Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

A little worried about dissertation

deleted

(edited 10 years ago)

Nothing you can do now but stay calm and await the result. There is nothing that people at the uni can tell you now, you must await the result.

People tend to be over-critical of themselves, especially just after handing in a big project like a dissertation. There are ALWAYS a thousand things you could have done differently/better, but your diss will be marked on the strengths of what you DID do.

So: try to relax, and keep your mind on other things.

Reply 2

KikiKat

deleted

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

nonswimmer

Original post by KikiKat

I mean that talking to my supervisor might allay some of my concerns a little bit. Also, if they became aware of my situation, they might be a little more sympathetic while marking?

I know they don't fail dissertations (especially since I passed all my other modules at first attempt) unless doesn't make any sense. But at the same time I don't want a bad mark!

If they are professional then they will refuse to comment at all, which in your current state of mind will make you worry that they have already decided to mark you poorly.

Do not attempt to solicit your tutor's sympathy in order to get a better mark. That would be really pathetic. There is a procedure to follow if you think that mitigating circumstances apply.

Just be a big brave grown-up and wait for the result.

Reply 4

KikiKat

xyz

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5

Klix88

Contact your course leader for advice about the potential mitigating circumstances and not your dissertation supervisor, to avoid any suggestion that you're trying to influence the marking. As has been said, your supervisor shouldn't respond to you anyway. You can clear up the misunderstanding over dates after the marks are in so that you can part on good terms (although I seriously doubt that he's taken it to heart as you seem to believe).

Levels of dissertation feedback can vary wildly between supervisors. Mine would only look at a draft chapter once, and as he was off campus all summer, most of my supervision was done via email. One of my colleagues had a supervisor who insisted on weekly meetings throughout the process, which drove her mad. Another took a stack of research home to write-up at the end of May and had no further contact from her supervisor before hand-in - literally no feedback at all as she worked. Your situation is in no way unique. Unfortunate perhaps, but not grounds for any kind of appeal or complaint. If you wrote up in ten days very close to the hand-in deadline, that doesn't give your supervisor much time to properly read it and give meaningful feedback anyway.

If it helps, I wrapped my copy of my Masters dissertation in clingfilm after I handed in (to "keep the dust off") and I still can't bring myself to unwrap it and read it - despite having been given a Distinction for it last November. I'm still worried that I'll find obvious or glaring errors, even though there plainly weren't any visible to one of the UK's experts in that field. Dissertations mess with your head, and you're displaying all the classic signs!

I know it's hard, but you really do need to let it go so that you can move on with the next stage of your life. It's done. You did your best under difficult circumstances and you wrote up in a record-breaking ten days - and you're still standing! That alone deserves a round of applause.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

KikiKat

xyz

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 7

KikiKat

And this is exactly what is happening to me- I can't bear the thought of reading it. I am terrified that I will find some mistake or grammatical errors.

Reply 8

nonswimmer

Original post by KikiKat

Firstly, well done on the distinction. :smile:

That's quite an achievement.

Oh and ten days isn't record breaking for me. I once wrote a 4000 word essay in 2 days :colondollar:

I knew my dissertation was no masterpiece, but I was OK with it. It was only when I started discussing it with other people that I began to feel that mine was somehow lacking. It seems like everyone else has just done so much more than I have! For example, I have only 95 references but my classmate has 200!!!!!!!!!

You really must try to stop worrying about these little details. Since when was a dissertation's quality determined by the number of references cited? You could have one dissertation which conducted primary research using hundreds of small sources such as newspaper articles, and another which synthesised a smaller number of sources. They could be exactly the same quality.

Reply 9

Klix88

Original post by KikiKat

Those are two absolutely classic mistakes right there - comparing dissertations and then assuming that a large number of references equals a good piece of work

Dissertations can be very different in nature and need more or fewer references. Someone with 200 references has probably spent a lot of their project on a comparative exercise, using existing research and interpretations. Mine was largely based on primary research material which I'd gathered myself. I don't remember the exact number (and I'm not about to go and look, even now!) but I certainly had fewer than 95 references.

References are about quality not quantity. You shouldn't try to compare your research with someone else's - they will be fundamentally different. You certainly can't say that yours is "worse" than another person's because you have fewer references than them.

Like I said - it messes with your head :smile:

Reply 10

KikiKat

Worst fear realised. In the version I've submitted are 3 grammatical errors and one major formatting blunder. There was an issue with the formatting apparently and the side words of one page have gotten partially cut off. One can still make sense of the sentence, but the words are cut off :frown:

Reply 11

KikiKat

Essentially while the content is correct, I have submitted the wrong formatting.

Reply 12

hobnob

You really need to stop obsessing over this and try to put the dissertation out of your mind for now. :erm:

It's done, and now it'll probably be a few months until you get your results. At this stage you can't do any more about it, and if you spend all of that time going over the dissertation with a fine-toothed comb and focus on everything that might potentially lose you marks you'll eventually go mad. If the outcome really is as bad as you fear you'll still be able to try and work out solution (i.e. resubmitting etc) then, but for now it'll be best if you try to forget you ever wrote it.

If it's anecdotes that you're after: my MA dissertation ended up being terribly rushed - I discovered two weeks before the deadline that the structure I had planned wouldn't work, so I had to redo the whole thing from scratch. Consequently it couldn't be as good as it might have been, and I already knew that as I was writing it. By the time I got the results I had already started my PhD, so I didn't really have that much to lose, but I was starting to worry what would happen if it turned out I had actually failed the dissertation. In the end, though, all that happened was that I got a 68 (which made me narrowly miss out on a distinction, but nothing more) and felt very foolish for having alerted my college advisor to the possibility that I might have failed the MA dissertation, because of course she said 'there, I knew you were just panicking over nothing'. :dontknow:

Reply 13

Klix88

Stop looking at it! If three grammatical errors and one page slightly misformatted is your "worst fear", then you're doing just fine. Those aren't going to cause a Fail.

Wrap it in clingfilm, chuck it in the attic and go to the pictures.

It's in and it's gone and there's simply no point doing what you're doing. Nothing positive is going to come of it. You're just picking at a scab - for the sake of your own sanity STOP IT.

Reply 14

Viceroy

I know how you feel! I was totally freaking out about my diss, too, but it ended up turning out totally fine. I still haven't reread it though... I may even have deleted it off my computer. :s-smilie: