Briefing on Information and Requirements for Dissertations

1. Briefing on Information and Requirements for Dissertations Department of English Language and Literature Dr. Szerencsi Katalin Dr. Granville Pillar

2. Topics for Discussion • General Information • Roles and Obligations of the Student • Roles and Obligations of the Supervisor • Dissertation Format and Regulations • The Components of a Dissertation • Research Methodology • Dissertation Disciplines • Assessment Criteria • Grading • Question Time

3. General Information • The submission of a dissertation is a requirement for every final-year student. • Students should have finalised their dissertation topics with their supervisors after having successfully completed half of their studies. • Faculty information on dissertations is now available on the college web site. The current departmental guidelines can be obtained from the home page of the English Department.

4. General Information • Previously written dissertations are available for viewing in the English Department’s library.

5. Roles and Obligations of the Student • Each student is entitled to 6-8 hours supervision spread throughout the dissertation writing process. • Failure to attend a consultation without explanation will result in loss of that hour. • Students are required to come with written work or prepared questions - mere presence at the consultation is not sufficient.

6. Roles and Obligations of the Student • Each student should, • produce basic ideas; • write a detailed study plan and follow it; • make changes as are necessary; • access materials for the research; • accept constructive criticism from the supervisor; • hand in the dissertation on time.

7. Deadline for the Submission of Dissertations END OF APRIL Dissertations received after this date will not be accepted, and will thus result in failure of the dissertation.

8. Roles and Obligations of the Supervisor • The supervisor, • helps students to clarify a chosen topic; • shares his or her knowledge on the topic; • advises students on the choice of research instruments; • agrees on deadlines at the stages of the writing process; • reads the student’s drafts and suggests any changes;

9. Roles and Obligations of the Supervisor • The supervisor, • provides the evaluation of the dissertation; • compiles the necessary information for the defence of the dissertation; • is present at the defence.

10. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Length: • Type A dissertations approx. 30 pages • Type AC dissertations approx. 30 pages • double spaced, A4, Times New Roman (12) • Margins: • left - 3 cms • right - 3 cms • bottom - 2 cms • top - 2 cms

11. Dissertation Format and Regulations • The 30-page limitdoes not include: • title page • abstract • table of contents • references or bibliography • appendices • diagrams, graphs, illustrations • statistical tables

12. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Page Numbering: • consecutively in Arabic numerals • e.g. 1, 2, 3,… not i, ii, iii,… • Chapters: • new page for every new chapter; • chapter heading is to be in distinctive typeface separated from main text; • the first line of new paragraphs should be indented 5 spaces. • no indentation after main titles or subtitles

13. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Binding: • one copy to be submitted to the English Department; • one copy for the student to keep; • dissertation must be bound in accordance with the faculty requirements; • spiral binding or plastic sleeve covers are not acceptable.

14. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Plagiarism: • is the deliberate copying of the work of another author, word for word, without due acknowledgement; • is the borrowing of ideas and arguments of another author without due acknowledgement, even if the wording differs from the original source; • copying the work of a fellow student or from someone who is unknown to you.

15. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Culpable Plagiarism: • is stealing and is cheating; • in any part or of any length,will result in automatic failure of the dissertation. • Suspected Plagiarism: • prior to the final submission of the dissertation, this will be indicated to the student who will be invited to re-submit his or her dissertation with revised referencing and acknowledgements.

16. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Avoid Plagiarism by: • noting bibliographical details (title, author, year of publication, publisher etc.) and page number of the text. • enclosing direct quotations taken from a source with quotation marks (i.e. “…..”) and noting page number. • noting bibliographical details after a paraphrased or summarised text taken from an original source.

17. Dissertation Format and Regulations • Avoid Plagiarism by: • reading faculty handbooks (available from the faculty library) which include instructions for correct quotation citation and referencing. If Culpable and/or Suspected Plagiarism is identified prior to the submission deadline and in unbound form, the supervisior will advise the student to amend the dissertation in accordance with the regulations. No such amendment is possible after the dissertation has been submitted in bound form.

18. Dissertation Format and Regulations We as a department would rather receive original work from students which contains some language errors, than perfect work which is not their own, but simply copied from secondary sources. A plagiarised dissertation tells us nothing about a student’s knowledge or intellectual competence. As such, it is not assessable.

19. The Components of a Dissertation • Title Page • Abstract (Summary or Synopsis) • Acknowledgements • Table of Contents • Introduction • Literature Review (Survey) • Chapters Containing Body of Research • Conclusion • References/Bibliography • Appendices

20. The Components of a Dissertation • Title Page: • Gives title, author, college and year of submission. • Title should summarise the main idea of the dissertation, and be no more that 20 words. • Abstract: • Gives a summary of the dissertation and should be between 100-150 words.

