This is to all the people who have to do a dissertation or thesis for university or college. It is my way of passing on my knowledge and experience of this process.
1. Everything needs copies.
At the beginning of my dissertation research I lost the hard copy of my data before I was able to input it into my computer. After I did that I started photographing all written notes and handwritten spreadsheets. Put everything on multiple storage devices. I used 3 USBs.
2. If you need an extension be explicit in the date you want the extension to be until.Â
I asked for 2 weeks from my hand in date, I got 2 weeks from the day I asked.
3. Be careful of going from mac to pc.
Weird and wonderful things will occur if you move a large word document for mac to pc.
4. Learn how to use word.
Word can do amazing things. You don’t need to type out your contents page, with just a few clicks word can create one for you. Creating sections, page breaks, how to turn the document into one pdf (much more difficult than I thought it would be) are all things you need to learn.
It might take a day but do it.
6. Open source software can be easier to use than paid software.
I created GIS maps and used QGIS. There were tonnes of youtube tutorials and online tutorials to learn how to use the software. It is the same for other open source softwares.
7. Some people will have better supervisors than others
Having a good supervisor makes a massive difference to your experience. I had a very unhelpful one, compared to many of my friends’. But I hunted him down almost everyday and he was a big help for things. I ended up helping him with the processing of his artefact collection when I needed a break and I think I had more support from him than my friend who also had him as a supervisor. Talk to the years above and take their advice.
8. You probably won’t find what you thought you would find.
This is more applicable to people who aren’t doing a literature review. Your methods might end up informing you more of something else that you weren’t looking for. I personally ended up changing the goals of my dissertation because of it.
9. Don’t compare other people’s dissertations to your own.
They are doing different things and the methods you use might force you to write in a style that is different from their’s.
10. You will find other things you would want to explore, don’t get sidetracked.
Research generally leads to other things to be researched. Include it in your conclusion, but don’t follow those avenues. Stick to your dissertation.
11. When it’s submitted, don’t look at it.
This is a massive piece of work. But rereading it will make you paranoid and you will want to change things. There is nothing you can do so don’t look at it.
12. People have varying emotions surrounding it.
Some people feel relief, some people don’t. Some of my friends went out every night afterwards, I cried at the very mention of my dissertation. Everyone is different.
If I think of other things I will add to it.
