Hi everyone, this video is about choosing
your dissertation topic and thinking about
your dissertation proposal. What I'm going
to be talking about today is going to be more
relevant to people in arts, humanities and
social sciences, where you generally have
quite a bit of freedom about your dissertation
topic. If you are in a scientific or empirical
discipline you are more likely to pick from
a list of available topics so what I'm going
to say won't be as relevant to you, so take
this opportunity to take a five-minute break.
So first of all, I want to talk about the
difference between a dissertation topic and
a dissertation proposal. A topic is a broad
area of interest for your dissertation. Most
departments will ask you to submit your topic
and that helps them identify your dissertation
supervisor. Your proposal is a formal document
outlining your dissertation in more depth,
it's usually a few thousand words and it will
look at your dissertation questions, the way
that you are going to answer those questions.
A lot of departments will have a set format
for this, so you should check your module
handbook to make sure you're doing what
you need to do.
When thinking about your dissertation you
might like to think about what kind of questions
you want to answer, is there anything in your
modules that have been really interesting
to you that you want to find out in more depth?
Is there an area of practice that you are
interested in that you want to influence with
research? You might also like to think about
how your topic relates to your future? Are
you aiming to use your masters dissertation
to influence PhD work? Are you hoping to move
back in to practice in your topic and your
topic would enable you to become a better
practitioner? Are there different career options
that you are interested in that your dissertation
might be helpful for? You might also like
to think about what existing expertise you
bring to your topic? Again, are there modules
that you have done that would prepare you
to answer this question? Are there specific
elements of research that you've mastered
that you would use in your dissertation? Are
there language requirements that you fulfil?
What do you already know that will help you
be successful in writing your dissertation,
always bearing in mind that you supervisor
is also there to make sure you can do your
dissertation to the best of your abilities.
Think about what already exists about your
topic, what existing literature or research
is there available? you are probably going
to want to have a quick look at what has already
been published on your area for example. If
you haven't already done so, this is a great
time to find out who your academic support
librarian is, pick their brains, particularly
around research that might not easily be available
in the normal library catalogue. If you don't
know who your academic support librarian is,
there is a list on the website and I would
really recommend you looking them up. They
are an absolutely invaluable source of expertise.
Once you've thought about all those things
you can start to put together what you think
your dissertation topic might be. One last
thing that you might do is look at what academics
in your department are researching and how
they might support you. It's completely ok
to look at modules you haven't taken and see
whether that is something that you are interested
in and go and talk to that academic and see
if they think you would be able to do your
dissertation in that area. Again, take advantage
of their expertise, look up their office hours
and ask if you can go and chat to them for
a few minutes, saying that you might be interested
in doing a dissertation in one of their areas,
that is completely fine and will help your
school identify who your supervisors might
be for your dissertation.
So, there we go that was a request for the
School of Law on choosing a dissertation topic.
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