How to Write Your Undergraduate Dissertation

Bryan Greetham

• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781352005226
• eBook ISBN: 9781352005233
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: Study Guides

Unlike any other book this teaches students how to generate their own ideas and develop them into original research projects. Using examples from all disciplines, it not only teaches students how to plan and research using all the qualitative and quantitative techniques and instruments, but also how to construct arguments and use evidence and language consistently. Throughout it emphasizes that writing is the most difficult form of thinking and dissertations are a test of our ability both to think and write clearly.

PART 1

Examiners and Supervisors

Chapter 1

Examiners: What are they Looking for?

In this chapter you will learn …

•the key differences between an essay and a dissertation;

•exactly what examiners are looking for;

•what is meant by originality and how to achieve it;

•the range of abilities examiners are assessing.

A dissertation is quite different from anything you’ve been asked to do before. So your success will depend upon how well you make the adjustment.

The differences between essays and dissertations

The most obvious difference is size. Essays are relatively short – say, 2,000–3,000 words, whereas an undergraduate dissertation can be 8,000–12,000 words, perhaps more in some cases. This means we must analyse more extensively a larger body of material, critically evaluating it using more detailed and subtle arguments.

Genuine thinking

But along with its larger scope, a dissertation also affords us the opportunity to work more independently, so we can explore our own original ideas. This may sound odd, but it’s designed as an opportunity to do some genuine thinking. Many of the courses in higher education allow students to slip into the comfortable, undemanding role as mere recyclers of received opinions, while teachers opt for the corresponding and easier task of teaching students what to think, rather than how to think.

After all, teachers are appointed for their research, so they are seen as the experts, the gold standard in ideas. Therefore, it seems sensible to reproduce their ideas, rather than think for yourself. Consequently, when many students are asked to express themselves they are not expressing their ideas, but what they think their teachers think they ought to think. They are not involved in what they are writing at a deeper level. They do not share the needs of a genuine thinker.

Genuine thinking

1You’re using your ideas.

2You’re not just recycling the ideas of others.

3You are guided by the evidence whichever way it points.

4You’re thinking about your thinking.

5You choose the focus, direction and organisation of your work.

Your dissertation may be the first time you’ve been asked to do some genuine thinking. It gives you the opportunity not only to choose the topic and questions you want to investigate, but also to develop your abilities to interpret texts, weigh up empirical evidence and come to your own measured judgement. You are not just setting out a simple catalogue of what you believe to be right answers, nor are you just laying down a thesis and defending it. A mature thinker is guided by the evidence, whichever way it points. She doesn’t just decide what she believes to be the case and then search around for the evidence to support it.

The process, not just the product

Genuine thinking is also characterised by the ability to think about our thinking: to be aware of the process of thought, not just the product. So dissertations are equally concerned with showing how we validate our results; that we understand and can justify the research methods we’ve chosen in order to gather and evaluate our evidence. It must be possible for anyone else to read the same passages from the literary, philosophical or historical texts we have chosen as our material and come to their own interpretation to compare with ours, or conduct the same empirical research to see how their results compare with our own.

A dissertation will involve you thinking about your thinking.

You decide on the focus, direction and organisation of your work. You choose the questions for which you want answers or the hypothesis you want to test. It gives you the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of independent work, which reflects a wider range of your skills and abilities. In the process, you will show that you can manage a large research project, organise your own schedule, set targets, maintain your motivation throughout and produce a well reasoned and organised presentation of the results. In short, you will show yourself, your examiners and future employers that you have the personal resources to take on a large project and succeed.

If this sounds daunting, it is only because the demands are new. They are not beyond your grasp.

Dissertations

1Work independently.

2Original ideas.

3Genuine thinking.

4You choose the topic.

5Justify your research methods.

Examiners

But, of course, in practical terms, if we’re going to do something well, we need to know why we are doing it: we need to know what examiners are looking for. In each stage of producing the dissertation, examiners will be looking for evidence that we can do all of the following:

1Identify a problem – that raises particularly interesting issues worth researching.

2Analyse it – produce significant, interesting questions that are capable of sustaining an in-depth investigation.

3Explore the literature – in an organised, systematic way to show that our research is underpinned by existing theory. In effect we are showing examiners that we can educate ourselves about the topic.

4Design a research strategy – that uses the most effective research methods to gather the evidence that answers our questions.

5Devise the most effective data-collection tools – instruments, like questionnaires and interview questions, which are valid and reliable in gathering the evidence we need.

6Process the material – analyse the evidence we gather and critically assess it.

7Draw conclusions – on the basis of this material.

8Write the dissertation – present our findings in accordance with the established academic practices.

The main purpose of dissertations is not just to communicate the results of your research, but, equally important, to show examiners that the methods underpinning your research have been chosen well and used skilfully.

The purpose of dissertations =

To communicate the results

+

To show you have c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1. Examiners and Supervisors
• Part 2. Generating and Developing Original Ideas
• Part 3. Deciding on Your Project
• Part 4. Organising Your Work
• Part 5. Doing Your Research
• Part 6. Planning Your Dissertation
• Part 7. Organising Your Thinking
• Part 8. Writing Your Dissertation
• Part 9. Plagiarism, Referencing and Bibliographies
• Part 10. Editing
• Part 11. Presenting Your Dissertation
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index