STRUCTURING YOUR DISSERTATION

Introduction

What is going to be done? Why are you doing it? Who is likely to be interested in it? What exactly is the hypothesis or

problem? What is the possible use of the research? What is the locus and focus?

Literature review

What have others said, written or researched about your topic? What theories illuminate your topic? How does the literature relate to your research questions?

Research methodology

How will you approach the empirical work? What style and techniques have been chosen? Why? What samples, tests, observations and measurements will be needed?

Data analysis

What data have been found? What is your interpretation of them? Do they prove or refute an hypothesis?

Conclusions

How can you summarise the work? Are there any actions or recommendations to take? Was it all successful?

Bibliography

What books, journals, papers and other sources have been referred to throughout the work?

Appendices

Are there any extra details that the specialist reader could refer to if necessary?

The above may be modified according to the subject area and the style of research but the general pattern holds good.

Some institutions prefer to split the dissertation into three sections:

• rationale and design
• methodology and data collection
• analysis and conclusions.

Generally speaking, the smaller the number of recommended sections the harder students find it to organise their work. This is especially true where the literature review is supposedly dispersed through two sections or is described by the institution as a ‘theoretical analysis’.

Whatever the area science, arts, education or social science – you will be required to demonstrate:

• extensive and relevant reading
• an understanding of the theories that underpin the research
• meticulous empirical work
• a knowledge of academic conventions
• the ability to report effectively.

READING FOR A DEGREE

’Reading’ for a degree is the traditional expression which meant taking a degree and it reflects the dominance of reading in the process. The whole dissertation should show the evidence of wide and up-to-date use of literature from

the introduction to the conclusion. Some lucky people can read anywhere and in any conditions; most cannot. Finding reading time is difficult in a busy college and is even more difficult if you have a house to clean and small children to look after. Some simple tactics may help.

Planning your time

Short, fragmented sessions tend to be of little use. Two hours is more productive and an occasional complete library day will be essential. It is necessary to plan reading just like the empirical work with careful note-making and recording. A ruthless approach will help you avoid drowning in a sea of books. Never read aimlessly, hoping that something will show up. Use the contents and indices of your possible sources and read only directly relevant material which may be one chapter or less.

Your references may be drawn from books, journals, periodicals, newspapers or any appropriate source but remember that all subject-specific books date rapidly. Some standard works remain almost permanently relevant, but be wary of anything more than five years old. Journals offer a better chance of reports on more recent studies.

Before travelling any long distance to a library, telephone to check the availability of what you are hoping to use. Books in heavy demand may be ‘frozen’, that is on temporary reference or on a shorter loan period than normal. Some libraries have reciprocal arrangements with others and permit borrowing by another college’s students: if not, most can organise inter-library loans and materials from

the British Library. Periodicals may only be available in the library and not for loan.

Recording your reading

It is essential that for every work consulted you record in your note book:

• the name of the author or authors
• the full title
• the edition, if not the first
• the publisher
• the date of publication
• the ISBN number
• the library classification
• page number, if very specific.

For journals and periodicals it is also necessary to record the volume and number and always the page numbers.

As these are recorded it is very useful to log with the details the reason why the book was consulted and a note of sections that may be returned to later, parts that you intend to use or quote from and actual quotations that may feature in the literature review. If possible, handle each book once only. The reason for this is obvious when you remember that an average master’s thesis contains 90 references.

Start with the general theoretical and background books and progress to very precise and recent work which is likely to be concentrated in journals.

Students have devised some very effective systems for colour coding details of books using coloured inserts or dividers in loose-leaf folders; for example, red for literature review, green for research methods, blue for quotations. If you are fast and confident with a PC, equivalent systems can be developed using different fonts, bold, or italics. Do not be over complex: go for simplicity in all your systems.

With luck, your first few books should set off a chain reaction as their bibliographies lead you to related work. Be selective and not over ambitious at first as the literature may divert you to a different emphasis. When you feel ready for a literature search there are several exciting possibilities.

Almost every subject area has indexes to periodicals, official publications and reports such as the Business Periodicals Index and the General Science Index. Most are available on CD-ROM and often cover the USA and Europe. These need to have a planned access as the main problem is information overload. Feed in the word ‘Education’ and you may get 10,000 references! Add the additional key words ‘infant’ and ‘deafness’ and a manageable total emerges. As with most aspects of a dissertation the vital concept is focus.

If you have access to the Internet you may find references and contacts, especially in American universities, but be warned, the potential for information overload is even

greater than on CD-ROM. A genuine example of a search gave the following numbers of references:

Nursing	430,024
+Children	30,000
+Mental	10,000
+Autism	400
+Staffordshire	1

We have the technology

The death of the book has been much exaggerated. The awesome power of the World Wide Web can revolutionise access to global information but in some ways it presents new traps for the student. Despite its speed it can be a great consumer of time and you must avoid unplanned surfing.

A nursing student wanted to research, on line, the effects of being a premature baby on subsequent childhood illnesses. An unrefined search on the Internet, including the concept of research, offered 5750 references under two categories, 24 Web sites and one news story. An examination of the first ten took 30 minutes.

It quickly became apparent that many of the references had a peculiar idea of ‘research’ taking it to mean narrative or opinion. Many were repeated several times and the bulk were purely commercial. Several invited us to ‘Visit the cute preemies on the Net’–yes, really!

Others were vague or had no title and contained actual errors. Lots of people offered to ‘share’ their research but were noticeably cagey about details.

Amongst this deluge of information were found some gems. For example, one brisk site gave precise details of a research into childhood asthma, references, free information by Email and 100+ links to other sites.

The message is clear: be ruthless in your use of IT and refine and focus.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else’s writing or intellectual property as one’s own. All universities and colleges regard it as gross misconduct and for many it implies dismissal from the course.

The use of the Internet and the possibility of downloading thousands of words in minutes prompts a reminder that you must ensure that your dissertation has absolute integrity and that all use of the work of others is acknowledged. There are in existence computer programs that can check for plagiarism by textual analysis.

Some more practical advice on this theme is found in Chapter 5.

CHECKLIST

Have you:

• considered your overall research style?
• chosen and justified a definite methodology?
• formulated an hypothesis where appropriate?
• categorised your sample?
• thought of the total pattern of the dissertation and its relationship to the research questions?
• planned your reading programme?
• cleared all the above, where possible, with the tutor?

CASE STUDIES

Paul opts for a case study

With some difficulty, Paul has obtained a letter of introduction as asked for by the open-cast site manager. He has decided that the work will be a qualitative case study with strong possibilities of being generalisable to other, similar situations. The tutor seems unhappy that some of the quantitative techniques taught on the course will not be used but agrees to the outline and points Paul to the excellent selection of literature held in the department and to articles in the journal Mining Engineer. He makes a start on the reading and plans a field visit.

Alison decides on a survey

Alison has decided that survey will be her principal approach and that she will use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative styles. There may be a problem with the sample sizes for her first two research questions and in view of the nature of the institution the validity of the study may be in doubt. She can see the overall pattern of the dissertation but is rather taken aback that, by the time it takes her to read the general marketing theory, a month has slipped by.