The Student Room Group
Reply 1
you've got time but you need to start right away I'd say - do you need to go and gather research? As you will need to arrange that which may be tough in so little time. Do you know what you are writing it on? title? Start now :smile: Keep going! Don't wait to hear back about a question before you get going
Original post by Jenx301
you've got time but you need to start right away I'd say - do you need to go and gather research? As you will need to arrange that which may be tough in so little time. Do you know what you are writing it on? title? Start now :smile: Keep going! Don't wait to hear back about a question before you get going


Thanks for replying :smile: I have a specific title now, im writing it on human rights, it doesn't require going out and doing any research, I'll be basing my analysis on existing academic material. But I need to gather journal articles/books/newspapers still :/
Reply 3
Original post by CuriousSmiles
I have 3 weeks left. I emailed my supervisor with a question and he hasnt gotten back to me yet. Im hoping he will reply soon, but yeah, I just need some reassurance really. Its a 5000-6000 word dissertation :frown:
How did you manage to get off with such a short one? My dissertation was 20,000 words. Which I did in sixteen days.

My advice is just do the dissertation and keep records to prove that your supervisor hasn't returned contact. If it's wrong, remind him he didn't reply in time, and if he makes a fuss get in contact with the hierarchy. That's what i did - ended up having my supervisor's job :erm:
Original post by Tootles
How did you manage to get off with such a short one? My dissertation was 20,000 words. Which I did in sixteen days.

My advice is just do the dissertation and keep records to prove that your supervisor hasn't returned contact. If it's wrong, remind him he didn't reply in time, and if he makes a fuss get in contact with the hierarchy. That's what i did - ended up having my supervisor's job :erm:


Oh wow 20,000? Was this for a Masters? Its actually because I have to do 2 dissertations since I am a joint honours student. I do German and Politics, and my German dissertation was due last week, so I'm glad that is out of the way. Yeah I definitely have all the emails, he sent me quite a harsh email a few days ago telling me to get my act together. It was quite demotivating :/
Reply 5
Original post by CuriousSmiles
Thanks for replying :smile: I have a specific title now, im writing it on human rights, it doesn't require going out and doing any research, I'll be basing my analysis on existing academic material. But I need to gather journal articles/books/newspapers still :/


3 weeks is enough time then, if you get your head down and do it every day. I assume you are on easter break right now? That's two weeks that you can spend really concentrating on it.
5000-6000 words for a dissertation! And no research!

That's not a dissertation, just a glorified essay (which is defintely a good thing in this case!) Easily doable, just get started straight away, dont wait for your supervisor to get back to you, just get on with it.
First thing is plan plan plan, find a title quickly and try and stick to it. It doesnt really matter if your essay topic is rubbish as long as you discuss it well, that's the main thing. Then research the topic and write it up - set yourself deadlines and make sure you stick to them even it means working all night. Look at the mark scheme and make sure you are hitting all the criteria, and make sure you reference properly
as you go along as this will save time at the end.
You're probably not going to get the best grade you could but still possible to get a good one. I would research for a week, and then research and write at the same time for the last two. Good luck!
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by CuriousSmiles
Oh wow 20,000? Was this for a Masters? Its actually because I have to do 2 dissertations since I am a joint honours student. I do German and Politics, and my German dissertation was due last week, so I'm glad that is out of the way. Yeah I definitely have all the emails, he sent me quite a harsh email a few days ago telling me to get my act together. It was quite demotivating :/
No, it was for an honours in IT. I didn't have time to completely finish all the design work I'd started for it, but I basically came up with Windows 10. I'd postulated that it could be possible to design a computer interface that could be scaled from smartwatches to desktops in such a way as to make the most effective use of the platform and whatever, and produced a set of mock-up designs to show how it might work. If I'd had the whole year I could have made up a POC prototype.

To be fair though I've done some writing projects that make my 20k-word dissertation look like a kid's book :lol:
I know this is an old thread sorry haha but just wondered how you got on in the end? As I'm starting to panic, I have three ish weeks left and I've written roughly 6500 of 10,000 dissertation. Problem is 1500 of that is a draft of my findings and I sent it to my supervisor as she requested me to, over a week ago I sent it and not heard back but time is ticking on, is three weeks long enough?