WRITING YOUR

DISSERTATION
Hints and Tips
WHAT WE WILL COVER TODAY

• Supports for dissertation writing

• Rubric for the dissertation
• Tips for the process of writing
• Section Hints and Tips
 DISSERTATION SUBMISSION
• SPECIFICATIONS
Familiarise yourself with the specific requirements of the dissertation as you begin your writing. This will help
you to organise the dissertation structure.
• The dissertation should not exceed 20,000 words inclusive of appendices, footnotes, tables and bibliography –
This is noted in the student handbook.
• It is expected that most dissertations will be between 15,000 and 20,000. It is ordinarily not expected that a
dissertation contain less than 10,000 words.
• Familiarise yourself with the technical aspects of the layout – Margins, Font type, Font Size, Page Numbering.
Make sure to be consistent throughout the dissertation. This can be found on pg 39 of the Postgraduate
Handbook: Microsoft Word - Postgraduate Dissertation Handbook 2021-22.docx (ncirl.ie)
• Make sure to follow Harvard Style referencing throughout the body of work, both for intext citations and your
bibliography. The NCI library have good resources to help with this on the following page:
https://libguides.ncirl.ie/thesisguide/business
• Follow the initial layout for the beginning of the dissertation:
• Title page
• Abstract
• Declaration All of this information can be found on the Research Methods Moodle
• Acknowledgements Page in the document title Dissertation Submission Specifics.
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
 FOLLOW THE MARKING CRITERIA
• This is not a trick – Other lecturers have said this, and stressed this point in their lectures – your rubric is
the guide to how your dissertation will be assessed. PLEASE read and re-read the rubric as you develop
the dissertation.

Expected Rubric Structure Awarded Grades

Abstract & Introduction 10%
Literature Review 20%
Research Question 5%
Methodology 20%
Analysis and Findings 20%
Discussion 15%
Conclusion 5%
Referencing and Structure 5%
Total Dissertation 100%
 FOLLOW THE MARKING CRITERIA
• The Postgraduate Handbook has a number of helpful guides indicating the marking criteria for the dissertation.
• Please Note: The MAHRM programme has a specific marking rubric with additional requirements included that meet CIPD
expectations.
• As you progress through your writing, look at both the marking criteria and dissertation check list as a way to gauge where you are
regarding the communication of your study. Have you included the required information on your dissertation?
• Familiarising yourself with the requirements of the marking criteria will help you as you write the sections of your dissertation.
Knowing the required structure of the criteria will also help you to develop a detailed structure for your own work.
Indication of what should be
included % of marks allocated for the Categorisation of the grading
section

Sections that
should be included
 WRITING THE RESEARCH REPORT

• This might sound like a simple task. But in truth this is the final and in some cases the most difficult hurdle.
• For many this might be the first time writing a research document of any length. – Receiving any opportunity in
feedback can be crucial. This is where feedback from your supervisor will become invaluable.
• Please Note: If you have been allocated a supervisor but have not contacted them make sure to do so.
• Communicating your research is the final aspect of the dissertation that you will be judged upon – How well can
you communicate your research project?

“I have not come across many students who consider writing-up an easy a hassle-free process. In fact, writing up is
almost always approached with a sense of apprehension and wariness. And, in many ways this is justified…there are
many consequences attached to the quality of your write-up – research is often judged not by what you did, but by
your ability to report on what you did.”
Zina O’Leary (2017, 352)
 GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE PROCESS

• O’Leary offers 4 strategies to start the write-up.

• 1) begin - The Process of writing up starts when you begin your research.
• 2) See writing as part of the research journey rather than an account of it.
• 3) Engage others by crafting a good story
• 4) Accept the need to draft and re-draft
GETTING TO
GRIPS WITH
THE PROCESS
• 1) begin - The Process of writing up
starts when you begin your research.

