preparation for your final year project report or dissertation · preparation for your final year...

Academic Skills Advice

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www.brad.ac.uk/academic-skills

Preparation for Your

Final Year Project Report or Dissertation

This workshop will:

- Introduce the differences between FYP reports and dissertations

- Explore the process for producing your completed report or dissertation.

- Examine the links between theory and practice when designing experiments

or testing designs

Teaching points:

1. Differences between dissertations and FYP reports

2. The process of producing a completed FYP report or dissertation

3. Reading methods

4. Incorporating theory into your FYP report or dissertation

http://www.brad.ac.uk/academic-skills


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1. Differences between dissertations and FYP reports

Whilst the process of producing each assignment is the same (please see below),

there are differences both to the research activity undertaken and the final written

work produced by students.

Generally speaking, if a …

• report is required, the project will involve answering an exploratory question

or hypothesis (either provided by the tutor or selected by the student);

collecting evidence through experimentation and analysing it, or designing an

item and testing its efficacy; and offering recommendations (if requested).

The report itself will have a format specified by the course and school.

• dissertation is required, the research activity will be in-depth and there will

be use of primary and secondary sources. Fieldwork may be done alone or in

tandem with professional practice. The dissertation is, in effect, an extended

essay with sections specified by the course or school.

2. The process of producing a completed FYP report or dissertation

Completing a lengthy written assignment is a long process involving many different

stages. It is important you consider the process as a whole and then break it down

to ensure you allow enough time to produce a successful dissertation or FYP report.

It also may seem a linear progression but some steps could lead to a re-think, e.g.

you may have chosen to use questionnaires as your tool at an early stage but

following a review of the literature, you may decide to use a different method based

on what other researchers have used previously. Nevertheless, there is a starting

point and a finishing line.



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Activity 1a: Stages in the process

Fill in the blanks of the process below. A list of the stages has been provided, and

the first and last blocks have been completed to give you a start. When you’ve

finished, check with your neighbour if their order tallies with yours, and if not, what

are their and your reasons for it being different.

Undertake a Literature Review Writing

Implement Research Map/Plan for writing

your dissertation/FYP report

Agree Proposal Choose Research Question/Hypothesis & Analyse

Now you know how the stages follow each other, we will look at them in more

depth.

A.Planning and making a plan

G.Writing



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A. Planning and making a plan: these are absolutely key to producing a

successful final year project report or dissertation simply because of the

amount of work and time it will take. Planning involves as much thinking

about what needs to be done as ‘doing’ it.

Jot down all the different activities or tasks you will undertake to

complete the process of producing a FYP report or dissertation.

Organise them into a chronological action plan.

Put deadline dates in for completion of each activity or task in a diary

or planner. Work backwards starting with the submission date, then

when you need to finish proofreading, then when you will finish editing

and revising your first and other drafts, etc. Having deadlines rather

than starting times and dates will focus your mind and you will feel

more satisfied when you have achieved a target.

When you have your schedule together, check it with your

tutor/supervisor. Their experience both as researchers and as guiding

students means they have a realistic idea of how long each phase will

take. You are also likely to have a rough idea of your research question

or hypothesis but without any details.

Next you make a plan: breakdown each of the items on your schedule into smaller

tasks and allocate start and completion times. Whilst it appears from the process

under discussion that you complete one stage and move on to another, you are

likely to find you will be doing more than one thing at a time, such as putting

together a writing plan whilst undertaking a review of the literature.

Activity 1b: Activities in process

You will be allocated at least one of the remaining stages as a pair or small group.

Consider what tasks you would undertake for each stage and make notes in the

spaces provided.

B. Agree your proposal:

C. Choose/construct a research question/hypothetical statement and analyse it:



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D. Undertake a review of the literature:

E. Implement research:

F. Map/plan for writing dissertation/FYP:

G. Writing:

3. Reading methods

Once you have chosen the relevant sources to inform your research and include in

your literature review, there are three types of reading and note-taking to employ

that will enable you to maximise the information in each on:

Skim reading gives you an overview of the contents, the key ideas and broad

structure of the texts. You will make some preliminary markings in the text or

margins to act as guidelines for later reading.

Scanning is where you are looking for something specific, i.e. topic

sentences or phrases which relate to your research. This is where you start to

do active reading as you take notes and highlight passages; you can use

different colours, sticky tabs, annotation codes, etc. that correlate to different

aspects of the text.



