THE FINAL YEAR DISSERTATION GUIDELINES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview: The eight most commonly asked questions about the Dissertation

1. Introduction 2. The Dissertation Coordinator3. What Is The Final Year Dissertation?4. Stages to Completing the Dissertation 5. Choosing a Topic 6. Allocation Of Supervisors 7. Your Supervisor 8. The Dissertation Proposal 9. Doing the Research 10. Ethical and Safety Considerations11. Plagiarism12. Writing up the Dissertation 13. Submitting the Dissertation 14. The Marking Process Appendix A: Some Recent Dissertation Titles Appendix B: Title Page Appendix C: Style and Referencing Appendix D: Staff Research Interests

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Overview The eight most commonly asked questions about the

dissertation

Q. How long does the report have to be? A. 8,000 - 12,000 words. You are required to note the word count in your submitted copy - see section 12.

Q. Does it matter if my report is longer than the word limit? A. Yes. You may not exceed the word limit. If you do, the dissertation will be returned unmarked to you. A word count must be included. See section 12

Q. What are the deadlines in the dissertation process?A. There are three key deadlines:

1) A one-page "Topic Statement" is due Friday of Week 9 of the Spring Semester of your placement year (or your second year if you are going straight through to the final year). 2) A 1000-1500 word "Dissertation Proposal" is due Friday of Week 1 of the Autumn Semester. 3) The dissertation itself is due Friday of Week 5 of the Spring Semester of the final year.

Q. Does the report have to be presented in a particular format? A. Yes - see section 12.

Q. How much does the dissertation mark count for?A. One-third of the overall mark for the final year.

Q. How often should I see my supervisor? A. As often as is mutually agreed, up to a maximum of 7 hours from the time you are assigned a supervisor.

Q. If my research involves in-depth interviews, how many do I need to do? A. This should be agreed with your supervisor, but would usually be between 8 and 20.

Q. Are there any simple shortcuts to getting a good mark for the dissertation? A. No. Planning ahead, completing your data collection and analysis as early as possible, keeping in touch with your supervisor, and plain hard work are the keys to success.

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1. Introduction These notes have been prepared to give you the information that you will need in order to complete your final year sociology dissertation successfully. They set out the basic rules and the "dos and don'ts" of the process, as well as giving some more general advice on how to undertake your dissertation. Please read them carefully and early!

2. The Dissertation Coordinator The dissertation coordinator is Kate Burningham K.Burningham@surrey.ac.uk 06AD03 01483 686688 and she has overall administrative responsibility for the dissertation process. In your final year, you should normally direct queries about your dissertation to your supervisor, but you can talk to the dissertation coordinator if you have general questions or concerns about the process. If you are in your second year or placement year, you should contact the dissertation coordinator in the first instance to discuss any matters relating to the dissertation.

3. What is the Final Year Dissertation? The dissertation provides you with the opportunity to put together the various skills that you have learned in the course of your degree, and to demonstrate your competence as a social researcher. The dissertation allows you to demonstrate your acquired skills in studying a substantive sociological topic, using appropriate concepts and theories, producing original research through the application of an appropriate social science method, undertaking data analysis, and presenting your results in writing. It sounds daunting, but students generally manage to produce their dissertation in time and even enjoy doing it!

The dissertation is a major piece of work which all final year students on the Sociology, APS and SCNM degrees at the University of Surrey undertake (NB, APS students who registered from 2003 onwards will be required to submit a psychology dissertation if they wish for BPS accreditation). To reflect its importance, the dissertation's mark is ‘double-weighted’. That is, it counts twice as much as the marks of each final year option. Therefore, you should devote a commensurate amount of time to it.

There are four main differences between the dissertation and the essays that you are accustomed to writing for your other courses:

It is focused upon a topic that you have chosen It is based upon your own original research

It reflects your own sociological thinking, based on your study of sociological literature and any data you collect

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It allows you time to develop your ideas and, in the final report, space to present them.

4. Stages to Completing the Dissertation Different people work at different rates and at different times, but in general it obviously makes sense to think about your dissertation before the final year, and to work steadily on it in the summer before your final year, and through the autumn, so that you are not in a mad panic as the deadline approaches. The notes below set out the kinds of things that you might expect to be doing in relation to your dissertation at different points during the degree course.

