UNIT 3

Theme: How to write master’s dissertation (introductory course)

Objectives: identify the aims of your dissertation; learn how to write research proposal; analyze
the features of writing the dissertation
Methodical instructions: This theme must be worked out during two lessons a week according
to timetable and its result can be achieved through extension the use of academic language in
speech activity: speaking, reading, writing and listening:
- The formation of listening skills can be developed when using a class video;
- The development of writing skills must be exercised through self-work tasks;
- Reading skills should be improved in course of working on training materials the content
of which is intended to be understood in full;
- Speaking skills can be developed through active communication on the Unit’s topics.
1. Introduction
The dissertation is the final stage of the Masters degree and provides you with the opportunity to
show that you have gained the necessary skills and knowledge in order to organise and conduct a
research project. It should demonstrate that you are skilled in identifying an area, or areas,
suitable for research: setting research objectives; locating, organising and critically analysing the
relevant secondary data and authoritative literature; devising an appropriate research
methodology; analysing the primary data selected and drawing on the literature in the field;
drawing conclusions; and if appropriate making relevant recommendations and indications of
areas for further research.
A dissertation is a ‘formal’ document and there are ‘rules’ that govern the way in which it is
presented. It must have chapters that provide an introduction, a literature review, a justification
of the data selected for analysis and research methodology, analysis of the data and, finally,
conclusions and recommendations. Where the subject is based around a business or an applied
situation recommendations for action may also be required. Advice on the range of suitable
topics which relate to the subject area of your Masters degree will be approved by your
Programme Director or course dissertation co-ordinator.
The Masters level dissertation is distinguished from other forms of writing by its attempt to
analyse situations in terms of the ‘bigger picture’. It seeks answers, explanations, makes
comparisons and arrives at generalisations which can be used to extend theory. As well as
explaining what can be done, it addresses the underlying why. The most successful dissertations
are those which are specific and narrowly focused.
You should read this guide before starting your dissertation and consult it as necessary
throughout the process. This will help you to make a start to your dissertation and make more
effective use of your meeting sessions with your supervisor.
2. The Dissertation in Outline.
2.1. Aims of the Dissertation
The aims of the dissertation are to:
put into practice theories and concepts learned on the programme;
provide an opportunity to study a particular topic in depth;
show evidence of independent investigation;
combine relevant theories and suggest alternatives;
enable interaction with practitioners (where appropriate to the chosen topic);
show evidence of ability to plan and manage a project within deadlines

After completion of the dissertation you should be able to:

define, design and deliver an academically rigorous piece of research;
understand the relationships between the theoretical concepts taught in class and their application
in specific situations;
show evidence of a critical and holistic knowledge and have a deeper understanding of their
chosen subject area;
appreciate practical implications and constraints of the specialist subject;
Understand the process and decisions to be made in managing a project within strict deadlines
3. The Dissertation.
3.1. The Research Proposal
The research proposal is an important working document and which over the next few months
becomes transformed into the dissertation. You will see that the main sections replicate the
structure of the dissertation.
Used correctly, the proposal will become your road map through the dissertation process.
Because of a wide variety of circumstances the focus of your research may change. If this
happens then you should change your proposal document and also agree with your academic
supervisor that such a change is appropriate.
The research proposal shows that you have thought through what the main research objectives
are to be, that you have identified the main sources of primary and secondary data and that you
have given thought as to the research methodology. The Proposal should provide your academic
supervisor with a ‘detailed skeleton’ of the whole dissertation; the fine details are added when
the literature review is completed and the primary research has been undertaken.
The research proposal should include:
(a) A working title
Your title can and probably will change but using precise wording even at this early stage will
help to keep your dissertation properly focused.
b) An Introduction to the Topic
This will include a brief description of the topic, the aim, research objectives and research
questions to be addressed
You will find that moving from research aim to research objectives, to research questions is quite
a difficult task. This, however, will provide a clear focus to your research and help you structure
both this research proposal and the final dissertation.
The aim of the research provides a description of what you want to achieve from carrying out
this research.
The objectives of the research outline the particular issues that you need to address in order to
achieve the aim above. They are more specific than the aim, in that they outline the particular
dimensions of your research topic, which are relevant to the overall aim of your research.
The research questions are more specific than your research objectives and specify the various
insights/information that need to be collected in order to achieve the objectives. Keep in mind
that the research question often starts with a Why, How, or What.
(c) A Preliminary Literature Review which indicates: (i) that you have studied the work of the
major authors in your research field (ii) that you are familiar with the major themes relevant to
that subject area (iii) what further investigations you intend to pursue as part of this dissertation.
You should bear in mind that you are reviewing the literature in order to develop sharper, more
insightful and focused research questions about your topic. Therefore, your literature review
should lead to and justify your research objectives and questions.
