One Step Ahead ...

TlreOne Step Ahead series is for all those who want and need to
communicate more effectively in a range of real-iife situations.
Each title provicles r,rp-to-clate practical guidance, tips, and the
ffiffi.estepafuea
language tools to enhance your writing and speaking.

Seies Dditor: John Seely

Titles in the series

r Essays and Dissertations
CVs and Job Applications Juditir Leigh
Editirrg and Revising Text Jo Billinghanr
Essays and Dissertations Chris IVIounsey Chris Mounsey
Civing Presentations Jo Billingham
Law in Everyclay Life John Seely Cartoons by Beatrice Baum ga rtner-Cohen
Organizing ancl Participating in Meetings Judith Leigh
Presenting Numbers, Tables, and Charts Sally Bigwood ancl
Melissa Spore
Publicity, Newsletters, ancl Pless Releases Alison Baverstock
Punctuation Robert Allen
Spelling Robert Allen
Worcls John Seely
Writing Bids and Funding Applications Jane Dorner
Writing for the Internet Jane Dorner
Writing Reports John Seely

OXJ'ORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 Many thanks to W. R- Ou,ens of the Open University, Diltvyn l(nox of
University College, London, and MickJardine of King Alfred's,Winchester
for guidance and assistance.
Contents
OXFORD LINTVERSITY PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford oxz 6op

Oxford Universiry Press is a department of the Universiry of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective ofexcellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico Ciry Nairobi New Delhi Part A
Shanghai Taipei Toronto
1 Introduction
With offices in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal 2 Looking at questions 10
Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
3 Research 18
Oxford is a registered trade mark ofOxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
4 Structuring the essay 34
@ Chris Mounsey 2002
5 Getting the words in the right order 42
The moral rights ofthe author have been ass,rrted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
6 Presentation 48
First published 2oo2
7 Managing your time 56
All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, 8 More about research 62
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction
9 More about writing 68
outside the scope ofthe above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above 10 Dissertations and Iong essays 7B

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
11 Exams 86
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Prrblication Data

Data available Part B: Reference section 96
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data Footnotes and bibliography 172
Data available

ISBN 0-19-860s0s-6 List ofresources 722

109876s4 Index 724

Design and typesetting by David Seabourne
Printed in the UK by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hanpshire
 i

degrce (tlie long vacation bcfbrc you bcgin the clissertation 10 Dlssertatlons and

10 Dissertations if you are studying part-time). There are several criteria for
your ciroice:
long essays

and long essays E is the topic acadernic enough? Ml,thougltts,

such as they are,
tr Is the topic broaci enough/too broacl?
conte crowcling in
E Is tirc topic reievant to your deglee course? so/nsf uport t11c,

Lhut my only
N'I S In rnany institutions, two modules in the third year of a full- E Is tirere enough publisired materiai availabie on your topic? difJicttlty is to
sa time degree are given over to an extended piece of work, called
choosc or reject.
ationl 78 a dissertation or long essay. This rlealls you have a whole year' E Will tire topic keep you interested for a whole year?
(Drydcn)
ing il topic 7E to write it.

tlc 8l
In part-time degrees, you will probably tackle it last and over a Keeping intereEted
.lre of thc year also.
atiou 82
The last question might sound facetious, but is probably the
ssion 0f thc most important. You wiil have to work on this subject for the
etrt 83
What is a dissertation? sumrner vacation, and for at least one day a week for the two
uctiorr:uld semesters ofthe final year ofyour deglee.
rsion 85
A clissertation is a long essay written on a single topic, which
ryout and you research by yourself. A member of staffrvill supervise When rnaking your choice, the first thing you should do is ask
tation 85
progress, and be available to assist you. )rourself:

Going about writing a long essay or dissertation is similar to Wirat made me choose the degree I am doing?
writing an essay, but there are a ntttnber of differences.
VVhatever aspect ofthe subject rnade you make your choice of
I You can choose your own title. degree is probably the best place to start.

