[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by aeterno)
I honestly don't know But possible choices are working in an NGO focusing on children's rights or think tank or civil service or possibly going into academia. Not sure about the last one but after an offhand comment from one of my lecturers I've been thinking about it a lot more.

So I won't be seeing you on Glee anytime soon? I take it you're going down the academia route?

NGO, think tank and academia all sound like interesting options. I'll have to work a bit once my health allows in order to save up for my PhD, so I'm hoping to either work in arts administration, or in a charity like CAFOD

The dream plan is to become an Oxford tutor

[amizzle91]

(Original post by aeterno)
Ahh ok that's not too bad then - it'd be a nightmare if it was due in any earlier without a supervisor in the early stages!

I hope I enjoy mine because I'm planning to go on to postgrad and I'll have to write another one

Mine's on children's rights in war in developing countries. Well, sort of. I still need to narrow it down a bit (more than a bit)

Haha, it turns out I fail and cannot read properly, we do get a supervisor sometime between starting and Christmas. So that seems a lot more like it

Ooh, that sounds interesting. Is that like child soldiers?

I hope mine doesn't get rejected because it's overdone, I want to focus on 19th century literature and it's hard to find something a bit original, it's such a well studied area.

I hope this group will be a source of comfort in which I am sure will be the most stressful months of my life so far

[aeterno]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
NGO, think tank and academia all sound like interesting options. I'll have to work a bit once my health allows in order to save up for my PhD, so I'm hoping to either work in arts administration, or in a charity like CAFOD

The dream plan is to become an Oxford tutor

I hope your health improves so you can do just that then

I hope you'll influence more people to choose cool diss topics when you get there

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by aeterno)
I hope your health improves so you can do just that then

I hope you'll influence more people to choose cool diss topics when you get there

Naturally. The plan is world domination to shake things up a bit and teach all the world music and popular music options and generally have a lot of fun

[aeterno]

(Original post by amizzle91)
Haha, it turns out I fail and cannot read properly, we do get a supervisor sometime between starting and Christmas. So that seems a lot more like it

Ooh, that sounds interesting. Is that like child soldiers?

I hope mine doesn't get rejected because it's overdone, I want to focus on 19th century literature and it's hard to find something a bit original, it's such a well studied area.

I hope this group will be a source of comfort in which I am sure will be the most stressful months of my life so far

Haha I thought that sounded like an odd way of doing things when you first mentioned it - I assumed you went to a rather sadistic uni

Yep, pretty much. But I'll be looking at the things that people don't automatically assume about child soldiers i.e. not just fighting in wars but the 'army wives', slaves, cooks, etc.

Yeah I can imagine it's an area that interests a lot of people - bribe them if all else fails

Indeed. If not, there's always chocolate

[aeterno]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
Naturally. The plan is world domination to shake things up a bit and teach all the world music and popular music options and generally have a lot of fun

I might even sneak into Oxford to witness you corrupting educating such young minds

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by aeterno)
I might even sneak into Oxford to witness you corrupting educating such young minds

You should

[ArtGoblin]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
A fellow popular music person

That sounds fascinating. What would be your line of argument and what kinda case studies would you use, if you don't mind me asking? I'll understand if you don't wanna divulge too much info though

I'm basing it around Adorno's theory of the culture industry - that culture is used to distract the masses from realising their oppression and turning art into a commodity that is easily replaceable. I wanted to look at this in the context of the 21st century because less people are paying for music, instead downloading it for free over the internet. I'm interested in whether this has made music more or less of a commodity - in one way it has changed from being valued solely according to its economic value, but in other ways it seems more disposable, and it is being given away in order to sell other products.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by ArtGoblin)
I'm basing it around Adorno's theory of the culture industry - that culture is used to distract the masses from realising their oppression and turning art into a commodity that is easily replaceable. I wanted to look at this in the context of the 21st century because less people are paying for music, instead downloading it for free over the internet. I'm interested in whether this has made music more or less of a commodity - in one way it has changed from being valued solely according to its economic value, but in other ways it seems more disposable, and it is being given away in order to sell other products.

Ah, Adorno

That sounds like a really good argument.

Have you thought about online questionnaires, if interviews won't work? That's what I'll be doing for my Glee dissertation

[ArtGoblin]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
Ah, Adorno

That sounds like a really good argument.

Have you thought about online questionnaires, if interviews won't work? That's what I'll be doing for my Glee dissertation

My original thought was to use online questionnaires because I'm shy and I'm really dreading the idea of having to interview people. However, I decided I wouldn't get enough depth from them because I want to be able to critically analyse what people say. My personal tutor thinks that I should do secondary data analysis which I would love (no connect with people ) but I can't think of a way around it.

[Joinedup]

(Original post by Sapphire_Eyes)
Hello I'm in my 3rd year to and going to be doing my dissertation which is ecology/genetics based using squirrels. Got my sequences for the gene which had been done previously, found at least 75 journals for it. Not done anything much over summer holiday due to family issues, health reasons and exams.

Its 10k - 12k in length and due for Easter Break.

Do need to hand in a progress report for 12th October. So need to get something written up before then to hand in.

I want a grade A for this work as its worth 20% of the whole year. But 3rd year is 80% of the total grade and I buggered up the first 20% in my second year.

