Masters Dissertation Guidance

Originally posted in the Computer Science and ICT forum, but may be better placed here.

Hi,

After a long (20+ years) I have returned to education and at the final stage of my masters degree. It has been a long hard road as trying to get my head around how to write in an academic style again after so long writing business documentation.

I am now on the final step and wow, I never realised just how tough the dissertation would be. It's a real eye opener for sure! My dissertation is related to using AI to improve cyber security detection rates in cloud computing, but I am struggling to focus my writing. Every time I try it gets broader and broader, and I am unsure how to structure the lit review element, is it by AI element, or attack vector etc. Can anyone recommend a consultancy service with someone that understands the topic that will spend an hour with me discussing where I go and the best approach. I am NOT looking for a writing service, I need and want to do this myself, but most searches for help are loaded with these horrid companies.

My supervisor is amazing, but I have limited sessions with them and I need someone who isn't attached to the Uni who can give me some more direct guidance. Gradcoach have been good for general advice but I think I need more of specialist at this stage. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

cheadle

17

It's very difficult to find this kind of external specialised support and when using it you must be extremely careful not to compromise the academic integrity of your work. I think you understand this. Nonetheless, you can't be too careful.
I think you will struggle to fnd exactly what you are looking for.
What about undertaking some primary research which includes (recorded) interviews with people in the field.
If you could find a methodology that allows for this kind of exploratory research to help you shape your research question, that could be a way forward.

Reply 2

typod

OP

2

Sorry about the delay in responding. Life stuff getting in the way.

Really appreciate your suggestions. I think I am close, I just need that extra push to really define the focus point of the assignment. I will start looking into more primary research and see how that pans out.

Original post by typod

Originally posted in the Computer Science and ICT forum, but may be better placed here.

Hi,

After a long (20+ years) I have returned to education and at the final stage of my masters degree. It has been a long hard road as trying to get my head around how to write in an academic style again after so long writing business documentation.

I am now on the final step and wow, I never realised just how tough the dissertation would be. It's a real eye opener for sure! My dissertation is related to using AI to improve cyber security detection rates in cloud computing, but I am struggling to focus my writing. Every time I try it gets broader and broader, and I am unsure how to structure the lit review element, is it by AI element, or attack vector etc. Can anyone recommend a consultancy service with someone that understands the topic that will spend an hour with me discussing where I go and the best approach. I am NOT looking for a writing service, I need and want to do this myself, but most searches for help are loaded with these horrid companies.

My supervisor is amazing, but I have limited sessions with them and I need someone who isn't attached to the Uni who can give me some more direct guidance. Gradcoach have been good for general advice but I think I need more of specialist at this stage. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Hi @typod

I completely understand how you feel, when I was writing my undergrad thesis dissertation I felt that I had no idea how to structure it, or how to approach anything. Now that I am writing my PhD thesis, I went through the same process again! So I’ll share what helped me both times, and hopefully some of those things will work for you too.

Depending on your university and course, there might be some ‘official’ guidance on how to do this. Cranfield regularly runs webinars, lunchtime sessions, etc. on how to approach thesis writing, referencing, academic writing for non-native speakers, and other topics. If you’re not sure of what kinds of advice are available to you, then I would suggest asking your library staff. Usually they are a great point of contact (or at least have been for me!) on all things thesis.

The most helpful thing I have found is looking at previous theses. However, I can confidently say that not all theses are written well, and telling the good from the bad is difficult when you’re starting out. You mentioned that you have limited time with your supervisor, but hopefully they would be able to recommend specific names of previous students who did well (not just in terms of information, but structure and writing style) so that you can look for their theses (again, with the help of library staff). Skimming through a few will give you an idea of what has worked well in the past.

Defining the focus point is always a difficult challenge. You need to give the reader the background information for several things:
- What the problem you are addressing is (e.g. “Black dot is a potato skin disease caused by the fungus…”)
- Why you are addressing it (e.g. “This diseases causes losses of up to 10% of potato crops in the UK, and reduces the shelf-life of the product due to disease progression…”)
- The background information relevant to the methods, the problem, existing controls, etc. (e.g. “Currently the spread of Black dot is controlled by fungicide usage, however this poses serious environmental risks…”)
- How you are going to address this problem/your methods (e.g. “This study compares the efficacy of postharvest treatments including temperature control, humidity control, and ethylene gas treatments to slow disease progression… Temperature has shown to have a large effect on the growth rates of other fungal diseases…”)
This will give your readers all of the information they need going into the rest of the dissertation.

How to structure the lit review is also a difficult question. For my undergraduate thesis, I had to choose between two options, a methods-focused focused approach, or a results-focused approach. Basically choosing between whether to spend more time (and words) on the ‘how’ or the ‘why’. In the end, this was just a personal choice on which I thought was more interesting, and which would be more interesting to the readers. Sometimes there is no right answer! But as long as the basic information is given for everything, you should be able to select the most relevant/interesting sections to go into more detail. You can always write some things down and delete what seems less strong later. Remember that YOU are a consumer of this kind of data, so imagine what YOU would find the most helpful/interesting and write that.

Like has already been said, you need to be very careful about getting guidance/advice on these things. First of all, a lot of these things are only opinions, and what works for one person may not work for another. But also, just because a service isn’t doing the writing/analyses for you doesn’t mean that it is academically ‘honest’ to have an expert review your thesis (so far) or come up with a structure for it. One part of examining an MSc is seeing if this person has the knowledge, research skills, etc. to quality. Another part is examining if the person can communicate their knowledge effectively, and design the experiments (including what to focus on). It is a really important skill to learn, and I’m sure through your degree you have had many ways communication and focus is examined. In the Cranfield MScs I’m involved with there are typically several presentations, both in groups and individually, poster presentations, the thesis, lab reports, essay-style assignments, and probably others I am forgetting. Academic writing is a skill you can get some general training on (there are many blogs, youtube videos, and even courses online) but paying an expert to tell you which approach is best (which again, may be an opinion!) boarders on collusion. But then, I am NOT an expert in academic integrity grey areas.

Best of luck with the dissertation!
Ciara
3rd year Agrifood PhD student
Cranfield Student Ambassador

Reply 4

hellymax

3

.cz

(edited 8 months ago)

Masters Dissertation Guidance

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