Dissertation Suite: Writing a Dissertation

Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode of our Dissertation Suite, Academic Skills Advisers, Emma, Stefan, and Nicola, and Maths and Statistics Adviser, Mikayla, chat about writing a dissertation. They share strategies to get writing, discuss the importance of criticality and how to ensure you're being critical throughout, and share their editing processes. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why Dissertations Feel Big

Emma 0:08

Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Skills Pod. Today we are going to talk about writing a dissertation as part of our dissertation suite of podcast episodes. I'm Emma and I'm one of the academic skills advisors at the University of Chester.

Mikayla 0:25

And today I'm joined by I'm Mikayla and I'm one of the academic skills advisors for Mathematics.

Nicola 0:32

I'm Nicola.

Stefan 0:38

And I'm Stefan. I'm also an academic skills advisor on the literacy side of the team.

Emma 0:43

So writing a dissertation. What are our kind of top tips? Shared wisdom.

Mikayla 0:49

For me, I think it's thinking about each of the different sections in turn. So not just trying to eat the elephant, as the case may be. So don't try and write from your introduction all the way through to the conclusion in one go. So thinking about what each of the different sections needs to contain and how we start to maybe write differently across each of the different sections as well.

Emma 1:18

And leave your conclusion, obviously, leave your conclusion till the end, but also, you know, it might be that you feel that you can't move forward without somehow putting your introduction together. Um, but your introduction in theory is best written after you've kind of put together the kind of main parts of your dissertation. Um so yeah, it might be obviously you need to know what you're introducing and talking about, but you know, sometimes you can get kind of quite caught up on writing your introduction when actually focusing on the other areas can be more kind of productive in writing your dissertation.

Stefan 1:55

Definitely. And I think as well, being really aware, I mean, so this is probably the number one piece of advice that I've given out about dissertations over the years, is just to be really aware of what it is that your dissertation is actually doing and what it is not doing. I just think it can't do everything, it can't kind of comment on every element of the literature or every element of the particular topic that you're looking into. And a good dissertation goes into a very focused thing in a lot of depth. It doesn't go into lots of things in a little amount of depth. So it's all about being really aware of what is that specific thing that your dissertation is doing, um, and then making sure that you keep that focus throughout.

Mikayla 2:39

Yeah, and for me as well, it's knowing who can help you within each of the different sections. So, for example, when you're trying to find literature, who do you go to to support with that? You know, we've got a great team of LIS who can help with literature searching, um, you know, in terms of your introductions, your methodologies, our team can support you with some of the general writing, um, depending on what um type of study it is that you're doing, whether that's quantal calls. Again, there's different areas within our team that can potentially support with that. So, like I say, it's knowing that for each of the different sections, you might not go to one person, one team for support across all of the different areas, but having that broader awareness of who you can go to for support and how you access that support, I think knowing that really early on in your dissertation journey is really important, um, obviously, in addition to the support that you'll get from maybe your dissertation module leader and your dissertation supervisor as well.

Emma 3:40

I think it's knowing the support and using the support. So if you've got opportunities to meet with your supervisors, make sure that you are taking them up on that and that you've maybe got a kind of clear schedule of when you're gonna meet, what you're gonna submit, um, things like that. And obviously, using our team is is also really important.

Time Planning Drafting And Realistic Schedules

Nicola 3:59

Um and yeah, also thinking like when we think about not trying to write it start start to finish and thinking about breaking down the sections, also thinking about when you're actually writing in those sections, like you're writing a paragraph, you're trying to do several different things. So don't worry about sitting down and writing a paragraph and getting all your references right and having your citations perfect first time, like it's a work in progress, even in each paragraph. Just you know, focus on getting down what you want to say and then go back over it and do the finishing touches. Don't nobody sits down and writes a perfect paragraph the first time, so don't feel like that's what you've got to do here as well. It's it's all a process, yeah.

Mikayla 4:43

Take it in stages, and that kind of links with like how long dissertations take to write. Obviously, it's one of the biggest pieces of work you will do, that you will write as part of either undergraduate or postgraduate education. And it's important to be realistic about what that time-wise looks like, how long will it take you to physically write it, as well as if you're collecting data, how long will that data take to collect? How long will it take you to find relevant sources to make sure that your kind of proofreading and editing is kind of complete and everything is spot on so that you're happy with what you're going to hand in. You know, I remember printing my dissertations off, getting them bound and taking them to the office and being really proud of what I was about to hand in. Um yeah, that's kind of all of my colleagues are nodding because that kind of shows the age that we are where we did everything in physical copies, um, two copies bound with the university logo on the front.

Emma 5:39

Yeah.

