Dissertation Deadline has now passed !

For those following the full time version of the Royal Holloway MBA, the passing of 30 August was a very important one as it marked the end of their studies.  We have got graduation to look forwards to in December, but in terms of assessments and inputs, this was the final, final piece of work.  I heard stories of 90 minute queues for the library printer and of students running from one side of the campus to the other in order to achieve the 14:00 deadline.

I was delighted then on Friday night to meet an exclusive bunch of just finished MBAs at the White Cross, Riverside, (off Water Lane), Richmond, Surrey. TW9 1TH, my favourite pub due to a stunning river view and long family associations. It was a good chance to reflect on a hard working year that saw everyone develop and grow having been confronted by a wide variety of challenges. 

Whilst 2011/12 MBA candidates concentrate their efforts on finding exciting roles in their new careers, my focus is on marking a very large pile of dissertations and undertaking the final interviews for people thinking about starting a full time MBA on September 24th.  So far we have a cracking looking group of candidates, but I am always open to offering the odd late place to any late, late applications. 

Lovely Literature Review

The biggest challenge you face writing your first or second literature review is understanding what is already out there.  I often see students in a confused state, wondering how to approach the literature review.  My experience, based on supervising more than 100 students, suggests that you need to be comfortable here with some ambiguity (an essential business skill), effectively operating in the zone of shades of grey (i.e. no black or white).

Ambiguity ?  Yup.  You have an idea of what your question might be, a sense of the topic, but a sense that this may evolve as you learn more about the extant (existing) knowledge, become comfortable with the concepts and terminology, basically starting to get stuck into the detail (but recognise that you do not know that much).  Don't be worried if you are confused.com. 

I encourage students to get lost in the topic - this can be a very disconcerting experience  - having perhaps "nailed" a title and been particularly pleased with a form of words that might become a dissertation question, you start reading academic journals that use terminology and a style that is really quite different to what you have seen before.  The papers are 5,000 words long or more, written by PhD+ level academics, many very specialist.  Your head begins to explode as you wobble between "I thought I had cracked this & knew what I was doing" and "I'm totally out of my depth".


TIP:  learn to scan documents - not read them head to tail.  Look for useful/interesting ideas, concepts, models.  Read the abstract - relevant - yes - read on...... if not move on to the next one.  Most academic journal papers offer a neat summary of the current literature on their subject (much like text books, but perhaps more current and specialist).  If you are freaked out (challenged) by the detailed methods and analysis, move on.  Look to pick up ideas, models, key authors, terminology.  Them move on quickly. 

You ideally should be picking up lots of small elements from a wide variety of sources, not looking to find one or two papers that are very close to your question. This is why we "read" for degrees in UK.  Lots of reading.  And more.

If papers are very close to your question - why are you undertaking the research ?  The requirement is for originality, not re-crafting a paper that has already been written.  Ensure you make very careful notes, with full referencing....there is nothing worse than flapping around just before the deadline looking to complete referencing. See this blog entry on Shell document creation. 

Use these ideas/notes to create a mind map. (I call these brain maps. my son corrects me on this...)

The do not have to look pretty, and may well evolve. just do it.  you will feel better.

Do not rush things.  Over a few days of research you will begin to have a feel for what the key areas of academic theory are that will be relevant for your question.  The literature review needs to include analytical frameworks, analysis tools, key theory, industry related data/facts, all the reference material you will use later in the dissertation.  Some want to add a 'background' section - don't  - this material should fit in the literature review.

I've often been told by early stage dissertation students "there is no literature on my subject". "I am looking for gender and cultural differences in snail consumption"  Full on - no irony.  This is usually the function of one of two errors: (1) student had done no/very little reading (when I ask 'which online academic journal search engine have you used ?' = stoney silence) or (2) The (misguided) expectation that there are two or three amazing papers written specifically on gender and cultural differences in snail consumption that will form 3 of the 5 references for the paper.

