Dissertation

[bigstu]

Anyone done a dissertation? If so what was it on? I'm having a total 'mare with mine at the moment :brickwall Don't see how i'll ever get it done :bitchy:

[Hibbie_Cameron]

This time last year i was in your boat. My question was, do the mediums of Television and the written press favour mainstream sports ahead of more grassroots sports/ (somethign along those lines anyway lol)

Before last years easter holidays i had roughly written 2000 but i blitzed it in the two weeks holidays. This meant had over a month to change bits and make improvements.

Although i was still trying to improve it the night before it was due in, i was in a far better postion than most of my class, some of whom never started it until the week it was due.

[woodythehibee]

i done a 5000 word one last year on communist russia. it's good to split it up if possible so it's easier to concentrate of smaller parts of ti rather thank one massive dissertation. then read lots of books and make notes for a while before you commence the writing :agree:

good luck!

[Sylar]

Finished a 20k dissertation last year on "Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Peat Erosion in the Perthshire Highlands".

The hardest part is remaining focussed enough to get to the end.

[PiemanP]

Finished a 20k dissertation last year on "Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Peat Erosion in the Perthshire Highlands".

The hardest part is remaining focussed enough to get to the end.

what the hell does that mean :cool:

[AllyF]

Finished a 20k dissertation last year on "Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Peat Erosion in the Perthshire Highlands".

The hardest part is remaining focussed enough to get to the end.

Fair play to you!

[woodythehibee]

Finished a 20k dissertation last year on "Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Peat Erosion in the Perthshire Highlands".

The hardest part is remaining focussed enough to get to the end.

:cool2: :cool2:

[stu in nottingham]

Anyone done a dissertation? If so what was it on? I'm having a total 'mare with mine at the moment :brickwall Don't see how i'll ever get it done :bitchy:

Have you done enough reading, Stu? Sometimes that can be why it's difficult to make progress as you might like. Do you highlight important and relevant parts of journal articles and separate them into themes?

Do you schedule certain hours to do the work?

Perhaps work in shorter spells that you can keep your concentration in better?

Always leave the writing up for the day at a point where it will be a little easier to resume the next day.

[Hibbie_Cameron]

Have you done enough reading, Stu? Sometimes that can be why it's difficult to make progress as you might like. Do you highlight important and relevant parts of journal articles and separate them into themes?

Do you schedule certain hours to do the work?

Perhaps work in shorter spells that you can keep your concentration in better?

Always leave the writing up for the day at a point where it will be a little easier to resume the next day.

This is what i done Stu.

In the 2 weeks last easter i wrote atleast 600 words per day over 12 of the 14 days i had off. One one occassion, when writing up my own personal research i wrote 2000 words in a day, although it was merely analysing a questionnaire, which im sure you took part in.

On the days i only wrote 600 words +, i would write apprx 300 words then stop at the end of the paragraph i was writing (often seeing me write nearer 400 or 500). I would then have the afternoon free before writing atleast 300 words again at night.

This worked a treat for me. The 600 words rule per day i made for myself sometimes turned into 1000 words p/d depending on the section/area i was covering or the quotes/readings i had found. Once i had wrote my 300 words or more in them orning i coul then relax or even do more reading for the evening. It really did work a treat.

As i said before i had onyl written about 2000 words before last Easter. By the time we went back after last easter i had written 15000 in what was only a 10k dissertation. I then had a month to cut it down and make better and relax at the same time.

I think setting yourself targets and keeping time free to socialise etc is very important and doing something similar to me certainly allows you to do that

[Banter]

Anyone done a dissertation? If so what was it on? I'm having a total 'mare with mine at the moment :brickwall Don't see how i'll ever get it done :bitchy:

Writing one entitled "Old Firm, New Money" which in leymans terms is about how the infirm have to drop the bigotry to wheel in the cash.

Some good advice on hear about pacing yourself but its all French to me. Always been a bit of a last minute man myself - thats not to say I submit rubbish - more that I seam to do my best work 10 hours before deadline with half a litre of Red Bull down the gut:dizzy:

For example heading to Italy in about 20 hours for a sesh with the football boys for a week with the dissertation not even started. You only live once....:greengrin

[bigstu]

Have you done enough reading, Stu? Sometimes that can be why it's difficult to make progress as you might like. Do you highlight important and relevant parts of journal articles and separate them into themes?

Do you schedule certain hours to do the work?

Perhaps work in shorter spells that you can keep your concentration in better?

Always leave the writing up for the day at a point where it will be a little easier to resume the next day.

The answer to most of your questions is no, i've basically had no structure to what i've been doing and I feel i'm pi$$ing in the wind. So thanks for the advice, I will take it aboard and hopefully make some progress.


This is what i done Stu.

In the 2 weeks last easter i wrote atleast 600 words per day over 12 of the 14 days i had off. One one occassion, when writing up my own personal research i wrote 2000 words in a day, although it was merely analysing a questionnaire, which im sure you took part in.

On the days i only wrote 600 words +, i would write apprx 300 words then stop at the end of the paragraph i was writing (often seeing me write nearer 400 or 500). I would then have the afternoon free before writing atleast 300 words again at night.

This worked a treat for me. The 600 words rule per day i made for myself sometimes turned into 1000 words p/d depending on the section/area i was covering or the quotes/readings i had found. Once i had wrote my 300 words or more in them orning i coul then relax or even do more reading for the evening. It really did work a treat.

As i said before i had onyl written about 2000 words before last Easter. By the time we went back after last easter i had written 15000 in what was only a 10k dissertation. I then had a month to cut it down and make better and relax at the same time.