Mikayla 5:39

Um, rather than just kind of submitting it to turn it in. And it was, at least from my perspective, a quite a proud moment um when you could go in, hand in that work and be like, you know what? That is something that I've worked incredibly hard on over, you know, months, if not longer. Um, I know for a couple of my colleagues that are in the core with PhDs as well, is that you know, that was years worth of work. So it's handing that in and being proud of it, but also being really realistic about how long that will take you when you start on that journey as well. Um if you're anything like me, you'll write it and then rewrite it and then tweak it, you'll move some sections around.

Perfectionism And Knowing When To Submit

Emma 6:19

Yeah, and I think it's focus, like, you know, obviously having that end goal, you want to feel proud when you hit submit on it. So make sure that you are putting in the work and the time and the effort that is reflective of how you want to feel at the end of it. You don't want to hand it in and think, oh, I could have done better or I could have managed my time better. You want to kind of be like, I've done the best that I can with this.

Stefan 6:41

I think that opens up a really interesting discussion though, because I think it can be really easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism with dissertations and not being willing to let it go and submit it and actually tie yourselves into some really challenging knots, like both in terms of kind of workload and mental health and stuff like that. About the dissertation will never be a hundred percent perfect. And it's about striking that balance between okay, this is just like we've been saying, this is something that I'm really proud of, and this is good enough, but in a positive way, not in a sort of like negative way. Um, but knowing when it is the time to let go and submit it, and knowing that we're never gonna get it to be that absolute 100% perfect, no matter how many times we go over it, there's always gonna be things that we can't envision, things that we can't foresee, things that we're we know we could do slightly differently, but then when you tweak it, you're maybe missing something else, which the original way was doing. And and this is kind of it, it's about coming to terms with and being at peace with the fact that it's never going to be perfect. But when, like I say, when it's good enough in a positive way, that that's then a good point to submit.

Emma 7:58

I think we could probably all look back at our dissertations and be like, oh my gosh, we should have done this or we could have done that.

Nicola 8:03

And you almost don't ever want to like submit it because you're like, Oh, I'll just read it one more time. I'll just tweak that there and I'll just redo this. And then you've opened up a can of worms because it doesn't flow and now it doesn't fit, and and you can just tie yourself up in knots about it. So it's um it's that balance, isn't it?

Mikayla 8:24

Yeah, absolutely. And it's making sure I know that we get a lot of emails from students kind of towards deadline day, where there's a lot of questions around kind of formatting and what do my appendices look like? How does it physically look? Um, and those are things that you can think about early on. Um, so getting those answers of okay, well, this is these are the kind of things that are included in my dissertation. How do I physically get these things in? Um, so that you're not applying extra pressure to yourself that you don't need to apply.

Nicola 8:56

A bit of a controversial

Work Habits That Keep You Moving

Speaker 2 8:58

tip, I think. Someone told I think someone maybe told me about this, or it was in a lecture or something when I was doing my dissertation. But someone or someone had mentioned like when you're writing those longer projects and it's obviously in lots of stages, so you're on a paragraph and you're kind of in the zone. But actually that's a good point, that's a good point in time to pause. And rather than pausing like at the end of a sentence or at the end of the paragraph, pause midway through so that when you come back, it's easier to pick up. Which I under I can understand the logic in that, but for me personally, that's that's just not how I operate. So I think this is one to maybe try and see um and see what works for you. Because I would be so worried in my anxious state that when I got back to my paragraph, I no have no idea what I was actually on about, and then I'd have to start again. So I don't know if anyone uses that themselves, but as a way to kind of when you get started again, hopefully you'll just feel like you're straight in the zone and that'll motivate you to to get going. I don't know.

Stefan 10:14

Yeah. I've I've heard of it, but I've not been able to use it myself. It's yeah, but I do think that this then touches on the idea of whatever works for you and being aware of what does work for you and also allowing yourself some time to figure out what does work for you because when writing such a big project, there are kind of different ways that we can all approach it as as students, as kind of learners, and different people will approach projects of this size very differently, right? So people will be able to go and write out like 2,000 words in a day, boom, done. And it's like, wow, okay, well, for someone else, it might be a matter of, well, actually, I'm gonna write 200 words a day, but I'm gonna stagger that out over a course of multiple days and do it more continuously, right? We all work differently, we all study differently. And when approaching a kind of a project as big as a dissertation, it really pays off to know and to work out what does work for you. What are the habits, what are the patterns, what are the techniques that enable you to kind of approach such a big piece of work most effectively.

