Crafting a dissertation

1
Crafting a dissertation
Ronan Fitzpatrick June 2007
2
Overview

• Structure
• of dissertation
• of individual chapters
• of chapter sections
• Content
• of dissertation
• of individual chapters
• of chapter sections
• Format

3
Life cycle
4
Structure of dissertation - 1

• Cover page (Title and Author details)
• Certificate of own work
• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Abbreviations.

5
Structure of dissertation - 2

• Introduction chapter
• Dissertation chapters 2, 3, n
• Your contribution chapter
• Validation/evaluation chapter
• Conclusion chapter
• References
• Appendix.

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Structure of individual chapters

• Introduction
• Background
• Conclusion.

Sub-sections
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Structure of chapter sections

• A sentence or two to introduce the section
• Write the section
• Make any arguments or draw any conclusions at the
  end of the section.

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Structure

• Keep in mind
• Handholding and signposting for your readers
• Avoiding the So What trap
• Building on each chapter deliverable as your
  dissertation advances.

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Structure of chapters

• How big/small is a chapter?
• Is 3 pages too small?
• If you have an Introduction and a Conclusion
  there wont be much in between.
• Is a 3-page chapter appropriate to an MSc?
• Is 50 pages too big?
• Would it be better to have written two chapters?
• Is 50 pages half a dissertation?

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Structure

• Any questions on structure?

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Content - Abstract

• Overview of the dissertation
• Weave topics and keywords into an overview
• No citations
• Limit to one page.
• First thing to be read, last thing to be written.

12
Content - Acknowledgements

• Institute and any funding body
• Supervisors and Lecturers
• Academics, practitioners and world experts
• Family, colleagues and friends.

13
Content Table of Contents

• Limit to three levels
• Use numbering (e.g., 5, 5.1, 5.1.1).

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Content List of Tables and Figures

• By chapter
• Use chapter number in table and figure captions,
  e.g., Figure 7.4 is the fourth figure in Chapter
  7.
• Note spellings of chapter (use the big C to refer
  to a specific chapter).

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Content - Abbreviations

• List all abbreviations with their full expression
• Always use full expression first in the text.

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Content Introduction chapter

• This chapter explains what the dissertation is
  all about, why you are doing it, who would find
  the content interesting, how you went about
  things, when you did the work, where you did any
  special research, what you discovered, and how
  youve presented it in this dissertation document.

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Content of a dissertation

• PESTLE
• W6h.

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Content Introduction chapter

• Introduction
• Project background
• Project aim and objectives
• Project challenge (need, and intellectual)
• Reader audience
• Methodology
• Research program
• Project deliverables
• Structure of this dissertation
• Chapter conclusion.

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Chapter 1 Think about

• What the dissertation is about?
• Why are you doing it?
• Who are you doing the dissertation for?
• What value will it have for them?
• What is the challenge (problem) of the
  dissertation?
• How will your solution differ from existing
  solutions?
• Who else will the dissertation be of interest to?
• What value will it have for them?

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Chapter 1 - Think about

• How do you plan to do it?
• What do you hope to deliver at the end of the
  project?
• What will the timescale be?
• What you will gain from doing this dissertation?
• Any experimental or prototype work you have done
• Include the titles of your remaining chapters
• State what your dissertation will NOT do.

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Content Dissertation chapters 2, 3, n

• Chapter Introduction
• W6h for the chapter
• Chapter signposting
• Chapter topic explained
• Literature review of chapter topic
• Argument Critique
• Deliverable
• Discussion (optional)
• Conclusion
• Summarise and draw conclusions.

Repeat to Chapter n
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Content - Contribution chapter

• Building on chapter deliverables
• A synthesis of deliverables from each chapter
• Framework, model, method, set of guidelines,
  Critical Success Factors, checklist
• Proof of concept by prototype implementation.

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Content Validation/evaluation chapter

• Completing the circle
• Build a tool of criteria for evaluating your
  contribution
• Manual or electronic
• Return to Academic, practitioner or world expert
  for comment
• Incorporate findings and feedback.