Cool, I'm doing something a bit similar (I think) on glow-worms... Except with a focus on land management / habitat factors and I'm not going to be doing anything genetic (would be an interesting area for further research though as they're in isolated colonies these days). My interest started when I learned that a colony near my home
had died out, though they're a lot less cute than squirrels (in the eyes of many) rangers and wildlife trusts etc do run glow-worm spotting evenings over the glowing season so there's a hint of justification for investigating them.
Supervisor seems very enthusiastic about it but I just seen to be finding problem after problem, e.g. estimating
the size of a population will require a novel method I think giving me problems showing validity. I went out glowworm hunting over the summer and found a few new (previously unrecorded) populations.
Like you I need to get an A out of it really.

[SilGathien]

Totally watching this thread for all the dreaded months ahead .

I submitted a proposal before the end of Spring semester and *should* be hearing something back soon. However, in this time I have fallen out of love with my dissertation, and have mental new theory in my mind, but need to talk it over with my lecturer. You can see it's going well already o_O.

My dissertation is supposed to be on voices in Arthurian Grail Romance. We'll see XD. To be submitted in around April/May next year. I don't think my department have actually set a date yet lol.

[Elements]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
Oh don't worry, I'm sure I can spam educate you all

My undergrad dissertation was an ethnography of an ABBA fan event. It had amazing coloured pictures in it. I wish I'd seen my second marker's face when she opened it

Sounds already like there are some interesting dissertation ideas floating about

I ABBA- they are awesome and the 1st music that I got properly into!

Do you think that I could possibly have a copy of your dissertation to read please?

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by Elements)
I ABBA- they are awesome and the 1st music that I got properly into!

Do you think that I could possibly have a copy of your dissertation to read please?

Sure! PM me your email address and I can send a copy over

[Hey TSR]

15,000 words history dissertation here.

1,000 report to be submitted by end of September.

[Elements]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
Sure! PM me your email address and I can send a copy over

PM'ed.

[angel_night]

(Original post by aeterno)
I know, it's gone so quickly Your topic sounds interesting though - maybe because I have a soft spot for Buddhists (or maybe because their food tastes nicer - that doesn't make sense but it's true )

Mine has to be between 10,000-12,000 words. I have a feeling mine's either going to be too short or too long...

I'm worry about the length as well! I think I'd rather be over and cut down than be under and struggling for things to say...Hopefully it'll be about right though! Aww i do love the Buddhists! I think my quesiton maybe something like 'is the role of material culture in buddhism contradictory to Buddhist teachings and scripture' or something. Not 100% sure yet.

I ordered a book yesterday which is a guide to dissertation writing. It had quite a lot of good reviews, so figured it could be useful!

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

(Original post by angel_night)
I'm worry about the length as well! I think I'd rather be over and cut down than be under and struggling for things to say...Hopefully it'll be about right though! Aww i do love the Buddhists! I think my quesiton maybe something like 'is the role of material culture in buddhism contradictory to Buddhist teachings and scripture' or something. Not 100% sure yet.

I ordered a book yesterday which is a guide to dissertation writing. It had quite a lot of good reviews, so figured it could be useful!

That sounds so interesting

My undergrad dissertation was 10K including footnotes. I wrote 13,000 and then cut it down to about 11,000, by which point I got fed up and just handed it in (I was very ill). Cost me marks though

But yeah, you'll probably write too much. I know one person in my year whose dissertation was originally 20,000 words

[aeterno]

(Original post by angel_night)
I'm worry about the length as well! I think I'd rather be over and cut down than be under and struggling for things to say...Hopefully it'll be about right though! Aww i do love the Buddhists! I think my quesiton maybe something like 'is the role of material culture in buddhism contradictory to Buddhist teachings and scripture' or something. Not 100% sure yet.

I ordered a book yesterday which is a guide to dissertation writing. It had quite a lot of good reviews, so figured it could be useful!

True, true. Although I'm worried that I wouldn't want to take anything out so I'd still be left with something far too long Ooh I do like that question! Sounds like it'd be an interesting read

I desperately need one of those guides but I'm never sure which ones to go for I was thinking of getting a general dissertation guide along with one specifically for my subject but even then I'm stuck

(I just realised that my earlier comments about Buddhists and food sounded rather ignorant - what I meant is that most of the best cooks I know happen to be Buddhists...not that Buddhists have their own special food )

[angel_night]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
That sounds so interesting

My undergrad dissertation was 10K including footnotes. I wrote 13,000 and then cut it down to about 11,000, by which point I got fed up and just handed it in (I was very ill). Cost me marks though

But yeah, you'll probably write too much. I know one person in my year whose dissertation was originally 20,000 words

O my gosh, 8,000 words over I can't imagne having to cut all that out! We get penalised for going over the word count as well And I hate cutting out work. It's there for a reason and it took me ages lol, don't like getting rid

(Original post by aeterno)
True, true. Although I'm worried that I wouldn't want to take anything out so I'd still be left with something far too long Ooh I do like that question! Sounds like it'd be an interesting read

I desperately need one of those guides but I'm never sure which ones to go for I was thinking of getting a general dissertation guide along with one specifically for my subject but even then I'm stuck

(I just realised that my earlier comments about Buddhists and food sounded rather ignorant - what I meant is that most of the best cooks I know happen to be Buddhists...not that Buddhists have their own special food )

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Your...5931024&sr=8-1
This is the one that I bought It sounds like its goodish, so hopefully it will be useful and ease the panic!

Hehe, I don't think it sounded ignorant Mm, my lecturers have said when they have stayed in monasteries the food has been pretty good that the lay people have made. Some monasteries the monks/nuns cook for themselves now, and thats generally good. Though I think one place, my lecturer said the food was awful lol.