Official Dissertation Thread - 2010-11

It was results day yesterday. In the department, they put up a list of everyone in the department, organised by classification. I got a first.

We were then able to speak to our personal tutors who had a break down of all our results. I got 77 on my dissertation. The feedback comments from my disso tutor were pretty good as well - the only criticism was on a couple of typos that slipped through the net. It is so much better than I even imagined possible!

Good luck to everyone still waiting and congratulations to those who've found out.

congrats! you must be super pleased

Congrats!!

77 for your dissertation is amazing.

It was results day yesterday. In the department, they put up a list of everyone in the department, organised by classification. I got a first.

We were then able to speak to our personal tutors who had a break down of all our results. I got 77 on my dissertation. The feedback comments from my disso tutor were pretty good as well - the only criticism was on a couple of typos that slipped through the net. It is so much better than I even imagined possible!

Good luck to everyone still waiting and congratulations to those who've found out.

Hi!

All of your dissertations sound really interesting . I'm just starting mine over this summer. I am doing mine on Manchesters music industry/scene, and if/how it changed the landscape of Manchester. Anyone doing anything similar?

I got a 61 for my dissertation, it was 2000 words below the minimum word count and I didn't proof read any of it. Lol university.

but why on earth would you give in a dissertation thats 2000 words short and you didn't proof read it, did you want to fail?

Thank you. It was a surprise, as I was seriously confused over what to do. These things are so hard to predict...

AMAZING! Congrats! I am also doing my dissertation on Victorian Britain. Would you advise me to start reading/researching a topic now, over the summer? I have no knowledge of Victorian social/political thought, so I am clueless!!!!

If you feel that you don't know much about the period, it might help if you do some general background reading. Eg, Britain Since 1789 by Martin Pugh. Before starting my dissertation, I took a course on Victorian Britain, which covered things like urbanisation, changes to the political and legal system, the organisations of prisons etc, which gave me a good grounding.

What aspect of Victorian Britain are you looking at?

Basically, we're doing poor relief, attitudes towards commerce and industry, culture, darwinism... We're studying specific individuals though: carlyle, malthus, ruskin, morris, hobson, mill

I am currently reading Malthus' 'on population', but I am still clueless....



I did British economic history though (like how the British economy declined 'failed' by the turn of the 20th century). I am thinking of doing something related to this, but my course is on the social and political aspect of Victorian Britain.

If you are studying the period at university, that should prepare you well enough general background-wise.

Instead, look at background information/academic articles on Victorian economic history. You could then perhaps respond to a debate in the literature - something there is no fixed consensus on etc. Usually, when you read around the related secondary literature, something will pop up for you to focus your dissertation on. The alternative way of deciding would be to look at what primary sources you have available. Eg, you could find economic records for a set parish which you could examine, perhaps comparing them to another area or to the secondary literature theories on the economic development of the period.

I looooooooooooooooooooooove you ! ?

Will try to do this but I am scared I might be forced to stay within the social/political aspect of the period! (basically, we're studying a module and our dissertation has to be linked to this particular module).
I like the journal called 'Victorian studies'. Will try to read as many articles as possible


Thanks again!

You're welcome. In a way, I am just jealous. I wish I was still a history student. Whilst stressful at times, the dissertation can be really interesting. Especially as you have [to some degree at least] free reign over what you study.

This site might help too: http://www.victorianlondon.org/. It has primary sources on a range of topics, including financial topics. And this one: http://www.victorianweb.org/

So -

..now we've all finished our dissertations and had our results (I'm assuming here, apologies to anyone who hasn't yet found out their results), what golden nuggets of wisdom can we offer future "dissertators"? What would you change if you could do it all again? What did you do that was possibly not the greatest idea in the world?

I'll offer my own tips:

1. Start thinking about your topic as early as possible. It's never too early to start thinking about what might interest you. What questions do you have that you would love to research? Even the beginning of second year isn't too early to start thinking!

2. Cherish the meetings you have with your supervisor. Not in a weird way, of course. Before you go to the meetings, make a list of things you'd like to ask, like a sort of agenda. Take brief notes on the things you discuss, make sure you've got down all the advice your supervisor gives you.

3. Leave a day between writing a chapter and proof-reading it. If you've spent all day composing a chapter, rifling through books, sorting through photocopied articles and chapters for that ONE important sentence you highlighted, you are going to be far too tired to proof-read it all once it's typed and saved. Yes, this is an excuse to kick back and watch a film/have an evening out!

4. Back up EVERYTHING. Use a service such as SkyDrive (from Windows Live) to upload your chapters, notes and plans as and when you write them. It must have happened to most students at least once, that sickening cold feeling that goes straight down your body when you've lost files or misplaced a USB stick. I ended up printing everything out so at least even if the whole INTERNET failed I could type up my work from a hard copy - time-consuming, but a saviour, should things go drastically wrong.

5. Talk about your topic to people, even if they don't want to hear it. My partner got his fair share of boring conversations when he was being talked at by me at length about Gaelic influence in the Faroe Islands. However, it did serve a purpose - it made sure that I KNEW my topic and arguments inside-out. If you struggle to put together a little speech outlining your topic, which informs whoever's listening about your findings (ie. if you can't succintly explain what you're researching) it might be good to sit and write out a skeleton plan of your dissertation to re-establish what your points and chapters will cover.

I really hope these will be useful to others - if not, I've only wasted 15 minutes of my own time.