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Part One Pondering
You might reasonably expect a book about writing reports and dissertations to
begin and end with writing, but there is much to do before you begin the writing
process. It is only by being clear about the task ahead of you and sure about
what you aim to achieve that you can move on to produce the best possible report
or dissertation.
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1 Why a dissertation?
Looking up a quick definition of ‘dissertation’ in the Oxford English
Dictionary, I am told that a dissertation is either a ‘discussion, debate’
or, with some more recent examples of usage offered, ‘a spoken or written
discourse upon or treatment of a subject, in which it is discussed at
length; a treatise, sermon, or the like’. So, we have some options here: it
is clearly a term which can be used to put forward an argument, to support a
case being made by its creator or to examine a topic from several angles at
some length. The only word that many students would see in an initial glance
at the previous part is the word ‘length’: that is the most important
challenge they believe they face. How on earth are they supposed to write so
many words, they often ask of me, in varying levels of despair. In reality,
the length is only very rarely the problem they expected it to be: by the
end of the process they are usually bemoaning the fact that the word count
is too low. (I know this might seem unbelievable from where you are now, but
it does happen very frequently, I promise.)
Having considered very briefly what a dissertation is, we need to think about
why anyone would tackle what can, at first, seem like a daunting task. For
many students, they have no choice: dissertations are becoming a far more
common compulsory feature of courses in higher and further education. This
is, in part, why so much mythology swirls around dissertations. You might
have to do one, and it will be in your final year of study, and you do not
want to think about it yet, and people have told you that it is the most
difficult thing they have ever done, and you will have to write more words
than you have written before.... The list of negatives goes on and on, but
when you approach it as we will be doing in this guide, you will see that
none of this matters. It is simply another task to be undertaken as part of
your academic development and, by its completion, you will surprise yourself
by realising that you have produced a body of work which is unique to you
and of which you can be inordinately proud.
Dissertations are not
always compulsory: many students choose to undertake a dissertation because
they enjoy the chance to consider a topic in depth, to carry out some
research which is more extensive than that required for an essay and to
develop their writing skills in a new way. Especially for those
undergraduates who hope to move on to a higher degree, a dissertation is
their chance to begin to develop those necessary skills. For those who are
already undertaking a higher degree (such as a Master’s), a dissertation
will be a required output; for those who have moved on to doctoral research,
the dissertation will seem tiny compared to the mountain of a thesis which
they are climbing.
In the commercial world, a lengthy piece of work might be very similar in
principle to a dissertation, even though it would not be called by this
name. A quick glance at Wikipedia© offers me this definition of a
dissertation: ‘Dissertations normally report on a research project or study,
or an extended analysis of a topic. The structure of the thesis or
dissertation explains the purpose, the previous research literature which
impinges on the topic of the study, the methods used and the findings of the
project.’ This rather broader definition seems to me to relate as much to
commercial activities as to academic pursuits. It is for this reason that,
whilst the report writing sections of this guide will be of most obvious
relevance in the commercial world, the guidance offered for dissertations
would also be worth perusing by the professional reader. A huge bid
document, for example, or an extended business case, may have far more in
common with a dissertation than a report.
Top Tip
If the descriptions given in this guide match what you are doing, do not
be put off if the term ‘dissertation’ is not used in your institution.
Sometimes what is essentially a dissertation is given another name such
as a ‘long essay’ or ‘summative year essay’ or some such.
Top Tip
The advice offered in this guide will be relevant to both academic and
commercial writers. As a professional, a lengthy and well-structured
write-up of an investigation would not be called a dissertation, but the
same principles apply and so the advice offered here is equally relevant
to students and professionals. I might refer to one or the other group
of writers, depending upon the context, but try to resist the temptation
to skip over a section on the assumption that it is not ‘for you’.
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2 What is distinctive about a
dissertation?
Dispelling some fixed but erroneous ideas about dissertations might come in
handy here:
It is hugely long: Yes, it is a lengthy piece of written work, but
this does not mean that every dissertation is of the same length.
Depending on its purpose it might be 8,000 words in length (which might
be typical for a dissertation which reflects upon a student’s placement
learning experience), or 10,000–12,000 words (which could be fairly
standard for an undergraduate dissertation in the final year of study)
or up to 20,000 – 30,000 words, which would work well as a postgraduate
dissertation.
What is important is not so much the length – the word count will have
been set to be sufficient for what is required of you – as the fact
that, in academia at least, there is a fairly rigid word count. Even if
the lengthy piece of work you are producing commercially does not have a
word count as such, we do tend to judge by length to some extent, so
check if your boss/team/client is used to receiving written output of a
certain length. There is no benefit to surprising people by an
unexpected word count if there is no reason for it. If you are aiming to
produce an academic dissertation, know your word count but also, just as
importantly, find out if there is any leeway at all. A 10 per cent
leeway might make little difference to a short essay, but it would be
about 1,000 words for the average dissertation.
You will also need to assure yourself about what is included in the word
count. Is it just the main body of the dissertation, or does it also
include the table of contents, the abstract, summary or synopsis, your
references section and so forth? You might also note here that word
counts have changed slightly in recent years. Whereas there was once no
word count, we then moved to a maximum word count and, more recently, it
has become far more usual to have a minimum word count as well. The very
fact that you are reading this guide suggests that you have the
dedication to produce far more than the minimum number of words, but it
is still a good idea to know what it is.
