1. Introduction to the dissertation
This section aims to provide guidelines and advice to help you to successfully complete your dissertation. By following the information in this guide, you will be able to successfully meet the learning outcomes of the dissertation which include:
2. What is a dissertation?
Type
3. The topic
Topics can be generated from a variety of sources, they may be generated from work experience, and they may result from a seminar discussion, newspaper articles, journal article or from a piece of coursework. You will be provided with guidance about acceptable topics but in general you may find the following four steps useful:
The topic you choose should be of interest to you as otherwise there is a potential for boredom to set in as you progress with the research.
Your dissertation topic must be approved. It should not be purely descriptive, but should produce original conclusions and/or recommendations even though these may represent only a minor part of the work. The dissertation topic must have theoretical content which is outlined in the literature review and this must be supported by references to academic literature . The literature review should provide the basis for the application stage of your dissertation.
You should submit a provisional topic area (draft proposal) which will allow the dissertation team to check suitability and allocate an appropriate supervisor.
It is difficult, and not advisable, to change your dissertation topic once you have started and this may only take place after consultation with, and counselling by, your supervisor.
Abstract
The aim of this section is to give the reader an overview of the work contained in the dissertation. It should be no longer than about 300-400 words, single spaced and should make reference to the aims and objectives, methods of investigation, main findings and conclusions reached. It is not a description of your contents page.
Acknowledgements
You should refer to those people who have assisted you in your research. For example, your supervisor, advisors, and those who completed questionnaires and interviews etc. Please ensure you spell names correctly and ensure that you conform with ethical issues.
Contents page
Your contents page should list the sections and subsections of your dissertation followed by references and then appendices. You should provide the title of each appendix, and it is common practice to number the pages in the appendix A1, A2, A3 etc. Pages in the contents table are normally numbered in small-case Roman numerals.
Introduction
This should set the scene and give the reader a complete overview of what you intend to do. It should include a general introduction, a rationale for doing the research which is based on secondary data, an aim and three to four supporting objectives and/or hypotheses, the proposed methodology, limiting and delimiting factors and an outline of the organisation of the study.
Literature review
A literature review is “an interpretation and synthesis of published work” (Merriam, 1986, Case Study Research in Education) and it is not simply an extended essay. Note that it should be analytical not merely descriptive.
Quality of information
Information overload has become a familiar term recently but it is a concept that is likely to be clear to you after your search. Your problem may not be finding information, but selecting what you should use (particularly with Internet searches). Internet sources are of very variable quality; you need to be particularly critical in your use of these sources. It is often worth asking yourself: who supplied this information and why did they supply it? An evaluation of, say, Customer Relationship Management software from a peer-reviewed journal may carry more weight than one offered by the leading supplier of that type of software.
Use of information
At this level, it is essential that you observe scholarly conventions for the attribution of the work of others: plagiarism is a serious offence. References are those sources (written and unwritten) which were consulted in the course of your research and which are actually referred to in your text. During the literature search of your dissertation topic, you will find published material (books, book chapters, scientific articles, magazine articles, press articles, commercial reports, etc.). It is essential to refer to your source when quoting actual text, when referring to numerical data, and when using a diagram or figure found in the literature. Figures (pictures, diagrams, models, maps, etc.) and tables (numerical data usually) should be clearly labelled and of a sufficient size to be readable. The source of each map, picture, diagram or statistical table should be clearly acknowledged. Thus each figure or table should have:
In the interest of accuracy and to avoid having to waste time checking sources at the last minute, it is very strongly recommended you take careful notes when material is being collected during your investigation, when using primary sources (people you interview for instance) or secondary sources (books you have read, i.e. work done by someone else). Be careful to accurately record name of author, title of work, page numbers, date, publisher, etc. or name of the person interviewed, job title, date, company, location, etc. and indicate clearly in your notes from published work what is copied exactly and what is a précis (a summary in your own words).
Where original sources have been studied only in a reprint edition or published collection of readings, this secondary source should be documented as well as the original publication. Incidentally, direct and indirect quotations (both of which should be referenced to their original sources) should be used only sparingly - the object of the dissertation is to establish the student`s own personal understanding and contribution in the area of study. Similarly, an outline style or the excessive use of short paragraphs should be avoided in the dissertation; in the dissertation each topic should be rigorously and deeply discussed as practicable, which normally requires longer paragraphs. This should culminate in a chosen theory or theories with an outline expressing how these are to be tested. The design of this is reported in the next section.
Methodology
You must give reasoned arguments for your choice of research methodology, including any alternative methods that have been deemed less suitable. Selections of your sample should be discussed along with details of how you implemented your methodology (how? where? when? who? why?); information on pilot studies should be included, together with details of any changes made as a result. You must discuss and justify how the field work was undertaken, what happened, and the methods used to analyse data. Reliability and validity issues should be discussed including the steps you have taken to ensure your findings may be relied on by others as accurate and trustworthy. The main emphasis of this chapter is on justifying what you have done and the process you have applied in data collection and analysis.
Results and Discussion
The results should be presented in a logical manner using tables and figures as necessary. You should discuss the meaning of the results as you present them. Remember to relate your results back to your aim and objectives and literature review. This section should not be just a description of your results but should include a discussion and evaluation of the findings you have made.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Your conclusions are a summary of your overall findings and should relate to your original aim, objectives and hypotheses. The conclusions should be based on your results and discussions section but should NOT be a regurgitation of this section. The key parts of the literature must be revisited in this section and where appropriate your conclusions should assess implications of your work.
Your recommendations should be based on your conclusions chapter. Where appropriate, your recommendations should include aims, implementation strategies, resource costs and resource benefits.
Evaluation of Study and Scope for Further Research
This section gives you the opportunity to reflect on what you have done. There may be obvious opportunities for further research other than the same work carried out in a different geographical area or using a different sample.
In your evaluation don’t be afraid to state what went wrong, preferably with ways in which this could be avoided if the research were to be carried out again. Critically evaluate your methodology again with ways that this could be improved. Discuss the limitations of your work.
Assessment
Your dissertation will be marked by your supervisor then sent to the University for moderation, before approval by the External Examiner and the appropriate Assessment board.
The marking criteria are as below. The dissertation mark sheet used by the supervisor, which also constitutes the feedback to the student (initially provisional), is in Appendix 3.
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