A short presentation on setting an achievable dissertation question.

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SETTING YOUR
DISSERTATION
QUESTION

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Starting out …
Define your topic.
Put your ideas into words.
Define your search boundaries.

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Define your topic
 Look through the dissertations of previous students in
your department. There may be a topic to inspire you or
they may have identified a gap in the research that
needs further investigation.
 Go through your previous core texts. There may have
been a module you particularly enjoyed. Why was that?
Is there an component of that module that could be
developed into a dissertation?
 Do you have interests outside of University that you
might want to base your topic on? As long as it is
relevant to your course it may not matter that the topic
hasn’t been integral to any modules.

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Put your ideas into words
Think about it, talk about it, read about it.
Write stuff down – anything you can think
of! It doesn’t matter how either – be as
creative as you want.

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Define your boundaries
Where?
United Kingdom? Europe? International?
When?
Last year or two? 21st
Century? Last 100
years?
Who?
Particular groups of people? Anyone?

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Try and be as precise as you can
A precise question is better than a vague one:

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Final thoughts
Don’t wait until you have a fully formed research
question before discussing your ideas with others, as
their comments and questions may help you to refine
your focus.
It is helpful to have a precise research set early on in
the dissertation process but you may find that your
question develops as you find new information that
interests you. Discuss this with your supervisor.