The Dissertation thread

[Amp34]

Anyone else doing their dissertation at the moment?

I had to hand in a draft copy (of 2,500 words...) a few days ago, and have 3 more weeks before my deadline. I'm starting to despise it with a passion at the moment.

Geoscience disertations seem to take forever, 4 weeks of independent fieldwork and writing up the equivilent of a journal based on those results.

 

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Don't even talk to me about my dissertation

Going that well ah?

Stop moaning and crack on with it. You never know, you might end up enjoying it.

Okay, I jest. You're more likely to simply become delirious from lack of sleep.

There are moments of pleasure but it's the motivation that's killing me, I really enjoyed the fieldwork (during my summer "break" and out of my own pocket, but the pyrenees was nice) but the writeup is a *****!

Handed it in on Monday . 7,000 words on 'The annual cycles of gonadal maturation and moult in three species of raptors'. Now there's something different to all the normal computing ones we see in these threads . About 10 weeks of data collection and many months of statistics, writes and re-writes.

Good luck everyone!

What degree are you doing? Biology or a simar course?

My title will probably be along the lines of "The uplift and deposition of turbiditic sediment within the Pyrenean foreland basin, with reference to the growth of a carbonate shelf"...

 

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What, is this like the only essay you have to write at university or something?

We've had about 4 of those type each year so far, although this year we got to d a critical review of 5 essays that went to around 5000 words. the magazine was fun though.

 

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Thats why I did a practical based dissertation. Even if it failed it wasn't wrong. Thus is the beauty of science

Practically I've already passed my dissertation with the 4 weeks I did in the summer, the rest of it is to gain the extra 30% for a first.

 

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Wow, just spent a few hours in the library wasting my time. Love when that happens.

 

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Why is everyone's so short?

Mine will be about 40 pages and a few thousand lines of code in the appendix.

10,000 words is about the standard for a mapping report (ie published or done for a company) and it's actually just a guideline maximum amount, as far as I know 7,000 well written words wouldn't loose any marks.

I always assumed a dissertiation was about 10,000 words anyway, 20,000 seems extreme.

 

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I need to get started on my idea, 10k words in for end of August. This will be my second disso, hopefully will not make the mistake of leaving it to the last minute like the last one!

You know you will!

I say that every time I do a piece of coursework but I never learn. I think I thrive on the pressure though, when I actually have time I like to do everything to perfection and so never get anything done, then when I only have a day to do it I can't faf around with perfection and just dump stuff down on the page.

 

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Well my time is almost up, I've got four days left to write around 3,500 words....

And it's all the stuff I've put off because I don't understand it...

How's everyone elses going?

And to top if off my desk chair has broken...

 

[Amp34]

20,000 words?!

Having said that I did choose this course partly because of the lack of major writing, Was told by my tutor the other day that 6,000 words would be perfectly fine.

 

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<5k is very short for a dissertation. Mine was ~13k. I thought all written essays had to be fully referenced? Do you get essays where you don't?

Was that aimed at my post?

If so the 3,500 words would make around 9,000, which I think is around what I will end up with after writing what I need to write.

 

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Ouch! Do you reckon you did ok with it or was it just a major rush job?


Referencing is a pain, so far I have 17, and been typing them up as I go along so it's not been too bad. Haven't done the background or discussion yet so the number of references could double!