UCL CMII/SELCS MA/MSc dissertation workshop session 1

2. A dissertation is an individual research project.
This work will represent substantial independent
research into an aspect of translation of your
interest. Research can be undertaken in a broad
range of areas; however, it is expected that the
subject matter of the thesis will demonstrate clear
links to other elements of the programme content.
The finished dissertation will therefore represent
the synthesis and culmination of the skills and
knowledge gained elsewhere on the programme.

3. What does the dissertation mean to you?
⚫ The dissertation is a key component of your
Masters programme.
⚫ It is the most substantial piece of academic
work you will produce in the course of the year.
⚫ It will also be the most personal, on a topic
largely of your own choice.
⚫ It accounts for a third all the credits for your
MA/MSc. You need a pass mark in the
dissertation to obtain your degree. Similarly,
you need a Merit/Distinction in the dissertation
to obtain an overall Merit/Distinction for your
degree.

5. Identify
the key elements
of a project
(e.g. building a house and
writing a dissertation)

6. (WHAT)
• Requirements
• Activities
• Responsibility
• Work Breakdown Structure
…
(WHEN)
• Planning
• Schedule
• Duration
…
(HOW MUCH)
• Budget
• Sources
• Skills & Methods
…
Risk

7. ⚫ Agreeing and setting the objectives – What / How
much / When
⚫ Planning how to meet the objectives
⚫ Organising the resources
⚫ Monitoring and maintaining progress –
achievement of scope / spend vs. budget /
progress vs. schedule
⚫ Communicating – supervision, presentation
⚫ Avoiding / reducing risks

8. ⚫ Structure & Contents
⚫ Word count
⚫ Formatting
⚫ Language – academic writing
⚫ Supervision
⚫ (Referencing)

9. ⚫Title Page
⚫Table of contents
⚫Author’s declaration
⚫Abstract (Do not exceed 200 Words)
⚫Acknowledgements
⚫List of illustrations, if any
⚫List of tables, if any
⚫List of figures, if any
⚫List of abbreviations, if any
⚫The main text
⚫Bibliographical references (Do not list items uncited)
⚫An appendix or appendices, if any

11. - Main text
⚫Introduction / background / research questions
⚫Literature Review / theory / framework
⚫Methodology / research design / data
⚫Results / findings / discussion
⚫Conclusions / suggestions for further research

12. - Main text
⚫Introduction / background / research questions
What everyone else thinks / what I expected
⚫Literature Review / theory / framework
What I read
⚫Methodology / research design / data
What I did
⚫Results / findings / discussion
What I found
⚫Conclusions / suggestions for further research
What I think it means

13. - 12,000 words
Word length: The maximum length of the Taught
Pathway Dissertation, including footnotes, but
excluding the bibliography as well as any
appendices, tables, images and other supporting
material, is 12,000 words. Candidates will not be
penalised for writing less than 12,000 words
provided that they cover their topic adequately.
(Handbook)

14. not included:
⚫ Title page
⚫ Abstract
⚫ Author’s declaration
⚫ Acknowledgments.
⚫ Direct quotations longer
than 70 words
⚫ Examples indented or in
tables
⚫ Examples that contain
original text/dialogue
(together with their translation
and back translation)
⚫ Bibliography
⚫ Appendices
- 12,000 words
included:
⚫ Table of contents
⚫ List of tables, if any
⚫ List of figures, if any
⚫ List of abbreviations, if any
⚫ Main body of the dissertation
⚫ Footnotes

15. ⚫ Page size and line spacing
The normal page size for dissertations is A4 (210mm x 297mm) in
portrait (vertical) format.
The text should be single-line spaced (or 1.5 lines) throughout the
whole dissertation. Paragraphs must be fully justified and a further line
space should be used between paragraphs.
⚫ Page margins and numbers
Margins must be consistent throughout the dissertation and should be
of one inch (2.54 cm) at the top and bottom and on the right and left
side of the text.
Pages must be numbered consecutively throughout the whole of the
dissertation. The exception to this pagination rule is the title page which,
although technically designated page 1, is not actually numbered.