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In-depth detailed active reading leads to identifying and exploring

specific ideas, theories, concepts, etc. and for you to develop a stance or

formulate an opinion (if required). You need to be systematic in your reading

and read the chapter, section or paper from start to finish. You also need to

look for what isn’t there, looking between the lines to find out what the

writer’s overall point is; whether x is relevant or adds to the argument; what

lessons can be learnt; etc. Your notes will be more extensive and keeping a

list of everything you have read, including page numbers, will save you time

when you are writing up.

4. Incorporating theory into your FYP report or dissertation

Students are often unsure about how to use theories and can become anxious as

they know markers expect to see them in their reports or dissertations. Theories can

be useful in two different ways: by informing the research activity to undertake or

explaining results. I could have used theories in these two different ways in my own

research concerning why some students do not engage with Academic Skills:

If I was unsure what research project to undertake within the field of student access and success, I could’ve read Marx’s theory relating to the oppression of the working classes by the elite. This in turn could’ve led to a research project regarding how Bradford University encourages students from non-traditional backgrounds to consider the institution as an option. So theory could’ve helped me before my research activity.

I had no idea what the outcomes would be but my research of the literature presented some possible explanations of why students do not engage. One of these was a theory of practice by Bourdieu, which suggests people are unable to escape the status they have from birth. This is linked to another theory on how people’s actions are influenced by both the language and behaviour of others. Therefore, one possible reason for students not engaging is because their peers don’t, or their lecturers’ may not have suggested the Service, or they have low expectations of themselves due to their social background. So, theory could’ve help me after my research activity.

Above section adapted from Thomas (2013)

Research

Question

Data

collection

& analysis

Findings

Theory Theory

Insert theory here Insert theory here OR



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Identifying which theory topics to research starts with the general area you are

interested in or the research question you have asked yourself. For example:

Why are young people in Cambridge homeless? What solutions are in place or developed to deal with homelessness among young people?

Just like any other question, brief or task you are given, analysing (breaking down)

the research question/s will provide a guide to your theory research. Analysing the

above could produce topics for you to research:

Homelessness

Residence and belonging

Identity

Health and conformity

You may find it useful to look at others’ dissertations and final year reports to gain

some insight into how other students have used theories and theorising. These can

be found using the following Library link:

http://digitalcollections.brad.ac.uk/vital/access/manager/Collection/vital:25

5. Organising your notes

You will have accrued a large amount of notes during the reading phase which form

part of the making a map/plan for your FYP report or dissertation stage. Using the

different colours, sticky notes, etc. whilst researching will now help to organise your

notes. There are many different ways of doing this including:

Using a concept or Mind-map – this does not have to be on the computer, every pc

in the University has a software package called MindGenius that can help you to

develop a concept map, but could be on a whiteboard or even a roll of wallpaper

(that’s what I did). Start with your main themes, adding subthemes around them.

Then, draw connections between them to build up a picture of what concepts,

theories and ideas ‘belong’ together. This example overleaf is a research concept

map.



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This enables you to get a ‘bird’s eye view’ of what you have found, move groups

around if necessary and see links which can help with the structure of your FYP

report or dissertation.

You could create a table with themes and sub-themes, write every element on a

sticky-note and move them around, create ‘family trees’ or any other method you

are comfortable with.

THE QUESTION

Type of research

Purpose of the research

Context

Kind of ?

Focus

Scale and

scope

Disciplinary base/

traditions

Topic knowledge

Literature search

Literature review

Data management

Data analysis

Data-collection techniques

Theoretical framework

Key concepts

Methodological assumptions

exploratory

explanatory

descriptive

action

basic

evaluative

applied

Time period

Language

Policy

Programme

System

Breadth/

depth

History Core

arguments

epistemology

aims

rhetoric

personal values

ethical issues

definitions

inductive/

deductive

history

thematising

devices

units of analysis

validity reliability

sample

qualitative/

quantitative access



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Activity 2: Organising your ideas

In the space below, first jot down some ideas about your elements of your project

and research activity. Then, organise your ideas in whatever way you see fit.



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For examples of students’ essays and other assignments, visit the excellent website

https://wrasse.plymouth.ac.uk

To provide feedback or comments on any aspect of Academic Skills, please visit our

website (www.brad.ac.uk/academic-skills), click ‘About us’; ‘Feedback’; ‘feedback

board’ where you will find plenty of space to tell us what you think. Alternatively, we

now have a ‘Comments, complaints and compliments’ box in Chesham B0.23; just fill

in a paper slip and post in the box.

References

Birmingham Law School. How to write a research proposal. Birmingham, University

of Birmingham.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/law/courses/research/research-proposal.aspx

Accessed 10 October 2014.