(d) The Detailed Research Methodology which you intend to employ. The methodology
section should discuss what methods you are going to use in order to address the research
objectives of your dissertation. You need to justify why the chosen methods were selected as the
most appropriate for your research, amongst the many alternative ones, given its specific
objectives, and constraints you may face in terms of access, time and so on. Reference to general
advantages and disadvantages of various methods and techniques without specifying their
relevance to your choice decision is unacceptable. Remember to relate the methods back to the
needs of your research question.
(e) Timetable detailing how you anticipate completing the dissertation by the submission date
and, if a company-based project, the means of liaising with the company to ensure the specific
objectives are achieved.
3.2. Writing the Dissertation
Deadlines: There is no single start date for you to begin your dissertation as you will be
preparing the early ideas and initial reviews in the course of Semester 2. You will be given a
specific date to submit which cannot be changed. The Programme Director will provide you with
the deadline date allocated to your programme.
3.2.1. Title Page:
The opening page including all the relevant information about the thesis.
3.2.2. Abstract
The dissertation should contain an abstract of up to 350 words. A good abstract is difficult to
write and can only be completed after the full dissertation has been written. It represents a brief
summary of the results of the dissertation research. By summarising the results of the research, it
allows other people to get an idea of what was accomplished without having to read through the
whole dissertation. The abstract should provide sufficient information about the results of the
research that reading the full dissertation is not necessary, although your markers will read the
full dissertation.
• Hints as to what to include in your abstract:
Aim and objectives: What are the main themes, ideas or areas of theory being investigated?
Boundaries: What is the context and background to this dissertation? In what areas of theory or
business practice should the reader concentrate their attention?
Methodology: What was/were the main method(s) employed to generate the results?
Results: What were your main findings?
Conclusions: What are the main conclusions that you arrive at when viewing the entire
dissertation?
Recommendations: (if appropriate) What solutions do you offer in answer to the problems
posed in the research objectives?
3.2.3. Contents Page:
The contents page should list the chapter headings, appendices, references and the pages on
which they can be found. Separate listing should be given for lists of figures, tables and
abbreviations.
3.2.4. Introduction.
The dissertation should be divided into chapters and sections appropriate to the topic and type of
dissertation chosen. You should discuss the overall structure of your dissertation with your
academic supervisor.
The Introduction to the dissertation should set out the background to the research study and
address the following areas:
The context in which the research took place
What is the background, the context, in which the research took place?
Why is this subject or issue important?
Who are the key participants and/or ‘actors’ in the area under investigation?
Are there important trends or pivotal variables of which the reader needs to be made aware?
A clear and succinct statement of the aims and objectives that the dissertation is going to address.
Have you presented a clear and unambiguous exposition of your research aim, the objectives you
will address to meet this aim and your research questions?
The way the Dissertation is to be organised
You should write your dissertation with the idea in mind that the intended reader and reviewer
has some shared understanding of the area being investigated, however, underpinning concepts
and arguments still need to be included as otherwise the depth of research will be compromised.
This short final section of the Introduction should tell the reader what topics are going to be
discussed in each of the chapters and how the chapters are related to each other.
3.2.5. Literature Review:
The main reasons for the inclusion, in a Masters dissertation, of a literature review section are:
To present and to analyze, in a critical manner, that part of the published literature which is
relevant to your research topic and which acts as the basis for a fuller understanding of the
context in which you are conducting your research.
To act as a backdrop against which what you have done in the remainder of the dissertation may
be analyzed and critically evaluated so as to give the reader the opportunity to assess the worth
of your writing, analytical and research skills.
To show that not only have you discovered and reported what you have found to be relevant in
the literature search, but that you have understood it and that you are able to analyze it in a
critical manner.
To show that your knowledge of the area of interest is detailed enough that you are able to
identify gaps in the coverage of the topic; thus justifying the reason(s) for your research.
To enable readers to be able to measure the validity of your choice(s) of research methodology,
the appropriateness of the process by which you analyze your results, and whether or not your
findings are congruent with the accepted research which has gone before.
The literature review is presented in the form of a precis, a classification, a comparison and a
critical analysis of that material which is germane to a full understanding of your research study.
Remember that your literature review should lead and justify the research objectives and
questions of your dissertation. Your literature review should not just be a catalogue of
authors, frameworks and ideas but should attempt to introduce a critical evaluation of
those authors work.
3.2.6. Research Methodology.
You should begin the Research Methodology chapter by stating, again, the research objectives of
the project. This will enable the reader to make an assessment as to the validity of your chosen
research methodology.
This chapter is that part of the dissertation where you have the opportunity to justify to the reader
the process by which the research questions, which were derived by an analysis of the relevant
literature, were answered. It is not sufficient to say, for example, “suitable respondents were
sampled using a quota sampling technique and then surveyed using a postal questionnaire” and
then leave it at that. It might well be the case that, given the problem(s) to be investigated, such a
choice of research methods is entirely appropriate. However, if you have not taken the
opportunity to justify your research choices to a reader they could be correct in assuming that
you have, by chance, merely guessed at what would work and, more by luck than judgement,
arrived at the ‘correct’ solution to the problem.