16. ⚫ Font size
The same font type and size should be used throughout. Title and
chapter headings should be in 14 point and bold. All other text must be
in 11 or 12 point lettering.
Chapter 6
Dealing with Expletives in Subtitling
6.1 Differences in the frequency of term usage
6.1.3 Cultural references and their meaning

17. What is
academic writing?

18. Social media users in the country noticed video clips of
the cartoon were being removed on Saturday, and on
Monday, state newspaper Global Times said that the
#PeppaPig hashtag had been removed from the Douyin
video website, while searches for “Peppa Pig” on the site
produced no results.
Many papers also note that the platform appears to have
added “Peppa Pig” to its list of blacklisted content.
‘
’Non-academic
BBC news: ‘Peppa Pig blocked from China’s Douyin video platform’

19. Japan, too, is in the midst of its own colossal, collective ramen
fixation. This is the so-called “ramen boom”, which, in Tokyo alone,
sees a new shop open every day; where each week countless
newspaper articles and magazine features are published about it and
TV shows are aired; not to mention the blogs (oh, how many working
hours have I burnt browsing those back home?) and guidebooks
which contribute to the ceaseless chatter on what you'd think would
be the relatively limited subject of noodle soup. Ramen might be
Chinese in origin, but the Japanese have made it their own. A new
manga has just been launched here; its hero is a cat who runs a
ramen shop.
‘
’Non-academic
Restaurant review: ‘Souped up: A whistle-stop tour of Tokyo’s best
ramen restaurants’

20. In the first few years of the twenty-first century, women have been
the primary participants in chat rooms at Yahoo!Japan
(http://chat.yahoo.co.jp/). Young shufu (housewives) inhabit
cyberspace at all hours of the day and night, sharing their lives,
thoughts, and interactions with a virtual community of regular users.
Japanese female cyber-sociality enacts a kind of virtual intimacy that
relies in part on the visual play of kaomoji (literally “face mark”) to
establish a language of familiarity. Kaomoji such as (⁁_⁁) and (⁁⁁;),
representations of faces and bodies on the computer screen, are
ideo-graphs of emotion, sociality, and playfulness. We analyze text-
based chat room interactions including kaomoji as critical in forming
“z of imagination and interest” among housewives in Japanese
cyberspace.
‘
’Academic
Book: The Multilingual Internet Language, Culture, and Communication
Online

21. ⚫ Common abbreviations, such as e.g., et al., i.e. and
the like, can be used in the dissertation.
⚫ It’s better to spell out i.e. → in other words / that is
and e.g. → for example.
⚫ Use Latin abbreviations inside of parentheses most
of the time.
⚫ Do not use e.g. and etc. at the same time –
‘… but this linguistic conflict actually applies to most
languages of wider communication (e.g., Chinese, French,
Hindi-Urdu, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, etc.) …’ ×
- abbr.

23. ⚫ First person vs. third person –
‘I found that ...’ vs. ‘the author established that …’
⚫ Avoid ‘you’ –
‘You should note that … / You can see the results in … ’
⚫ Use dummy ‘it’ and passive voice –
‘It should be noted that … / The results can be seen in …’
⚫ The royal ‘we’ –
‘Our work suggests that previous studies in this field have
missed …’
‘We interviewed 100 students over the space of several
months …’
Be consistent!
- Pronouns

25. ⚫ but → however
⚫ anyway → moreover
⚫ about → approximately
⚫ like → for example
⚫ lots of → a significant/large amount of
- Choice of words

26. ⚫ On account of the fact of →
⚫ At the present time →
⚫ At all times →
⚫ In the majority of instances →
⚫ On the part of →
⚫ Remove altogether →
⚫ Regular weekly meetings →
⚫ Could possibly →
⚫ Previously listed above →
⚫ Visible to the eye →
⚫ Have a tendency to →
⚫ Make a calculation of →
- Choice of words

