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DISSERTATION WRITING
DR. CATALINA NECULAI
What makes a good dissertation?
Content the WHY/So What of the project: originality; argumentative edge; justifiable choices the HOW: valid/sound research methodology
Selection WHAT is included, and in how much detail (and WHY). Focused so that readers can understand context, methodology, and findings
Organisation Logical structure: making sense as a WHOLE, following appropriate disciplinary conventions
Presentation Appropriate writing style, choices of words and phrases. Grammar, punctuation, spelling; citation formats; word count Visually: does it look good on the page? Typography, layout, clear diagrams
Generating Research Questions
According to Booth et al. (1995), there are a number of
ways in which one can narrow a topic down and identify
a question or a set of questions to choose from. You may
thus interrogate the topic in one or more of the
following ways:
Identify parts and whole and their relationship (the parts of the
topic or the topic belonging to larger questions/systems)
Trace history/ evolution/ involution/ transformations
(conceptual, theoretical, methodological, phenomenal)
Identify characteristics and categories
Identify value
Topics questions problems (in more advanced research, problems represent the costs incurring by not doing the research to solve it)
Problem structure:
‘a condition that needs to be resolved’
‘costs’ that may incur from the condition unless resolved: ‘the greater the costs, the more significant the problem’
The costs of theory vs. the costs of practice
Template (adapted from Booth et al. 1995)
‘I am studying X because I want to find out who / what / when / where / whether / why / how… in order to understand how / why / what’
Or
‘What you are writing about (topic)
What you don’t know about it (question)
Why you want to know about it (rationale/purpose)’ – this is where pure research may stop
What would its (practical) significance be – applications of solutions to a practical problem
I am studying the relation between advertising and market behaviour [topic] because I would like to find out how aggressive Christmas sales advertising from September until December influences people’s ability to make informed decisions on the products they buy [question] and why market decisional abilities change under such pressures [question]. The objective is to understand why Christmas sales at Marks & Spencer in Coventry this year have dropped significantly in spite of their sustained advertising campaign [rationale/purpose] and to offer solutions regarding changes in their advertising strategies for a greater impact upon Coventry’s adult population next year [practical solutions/ prescriptive research] in order for their advertising campaign to increase rather than decrease sales [costs/benefits of research].
Working with a Plan
Why have a plan? Potential advantages:
Helps you focus your thesis and strengthens coherence
Gives you a view of the thesis as a whole while writing different sections
Helps you observe structure conventions
Shows readers (e.g. your supervisor) how your different arguments fit together
A useful tool in time management
Writing as you progress
Keep a research journal
Keep a record of your research and the choices that you made (e.g., methodology, focus, etc.)
Keep up with your reading, record your reaction to important works, and keep reference lists
Develop your thesis statement: research question/ central argument/ claim/ hypothesis
Typical structure of dissertations (individual variations apply!)
IMRaD:
Sciences/Social sciences
Thematic: Arts and Humanities/ Social sciences
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Conclusion
Introduction
Background/familiar knowledge about the area of research
Define your project topic
Thesis statement: research question/ argument/ claim/ hypothesis/ problem – funnels down the field of research to a niche.
Brief indication of the method and/or evidence used
Map/overview of the work to follow
Swales’s CARS model of introductions –(Creating a Research Space)
Move 1 Establishing a territory
Step 1 Claiming centrality
and/or
Step 2 Making topic generalisation(s)
and/or
Step 2 Reviewing items of previous research
Move 2 Establishing a niche
Step 1A Counter claiming
or
Step 1B Indicating a gap
or
Step 1C Question raising
or
Step 1D Continuing a tradition
Move 3 Occupying the niche
Step 1A Outlining purposes
or
Step 1B Announcing present research
Step 2 Announcing principal findings
Step 3 Indicating structure
Literature review: scepticism and knowledge acquisition
situates your research (the niche!) within a larger intellectual and academic context
shows awareness and knowledge of field in which you operate (it is a vehicle to learn): its history, concepts and specialised grammar/jargon, theories, research designs, and not least the field’s power relations
constitutes a critical evaluation and filtering of this knowledge in order to identify gaps, limitations, contradictions, spaces for building up new knowledge
Helps you formulate and establish the coordinates of your research question, i.e. your problem (!) in order to close the gap(s), overcome previous limitations, resolve contradictions, provide new perspectives
Represents a dialogue you establish with the sources but also a dialogue between the sources, which you control in order to provide a basis for your own research
Provides you with existing theories, concepts and methods in your area(s) of research which, upon evaluation, give you choices of theories, methods and concepts (and most often than not, choices of evidence)
Connects the existing scholarship on the topic with your own research design and interpretation of findings
Your literature review – a cartography of your research mappings simple feature maps
relational maps
mindmaps
tree constructions (Hart 1998: 143).
Maps involve connections between ideas that may be historical or chronological
conceptual
taxonomic (referring to categories)
hierarchical (referring to relationships of subordination between categories or concepts).
