Dessertation project

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Dissertation Versus Project Study: What’s the Difference?

There are many different types of project and so it is difficult to produce a detailed set of recommendations to suit every single dissertation. Thus the dissertation structure below is only a suggestion.

Presentation and writing issues are described elsewhere but, in general, all dissertations should be divided into a series of numbered chapters and sections, each with titles and only these chapters count towards the page limit.

It may be helpful to peruse a few previous dissertations to help see how the following structure can be adapted. It is usual to assume that the reader is familiar with material all your fellow students will be familiar with from the taught component so you cannot assume your reader will know anything you have covered in an optional module.

Any further material needed should be summarised and suitable references cited. This should be two or three short paragraphs words total , summarising the dissertation. It is important that this is not just a restatement of the original project outline.

A suggested flow is background, project aims and main achievements. A bad abstract would have a final paragraph that just said "the achievements will be described" - this is useless, as it says nothing. From the abstract a reader should be able to ascertain if the project is of interest to them and presents results of which they would like to know more details.

The introduction has several purposes. Clearly one is to set the scene for the project by giving a little relevant background information - try to grab the reader's interest early. Another is to clearly elucidate the aims and objectives of the project and the constraints that might affect the way in which the project is carried out. If the project involves the solution of a specific problem or the production of a specific system this should be clearly specified in an informal way.

Finally, the introduction should summarise the remaining chapters of the dissertation, in effect giving the reader an overview of what is to come. The type of project will dictate the content and structure of the following chapters and you should discuss this with your supervisor. For example, for a theoretical project it is likely that several chapters will be devoted to constructing the theoretical foundations for the project and will consist of your own interpretation and synthesis of existing work with suitable examples discussed throughout.

A sequence of chapters that cover theoretical framework, conditions and assumptions and theory application and comparisons may be appropriate.

For an experimental project, the experimental goals, design, execution and evaluation might be covered. What now follows is a typical structure for a 'design and build' project. At the end of chapter 1, you should include a brief discussion of your view of the relationship between your project, and your degree programme.

In your discussion, you should mention any advantages or challenges created by this relationship. The title of this chapter is open to discussion. Literature review is a bit simplistic and it may be that you can title the chapter better, based on the particular type of project that you are doing. It is often useful to start this chapter with an overview of its contents, giving the reasoning behind why you have structured it in a particular way. The main thrust of the chapter is a review of relevant work by other authors and the relationship between this and your own work.

If several other people have done closely related work in a different way then the reasons for your approach should be summarised here.

A good literature review is synthetic: general trends and positions in your research area should be identified, and the papers you cite should be compared and contrasted. A literature review is not simply an annotated list of papers you may have read. It should cover a range of relevant material to your project. Everything you use should be cited by reference to the bibliography at the end of your dissertation. See the page on using references for how to do this.

Everything that you write must be your own words and you must cite other people using references. You may also quote sentences from the work of others. These must be included in quotation marks and again the relevant work must be cited. Your signed declaration means that you will fail your dissertation if you do not acknowledge the work of others.

These may be provided to include further details of results, mathematical derivations, certain illustrative parts of program code e. In particular, if there are technical details of the work done that might be useful to others who wish to build on this work, but that are not sufficiently important to the project as a whole to justify being discussed in the main body of the dissertation, then they should be included as appendices.

Any appendices do not count towards the page limit, but equally they are not treated as part of the dissertation for the purposes of assessing it.

In other words, there is no expectation that the examiners should read the appendices as part of the assessment process. Hence, it is important that any material which will be significant to judging the quality of the dissertation or of the project as a whole should be in the main body of the dissertation, and not in appendices. Do not include an appendix containing all your source code listings - instead this material will be collected electronically.

What may be worth doing, perhaps, is that if there are any code fragments of particular novelty, then you could include these in an appendix, so that they could be referenced in any descriptions in the main text of the chapters. This would make such an appendix very similar to the idea of appendices for mathematical proofs. You are required to submit the report electronically through MOLE by the deadline.

All sentences or passages quoted in this report from other people's work have been specifically acknowledged by clear cross-referencing to author, work and page s. Any illustrations which are not the work of the author of this report have been used with the explicit permission of the originator and are specifically acknowledged. I understand that failure to do this amounts to plagiarism and will be considered grounds for failure in this project and the degree examination as a whole.

Last modified: Thu Nov 22 Report an Error. The title the dissertation ends up with need not be the one it started with in the project choice stage more than a year earlier but it should be meaningful. The second page should be the following declaration: "All sentences or passages quoted in this report from other people's work have been specifically acknowledged by clear cross-referencing to author, work and page s.

Any illustrations that are not the work of the author of this report have been used with the explicit permission of the originator and are specifically acknowledged. By submitting your project through MOLE, you agree to the declaration above. Thanks to whoever may have helped you in any way - both serious and a bit of fun. Includes titles and page numbers of all sections and subsections.

Chapter 1 begins on page 1. Use Roman numerals for all previous pages, e. It is often best include a separate list of all the figures in the dissertation figure number, label, page number , and a separate list of all tables in the dissertation table number, label, page number. This should state, in a more detailed way, the objectives of the project by requirement and the analysis should break the problem down into manageable steps.

There may be more than one suitable approach; the analysis may cover more of the area than is finally implemented. Testing and evaluation should be given due consideration. It is important that you state how you will evaluate your work. For a design project it is appropriate to consider testing at the same time as specification.