• Think about the way your

dissertation breaks down – What are
the chapters and the subsections in
each chapter?
• As the work has progressed you have
laid the ground work for most or all
of your dissertation sections.
• A lot of work has gone into
constructing these sections
• Now the process requires ordering
these sections to fit the rest of the
thesis.
STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH PROJECT
• Introduction (Position of the research)
• Review of the literature

Main Body • Research Question and Objectives

Argument • Methodology
Research
• Analysis & Findings
• Discussion
• Conclusion

• Appendices (Optional)
Supporting information
Literature search
• Bibliography
Referencing
 STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH PROJECT
• Introduction (aims of the research)
• Review of the literature
• Sub Section 1
• Sub Section 2
• Sub Section 3
• Research Question and Objectives
• Methodology
Main Body • Philosophical Assumptions
Argument
• Research Design
Research
• Sampling
• Data Analysis
• Limitations
• Ethical Considerations
• Section Conclusion
• Analysis & Findings
• Discussion
• Conclusion
GETTING TO
GRIPS WITH
THE PROCESS
• 2) See writing as part of the
research journey rather than an
account of it.

• Leading from point 1 it is

important to see your work as a
journey from the initial stages of
topic discovery to the answering
of your very own research
question.
• Try to get into the habit of writing
a little often. This will help in the
long run.
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE PROCESS

• Set yourself limits throughout the work.

• Think about the scale of what you are doing –
Split the work down into smaller manageable
parts.
• Think about the Scope of the dissertation –
What is the focus of the specific section you
are writing ?
• Doing this will also help you make decisions
on the information that you are including into
the work.
GETTING TO
GRIPS WITH
THE PROCESS
• 3) Engage others by crafting a good
story
• Understanding that your research is a
journey in and of itself can help with
writing, and to see that the aim of
the write-up is to tell a story.
• As with any story there is a
beginning, middle and end. Your
dissertation should follow this age old
formulae.
• A question to begin
• Finding a way to answer the
question in the middle
• An answer that concludes the story
GETTING TO
GRIPS WITH
THE PROCESS
• 4) Accept the need to draft and re-
draft
• This is the time consuming and
seemingly never ending aspect all
researchers must face.
• Drafting your work will only make
it better, but we have to be willing
to allow others and ourselves to
critique the work with an aim of
communicating a well researched
topic and joining the wider field of
discussion.
GETTING TO GRIPS
WITH THE PROCESS:
ATTEMPT - ASSESS -
MODIFY

• Drafting the work means a constant

return to the sections that you have
written.
• It is always a good idea to PAUSE after
writing a particular section.
• Think about the process for this –
attempt a first draft at the work.
• Go back and assess what has been
written.
• Modify the writing as you re-read it
 ADAPTING TO THE UNEXPECTED
• Within research, and life in general, there may be times when the unexpected will cause you as a
researcher to alter and adapt aspects of your research to accommodate the circumstances that have
arisen.
• One of the most common experiences many researchers have to deal with is a change in the methods
of data collection. For example, you may plan to conduct interviews but you do not receive any willing
participants. How does your research deal with this?
• While this may seem like the end of the research, there is always an option to forge ahead. Some great
pieces of work have been developed through alternative analytic approaches.

• Always Record your steps and any responses. – This will become useful in your write up.
• When adjusting your methods of analysis think about the rationale that would lie behind new options.
• How will these new approaches help to answer your research question?
• Will you have to refine or readjust your overarching research question?
• What alternative analytical approaches have been proposed in your literature review?
 ADAPTING TO THE UNEXPECTED
• Using technology as an alternative to face-to-face interviews is becoming a common practice within studies, especially where international participants and
sampling are sought.
• Modern communications allow the researcher to alter the way in which a participant is interviewed. This can be through real-time chat applications (Skype,
facetime), social media application (Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook – These can be used as an alternative setting for a focus group), email interview (the
respondent answers email questions).
• Remember there can be drawbacks particularly around the proficiency of the participant and their access to the technology in question – this may be a
consideration of resampling during unforeseen circumstances.
• Below are two studies that illustrate ways in which interviews were conducted using technology.

