Writing your Dissertation

Before you begin to write-up your research, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What did I set out to investigate?
• What approach did I use?
• What did I find?
• What additional information did I gather?
• Was there anything which I was not able to find out that I wanted/expected to? If so, was there a reason?
• Is there a need to review the research question/s in the light of my findings?

Once you have answered these questions, you will be in a good position to plan how to present your findings and argue your case.

Writing

(NB: If you already have experience of research and/or writing documents of the kind of length and style required for a dissertation and you have found a successful pattern of writing that suits you, you may wish to continue to use it. For example, some people find that structure emerges out of their writing rather than vice versa. Rather than planning the structure and outline of their work before they begin to write, therefore, it may suit their style to write an introductory chapter first in order to see what emerges from it, even though they may subsequently change that chapter substantially or even abandon it altogether. However, if you are not familiar with this sort of approach, or if you are uncertain quite how to begin, the following suggestions and structure may help you. You should, in any case, take heed of the advice given on your course before you embarked on your dissertation – and always discuss your approach carefully with your supervisor before you begin to write-up.)

Think about what your argument or theme is going to be and write it down in summary form: What do you want to say? How do you want to say it? Into what sections can it logically be broken down? When you know this, you can turn to the actual writing. Focus on one chapter at a time. Sometimes, thinking of the dissertation as a whole can put students off starting because it seems such a huge and daunting task; for many, taking it chapter by chapter is much more manageable. Try not to jump from one chapter to another without finishing the one you have started unless you find it easy to hold a number of ‘pieces’ in your mind at once. You may want to leave your introductory chapter until you have written the body of the text and you have read through it to make sure there is coherence. Alternatively, you may find it useful to write a very rough introductory chapter knowing that you will return to it, and probably substantially rewrite it, once the other chapters have been written and you can see whether or not you have actually done what you said you were going to do!

At all times, keep in mind the purpose of a dissertation. It should be a scholarly report which merges your own interests with concepts and methods gleaned from the programme.

In a sense, writing a dissertation is about taking your readers on a journey that you have planned for them. If you relate to visual imagery, it may help you to structure your work if you think about taking your readers by the hand and standing on a hill from which you can indicate the fields you have crossed yourself in planning the journey (i.e. indicate the parameters of the dissertation). Next, take them to the gateway from which the dissertation journey itself begins (the starting point for your study). Point out that there are many routes that could be taken to reach the destination (the final written presentation of your dissertation) but that you will be going via certain stepping stones (the chapters you have chosen). As you step onto each stone (begin each chapter), it may be helpful to remind your readers exactly why they are on that stone at that point. Before they leave it, you might also like to remind them what they have seen there and where you are taking them next (provide a brief summary of the chapter and indicate how it links to the next). At the end of the journey, help your readers to review where you took them and alert them to the particular difficulties of this route, why other routes, or parts of them, might have been preferable – and, especially, to what has been learned and added to the body of scholarly knowledge by your planning and undertaking of this unique dissertation journey.

Styles of Writing

There are very many different styles of writing, largely depending upon the nature of the research and personal likes and dislikes. The main point which needs to be stressed is that, whatever your preferred style, you must remember that you are writing for an academic audience and that the 'rules' which you have learned in your assignment writing also apply to the dissertation and will be rigorously enforced. (At this stage you may find it useful to revisit Section One of this booklet.)

You should aim to produce a well presented and structured argument, which is drawn together and clearly re-stated in the conclusion. However, you are quite likely to find, in the course of developing your ideas, that your original argument becomes problematic. Don’t panic if so! The problematising of your starting point and underlying assumptions will greatly enrich your own theorising and developing argument and should not be shirked.

Although it is important to allow your own 'voice' to be heard in the dissertation by holding on to what you want to say and not losing sight of the arguments you want to put forward, and by making it clear how you interpret your research findings, do take care not to over-personalise the dissertation by offering a lot of unsubstantiated personal opinion and viewpoints. Every point you make should be backed up by your data, or reference to the literature, or both.

Do try to leave time between 'finishing' your writing and reading through the whole dissertation again. Read it at least once looking specifically at content and style and considering how it will ‘sound’ to someone coming to it for the first time: for example, are there places where what you have written is based on some background information which seems obvious to you but which may not necessarily be known to your readers? Remember that it is virtually impossible to read for ‘sense’ and to proof-read (see below) at the same time - so one read-through will almost certainly not be enough.