I did mine in around two weeks but that was only 4500 words and a practical project, the whole thing of the equivalent of 12k words and got a high 2.1, quite frankly i would do it again. It depends on the type of person you are, I like the stress and the 'oh crap' feeling so i thrive on it. But that's a BSc not sure I could do the same for the MSc
A family friend of mine claims it is. She claims that she wrote her entire thing and did the research for it in three weeks! Then handed it in like a week later!:eek:
Mine is not due in for about four and a bit months yet, and I have already been planning it since October! I have a placement sorted for my research which I start in two weeks, I have sorted out my questionaires and consent forms and have begun to write the methodology chapter.
Yet I was speaking to a friend the other day on the same course and she doesn't even know what she is going to do it on let alone start it!:eek:
Am I just a mug for starting it so early?
It depends how clever you are and what the word count is.
A dissertation is a research project or study where you have a question and then you go and and conduct research for it and you present your findings.
Its split into chapters and you have an intro, literature review, methodology, analysis and then an appendix.
Thanks for the explanation moonbaby, now I know.
I'm being very lazy today, I did do a quick Google for the dictionary definition earlier,
but 'a formal treatise' didn't really help me at all, so I gave up.
It depends on the research topic, number of words and the level required (Bachelor's, Master's or Doctorate).
Everybody's different but for me, my BSc research project took 10 weeks of practical but I was researching background information throughout, to put my work into context with existing knowledge. The write up took about 3 weeks to do properly (proof reading, redrafting etc). Similarly, the MSc also took 10 weeks practical and about 3 weeks to write, with reading throughout the 13 weeks. The PhD took 4 years of practical work and about 8 months to write (part-time), again with background reading throughout.
The earlier you start with the background reading, the easier it is to become familiar with the topic and the style required for writing the dissertation. It really is all about preparation and time management if you want a decent grade.
Many years ago I wrote and did a lot of the essential research for a 15,000 dissertation (politics) in about two/three weeks. Got a high 2:1 for it but can't help thinking that I should've put more effort into the course generally and got more out of the academic experience. Still a 2:1 isn't too bad in the scheme of things I suppose.
If and when I ever do a masters/doctorate then I will take my time and research something which interests me. It doesn't seem like too much effort then.
Guess it depends on the subject, but I did mine over a weekend - did one of those two-year HNDs with a one-year BSc... doing the HND was far more difficult than the final year of the degree course.
You can certainly turn a pile of research, notes, data etc into a fully written up dissertation in two weeks, but if you are starting from scratch it seems unlikely. And even if you did manage to do it, it would be quite crap.
At the moment most of my assignments are in the 2,000 - 3,000 words category and I usually gather up information here and there in the weeks leading up to the deadline. If I'm sat doing nothing, I'll vow to find a relevent journal article, read through it and make notes. I don't tend to actually write up the essay until a few days before the due date, but with most of my research in place I find that I have a good idea of the argument I'm making and my writing is more focused.
However, my highest mark to date for an essay was 76 - and this was the one I kept putting off and putting off and ended up doing all the research and writing up in one day, confined to the library.
I done 10,000 words, a video piece and a 2,000 word evaluation in 2 weeks. I got a 2.2 for it (my lowest ever mark at uni ever but luckily it was only worth 20 credits)
It was the research which took the biggest amount of time. The fact that it was a research project was even worse. The 10,000 words were split up into separate sections, though, rather than one subject.
You can do it but it'll probably lack quality.
<big head> I never once got lower than a 1st for an essay.My highest was 96%, which I was amazed with but I spent an entire week just on that essay (a reading week) and managed to find the best references possible. Most of the time I'd be in the 70 - 80% region.</big head>
I think it depends on how you work. I know that I work best under pressure with a short deadline. If I have months to do something then I always fall into 'theres another book in the library' syndrome and will constantly rewrite and rewrite until the result is total dross. Given a short deadline, my focus is sharper and this shows in my writing. It's not an approach which suits everyone though so you should go with the approach you feel most comfortable with.