• Instant messaging interviews: see Jowett, A., Peel, E., & Shaw, R. (2011). Online interviewing in psychology: Reflections on the process. Qualitative Research in
Psychology, 8(4), 354-369. see https://
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/47968316/Jowett_A_Peel_E_and_Shaw_RL_2011_Online.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%
20filename%3DJowett_A_Peel_E_and_Shaw_RL_2011_Online.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F
20200319%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200319T124226Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=fa763
7084ab7cbf57834a3b2460ce8e781c84106f3f72f77a7d63d6c938897fb

• Conducting interviews via Skype (or Zoom, FaceTime etc) Lo Iacono, V., Symonds, P., & Brown, D. H. (2016). Skype as a tool for qualitative research interviews.
Sociological Research Online, 21(2), 1-15. see
https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10369/7883/Skype%20as%20a%20Tool%20for%20Qualitative%20Research%20Interviews-Lo%20Iacano
%20V.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
 ADAPTING TO THE UNEXPECTED
• Where interviews and questionnaires are no longer viable options researchers can often turn to analytic techniques as a
way to understand particular phenomena. One of the most common relates to discourse analysis, or looking at ways
others have discussed the issue under investigation.
• The Below examples offer ways in which other researchers have approached these methods of analysis.

• Analyzing discourse within the media (e.g. commentary pieces and letters to editors). see for example method in this
paper Jowett, A. (2017). ‘One can hardly call them homophobic’: Denials of antigay prejudice within the same-sex
marriage debate. Discourse & Society, 28(3), 281-295 see
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313235388_%27One_can_hardly_call_them_homophobic%27_Denials_of_ant
igay_prejudice_within_the_same-sex_marriage_debate

• Analyzing online forums, see Jowett, A. (2015). A case for using online discussion forums in critical psychological research.
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), 287-297.
https://see
https://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/file/d01f7b43-5ab9-4020-bd9c-89d4e043b1eb/1/Using%20online%20forums%20in%2
0critical%20psychology%20%28revised_version%29.pdf
• Analyzing Social Media Platforms, Ward, J (2016) A Content Analysis of Celebrity Instagram Posts and Parasocial
Interaction, Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, Vol 7, No1.
 WRITING TO LEARN

In the traditional model of research writing, the write-up does no get done until the research is completed
and everything is figured out. ‘I’ve done all the research, now I am writing it up’. Implicit in this is the idea
that I don’t start the writing until I have got it all worked out. This is Writing to report. A different view sees
writing as a way of learning, a way of knowing, a form of analysis and inquiry. This is the idea of writing to
work it out.
Keith Punch (2014, 342)

• The process of writing can be a great help in developing the analytical picture that you aim to portray.
 ABSTRACT & INTRODUCTION
Abstract and Ability to summarise, articulate and explain the thesis topic. To frame the research 10%
introduction topic and develop rationale for same within relevant theory and literature.

• While they are the beginning of your document, it is often a good idea to write these last when you have more of the
finer points understood within the document.
• Both Abstract and Introduction signpost what is coming – Some of you may have seen this in your feedback. This is
where you point toward what is coming in the following dissertation, what your argument is, what your research
position is, and how you look to measure this.
• Abstract – between 300 and 500 words. – Generally you look to include Context or Background of the study in a general
way. The Overarching Research Question or problem that you have identified. What is known in the field and how
others may have looked at similar phenomena. Reasoning and/or Rationale for the study to take place. Reference to the
Methods employed, Findings/Results that are put forward in the study – what is the significance of these findings.
• The Introduction has more detail than the abstract and helps to provide a background and context to the study.
• Highlight your research question and establish both the position and argument that you are putting forward – This is
often done in the context of the literature and identifies the gap that your work falls into.
 ABSTRACT LAYOUT

• Adapted From: writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/

 ABSTRACT LAYOUT

• Adapted From: writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/

 LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review Ability to determine, situate, and synthesise appropriate theoretical 20%
concepts within an overall conceptual framework. Ability to frame
proposed study within the relevant academic literature.

• This is where you illustrate the broader field of study by discussing and critiquing the work that has
formed your knowledge on the subject you are studying.
• Include a small introduction and conclusion to the literature review – this would go with every major
section that you would develop in the dissertation.
• Organise the themes that you come across within the literature. Sub-section or themes will help you
later in the dissertation.
• Look to critique the work that you are discussing, this will help to support your research
position/argument. – this is how you begin to situate your work within the broader field.
 RESEARCH QUESTION
• As your research develops you might refine the question – this is OK. Your
question does not have to be static and elements of this might change. – Research Ability to 5%
Question formulate
Reflect on this as you work through the dissertation sections, think about:
and
• has the literature affected the framing of your question? articulate
robust, well
• Has access affected the framing of your research question? formed,
• Include a description of your research – what is your question looking to credible and
realistic
cover, where is the gap in the research? Here you can point out how the research
previous literature review has generated the research question. questions,
• Break your question down – as an overarching question it might be the research
propositions
case that you have elements that feed this driving question what are appropriate
these sub-questions. for study.
• From these you may organise and develop objectives – these might
presented as hypothesis or just clear objectives – tell the reader what
these are.
 METHODOLO
GY Methodology Ability to determine,
situate, and
20%

