Dissertation motivation!

aurora_borealis_2

Grace_ wrote: »

Aurora, my friend tells me that when your dissertation gets marked-some markers are more worried about the structure rather than the content, is this true? My library has some sample dissertations that are all 2.1 or above, and I've noticed a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes in them, which has made me more curious as to the importance of the structure more so than actual content/grammar?

It is somewhat true.
For me, I follow a rigid marking schedule. Not to hand at the mo but from memory,
5-10% of the marks are for presentation/grammar.
There are marks for:
Lit search
critical engagement with literature
logic of argument etc.

Try to structure it with the reader in mind - keep flagging what's to come and what you've just said.
It's easy to assume that you're writing in a sequential, logical way but often you're filling in the gaps from your head - the reader must be able to follow the argument just from the page

pavlovs_dog

cheers AB, that helps.

my supervisor is a lovely person, but not the most forthcoming with answers to questions when i ask exactly what is expected of us. doesnt help that some of us are doing sociolinguistic research, some literaure based etc, so there's no hard and fast all encompassing rules.

aurora_borealis_2

Extra brownie points for contextualising your lit review in both broad and local topics and discussing limitations of existing work.

Grace_

Thats a big help Aurora thank you very much.

I think my best bet right now is to just write what I can, get a friend to proof read it for me and hope its of a 2.1 standard. Not long to go now, and the deadline is looming. Crikey!

sali_mali

Hey Grace, that's my plan too. Just get everything you know down, you can always read over it to find what's missing after. Much easier to improve what you've already written than to keep putting it off until last minute!

Ferris

aurora_borealis wrote: »

Try to structure it with the reader in mind - keep flagging what's to come and what you've just said.
I

this is very good advice. a good way of thinking about it is abstracting. at the start of the dissertation you have an abstract that summarises everything to follow from the background to the conclusions in half a page or so.

similarly, at the start of each chapter, have a mini-abstract: in this chapter, this is what i'm doing (in context of what's been explained in previous chapters) and this is what i find/conclude as a result. do something similar (but smaller) for each major section within a chapter. its also wise to have end-chapter summaries and summaries for major sections.

bear in mind that markers will often read a dissertation like a novel: a chapter at a time. if they've gone off and done a million other things (that's what we academics do ... youtube is very taxing on the mind) since they read your last chapter, a good bit of context-setting abstract will definitely help maintain the flow. when there's a pile of the things to mark, the last thing you want to have to do is flick back repeatedly to remind yourself what's going on...

i've found that mini-abstracts/summaries also help to make you look more successful: if you keep hammering home what you're going to find and then demonstrate how you've found it then you show you've achieved what you set out to do (even if you haven't done it too well )

Grace_

Thank you Ferris

Theres some really good advise on this thread.

I've got a busy day ahead of me today, I decided to make a plan/list for what must be done today in order to keep myself on track. First time I've done it, but lets hope it works well...so far so good!

Have a good day guys x

pavlovs_dog

ive found this thread a great source of help and motivation too. now that ive made myself accountable, i feel more motivated to get on with it and see it through

hussey_2

sali_mali wrote: »

I need a kick up the bum to get me going. Anybody else who needs some motivation, or just wants to whine and complain to people going through the same thing, feel free to join in! :beer:

oh yea!! me me me!!
writing up already and feeling the heat:o

NickiM

Hi! Not doing a dissertation, but the article was really good to read. Got a few essays to do though, so need some motivation