with evidence. That will give you more than enough word length.
What you should be demonstrating is that you understand there MAY be a link between cannabis use and mental health, and your conclusion should be that research is continuing as there is as yet no satisfactory conclusive proof of a link.
HTH

Poverty_stricken_student

Thanks a million u guys!

DrFluffy

Poverty_stricken_student wrote: »

Thanks DMG ur a star! my only concerns are that there may already be tonnes of studies that have covered this already, and i'm just going over the same thing as opposed to a finding a gap in existing knowledge. What do u think?

Knowledge on this subject is anywhere near complete - if you fail to find gaps in the knowledge base, I'll eat my laptop!