Using the funnel concept above - area 1 might be "consumption", area 2 might be "culture", area 3 might be "gender & gender differences in eating" area 4 might be "snail consumption" area 5 might be "cultural differences in snail consumption".  Note: not one of these topics fully addresses the set question - but you might be able to see how they link together (even loosely) and provide a platform to evaluate the question.

I love drawing this picture.  75% of the time it generates a BIG smile on my tutee's face. (my hand drawing is little better than my PowerPoint graphical skill..) "Yes ! I so get this...." is the feeling that is often created.  Remember the news at 10.  You get headlines (intro), you get detailed reports on the key news items (not everything - just the important stuff), then before they sign off they remind you of what has happened.  Indicate. Tell. Remind.   Each chapter should contain an introduction (sign posting or route planning in summary format what is coming, the journey, then a reminder of what the journey showed.  The whole dissertation has the same format in totality and within each chapter.
Additionally, as suggested by this fish skeleton image, there is a main spine that links the ideas of the content.  There might be 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 main topics.

In each the key arguments (drawn from a variety of expert/authoritative sources...n.b. Wikipedia, Google, mysillywebsite.com are not usually recognised for their expert knowledge) is weighed carefully. Consider the pros and cons of a particular idea, consider the balance of views, the authoritativeness of views (sometimes the 'right' answer might be just a sole voice) - if you have understood the research being quoted (academic research often over relies on campus based research) you may be able to differentiate between strong, medium and weak sources.  Try not to take strong, personal opinion based positions.  Academic writing is objective and based on facts.  The conditional tense is very useful at suggesting the author or the researchers perspectives might suggest, indicates strong support for, consensus of expert opinion, may, should, could....

Being critical is also very important.  What is meant here is that the content does not just describe what others have written.  The 'knitting' of perspectives can challenge or undermine.  Identification of validity (sample size, recency, relevance, appropriateness) may also weaken arguments.  Being critical is not putting across strong, personal opinions.  As relatively inexperienced academic researcher your opinion carries little weight. (To be frank: I don't care what you say - you need to use the published words of others as the swords of your arguments, you control their cut and thrust, you build the strategy and shape the fight - but this is not about your opinions, you are not an expert (yet)) Consideration of the full range of opinions is important (requires detailed research - particularly hunting down contrary view points if they have not emerged in the initial search). 

How many references should I include ?  I tend to ask for the gold standard (there is no upper limit - you include what you have used....) but four pages of double spaced Harvard referencing would be an appropriate bibliography for a literature review. 

Please note:  Full and accurate Harvard referencing is required.  Look at the School materials for this.  Learn it.  Love it.  Dream it.

Five common dissertation 'mistakes'

(1) Spending too much time worrying about the perfect title. They evolve over time & really need lots of literature reading before they crystalise - many students flap and don't do the hard work of reading academic journals around their subject. (see this blogs post on finding a dissertation title)

(2) Taking it far too easy once the title has been decided & approved. This is the time to crack on with deep and wide literature research and developing/planning the methodology.

(3) Students trying to stretch 5 or 10 sources too thinly. Deep, deep research (including relevant texts and academic research journals) is necessary. The better the content, the easier it is to write - it's a beauty contest on what to exclude - you have such an embarrassment of riches. Saying little with nothing much requires literary genius few of us possess. The research is the most important phase, yet it takes the most time & yet generates the fewest words. (see this blogs post on using a shell document).  

Royal Holloway, University of London



(4) My computer crashed. Of course I always back up. Just not the dissertation

.

(5) Insufficient time polishing. Ironically the last sections to be written (intro, conclusion and abstract) are often rushed. These are your prime real estate - the first thing a marker looks at. If they are peppered with spellling errors, grammatical nonsense and is hard to follow - you start by creating a bad impression (sub 50%) and an amazing lit review and methods section will only see you play catch up. Make sure you BEST writing is show cased in the abstract, introduction and conclusion.

How To Write An Effective Dissertation Title

 Find circa 50 student dissertation exemplars (Merit +) available on the "All PGT Common Page" on Moodle.