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Content Conclusion chapter

• Summary
• Summarise what youve done
• Restate Aim and objectives
• Emphasise your contribution
• State the benefits of your research
• State the difficulties you encountered
• Conclusions
• Emphasise your findings and conclusions
• Critique the current state of the art
• Comment on your own work
• Identify future work.

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Content - References

• A full list of all sources that you have cited in
  the text
• Alphabetical order
• Comply with the Institute standard for citation
  and referencing.
• Remember, the objective it to support future
  researchers who want to find your sources.

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Content - Appendix

• Include as necessary
• Supplemental information
• Dont hide valuable research in the appendix.

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Content Scholarly Authoritive coverage

• Based on seminal sources (hierarchy)
• Repeatable
• Dated/modern sources
• Depth breadth
• Completeness of research
• Content balance
• Argument critique - The so what? factor.

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Content Scholarly Authoritive coverage

• Domain vocabulary Evidence of having researched
  and understood the domain.
• English language
• Colloquialisms
• Dodgy suspect or suspicious or irregular
• Fine/Great impressive or significant
• One
• One does not use one in ones papers or ones
  dissertation
• Etc.
• Gender-free.

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Chapter content - Examples

• Examples are key to good explaining
• Include them regularly in order to clarify
  matters for your readers.
• If you dont include them
• will your readers understand the points you make?
• is it because you dont understand the points
  yourself?
• Use relevant examples.

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Content

• At MSc level
• Literature review
• Must be accurate
• Must be complete
• Ethical practice applies
• Must not be plagiarised
• Data must be accurate and true (repeatable)
• Findings must be fully reported.

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Content

• Any questions on content?

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Format

• Page setup
• Font styles
• Heading styles and numbering
• Headers and footers
• Citations and references
• Lists, tables and figures
• Spelling and punctuation.

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Format Page setup

• Top margin
• Bottom margin
• Left margin
• Right margin
• Paper size A4
• Line spacing 1½ lines.

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Format Heading styles and numbering

• Times New Roman 24pt bold Chapter heading
• 5.1 Times New Roman 16pt bold first level
  heading - Numbered
• 5.1.1 Times New Roman 14pt bold second level
  heading Numbered
• 5.1.1.1 Times New Roman 12pt bold third level
  heading Numbered
• Times New Roman 12pt fourth level heading
• Use word processor functionality for automatic
  numbering.

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Format Font styles

• Correct font style for computer code in a text
  document

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Format Font styles

• Use italic font and quotation marks to illustrate
  verbatim reporting, for example,
• Use a new line and indent.

"That's one small step for man one giant leap
for mankind." Armstrong, 1969
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Format Headers and footers

• Different first page
• 1.25 from header edge
• 1.25 from footer edge
• Header
• Chapter title - Times New Roman 10pt italics
• Footer
• Page number 12pt.

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Citing research sources - 1

• You MUST cite your sources
• Should you cite sources every time you make a
  statement?
• Should you cite sources at the end of a
  paragraph?
• Let your reader know that this is honest research
  and not plagiarism
• Dont rely on just one source.

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Citing research sources - 2

• Example 1
• There are numerous definitions of the term 'Data
  Mining' but the core concept behind them is the
  same, that data mining is the exploration and
  analysis of large quantities of data in order to
  discover meaningful patterns and rules (Berry,
  2004).

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Citing research sources - 3

• Alternative to example 1
• There are numerous definitions of the term 'Data
  Mining' (Berry LinHoff, 1997 Han Kamber,
  2000 Ng Han, 2002 ISO/IEC 13249-6, 2006 p12).
  However, Berry (2004) argues that the core
  concept behind them is the same, that is, data
  mining is the exploration and analysis of large
  quantities of data in order to discover
  meaningful patterns and rules.

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Citing research sources - 4

• One problem
• THE seminal publication is missing
• i.e., Fayyad, U., Piatetsky-Shapiro, G. and
  Smyth, P. (1996)
• So, researchers need to accurately identify
  seminal sources and supervisors need to be very
  attentive to whats written.

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Format Citations

• (DeMarco, 1982 p3)
• (Schneidewind, 1992 Shepperd Ince, 1993
  Churcher Shepperd, 1995 Fenton Pfleeger,
  1996)
• (Bevan, 1995 Ivory et al., 2001 ISO 9126, 2001).