Second Year The dissertation coordinator will give a lecture in the Autumn Semester of the second year about the dissertation process. This is a good spur to start thinking seriously about what you might want to do and how you will do it. If you would like to discuss your ideas at this stage, make an appointment to see the dissertation coordinator. She will be able to give you some feedback and perhaps put you in touch with a member of staff who might have particular expertise in the area. If you prefer, you might approach another member of staff whom you think is especially appropriate for your topic, although there can be no guarantee that they will be able to supervise you. Remember that the more concrete you are about your topic, the easier it is for your supervisor to give you useful advice, so try to do some thinking before you see a member of staff.

If you do not plan to take a placement year, it is extremely important that you start thinking about your dissertation project in the early part of your second year, as you must declare your topic before Easter Vacation in the second year (see Section 6). You will have a meeting with your dissertation supervisor during May of your second year if you are planning to go straight through to the final year (otherwise, you will have supervision during May of your placement year). You should continue your literature search, prepare a draft literature review, and write a dissertation proposal (see Section 8) during the summer vacation between your second and final years.

Placement Year It is often during the placement year that your ideas for a topic really crystallise. Spend some time reading around topics that interest you, with an eye toward choosing a dissertation question. You may speak to your placement tutor about dissertation ideas or concerns. The dissertation co-coordinator will give a talk on the dissertation during the placement return day in February, and you will have an opportunity on that day to talk to him or her and to possible supervisors.

By March of the placement year (or by March of your second year if you are going straight through into your final year) you should have a fairly clear idea of your topic, as you must declare a topic by the end of March in order to be assigned a supervisor (see Section 6).

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During the spring and summer, you will need to start reading for your literature review and to write up a dissertation proposal to be handed in the first week of your final year (see Section 8). During the spring and summer, you will need to work on a literature review (write up a preliminary version to discuss with your supervisor in the autumn) and a dissertation proposal (to be handed in the first week of your final year). Some students might have collected data before starting back for their final year, but this is not normally expected. If you wish to collect data while on a placement, be sure to discuss this with your dissertation supervisor in May of your placement year. (You may also discuss this before May with your placement tutor or the dissertation co-coordinator.)

Some students do a dissertation which is based upon or relates to the work that they did during their placement year. This can make sense because you will already be well grounded in the relevant material and will often be able to gain access to data that would not be easy to obtain otherwise. Bear in mind two points, however:

Your placement employer must know about and approve the work that you propose to do. The work must be an original piece of research undertaken by you alone for the sole purpose of the dissertation. You may not reproduce work that you undertook during your employment in your placement year. (An example of an acceptable project might be undertaking a new analysis on a specific topic using data from a more general survey that you were involved in collecting or analysing as part of your placement).

Be mindful that there may be ethical considerations which will need to be dealt with by the Faculty Ethics Committee before you can collect data (see Section 10).

Final Year You are expected to submit a dissertation proposal, of 1000 words when you return, in Week 1 of the Autumn Semester (see Section 8). You should also have written up your preliminary literature review. You will need to devote enough time in the final year to refine your thoughts on the sociological aspects of your topic, collect and analyse the data, and write it all up in your dissertation report. You should have regular meetings with your supervisor in your final year (see Section 7). The deadline for submission of the dissertation is the Friday of Week 5 in the Spring Semester.

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5. Choosing a Topic This is often the hardest part of the dissertation! This is because you must choose the topic, your supervisor cannot do it for you (though she or he can help you refine ideas that you do have). There are no hard and fast rules about the topic for your dissertation, but the following guidelines may help.

Think about the areas of sociology that you are most interested in (e.g. deviance, race, gender, health) or a topic that you yourself are particularly interested in to which a sociological angle can be discerned (eg youth subcultures, religious or civil ceremonies). Also consider which theories and concepts have interested you the most.

Along these lines, consider the courses you've taken so far. Which lectures or courses most captured your imagination? You can go back and look at your notes and textbooks to jog your memory. Perhaps choose a topic in these areas. Are there aspects of your placement year that are amenable to sociological inquiry, perhaps areas you might have studied while working that you can study independently in more depth, or aspects of the organisation in which you worked? These may provide avenues of inquiry for a dissertation topic. The television and news media often spark interests in research topics, though if you chose one through this route, be sure that you find a sociological aspect to it.

Find out what other researchers have written about this topic. Go to the library and find some books and journal articles which are broadly relevant to your topic. You can also consult past student dissertations. These are held in the departmental library; speak to the undergraduate secretary if you would like to borrow one. (A list of selected dissertation titles is included in Appendix A). Bear in mind that while there are many excellent dissertations held in the department, not all of the dissertations in the department library provide good models for you to follow!

You may also be influenced by the type of methods you wish to use or learn more about, eg whether you wish to interview people, analyse video data or newspaper reports, or conduct a secondary analysis of existing large scale survey data.

