Hist300 DISSERTATION

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Hist300DISSERTATION

• Lecture 5

Thomas Dixon t.dixon_at_lancaster.ac.uk
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Lectures 5 and 6

• Lecture 5 Planning, structuring, writing
• Lecture 6 Referencing, bibliography,
  illustrations, binding, marking criteria

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READ THE RESOURCE PACK!

• Especially SECTIONS 4
• pp. 7-20

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Planning your Dissertation

• Whats your basic point?
• What are the main primary sources you have used
  for your research?
• How does your dissertation add to or differ from
  existing historical understandings of your topic?
• Whats your title? And your subtitle?

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EXERCISE 1

• WHAT IS YOUR POINT?

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Choosing a title

• Think about using a memorable quotation, or a
  question.
• Think about having a catchy title and a more
  informative subtitle
• Look at the titles of academic books, articles
  and chapters for ideas.

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EXERCISE 2

• TITLE AND SUBTITLE?

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Planning your Dissertation

• You will discuss the details with your supervisor
• But a standard dissertation might have the
  following sort of structure
• Introduction 1,500 words
• Chapter 1 2,000 words
• Chapter 2 2,500 words
• Chapter 3 2,000 words
• Conclusion 1,000 words
• TOTAL 9,000 words

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EXERCISE 3

• STRUCTURE OF CHAPTERS

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Planning your Dissertation

• What are introductions and conclusions for?
• INTRODUCTION
• Set up the topic big picture why is this
  interesting at all?
• You might start with a set piece or a burning
  platform
• Literature review what have other historians
  said on this or related topics?
• Methodological issues how did you identify,
  access, and interpret your evidence?
• What is distinctive and original about your
  approach to this topic?

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Planning your Dissertation

• What are introductions and conclusions for?
• CONCLUSION
• Summarise what you have shown
• But also draw your findings together into a
  satisfying conclusion that is more that just a
  recap of what has gone before
• Possibly refer back to the episode or scholarly
  debate with which you started in the introduction
• Give the reader a sense of how these things now
  look different in the light of your research
• Leave the reader with a clear sense of what you
  have added to our understanding of your topic and
  period

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Planning your Dissertation

• What are the sections in between for?
• They should have their own brief introductions
  and conclusions to indicate where they fit into
  the whole picture.
• BUT dont overdo it
• Keep these brief, and do most of the orientation
  in the Introduction and Conclusion of the whole
  dissertation.

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Writing your dissertation

• Please write in good, plain English!
• Please avoid
• Jargon
• Waffle
• Long, convoluted sentences
• Sweeping generalisations and unsubstantiated and
  assertions
• Quotations from secondary sources that could be
  paraphrased
• Repetition
• Words and phrases you dont understand
• Plagiarism
• Basic errors of fact, spelling, grammar

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Writing your dissertation

• Write in plain English and not in ESSAYESE

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Introducing a foreign languageESSAYESE

• Essayese contains lots of unnatural-sounding
  (often passive) constructions
• It is arguable that we should propound the view
  that
• It can reasonably be propagated that
• The viewpoint that has been postulated here is
  
• This point of view must be seen by us here as
  being utterly fallacious
• It must be observed that this flawed position is
  nonsensical and can obviously not be allowed to
  be upheld

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more ESSAYESE

• Essayese has lots of weird words for argues,
  says and thinks
• Expoundspropoundsdecreesaffirmsproclaimsdict
  atesasserts insistsdeclaresassures us that
• Essayese contains lots of superfluous adverbs
• Probably, basically
• Clearly, obviously, inevitably, utterly,
  highly
• Incredibly, amazingly, unbelievably

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3 top tips for ESSAYESE-busting

• Be active, not passive
• Dont be a synonym junky
• Delete those adverbs

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Some common mistakes

• Misuse of apostrophe
• Misuse of hyphens
• Its and its
• E.g. and i.e.

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EXERCISE 4

• PROSE CORRECTION

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Writing your dissertation

• One of the best ways to achieve all this is to
  get a friend to read it through for you
• This can (and should) be a reciprocal arrangement