What exactly is required in a dissertation?
I know this sounds like a stupid question, I'm going into my 4th year of an International Business and Marketing Joint Honours Degree where obviously I'll be writing my dissertation. I'm soon going to have to submit a dissertation proposal and I have a very strong idea of what I want to write about.
I'm a bit confused exactly what will be required of me though... I understand everyone's will be different and unique, but on the whole are we supposed to conduct research on the 'field' for example? Are we able to email companies and ask if we can observe/shadow workers for 'fieldwork' and examples to write about in the paper? Evidence of a sort.
I am completely lost on what is required of a dissertation, if anyone could provide some general pointers I would be extremely greatful as it would help me to narrow my proposal ideas and I can start preparing myself in advance!
I'm a bit confused exactly what will be required of me though... I understand everyone's will be different and unique, but on the whole are we supposed to conduct research on the 'field' for example? Are we able to email companies and ask if we can observe/shadow workers for 'fieldwork' and examples to write about in the paper? Evidence of a sort.
I am completely lost on what is required of a dissertation, if anyone could provide some general pointers I would be extremely greatful as it would help me to narrow my proposal ideas and I can start preparing myself in advance!
Original post by Nutini
I know this sounds like a stupid question, I'm going into my 4th year of an International Business and Marketing Joint Honours Degree where obviously I'll be writing my dissertation. I'm soon going to have to submit a dissertation proposal and I have a very strong idea of what I want to write about.
I'm a bit confused exactly what will be required of me though... I understand everyone's will be different and unique, but on the whole are we supposed to conduct research on the 'field' for example? Are we able to email companies and ask if we can observe/shadow workers for 'fieldwork' and examples to write about in the paper? Evidence of a sort.
I am completely lost on what is required of a dissertation, if anyone could provide some general pointers I would be extremely greatful as it would help me to narrow my proposal ideas and I can start preparing myself in advance!
I'm a bit confused exactly what will be required of me though... I understand everyone's will be different and unique, but on the whole are we supposed to conduct research on the 'field' for example? Are we able to email companies and ask if we can observe/shadow workers for 'fieldwork' and examples to write about in the paper? Evidence of a sort.
I am completely lost on what is required of a dissertation, if anyone could provide some general pointers I would be extremely greatful as it would help me to narrow my proposal ideas and I can start preparing myself in advance!
Well, this entirely depends on your topic, and question. Does your research question require fieldwork and empirical data to answer it?
i dont know anything about your subject so i can only speak generally... i did sociology and psychology... there are two types of research primary or secondary. Primary you do the research yourself you think of a hypothesis (i think i actually had to have 5 
) to test and you go out and collect the data yourself... secondary you use information already collected by other people to test your hypothesis (this is what i did!)
in terms of looking for ideas look through journal articles that is basically what you need to produce... sure if the thing you want to look at would be aided by asking companies if you can do that go do it. I was REALLY stuck when it came to what to do far too many options especially with the joint subjects what i found really useful was when i found out i could simply just challenge or compare published work/ theories/ definitions. mine was effectively a challenge of goverment policies regarding tuition fees using others data, i was unfortunate to be writing it when all the stuff about changes to tuition fees was coming in so i was unable to come to a better conclusion than "this topic will require revision once the proposed fees have been implicated"
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) to test and you go out and collect the data yourself... secondary you use information already collected by other people to test your hypothesis (this is what i did!) in terms of looking for ideas look through journal articles that is basically what you need to produce... sure if the thing you want to look at would be aided by asking companies if you can do that go do it. I was REALLY stuck when it came to what to do far too many options especially with the joint subjects what i found really useful was when i found out i could simply just challenge or compare published work/ theories/ definitions. mine was effectively a challenge of goverment policies regarding tuition fees using others data, i was unfortunate to be writing it when all the stuff about changes to tuition fees was coming in so i was unable to come to a better conclusion than "this topic will require revision once the proposed fees have been implicated"
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Original post by flying plum
Well, this entirely depends on your topic, and question. Does your research question require fieldwork and empirical data to answer it?
Well I haven't narrowed it down to an actual specific research question yet, I only have the topic, but your answer has actually clarified it a little for me. I just presume a dissertation is a lot more than the finding already published sources and evaluating that we've done all throughout Uni?
Original post by Nutini
Well I haven't narrowed it down to an actual specific research question yet, I only have the topic, but your answer has actually clarified it a little for me. I just presume a dissertation is a lot more than the finding already published sources and evaluating that we've done all throughout Uni?
Well, you don't have to do empirical work, so it could be desk based research which looked at existing g research, as the other poster has said. I'm not quite sure how much 'original work' you are expected to do in an undergrad dissertation. I never had to do me, so my only experience if standard is for my masters. I would have thought, though, given the timescale, any empirical work you did do would not be expected to be huge, and nor would anyone be expecting you to change the field.
So, yes, you will be attempting to answer a question of your own devising, but at lot of that answering will probably be discussing how other peop,enhave suggested resolving the issue.
I assumed they were different for everyone. One of my dissertation choices is to design, document and create a Android Application...thats a lot of work and a ****load of stuff to design, implement, test, get background research, general research, questionnaires, explaining questionnaires. Then getting into depth like what the app does, why it does it, how it would appeal to people, how the layout would appeal to people, why i chose the layout. etc.
Original post by Knighted
I assumed they were different for everyone. One of my dissertation choices is to design, document and create a Android Application...thats a lot of work and a ****load of stuff to design, implement, test, get background research, general research, questionnaires, explaining questionnaires. Then getting into depth like what the app does, why it does it, how it would appeal to people, how the layout would appeal to people, why i chose the layout. etc.
yes and no... one dissertation could be polar opposites to another... but they are always made up of the same basic elements...
if i had done primary research mine would have been much easier to compare to yours the only difference would be the last part which would have been the looking at my findings bit... (from what i remember...
lol) however i did secondary and did more of an exploration of a topic than a answering a question... but to kind of show it... history of education (<these two possibly more acurate swapped over but iv swapped them too many times started to confuse myself...>)different sociologists theories of cultural capital others findings of the links between cultural capital and education, why the previous isnt enough to explain it... "getting in depth" bring in social capital, government policies, class back ground, international students
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