Masters Discussion Forum

Quote like crazy from other sources. Everything you say, try and back it up. Having an impressive bibliography / appendixes is half the battle I,reckon. And include a range of sources - a mix of contemporaneous stuff like journal articles and websites alongside more seminal works in your field. A strong abstract is important too - look at some style models, and polish it until there's not a wasted word. A strong start and a strong finish covers a multitude of sins in the middle!

Surprised there is no marking criteria. I had one - not that it made any difference. Like you I rarely got replies from my supervisor, I spent a month writing a few paragraphs of my methodology chapter (literally 4 paragraphs in a month) and asking for advice/review as I went. Only to have a meeting with another supervisor on a day at Uni for him to dismiss 3 of the paragraphs as irrelevant.

Bag over the head punch in the face moment I can tell you.

As tough as this sounds the tutors are not there to teach you! So you may find you get little guidance. I found that part very tough as I was keen to do well (as is everyone). My supervisor was reluctant to even suggest an estimate of a score for my paper - in the whole year he only ever once gave me a nod to where it might come... and he was WAY off.

So I have been no help what so ever... but take some comfort in the fact you are not alone!!

Ask for a mark scheme? They must have one.

In general, to get a First you have to show something along the lines of this: excellent, comprehensive work; well presented and structured and logically organised; critical insight; originality; well referenced showing clear knowledge and understanding of the relevant literature using appropriate examples; thorough analysis of
results and an ability to evaluate critically and discuss research findings.

What's the difference between a project and research? Nothing, I would guess.

Make sure you record all failures from experiments and use photos to support it if doing any practicals. I was lucky as my proposal had zero literature review and I could blag my way through it.

Hello,

So I am at the stage where my dissertation proposal got approved and now I need to start writing. Does any of you have any good advice on how to make sure I get good marks? I need to get at least 70% from this. When I did my degree I got 68% in dissertation two years ago. However I do feel because I am a distant learner and doing my degree online mostly my tutors (especially my dissertation tutor) are not taking me seriously and most of the time my emails with any questions get ignored. This makes everything so much harder. I do have till August to get my dissertation done.