 

 

 

Subject Interest

Crucial to pick a topic you are genuinely interested in.
Any topic will do (management is everywhere)
Unsolved mystery ?  (Do women have a relationship with their hand bag ? Why don’t men use moisturiser ?)
Personal passion ? (Sports team)

 

Link to academic theory

Initially this might be a wide area e.g. “leadership” or “marketing”
Reading the abstracts/introductions of a number of academic journals is essential here
You should ideally look for a more detailed area e.g. cross-cultural leadership or perhaps sports marketing

Formulating a title

Area of research interest: Manchester City
Academic topic: Cross-cultural team building
Access to organisation ?: Very unlikely
Proxy for access:  Football experts (fans ?)
Source of experts: general population/average student – unlikely, online sports forums, sports clubs/teams, snowballing (personal referrals)
Expertise qualification: depth of football knowledge & length of interest (likely to be mature fans ?)
 

Matching research and question

 It is important to ensure the research sample are qualified to provide expert view/opinion on the question
How many students have bought a house ?
How many students have flown business class ? (often..?)
How many lecturers are up on the latest music/fashion trends ?

Use your connections

It is possible to email (better to call or visit) a company and ask for help on research…. however expect many rejections and to work hard
Personal connections and in person requests can often turn up the best links
However; working people are busy, need lots of notice (weeks) and may cancel your appointment at the last moment. 
Ensure you have a plan B
Anticipate cancellations – need 5 interviews – plan for 7 or 9.
 

All PGT common page (Moodle)
Is your question too big ?

 “Social Media as a branding platform: The case of Nike”

Shows academic theory (branding/social media), context (Nike) and research approach (case study) but geographic realm (global ? Too big ?) case study via secondary sources ? 

“Determinates of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment of Saudi Females in Vocational Institutions.”

Is more specific and has a clearer focus.

Question words that suggest the type of research that will be undertaken (ack Dr. Donna Brown)

Great titles answer 5W’s and H 

What ? area of academic theory
Which ? company/industry
Where ? geographic focus
Why ? Importance, gap in literature and personal motivation (described in introduction)
Who ? define the research subjects
How ? methodology – flagged via key words 

Different methods to choose from

Quantitative methods:   ANOVA, correlation, ranking, panel data, survey, questionnaire, randomised, experimental, causal, reliability, validity, cross-sectional, longitudinal, classification, dependency, time series analysis, regression analysis, factor analysis

Qualitative methods: observation methods, projection, ethnographic, narratives, anthropological, action research, interview, focus group, semi-structured interview, research diary
Mixed methods: – sometimes referred to as triangulation.   Allows the combination of strengths of different approaches, whilst also perhaps overcoming some of the weaknesses.

Paraphrasing

Careful note-taking and paraphrasing ideas

"Much preparation for assignments involves taking notes from books or materials that you are reading. In taking notes, you should be careful not to copy sentences or paragraphs directly, unless you place them in inverted commas. If you omit the inverted commas, you might forget when you get around to writing that you copied directly and therefore plagiarise without realising.
It is good academic practice to learn to paraphrase arguments. To do so, you should read, say, a chapter of a textbook and use your own words and your own sequence of ideas to record the arguments as they relate to the issues raised by the assignment."  (Royal Holloway, 2011)


Bibliographic reference:
Royal Holloway, (2011) Essay writing and referencing guide. www.rhul.ac.uk [accessed 24 April 2012]

The above paragraph (carefully identified as a direct quotation) is taken from:

Royal Holloway School of Management Essay Writing and Referencing Guide

I strongly recommend that you are very familiar with each and every line of this document.

A short example from me using O'Brien, J. (2012) The allure of VW camper vans http://royalhollowaymarketing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/allure-of-vw-camper-vans.html [accessed 24 April 2012]

You will see in the first paragraph there is a blend of a short quote and some paraphrasing.  The style of the second and third paragraphs could be criticised in an academic submission because they are both rather over reliant on quotations and lack sufficient re-engineering from the author (oops ! that's me...).  Please note all of the ideas have come from research and these are carefully referenced in text before any new ideas are introduced.  Use direct quotation sparingly and make sure you know the two different ways to demonstrate a direct quote (hint: short and long quotes are shown differently).

