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