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Dissertation course for Masters Students in SSR Programme

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This course will be assessed by means of course work in the form of a 10-15,000 word dissertation.

The dissertation is an independent piece of research. The course aims to:

■ provide practical experience of the process of research design, planning and implementation;

■ encourage independent decision-making and initiative in research;

■ provide experience of initiating contact with academics and/or researchers in external bodies and of developing research ideas and plans through discussion with those researchers;

■ familiarise students with the practicalities of applied research through the practice of writing a proposal, conducting a literature review, data collection and analysis, writing-up results, responding to feedback and meeting deadlines;

■ consolidate the research skills taught on the MSc SSR in the context of a substantial piece of independent research with a view to demonstrating competence in at least one advanced research technique (either quantitative or qualitative).

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ identify a topic worthy of inquiry;

■ critically analyse and evaluate existing knowledge on that topic, through a review of relevant literature;

■ formulate a coherent and answerable set of research questions;

■ determine an appropriate research strategy and associated methodology, taking due account of any practical, political and ethical issues affecting the conduct of their research;

■ identify and engage positively with academics and/or researchers in external bodies where necessary;

■ collect and analyse relevant empirical evidence from fieldwork and/or secondary/documentary sources;

■ draw appropriate conclusions from their analysis;

■ write up a logically structured and properly referenced research report.

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