dissertation stress

im about to start my dissertation writing, but there are things that i dont really understand and i dont want to ask my supervisor because he l think im stupid.
how many books would you expect to include in a 12 000 word dissertation? i have no idea!! and will the supervisor be allowed to read it then give me back the draft and tell me what i could improve, and will they give me an estimate mark? i asked some friends back home about this and they just laughed and said dont be stupid, they wont help at all, they arent allowed. I feel i really want to get lots of estimate marks before i hand it in though. I never know what kind of marks im going to get for things and i dont want to come out with a rubbish mark for it. Also, if the supervisor wont give estimated grades, is there some other service that will read through it for money?

Reply 1

apotoftea

19

Number of books is like how long a piece of string is. You could read 20 and do it very well, make the best use of them for instance. Or you could read 40 and just make awful notes and completely and utterly miss key points.

It's not about numbers and how much you read, it's about how you use them to back up your arguement. Quality over quantity and all that. All depends on the subject though too.

Re: draft reading - depends on your university policy tbh. Some unis limit how much work your supervisor can see. Others limit how many times/hours you spend seeing your tutor. A good supervisor should tell you the ways in which to improve it. If you get a very good supervisor, they'll give you advice but without saying too much and just let you get on with it. Expect the first piece though to come back with more pen ink than printer ink on it! My tutor only once gave me a rough estimate of a mark for my dissertation and even then it was pretty vague. I know my friends with other supervisors found the same. A good supervisor makes all the difference IMHO.

Reply 2

vapid slut magician

For 12,000 words I think I'd expect to see around 40-50 books.

Reply 3

PanosUK27

I am currently in the process of writing my dissertation...my opinion is that it does not matter the number of books, journal articles, etc you have to read, but the information you can get from each source....try to identify what is going to give you the proper info concerning your topic and try not to read everything but only what you think is important, as you are going to spend loads of time reading and by the time you will need to start writing you will not have much time. Try to read past dissertations to get an idea of how a dissertation is structured, and check the references at the end. Finally, plan your time and follow your plan...otherwise you will be racing against the time to finish just like me...
Good luck

dissertation stress

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