Dissertation advice!

[ihatecbeebies]

I go back to uni in September but am going to try and get a head start on my dissertation during the summer, has anyone that's been there before (or painfully watched their dp/dh go through it like I done last term!) have any tips or advice for me? Thanks.

Don't bother getting too far ahead, would be my advice! You'll learn loads at uni before you start your dissertation - starting now risks duplicating effort or even sending yourself off on the wrong track altogether. If you must, must, must start - start reading. You should have a reading list already - read the things on it. That is all!

Hard to say without more info!

One tip is to be absolute rigorous in keeping track of references incl, page numbers - amazing how much time you can lose at the end tracking down page numbers etc!

Have you done a research proposal? Do you have an idea of question/research method etc? A rough word count for each section?

hard to say more without knowing where you are in the process!

Yeah I've got an approved dissertation proposal, I will be looking at the publics attitudes to drug users, my literature review is 3 - 4,000 words and due in early December

In that case you can start on the reading and writing about method and ethics etc. In my v. limited experience the lit review takes the longest and never feels done, so would be good to start on that maybe? getting headings/themes organised and gradually adding to it over the year? Also method etc section won't change hugely so you could start on the barebones of that? Good luck!

ihatecbeebies- what's your dissertation for?

I also go back to uni in September and have had my proposal approved. Mine's about how much homelessness impacts on offending behaviour, a look at if some offenders would rather stay in prison than face homelessness and why. Or something like that

Mine is 8-10,000 words. My supervisor has emailed me today to say read read read and read some more throughout the summer.

how many words and what level?

generally i'd say start reading NOW and be scrupulous about making a note of what you read and reference it so you can cut and paste later. use your uni's electronic aids to do this if possible.

but also schedule in breaks - you'l need lots of energy!

My advice is to read, read, read as much as you can. If you buy all your books, highlight as much "interesting stuff" as you can.

If you go to the library, and find a really good book on the topic that you are writing about, read the books that are directly to the left or right of it on the shelves too. Thanks to the dewy decimal system, similar books are grouped together, so if you find one perfect book, chances are the ones next to it will be great too. Its a fast way of doing extra research and everyone forgets it!

Also, if you are typing your thesis on a computer, always have a backup of EVERYTHING.

After every day of writing I would send an e-mail to my friends computer with everything I had written so far. That way, if my laptop broke, or I lost my memory stick or accidentally deleted something I wouldn't have lost everything.

I wrote my thesis for my Bachelors and my Masters and now I'm a professor, and its amazing how many students don't back up the most important document they have ever written.

hope this helps