Writing Your Dissertation: How to plan, prepare and present successful work

✍ Scribed by Derek Swetnam

• Publisher: How To Books
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 145
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Most advanced educational courses now include a dissertation or research project of some kind. For many students this can be a terrifying experience. Although colleges and universities may have different systems, basic principles for planning research and making the compromise between what is desirable and what is feasable are the same. This book aims to provide a plain guide to ways of producing a dissertation with minimum stress and frustration. It covers such areas as choosing a subject, planning the total work, selecting research methods and techniques, written style and presentation.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
List of Illustrations......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Checking the Requirements......Page 14
Assessing your abilities......Page 16
Building your confidence......Page 17
The selection process......Page 18
Checking Feasibility......Page 19
Watching Ethical Practice......Page 20
Planning Realistic Time Scales......Page 21
Producing Your Master Plan......Page 24
Checklist......Page 26
Alison's topic is work-related......Page 27
Judging How Much Work......Page 28
Planning Your Tasks......Page 29
Writing, Revising and Editing......Page 31
Divising a Schedule......Page 32
Dissertation Proposal......Page 33
Keeping a Sense of Proportion......Page 34
Assessing Your Own Proposals......Page 35
Assessing Reliability, Validity, Generalisability......Page 36
Beware of variables......Page 37
Using Tutors and Support......Page 39
Adopting House Styles......Page 40
Checklist......Page 41
Alison focuses on marketing......Page 42
Selecting Your Research Methodology......Page 44
Surveys......Page 46
Experimental method......Page 49
Ethnographic research......Page 50
Case study......Page 51
Historical research......Page 52
Correlational research......Page 53
The Researcher’s Status......Page 54
Sampling......Page 55
Introduction......Page 59
Appendices......Page 60
Reading for a Degree......Page 61
Planning your time......Page 62
Recording your reading......Page 63
We have the technology......Page 65
Plagiarism......Page 66
Paul opts for a case study......Page 67
Alison decides on a survey......Page 68
The Tool Box......Page 69
Making Observations......Page 70
Preparing Questionnaires......Page 71
Types of Pupil Behaviour......Page 72
Structuring your questions......Page 73
Conducting Interviews......Page 77
Recording the data......Page 79
A summary of the rules for interviewer conduct......Page 81
Negotiating with People......Page 82
Interview Schedule for Parents......Page 83
Checklist......Page 84
Paul expands his workload......Page 85
Alison runs into difficulties......Page 86
The Introduction: Setting Out Your Stall......Page 87
Writting Your Literature Review......Page 89
Introducing your references......Page 91
Writing about Research Methods......Page 94
Presenting and Analysing Data......Page 96
Visual summaries......Page 98
A simple tabular presentation......Page 100
Presenting Conclusions and Recommendations......Page 105
Compiling the Bibliography......Page 106
Appendices......Page 109
Paul encounters unexpected difficulties......Page 110
Alison runs into time problems......Page 111
Choosing the Style......Page 112
Using a detached and passive style......Page 113
Tightening up your work......Page 114
Checking Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation......Page 115
Avoiding some common problems......Page 116
American spellings......Page 117
Using the apostrophe......Page 118
Using simpler punctuation......Page 119
Presentation, Printing and Biding......Page 121
Producing the covers......Page 122
Proofreading......Page 124
Alison needs to rewrite......Page 126
Literature review......Page 128
Conclusions and recommendations......Page 129
Overall impression......Page 130
Preparing for a Viva......Page 131
What Happens Now?......Page 133
Checklist......Page 134
Alison impresses the examiner......Page 135
Further Reading......Page 138
Glossary......Page 140
Index......Page 144