On the basis of the above, try to turn your general area of interest into something more specific, by honing the topic into your research question(s). See if you can formulate a list of specific questions that you might be able to answer by doing the research. Think about what kind of data would answer the questions you propose, and whether it is possible to obtain such data, through surveys, interviews, secondary data analysis or any of the methods you've learned on the course. If you are considering a more theoretically orientated dissertation consider what materials and resources you would draw upon.

Do not try to be too ambitious about what you can achieve given your time and resource constraints. The best dissertations are

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analyses of modest scope done well rather than broad ones done poorly.

Think about the kind of research that you will actually do, and make sure that it is something that you yourself can feasibly do in the time available.

A general word of advice is to choose a topic that is interesting to you. You will spend a great deal of time working on a relatively narrow issue, so choose one you will enjoy! Members of staff may be able to help you refine your thoughts, but the ideas and the motivation has to come from you.

6. Allocation of Supervisors The dissertation coordinator will allocate you to a supervisor in May of your placement year (or your second year if you are going straight into the final year). Be mindful that supervisors use the out-of-semester time to carry out research fieldwork, for writing and to take annual leave, so their availability over the summer may be very limited.

In order to allocate students to supervisors you are required to submit a Topic Statement to the dissertation coordinator at the end of Week 9 of Spring Semester in either your placement year or your second year if you are going straight through to the final year.

The topic statement will consist of a page, with: (1) your name and contact details (address, phone number, email address), (2) a paragraph or two on your research topic, and if you have formulated them, your research questions, and (3) your proposed method of enquiry. You must submit a topic statement regardless of how well you have specified a topic. The topic statement should be electronically attached, not in the body of the message, in an e-mail and sent to K.Burningham@surrey.ac.uk The attached file should be formatted thus: ‘surname topic statement year’ eg ‘Smith topic statement 2008.doc’. You will be notified of your supervision allocation by email.

NB: If you do not have a research topic when you are asked to declare one, do not use this as an excuse to delay. You must return a topic statement, and continue to think about your dissertation. It is your responsibility to choose a topic and to inform the dissertation coordinator.

If you are keen to have a particular supervisor, you should approach them as early as possible in your second or placement year. If they are agreeable, it should normally be possible to allocate you to them but you must keep the dissertation coordinator informed. Each member of staff has a certain number of students to supervise, so their allotment can sometimes get filled up early on.

Dissertation supervisors will be allocated, to the best of our ability, on the basis of the topic and methodology you propose in your topic statement. Though it may seem ideal to be allocated to a supervisor

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with expertise in your particular topic and method, this will not always be possible. Indeed, any member of staff should have the general sociological expertise to supervise any undergraduate dissertation, so do not worry too much about the match between your supervisor's interests and your own. It is always possible to discuss specific issues beyond your supervisor's area of expertise with another member of staff. A list of members of staff and their areas of research expertise is given in Appendix D.

Once you have received notification of who your supervisor is it is your responsibility to make contact with them. Your supervisor will be prepared to see you once (or have an email or telephone conversation with you) at this time of the year in order to get you  started off on reading and refining your ideas over the summer and then will commence full supervision when you return for the final year.

For the first meeting it is advisable to have undertaken some further reading and literature review to develop your research question in more depth. It is a good idea to produce an indicative list of the materials you have already read in this direction (whether in class or through your independent study), your supervisor will then be able to point you in the direction of further reading and related studies – it is important that you begin your own initial investigation as an independent researcher, however tentative, then you will have something concrete to discuss when you meet your supervisor. It would be beneficial for you to have already done some of the development work on your research question – say a two-page summary of your research question, initial background/literature to it, and tentative thoughts on the methods you might use to investigate it ‘Essential Guide to Doing Research’ has a useful topics on developing your research question, and it is an electronic resource in the library. Once you’ve developed your initial thoughts a little further and handed it on to your supervisor, it would then be a much more useful initial meeting where you can discuss the further direction of your work and a timetable for study towards your dissertation.

The first supervision will allow you to discuss how to sharpen your research questions, or to formulate them, if you still need to do so, what to do during the summer, and how to write the dissertation proposal (see Section 8, below). Your supervisor will also discuss any ethical or safety implications of the research, should you plan to collect data during the summer (see section 10).

