1.0 Introduction
This document summarises the requirements of the PMP concerning the general contents and layout of dissertations. Remember that the quality of the dissertation often is the component we attach most weight to in the marking scheme. Criteria that examiners use can be seen in the Dissertation Assessment Guidelines. This means that to do our practical work creditably, you must be able to describe what you have done cogently, in written form.
There are four main aspects to the dissertation:
• layout and formatting;
• writing style including grammar, spelling, sentence structure, clarity, appropriate use of terms and terminology;
• organisation and structure of the dissertation;
• appropriateness and scope of content including quality of argumentation.
This document contains all you need to know about layout and formatting. The best advice is to adopt the required layout standards early on in your writing, so that there is no major editing to be done later. Some advice is given here, too, on writing style.
There should be no excuse for spelling mistakes; spelling checkers take care of most spelling errors and proof-reading is essential to ensure you have corrected those that were missed. Grammar checking is also a feature of word processing. The main point is that these surface-level aspects of presentation are fairly readily dealt with by making use of writing tools. Structure, organisation, content, tone and argumentation are not so easily fixed. These are things that most people have to work at.
If you find difficulty expressing what you want to say precisely and concisely the following suggestions should help:
• When you read, do so critically, looking not just at what the author is saying, but how he or she is crafting the writing;
• Read a variety of different academic sources (e.g. books, journals, newspapers) and examine the writing styles;
• Read your own work critically, refining it over several versions until it makes the impact that you want.
2.0 Expected contents
Normally the contents of a dissertation will be as detailed in Table 1 below. The mandatory items are in bold type. Example contents pages can be seen in Table 2: Specimen table of contents.
Title page
Authorship declaration
Abstract
Contents list
List of tables
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Main body of dissertation
Introduction and/or Background
Literature Review
Research Objectives and/or Hypothesis
Methodology留学生论文
Findings and Results
Conclusions
Appendices (including such things as)
Documents used or created (e.g. questionnaire)
Relevant correspondence
Data collected
References
Table 1: Expected contents of a dissertation
The nature of an individual topic may call for variation in the naming and organisation of the main body of the document and in the contents of the appendices. It is undesirable therefore to be prescriptive about the sections this should contain.
Title page
This should contain the following information
Title of the work,
Full name of author,
Standard wording as shown in Figure 1
Month and year of submission
A specimen title page is given in Figure 1. Note that a real title page should not have a border or show a page number, but it should be counted in the pagination, so that the authorship declaration will be page 2.
Authorship declaration
It is mandatory to include as the second page of every dissertation a statement confirming that the document and the work presented in it are your own effort. If it is later found that parts of the text have been plagiarised (copied from the work of others without attribution) or obtained from others and passed off as your own, the Northern Consortium will always take action.
Abstract
The abstract should be not more than one page in length. It should allow a reader who is unfamiliar with the work to gain a swift and accurate impression of what the project is about, how it arose and what has been achieved. See Appendix 2 for advice on the writing of abstracts.
Contents page
The contents page or list should give a complete list of what the report contains starting with the authorship declaration (the title page is not included in the contents list). A specimen contents list is given in Table 2. This is provided for layout guidance only. (This is for illustration only, the exact contents will differ substantially between projects. Likewise, the page numbers here are purely fictional.)
List of tables/figures
If the report contains figures or tables a list of these should be provided. The list should give the table or figure number, the title of the table or figure and the page number. If only a few tables and figures are present, they may be treated on one page. Remember that all figures and tables used must be referred to in the text.
Acknowledgements
It is normal to thank those who have given help and support (typically your supervisor should get a kind mention!). Keep acknowledgements short and business-like, but do take care to remember all those who deserve credit. This is especially important where outside agencies are involved or where experimental work has been carried out.
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