27. ⚫ On account of the fact of → because
⚫ At the present time → now, currently
⚫ At all times → always
⚫ In the majority of instances → mostly
⚫ On the part of → by
⚫ Remove altogether → remove
⚫ Regular weekly meetings → weekly meetings
⚫ Could possibly → could
⚫ Previously listed above → previously listed
⚫ Visible to the eye → visible
⚫ Have a tendency to → tend to
⚫ Make a calculation of → calculate
Simple is beautiful!
- Choice of words

28. ⚫ ‘punctuation goes inside the quote marks.’
⚫ Do not use contractions (isn’t, won’t, he’s)
he is / he has?
⚫ Brackets –
‘Remember that old spelling rhyme: “i” before “e” except after “c”
(and except in all of the cases this rule doesn’t apply [e.g. “eight”
and “glacier”]).’
‘This sort of testing is usually unreliable (as Jenner, 2012, took
pains to show).’ – APA style
‘This sort of testing is usually unreliable (as Jenner [2012] took
pains to show).’ ×
⚫ Use the Oxford comma – ‘Peppa, George, and Suzy.’
- Punctuation

31. ⚫ 1980s √ 1980’s ×
⚫ January 2018 / Jan 20 √
Jan 2018 / January, 2018 / January 20th ×
⚫ 5.00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. √
5:00 pm / 5:00 PM ×
⚫ Don’t begin a sentence with a numeral or a year.
⚫ Numbers less than one hundred, round numbers and
numbers at the beginning of sentences are spelled out
in full:
‘One hundred and forty students ...’
- Numbers

32. - Sentence length
⚫ What is the typical length of an academic sentence
you write?
⚫ How does that compare to sentence length in the
academic literature?
⚫ What should the minimum / maximum length be?

33. - Sentence length
⚫ Quality academic paragraphs should contain
a range of short, medium, and long sentences.
⚫ Short (<10)
⚫ Medium (10-25)
⚫ Long (25-45)

34. - BrE vs. AmE

35. Be consistent!
- BrE vs. AmE
British English American English
analyse analyze
organisation organization
favour favor
fufil fufill
cancelled canceled
travelling traveling
defence defense
co-operation cooperation
artefact artifact
grey gray
sceptical skeptical
‘…’ “…”

36. ⚫ Schedule your meetings as soon as possible
⚫ Agree with your supervisor which materials you will
submit for comment
⚫ Allow reasonable time for feedback (not overnight)
⚫ Keep a list of items for discussion and send them 1-2
days in advance of a meeting as an agenda
⚫ Be polite ☺

37. ⚫ You are entitled to AT LEAST three meetings with your
supervisor. Make sure you get the most out of them – be
realistic about how much you will accomplish between
meetings.
⚫ Your supervisor should read a 5000 draft section of your
work. (They are not allowed to comment on a full draft. In
most cases, they will be the first marker on your
submission.)
⚫ Your supervisor is expected to provide you with adequate
academic input and guidance to allow you to produce a
successful dissertation. HOWEVER: the responsibility of
organisation is not on them. It is your responsibility to
initiate contact and organise meetings.
What to expect from your supervisor?

38. ⚫ Sources
- Primary
- Secondary
⚫ Methods
⚫ Referencing

39. What resources do you already have?
⚫ Course slides & handouts & notes
⚫ Reading list
⚫ Textbooks & required readings
⚫ Supplementary readings
⚫ Anything else?

40. Assessment criteria
⚫ ‘The answer demonstrates in-depth reading and critical
engagement with relevant primary and secondary
materials.’
⚫ ‘The answer displays a significant amount of independent
thinking, reading and research.’