I A dissertation is about five times longer than an ordinaty E You might have chosen to read Geography because you Iiked
essay. feli-rvalking.

f Research should take yott further af,telci than your institu- tr You night have chosen to read American Studies because
tion's libraty. you liked a film of an Edith'yyharton novel.

ts You migirt have chosen to read Business Studies because il

Choosing a topic your family ran a shop. !

v
Choosing your owlt topic sounds very cxcititlg, but it can also Wrcn you have an idea, make an appointrnent to see your dis- .!
' ti;
sertation superisor aircl cliscr.rss the otlier questions. l:,
be very daunting. You sl-roulci start thinking about yor:r topic ' ,.i4'
before the long vacatiot"t oIyour secoucl year of ti full-tiine ilifll

, ,,iEl
j:lfit
78 79 ''l{ !
 10 Dlssertationsand
long essays
ls the topic academic enough? Searching further afi eld I0 Dlssertatlontand
long essays
Almost any topic can be acaclemic.
To find out whether there is enough published material on
-he
flrst part ofyour It is not the topic itself but tire analysis of the topic that your topic, you will need to consult several up-to-date biblio-
lissertation will be a
makes it academic. However seemingiy unacademic your idea graphical solrrces. Your institution's library will have electronic
:hapter explaining
he analytical tools may be, try it out with your supervisor. access-to many ofthese relevant to your degree course. Yon
'ou are going to need ro search databases which give lists ofbooks and articles.
rse and why they Ifyou think your topic is banal, try to have a back_up just in case.
re relevant to
our topic. For example: Rernerrrber!
You are not looking
ls the topic broad enoughltoo broad? for specific books,
E British Humanities Index; but anything on your
he next three
,arti ofyour topic that looks as
As with essays, dissertations need to say a lot about a little. I Bath Information and Data Service; though it might
issertation will
be interesting.
ive evidence
'om different Like an essay, what you will need to do is to nanow down what
erspectives, you are going to say to get depth. I British Library Pubiic Catak:gue.
rllowing the
nalytical tools you However, since you have more space, you will be able to give Ask at your library information desk for help in finding
ave set up in the a
number of sets of evidence, which will sources.
rst chapter. 96 to make up the argLr
ment of the whole dissertation.
Try to gather these books and papers together prior to the long
vacation before you write your dissertation. Then you will have
ls the topic relevant to your degree course? time to read through them and begin to narrow down your
idea when yort retrtrn to semester time.
The point of a dissertation is to use one or two of the metirocls
ofstudyyou have learrred on your clegree course. You will probably have to use inter-library loans, and maybe
pay for papers to be photocopied for you. This will look very
What you must try to do is choose a topic that you can analyse
good in your bibliography, so no effort is wasted.
using the methods you founcl most easy or interesting. Thii
will make the topic relevant to your degree course.
Do not choose a topic you have stucliecl on your Your title
degree course,
Mren you get started on yollr clissertation, the first thing to do,
as you are reading through the material you have gathered, is to
!s there enough published material avaitabte on your topic? try to think exactly what you want to argue in your dissertation.

You will need ro build up a fair-sizecl bibliography (abour hvenry As yor.r are reading through the books on yollr topic, ask yourself:
items) for your dissertation. Begin using tr-re methods clescribed
above and througirout this book; br-rt it will look better if you go E \Artrat do I want to say about my topic?
further afield than your institution's library to fincl naterials.
Try to answer in a sentence of less than ten words.
You might even consider buying books for this project, since
you may need a few by your side.
This will be your title.
80
81
 I
i

Dissertations and For example E Intlo<luction 1,000 worcls 10 Dlssertatlonsand

long essays long essays

You start off deciding to write about the represelttation of lllas- I Theoretical chapter 2,000 words Yotu' g,lttzitlu
culinity in twentieth-ce lltury American cinelna. is rtcw ttttcl
E Eviclentiai chapter 1 2,000 rvolds
You decide yoll are going to use a psychoanal)tic analy5i5 sf ,v()u l'phrt?1bi,1g's
the films. E Evidential chapter'2 2,000 worcls sLrLltlgc,
lJut othenyisc
You naLrow down the ftlms you are goittg to cliscuss to: tr Evidential chapter 3 2,000 words I pcrccive no
changc; Attcl
Citizen Kane E Conciusion 1,000 lvords
Tootsie itt lc's-s flrrrrr rr
Dances withWolves Now, all you have to do is write four 2,000-word essays, add an ntorttlt, if yctu clo
introduction and conclusion, and you are there. as I Lticl, I'd lcarn
See the films several times, read arouird in psychoanaly'tic fihrr
theory. BUT a dissertation is not simply four essays fastened )tou to bLtlld
togeflrer. It is a Single Argument. tt pyrcunicl!
Ask yourself: (Kipling)
\Alhat do I want to say?