7. Your Supervisor Your supervisor is a member of staff to whom you are allocated who will help guide you through the various stages of your dissertation in the final year. She or he should be your first point of contact for all matters relating to your dissertation in the final year. You should meet with her or him roughly every fortnight during your final year but you will usually have most contact at the start of the year when

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your supervisor will be able to discuss your ideas with you and go over issues to do with the research methods that you have adopted, and also later on when he or she will be able to read and comment on draft chapters of your report. The Department of Sociology guidelines stipulate a maximum contact time of 7 hours per student per supervisor in the course of the dissertation, so use them wisely! In general, it is best to come to a supervision session with some specific issues to discuss. If you want comments on a draft chapter you should make sure that you give it to your supervisor with enough time before you meet for her or him to read it.

Please note that supervisors will comment on no more than one draft of each chapter in the dissertation.

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONTACT YOUR SUPERVISOR TO SET UP MEETINGS AND TO DISCUSS YOUR PROGRESS. YOUR SUPERVISOR IS NOT EXPECTED TO CONTACT YOU. ALSO, PLEASE PLAN AHEAD. YOUR SUPERVISOR HAS OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES AND IS NOT EXPECTED TO DROP EVERYTHING TO MEET YOU, TO READ YOUR WORK, OR TO GIVE FEEDBACK. SET UP MEETINGS AND ARRANGE FOR FEEDBACK IN ADVANCE.

Do keep in mind, however, that your supervisor is there to help you. Maintain regular contact with your supervisor; she or he can help you refine your ideas and can give suggestions for things to read or how to overcome problems. If you run into difficulty, do not hide out; seek out your supervisor for advice instead. If, for any reason, you are unhappy with your supervisor you should discuss this with him/her first, and if you are still unhappy you should see the dissertation coordinator or the course director.

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8. The Dissertation Proposal You are required to submit a dissertation proposal in Week 1 of Autumn Semester of the final year. Hand this into the Departmental Undergraduate Secretary in the Sociology Office, with the NAME OF YOUR SUPERVISOR on the front. It will be logged in and passed on to your supervisor. CONTACT YOUR SUPERVISOR BY THE END OF WEEK 2 in order to set up a meeting to discuss the proposal.

A dissertation proposal, about 1000 words in length, sets out three aspects of your work:

(a) Your research question(s).

Once you have chosen a topic, you will need to narrow down your focus to a research question, or set of questions, that can be addressed in the time allotted and with the methodology you have chosen. Formulate your research questions sharply and state them in the introduction to the proposal.

(b) Preliminary literature review.

During the summer, you should read around your topic and start to identify relevant literature. The proposal will briefly set out the sociological literature as it relates to your question. (You should also write up a longer preliminary literature review, based on your summer reading, to discuss with your supervisor early in autumn semester.)

Hint: You will look for research studies in sociology that directly address your topic or research question. Look for journal articles as well as books that relate to your area. Think also about the theories or approaches in sociology that might help you address your topic. Though these might, in some cases, be directly related to your topic, in many cases, they will apply to a much broader range of topics than your own research. You may find it helpful to look at research studies in areas that you can relate to your study by analogy. That is, you do not need to focus your reading narrowly on your topic and question at this point. During the summer, it is advisable to read widely. You should read much more than you will include in the proposal, or even the literature review.

Reading will help you to find your topic, and then to define your question. It will also help you to think sociologically. Keep notes, as some of your summer reading will come in handy when you are writing the literature review for your dissertation. Some reading, however, will serve only as background information for your own use, and some may prove to be of little direct benefit in writing the dissertation. This is not time wasted, however, as it will help you sharpen your thinking. That said, it is also advisable to practice your skimming skills during your summer reading, so that you can look at a wider variety of material. You should certainly read your

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key sources carefully, but there is no reason to read every word of a book or article that will be of no use.

(c) A short statement of method

This will be your early thinking on how you will approach the research, for instance, semi-structured interviews, secondary analysis of a data set, or a semiotic analysis of documentary data, and will normally take a paragraph to present.

You are not expected to have developed a fully elaborated statement on your method(s) with completed research instruments (survey or interview schedules, coding schemes, etc.), though of course, it is acceptable to propose these should you have thought about these. (You will hone your research method, with the advice of your supervisor early in the autumn semester of your final year.)

9. Doing the Research Unlike most other pieces of work you do in the course of your degree, the dissertation involves your own empirical research. Above all, you need to devise a research strategy which is feasible and appropriate for the research questions that you wish to answer, and also one that you feel comfortable with doing.