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Format References

• DeMarco, T. (1982) Controlling Software Projects
  Management, Measurement Estimation, Yourdon
  Press, New York, USA, p3
• Fenton, N.E. and Pfleeger, S.L. (1996) Software
  Metrics A Rigorous and Practical Approach,
  International Thomson Computer Press, London, UK
• Ivory, M.Y., Sinha, R.R. and Hearst, M. (2001)
  Empirically Validated Web Page Design Metrics, in
  Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in
  Computing Systems, CHI Letters 3(1), p53-60

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Format References

• Start a Reference file on the day you write your
  project proposal.
• Author surname, Initial(s), (Year) Title,
  Publication, Publisher, City, Country,
  Vol(Issue), Page numbers
• Use same format for Internet publications but add
  the date you access it.

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Format Lists, figures and tables

• Bullet or number list?
• Capital letter and full stop

• Research the topic
• Write the chapter
• Create a deliverable
• Draw conclusions.

• Topic research
• Write the chapter
• Deliverable creation
• Conclusions.

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Format Lists, figures and tables

• Figure a diagram or illustration
• Caption below figure
• Consistent format for fonts, e.g.,
• Figure 5.1 This is the caption of Figure 5.1.
• Include chapter number in figure number
• Include the source of your illustration.

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Format Lists, figures and tables

• Table - contains data that can be processed
  mathematically ????
• Caption above table
• Consistent format for fonts, e.g.,
• Table 5.1 This is the caption of Table 5.1.
• Include chapter number in table number.

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Format Lists, tables and figures

• Including tables and figures
• Must be referenced in the text (reference first,
  followed by the table or figure)
• Position the table or figure as close as possible
  to where it is first mentioned in the text
• Must be explained
• Dont allow your reader to misinterpret your
  tables or figures or to remain ignorant about
  their content. You should explain them in full.

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Example

• Fitzpatrick (2007) presents a life cycle for
  progressing MSc research as illustrated in Figure
  2.1.

Figure 2.1 MSc Life cycle. (Fitzpatrick
2007) The Life cycle consists of ten elements
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Using the correct verb

• Another challenge that needs to be carried out

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Format Spelling and punctuation

• Consistent spelling, especially new technical
  words
• Apostrophe of possession
• Apostrophe of omission (avoid)
• Sentence length
• Question mark
• Quotation marks
• Full stop.

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Do

• Write in the passive voice (e.g., the research
  was completed)
• Write gender-free text (try the plural)
• Include examples in order to clarify topics for
  your readers
• Use a consistent layout for bulleted lists,
  numbered lists, figure and table captions
• Use consistent spelling for new technical words
• For example, end-user, e-Commerce, Internet
• Keep your sentences to under twenty-two words
• Proof-read your work for typing errors
• Re-read your work for structure, meaning and
  clarity.

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Dont

• Dont use the words, etc., one or ones,
  basically or essentially
• Dont write this chapter will attempt to
  (Write this chapter will)
• Dont write As already stated... (Write in
  Section X.Y it was explained)
• Dont confuse its with its, or there with their
  or theyre
• Dont rely only on a spellchecker
• Dont use dialogue avoid,
• Welcome to this report
• "In a few moments I will explain"
• Dont include clipart unless it is significant to
  your research
• Dont be accused of plagiarising some one elses
  research.

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Make it easy for yourself

• Your supervisor has been through this process and
  has successfully produced a dissertation. That
  might be a good starting point for structure and
  content headings.

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Do yourself justice

• Your dissertation will be available off the
  library shelf for many years to come, so, polish
  it and present it in its best light
• Avoid submitting a bag of unpolished diamonds.

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Readings

• Truss, Lynne (2003) Eats, Shoots Leaves The
  zero tolerance approach to punctuation, Profile
  Books Ltd, London, England
• Fitzpatrick, R. and O'Donnell, K. (2003) Crafting
  a research paper
• www.comp.dit.ie/rfitzpatrick/Papers
  Publications

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Conclusion

• Some thoughts on
• Structure
• of dissertation
• of individual chapters
• of chapter sections
• Content
• of dissertation
• of individual chapters
• of chapter sections
• Format

58
Questions.