I agree. I'm the same as you - it doesn't matter how much time I've got to do the work, I don't actually concentrate my mind until the deadline is almost beating me about the forehead. I'm doing an OU degree at the moment, & even though I know several weeks (sometimes months) in advance that the work is due, every single time it's been done in the last week, with me sending it off & getting it in maybe a couple of days before the deadline or even the morning of the deadline itself if I've been able to submit it electronically. I was the same at school - I couldn't properly revise until the week before an exam. It's as if my brain needs a short space in which to work so that it can separate the wheat from the chaff automatically & save me the hassle of loads of re-writes.
Guess it depends on the subject, but I did mine over a weekend - did one of those two-year HNDs with a one-year BSc... doing the HND was far more difficult than the final year of the degree course.
What's a HND? Is it a type of postgrad degree or something? I've never heard of it before (I'm living in Ireland and I don't think its offered in Irish universities).
What's a HND? Is it a type of postgrad degree or something? I've never heard of it before (I'm living in Ireland and I don't think its offered in Irish universities).
It's a Higher National Diploma...basically a stepping stone between school and uni,it's offered at most colleges and some uni's in the UK,you can get into the 3rd year of a degree with it usually.
A family friend of mine claims it is. She claims that she wrote her entire thing and did the research for it in three weeks! Then handed it in like a week later!:eek:
Mine is not due in for about four and a bit months yet, and I have already been planning it since October! I have a placement sorted for my research which I start in two weeks, I have sorted out my questionaires and consent forms and have begun to write the methodology chapter.
Yet I was speaking to a friend the other day on the same course and she doesn't even know what she is going to do it on let alone start it!:eek:
Am I just a mug for starting it so early?
No you aren't! It's worth starting early, trust me. I started mine in Oct/Nov of my third year and finished it in April I believe and I'm glad I took lots of time over it.
Mine was only about 2 weeks work but took longer as I was waiting for things to happen (it involved facebook).
To be fair it failed, but I did get it on the first bounce by adding in a rehashed essay on something vaguely related in an earlier unit.
It really depends on your university and course. I have a friend on a different course at the same university I went to and she does easily 10 times as much work as I did.
I only went to the library 10 times in 5 years (undergraduate and post graduate) and didn't buy any books after the 1st semester.
It's a Higher National Diploma...basically a stepping stone between school and uni,it's offered at most colleges and some uni's in the UK,you can get into the 3rd year of a degree with it usually.
AJxx
OK thanks for the info... I think we have something similar in Ireland actually. Some places offer courses called PLC (Post Leaving Certificate - Irish equivalent of A-Levels) courses or "Higher Certificate" courses or something. With those I think you can get into the second year of a degree with some courses but I think you have to pass with distinctions or something. Its not actually offered by any universities though.
To be honest, a lot of this depends on whether you want to 'just pass' or whether you want to be able to look back and think that you did the best that you could have done
I showed my tutor a very rough early draft of my MA diss and he assured me that it would pass at that point. For a brief moment I did think of just getting it bound and handed in. But, frankly, it was nowhere near the best that I could have done. So I went away and did lots more work, rewrites and revamps of various parts. That way, I was handing in what I honestly thought was the very best I could do
I wrote my 3,000 word coursework for A2 English in a day - but I knew a lot about the book before hand so that obviously helped. I still got an A so I guess I was lucky.
I did mine for a BA (Hons) in 2 weeks, but I'd been doing research for months as I was going along and knew exactly what I needed to do for it. I also work much better under pressure. If i have loads of time for a project I can be wishy washy about it, but if the time-pressure is well and truly on, I perform much better and am far more focused. I got a 2:1 for that, but it all depends on how you work best, and you have to know what you're writing about so preparation is a major key. Research like crazy!