Possible dissertation shell document framework

What I have often found helpful is to take all the different advice (& paying particular attention to formal guidance given in the dissertation handbook) to create a shell document.  This lays out what each of the sections should be and a short form of text (often put into italics & small) and left until the final edit - to ensure each of the elements has been fully covered, and nothing overlooked.  The below is merely offered as guidance and should not be used blindly. 

Remember the format should be typed.  One side of the page. Double-spaced. A4 paper. Left margin >4 cm, right 2 cm to allow for binding.  All pages are to be numbered. Font size 12.  RHUL allows some flexibility in the report structure, according to subject matter and approach to the topic.

TITLE PAGE: This must follow the standard layout. Candidate's full name, title of the dissertation, a statement that the dissertation is submitted as part of the requirement for the award of the Master’s degree (MA/MSc/MBA), month and year of submission, name of the supervisor. (see example in dissertation handbook appendix) 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Included at the front. Cover main points and conclusions in not more than 200 words.   

CONTENTS PAGE: Give page numbers for headings and sub-headings.  Consider TOC (table of contents) function in Word to create this, if headings and sub-heading  style formatting is used consistently.  Remember to update the page numbers before final print.  Useful navigation aid for reader.

INTRODUCTION or The Problem/Opportunity to Be Addressed: What is the problem or opportunity that has been investigated ?  Why was it chosen ? Why is it important ? What were the terms of reference (project scope) you set for yourself ? Effective introductions often use engaging hooks (including quotations) to introduce the paper, using a more functional navigation of how the dissertation is laid out. May also include discussion of the papers originality and any gap in the literature.  

LITERATURE REVIEW or The Theoretical Framework: Present an original narrative of relevant academic theory.  Using frequent (every new idea) Harvard in text referencing you will show deep and wide reading, reflecting a variety of (differing) opinions.  An objective and critical tone will consider and weigh different arguments.  The use of a 'cone' structure that sees perhaps up to six different areas (sub-headings), starting at a high level and becoming more specific towards the end/point of the cone.  All material used during the analysis section should be introduced here. 

RESEARCH METHOD or methodology:  Requires two key elements: justification of the approach taken and detailed explanation on how it was undertaken. 

Justification of research approach, use research methods texts in the library to justify why the approach chosen was the optimal, consider strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.  Use research methods references to justify (using expert opinion) your rationale. 
Sampling, use appropriate terminology to describe the approach you have used (note snowballing is one).  No research approach is perfect, highlight any mitigation (ways to over come short comings) that you have put in place. 
Think of science experiments or cooking recipes, you should detail how the research was undertaken with sufficient detail so that another researcher could take your notes and exactly duplicate your approach.

RESULTS: Quantitative approaches often use graphical approaches to present findings (consistent colouring, take care to label each chart/diagram clearly and effectively) often supported with a very short description in text, highlighting key data facts.

ANALYSIS and interpretation: Knits together findings from primary and secondary research.  Does the primary research strongly or weakly support the literature ?  Where was there agreement ?  Where were there big differences ? Small differences ? Key themes may be used to present the data (rather than following the follow of a questionnaire).  Possible explanations for differences (timescales, sample, method) may be put forward, using the conditional tense (e.g. might be, could indicate, may suggest...)  Combines referenced ideas from the literature review with primary results findings.  Crucial here to demonstrate both analysis and the ability to be critical (academically).  