41. ⚫ Primary sources are original texts –
the texts subject to analysis or to be translated
⚫ Personal testimonies and correspondence (diaries and
letters)
⚫ Government records (official documents, census data,
parliamentary minutes, correspondence, etc.)
⚫ Company records (bookkeeping, advertising, staff
numbers, correspondence, etc.)
⚫ Speeches and interviews
⚫ Newspapers, magazines, and journals
⚫ Technical texts and literary works
⚫ Novels, films, TV programmes, documentaries, and
video games

42. ⚫ Secondary sources are materials that offer
an interpretation of primary sources
⚫ Critical works
⚫ Comments
⚫ Reference Books
⚫ Journal Articles
⚫ Newspapers

43. ⚫ Originality – no copycat!
⚫ Argument – support your conclusions? agree or disagree?
⚫ Relevance – make sure the research you’re doing / the
source you’re using is relevant to the essay you’re writing
⚫ Critical analysis – Is it valid? Is it the best?
⚫ Enjoy!
vs.

44. Major British resources
⚫ UCL Library
⚫ The British Library (Euston Rd, London)
⚫ The British Newspaper Library
⚫ Senate House (round the corner)
⚫ University of London libraries
⚫ National Archives (Kew, a short train journey from London)
⚫ British Film Institute (Southbank, London)
⚫ Imperial War Museum (Lambeth, London)
⚫ Mass Observation (University of Sussex, Brighton)
⚫ Others include V&A; National Railway Museum; Army
Museum; British Postal Museum and Archive; Cinema
Museum …

45. Other resources
⚫ Google book and Google scholar search
⚫ JSTOR (a digital library of academic journals, books, and
primary sources)
⚫ Always ask your supervisor if you need help finding or
accessing further resources

46. Do not use Wikipedia for
an academic source!

47. Refine your keywords
For a study into Costa Rican literature JSTOR has:
⚫ ‘Costa Rica’ – 87,835 results
⚫ Field: ‘Costa Rican literature’ – 10,454 results
⚫ Author: ‘Quince Duncan’ – 755 results
⚫ Author and book: ‘Quince Duncan Kimbo’ – 9 results

48. Explain your methodology:
⚫ Empirical: this will involve detailing any data collection or
archival work you have done and how and why you have
engaged with chosen first-hand materials.
⚫ Theoretical: methodologies in more theoretically-
weighted projects still need explaining. What theoretical
approach or combination of approaches did you use?
Why was this the appropriate choice? Where does it fit
within current work in the field?

49. ⚫ Sophisticated use of primary sources (particularly for
empirical projects)
⚫ Critical and original engagement with secondary
sources (particularly for theoretical projects)
--

50. ⚫ Editing & formatting – Word / Pages / WPS …
⚫ Presentation – PowerPoint / Prezi / Keynote …
⚫ Presenting & analyzing data – Excel / Numbers / SPSS /
N-gram …
⚫ Referencing – EndNote / Zotero / Google scholar …
⚫ Translation system & software
- Tools

51. - Where?
⚫ In text
⚫ In footnotes / endnotes
⚫ In reference list

52. - Styles
⚫ APA
⚫ Chicago
⚫ Harvard
⚫ Vancouver
⚫ MLA
⚫ MHRA
⚫ Examples → https://www.ntnu.edu/viko/apa-examples
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/training/guides/webguides/refscites
plag

53. APA
(Dybvig & Dybvig, 2003, p. 50)
Dybvig, D. D., & Dybvig, M. (2003). Det tenkende mennesket. Filosofi-
og vitenskapshistorie med vitenskapsteori (2nd ed.). Trondheim:
Tapir akademisk forlag.
Chicago
(Dybvig and Dybvig 2003, 50)
Dybvig, Dagfinn D. and Magne Dybvig. 2003. Det tenkende mennesket:
filosofi- og vitenskapshistorie med vitenskapsteori. 2nd ed.
Trondheim: Tapir akademisk forlag.
Harvard
(Dybvig and Dybvig, 2003, p. 50)
Dybvig, D.D. and Dybvig, M. (2003) Det tenkende mennesket: filosofi-
og vitenskapshistorie med vitenskapsteori. 2nd edn. Trondheim:
Tapir akademisk forlag.
- Book