A family friend of mine claims it is. She claims that she wrote her entire thing and did the research for it in three weeks! Then handed it in like a week later!:eek:
Mine is not due in for about four and a bit months yet, and I have already been planning it since October! I have a placement sorted for my research which I start in two weeks, I have sorted out my questionaires and consent forms and have begun to write the methodology chapter.
Yet I was speaking to a friend the other day on the same course and she doesn't even know what she is going to do it on let alone start it!:eek:
Am I just a mug for starting it so early?
I can beat that... 8 days! that was 82 pages 12,500 words then bibliography (harvard style), Index and diagrams.
Comments
It depends how clever you are and what the word count is.
I'm being very lazy today, I did do a quick Google for the dictionary definition earlier,
but 'a formal treatise' didn't really help me at all, so I gave up.
Everybody's different but for me, my BSc research project took 10 weeks of practical but I was researching background information throughout, to put my work into context with existing knowledge. The write up took about 3 weeks to do properly (proof reading, redrafting etc). Similarly, the MSc also took 10 weeks practical and about 3 weeks to write, with reading throughout the 13 weeks. The PhD took 4 years of practical work and about 8 months to write (part-time), again with background reading throughout.
The earlier you start with the background reading, the easier it is to become familiar with the topic and the style required for writing the dissertation. It really is all about preparation and time management if you want a decent grade.
If and when I ever do a masters/doctorate then I will take my time and research something which interests me. It doesn't seem like too much effort then.
He got a high 2.2 for it as well.
At the moment most of my assignments are in the 2,000 - 3,000 words category and I usually gather up information here and there in the weeks leading up to the deadline. If I'm sat doing nothing, I'll vow to find a relevent journal article, read through it and make notes. I don't tend to actually write up the essay until a few days before the due date, but with most of my research in place I find that I have a good idea of the argument I'm making and my writing is more focused.
However, my highest mark to date for an essay was 76 - and this was the one I kept putting off and putting off and ended up doing all the research and writing up in one day, confined to the library.
It was the research which took the biggest amount of time. The fact that it was a research project was even worse. The 10,000 words were split up into separate sections, though, rather than one subject.
You can do it but it'll probably lack quality.
<big head> I never once got lower than a 1st for an essay.My highest was 96%, which I was amazed with but I spent an entire week just on that essay (a reading week) and managed to find the best references possible. Most of the time I'd be in the 70 - 80% region.</big head>
Did you get a decent mark for it?
What's a HND? Is it a type of postgrad degree or something? I've never heard of it before (I'm living in Ireland and I don't think its offered in Irish universities).
It's a Higher National Diploma...basically a stepping stone between school and uni,it's offered at most colleges and some uni's in the UK,you can get into the 3rd year of a degree with it usually.
AJxx
No you aren't! It's worth starting early, trust me. I started mine in Oct/Nov of my third year and finished it in April I believe and I'm glad I took lots of time over it.
To be fair it failed, but I did get it on the first bounce by adding in a rehashed essay on something vaguely related in an earlier unit.
It really depends on your university and course. I have a friend on a different course at the same university I went to and she does easily 10 times as much work as I did.
I only went to the library 10 times in 5 years (undergraduate and post graduate) and didn't buy any books after the 1st semester.
OK thanks for the info... I think we have something similar in Ireland actually. Some places offer courses called PLC (Post Leaving Certificate - Irish equivalent of A-Levels) courses or "Higher Certificate" courses or something. With those I think you can get into the second year of a degree with some courses but I think you have to pass with distinctions or something. Its not actually offered by any universities though.
I showed my tutor a very rough early draft of my MA diss and he assured me that it would pass at that point. For a brief moment I did think of just getting it bound and handed in. But, frankly, it was nowhere near the best that I could have done. So I went away and did lots more work, rewrites and revamps of various parts. That way, I was handing in what I honestly thought was the very best I could do
If that makes me a mug, then so be it
I can beat that... 8 days! that was 82 pages 12,500 words then bibliography (harvard style), Index and diagrams.