The chapter on research methodology must, painstakingly argue for, and justify each, decision
that is taken when arriving at the way in which the research is to be organised. Every time that
you, the researcher, have to make a choice from a number of options, you must state what each
of these are, why you made the choice you did, and why you rejected those not used.
3.2.7. Findings / Results / Data Analysis.
This chapter presents the evidence and/or results of primary research which you have
undertaken. Depending upon your subject area this can be in the form of detailed quantitative
models, hypothesis testing to some basic analysis using basic descriptive statistics or qualitative
techniques dealing with structured content analysis, textual analysis, to case study descriptions.
The main part of the chapter is the presentation of the data that you obtained. Even projects of
relatively moderate dimensions will generate a large amount of data which has to be considered.
This data must be organised in a logical and coherently ordered wholeso that your thought
processes and interpretation are clear to the reader.
Whatever form of data analysis has been undertaken, it must be accomplished with care and
attention to detail, as should the way in which the results are presented. Nothing is guaranteed to
frustrate a reader more than to have to plough their way through an arid mass of tables, figures
and statistics
Graphs, diagrams, pie-charts etc. are all useful ways of presenting research results; they are an
imaginative way of ‘breaking up’ solid blocks of text – they let a little ‘light’ into the body of the
text as long as they are relevant and illustrate your points.
Not all dissertations contain quantitative data. In many situations, students will have made
extensive use of qualitative research techniques such as focus groups and/or in-depth
unstructured interviews. While quantitative data lends itself to graphs, tables and so on,
qualitative data, and the way it is presented, pose particular challenges for students. As ever,
your objective should be based on the belief that the data must be presented in such a manner as
to make it easy for the reader to follow the logic of the analysis.
The analysis of qualitative data should be based on the research questions and issues that you
explored during your fieldwork.
Many students make the mistake of providing a very superficial, descriptive analysis of
qualitative data. This does not allow you to demonstrate that the research you undertook was of a
substantive nature. Tables can also be included that reflect the respondent’s overall attitudes,
perceptions and views about the themes.
3.2.9. Discussion.
In the introduction to the dissertation you described the context of the research. In the literature
survey you analysed the work of previously published authors and derived a set of questions that
needed to be answered to fulfil the objectives of this study. In the research methodology section
you showed the reader what techniques were available, what their advantages and disadvantages
were, and what guided you to make the choice you did. In the results section, you present to the
reader the outcome of the research exercise.
The introduction of this chapter reminds the reader what, exactly, were the research objectives.
Your review of the literature and your evaluation of the various themes, issues and frameworks
helped you to develop a more specific set of research questions. In essence, your analysis of the
data that you have collected from your fieldwork should provide answers to these questions. You
should, as a matter of priority, focus attention on data that is directly relevant to the research
questions. You should avoid the mistake of including analysis that might be interesting in a
general way, but is not linked to the original direction of the dissertation.
This is the heart of the dissertation and must be more than descriptive. This chapter
develops analytic and critical thinking on primary results and analysis with reference to
theoretical arguments grounded in the literature review. You should try to highlight where there
are major differences and similarities from the literature or between different groups. Where a
model or framework of analysis has been used or is being developed you should highlight the
main relationships as well as explaining the reason and significance behind features or decisions
being discussed.
3.2.10. Conclusions.
Here you will bring together the work of the dissertation by showing how the initial research
plan has been addressed in such a way that conclusions may be formed from the evidence of the
dissertation. No new material or references should be placed here. The conclusions should make
a statement on the extent to which each of the aims and objectives has been met. You should
bring back your research questions and state clearly your understanding of those questions. Be
careful not to make claims that are not substantiated from the evidence you have presented in
earlier chapters.
3.2.11. References:
All references used in writing the dissertation (whether direct quotations or paraphrasing) should
be included in a reference list/bibliography, compiled in alphabetical order by author.
3.2.12. Appendices:
Appendices may be used to provide relevant supporting evidence for reference but should only
be used if necessary. Students may wish to include in appendices, evidence which confirms the
originality of their work or illustrates points of principle set out in the main text, questionnaires,
and interview guidelines. Only subsidiary material should be included in appendices.
Unit summary
Answer the questions:
1. What must the dissertation’s chapters provide?
2. What are the aims of the dissertation?
3. What should research proposal include?
4. Which hints should be included in your abstract?
5. Which points can the context have in which the research took place?
6. What are the main reasons of a literature review section?
7. What is Research Methodology?
8. What can you tell about the findings/results/data
analysis/introduction/conclusions/references/appendices of the dissertation?
Self work task:
Writing:
1. Aims of your research
2. Objectives of your research
3. Research question
4. Research statement