A short presentation on the requirements of the dissertation for students at Bournemouth University

1. Dissertation Kick-off
Meeting
BA Events & Leisure Marketing
BA Events Management

2. Agenda
• Dissertation
Objectives
• Dissertation
Structure
• Topics
• Data collection
• Writing up
• Supervision
process
• Getting starting

3. What should you achieve with the
dissertation?
BAELM and BAEM
students should:
• Identify an appropriate topic
for investigation that reflects
the aims of the programme of
study;
• Demonstrate an understanding
of the context of the research
by reference to published
material;
• Formulate and apply research
methods appropriate to the
topic;
• Become acquainted with the
issues raised by designing and
conducting research;
• Critically appraise the
information and apply
judgement in analysis and
evaluation of new/abstract
data &
• Contextualise their own
findings in relation to the
established body of
knowledge to draw suitable,
analytical and realistic

4. Dissertation structure
• There is some variation but
generally you have:
– Introduction (1000)
– Literature review (3000)
– Methodology (1000)
– Findings (2000)
– Analysis (2000)
– Conclusion & Recommendations
(1000)
TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS =
10,000

5. Topics
Students should have selected topics which are rooted
within the core areas of their courses:
Events
• Motivations to attend events
• Marketing of events
• New media and events
• Event impacts
• Consumer behaviour and events
• Events and destinations
• Event tourism
• Events and branding
• Event experiences
Events & Leisure Marketing
• Consumer behaviour in Leisure
• Marketing of Leisure
• The nature of Leisure
• New forms of Leisure
• New media and Leisure
• Leisure branding
• Demand / motivations for
specific types of Leisure

6. Topics (cont’d)
• Topics should also
be linked to
literature available
at the library:
• Journals on
Events, Leisure
& Tourism
• Books on Events,
Leisure &
Tourism
• Databases for
Tourism
• Events & Leisure
Industry Reports

7. Data collection considerations
PLEASE NOTE DATA COLLECTION SHOULD
START AFTER YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW
AND METHODOLOGY HAS BEEN APPROVED
• Ethical considerations
• Practical considerations
• Archived data available via
nwilliams@bournemouth.ac.uk
– Bournemouth Air Festival, Edinburgh
Fringe, Glastonbury, Notting Hill,
Luton & Trinidad Carnivals, city data
(new!)
– Custom archives can be done on
request depending on demand
• Research Approaches

8. Writing-up
• There is no such thing as a “writing-up phase”
• Students thinking they can simply “write-up”
in the last three weeks are deluding
themselves!!!
• Writing starts from the first meeting with your
supervisor
• Every meeting with your supervisor should
move your dissertation further along – this
can only be achieved through continuous
writing

9. Tools for writing-up
PLEASE NO TWEETS, FB STATUS UPDATES OR HAND-
WRITTEN NOTES UNDER MY DOOR
• Blogging
• Online-portfolio
• Wikis
• E-mail
• Dissertation Appointment
Record Sheets

10. Both students and supervisors have specific
duties in this process
Students should ...
• Make appointments
• Have an objective(s) for each meeting
• Bring copies of the Dissertation Appointment Record
to meetings
• Make a firm commitment to achieving the planned
timescale for completion
• Undertake the necessary research and reading from a
variety of sources
• Submit draft sections or chapters at mutually agreed
points
Supervision process

11. Supervision process (cont’d)
Supervisors should ...
• Give a timely response to your queries and
submissions
• Give advice and comments on what you propose to do
including sources which they may be aware of
• Give advice and comments on what you have written,
including guidance on structure and content
Note: You will only receive tutor support up to the LAST TEACHING
DAY OF THE SPRING TERM - after this, you will not be able to meet
with your tutor, so please try to ensure that you have covered all
areas with me by this date.

12. Key Deadlines
1. Part B of the proposal form (see Appendix 1) due
in on 30th October 2015 directly to your
Dissertation Tutor;
2. An ethics checklist (see Appendix 4) submitted
on-line AT THE VERY LATEST by 29th January
2016 and subsequently reviewed by your
Dissertation Tutor;
3. The dissertation itself, which will count for 100%
of the overall grade due in at 12 noon on Friday
15th of April 2016 (see Section 2.8);
4. Last day to receive feedback on the dissertation
from your tutor 16th March 2016 (Wednesday
before Easter Break)

13. Some key tasks to complete this
semester
Note this is not a plan, your plan for completion needs to have
dates, mile stones, durations and resources required for tasks and
persons responsible!
October
• Preliminary Research and submission of Title, Aim and
Objectives
• Review electronic copies of dissertation(s) from previous years
on myBU
• Make use of tutorials with the Faculty Subject Librarian
November
• In-depth research commences specific to Literature Review and
Methodology chapters
• Complete the on-line ethics checklist (as soon as possible)
December
• Identify issues that might form the basis of your primary
research; develop methodology
• Produce drafts of Literature Review and Methodology chapters
• Solicit identified participants for their agreement to support the
primary research

14. I am here for you
• Your dissertation supervisor is also your
personal academic advisor (PAA)
• You can talk to me for confidential advice
about issues that may be affecting your
performance on the dissertation and your
other units on the course
• Later on in the semester or next semester
you may want to talk to me about your
future career

15. Getting Started
• The first step in writing any dissertation
is establishing its relevance
• Your must prove that what you have
planned to study meets the learning
objectives of the dissertation
• This means demonstrating
– The topic is relevant to the programme of
study (academically and professionally)
– The topic fits within the context of existing
research (e.g. it adds, extends, refutes
existing publications)
– The dissertation can be related to existing
academic work published on your topic

16. How is this done?
• Students link their work to trends or patterns
they are seeing within academic research
• Students demonstrate how their work fits the
demands of professionals working in the
industry to which their subject(s) is/are linked
• Students cite other academics who have
already identified gaps within academic
research to show that there is a real academic
need for their topic
• Students show the relevance of their work to
society, the economy or a specific community

17. Example 1 – Why do a study
on destination event
marketing?• World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO) estimated that in 2002
international arrivals generated
receipts of US$463 billion,
supporting over 200 million jobs
(8.2% of total employment)
• Events have been recognized as one
of three contributors to destination
image (Kotler 1993).
• The integration of tourism and sport
events has not only contributed
greatly to tourism destinations, but
also attracted the interest of a number
of researchers in the tourism
literature in recent years (Weed and
Bull 2004, Standeven and Knop
1999, Hudson 2003).
• In contrast, the level of
published research on
sport event marketing in
the context of destinations
is still limited, compared
to the importance of the
phenomenon in tourism.

18. Example 2 – Why do a study
on event
authenticity/integrity?• Tourism is one of the largest industries in the
world. In 2005 it accounted for 10.4% of the
world’s gross domestic product.
• Event tourism studies rarely study the complex
aspects of the human psyche because they are paid
for by funders with financial motivations.
• Promoters often over estimate the benefits and
‘push’ the community to hosting an event without
considering if it fulfils the needs of those concerned
(Getz, 1994).

19. Over to you …
Questions???