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Dissertation

Module description

A good dissertation is a core element of a successful Masters degree. It equips you with key, transferable research skills that will be invaluable to your career whether you decide to take up PhD research or not. A dissertation is not a long essay. It has a certain number of core components that must be evident to varying degrees. Like a good essay, it must demonstrate research skills, independent learning, good organization of complex material, clarity and erudite expression. This module will help you structure that process of writing a dissertation and it will equip you well for further research, at PhD level or in professional employment. So, the skills you learn on this module will be integral to your future careers. You will learn how to devise a manageable research question, locate your ideas in existing debates, how to conduct a literature review and plan the research, and how to develop a short research proposal and write extended pieces of work.
Nevertheless, a Masters dissertation will be driven primarily by your own interests, the questions you devise and the material you want to research. It will be a mark of your own initiative, independence and inquisitiveness. You should expect to start thinking about and working on your dissertation immediately on beginning the Programme. Good early preparation will stand you in good stead later.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aims of this module are to equip you with the professional skills needed to conduct an extended piece of research and writing. You will have the time and guidance to engage with core debates across the sub-disciplines of politics, equipping you well with practical skills and contributing to your intellectual development. The aims of this module are also to enable you to write an extended piece of independent writing, around a topic of your own choosing, in communication with an academic supervisor in your chosen area. It will allow you to demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge in a particular subject area of professional or intellectual interest. The dissertation will be a mark of your ability to express yourself in writing.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate knowledge in depth of a specialised subject area.
• 2. Design an individual research programme, incorporating appropriate social science research methods.
• 3. Collate and analyse subject-specific information from a range of appropriate sources.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Develop the skills requisite to conducting an extended piece of academic writing, including: devising a research question, proposal and literature review; organizing and summarizing key literatures, debates, ideas and controversies.
• 5. Locate your own research in key disciplinary debates, controversies and developments.
• 6. Assimilate and critically analyse data from an appropriate range of sources, from policy papers to canonical texts in the history of political thought.
• 7. Develop a cogent argument.
• 8. Communicate complex information and ideas effectively in writing.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 9. Use IT for information retrieval and presentation.
• 10. Manage own work.

Syllabus plan

At least four supervision meetings: one to initiate the dissertation followed by three meetings to give academic guidance including specific feedback on draft work.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

G King, R Keohane and S Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton UP, 1994);

D Burton (ed), Research Training for Social Scientists: A Handbook for Postgraduate Researchers (Sage, 2000).

I. Furseth and E.L. Everett, Doing Your Master′s Dissertation: From Start to Finish (Sage, 2013).

D. Ridley, The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students (Sage, 2008).

B. Lucinda, Writing successful reports and dissertations (Sage, 2015).

P.C. Shon, How to read journal articles in the social sciences: a very practical guide for students (Sage, 2015).

M.S. Felix and I. Smith, A Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing (Cambridge Scholars Publisher, 2019).

Subject-specific reading will varying according to research topic.

Key words search

Politics Dissertation