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dissertation help

hi, what to reply to my supervisor who is asking about the progress of my dissertation but I have not done anything.

also, this month we were supposed to go to field for our data collection but that is not possible, is there any alternative?
Original post by Laserquest28
hi, what to reply to my supervisor who is asking about the progress of my dissertation but I have not done anything.

also, this month we were supposed to go to field for our data collection but that is not possible, is there any alternative?


So you need to talk to your supervisor NOW about this. Yes, it’s tough to get work done during lockdown but at some point you are going to need to hand in a thesis, so best to deal with things now, not near the hand in deadline. You need to ask your supervisor what you can do without fieldwork, e.g. is there an existing data set you can analyse instead, or can the project include extra numerical modelling etc, any decent supervisor will have a backup plan for this kind of thing. Also ask for suggested reading if you don’t have that yet, and some key “intermediate” questions to work on that will help guide the project. Finally, how are you supposed to interact regularly with your supervisor, have you scheduled weekly video chats for example ?
I haven't been in touch with my supervisor since the beginning of this lockdown and today she mailed me about my wellbeing and talking about her life in lockdown, it was a lengthy mail, and there one line was about my dissertation.

she did not want to ask directly about the dissertation,

should I tell her that I haven't been able to do anything regarding my dissertation?
Original post by Laserquest28
I haven't been in touch with my supervisor since the beginning of this lockdown and today she mailed me about my wellbeing and talking about her life in lockdown, it was a lengthy mail, and there one line was about my dissertation.

she did not want to ask directly about the dissertation,

should I tell her that I haven't been able to do anything regarding my dissertation?

Yes, talk to her about lack of progress so far - best to be up front here, if you are finding things tough, tell her directly. Academics will expect their students to be having all sorts of issues during lockdown, and should have ideas for how to help - the caveat being that they are also self isolating, looking after family, trying to run and mark exams remotely etc. You get most (possibly all) of the marks for the end product, so saying its not going well right now is fine. Ask to set up weekly Q and A video chats to help keep things on track.
that's sounds good. thanks a lot

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