To ask for dissertation help please!?

[dissertationhell]

I have made an account especially for this after years of lurking. My dissertation is due in 4 days. My supervisor is on holiday. I have everything written I am just heavily editing everything. I am analysing my findings over two findings chapters.

My question is, when analysing my findings, can I bring in previous studies there if they aren't in my literature review? For instance, when analysing my findings I've found that reading between the lines, there appears to be feelings of shame and guilt emerging as well as justification for alcohol use. I've found studies to back up that there is a higher prevalence of shame and guilt in individuals with addiction but haven't wrote about that in my literature review.

Do I need to add these studies in my literature review? I find it strange that you have to write the lit review before findings etc because I feel like I'm having to constantly go back and update my lit review.

I know I can't add new studies in discussion chapter but is it okay in the findings chapters? Or does literally everything mentioned have to be included in lit review? Tearing my hair out, can't see the wood from the trees

Thanks in advance

What Parietal said. I threw away marks on stupid things like not putting a new chapter on a new page. It just went out of my mind to do that and it wasn't like it was the first dissertation I ever wrote either.

Not sure what degree you're doing this for, but when I did my PhD, it was normal to write the introduction (literature review) last to ensure it introduced the rest of the thesis well. I'd be surprised if you can't review yours?

You shouldn't reference anything not in your literature review, but does it help your own thinking to introduce a narrative to your lit review in which you explain how your research prompted you to iterate through the literature again? Or that you came to realise that a slightly different slant on the available literature emerged as more useful than that which you started with?

@Rosylarose

You shouldn't reference anything not in your literature review, but does it help your own thinking to introduce a narrative to your lit review in which you explain how your research prompted you to iterate through the literature again? Or that you came to realise that a slightly different slant on the available literature emerged as more useful than that which you started with?

Yes that would be helpful actually. Thank you!

@dissertationhell

Sorry I must sound thick but I am so lost. I am fine for a while, woke up this morning did loads was on a roll now I am just doubting myself again thinking there's not enough analysis. Feel like I just keep saying 'these finding support a study by...' and I don't have anything original to say except shame and guilt

You need a break from it. You're going word blind and spiralling.

You've already identified somewhere that a find and replace could cut down that word count. Even if it's just by substituting 'these findings support a study by Fred Smith , title, year, in which they state that....

The findings support (Study) in that...

Joe Blogg's support Smith (year) [or whatever the correct reference is - somebody else will be able to correct me] by...

The findings mirror Smith (year)...

You're automatically turning around 15 words into somewhere around 6 - 10 words. Do that often enough and you could lose a couple of hundred.

Swap 'that is' for 'ie'.

Are you using multiple 'ands' where a list could be used?

Are there places where you are repeating yourself in several paragraphs?

It's really irritating to spend years being constantly told to use more words and be more descriptive when what is needed is to Get To The Point.

You could read sections out loud - if you can't do them on one breath or find yourself stopping for oxygen five times per sentence, you've written too much.

A good break, some food, activity and sleep, then go back to it as though you're trying to find the important points from somebody else's work. What do you actually need to know and what is useless filler that you'd zone out on?

Save the different drafts - don't make final changes and risk losing the previous version.

I'm a PoliSci PhD and never even heard about not referencing anything that's not in the lit review. The way we'd look at it is, it depends on how/whether the new material is connected to your basic research question. Lit review sets out established approaches to the main questions and identifues shortcomings and contradictions between them. This then sets you up to set out your own /(novel, vastly superior) way of tackling the issue. If the material on guilt etc is relevant at this level then yes, it should be in the lit review. If it's just a tool you use while developing your own argument it may not need to be in.

Re cutting text. Check to see if you tend to use any modest, minimizing expressions a la "in a way". Then run a search cycle on them and if possible, take them out. Cuts volume and slow makes you sound less tentative so two birds with one stone.

As @bottleofbeer says but also for your discussion you should not bring in new supporting evidence that has not been mentioned previously either in the introduction or lit review sections

Do you think I could cut back on my quotes in findings section? I'm currently using 6 per theme and there's 5 themes, could I cut this back to 3 per theme? I have used sub sections under each theme, 3 per theme so could I just add 1 quote per sub section to cut down words?

So it's thematic analysis?

If you cut your quotes make sure you remove them from the reference list/bibliography.

Yes, one per theme is absolutely fine.

The quotes have came from my own qualitative research. So three per theme/one per sub theme is adequate?

I would say yes, more than adequate.

You have all been lifesavers honestly. Thank you so much!

Can I also say; you've got this OP. This is YOUR dissertation, in the way YOU choose to present it. And that is absolutely enough.

I did mine roughly like this and still write reports in this way:

Background/rationale
Methodology
Literature review - from this you create a themed theoretical framework
Findings: review findings according to each theme in the theoretical framework
Conclusions: present conclusions according to each theme in the theoretical framework
Recommendations for implementation / future research
Bibliography
Appendices containing qualitative data

@Rosylarose

Can I also say; you've got this OP. This is YOUR dissertation, in the way YOU choose to present it. And that is absolutely enough.

Aww thank you so much!

Another dissertation supervisor here. Ways to get the word count down based on problems I often see:

Decide whether the quotes really add anything. Do they duplicate each other? Can you quote fewer words to say the core message?
Can you use a diagram to present data visually with a short verbal summary?
Have you got context / background in the intro that is kind of interesting but not central to your question?
Print it off and you'll see repetition, waffle and redundancy more easily.
Step away from a bit and do another section rather than sweating over it - you'll see problems more easily after a break.

Nothing intelligent to add, but as a one-time literature student I wanted to say that I really like the sound of your work. I wish you great success

@Flyonawalk

Nothing intelligent to add, but as a one-time literature student I wanted to say that I really like the sound of your work. I wish you great success

Thank you, that's nice to hear. I feel so deep in it just now that I can't tell if it's a load of shite or great!

You might find this useful

www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Is it too late to add a paragraph to your literature review to incorporate these new findings?

[quote greatbittern]You might find this useful

www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/[/quote]
Very useful thank you

My friend is going to print me it off tomorrow so I can read it on paper and score things out, should help, however, I think rejigging findings will free up some space.

Ah yeah, at the very least make sure you add the email from the ethics board which gives you the go ahead to begin research. You can actually fail if you don't put that in the appendix.

Update: I have 120 words to cut back now. I have heavily cut back on quotes etc and added a lot more analysis and am feeling much better about it. However, she made suggestions to add to the conclusion chapter. I'm just not going to have enough room to implement them, so I'm thinking at this point I'm not going to change my conclusion section and leave as is? I'm just waiting on it printing so I can look at it on paper to see where else I can cut back on. Do you think not taking on her feed back in conclusion section is going to massively effect my grade?

@bottleofbeer I've done that thank you though as you made me go back and double check