DOs and DON’Ts of Writing MA Dissertations

Whether you’re just starting out on the MA process, within the midst of writing your dissertation, or nearing submission, there are several pieces of recommendation I’d wish to share, based both on personal experience and my work with many students over the years.

IN THE BEGINNING

Choose a topic you enjoy.

Students often choose their MA dissertation topic by picking something that they think their instructors will like, instead of a topic that fires their own enthusiasm. Unfortunately this comes across within the final product: the dissertation is dull and dry, instead of bursting with the thrill of latest research. Choose something that you’re hooked in to studying which will hold your interest.

Write an in depth proposal.

Many MA courses require proposals to be submitted before lecturers will log off on an MA topic, and students often find this difficult because they are not certain what direction the project will take. However, an honest proposal will function a guide for your instructors and permit them to form suggestions about your ideas. More importantly, it provides a map for you to follow as you’re employed on the dissertation.

Keep your project focused.

Try to write clear research inquiries to investigate from the start and specialise in answering them, instead of dwelling on the myriad of latest questions which will crop up throughout the dissertation process. it’s extremely easy to urge distracted by related, but irrelevant, topics.

THROUGHOUT THE DISSERTATION

Have a sensible schedule.

Schedule in time for holidays, inclemency , equipment problems, and procrastination. Although it’s tempting to figure on your dissertation constantly (especially because the submission date rapidly approaches), confirm you spend a while faraway from it also . this enables you to approach it with a fresh pair of eyes and a transparent head.

Give yourself many time.

It is a law of the universe that if something can fail during the dissertation-writing process, it will. you’ll notice that you simply forgot to feature a source to your bibliography and need to hunt the reference. Your printer may run out of ink at 2:00am the day before the dissertation is due. Your computer may plan to malfunction. If you’re employed on your dissertation consistently (but not necessarily constantly), you ought to have quite enough time before your deadline to urge these problems sorted.

Have a backup. Preferably two.

There are numerous thanks to backup your data nowadays that it might be silly to not use a minimum of one among the methods available to you: external disk drive , CD, flash drive or memory stick, or a service like DropBox or Mozy. The latter usually offer 2GB free storage.

AND FINALLY…

Have someone read your work.

Whether it is a friend, your mother, or knowledgeable proofreader, new eyes can spot errors that you’ve got missed. Because you recognize exactly what you’re trying to mention , it becomes easy to overlook forgotten words or awkward phrases. in any case the work you’ve put into it, doesn’t your dissertation need to be the simplest you’ll make it?