The main kind of research strategies which are adopted are as follows:

In-depth unstructured or semi-structured face-to-face interviews with individuals, usually from one or more specific sub-groups of the population relevant to your topic. Usually, these will be tape-recorded and often fully transcribed. Structured written questionnaires administered to one or more specific sub-groups, as above. Focus groups incorporating one or more specific sub-groups, as above. Observational/ethnographic research in a 'natural' setting, possibly supplemented with interview data. Discourse analysis of relevant texts. Analysis of primary documents; for example, government reports, newspaper articles, or, in the case of a theoretically orientated dissertation, published academic work. Analysis of television programmes, films or other cultural products. Secondary analysis of existing (usually government-produced) social surveys. It makes most sense to analyse surveys that are already held on computer files in the department. These include: the British Social Attitudes Survey; the General Household Survey; the British Household Panel Survey; the World Values Survey. You will be familiar from your methodology courses with the kinds of issues that arise in conducting each type of research. Different methods employ different types of skills and will require different kinds of analysis (eg statistical analysis using a computer package like SPSS, or qualitative analysis of interview transcripts). In general, all social research methods can be more time-consuming than you might think, so plan ahead!

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It makes sense to link your methodology with your chosen research question. Alternatively (and more commonly) students feel more comfortable with some methods than others. In that case, formulate your research question in such a way that your chosen methodology will allow you to answer it well.

It may make sense to employ more than one method in order to address different aspects of your topic. This can add strength to the dissertation, but take care not to overburden yourself with too much data collection or analysis that you cannot feasibly complete. The mark for the dissertation is based upon the quality of the final report (how you write it, the connections you draw between existing theory and your research, the depth of analysis, the quality of your conclusions, and the like), and not upon the amount of data that you collect.

10. Ethical and Safety Considerations

Your research should be conducted in accordance with ethical principles. Research with certain subjects, on certain topics and using certain methodologies raise ethical issues and may require a decision from the faculty ethics committee. This should be discussed with your supervisor at an early stage. Comprehensive advice is available at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/SHS/ethics/briefing.htm.

You, along with your supervisor, have a responsibility to: Protect those people who participate in your research. You

should identify and eliminate, mitigate or reduce any potential harm anyone may experience as a consequence of their involvement in your research

Ensure that you, as the researcher, are protected from possible harm

Obtain and record informed consent from all participants (or appropriate other)

Preserve the confidentiality and anonymity of all those who participate in your research

Ensure that all those who participate in your research do so voluntarily

Obtain the appropriate level of authority in granting a favorable ethical opinion

Protect the reputation of this academic institution

Ethical opinion for research will be required where:

There is any risk to a volunteer’s health or well being Participants are considered vulnerable (children, the mentally

ill, patients, prisoners) You have items within a survey/questionnaire or interview

schedule that may be considered offensive, distressing or personal to a particular target group

Payment or benefits in kind are given to participants Your research involves fellow students or members of

university staff (unless the supervisor decides otherwise) Essayacademia.com

Participants are associated with your profession or place of work

It is less likely that ethical approval will be required where:

The sample is not drawn from students or staff associated with the student

The sample does not include vulnerable respondents Your participants are adults   You have a non-sensitive subject matter Deception is not part of  the research design There are no confidentiality issues

Should you and your supervisor decide that ethical approval is required the forms that you need to fill in along with instructions about the information that you need to provide are available at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/SHS/ethics/documents/documents.htm. Please ensure that you provide all documentation that you are asked to. Failure to do so will result in a delay to your application. Note that the process of gaining ethical approval from the committee can take up to four working weeks. The ethics committee will contact you within that time and either give a favourable opinion; require some adjustments; or, pass your proposal onto the University of Surrey ethics committee if necessary.

Please note that there are certain circumstances where additional ethical approval and clearance is required:

1. National Health Service (NHS) based research: Research with current patients and users of the National Health Service along with their relatives or carers requires ethical approval from NHS research ethics committees. This is required before you submit to the faculty ethics committee. Acquiring NHS approval is lengthy and wouldn’t usually be possible in the time frame available for an undergraduate dissertation. If you are thinking of conducting research in this area, early discussions with your supervisor are advised and refer to http://www.corec.org.uk/applicants/apply/apply.htm or, for applications for research in the area of the University of Surrey, http://www.royalsurrey.nhs.uk/intranet/Royal-Surr/Research-a/Resgov0203-1-1-1-.doc_cvt.htm

2. Research with children and vulnerable adults: If you are planning to carry out research on children and/or vulnerable adults you are likely to need to complete a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check.  If you think that this might apply to your research, inform your supervisor as early as possible and contact Rob Meadows (r.meadows@surrey.ac.uk) for further details.