Cottrell, S. (2013) The study skills handbook. 4th ed. Basingstoke, Palgrave

Macmillan Ltd.

Hart. C. (2007) Doing your masters dissertation. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Silyn-Roberts, H. (2000) Writing for science and engineering. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Thomas, G. (2013) How to do Your research project. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Tomato Sphere. (2014) The scientific method. Canada, Let’s Talk Science.

http://www.tomatosphere.org/teacher-resources/teachers-guide/principal-

investigation/scientific-method.cfm Accessed 3 October 2014.

Wallace, M., and Wray A. (2011) Critical reading and writing for postgraduates. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Wisker, G. (2009) The undergraduate research handbook. Basingstoke, Palgrave

Macmillan Ltd.


https://wrasse.plymouth.ac.uk/


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Answers

Activity 1a: Stages in the process

Activity 1b: Stages B – g

B. Agree your proposal: First a quick refresher- a proposal is a summary of your

proposed research. It sets out the central issues or questions that you intend to

address. It outlines the general area of study within which your research falls,

referring to the current state of knowledge and any recent debates on the topic. It

also demonstrates the originality of your proposed research (Birmingham Law

School: 2014).

Draw up your proposal – it is likely your school or course have a standard

format for proposals so check your module and/or programme handbooks for

more information.

Check with your supervisor it contains everything it should in the right order

and the correct format. Ensure you receive confirmation from your

tutor/supervisor your proposal is suitable if you make revisions.

Depending on your research, you may have to obtain Ethics Clearance from

the University AND permission from the organisation your participants or

research subject are based. ALL research needs some Ethics Clearance, but

those dealing with people or human tissue have very strict guidelines and

procedures you must follow.

Planning and making a plan

Agree the proposal

Choose/construct your research

?/hypothesis and analyse it

Undertake a review of the literature

Implement your

research

Map/plan for writing

dissertation/FYP report

Writing



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C. Choose/construct a research question/hypothetical statement and analyse it:

It is likely you will have more than one research question which will all support the

main central question which will take the form of your dissertation/project report

title. For example,…

Title: An exploration into whether children arrive more frequently at school by foot

and by car.

Research question: What is the average distance travelled by those regularly arriving

by foot or car?

Research question: What is the crime rate for the school’s catchment area?

Research question: What is the social class strata of those attending the school?

To help with deciding what questions to ask, first consider the level of interest in and

usefulness of your research to the field (this is done via your review of the literature,

the next phase); and availability, cost, maintenance and storage of resources. Create

a list of key words which define your research and which can be used during the

review of the literature – subject librarians will help with this. These and other

supplementary questions will help both guide your research and to develop a

research plan, e.g., what experiments or tools need to be designed? Is data

collection involved?

D. Undertake a review of the literature: Your subject librarian will be able to

help with this by providing tips on how to search databases, catalogues, and the

library for relevant sources. Once you have selected your most relevant texts, read

each carefully making notes as you do so. Use different colour pens or highlighters

to emphasize different elements, such as arguments that support or disagree with

your stance; theories or models of interest; topics that need further reading, etc.

Make sure you record everything you read either for your reference list (of sources

cited) or bibliography (sources that may have influenced you in some way), including

page numbers. This will save you time when you are writing up.

E. Implement research: Now you can start your actual research activity. If you

have not done so already, identify the participants, equipment and other resources

required. You may have to design and create materials, e.g. questionnaires or

equipment used in experiments. Recording documents and databases will help you

to track your progress and act as receptacles for your raw data and findings.

Collecting and collating data (whether via interaction with people or

experimentation) comes next, followed by ensuring you keep accurate records.



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F. Map/plan for writing: Refer to your module or programme handbook as there

may be specific requirement regarding structure, names of sections or chapters, etc.

(We run a ‘Writing up your FYP or Dissertation’ workshop that provides information

on the generic structure and content of these types of assignments.) Once you have

your structure, put your ideas for content into an order that makes sense, section by

section – this could mean some ideas are discarded (for now: anything can happen

so keep them handy). Try using flow diagrams, mind maps spidergrams or any other

visual representations. Make sure the plan addresses the question or hypothesis.

G. Writing: Producing multiple drafts until you are happy with your text. This

involves revising and editing your work, i.e. making alterations to its content and

structure. Finally, you must proofread your work looking at grammar, punctuation

and spelling (contact the Language Centre for how to improve these), and citations

and references are all present and correct. Finally, look in your module/programme

handbook for any format requirements, e.g. spacing, font style and size, word limit,

etc. (We run a workshop on this subject).


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