A series of events to help you plan, write and make the most of your dissertation, 25 to 29 June 2012
MSc Dissertation Week this year is structured around three main themes: Getting started, Developing your ideas and Thinking ahead. There are workshops on structuring your work, creative techniques and managing your references, as well as sessions focusing on career possibilities and the psychological challenges of dissertation writing.
To see a full list of events and book places, go to the training system| and look under MSc Dissertation Week in the 'Presenting and Communicating' category.
Dissertation advice from the experts
Professor Cathy Campbell, Institute of Social Psychology
"A good dissertation has a clear integrating narrative running from start to finish. It links the stages of the evolving argument in an elegant way, signposting these for the reader in a confident analytical voice. Such a narrative can’t be thrown together at the last minute the week before submission. It has to be constructed and reconstructed and mulled over.
"Advice: Start early and be well organised. Visit your supervisor regularly. Discuss your work with your peers. This is how you will develop a strong and confident sense of the ‘big picture’ of your argument and how best to communicate it."
Dr Tony Whelan, Teaching and Learning Centre
"Quantitative dissertations have to be written up, so look at all my colleagues’ comments!
"On top of them, for a quantitative dissertation you probably want to use a data set to investigate questions about your subject of interest. The data set may be original (your own survey?) or borrowed (public data?), but whatever the source(s) make sure you understand it: how was it created? are there mathematical relationships between items? is it random? …
"And make sure the data set is big enough for the questions you want to ask: e.g., a 3 x 3 cross-tabulation will never work with a sample of n=40. You usually need a pretty big data set to ask ‘big’ questions, and it’s often best to be asking clear, not-too-ambitious ones that you can reliably answer."
Dr Myria Georgiou, Media and Communications
"This is your moment. The dissertation should be the most creative piece of work you will produce during your studies at LSE. This is a topic you are interested in and which you will investigate with tools you will master. Your dissertation is an individual intellectual journey. Yet it is also the outcome of a collective intellectual journey you've taken with your lecturers and peers. Hit the right balance.
"What does this mean in practice? A dissertation that stands out has most of these qualities: (i) originality - tell us something we don't know already and show us the evidence; (ii) clear argument - what is the one key point that we should remember; (iii) excellent understanding of the concepts and methods you use; (iv) boldness - go that little bit further and think 'outside the box'. And don't forget to enjoy the ride."