Dissertation
IP3017 Final Year Dissertation
Lecture 5
Final Advice Session
1
New deadline 29 May 2020
2
Reminder of each main section
More detailed look at the theory section
Writing tips
Assessment criteria
Checklist
Outline
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What have existing studies already said?
What are the key academic debates in this area?
What are the key theories informing your project
What are the key concepts you will be working with?
Lit review/Theory
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Show relationship between sources – not just an analysis of each source in turn
Show how sources relate to your research – what is useful and why, how will you extend or refine the existing literature?
Organise by theme, not by publication date or author
Not just a description or summary or other people’s work
Identify your ‘original contribution’
Literature review
5
Some definitions of theory
Oxford English Dictionary: “A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena”
Van Evera (1997): General statements that describe and explain the causes or effects of classes of phenomena.
Theory as a “simplifier”
“a theory is an attempt to make sense of the world by indicating that some factors are more important than others and specifying relations among them” (Halperin and Heath)
What is theory?
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To GENERATE new theory
Begins with a question and a basic proposition, examines a set of cases and comes up with a more specific set of propositions, which can be more widely and rigorously tested
To TEST theory
Begins by stating, on the basis of the theory, what we would expect to find and sees whether that expectation is fulfilled.
Objective is to provide or disprove a certain theory
To APPLY theory
Apply a theory to a specific empirical case (particular wars, revolutions, election outcomes) with the aim of explaining it.
Goal is not to contribute in any way to the theory itself, but just to use its propositions to explain a particular case.
How to use theory
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What information do you need to answer your research question beyond academic sources?
How will you find them?
Go out and collect empirical data
For some will be secondary sources, others may include primary
Research design
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The methods section in a research paper briefly outlines how a researcher answered their research question
Include the following:
Whether you used quantitative or qualitative methods
What information you collected, and why
How you collected the information
Reliability and validity of methods used – why did you use them?
Which cases you selected and how these were chosen
Are you doing a particular type of analysis?
Use research methods literature to justify your methods
Writing-up your methodology
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This is different for everyone, depending on methodology but you want to present your answer to the question beyond the literature review
Need to answer research question – main part of your work – your contribution
What does the information you have gathered tell you? How does it differ from existing literature?
How will you analyse your findings – using the theoretical framework, using a specific method of analysis
Analysis
10
Think about best way to structure – by research question, by data, by topic, by theoretical framework in order to ‘tell the story’
How will you present your findings? How will you present your analysis? How will you apply your theoretical framework?
Could include:
Background to your case study or issue you are studying
Describe and highlight your findings, if you used data of any kind. What do they tell us?
Apply theory to your case study – what does it tell us?
‘Writing-up’ writing-up
11
You must make sure you answer your research question
You should link your findings and discussion to the existing literature in the literature review
You must link to the theoretical discussion
You should be presenting an argument – what has your research done
You must provide evidence for all claims you make
‘Writing-up’ writing-up
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Summary of your research
Explain work done to respond to initial question
Reiterate your argument and how you argued for it
Restate how the key theories you worked with helped you to respond to your research question
Statement of your contribution
State how your findings fitted in with/broke away from the key theories you introduced in your lit review/theory section
The limitations of your study
Acknowledge problems/issues which still remain
Your conclusion
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Paragraphs
Paragraphs denote separate steps of your paper
But, you must demonstrate a logical connection between them
The way your paragraphs relate to each other displays how sound your argument really is
‘Also’ ‘in addition’ are weak transitions
Start with a topic sentence – it explains the thesis of the paragraph and unifies the content of the rest of the paragraph
Writing tips
14
Support your statements
A well-written paper will include strong support for its thesis. Support should come from the literature (or primary documents if relevant).
To use your support effectively, you must elaborate upon the information, quotations, and examples taken from your sources and connect them to your thesis.
Do not make statements that you do not back up with evidence
Make your claims as specific as possible, the more detailed evidence you offer, the more reference points your reader will have.
Show the reader what you mean – they cannot read your mind!
Writing tips
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Has an argument been provided in response to the question?
Is the argument well supported with accurate and insightful use of evidence, drawn from secondary (and in some cases primary) sources?
Are theories and concepts chosen well and used insightfully
Is the research design and use of methods appropriate to the question?
Is the analysis and evaluation of a high standard?
Is there evidence of independent work and original thinking?
Is the material included relevant to the question?
Does the project reflect well the various stages in a research process?
Assessment criteria
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Checklist
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