This should explain the design technique chosen and justify why it is appropriate from the various ones available; it should select a suitable subset of the things described in the analysis chapter and develop a design. Where trade-offs exist between different designs, the chosen approach should be justified. Suitable diagram-techniques e. UML, other drawings should be used where appropriate. If a method is applied selectively, explain which parts were used and why.

Experimental projects should pay careful attention to control conditions, samples selected, etc. In addition to illustrating "coding traps", this should highlight particular novel aspects to algorithms. Testing should be according to the scheme presented in the Analysis chapter and should follow some suitable model - e.

Both functional testing and user-acceptance testing are appropriate. The main results of your work should be presented, together with critical discussion. The chapter should cover three things although these would not be used as section headings : Findings - present all the results products, experimental findings, theories, etc. This may also include some off-topic findings that were not expected, or which were side-effects of other explorations. Goals achieved - describes the degree to which the findings support the original objectives laid out for the project.

The goals may be partially or fully achieved, or exceeded. An experimental project may prove, or disprove the original thesis. A theoretical project may cover some or all of the example cases. Note that reporting of failures to achieve goals is important since a fundamental feature of the assessment procedures is that the processes how you went about your project are often as important as the products of the project.

The conclusions can be summarised in a fairly short chapter 2 or 3 pages. This chapter brings together many of the points that you will have made in other chapters, especially in the previous results and discussion chapter. Do not be afraid of repeating some of your earlier statements here, albeit using different wording.

dissertation project. 1. A Dissertation Report Titled “A Study on Measuring Customer Satisfaction at 'Reliance Fresh' Retail Outlets in. Introduction. A dissertation or final year project, as a form of assessment differs from other module assessments. The expectation is that you, the learner, take.

If you're contemplating graduate school, you may have heard that a comprehensive paper is required to graduate, and you likely wonder what exactly is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation. It's good that you're thinking ahead. There are definite differences between the two terms, though they are sometimes used interchangeably and often confused. Both papers are similar in their structure, as they contain an introduction, literary review, body, conclusion, bibliography and appendix. Beyond that, the similarities basically end.

They're not directly comparable things.

There are alternatives to writing a dissertation. One of these is a project study, or an applied study. Most students in advanced studies have a general idea of what a dissertation is, but fewer people know what a project study is.

Guide to undergraduate dissertations in the social sciences

Skip to content. Skip to navigation. It aims to help you develop a clear sense of direction early on in the project, and to support you in organising, planning, and monitoring your project. The companion guide Writing a dissertation focuses on the preparation of the written report or thesis. A dissertation is a particular kind of academic task.

Planning and conducting a dissertation research project

A thesis or dissertation [1] is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings. The required complexity or quality of research of a thesis or dissertation can vary by country, university, or program, and the required minimum study period may thus vary significantly in duration. The word "dissertation" can at times be used to describe a treatise without relation to obtaining an academic degree. The term "thesis" is also used to refer to the general claim of an essay or similar work. Aristotle was the first philosopher to define the term thesis. For Aristotle, a thesis would therefore be a supposition that is stated in contradiction with general opinion or express disagreement with other philosophers b The purpose of the dissertation is thus to outline the proofs of why the author disagrees with other philosophers or the general opinion. A thesis or dissertation may be arranged as a thesis by publication or a monograph , with or without appended papers, respectively, though many graduate programs allow candidates to submit a curated collection of published papers. An ordinary monograph has a title page , an abstract , a table of contents , comprising the various chapters like introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and bibliography or more usually a references section. They differ in their structure in accordance with the many different areas of study arts, humanities, social sciences, technology, sciences, etc.

There are many different types of project and so it is difficult to produce a detailed set of recommendations to suit every single dissertation. Thus the dissertation structure below is only a suggestion.

Because postgraduate research projects bear such high importance, we have compiled the most important information that you as a prospective postgraduate student need to know about starting your first research project. As a masters student, your research proposal will need to be brief and contain only essential information. It will usually be between and 1, words long. In contrast, PhD proposals are longer, between 1, and 2, words, and contain more comprehensive information.

What is the Difference Between a Thesis and a Dissertation?

A dissertation or final year project, as a form of assessment differs from other module assessments. The expectation is that you, the learner, take responsibility for your own learning and that you produce a literature review, you choose a method for undertaking a study, write up your findings and discuss the outcomes in a discussion section. So this part of site provides you with a better understanding of the following:. Watch What is a dissertation? Traditionally, an undergraduate degree in the social sciences and humanities uses a dissertation for a final piece of study. The degree might also offer other alternatives such as the option of an extended essay, or an independent learning project, or a senior paper. This is because the process of producing this type of assessment enables you to:. In many ways this is about doing social science rather than writing about the social science that others have produced. Some of these skills are clearly academic and related to your discipline. Others are much broader and develop your effectiveness in collecting, manipulating and interrogating information, its application and the production of reports - all of which are useful skills in employment.

Everything You Need To Know About Your Research Project

This project is to be undertaken in the guidance of a faculty of the institution. They are supposed to submit a project report within two weeks of commencement of third semester. The purpose of the project work is to develop larger life skills and positive attitude among students. The project work should be completed within four weeks after the completion of II Semester and before the commencement of III Semester. The project work is allotted 50 marks. The students will prepare a hard bound project report. A panel of examiners and the concerned faculty guide will evaluate the project report and will undertake viva of the student. The students should submit a synopsis of the dissertation giving the statement of problem, objectives and methodology to be followed before starting of actual work. The dissertation has to be organization specific but not a macro study or freelance. Student will work for min.