Dissertations: Refining your Topic

Writing Development CentreUniversity Library

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Dr Helen WebsterOn behalf of the Writing Development CentreRobinson Library

For Starters: Refining your research topic and first steps

For enquiries about workshops, please email [email protected]



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Who and where are we?

Undergraduate or postgraduate?

HASS, SAgE or FMS?

Just starting dissertation, somewhere in the middle, or near the end?



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April 15, 2023



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Writing to find or refine your research question

Freewriting: Write for 10 minutes, without stopping or editing, to explore and develop your ideas. Highlight anything useful.

Brainstorm all the questions you can think of. Arrange them in a hierarchy Prioritise them Identify which are linked



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Knowledge

Understanding

Application

Analysis

Evaluation

Synthesis

ideas

connections

extensions

Critical hierarchy: Bloom’s taxonomy



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Reading to find or refine your research question

Don’t read whole texts in depth at this stage! You may need to read texts more than once for different reasons

Read titles, abstracts, introductions, conclusions Look for

Research questions (abstract and introduction) Debates and critiques in the literature review

(introduction) Further research needed (conclusion)



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Refining your research

What is your dissertation about? What are you going to do? What question will you answer? What problem does it solve? What might your answer look like?



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Refining a question or problem

‘Public transport in Scotland’

Examination of the influence of public transport links on new housing development in Western Scotland’

‘Investigation of the relationship between public transport links and the development of new areas of housing in Western Scotland: a comparison of local plans and building development since 1990’

What is the relationship, and how does it work?

April 15, 2023



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What makes a good research question?

Analytical, not just descriptive (what and why/how?)

Valid, not containing false assumptions Focussed, objective and precise Answerable – a clear method or approach, a

hypothesis Appropriate – for your subject and level of study Achievable – time, wordcount, resources Interesting and purposeful – to you, to others



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Other things to consider:

• Is there suitable supervision expertise?• Existing scholarship – too much or too little?• Is the scholarship available to you?• Is the topic insignificant, outdated or

unfashionable?• Do you need specialist skills, do you have

time to acquire them?• Do you have access to any data you need?



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Next steps

In order to answer your research question, what other questions might you need to answer?

This helps with: Distinguishing nice-to-know from need-to-know Focussing and narrowing (prioritise them) Creating a project plan Focussing your literature search and review Creating structure (which order should they be answered in?)



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Breaking it down

How do young people make educational and career decisions at the end of compulsory schooling? Do young people make decisions in similar ways at later points in their

educational careers? What sources of information do they use to help their decision making? What counts as ‘young people’? Which individuals are influential in shaping their choices? How do decisions made at this point affect their future career trajectories? What does ‘career decision’ mean? What factors do young people consider when making their choices? How do they evaluate and rank sources of advice?

Adapted from Patrick White: Developing research questions: a guide for social scientists



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Creating a project plan

Break down your questions into tasks. What would you need to do to answer them? Make these steps SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant,

Timebound How long might each task take? How many words might each constitute in your

dissertation? What resources or input do you need to make a start on

each?



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The process of writing a dissertation

Decide stuff Find/Read stuff Write stuff

Check and Hand stuff

in

April 15, 2023

Writing

Thinking

Research



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Expect the Unexpected

• “You’re confused about what you’re supposed to be researching and not sure how to go about things.

• Your research is changing emphasis because you’ve found a new area of interest or your data/reading is leading you to new ways of thinking about your topic.

• Your dissertation topic isn’t manageable in the way you originally expected and is morphing into a more practical project.

• You’re no longer interested in what you started off doing and have got sidetracked by following what really interests you rather than sticking to your original plan.”

Carrie Winstanley, 2009. Writing a Dissertation for Dummies

April 15, 2023



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Tuesday 12-12.30 For Starters: Refining your research topic and first steps

Wednesday: 12-12.30 Getting Critical: the Literature Review and Beyond

Thursday: 12-12.30 Whetting Appetites: Introductions and Conclusions Friday: 12-12.30 Keeping Going: Managing your Time, Tasks and Motivation

1.30-2:00 The Last Course: Managing the Final Stages

Writers groups: Wednesday 2-3 Friday 10-11



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The Writing Development Centre

Understanding assignment types, questions, instructions and marking criteria

Critical thinking, critiquing and reviewing literature Note-taking from lectures and reading Planning and structuring writing (incl. paragraphing) Academic writing style (incl. fundamentals of grammar) Understanding and using feedback to improve your work Referencing, citing and avoiding plagiarism Managing time, work and writing (incl. writers block and

procrastination) Exams and Revision Managing research projects, dissertations and theses Presentations and posters Learning effectively in lectures, seminars, classes, labs etc



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The Writing Development CentreLevel 2, Robinson Library

Our team offers:

- One-to-one tutorials on study skills and all stages and types of academic writing

- A programme of workshops on aspects of study and academic writing

- Online resources

You can book appointments and workshops with us online: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/

Date post:	07-Aug-2015
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Dissertations: Refining your Topic

Education