21. The Components of a Dissertation • Abstract may include: • background • aim of the research • methods used • main findings • recommendations • conclusion

22. The Components of a Dissertation • Acknowledgements: • reference to anyone who has given substantial assistance with the research • your supervisor • someone who has given comments • person who typed it • anyone who has given you personal support

23. The Components of a Dissertation • Table of Contents: • should correspond to your list of chapter headings and subheadings; • system of numbering should not go beyond two subdivisions. • i.e. 1.2.6 or 3.4.4., not 1.2.6.1 or 3.4.4.1

24. The Components of a Dissertation • Introduction • establishes the topic of the research • establishes the research question • establishes the rationale - summarises previous research on the topic • establishes the significance and indicates what is missing in previous research • establishes the aim of the research

25. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review • in an empirical study it is always between the Introduction and Methodology chapters; • in a non-empirical study it is normally incorporated into the body of the dissertation.

26. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Harvard System (in-text or author/date) • Note System (either footnotes or endnotes) • Full bibliographical details are given in alphabetical order in the References/Bibliography at the end of the dissertation.

27. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Direct quotations shorter than 30 words should be enclosed with quotation marks, followed by the number of citation (in superscript) if using the note citation system, or by the author’s name/authors’ names, date of source and page number (in parenthesis, i.e. round brackets), if using the in-text system.

28. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Direct quotations longer than 30 words should be single-spaced, indented 5 spaces and in a font one size smaller than the body text. Quotation marks are not needed and the source should be given at the end of the quotation in parenthesis.

29. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Direct quotations placed within quotation marks must be the exact words found in the source. The spelling, punctuation verb tense, verb-subject agreement etc, must not be altered to suit your text. Rather, your text should be changed to conform to the quotation.

30. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Paraphrases or ideas gleaned from a source should also be acknowledged, but it is not necessary to enclose them in quotation marks or give the page number. • Citations of paraphrases should include the author’s name/authors’ names and date of publication directly after the paraphrase.

31. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Author is mentioned in the body of the text. Example: • Cognition is defined by Jacobs and Schuman (1992:24) as “… the perception of a stimulus, attention to that stimulus, the movement of that stimulus into memory, and finally, the expression or the use of that information.”

32. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Author is not mentioned in the body of the text. Example: • Cognition is defined as “… the perception of a stimulus, attention to that stimulus, the movement of that stimulus into memory, and finally, the expression or the use of that information” (Jacobs and Schuman, 1992:24)

33. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Quoting from a source taken from the internet, cited in the text • If author’s name and date are available: • e.g. (Smith, 2003) – then quote full citation details in References/Bibliography • If author’s name or date is not available, the minimum information should include the date retrieved and the full web page reference. • e.g.(retrieved August 19, 2005 from the World Wide Web: ww.englishclub.net/teachers/workshop/video.htm)

34. The Components of a Dissertation • Literature Review - Citation Conventions: • Quoting from a source taken from the internet cited in References/Bibliography • Details of text, including name of author/authors, date of publication (if available), title of article, place published and publisher (if applicable) full web page reference (i.e. http://www ……….and the date on which you downloaded it from the internet (e.g.Smith, K. (2003), Metaphysical Poetry. Retrieved August 19, 2005 from the World Wide Web: www.englishclub.net/teachers/workshop/video.htm)

35. The Components of a Dissertation • Chapters Containing Body of the Research: • Empirical Research (i.e.gathering of data [quantitative or qualitative] based on experiment and/or observation) • a presentation of the research method • a presentation of the findings • a discussion of the findings

36. The Components of a Dissertation • Chapters Containing Body of the Research: • Non-Empirical or Analytical Research (i.e.where throughout the study there is a line of argument usually based on research questions you have developed about concepts or theories in your discipline area) • structure and content are much less predictable

37. The Components of a Dissertation • Conclusion • Reports the procedure and aims. • Reports findings and claims based on the findings. • Supports how other research supports present findings (or vice versa). • Suggests limitations of procedure or findings. • Proposes implications of the findings or claims based on findings. • Makes recommendations.

38. Dissertation Disciplines • British and American Studies • Literary Topics • Stylistics • Literary Theory • Translation • Cultural Studies

39. Dissertation Disciplines • Language and Linguistics • Practical, Descriptive and Contrastive Grammar • Applied Linguistics • Language Testing • Discourse Analysis • Translation

40. Dissertation Disciplines • Methodology • Comparative Studies on Teaching Approaches • Language in the Classroom • Error Analysis • Classroom Management • Course Book Evaluation • Skills Teaching • Teacher Training

41. Dissertation Topics • Methodology • Content • The dissertation must be classroom related and contain evidence of empirical, original research conducted through a number of different methods: e.g. questionnaires, case studies, interviews, observation instruments and/or textual analysis.

42. Assessment Criteria • Familiaritywithscientificliterature and its application 0-10 • Content and criticalapproachtothetopic 0-15 • Structure and balance 0-5 • Language and style 0-15 • Spelling and format 0-5

43. Grading • 44-50 = 5 • 38-45 = 4 • 32-38 = 3 • 26-31 = 2 • 0-25 = 1