Emma 11:23

I think going back to Nick's point, um, the thought of ending mid-paragraph is slightly scary. But I think it ties in with always ending your, you know, your studies for the day, knowing where you're gonna pick up tomorrow. So maybe that's writing some bullet points or a to-do list or something.

Nicola 11:39

Yeah. Because yeah, it is easy to stop knowing where you're gonna start tomorrow. Because otherwise you're gonna spend tomorrow wasting a lot of time trying to figure out what it is you were trying to say or what you need to do.

Stefan 11:49

Definitely. I did bullet points. I always left little notes for myself at the end of it. I'd often finish at the end of a paragraph, not with sentence. Um, but I'd always leave myself like four or five bullet points to be like, okay, this is where your head is at. And that's where you want to pick up.

Emma 12:01

Yeah.

Mikayla 12:02

Something else that I also found useful is working in a space where somebody else is working on their dissertation so that it forces you to take breaks when you need to. Um, because that was something that I wasn't very good at, is you know, I just sit there for hours. But if there was somebody else with me, it'd be like, right, okay, we'll work for 20, 30 minutes, and then we'll go off and we'll take a quick break. You know, we'll go and get usually some kind of crisps from the vendor machine um in the library, is like savory snacks is pretty much what I go for. Um, you know, because it's a big bag of crisps, that was always my go-to. Um, but it also held me accountable for in those 30 minutes I will actually sit and do work rather than scrolling through social media or having Netflix on in the background. Not that Netflix existed when I um did my dissertations, but yeah, it it just helped me to make sure that what I was doing was structured and meaningful um rather than being in the library for six hours and finding that I hadn't really done anything. Um and that's not necessarily just in terms of writing, but sometimes it would be, you know, reading around the topic and things. And sometimes I'd read two papers and think, yeah, sure, I'm done for the day. Um, but I hadn't made any notes, I hadn't really done anything. I'd literally just sat there and read 20 pages and not really moved forward. So having somebody else um or having a few friends that were all working on their dissertations at the same time just really helped me to be like, right, okay, we are going to be super focused. And then when we did take a break, we could all decompress, get a coffee, go and get some snacks, and then come back to it after a few minutes.

Nicola 13:39

Power isn't there in having people around you to support you. But then not like I I totally agree. But when we go for our snacks and our decompress, I don't want you to tell me how much you've wrote or where you're up to under your dissertation because you're gonna send me into a bit of a frenzy. So don't don't listen to what anyone else is doing because dissertations are so individual, and just because someone wrote 4,000 words and you've only wrote a thousand doesn't necessarily mean that you're not both on the right track for where you should be at that time. So sit with your friends, but don't necessarily talk about it. Well, if you're gonna talk about it, don't compare, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

Critical Thinking Plus Clear Reader Links

Stefan 14:26

Completely. It's uh yeah. So when I would be supervising kind of like many dissertations at a time, one of the kind of trickiest questions that a student would ask would be like, oh, where's where's everyone else up to? Like, oh, I've heard that such and such is onto their analysis, and I'm only on my literature review, et cetera, et cetera. Um, and yeah, you just you can't compare between dissertations. Each dissertation is as different as the person who is writing it, right? We are all different people. Um, so yeah, try not to fall into the trap. And it's easier said than done, but try not to fall into the trap of kind of comparing where where you're at with where your peers are at, because yeah, it's all very different. The processes are different, the dissertation's different. Um, so yeah, just be conscious of that.

Emma 15:12

And the kind of key thing with your dissertation is be critical. It's always analyzing something. So kind of keep that kind of thread running throughout your writing process. You know, ask questions, think about why you're drawing in literature, think about what your results mean, be critical at every single step.

Nicola 15:30

Yeah, it's your it's your project, isn't it? So we don't you don't want to just talk about what others are have said about things and what your results are. We wanna we wanna hear what you think about this and how you've interpreted things. So we've got to make sure that your voice is is the prominent one throughout that dissertation.

Mikayla 15:51

Yeah, absolutely. And I think from my perspective, that's almost the fun bit. That's the fun bit where you can start to question things, you can ask why, you can put forward kind of tentative suggestions of where that research can go next. Um, yeah, that for me is the exciting bit of of writing things up.

Stefan 16:08

Totally. And uh yeah, and that kind of idea of criticality and being critical does go all the way throughout, right? From introduction all the way to conclusion, even including your methodology. Some people think that writing your methodology is just saying, This is how I did this, right? And thinking that it's oh, it's just a description of the process when actually there's a lot more to it. There's a lot of, well, I did it this way because X, Y, and Z, right? Making those connections between your research aims, your research objectives, and then the methods that you use. And that's where a lot of the criticality in terms of even something like a methodology comes in, still building those connections between um the different elements of what you did, how you did it, why you did it in that way.

