The Dissertation Thread

[Tweek_1984]

10,000 word limit for my geography degree - due 23rd April.

Done 4000 so far. About to start my methods.

I've got two other assignments due after easter aswell. I havent properly left my room for the past three weeks and I feel like my hair is going to fall out.

Hooray.

 

[stigggeh]

My ex's best friend ended up doing a 36,000(?!?!?!) word dissertation, even though it was only required to be 10,000

Strange chap.

I was told word count +/- 10+ or you will start loosing marks. Some people think more=better.

My subject is law and I've got 10,000 words to do total and I'm maybe 2,000 words into it. Hand in date of 28th April and I can't be bothered to do any more at the moment because it isn't near enough and therefore difficult enough yet. I'll force myself to do some soon though and maybe even finish the last essay as well which is due in the same week.

I know how you feel i work better under pressure. I did 19000 in 3 weeks last year (due to world cup ). I was spending 12hrs a day on it, put me of uni for life.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Ive not got far enough to have to do a dissertation but my mate at work is in his final year of accounts at strathy uni and got 20k words on fuel duty AFAIK.

I couldnt be ****** doing that right now.

 

[jcb33]

I am not doing one (I am doing GCSEs ). However I would like to know how long the average dissertation is. (My reason is that I have had to do a massively long project in Business Studies and my friend and I always joke that we should hand it in as a dissertation ).

Angus Higgins

I did an A-Level business project in marketing, which was 37,578 Words long (150 pages) I find it hard at uni now, as all my projects use to be between 50 and 200 pages, and now Im limited to 1000, 2000 words per project!

 

[NokkonWud]

Just handed mine in last wednesday. Games Design.

 

[Angus-Higgins]

I did an A-Level business project in marketing, which was 37,578 Words long (150 pages) I find it hard at uni now, as all my projects use to be between 50 and 200 pages, and now Im limited to 1000, 2000 words per project!

Yeah, my business project (worth 2 GCSEs) is around 56,000 words and will be about 65,000 - 70,000 words when finished.

It is due to the way they mark it really. It must be a continuous assessment and thus even if one wanted to remove things, one cannot do so. If I want the marks I have to add work on to the total, and all of it gets marked. I cannot imagine how bored the marker will be, it states the obvious, but that is what we must do.

Angus Higgins

 

[stigggeh]

Yeah, my business project (worth 2 GCSEs) is around 56,000 words and will be about 65,000 - 70,000 words when finished.

It is due to the way they mark it really. It must be a continuous assessment and thus even if one wanted to remove things, one cannot do so. If I want the marks I have to add work on to the total, and all of it gets marked. I cannot imagine how bored the marker will be, it states the obvious, but that is what we must do.

Angus Higgins

50,000 words at GCSE (even a-level) is stupid imo

I did a business related MSC and the largest peice of work i had to do ~20000

edit: in fact, all of my MSC work combined did not break 50000

 

[Angus-Higgins]

50,000 words at GCSE (even a-level) is stupid imo

It would only be stupid if less could get me more marks. I would be happy handing something in that had all of the useless information taken out, but due to the way it is marked I am not allowed to do this.

The problem is that the points one has to mention are very specific and thus it is easy to write several thousand words that are worth no marks. One cannot remove this work after it is marked; one can only add further work to it that mentions the right points.

The bits that are long are generally: "Write about the contract of employment for your chosen business and chosen emloyee; how do the clauses help the business reachs its aims, and how does it help meet the expectations of the employee? (Include information about why the contract of employment is important for employers and employees in a generic business)". So, one has to write about all 31 sections (in my case) of the contract of employment, and then one has to add things to it in order to hit specific points.

Angus Higgins

 

[Nix]

Just curious... do most people tend to leave their dissertation up until the last minute? I intend to have made a huge dent by christmas time. Hopefully it will materialise. I would only end up panicing if I wasn't finished and there was under a week left.

Angus, I'm not being horrible but your business report doesn't compare in the slightest to a dissertation, regardless of word-count.

