Dissertation.
I am sure this dissertation is going to be the death of me! I love the subject I am doing, witchcraft, but like everyone else I am struggling to work through it along with the rest of my work load from other topics! On top of that the last meeting I was meant to have with my dissertation tutor before I was going home for Easter, SHE FORGOT ABOUT ME!-added stress or what? However, I recently saw this article on the Guardian and it made me laugh how true it was, so thought I'd share it with you guys!
10 Things I wish I'd Known before starting my Dissertation!
Today is D-Day. Dissertation hand-in day.
The 10,000-word spiral-bound paper that's been squatting on my desk in various forms of completion since September is my Allied forces; the history department in-tray is my Normandy. And when Eisenhower talked about a "great crusade toward which we have striven these many months", he was bang on.
It's been more than a year since I first encountered the Undergraduate Dissertation Handbook, felt my heart sink at how long the massive file took to download, and began to think about possible (but in hindsight, wildly over-ambitious) topics. Here's what I've learned since, and wish I'd known back then…
1 If your dissertation supervisor isn't right, change. Mine was brilliant. If you don't feel like they're giving you the right advice, request to swap to someone else – providing it's early on and your reason is valid, your department shouldn't have a problem with it. In my experience, it doesn't matter too much whether they're an expert on your topic. What counts is whether they're approachable, reliable, reassuring, give detailed feedback and don't mind the odd panicked email. They are your lifeline and your best chance of success.
2 If you mention working on your dissertation to family, friends or near-strangers, they will ask you what it's about, and they will be expecting a more impressive answer than you can give. So prepare for looks of confusion and disappointment. People anticipate grandeur in history dissertation topics – war, genocide, the formation of modern society. They don't think much of researching an obscure piece of 1970s disability legislation. But they're not the ones marking it.
3 If they ask follow-up questions, they're probably just being polite.
4 Do not ask friends how much work they've done. You'll end up paranoid – or they will. Either way, you don't have time for it.
5 There will be one day, probably a couple of months before deadline, when you will freak out, doubt your entire thesis and decide to start again from scratch. You might even come up with a new question and start working on it, depending on how long the breakdown lasts. You will at some point run out of steam and collapse in an exhausted, tear-stained heap. But unless there are serious flaws in your work (unlikely) and your supervisor recommends starting again (highly unlikely), don't do it. It's just panic, it'll pass.
6 A lot of the work you do will not make it into your dissertation. The first few days in archives, I felt like everything I was unearthing was a gem, and when I sat down to write, it seemed as if it was all gold. But a brutal editing down to the word count has left much of that early material at the wayside.
7 You will print like you have never printed before. If you're using a university or library printer, it will start to affect your weekly budget in a big way. If you're printing from your room, "paper jam" will come to be the most dreaded two words in the English language.
8 Your dissertation will interfere with whatever else you have going on – a social life, sporting commitments, societies, other essay demands. Don't even try and give up biscuits for Lent, they'll basically become their own food group when you're too busy to cook and desperate for sugar.
9 Your time is not your own. Even if you're super-organised, plan your time down to the last hour and don't have a single moment of deadline panic, you'll still find that thoughts of your dissertation will creep up on you when you least expect it. You'll fall asleep thinking about it, dream about it and wake up thinking about. You'll feel guilty when you're not working on it, and mired in self-doubt when you are.
10 Finishing it will be one of the best things you've ever done. It's worth the hard work to know you've completed what's likely to be your biggest, most important, single piece of work. And you're proud of it.
I'm off to hand this thing in, see you on the other side.
How true is all of that! Well mines due in on the 3rd May so not long left for me! Good Luck on your dissertation too!
Are you doing a Dissertation? What on? How are you finding the whole process? x
