Dissertation workshop

Learning Enhancement Team

Where are you?

© Middlesex University
Getting started
Stay focused!
• Create an outline of each chapter

• What will be the structure of each of the chapters?

— What will you discuss?
— In what order will you discuss it?

• What will be the structure of each paragraph?

— How will you move from paragraph to paragraph?

© Middlesex University
 Research- thinking about your dissertation as a process

read and plan

research

submit
write draft

proofread edit
Adapted from Coffin et al. (2003)

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Challenges of research
What problems might you experience?

• Logistical
Time frame- can you do all this before the deadline?
Access to information- how easily can you collect data?

• Content
Necessary knowledge- have you done enough research on the topic?
How will you find relevant literature?
How will you include your literature?
How will you analyse data?
© Middlesex University dissertation workshop
Following objectives, overcoming challenges
Project Management

• Steps of project planning

 Work breakdown
 Time estimates
 Milestone identification
 Activity sequencing
 Scheduling
 Re-planning

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Reading  - strategies

1.  Previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it.

Get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized before reading it closely.

 2.  Contextualising: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts.

Recognize the differences between your values and attitudes and those represented in
the text. 

3.  Questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content.

Write the questions. Each question should focus on a main idea.
  
4.  Outlining and summarising
 Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. Use note-taking
effectively.

5.  Evaluating an argument: 
Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact.

6.  Comparing and contrasting related readings:

 Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Reading- strategies
1.  Previewing: Learning about a text before really reading
it.
Get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized
before reading it closely.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Reading- strategies

3.  Questioning to understand and remember: Asking

questions about the content.

Write questions.

Each question should

focus on a main idea. 

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Reading- strategies
4.  Outlining and summarising
 Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own
words.
Use note-taking effectively.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Reading- strategies
5.  Evaluating an argument: 
Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Reading- strategies
6.  Comparing and contrasting related readings:
 Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to
understand them better

Text A Text B
Text C

Text E Text D

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Note-taking

• Write in your own words

• Organise and structure your ideas

• Make connections between / see trends in

what different authors have found

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Freewriting
Equivalent to doing a warm up before exercising

It’s a warm up for the brain.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Task. Freewriting
• Think about your topic

— Write without stopping for 3 minutes

— Don’t worry about clarity, grammar, or spelling
— Let all your ideas come out of your head
— If you run out of ideas, write ‘I’ve run out of ideas’
— If you’re thinking about how much you hate this exercise, write
that down too!

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Freewriting the project
• What is the problem?
• Why do you want to solve it?
— 3 minutes

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Freewriting the project
• What does the reader need to know to understand your
topic?
— 3 minutes

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Freewriting- Feedback

So? What do you think?

• Did it help you to organise your ideas some more?

• Did it help you to clarify some ideas?
• Did it make you realise that you know more about
your idea than you actually thought?

OR

• Did you hate every minute?

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop
Draft, draft and draft
• Which ideas can be used and which discarded?
• Develop the ones you’re keeping
— What does your reader need to know to understand your idea?

Draft, draft and draft some more!

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Possible Structure
• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Background and literature review
• Requirements specification
• Analysis and Design
• Implementation and Testing
• Demonstration/Evaluation
• Critical Evaluation
• Conclusion
• Appendices
© Middlesex University dissertation workshop
Structure Abstract

Abstract - the whole paper in miniature

 What you did (background & problem)
 How you did it (methods)
 What are the results (results)
 What do they mean (implications)

The purpose of writing an abstract

To enable readers to quickly and accurately identify the substance of your work
To advertise your work (to encourage readers to obtain and read the full article,
and to be available on online databases).
© Middlesex University dissertation workshop
Structure Abstract

An abstract is a condensed format which contains
often about 250 words only (10 -20 sentences)


Choose your words very carefully


Exclude any general and obvious statements


The phrasing must be concentrated and compact

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Introduction
What is the purpose of this chapter?

Introduce the subject of your project and describe your aims and
objectives.

You should explain the significance and relevance of what you are
trying to prove, how you are going to prove it and what methods
you will use in the process.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Introduction
What questions will your reader ask?
• What is the background, the context, in which the research took place?
• Why is this subject or issue important?
• Why was it carried out?
• Are there important trends or pivotal variables of which the reader needs to
be made aware?
• Have you presented a clear and unambiguous exposition of your research
aim, the objectives you will address to meet this aim and your research
questions?
• What are the limitations of your work?
• How is the project organised?

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Literature review

What are the main reasons for including this chapter?

• To present and to analyse, in a critical manner, existing
literature and providing context for your research. Remember
critical does not mean looking at the negatives but forming an
evaluation.
• To show that you are able to identify gaps in the coverage of
the topic; thus justifying the reason(s) for your research.
• To show that you know what the important issues are that
need to be investigated.
• To enable readers to be able to see whether or not your
findings are congruent with the accepted research which has
gone before

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 Literature review

Synthesising sources
  RELEVANT SUMMARISE SUMMARISE any SUMMARISE Your CONCLUSION
BACKGROUND the main SUPPORT for their any about their ideas-
details: who points of their ideas [plus your CRITICISM of how
they are, what ideas comments – their ideas important / relevant
field they came agree or disagree [plus your are their ideas to your
from or what with examples to comments – dissertation topic?
experience they justify] agree or
had disagree with
examples to
justify]

Author          
1  
Author          
2  
Author          
3 etc.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Background and literature review

