Writing Your Dissertation (And Other Long Projects)

Writing Your Dissertation (and other long assignments) Materials developed by the Learner Development Unit at the University of Bradford Learner Development Unit www.brad.ac.uk/lss/learnerdevelopment

What you will learn:
The process of dealing with extended pieces of research and writing.
That this process has different identifiable stages you should work through to allow for maximum gain with minimum effort.
Implications of research skills needed to tackle larger projects.

The Plan…
Creating a process for extended pieces of research and writing
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6

1. Creating a process
In your group:
A – you have three minutes to decide a name for your stage of the process.
B - You have just one minute per stage of the dissertation/project/assignment process.
Record as many tips/comments about the stage as you can before it’s passed on to the next group.
Activity: Thinking About the Process Hot Potato!

Stage 1 Choosing/Analysing the Question or Brief
Level of interest?
Resources available?
Key words
Topic terminology
Generating questions
Make a rough plan NOW!

Activity: What does research really involve?
In pairs
Think about what the broader term of ‘research’ really means.
What process should you go through?
Stage 2 Researching

Search for Research
Preliminary research and
Refine the search
Knowing where to go next
Interrogating text not reading
Reviewing literature
Levels of note-taking
Stage 2 Researching

Stage 3 Planning and Organising
‘Gather’ main ideas
Order them
Check that your intended ideas will answer the question/address the brief
Be ‘creative’ with planning tools
Thinking time is not only desirable… it’s essential
What’s meant by a detailed plan?

Activity: Writing up Dos and Don’ts
In pairs
You are now working in the LDU and have to give people guidance on writing up your plan.
What should they do?
What should they avoid doing?

Activity: Writing up Dos and Don’ts

Stage 4 Drafting
Text level engagement
Write and don’t worry… for now
Feel like you can begin writing at any point
How do you, literally, write?
When to worry about references?

Stage 5 Editing
Revising the text at text level
Check you are on target to answer the question
Check order of ideas – does it make sense?
Check style of expression and suitability of vocabulary
Are you on target in terms of word limit?

Stage 6 Final Draft
Sentence level checks – grammar & punctuation
Word level checks – spelling & legibility (where applicable)
What are your department’s specific requirements?
What is the running order of the whole work

What next?
Learning materials and to contact us for 1-2-1 advice and support:
www.brad.ac.uk/lss/learnerdevelopment
Come along to another workshop: http://www.brad.ac.uk/lss/lssworkshops/

Writing Your Dissertation (And Other Long Projects)

by Learner Development Unit

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