Nicola 16:56

And like remembering that you when you're writing something, like you know what you want to say, and our brains are so clever when we read something back, if we know what we're trying to say, we can piece things together that might not be there. So, you know, if you've got someone you can trust who can help have a read over what you've wrote, and big emphasis on the who you can trust, because um I always tell those stories to students. I used to ask my mum, and honestly, she'd read something I've done and be like, Oh, it's great, it all makes sense, it's fine, and then I'd get it back, and there'd be like a little spelling mistake because she was my mum and she was like, Oh, well, you're just amazing, and like I'm so proud of what you're doing. She was not trustworthy for me. So you need someone who you can trust that's gonna give you that that feedback so that you know when you get to hand in, when you're submitting, you're confident you've said what you wanted to say, and and people understand that as well. Because you're locked into your dissertation, it it takes a while to write. So, you know, you want to do your absolute best and draw people in that can that can help as well.

Stefan 18:07

Totally. And getting someone else to read it can be really, really useful because ultimately, like, you need to be spelling out your points really, really clearly. And this is exactly what Nick was just saying is like you know what you're saying in your head, but and just because you understand the kind of the whys, the what's and the wherefores, you need to really spell that out for your reader, especially in the context of something like dissertation, where there's so many different elements of your of your argument, of the kind of core messages that you're putting forward in the dissertation, how those things link together. Of course, you understand those links because you're the one making them and writing them, but you need to spell it out, put it in headlights for your reader so that it's super clear for them. Because if you don't, you could end up losing out on some really important marks just because you've not kind of made things as abundantly clear uh as you might have done. And to you it might seem obvious because you know it, but you really need to put those connections onto the page because yeah, otherwise your reader might just not fully, fully get it. Or if it's your marker, they do get it, they might not be able to give you the benefit of the doubt if you've not spelt it out super, super clearly.

Mikayla 19:24

When I've spoken to students as well before, is that a lot of the comments are like, oh, but my supervisor knows that because they are the expert in their field. And I kind of say, Well, they don't know that you know that or why you're doing that. So, yes, they are an expert in their field, but you almost have to kind of show off your knowledge that you now know about that topic that you've looked at. You know, you want to sing it as loud from the rooftop as you possibly can of this is everything that I've learned about this particular topic, so that it's really, really clear, this is what I know about.

Emma 19:53

And it's important that you're factoring in the time to edit to kind of make those points clearer, to kind of give it to people who you trust or you know, share extra my teeth in, share extracts with the academic skills team so you've got time to kind of enact any feedback that you get. Editing is really important um for helping with that clarity and things like that.

Nicola 20:11

It's the process, it's not gonna be done overnight or in one hit, it's all part of the process, isn't it?

Editing Is Iterative And Productively Messy

Mikayla 20:18

Yeah, and it makes it a more enjoyable process as well when you do kind of take your time rather than trying to fit everything all in one go. It it does make it a little bit more fun.

Stefan 20:28

And also recognizing that just because we approach the writing of a dissertation in kind of like chapter by chapter form, once you've written a chapter, that doesn't mean that you're not then going to come back to it, right? So once you've written out your lit your lit review, chances are you are then gonna come back to your lit review while you're even doing the analysis, because you realize, oh, there's something here which I've not mentioned in the in the lit review, but I need to. Um, or vice versa. You might find that there's something that you thought you were going to be talking about a lot, um, theoretically, conceptually, whatever it might be, that actually doesn't come about at all. So you actually have to remove bits of the literature review. So it's also about kind of seeing the kind of whole project as a continuous work in progress. And it's not a matter of, okay, this chapter written, done, finished, put it to the side, that's it. And that really it's only completely done as an entity once it's submitted and final. And until that point, you're always kind of going back and moving through the chapters, tweaking, signposting, all that sort of stuff.

Nicola 21:32

I always say it feels messy, like it can feel it can feel messy, and that's exactly how it should feel. Like I know it feels unnatural and it's not a nice place to sit. Or for some people, like it doesn't you don't want it to feel messy, you just want it all to make sense. But that's part of the process. So it will feel messy, but then it will all come together. Yeah.

Mikayla 21:56

Yeah. Particularly when you know you think about your distinction. As a whole, that kind of introduction literature review needs to be kind of a reflection of and a balance to your discussion. So you don't want to introduce things that you never think or talk about as part of your discussion, but equally you don't want to throw something completely left-field new into that discussion that you haven't maybe introduced as part of the thing that you might want to consider throughout your dissertation. So absolutely it needs to be tweaked, adapted, because you might find things that maybe you didn't expect to and and want to maybe figure out why you found these things that then features in both the dis the discussion as well as some of your introductory work.

