Introduction
A Master's dissertation: what is it?
So, what skills do you need to succeed?
Watch your words!
How to use this book
Summary of key points
Preparing for your dissertation
Putting together your research proposal
Research focus and overall research aim
Research objectives and keywords
Research methods
Setting a timescale
Producing a dissertation template
Supervisor meetings
Supervisor and Student: roles and responsibilities
Summary of key points
Developing your i-skills
What are i-skills?
Information needs
Organising skills
Literature search techniques
Speed reading skills
Critiquing skills
Communication skills and mind-mapping
Summary of key points
The dissertation Introduction
The general structure of the Introduction
Background
Research focus (revisited)
Overall research aim and individual research objectives
Value of your research
A further suggestion
Summary of key points
The Literature Review
Focus on your research objectives
Referencing
Description vs critical evaluation
Learning theory and your dissertation
Structuring your Literature Review
Summary of key points
Systematic Reviews
What is a systematic review?
The stages of a systematic review
AMSTAR: a checklist for systematic reviews
Summary of key points
Research methods
What's it all about?
Research strategy
Introduction
Quantitative vs qualitative research
Sampling techniques
Positivism and phenomenology
Justifying your research strategy
The question of reliability (and validity)
Data collection
Preparation, preparation, preparation
What and why?
Framework for data analysis
Limitations and potential problems
Summary of key points
Writing up your findings
The general approach
The process of description, analysis and synthesis: an example
Summary of key points
Concluding your dissertation
What's in a Conclusion?
Research objectives: summary of findings and conclusions
Recommendations
Contribution to knowledge
Self-reflection
Summary of key points
Finally: Writing the abstract?
What is an abstract?
How to write an abstract
Abstract template
Summary of key points
Practical issues
Presenting your work and preparing for a viva
Presenting your work: common mistakes
Preparing for a viva
The marking scheme
Good grammar
A word of warning: plagiarism
What counts as plagiarism?
What if you are accused of plagiarism?
Research ethics
Summary of good practice to adopt and bad practice to avoid
Forewarned is forearmed
Dissertation writing: summary of good practice to adopt
and bad practice to avoid
Practical issues: summary of good practice to adopt
and bad practice to avoid
