Dissertation Writing Strategies and Organization Tips

1 WRITING UP THE DISSERTATION Mark Philp

2 Writing to a deadline Start at the end! Work out what you need to do to get there! Due Thursday week 1 Summer Term - by 12 noon to be submitted on-line and to Room 342. What steps will you identify on the way? Eg: Full penultimate draft 2-3 weeks before the deadline to allow it to rest and then re-read. Last chance for a discussion with supervisor before the end of Term 2 What does that mean for what you do in Reading Week in term 2, and over the Christmas break? And for this Reading Week? And for meetings with personal tutors and seminar leaders?

3 Job specification 9,000 words excl. bibliog and footnotes Find out TNR/12point/double spaced = c 1,000 words in three pages A4 (chk incl.excl notes) Is 9= 4.5x2? Journal article length plus c.1K Find models why are they good? a. org of argument b. evidence c. clarity/coherence/cogency d. experience as a reader e. quality of writing f. interest of the topic

4 Writing up the metaphor Science based Kuhn and paradigms History and ? In what are you making an intervention? And, to do that, what must you lay out? paradigms discourses fields debates controversies lacunae applying X to Y models, theories etc.

5 2 Models Identify topic Identify: literature/archive/sources Read literature Talk to people Collect more evidence Write thesis Identify area Start writing Talk to people Identify and work on sources etc Re-write Talk to people Read more literature Write thesis

6 Organisation Electronic or physical form for documents, articles, material from books, etc. Need a retrieval system Need a copy if electronic! Where do you keep your notes How do you keep your thinking distinct from what other people have said ie how to ensure attribution? Periodic restructuring but go back to the basement! Bibliography everything you look at especially everything you ever take notes from and keep a reference Footnote format undergraduate style guide - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/referencing / and read subsection on Bibliography Archival material vs published material.

7 Now Get a notebook and write down your preliminary ideas. What question do you want to address? In relation to what field? In relation to what existing literature? Why don t you like existing work/feel it is inadequate Who might you talk to? Why do you care about it? Do you do so enough? And do you do so too much? What other deadlines do you have and how will you fit them in alongside the dissertation?

8 By the end of this term Preliminary title Brief outline of your proposed topic 50 word version/ 250-400 word version need to make sure you ve registered the related module on eMR and if it changes re-register. 250-400 word version need to be able to tell other people (friends, family, personal tutor) what you are working on in a way that conveys your interest and specific angle. And you need to try it out on them! Need to have identified core reading and sources you will use and need to have done some of the work on the former and, ideally, in the first week of the vacation, some on the latter.

9 Before Reading Week term 2 Over Christmas work out a detailed plan; a contents page or outline of the argument with some reflections on what needs to be done think steps and sections of an argument, not discrete chapters Complete core reading and identify additional crucial sources TALK TO PEOPLE THEN: Draft about half the core of the thesis in reading week of term 2 and work out what else needs to be done!

10 Elements 1. Introduction 2. Main body of the evidence and argument 3. Conclusion Order of writing: 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1 There can be other orders, but the core element is 2- it s the evidence, and the main argument about the evidence, and its central to get that clear.

11 What works for you? A room of ones own Library space Soaking and poking Sleeping on it/exercising on it What stint sizes build them up now What sort of writer are you? Keep adding to and going back to your notebook

12 Discarding the ladder What you need to get from A to B is not necessarily what you need to get from B to C, or C to D. Writing good academic prose and argument requires that you start on a plateau with other writing in the field. It takes knowledge and a range of skills, conceptual apparatus and control of evidence to get there. You don t have it to start so don t think your first thought are your best be ready to discard and re- think but keep a record! Cutting vs writing to length

13 Writing for Readers Don t write just for your supervisor display evidence, don t assume your reader knows it all. Make sure it makes sense to non-experts. Who will read it for you and when? Important to set up self-help group. You are not competing! Be clear what are asking for Typos? Expertise? Clarity and argument Two key periods First block of substantive writing (reading week term 2) Final proof reading

14 Who will read it to assess it? Supervisor Additional examiner with some expertise Arbitrating examiner Dissertations committee So don t write just for supervisor!

15 What sort of animal is it? Creative writing? NO! Avoid I believe , I feel , I think its not the I but the reporting of the subjective state Act of reasoned communication advancing a claim or set of claims about an existing field of study and defending those claims against competing accounts. Watch your language make it crisp, direct, clear, - avoid hyperbole eg: incredible ; avoid paras beginning with a conditional make the substantive point first, then qualify.

16 Reading as a stranger What do you write on and what do you read on De-familiarise it print it out and read it as a stranger to it. And mark what you think is best, and which bits are central to the way in which the argument develops. Topic sentence structure Reading as a copy-editor/ vs as a critic

17 Things not to say My printer ran out of ink My hard drive collapsed and wiped my notes/drafts/final version of the thesis I left the only electronic copy on a memory stick on the train I didn t know we had other pieces of work to submit after Easter What s a dissertation?!