Dissertation motivation!

melancholly

i'd avoid anything that multiple people will end up doing - then you get compared against eachother.... but that said, pick something you'll be motivated to do work on otherwise there's no point!

srichards

theres only 4 of us on the course, I think they are all looking to do a practical project though. So it would be just me doing a dissertation anyway.

pandora205

srichards wrote: »

I suppose I ought to start thinking about my MSc dissertation for next summer now

Im doing science communication and society btw.

I did a lab project for my 1st degree so this time round Id like to do a written diss.

!!!!!! on?? hmm, not sure, I think id like to look at something that caused whopping controversy in society and its communication - maybe something on the morning sickness drug? or cervical cancer vaccine? or mmr?

argh dont know

This sounds like an interesting course. The cervical canver vaccine would be topical not least as uptake will be influenced by parents' attitudes. You could do a questionnaire to look at this, and include factors such as whether a parent has a religious belief and social class, as it would be interesting to see the differences in uptake and there would be lots to discuss.

You could even do an online survey via MSE, as this will collect lots of data very quickly. You would need to keep the questions simple and not have too many though, but to add an openended one at the end for comments would give some qualitative data too.

pandora205

My 5 a day (minutes on assignment first thing) worked well for a couple of days. Then I had another pressing piece of work (for my job) which has taken precedence. I must get back to this though, it does break down the barrier when you get stuck. And I did much more than 5 minutes once I got started.

jay11_2

pandora205 wrote: »

My 5 a day (minutes on assignment first thing) worked well for a couple of days. Then I had another pressing piece of work (for my job) which has taken precedence. I must get back to this though, it does break down the barrier when you get stuck. And I did much more than 5 minutes once I got started.

Sounds like you're doing really well Pandora, keep it up! It's a bit of a bummer when you get into a good routine and have to drop it, isn't it? I've been having some time off, and just about to start jobhunting, so busy compiling my portfolio. Then I'll be starting masters, possibly in February already, so I'll be joining you all with the [STRIKE]struggles[/STRIKE] studying.

bestpud

Just because I'm [STRIKE]nosey[/STRIKE] interested...

Do you all find it easier to stick with it (ie do a little bit most days) or maybe 2 longer days a week, for example?

I'm finding it much easier to have two set days a week but I do feel I waste some time getting my mind back into it iyswim? But if I did a bit every day, I'd quickly fall back into my habit of 24/7 working and waking up at 3am thinking about blimming the 'perfect' sentence to make such and such a point.

I think I need to devise some way of leaving it in a state that I can pick it straight back up again...?

Someone please remind me why we do these things?? Only joking - I love it really!

bestpud

The_One_Who wrote: »

How long should I give for the research part? Roughly? Obviously it will depend on the topic, but my department says roughly three weeks. That doesn't sound like enough to me.

I haven't really broken mine down into tasks as such...

But I would say the bulk of my research was done in about 4 weeks (very roughly). But then I haven't actually stopped yet tbh.

Best thing is just to get started and revise as you go along, if need be.

My tutor told me to have the arears to cover written down (I have basic chapter headings for my lit review) and just keep a check to ensure I don't gather loads of stuff about one area and leave out another iyswim?

I'm sure that is no help whatsoever and mainly because I can't find the righht words to say what I want to say!!

Sorry - this bodes well...

The_One_Who

No, no, that makes sense. I just need to figure out what I want to do! But right now I should be doing reports and the like that I need to do. Can't really be bothered though. Which isn't the best attitude.

bestpud

The_One_Who wrote: »

No, no, that makes sense. I just need to figure out what I want to do! But right now I should be doing reports and the like that I need to do. Can't really be bothered though. Which isn't the best attitude.

When does it have to be in? Sorry if you've already said somewhere.

The_One_Who

I'm a third year (out of four) so I need to pick a topic by about Easter and then have the final thing in before Christmas next year. We have meetings with the tutors this December though, so we can talk about possible topics and see if we'd be allowed to do them or not.

I have a few ideas. I want to go into town planning so something on that (possibly regeneration or flooding) would be good. Or something more focussed on flooding, but without the planning part. Or earthquake prediction. Or the glocalisation (what a word!) of Scottish universities. Or UK geopolitics. Or geographic history & thought. I have actual topics in mind for those. Just need to pin it down a bit!

I take ages to read stuff, so the quicker I get a settle on a topic the sooner I can start doing a little bit of reading for it.