 

[Angus-Higgins]

Angus, I'm not being horrible but your business report doesn't compare in the slightest to a dissertation, regardless of word-count.

Yeah, that is very true and also the reason that I mentioned (in an earlier post) that dissertations are a complete different level of complexity.

My work is very easy to do, and thus it is large in size. Dissertations are much, much harder, and I wouldn't have the disrespect to compare my work to that of some of the people on this forum.

Angus Higgins

 

[jcb33]

Just curious... do most people tend to leave their dissertation up until the last minute? I intend to have made a huge dent by christmas time. Hopefully it will materialise. I would only end up panicing if I wasn't finished and there was under a week left.

Angus, I'm not being horrible but your business report doesn't compare in the slightest to a dissertation, regardless of word-count.

What does a dissertation actualy involve? Almost in year 2 of uni (Seems to be flying by!!) So wont be long before I actualy have to do mine but I have no idea what it is...

 

[Nix]

What does a dissertation actualy involve? Almost in year 2 of uni (Seems to be flying by!!) So wont be long before I actualy have to do mine but I have no idea what it is...

Just imagine a big ass project of independant research (namely primary sources) with thorough background reading, respectable methodology and concise conclusions worth a very large proportion of your degree.

Typically, second and third years are weighted 30%-70% respectfully and the dissertation tends to take up a good 25%-30% of that latter 70%.

All in all, I'm not really looking forward to my third year

 

[Volcs]

Was probably the best part of my course - chance to do something completely off my own back in a field where there'd not been a whole lot done before.

Having said that, my supervisor said my final piece of software would only be useful to "paedos and terrorists".

 

[Nix]

Was probably the best part of my course - chance to do something completely off my own back in a field where there'd not been a whole lot done before.

Having said that, my supervisor said my final piece of software would only be useful to "paedos and terrorists".

ROFL! What did you make? An exploding baby?

 

[Raymond Lin]

My subject is law and I've got 10,000 words to do total and I'm maybe 2,000 words into it. Hand in date of 28th April and I can't be bothered to do any more at the moment because it isn't near enough and therefore difficult enough yet. I'll force myself to do some soon though and maybe even finish the last essay as well which is due in the same week.

What's the topic ?

 

[matthew_o50]

I did an A-Level business project in marketing, which was 37,578 Words long (150 pages) I find it hard at uni now, as all my projects use to be between 50 and 200 pages, and now Im limited to 1000, 2000 words per project!

I'm having the same problem at uni being used to writing similar sized assignments for A-level business and ICT. I'm approaching 1000 words on a 2000 word marketing assignment now and i'm only starting really . That's with using text boxes and diagrams to 'hide' a lot of the words aswell

I've got 8 individual assignments to be handed in by the middle of May each with a 2000 word limit + a group assignment. I know i'm going to be struggling at the last minute because I just can't get motivated to work.

 

[iBankAllDay]

That must be what, 55 pages?! No professor of mine would even touch 55 pages.

Mines was 50 pages and it was only 12,000 words. Of course it has tables, images and maps in it too. I'm glad it's out of the way, roll on graduation.

**Edit: Oh, my degree is Town and Regional Planning and the dissertation was on -

'Mega-Sporting Events: Can they be a Sustainable Solution to Urban Regeneration?'

 

[Nix]

I've been told by my dissertation advisor (amusingly still trying to work out if he actually likes me or not ) that less is more with the dissertation as the more focused pieces of work seem to attract the higher marks.

 

[iBankAllDay]

I've been told by my dissertation advisor (amusingly still trying to work out if he actually likes me or not ) that less is more with the dissertation as the more focused pieces of work seem to attract the higher marks.

Yup. If it's too broad it will tend to suggest that you were not able to pin-point a research topic and test that specific theory.

 

[goldilocks]

i have about 3000 words left to write, then i have to choose which bits are good enough, and which need doing again
im going fairly crazy about it
on clinical placement too at the mo, which makes it harder
so yeah, dissertation + essays + assessments > everything else at the moment!
im trying to look for a job, trying to find the time to learn to drive, and trying to not drive everyone around me mad - it's keeping me busy