I think setting yourself targets and keeping time free to socialise etc is very important and doing something similar to me certainly allows you to do that

Thanks for the advice, it's really good to hear how other people have done theres because the uni have basically given us no advice! As above I will take all your advice on board.


Writing one entitled "Old Firm, New Money" which in leymans terms is about how the infirm have to drop the bigotry to wheel in the cash.

Some good advice on hear about pacing yourself but its all French to me. Always been a bit of a last minute man myself - thats not to say I submit rubbish - more that I seam to do my best work 10 hours before deadline with half a litre of Red Bull down the gut:dizzy:

For example heading to Italy in about 20 hours for a sesh with the football boys for a week with the dissertation not even started. You only live once....:greengrin

that's what I always do but i don't think i should leave 15,000 to the night before. Time is already running out :boo hoo:

Cheers to everyone for the advice, I feel a little less alone now.

If anyone else has any advice then please let me know.

[Dav1986]

I've got mine due in next month and ive not done much of the write up so far cos im still testing subjects which should hopefully be over on thursday :thumbsup:

ive got quie a bit to analyse from my data tho cos im doing the fatigue effects on kinematic differences between elite and non-elite footballers

one good thing is that ive got loads of journal articles already so shouldnt be too difficult to write up once ive got the data analysed.......





i hope

[lyonhibs]

12,000 words on the effect of the new EU countries labour immigration on the UK Labour Market.

Just plan ahead, and you'll be amazed how easy it is (relative to the "oh my god, this is going to kill me" stressed out approach that many take)

I was eventually struggling to get mine under the word limit.

Although yon one about peat in Perthshire sounds like a friggin' nightmare

GGTTH

[Austinho]

Currently doing a 2000 word essay on Semiotics in Advertising and struggling as it is!

I've got to seperate out and analyse the linguistic, image, coded and non coded signifiers as well as detect any differences and similarities in the mythic meanings depicted in three magazine adverts.

Unfortunately that makes as much sense to me as it will to anyone else on here.

God I hate essays and dissertations (did one on my previous course), how often do you ever have to write one in the real world?

[bigstu]

Currently doing a 2000 word essay on Semiotics in Advertising and struggling as it is!

I've got to seperate out and analyse the linguistic, image, coded and non coded signifiers as well as detect any differences and similarities in the mythic meanings depicted in three magazine adverts.

Unfortunately that makes as much sense to me as it will to anyone else on here.

God I hate essays and dissertations (did one on my previous course), how often do you ever have to write one in the real world?

I was out on the pi$$ last night & got no sleep so i'm total nackered, that's no the bad part though - i've got a 2500 essay to write about a case study for Collective Employment Law for tomorrow morning :brickwall Who really cares about health & safety law :brickwall I had good intensions at the start of the week to get it done with plenty of time but it's just not happened! It's going to be a long night!

[stu in nottingham]

Currently doing a 2000 word essay on Semiotics in Advertising and struggling as it is!

I've got to seperate out and analyse the linguistic, image, coded and non coded signifiers as well as detect any differences and similarities in the mythic meanings depicted in three magazine adverts.

Unfortunately that makes as much sense to me as it will to anyone else on here.

God I hate essays and dissertations (did one on my previous course), how often do you ever have to write one in the real world?

I prefer doing 'em to exams personally though I know some don't. I like my stress spread out a bit!

What subject is that you're studying mate, marketing?

[Just Jimmy]

I prefer doing 'em to exams personally though I know some don't. I like my stress spread out a bit!

What subject is that you're studying mate, marketing?

so do I. Exams are just a memory/technique test rather than a real test of ability to reaseach and put in place a reasoned well structured debate.

I'm doing 3k on the relation of social movement theory to the black civil rights movement of the 1960s America. (my choosing).

got another 4/5 2/3k essays due by end next month as well as exams. Joy!

[Steve-O]

Mine was a 10,000 word effort on changing public attitudes to violence in film and television.

As far as I recall, the whole thing became easier when I planned the structure of the thing - i.e. broke it down into chapters. Then I simply took one chapter at a time before getting to the conclusion.

My adviser of studies at Uni helped a lot too, sometimes I had missed some points, or over-elaborated and he would let me know. I would then re-write those bits and show him it again the next week.

As others have said, I ended up struggling hugely to get in anywhere near the word limit, I think it ended up being about 12,000 words, and that was down from over 13,000!!

So, PLANNING, is the most important thing to start with I reckon :agree:

[rainman]

15k on the dominance hierarchy of a family of Diana Monkeys at Edinburgh Zoo. A f***ing nightmare and something i'm glad I'll never have to do again.

Still, it was put to good use in my career of sales and marketing. :thumbsup:

[Austinho]

I prefer doing 'em to exams personally though I know some don't. I like my stress spread out a bit!

What subject is that you're studying mate, marketing?Well my course is almost entirely practical, so don't have exams anyway. I guess I'd prefer an essay to an exam as well though!

No - I'm doing a degree in Graphic Design, and can't exactly say I find semiotics (or writing essays) particularly relevant to what I do. Especially since I've had absolutely no guidance on how to go about doing one (structure etc).

Heres my online portfolio (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-austin), currently working on my website as well.

[stu in nottingham]

Well my course is almost entirely practical, so don't have exams anyway. I guess I'd prefer an essay to an exam as well though!

No - I'm doing a degree in Graphic Design, and can't exactly say I find semiotics (or writing essays) particularly relevant to what I do. Especially since I've had absolutely no guidance on how to go about doing one (structure etc).

Heres my online portfolio (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-austin), currently working on my website as well.

Pop me an email address, mate. I have a couple of excellent guides to essay writing from my own University here which I forwarded to another poster 'Greentinted' here recently.

They should be a big help.