I am going to begin this article by stating that I am a massive hypocrite. I am about to tell
you the five key steps you must follow in the dissertation process, despite the fact that my
dissertation is pretty much non-existent at the moment. However, from what I can gather
from watching my other friends actually write their dissertations, these are the five stages
you will go through:
The Big Idea
First of all, you need to decide on your principal idea. What is the broad theme you want
to tackle and discuss? Or do you have a specific text you really want to write about? The first
stage of your dissertation is all about brainstorming. Write down all of the ideas you have
and ask yourself, which of these will I enjoy most? Don’t forget, you will likely be writing the
longest ever essay you have tackled before so don’t pick something just because you think it
is ‘academic’: you will very quickly become bored.
Proposal
Most universities will ask you to put together a short proposal about your subject. And by
short, I mean short: my university set us a target of MAX 300 words, so this really isn’t
something to get stressed about. For my proposal, I submitted four bullet points with one
sentence each summarising a potential idea. In your proposal try to come up with some
potential questions or aspects of your subject that you want to focus on. The advice that
students hear again and again from dissertation supervisors is that they need to make their
area of focus narrower.
Research
The next, and maybe even biggest step, is to research, research, research. You want to
read as widely as you can for your dissertation. Think about essays you’ve written in the
past. For around a 2,000-word essay, you might have had around 6-12 items in your
bibliography. Well, most dissertations are five or six times that length. Not only that, but in
most cases, your university will expect you to complete the dissertation over an entire
academic year, whether you are sensible and do this or cram it all into a month or two, your
university will still expect you to be widely read regardless. A couple of sub-points for this
section:
– Talk to lecturers and tutors who may be able to direct you to useful sources
– Make use of your library! And not just for physical books, your university library will
often have access to E-Books, archives, newspaper articles and more
– Check the referencing style that your university follows and write down the full
references for each source you read, – you will thank yourself later. The mistake
many students make is not writing down where they got things from. They then get
themselves in a frenzy trying to write their bibliography at the end of the writing
process
Keep Writing
Look at the blank page and write one word, and then another, and the another. Starting
to write the mammoth essay that is the dissertation is daunting. You want to make sure this
is the best work of your undergraduate degree but spending hours perfecting one sentence
will not get you anywhere. Take some time to just write down your initial thoughts – you
will have plenty of time to go back and edit this later.
– Access extra support from your university. For example, do they hold any writing
workshops that you can attend?
– Think about how you write best. Is it in complete silence? With background noise?
With a friend for accountability? Answer these questions and decide where you will
work best (e.g., in the library, at a café, at home etc).
Proofread
I get it, by the time you have finished writing the dissertation, you will be
absolutely sick of it. You’ll have read it and re-read it countless times and will be left
wondering before the submission whether you really need to read through it a final time.
However, at the end of the day we all make mistakes, especially when we are tired, stressed
and running on Tesco meal deals, so make sure to schedule in some time to go through it
with a fine-tooth comb. The last thing you want is to dedicate so much time to the
dissertation only for your mark to fall down due to typos, grammar errors and dodgy
formatting. Rope your family and friends in for this too – if they really loved you, they’d read
your dissertation, right?
It’s Been Emotional
Here’s a bonus step – cry. I can’t say I have met anyone who has completed a dissertation
without crying at least one. I have already lost count of the tears I have shed over this task.
There you have it, a comprehensive guide to how to complete your dissertation. Maybe I
should go take my own advice…