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The majority of the word count in this section should concentrate on summarising the key findings.  Care should be taken not to over generalise (making conclusions that go beyond what has been proven or the scope of the research question).  No new material or ideas should be presented here.  In shorter sections the following should also be covered:
Practical and Managerial implications; how managers (which ones ?) might be able to use the research findings.
Limitations - take care to present modest primary research "reasonable time and financial resource use in the scope of a masters degree dissertation" but identify learning (what could be done differently next time) for improvements.  Recommendations for further research might highlight other topics/questions that follow on researchers might usefully consider to undertake.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: alphabetical list of sources used.  Ensure Harvard referencing is fully complied with, do not use first names and take care with full stops and commas.  Four pages or more.  Show extensive use of academic journals and relevant text books.  Limit use of web sources. 

APPENDICES: questionnaires, write ups of focus groups and in-depth interviews or detailed statistics, should also be placed at the end.
 

Remember:  RHUL academics will be marking your work.
Each section/chapter should start with a new page (insert page break). 

How to find a good/great/amazing dissertation title ?

How to find a good/great/amazing dissertation title ?

My name is Justin O'Brien  and I thought it might be a worthwhile experience to create a series of blog posts to support the project supervision work I undertake as part of my academic role at Royal Holloway, University of London. 

First up is the requirement to identify a good subject.  Standard advice here suggests you select something that you are interested in, or perhaps passionate about.  This might not be that obvious, particularly at the end of a challenging academic programme.  The dissertation road can be long and hard, having some deeper level of motivation is important.

Other more pragmatic approaches might include starting by working backwards from your career aspriation or perhaps where you have access (through family, friend or work connections) to a company or industry.

There is an opportunity on your CV/resume to include the title of your dissertation (particularly if you got a strong mark) and this can be picked up as a discussion point at interveiw as one of the easy 'warm up' questions.  This may be one of the helpful points of differentiation that makes your application stand out from the crowd. 

Clearly your topic must fit within the scope of your degree, but aside from this constraint, pretty much anything goes.    Thus there are no right or wrong topics, what is crucial is that you are interested in the subject, that there is accessible written material at least in the academic literature and ideally from wider industry too and you can link the conceptual ideas to an appropriate primary research method.

Justin O'Brien

Take a look at past dissertation titles, I have been lucky enough to supervise a very wide range of projects that include topics such as gender differences in UK and Korean computer gaming, ambush marketing at major sports events, differences between UK/Finnish males attitudes towards grooming products, even sex tourism on a Greek island !

Once you have identified an interesting topic you need to find a link between academic theory and the kind of research you will be undertaking.  It makes no sense to link marketing strategy theory to human resources staff retention in a small organisation.  Equally asking 100 undergraduates using a qualitative questionnaire about their experience of being a middle or senior manager shows a clear mis-match in expertise. 

Emotionally the topic selection appears monumental, I have seen many students in very agitated states as they go through this early stage.   Ideas change quickly, as many as 10 different topics can be considered in a few days.  Try not to exhaust your supervisors good will at this stage, use their time when you have settled on a subject area.  Talking to friends and family is helpful, even if it just about articulating your own ideas our loud.  Some people rather panic at this stage.  It is a very large part of your final grade, so perhaps not surprising.    Perhaps rather than over focusing in the early stages on the precise formulation of the title, more focus should be put on undertaking research.  Here I do not mean spending a couple of hours on Google search.

A crucial tip is to spend time using the academic journals accessed via search engines such as EBSCO, Science Direct and Emerald.  Here you will see PhD level and above papers and begin to assimilate useful vocabulary ideas for the title, start to uncover relevant models and theory and also get an understanding of the expected 'academic writing tone' (formal (not slang/spoken English), third person ('the researcher' not I), past tense, evidenced based (using in text references), objective (use shades of grey not black and white, moderated adjectives). 

Be disciplined from the start.  Try to write up paraphrased notes in your own words (note: careful referencing will save panics later) and why not start adding useful papers to your bibliography - I always suggest the creation of a shell document.  Whilst you undertake your research you may feel like you have worked really hard, but have generated absolutely zero words too show for it all !  At least creating a bibliography will give you some measure of progress.  I would expect a good dissertation to have four or more pages of references (double line spaced) that have mostly academic journals, a wide range of texts and some industry sources that may be internet based. 

NEXT TIME: TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE TITLE