It looks like an essay: Yes and no is the rather confusing answer
to this one. It is a continuous piece of prose but it is most commonly
divided into sections. These sections are usually called chapters, but
might be listed as sections instead. Whatever they are named, it does
look and feel strange if one reads through a dissertation which has no
section or chapter breaks, so make sure that you introduce these into
your earliest stages of planning and preparing. Whenever I mark a
dissertation which has no section or chapter breaks I always find myself
wondering whether the student did not read the guidance notes, or
whether he or she lacked confidence in the work to such an extent that
chapter headings seemed too bold for what was being said, or whether,
perhaps, there is a deeply artistic reason for the break with tradition
of which I am unaware. You would not want your examiner to be distracted
by any of these stray thoughts, so sticking to the structure you have
been asked to produce works best.
Whilst most of the time you will be writing in the same style you would
use in an essay, you will be conscious that you want the dissertation to
stand as a whole and so you will make sure that it is edited and
polished so that it does read through as one persuasive piece of work.
Text will, of course, form the basis of a dissertation, but it differs
from the traditional essay in that you may be more inclined to include
textual options which would feel unfamiliar in an essay. Headings and
subheadings, bullet-pointed lists, illustrations, graphs and charts: all
of these might be useful additions to your dissertation and in this it
can be more like a report than a standard essay.
It has to be divided into chapters: It will certainly be divided,
but the divisions might be called sections or parts rather than
chapters. Whatever you choose to call the divisions in your
dissertation, whether they are parts, chapters or sections, or a
combination of these, you need to demonstrate a logical development of
both your argument and your material. This will rely on meticulous
planning, and I will be helping you with that, but also on your ability
to see it as a whole piece of work in and of itself, with a strong,
logical thread running right through its centre. You might write as you
prepare, making notes on the material you are studying and maybe
suggesting where in your dissertation that material might fit, but you
would probably avoid writing the actual dissertation until you know
where you are going; that is, until it has been thought through
thoroughly and planned sufficiently.
A dissertation is based only on original research: The answer to
this is simple: no, it is not. Of course you will be carrying out your
own investigations and drawing conclusions from the material on which
you are working, so in this way it will be unique. A doctoral thesis
might aim more firmly towards the goal of making an utterly
ground-breaking contribution to the sum of human knowledge, but we are
all standing on the shoulders of those who went before: much of your
output will be reviewing the existing situation in your topic area,
considering the research that has already been carried out, using this
to guide your own activities and then coming to some conclusions about
what you have witnessed or discovered.
For some dissertation writers, the notion that they have to be original
at all points in their work can be a huge hindrance, freezing up their
thinking and undermining their ability to produce anything much at all.
It is important at this stage that you relax about this. You will find
new things to say and you will be contributing to the sum of human
knowledge (even synthesising two previously dislocated observations from
other pieces of research will do this), but you can feel confident that
this will happen.
A dissertation must provide answers: It is only natural that you
will want to offer your readers some answers and, of course, it is
satisfying for a reader to be led through some interesting areas in
which answers are offered, but this issue is the one which most
fundamentally divides a dissertation from an essay or a report. In an
essay, students are expected to answer questions, even if in some cases
they have crafted the question themselves, whereas the main interest in
a dissertation will lie not only in the answers, but in the research
questions. It would be desirable to plan around research questions as
soon as you find some, and it would not be expected that you will answer
every question: you may well leave the reader with the exciting feeling
that there is more to learn about your chosen topic.
Remember too that a dissertation may form the basis of a discussion at a
viva voce examination (a ‘viva’) and so you will need to be able to
defend your points not just in writing, in the dissertation, but also in
discussion with experts. This should not deter you from including some
discussion points (or research questions) for which you do not provide a
firm or fully developed answer, as long as you are ready at your viva to
explain to the examiners why you did not pursue that particular line of
inquiry beyond the elementary stages of questioning or
hypothesising.
Having
cleared up some typical fallacies, there is one golden rule about
dissertations which I want to share with you before we move on. A
dissertation should always be something in which you can take pride. You
will probably be dedicating long months of your life to it and it will stay
with you as a permanent record of your achievement. I always feel sorry for
those students who hand in a dissertation poorly printed out with just a
staple holding it together, clearly having run out of time even to proofread
it through. All of that work and the end result is something they will
probably want to forget. So, let’s agree on this now: a dissertation is
elegantly written, suitably bound, of the right length and handed in on
time. It is an object in which you can take pride for years to come.
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3 What are research questions?
The idea of research questions is quite alien to many undergraduates and can be worrisome even for those working at postgraduate level, yet they are important to the success of many activities, including dissertations. In this respect, a dissertation is akin to postgraduate activities, which might be one reason why, if you have a choice, you might opt for a dissertation at undergraduate level: it is good preparation for work you might come to do as a postgraduate.
So, what is a research question? It is the question you ask yourself at some point in your research activity, the question which prompts you to offer your reader an answer and, in many cases, the question which leads on to further areas of study. I have specified here that a research question may come to you ‘at some point’ because it is not always the first thing which enters your mind: sometimes you find answers and have to work back in order to identify the research question you are in the process of answering.
You will have at least one research question as you embark on a dissertation. This will be the question that led you to consider an area of study and research, even though you ...