• describe the context of the project

• attempt to establish the state of the art in the project
area.
• show evidence of scholarly activity in demonstrating
the ability to research, collate and integrate information
into a coherent document
• use referencing and quotations correctly so that the
background to the project can be quickly understood.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Requirements specification

• This should be as detailed as possible a specification of

the requirements for the development of your program or
research work.
• In some cases, the requirements may come from tutors or
users outside of academia and more formal techniques for
requirements elicitation may be needed. In other cases,
the student will define these requirements.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Analysis and Design

• Document your analysis of the requirements and the

design using an appropriate method.
— Usually this will be UML (e.g. class diagrams, sequence diagrams
etc.), but other methods can be used if appropriate. It should include
a commentary on how design decisions are made.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Implementation and Testing

• Give details of how your design is actually implemented

and how testing has been planned and conducted.
— For real world applications, testing can be very detailed, but in
student projects it is often fairly brief. You can choose to make this a
feature of the project if you wish (for example you could use the Test-
Driven Development methodology).

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Demonstration/Evaluation

• Show your work in action and evaluate how well it

fulfils the requirements specification.
• The reader should be able to get a clear idea of what the
work does and looks like without having to run code.
— Some indication of program performance is expected here (e.g.
screen shots, results, collated results or other output, analysis of
performance, graphs etc. as appropriate) are expected here in order
to demonstrate and evaluate the work.
— However, a detailed Users guide to the software (if the work
warranted it) or lengthy numeric analysis would usually appear as an
appendix.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Critical Evaluation

• It is probably a good idea to supply a critique of your

work.
— For example, did you run out of time? Is there an area you should
have looked at in greater detail? This is an important opportunity for
reflection on your work.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Conclusion

• The conclusion should summarise the work and provide

an insight into further work which could be done to
improve it.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Appendices

• Appendices give the ability to supply detail which may

cloud the clear flow of the thesis.
— This may be a data set, a log of activities or indexes to supplied
software. It is probably not a good idea to create a huge appendix, if
you have a lot of data, consider placing it on any CD you supply and
index it via the appendix.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Introduction Start with a general
statement about your
Beginning of 1st paragraph topic

Machine learning has become a part of society and it is used

in many applications we use today. These machine learning
applications all depend on the efficiency of numerical
algorithms. The machine learning algorithms are applied
within web search engines, self-driving cars, computer vision
and many more applications (Liu et al., 2017).

Don’t forget to
Notice how each sentence show where
becomes more specific your information
has come from

© Middlesex University
Maslowski, P. (2020) Data Pre-processing Techniques and Tools for Predictive Modelling Using Unstructured Inputs
Introduction
End of 1st paragraph
However, the success of machine learning depends on large
amounts of data.
What do you notice here?

Beginning of 2nd paragraph

Data and datasets play a crucial part in machine learning
because they are used to train a neural network.

Maslowski, P. (2020) Data Pre-processing Techniques and Tools for

© Middlesex University
Predictive Modelling Using Unstructured Inputsdissertation workshop
Paragraph structure

Topic sentence (main idea of the paragraph)

Development and discussion of idea
Provide evidence to support the idea
Last sentence leads to the next paragraph

© Middlesex University
Body paragraphs

• The body paragraphs are where you discuss the ideas in

more detail

© Middlesex University
Concluding paragraph

• Every chapter will have a concluding paragraph

— Summarise the main ideas of the chapter

© Middlesex University
What is Paraphrasing?

• When you paraphrase you

— Present the author’s ideas in your own words

— Refer to the author

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

How to Paraphrase

• Re-read the idea you want to use

• Think about what the author is saying

• Put the idea into your own words

• Compare your version to the original

• Make sure you haven’t changed the original meaning

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

What is Quoting?
• When you quote you

— Use the author’s exact words

— Put quotation marks around the author’s words

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

How to Quote

• Copy the author’s exact words as they appear in the text

• Put quotation marks around the author’s words

• Refer to the author

• Include the page number

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

When should I quote and when should I
paraphrase?

• Use a quote when the original wording conveys the idea

perfectly

• Use quotes sparingly

• Use a paraphrase most of the time

• Paraphrasing shows you understand the author’s ideas

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Referencing
In-text citations

• (Last Name, Year)

Reference list
• Alphabetical order

Cite Them Right http://www.citethemrightonline.com/

You need to log on to MyUniHub

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Mechanics of Writing
Important to think about the mechanics of writing

Your dissertation represents you

• Small errors make your work look sloppy

• The person reading it will think you don’t care about your
work

• Attention to detail makes your dissertation look

professional

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Voice
The focus is on the outcomes, not on you
Use passive voice
Active voice:
I will develop the software.
subject verb object
Passive voice
The software will be developed.
BE + past participle

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 What is the verb BE?

Present Past

Singular
I Am Was
You Are Were
He, She, It Is Was

Plural
We Are Were
You Are Were
They Are Were

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

What is the past participle?
In English there are regular verbs and irregular verbs

Regular verb
Example: Walk Walked Walked

Irregular verb
Example: Break Broke Broken

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

Tentative language
You don’t know the results yet, so you must be tentative

tends to…
appears to…
suggests that…
would seem to…
Indicates that…

May Possibly
Might Probably
Should Likely
© Middlesex University dissertation workshop
Writing in Computer Science

Concise and precise

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk

You need to
consider what
you’re doing.

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop

 p.bernaschina@mdx.ac.uk

© Middlesex University dissertation workshop