This chapter is concerned with developing a subject for writing a dissertation. We will first discuss the importance of time management because knowing how to plan your time is a very important factor in determining your chances of success. We will then talk about locating the research interest for oneself. Following that, we will address the question of selecting a research topic. Finally, we will raise the issue of manageability of the research subject or topic and the issue of availability of both material and human resources.
If you choose British poetry instead of novels, you have to make similar decisions until you have located an area that is small enough to study within a short period of time and big enough to be developed into a dissertation that is required.
In terms of planning and managing your time, you must have a realistic plan, one that you will be able to fulfil during the time available. Remember, your plan will be
How to Write a Dissertation In English
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Managing your time
4.3 Locating your interest 4.4 Selecting a topic
Chapter 4
Prewriting (1): Developing the Subject
Once you have identified the subject that you would like to work on, you must try to narrow down the subject area. For example, if you choose literature, then you must think of the research topic that is within the broad area of literature. For example, if you are interested in British literature, instead of American literature or literature in countries such as Australia, Canada or New Zealand, you can consider areas such as early British
4.2 Managing your time
How to write a dissertat 4.5 4.6 4.7
different from those of others because people have different advantages and disadvantages in doing research, writing papers and dissertations. So follow your own plan and trust yourself.
4.2 Managing your time
How to write a dissertation in English
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7
Before you start to write, you must be clear of the time you have for writing. The availability of time for the whole project (i.e. for choosing a topic, identifying your research focus and developing your research question(s), developing a preliminary bibliography, shaping a preliminary outline, reading the relevant literature, taking notes and writing summaries and paraphrases, undertaking primary research, developing the final outline, writing the first draft, revising the first draft, documenting and polishing, proofreading, and finally submission) is a crucial factor. Thus, you have to manage your time effectively and make a realistic plan. When you are allocating the time to different steps of the research process, remember to set aside at least two days for emergency occasions, so that you will have the opportunity to relax before the deadline arrives.
4.3 Locating your interest
How to write a dissertation in English
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7
literature, Elizabethan drama, the 19th century novel, the 20th century literature. If you choose the 19 th century novel, then you can contemplate the Romance writers, e.g. great poets such as Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, or Romantic novelists like Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters. If you are interested in the Brontes, you can focus on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. After choosing this novel, you should decide what to do with it. You may want to investigate the characteristics of a certain person in the novel, e.g. Catherine Linton, or you may want to focus on the theme of this piece of work. You may also want to compare, from the perspective of ideology, this piece of work with another novel written in the same period by another writer in Britain or in another country.
4.5 Considering manageability and availability
4.6 Summary
4.7 Exercises
4.1 Introduction
How to write a dissertation in English
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7
4.3 Locating your interest
How to write a dissertation in English
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7
On the other hand, if you choose language or linguistics, you must also decide what to investigate. For example, you can start with linguistics or language and end with the study of the use of the third-person, singular number, female gender, subject case pronoun she in gossip. Thus, you start from linguistics and end up with the use of she in gossip as follows:
Linguistics Functional Linguistics Systemic Functional Linguistics Lexico-grammar Metafunction Textual function Cohesion