Doing a Dissertation

Content

• What is a Dissertation?
• Choosing a “Good” topic
• Conducting the Research, from

Proposal to Write-Up

What is a Dissertation?

• A formal requirement to satisfy a masters degree; written to demonstrate the student’s competence
• 15k – 20k words
• Conducted in 3 months
• Aimed not to introduce a new theory, but rather emphasising to a rigour research process

Choosing a “Good” topic?

• Relevance, Significance, Realistic
• DO-ABLE !! (in 3 months)
• Things to consider:
  • Literature Gap
  • Your interest?
• How accessible is the data?
• Not so much to dazzle with your topic, but rather on doing a rigorous research process

1^st – Research Proposal

• The rationale behind the entire research
• Brief literature review, conceptual framework
• Reviewing main theories / concepts, to formulise the conceptual framework
• Foreseen methodology (and data collection instrument)
• max 2000 words

2^nd – Research Design

Methodology

• Quantitative
• Qualitative
• Mixed methods

Instruments

• Survey
• In-depth interview
• Focus group discussion

Best practice – create a matrix of RQs, main theories, data collection instruments, and operational questions

3^rd – Data Collection

Interview

Prepare interview questions: 2 versions

• For respondents
• For yourself, with (potential) probing questions
• Prepare interview protocol
• Audio-record the interview
• Don’t take notes too much while doing the interview

Survey

• Prepare survey questionnaire
• Use appropriate tool
• Paper-based
• Online: Survey monkey (free), MBS Qualtrics

4^th – Analysis

• Analyse the data based on the reviewed theories / concepts (literature review)
• Be critical
• Do not (!) introduce or use new literature / theories / concepts other than those described in Literature Review
• Practicality
• Map the data and theories used to analyse that particular data using table, Mind Map, or any other mapping tools
• This allows you to keep track both of your data and your literature

5^th – Writing up

• Chapters – proportion
  • Introduction >> 10% of total words
  • Literature review >> 20% – 30%
  • Research method >> 5% – 10%
  • Data / result
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion >> 5%