Doing Your Social Science Dissertation

Judith Burnett

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781412931137, 9781412931120
• eBook ISBN: 9781446242414
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Studienhilfen
• Subtopic: Studienführer

Dissertations can be the most rewarding, and for some the most stressful, part of any undergraduate degree course, providing the opportunity for students to pursue a chosen subject in some depth, developing their expertise. The dissertation offers many challenges to those seeking to do it well and this guide is the perfect book for those seeking to succeed with their dissertation.

Judith Burnett helps students to rise to this challenge, making the most of the opportunities which a dissertation offers and overcoming the obstacles to successful completion. This book takes students through the process of doing a dissertation from turning the raw ideas into a research question, designing the research project, choosing appropriate methods, developing a research proposal, planning and executing the project, working with data, writing up, and preparing the work for presentation.

Doing A Dissertation in the Social Sciences is an invaluable guide to avoiding the pitfalls and making the most of the opportunities offered by the dissertation. It ought to be compulsory reading for undergraduate students in any social science discipline.


SAGE Study Skills are essential study guides for students of all levels. From how to write great essays and succeeding at university, to writing your undergraduate dissertation and doing postgraduate research, SAGE Study Skills help you get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub for tips, resources and videos on study success!

---

Chapter 1 Ready to Research?

---

---

Overview

Know what you are aiming for: track down previous students’ dissertations and have a good look at them

Getting organised:

• Filing
• A place to work
• Making a project plan
• Managing by objectives: smarter planning
• Bibliography: start early

Working practices discussion

Study skills

Procrastination

Skill sets and skill set boosters:

• Academic writing skills
• Methods and methodology
• ICTs and typing
• Numeracy and statistics

The dissertation team and working as part of a group

---

Ready to Research?

This chapter takes you through a process of reflection upon your preparedness to research, helping you to think through your attitudes to study at this stage in your degree programme, and getting organised. The main purpose of the chapter is to provide you with lots of ideas and checklists which you can use or ignore at your discretion. The aim is to raise your awareness of what is involved in doing a dissertation, and to provide some concrete suggestions for things to do and think about which will support your efforts as you go along.

In practical terms, the chapter emphasises:

• Getting organised
• Brushing up the study skills you will need for the dissertation
• Your dissertation team: getting your people behind you

You are asked to identify what actions you need to take in order to make sure that you are ready to research.

The first and most important thing to do is to look at previous students’ dissertations and develop a clear idea of what you are aiming at as detailed in Task 1.1

Task 1.1

Look at Previous Students’ Dissertations

Ask to look through some undergraduate dissertations. If you are lucky, you will find some out on open shelves in the library that you can browse at your leisure. However, you may find that previous dissertations are kept by your department or tutor. In any case, ask your tutor for suggestions about good ones to study.

Look at the physical layout and presentation of the dissertation. Feel the quality of the binding; observe the layout including the title page and the abstract, and check out the table of contents. Understand the overall size or weight of the dissertation; look at the tightness of the referencing in the text and the length of the bibliography at the end; and check for examples of how data has been presented, example, tables and interview extracts. Do take time to read a few sections to develop a sense of the density of the text.

What makes a good dissertation good? List its best features.

Remember three things:

1)	This is the final product – this is what you are aiming to produce.
2)	This is what a good dissertation looks like.
3)	Your dissertation will one day sit alongside the others.

Managing Your Dissertation

Dissertations flow from personal choices and individuals’ original work and ideas. However, in order to successfully carry it off, you will need to get organised. Start as you mean to go on, and develop good working practices which will allow you to complete your dissertation to the best of your ability.

---

Getting organised is an essential first step – staying organised is the second! Being well organised will substantially impact the quality of the research that you are able to do.

The benefits of being well organised throughout your project are:

• The time saved (for example, from searching for lost items) and the quality time which can be carved out from your busy life as a result (for example, having the time to sit down with the data and work with it in a calm and collected manner)
• Having time to think about and bring the project together, for example to synthesise data, or juxtapose different aspects of your work in ways which had not originally occurred to you
• Keeping good records, including bibliographies, from early on will allow you to complete the otherwise endless and time-consuming tasks of checking quickly and easily and will reduce your risk of losing easy marks through errors and omissions
• It will enable you to execute your data collection in a systematic and effective way. It will prevent developing bad working practices, such as having to repeat the steps of carrying out the research
• Last but not least, being well organised allows you to relax into your project and get the most from the experience. Students sometimes say that they find the academic work challenging but enjoyable. But this enjoyment is spoiled by arriving somewhere late and flustered, finding that you have left your things at home, and with only a few vague questions lined up to ask your smiling participant with you realising that you have missed a great opportunity

---

Figure 1.1 Get Organised!

Task 1.2

Getting Organised – Essentials Checklist

Make sure that you have at least some if not most of these in place (you might need to keep some of these things in hard copy form as well as on your PC):

• A project file – keep all of the materials you need to manage the project in this. Don’t use this file for the content of your project. It should contain a list of the tasks which you have completed and what you have left to do. It should also contain other information such as contact details, including a specific section for your respondents
• The unit or module guide prepared by your tutors
• The regulations and requirements of the dissertation, including word length, presentational style etc.
• The marking scheme
• Your research project proposal, i.e. the document setting out your research question, rationale, methods, first initial reading, bibliography
• Your research project plan, i.e. a paper version of the timetable and the major landmarks of the project. Note: if you have used spreadsheets for this, prepare an easy to read 1–2 sides of A4 which give a snapshot of the project in its entirety with key dates highlighted
• A spare copy of the consent form
• Leaflets and print-outs from websites of interest, such as library, museum or archive details including opening hours; online reservation details
• A listing of books and papers reserved or ordered, tick them off once obtained
• A file or two for handwritten notes from papers and books
• A separate file for each kind of data collected from subjects, e.g. one file for survey data, another for interview data
• Keep a bibliography as you go along – do not wait until the end of writing up to construct one. You might want to do it the old-fashioned way using a card index and box or software such as EndNote

---

Box 1.1 Tips: Time and Space

• Identify a key place in which you are going to work on your dissertation. If possible, find a table on which you can leave papers and books undisturbed between work sessions so that you can pick up tasks without having to get everything out each time. Clear a shelf and cupboard space specifically for storing things to do with your dissertation
• Find a quiet corner in the library which you can commandeer at key times. You may also find that locating an anonymous café away from other students will give you some space to read or think while eating
• Try not to work in a mess; clean up after a work session, and make your environment one which is pleasant to return to. A friendly muddle is different from a mess
• Make sure that you have adequate light, both natural light from a window and room lighting including a table lamp
• Consider in advance whether you would benefit from staying elsewhere for a few days during your dissertation write-up, for example, with friends or family. Beware that you may need to access library and other...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Boxes, Figures, Tables and Tasks
• Introduction: Why Do a Dissertation in the Social Sciences
• 1 Ready to Research?
• 2 Great Expectations: What You Need to Do for Your Dissertation
• 3 Defining the Research Question
• 4 What Kind of Researcher Are You?
• 5 Writing the Research Proposal
• 6 Finding Resources and Doing the Literature Review
• 7 Research Design: Projects and Their Needs
• 8 Collecting Data: Quantitative Methods
• 9 Collecting Data: Qualitative Methods
• 10 Carrying Out the Research
• 11 What Do I Do with All the Data
• 12 Drawing Conclusions and Writing Up
• 13 Troubleshooting
• Appendix 1 Compendium of Online Sources
• Appendix 2 Readability: Reading Age Scales
• Appendix 3 Example of a Consent Form
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index