Dissertation Study Guide

Dissertation Study Guide 2016/17

Managing your Time:

It is useful to plan your research so that it aligns with dissertation tutorials and submission dates – for all information about hand-in times, word lengths, marking criteria, etc. please refer to the Unit Assessment Brief.

•   There are effectively two draft submission dates, one at the beginning of the Autumn term on Mon 3 Oct (2,000 words), the other on Mon 14 Nov (4,000 words). All submissions in hard copy to the contact desk by 12 noon.
•   The writing you submit for the first deadline should be a research essay which consolidates the research you have done over the summer. It might be a completed chapter or it might be a series of semi-completed chapters or sections of writing. It should NOT be a mind map or a skeleton plan at that stage. You will build on your research essay to produce your 4,000 word draft. Your final dissertation will be from 6,000 to 8,000 words.
•   Tutors will read and comment on the material in these drafts once only and they should not be resubmitted later.
• There are 3 one-to-one tutorials in 2016/17 with your designated dissertation tutor and they will be scheduled as follows:

  Tutorial 1 will take place in week 2 of the Autumn term. It will be 25-30 mins. Tutors will schedule these on different days, so please look out for these schedules in the Stg 3 folder on Moodle as well as checking your email for tutors messages to you at this time. At this tutorial, your research essay and the work you have done over the Summer will be discussed. You will plan with your dissertation tutor how to proceed with your writing towards the 4,000 draft.

  Tutorial 2 will take place in weeks 9 & 10 of the Autumn term. It will be 25-30 mins. At this tutorial, your 4,000 draft will be discussed. The main purpose of this tutorial is to discuss the development of your writing to enable you to complete your final dissertation over the vacation. Also NOTE that this tutorial is a recorded tutorial, therefore you need to fill in a tutorial report form and send to your dissertation tutor prior to the tutorial.

  Tutorial 3 will take place in week 11 in the Spring term. Note that these are 15 minute dissertation surgeries and will only cover brief queries about introductions, conclusions, or other minor issues that have arisen over the vacation. This is your last point of contact with your dissertation tutor before the dissertation hand-in of MONDAY 23 JANUARY 2017.

1. Dissertation presentations in your dissertation tutor’s group of dissertation tutees will take place on week 5 of the Autumn term. This is when you will get the opportunity to give a 10 minute presentation on your research and get feedback from your peers. The sessions operate as group feedback tutorials.
2. ATTENDANCE: Tutorials cannot be rescheduled. It is your responsibility to ensure that you attend them. The dissertation presentations are also mandatory and are extremely valuable. You should attend ALL the presentations in your tutor’s group.

   Revision

    

3. In organising your time to meet the deadline, make sure you have allowed room for the reconsideration and revision of your draft. Ideally this period of time will also provide a certain critical distance from which to view your writing again, and to see it afresh. You may want to reorganise, edit, amplify or prune.
4. You may, for example, decide that the beginning should be further along in the writing than you had at first planned and cut out the `introduction’. You may want to reformulate passages that seem unclear or expand where your writing has become too general or too thin.
5. Check for spelling, complete sentences and typographical errors. Use spell-check or grammar check on the computer, but don’t forget that `there’ and `their’, `quiet’ and `quite’, `its’ and `it’s’ may be correctly spelled but inappropriately used.

   Check list Presenting and Submitting your dissertation:

   It must be word processed or typed, double spaced, and with a minimum font size of 11.

   It must have a complete bibliography of all source material (see below). Remember that citations do not function as a bibliography, and that the latter should reflect all of the reading and research you have done, relevant to shaping the dissertation, and not just the texts you have quoted from, or referenced, in the text of the dissertation itself.

   It may be illustrated with photographs, clear photocopies, drawings, postcard reproductions as appropriate. These should be numbered and captioned.

   There should be a title page which should also have your name, course and year clearly visible.

   Text pages should be numbered.

   Citations should have a clear alphabetical reference list at the end of the text.

   Appendices can be used for additional materials – interviews, long quotations, synopses of film or TV material etc.

   If you find that you are producing many citations or appendices there may be something structurally wrong with your dissertation.

   Two hard copies of the dissertation PLUS a digital backup on CD or USB stick are to be handed in before the given deadline. See Unit 10 Brief for details of hand-in times, etc..

   The dissertation is to average between 6,000 and 8,000 words in length (excluding quotations). It should be bound (flat binding, i.e. spiral or heat binding) and also have a protective cover.