54. APA
(Kwan & Mapstone, 2004, p. 309)
Kwan, I., & Mapstone, J. (2004). Visibility aids for pedestrians and
cyclists: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.
Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3), 305-312.
Chicago
(Kwan and Mapstone 2004, 309)
Kwan, Irene and James Mapstone. 2004. Visibility aids for pedestrians
and cyclists: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.
Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3): 305-312.
Harvard
(Kwan and Mapstone, 2004, p. 309)
Kwan, I. and Mapstone, J. (2004) Visibility aids for pedestrians and
cyclists: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials,
Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3), pp. 305-312.
- Journal article

55. - Tools
⚫ EndNote
⚫ Zotero
⚫ Mendeley
⚫ BibLaTex
⚫ Google Scholar
Stand on the shoulders of giants

56. Reading is not writing!

58. I’ll write when
I feel ready.
Start before you feel ready.
Finish before you feel ready.

59. ⚫ Key dates – deadlines!!!
⚫ Planning
⚫ Progress review – Presentation Day
⚫ Procrastination

60. - Key dates
⚫ Thursday 7th June: Presentation day
⚫ Monday 3rd September: Dissertation deadline!!!
⚫ Deferrals: if you think you’re going to need a deferral,
make sure to contact your supervisor and the
departmental administrator as early as possible.

61. Planning really works!

62. Progress review

63. ⚫ Experience: the day is run in a conference-style format.
Whether you’re hoping to progress to further academic
study or into work after the MA, speaking publicly on your
topic is good experience.
⚫ Clarity: the requirement to condense and express your
ideas in this format at this stage will help you crystallise
your own ideas about your project.
⚫ Feedback: this is a great opportunity to gather some new
opinions on your work.
⚫ Peer review: you should find listening to the other
presentations is helpful.
⚫ NB don’t go home or wander off after your own
presentation is done. It’s bad academic form, and your
peers deserve your time and attention too.
- Purpose

64. should:
⚫ Give a clear outline of the topic and of the
research question
⚫ Introduce and explain the topic to those who are
not necessarily experts in that field
⚫ State why this research question is significant
⚫ Outline the methodological approach

65. What makes
a good presentation?

66. - Three V’s

68. What makes
a bad presentation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5c1susCPAE

69. ⚫ 10~15 min talk + questions
⚫ Maximum 9 slides (including title page)
⚫ Maximum 5 lines of text
⚫ Give each slide a title
⚫ The most useful tip is …
- Tips

70. Practice!!!

72. ‘The action or habit of postponing or
putting something off; delay, dilatoriness.’
(OED definition)
Procrastibaking…

73. ⚫ Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
by Tim Urban
⚫ https://www.ted.com/playlists/462/talks_for_procrastinators

74. ⚫ Leave plenty of time for final editing and review
(1-2 weeks recommended)
⚫ Do not leave referencing and bibliography to the end
– cite while you write, in accordance with your style
sheet, especially for online sources and access dates

75. Risk: an uncertain event or condition which,
if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect
on project objectives.

76. - writer’s block

78. Self-care and work-life balance
Dissertation time is stressful, but it shouldn’t take over
your whole life! Remember to make sure you take
plenty of breaks and enjoy yourself too. It’s often a
good idea to plan your schedule so that you have
enough free time. And if you’re feeling anxious, support
is available from:
⚫ Your supervisor
⚫ Your personal tutor
⚫ UCL Student Psychological Services
⚫ Students’ Union UCL Welfare Services

79. Is the project finished?
Can we move in now?
Nope.

80. Before next session…
⚫ Come up with a tweet-like description of your project
(100 characters or less), and/or an applicable image
and email to ai.zhong.14@ucl.ac.uk (it can be as
informal as you like – in fact, the more accessible,
the better!)
⚫ Think about the part(s) you are most worried about
(Intro, LR, Methodology & Data, Discussion,
Conclusion…) – send it to me as well!
⚫ If anyone is happy to share and get feedback on
their own abstracts, please do bring them along next
time. ☺