It is important that you consider your own safety when carrying out research., If you intend to carry out research which may pose risks to personal safety, it is imperative that you discuss the matter in advance with your dissertation supervisor. This is to allow you and

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your supervisor to discuss how you may anticipate, avoid or deal with any possible risks in the proposed research or method of data collection. She or he will keep a written record of the discussion. You may be reassured to know, however, that there have been no incidents relating to the personal safety of students undertaking undergraduate dissertations.

11. PlagiarismIf it appears that you have presented the work of others as your own, this constitutes plagiarism and is therefore a form of academic misconduct. Further information about what constitutes plagiarism are available at http://staff.soc.surrey.ac.uk/phodkinson/plagiarism/index.html .Details of the departmental procedure for dealing with cases of plagiarism can be found at http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/pdfs/studentinfo/procedure.doc. There are very strict penalties for those students found to have plagiarized.

12. Writing up the Dissertation The dissertation report must describe fully the work that was undertaken, associated methodological issues and the overall sociological significance of your research. It should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words long. The upper word limit is strict -- you may not exceed 12,000 words. The word count includes tables, quotes and citations, but does NOT include title page, acknowledgments, contents and abstract, the bibliography and appendices. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DECLARE THE WORD COUNT WHEN YOU SUBMIT THE DISSERTATION.

There are few hard-and-fast rules about the structure of the report, which will depend upon the kind of research undertaken. Normally, however, we would expect to see something like the following:

Title page in standard format (see Appendix B)

Acknowledgements (optional). It is courteous to thank people for any special help you have been given. Acknowledgements are usually placed at the beginning of the dissertation after the title page and before the contents page, but may be placed at the end.

A table of contents.

A brief abstract of 200-300 words setting out the nature of the project, main findings and conclusions.

An introduction which sets out the general topic that you researched, the specific questions that you addressed, and why these are interesting and important from a sociological point of view.

A review of relevant research literature undertaken by other researchers which informs the theoretical and empirical questions underpinning your own research. While you should show that you

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know what others have written on the topic, do not simply summarise other research or string together a number of unrelated summaries. Instead, write a critical review of the literature which explains why the pieces you review are important and how they inform your own project.

A discussion of methodology and the methods adopted. Since one of the aims of the dissertation is to allow you to demonstrate that you are able to apply social research techniques appropriately, this should be a little more in-depth than you might find in academic research papers. Explain which method or methods you adopted, why these were appropriate, what the possible limitations of your methods were, what kind of problems emerged in the course of the research and how you analysed the data.

A presentation and analysis of the results. The form of these will obviously depend upon the kind of research you undertook. Whatever method you used, however, you need to make sure that the assertions you make in your analysis and discussion can be justified in relation to your research findings. To do so, you will need to provide the appropriate evidence (tables, quotations etc.) in the text.

A conclusion in which you draw together the different parts of the dissertation. Here you should connect your own empirical research back to issues or concepts you considered at the beginning of the dissertation and to the sociological literature you reviewed. In some cases, you may discuss sociological literature not included in the literature review, if this helps you to analyse or discuss your findings. In the conclusion you may wish to suggest the overall implications of your study for sociology or for social policy, to speculate beyond the findings in your own study, and perhaps to highlight some further questions for further research or areas of uncertainty raised by your research.

A reference list, or bibliography, which provides full citations for all of the sources (public documents, scholarly literature, internet resources etc.) that you have mentioned in the text. It is vital to make sure that you do this properly (see Appendix C for advice on referencing). Include only cited works in the bibliography. Do not include works that you read but did not make use of in the dissertation.

Where relevant, your dissertation will include appendices. Copies of cover letters, interview schedules or questionnaires should be presented in an appendix. You may also include some statistical tables not analysed in the text. Visual data is often included in an appendix. In general, try to keep these to a minimum. You should not feel the need to include absolutely every bit of data you have in the written report; for instance, interview transcripts are considered raw data and are not customarily included in an appendix. Part of the skill of doing the report lies in choosing to present the appropriate findings. You should make sure that any

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really important pieces of information are in the main text, and not in appendices.

13. Submitting the Dissertation The dissertation is due in on the Friday of Week 5 of the Spring Semester of your final year. As with all coursework, you should hand it in to the sociology undergraduate secretary who will log it. It must be presented in a standardised format, as follows:

The dissertation must be typed, with a minimum of 1.5 line spacing (preferably double-spaced), on numbered, single-sided pages with a one-inch margin all round. The title page should be set out as in Appendix C.

The dissertation must be bound. It is best to get it 'heat-bound'. AVS can do this for you, for a small fee. Alternatively, you can ring bind in the department for the cost of the materials. You must produce three copies of the dissertation. Two must be handed in; you should keep the third for yourself.

