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The most basic core of a dissertation plan hinges on three main questions: What do you want to know? How are you going to find out? What will you do with the answers? The answer to the questions will hinge on your initial narrowing of a research area.   The range of research or project areas can be varied, but a very generic approach might suggest that for a literature project the answers could include: What do you want to know? How or whether a text, or texts within a particular period demonstrate a particular characteristic, or reflect a historical or sociological context. Whether concrete evidence can be identified which adds to our understanding of a particular text, or whether a group of evidences can be analysed in ways which allow for different conclusions How different critical approaches to a text or texts can add to our appreciation / understanding of it. How are you going to find out? Through primary research and close ana...

English Dissertation: Structure of your topic Your literary dissertation might be one of the following: • An argument for or against an existing critic (or critical position) in relation to the author or group of works you are studying • An argument about the importance of a particular influence of a writer, or influence exerted by him or her • An argument for the importance of some particular piece of evidence to the discussion of the work of some author or group of authors • An argument about the value of a theoretical approach to a text or set of texts • An argument about the significance of a particular authors work • An argument about some historical or literary-historical aspect of literature • An argument about existing scholarly texts on a particular work • An argument showing how a particular theme or concept may be related to a group of texts

English Dissertation: General advice on choosing a topic 1. Develop a topic that has interested you throughout your undergraduate career. For some people this is obvious. Some students come to the dissertation knowing exactly whom they want to work with and what they want to write about. For others, the dissertation is part of the process of exploring. It may help to look for your patterns of interest. Make a list of classes you have taken as a student. Look at the essays you have written. Make a list of your favourite texts and authors. Make a list of things you like to read or think about. What patterns emerge? What topics and questions have continually interested you? Look for ways to connect seemingly disparate topics. Start a file of topics that interest you. If you begin early, you'll have a jump-start on choosing a dissertation topic. If you're reading this because you are now at the dissertation stage already, a file can still be useful if you inclu...

English Dissertation: What is it? You’re (almost) on your own! This dissertation itself is an extended project that will run the length of your final year.  You will have the opportunity to define your own area of interest and identify an area within it that you can research.  You will be able to research different aspects of it, identifying appropriate sources.  You will be able to write up your own conclusions with a depth, and sustained argument unlike any of your other assessments.  Through the dissertation, students are able to develop and demonstrate new levels of independence (both intellectually and in terms of using academic skills). You will not be given an essay title. You will not be given learning outcomes. You will not be given a reading list. The responsibility is yours to find a problem or issue, within a specific area, which you can research – and this is what makes the module both exciting … and daunting.  Think about yo...