synthesise
• This is an opportunity to showcase how you have understood the appropriate
broader field and will now apply you own design to capture methodological
information in the hope of answering your overarching question. concepts within an
• Use terminology and concepts to illustrate its relevance to your overall conceptual
own work. (This is NOT a place to discuss what methodological framework.
terminology means, but rather how it applies to your own work). Thoughtful
development of a
• Justify your approach – what is the rationale for your research research
design and instrument? methodology
• General section of the Methodology chapter include: appropriate to
proposed study.
• Research Philosophy
• Research Sample
• Research instrument
• Data analysis method
• Limitations
 ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
• For Quantitative work thing about how you are using wither graphs and/or charts
to illustrate the findings.
• Label any illustrative work and describe what you are showing to the reader – Analysis Academic 20%
don’t make the reader do unnecessary work. and/Findings and
• Don’t repeat information as this often reads as though the work is short on scholarly
ideas. presentatio
n of
• For Qualitative work think about the themes that this study has employed in findings and
earlier chapters. justification
• Discuss the findings using themes that have been identified through your for same.
analytic technique – this might be coding of some sort.
• Draw the relationship between your finding and the earlier literature
discussed.

• Your findings build logically from the research question, problem and design that
you employed within earlier parts of the dissertation.

• As with earlier sections think about the sub-sections or themes that will help to
guide the reader through the analysis and findings.
 DISCUSSION
Discussion Reflective and scholarly 15% Discussion section is extensive and thorough with evidence
discussion of study. of critical evaluation of the study at hand in terms of the
literature advancement and limitations coupled with
practical considerations. The discussion is insightful and
critical rather than repetitive and descriptive.

• This is an often overlooked and last minute section developed within the dissertation.

• It does serve a purpose and allows you the opportunity to discuss your own study in relation to the broader
field.

• The discussion section of your dissertation is where you can delve into some of the meaning behind your
analysis section. While it is expected you reiterate your broader findings in relation to your overarching
research question this should be kept to a minimum. The discussion section is not a place where you restate
your findings but discuss broader themes that you can draw from the findings. This can be done by following
four simple guides:
 DISCUSSION
1) Discuss your interpretations of the results you have gathered and discussed in the previous chapter.

a. Discuss patterns (both positive and negative) within the findings, what correlations have emerged?

b. Are there any relationships that you can draw to the supporting literature, are there similarities or divergences here?

c. Did you prove your hypothesis right or wrong?

d. Was there any unexpected outcomes in your findings – explain these.

2) What implications were there in your study? This is where you should tie your own study back to the literature reviewed in
previous sections of the dissertation. This about asking yourself: Does the study follow that of others or does it diverge from
their findings. Where are the similarities with other studies? What does my work contribute to the broader topic of discussion?

3) What are the limitations of the work that you have conducted? This might be something to do with the design, restrictions to
accessing the sample group, issues with data gathering, broader social/political issues, technological issues, skills issues. Also
think about what you would do differently if you had the time and resources to conduct a study that had no limitations, how do
you think this might change your study and its findings?

4) What would you recommend for future studies and what would you do differently?
 CONCLUSION
• Going out with a BANG

• The conclusion is the section where you as a researcher get to showcase your work in its entirety. This should not be a short
footnote to your overall study, but a considered account of how your work pulls together the important and significant
findings of your study – why and how are these findings significant to the study? This is an opportunity to summarise what
your data (in whatever format that may be) has revealed about the project while linking it back to the main question of your
dissertation.

• You should consider what your findings have illuminated about the study, how does this relate to the main literature that has
informed your study and the methodological constraints. Relating the study back to the main aspects of the work is key
within a conclusion section. The conclusion should point to the overarching theme of the research project.

• What recommendations would you make for further researchers?

• What limitations were there on the current study – how did they affect the study – what would you do differently in this
case?