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The Politics MSc degrees are designed to culminate in a thesis of 12000 - 15000 words. Students will be assigned a Dissertation Supervisor in Semester 2. 

None

An average mark of 12.00 for Semester 1 and 2 MSc courses.

Dissertation: Written essay of 12,000-15,000 words

Aims:
to provide training and support that will enable students to research and write a dissertation which fulfils the requirements of the relevant postgraduate programme.
to engage students in independent research and study.
to teach students how to construct an argument and maintain it over an extended piece of written work.
to allow students to explore in some depth a topic of interest.
to enable students to share ideas and experience in developing research proposals and methods.
to develop students' oral presentational skills by facilitating group presentations and discussions.
to enable students to develop and deploy library and internet skills in literature search and data source identification.
to develop students' IT skills including manipulation and presentation of statistical data.

On completion of the dissertation, students should be able to demonstrate an ability to:
undertake a substantial, focused piece of research using research methods and analytical techniques that are appropriate to their programme of study.
research the literature relating to a specific topic or issue relevant to their programme of study, and present a synthesis and critical review of the literature.
identify and formulate hypotheses to be tested or problems to be addressed deriving from their analysis of the literature.
confront these hypotheses or problems by mobilising relevant evidence and analysing it using statistical or other appropriate methods
evaluate findings and draw out their implications.
present a substantial piece of written work that is clearly motivated and structured, and conforms to the requirements specified in the course documentation with regard to the quality of written work and to presentational features such as length, layout, citations and bibliography.

Successful completion of dissertation in line with Departmental guidelines.