Dissertation

David_Brent · 27 July 2004 at 5:31AM

I have a question and its not really money saving related but I'm sure people will know about this. I am entering my final year of a degree in september and was wondering what are the best books available to help me get to grips to help me writting a dissertation as in structure etc. Also are you allowed to have private tuition from someone experienced in the area that im studying to help me with the dissertation or is that considered 'cheating' by the university? Cheers!

halcyon_drift · 27 July 2004 at 1:32PM

if possible try ask someone you know from the year above you doing the same course for their one.

also, it depends which course you are doing. with some courses you may find you are assigned a lecturer to guide you through it, and thats certainly not cheating

Halcyon

System · 27 July 2004 at 2:50PM

Your university library should have set of booklets about writing and preparing research for dissertations.

As for guidelines on cheating, thats more tricky. I would consult one of your tutors or director of studies. But I would assume that as long as they don't write your dissertation or provide any direct input then you should be ok. Also they should not carry out any research work on your behalf. However I would check this with your university. As a former PhD student who did some lecturing I can tell you that catching people cheating is REALLY unpleasant and I would rather that the people had come to me first to seek advice and help rather than handing in work which had obviously been copied. Cracking down on cheats (I must sound like David Blunkett) is a big thing in universities right now and each have their own guidelines, so please do check first.

Rod

Salad_2 · 27 July 2004 at 9:53PM

On a mundane note, when you're writing it, get to know 'styles' in Microsoft word. You define your style for heading, sub heading, footnote etc, then you can pick them from the drop down menu without having to go through formatting everything. Then you can get word to generate your table of contents that updates as you make changes.

David_Brent · 27 July 2004 at 11:52PM

Thankyou very much for the feedback, even though I was a little off subject!

System · 29 July 2004 at 5:58AM

hi,

the best thing to do to learn about dissertation structure or style is to read recent dissertations that have achieved a high grade submitted to the same department.

there are a number of books on amazon that provide useful advice, just do a search on 'dissertation'

i have been helping students with dissertations for the past 5 years (generally with structure, grammar and style) and i have found that in most cases university supervisors actually ENCOURAGE students to seek help in these issues. the reason for this is that it saves the supervisor work

good luck on your dissertation. i am starting my own later in the year :-/

halcyon_drift · 29 July 2004 at 11:22AM

i agree, best thing to do is get a few people, who have no idea about the subject you are writing on, to read through your dissertation. ask them for feedback or any questions they have (if they feel you havent explained something well enough). these will be your weak areas which you will have to expand on.

if you know someone who is good at english (say an english teacher perhaps) it would be good to get them to read through it as well to point out any language (grammer) errors.

svmitche · 29 July 2004 at 12:21PM

Your Uni library will have copies of Ph.D and Masters dissertations from previous years, as all students are encouraged to submit their final, bound copy to the Library.

They may be more advanced that what you want (or not, don't know what level you are at) but can give you a feel for the the style, and readability.

Consulting tutors and lecturers is always a good idea. Even if you don't have a specific supervisor, try and make an appointment to see a tutor in your school, who can perhaps give you some pointers.

If you are thinking of having a private tutor to help you please, please ask the school first, as if it is against their regulations then you don't want to be on the wrong side of the examiner!

Good luck with it anyway - what subject is your dissertation on?

David_Brent · 29 July 2004 at 6:28PM

Thankyou for the help! I'll ask the university about the private tutor first before getting one. I'm studying the final year of a business management degree but I am thinking of doing the marketing dissertation for it but im not too sure yet.

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