Descriptive vs. Evaluative Stance Introductory verbs : seem, indicate, suggest Thinking verbs: believe, assume, suggest Reporting verbs: claim, find, confirm, assert,
contend Modal verbs: will, may might, could Evaluative adjectives: important, misguided, wrong,
inaccurate, limited Modal adjectives: certain, definite Evaluative adverbs: accurately, unsatisfactorily Adverbs of frequency: often, sometimes Modal adverbs: certainly, definitely Modal nouns: assumption, possibility Signalling words: furthermore, similarly
Foregrounding: ideas vs. sources
Several scholars who have reviewed the academic literature on homework (Hoover-Dempsey 1995; Coulter 1979) suggest that the equivocal nature of findings in the effects of homework....
Compare with It seems then, that despite a century of research,
the equivocal nature of the findings says more about the methodological challenges of researching this complex subject than about any definitive relationship between homework and achievement itself (Hoover-Dempsey 1995; Coulter 1979)
Integral vs. Non-integral citations
It is commonly recognized that destination image, “the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a person has of a destination” (Crompton 1979: 18), is an important aspect in successful destination marketing.
Tomlinson (1986) has proposed that large-scale international sporting events have for a long time embodied fundamental tensions.
Several social analysts of contemporary sport and the city have argued that ‘housing’ a successful sports team may help condition rather than simply reflect the social, economic and cultural well-being of cities and regions in the context of heightened, image-based spatial competition (Nunn and Rosentraub, 1997; Whitson and Macintosh, 1993, 1996).
Methodology
May also become a section of another chapter, such as the Introduction
Define method of inquiry, theoretical approach etc.
Show links between your methods and others
Discuss strengths and weaknesses of chosen methodology.
Two research paradigms
Results: Analysis
Report what you have found Synthesise results in illustrations, tables etc. In positivistic or scientific framework, the results section
reports description without interpretation. This is done so that reader can make their own judgements before reading your judgement.
In social studies, many people feel description cannot be separated from interpretation, so these will be discussed together. However, it’s important to realise that social studies must look at both supportive and contradictory results.
Interpretation/Discussion
Interpret what you found and justify your interpretation
Relate back the literature review and research questions/thesis statement
Evaluate the wider impact of your findings (in an economic, ethical context etc)
State any strengths/weaknesses of your analysis
Conclusion
A look backward: brief recapitulation of the main point(s), including strengths and limitations of research
A look forward: further research and/or wider implications/usability of the research/findings; personal learning
From plan to draft: ‘Writing in layers’ 1) Start from a generic structure suitable for your
discipline: write a list of chapter headings
2) Write a sentence or two on the contents of each chapter
3) Write lists of headings for each section in each chapter
4) Make notes on how you will develop each section
5) Write the estimated word count at the top of each page
(Adapted from Orna and Stevens 1995)
The shape of an argument (Booth et al. 1995)
A claim needs to be supported by evidence. The claim and the evidence are bridged by warrants (which establish the relevance of the evidence and verify its validity) and are also further supported by qualifications which acknowledge the limitations of the claim, anticipate objections, make concessions.
Example:
Claim:
Anti-smoking campaigns should focus attention to lung diseases and passive smoking.
Evidence:
My friend’s husband chain-smoked for 10 years and my friend has been recently diagnosed with chronic bronchitis.
Warrant:
Recently, medical research has shown that passive smoking may affect the respiratory system in both children and adults.
Qualifications:
However, my friend’s husband stopped smoking 6 months ago. Moreover, a week ago, my friend waited for her sister in the cold and the rain for an hour. Admittedly, this could have caused her bad cough, and subsequently, her chronic bronchitis.
‛To be a successful writer
I know of only two methods;
read a lot and write a lot.’
Stephen King
Developing your writing style
What kind of texts do you read for your research? If you are interested in improving your writing:
Keep examples of passages that you like
Note authors whose work you like
Why do you like them?
What features are characteristic of their writing?
How do they organise their texts?
Writing for...
Connectivity (information flow)
Paragraphing (logic and transitions)
Old to new – repetition to ensure connectivity
References to previous information: it/ this/ this +noun
Objectivity (style)
academic vocabulary
verbs (single vs. phrasal, passive vs. active voice)
caution and tentativeness
Academic Writing Resources • Bazerman, C. (1995) The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines. 5th edn. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin. (electronic edition available at http://writing.colostate.edu/textbooks/informedwriter/ )
• Bolker, J. (1998) Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. Owl Books.
• Booth, W., Colomb, G., and Williams, J. M. (1995) The Craft of Research. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press
• Greetham, B. (2009) How to Write Your Undergraduate Dissertation. Basingstoke: Palgrave,
Macmillan
• Hart, C. (1998) Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Imagination. London:
Sage
• Murray, R. (2006) How to Write a Thesis. 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press
• Orna, E. and Stevens, G. (2009) Managing Information for Research: Practical Help in
Researching, Writing and Designing Dissertations. 2nd edn. Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill
• Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
• Swales, J. M. and Feak, C. B. (1994) Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks
and Skills. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press
• Williams, J. (2002) Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. London: Longman