Nicola 22:42

And I think that can make life easier. So um thinking about your actual academic language, um the University of Manchester have their amazing academic phrase bank. Like use those resources so that you don't have to think of another way. It can you can say it can be suggested and stop repeating yourself. Um you know, make make your own little academic sentences resource so that you can have a bank of different phrases, so that yeah, life is just a little bit easier as you are writing because it can be hard.

Mikayla 23:20

Absolutely. The other thing as well that I do is sometimes I forget words. Um happens quite a lot with me is that I'm like, oh, the word is on the tip of my tongue or on the tip of my fingers as I'm starting to write. And sometimes that can kind of you can get really bogged down in that. It's like, right, okay, what is that word that I'm trying to remember? So sometimes what I do as well is write the word something instead of that word. So I know that the minute that I stop thinking about that word, I'll remember what word I want to put in that place. And it just helps with then getting the rest of that sentence down before I then forget the rest of the sentence. And then I can go back and be like, oh, okay, this is the word that I particularly mean in this context. And yeah, just sometimes helps with the flow of my writing so that I don't get hung up and spend 25 minutes trying to think of or remember that word that I know will probably not come to me until two o'clock in the morning. And I'll wake up in the middle of the night and think, oh, that's the word that I wanted to include. And then I have to write it down or send myself a text message. Um, that's what I've been doing recently, is texting myself with words when I remember them so that then I can I can pop it into the work that I'm doing.

Emma 24:23

I think that also goes wider as well to like if you're writing a paragraph and you're thinking something's missing here or I need to talk more about this here, but I don't quite know what to say yet. Just I always leave myself notes in capital letters and yellow highlights on my document. I don't know why it's yellow, it's just yeah, it's just it's dark colour. Yes. And I guess like green would would imply that it was okay. But yeah, yellow, a yellow highlight, capital letters, notes to self. Just so I again I'm not getting like obsessive over something, I'm not getting stuck and I can't move forwards. I've I've made the kind of like I need to put more here or whatever, and I've moved on to my next point because yeah, it's again, it's that process, it's messy, it's chaotic, but it will all come together eventually. It's about kind of being kind to yourself along the way and kind of leaving as much information for future you so you know when you come back and edit it, you know what you might need to look at or you might need to add.

Nicola 25:13

And like and if you find you keep getting stuck like that, that's probably the red flag saying to you take a break, yeah, step away, get some fresh air, get a snack, shut your computer down. Because you know, when no matter where you are, if you if you feel like you're on track for your deadline or you feel like you've missed a couple of weeks and you're on catch-up, it can or you're really on a roll and you don't want to shut your laptop off. Breaks are really important and you will write better if you take a break.

Emma 25:45

Yeah, definitely.

How To Get Skills Support

Nicola 25:47

Make sure to do that.

Emma 25:48

Well, thank you for listening to this episode of the Skills Pod on writing a dissertation. Hopefully it's been useful. Hope you listen to us again soon. If you're a University of Chester student, here are the ways you can access support from your academic skills team.

Anthony 26:02

On our Moodle pages, we've got lots of interactive resources for you to use. On our literacies Moodle page, you'll find help with a range of skills from academic writing to revision. On our Maths and Statistics Moodle pages, you'll find help with different statistical tests, calculations, and formulas.

Emma 26:19

You can also use our feed forward email assistance service. You can send 750 words, which is around three paragraphs, of your work, to ask at chester.ace.uk and we'll respond within three working days with generic and developmental advice on aspects such as paragraph structure, criticality and referencing.

Anthony 26:39

You can also book a one-to-one with the Academic Skills Advisor via our Moodle pages. These appointments typically last 30 minutes and are available online and in person. Be able to see the campuses we're at by looking at our booking scheduler. You can send across an extract of your work for us to look at in preparation for the one-to-one. Or you can book a one-to-one to discuss a generic skill such as referencing or critical thinking.

Emma 27:03

If you and a group of your course mates are struggling with the same academic skill, you can book an Ask Together session by emailing ask at chester.ac.uk with details of your availability, how many people are in your group, what skills you want to cover, and where you'd like the session to take place.

Anthony 27:20

You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook using the handle AkadskillsURC, where we post practical tips on a range of academic skills, and it's also a great way to see what the team are up to.

Emma 27:32

And of course, you've got the skills pod. If you have a topic that you'd like us to cover or you'd like to be involved with our podcast, please email ask at chester.ac.uk.

Anthony 27:43

Ask.

Emma 27:44

Supporting your success.