A dissertation submitted after the deadline of 5 pm Friday in Week 5 of the Spring semester will be subject to the deduction of 1 percentage mark for each part or full WEEKDAY that it is submitted late.

Penalties apply for all weekdays when the University is open (i.e. excluding bank holidays and University Closure days the dates of which are published in the University Calendar). Weekdays during the Christmas and Easter vacations when the University is open are subject to penalties.

14. The Marking Process The dissertation will be read by your supervisor and independently by another member of the teaching staff, and it may also be moderated by an external examiner. You will not receive your mark until after the exam board in May. After this time, you may approach your supervisor for feedback if you wish.

Appendix A

Some Recent Dissertation Titles

Young peoples’ attitudes and experiences of policing

“Beautiful crime” a study of how people interpret and define graffiti

Are drug treatment services for the under 18s in the community as good as drug treatment services for under 18s in custody?

Defence workers: a research study of how criminal defence studies are constructed

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Do our experiences and perceptions of crime in the night-time economy influence our choices of evening activity? Is there a difference between the older and younger generation?

Legalized or not? A research study into public awareness of the reclassification of cannabis in the UK

Britain’s ‘underclass’: a ‘culture of dependency’ or a case of ‘blaming the victim’

A quantitative analysis of teacher stress and the family across infant, junior and secondary education

Caring for special needs children. A mother’s view

Hard Graft. A qualitative study looking at the experiences of teachers

How useful is careers’ advice and education to 15 and 16 year old school pupils?

Life accounts of dyslexia and oppression

Summer is not summer, it’s exam time. An insight into curriculum 2000

Mentoring; ‘Fad’ or ‘positive intervention’? A case study of a mentoring scheme

Vocational degrees versus non-vocational: which is the key to success for graduates?

A study of the relationship between the amount of watching TV and the construction of sex-role stereotype among primary school students in Korea

What’s the reality? Are boys under-achieving at GCSE level?

The under-achievement of black pupils in the British education system with reference to stigma and deprivation

Ethnic survival and ethnic dissolution in inter-ethnic relationships

Ethnic minority formation of Irish women in Britain

Identity, segregation and racism: the social construction of a locality

“We are Exeter, say we are Exeter!” A case study of community and local identity in the fans of Exeter City FC

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre: the sexual interaction process

Causes of female body dissatisfactionEssayacademia.com

A study into men’s views on body image “the Ideal body” and masculinity

An investigation into the role of the father in contemporary society

“You are my daddy and my mummy, aren’t you daddy?” The construction and reported experiences of lone fatherhood

When is termination acceptable?

Does the media provide a true representation of teenage parenting?

Who affects the decisions of radio station news editors in their gate-keeping role: unwrapping the myth of the conspiracy

Behind the front: an investigation into web logs as a public release of the private self

“Who says there’s no ‘I’ in the virtual team”? An exploratory study into the virtual team and factors affecting the cohesion amongst its members

A sociological study of the relationship between the audience and the movie industry

“I found Nemo in Howl’s Moving Castle”. A study exploring globalisation, cultural imperialism and animated films

A qualitative investigation into celebrity articles in the genre of men’s magazines

The relationship between celebrity culture, society and the individuall “The right pair of trainers is a passport to happiness”. How is fashion used in the construction of male identity in a student setting

Do social factors influence what people wear, or do people dress as individuals: Assessing postmodernism

Retiring gracefully or still rocking out? An exploration into the effects of the post-war youth sub-cultures

Women’s perception of ageing through the medium of magazines

Women’s ageing experiences and their perception of anti-ageing strategies: a comparison of two ages

What are the principal factors that affect women’s relative poverty in later life?

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Women and pensions: an analysis of thoughts and experiences across age cohorts

The discursive construction of a marginal perspective or, why anarchists will never get a good press

Ban the burner: the social construction of local opposition to an environmental problem

Entering the corporate maze: a sociological study into the perplexity of organisational culture to the newcomer

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Appendix B:

Title Page

The title page of the dissertation should indicate the following information:

TITLE OF REPORT Report presented by

A N Other

For the Degree of Bachelor of Science

in Sociology

(OR)

Sociology, Culture and New Media

(OR)

Applied Psychology and Sociology

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGYUNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Month, Year

Word count

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Appendix C

Style and Referencing

The first goal of writing is clarity. Your readers must be able to grasp what you are trying to say, and you accomplish this through clear writing. If you writing is muddled, your reader is likely to assume that your thoughts are muddled, too. A sloppy manuscript may give the appearance of sloppy work in general and your mark could suffer as a result. Make sure that it is well written, with good spelling, grammar and punctuation throughout. PROOF-READ YOUR WORK AND USE A SPELL CHECKER, not US English. Be mindful that a word may be correctly spelt, but incorrectly placed: to/too/two or there/their/they’re for example.