Progression of tlre argument

Answer:
I want to say that masculinity is depicted as a struggle between
You should begin researching and writing your dissertation
the external self and tire inner tnan in Aruericau cinema of the
with the theoretical chapter. This will set the ground rules for
twentieth century.
the evidential chapters.
)od title style
a short, snappy
So your title might be:
inning, then Inside Out: Masculinily as a struggle beflt een the exterual
Theoretical chapter
lon, then self ar-rd the inner tnan iu -t\urerican ciuenta of the trventieth
rxplanation.
century.
This chapter should be like the introduction to an essay. It is
The iittie bit at the beginning is an au'cstitrg opening. It will get longer, since you have more to say. What you are trying to clo is
your reader's interest. The sentence after the colon is the Iay out your opinion:
description of what will follow. Tty to encapsulate what you
want to say in this way. I that is, explain what you have said in the title.

Also, you need to say why your opinion is valid in the iight of
Structure of the dissertation other work that has been done. In this chapter you do irot need
evidence.
\,\4ren you have worked out tl'ie title, 1,s11 tnust work ottt the
stmcture of your disseltat ion. E This chapterlvill have a lot oftheorctical refcrences.

i
Dissertations are usually 10,000 worcis. It might seeur a lot, so I
break this up into manageable sections. I
,UI
,I]
82 83 .$,fl
 I
i
10 Dissertationsand Evidential chapters 1, 2, and 3 Each chapter, whether it be the theoretical chapter or the evi- Dissertations and
. long essays long essays
fl

dential chapters, ought to follow the strucrure of an essay as

These cl-rapters shoulcl be like tl-re bocly of the essay. They give laid out above. H
&l
the eviclence for the validity of your opinion. H

I
Tirey differ from tire bocly of a slngle essay since they neeci to lntroduction and conclusion fl
show the progression of the argument.
H
These should be written last. tl
tl
For example The introduction should lay out the whole argument, and
rl
[1

briefly state where the argument is going in the individual u

For our 'Masculiniry in Anrerican fihns' clissertation, you night chapters. This will amount to 200 words on the whole project
show progression in terms of the clates of the thr-ee fi1n-rs: and 200 words on each ofthe chapters. fl
H

a Cifizen Kane could only hint that rnasculinity coulcl be ques- The conclusion should point out the weak points in the argu-
tioncd in thc 1940s. ment, but give an idea, say, why this argument is better than fl
the alternatives. il
I Tootsie could begin to question rnasculinity in the 19g0s. u
t,
t

3 Dances withWllves gets irost cleariy to the question of mas- Page layout and presentation f;
t,
culinity in the 1990s. fl

Your institution will have stringent requirements about [1

()\r ptltdcnt Arother way to argre yollr dissertation might be to sirow pro- page layout and presentation ofdissertations. Follow them to
ttioLts gression in terms of the fierceness of the struggle befween the the letter. tl
inside and the ourside: H
t-contrri is
Il
;do,fl's roof. I Citizenl(ane shows the or-rter man in control.
rs (\vho was kDown for H
Leary drinking))
I Tootsie shows the orlter nran beginning to lose control. H
t]
u
tl
I Dances withWolves shows the outer man giving up his clesire
for control. [1

F]

f1
Each new chapter neecls its own stance that marks a pt-osres_
rl
sion from the last, so that the whole dissertation:
it

u
E takes on a shape;
H
I jras a direction;
il

E l-ras a coherent argument throughout. fl

il
84 'l
85

i
I