Some basic stylistic conventions are as follows:

Use bias-free and gender-neutral terms. You may wish to see the British Sociological Association's statements on bias-free and gender-neutral writing:

Avoid using jargon and define any specialist terms you use. Do not use big words just for the sake of it. Shorter words are often just as good, or better. More important, do not use big words (or any words) incorrectly; if unsure, check in the dictionary or use a different word.

Choose active voice over passive voice. Do not use contractions (use "cannot" instead of "can't", "does not" instead of "doesn't" etc.) except where quoting direct speech.

Do not begin sentences with a numeric, for example Three blind mice, not 3 blind mice.

Indent all quotes from informants as separate paragraphs in the text, and indicate the informant by name, pseudonym, or interview number.

Tables and figures should be numbered, titled and clearly presented. Abbreviations and codes used in the tables should be made clear, perhaps in a key at the bottom of the table. Only include tables that are mentioned and discussed in the text. If the table is based on data other than your own, provide the source of the table or the data at the bottom of the table.

The referencing protocol at the University of Surrey is the Harvard Convention, or Author Date

It is very important that you provide proper citations in the text and a full set of references at the end of your dissertation. References should be given as a name/date reference in the text - eg Smith

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(1998) - and then a full reference in the bibliography. Where there is more than one publication by the same author in a given year use an alphabetic suffix in the text and references, eg Smith (1998a), Smith (1998b).

Indent long quotations from published sources as separate paragraphs in the text (without quotation marks), and give a reference, including page numbers. Short quotations should be enclosed in quotation marks, and include a reference with page number.

Full references should take the following form:

Book: Calhoun, C. (1995) Critical Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell.

Book chapter: Wallman, S. (1986) 'Ethnicity and the boundary process in context' in Rex, J. & Mason, D. (eds) Theories of Race and Ethnic Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Journal article: Halpern, D. (1993) 'Minorities and mental health', Social Science and Medicine, Vol.26, No.5, pp. 597-607.

Official report: Office for Population Censuses and Surveys (1981) General Household Survey 1980 Series GHS no.10, London: HMSO.

Unless very short, quotations from other authors should be indented, single-spaced, in the text. All quotations must have a name/date and page reference, eg (Smith, 1998, p.20).

David Fisher and Terry Hanstock of the Library and Information Services at Nottingham Trent University have compiled a useful guide to citing references using the Harvard style, available on-line at:

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Appendix D

Staff Research Interests

Please note that academic staff may be on sabbatical leave during the year, the Dissertation Co-ordinator will allocate supervision with those lecturers currently teaching

Victoria Alexander - Sociology of Art; Sociology of Culture; Sociology of Organisations

Sara Arber - Sociology of ageing; sociology of gender; women's employment: secondary analysis of data sets

Viv Boon - Human rights; issues of diversity and identity; multiculturalism and Europeanisation.

Ian Brunton-Smith – Criminology; Quantitative Sociology

Karen Bullock – Criminal justice; policing; crime reduction; organised crime

Kate Burningham - Sociology of the environment; qualitative research

Geoff Cooper - Sociology of science; qualitative research; theoretical sociology

Rachel Condry – Crime and the family; parenting and the state regulation of family life; victims of crime.

Ann Cronin – Sexuality; sociology of gender Kate Davidson - Sociology of ageing; gender; social policy; qualitative research

Sarah Earthy – health and illness;qualitative research; theory and policy

Jane Fielding - Secondary analysis of data sets; computing applications in social research

Nigel Fielding – Crime; criminal justice; policing; deviance

Nigel Gilbert - Computational approaches to sociology; analysis of secondary data sets; sociology of the environment

Nicola Green – Science and technology; new media; body politics; popular culture; gender in these fields

Christine Hine – Qualitative methods, particularly ethnography and discourse analysis; Internet and society; sociology of science and technology

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Paul Hodkinson – Sociology of media and new media; popular culture; consumer culture

Paul Johnson – Surveillance; sexuality; qualitative methods; deviance

Keith Macdonald - Historical sociology; sociology of organisations and professions; documentary research

Rob Meadows – Quantitative analysis; theoretical perspectives Jo Moran-Ellis - Sociology of childhood; sociology of personal social services; violence against women and children

Florian Pichler - Political sociology; quantitative methods

Michael Williams – Political sociology; contemporary British politics

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