442421: Dissertation Interim Report Ian Perry Room: C49 Extension:

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 2 The Interim Report?  Should provide the majority of the content (this may well change, BUT not by very much) for the first three Chapters of the final Dissertation Document, i.e.: Chapter 1 - Introduction Chapter 2 – Literature Review Chapter 3 – Methodology  AND It is never to early to start to build the References section of the final Dissertation Document.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 3 The Interim Report - Structure?  Contents: Full Name (& Student Number) Title of Dissertation Aims & Objectives Literature Review Methodology References  NB. Make sure that your Interim Report contains ALL of the above.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 4 The Interim Report - Content?  Full Name (& Student Number) Preferably your own!  Title of Dissertation i.e. your ‘current’ Dissertation Title The title of you Dissertation may have changed since you submitted your original Dissertation Proposal (and it may well change again?).

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 5 The Interim Report - Content?  Aims & Objectives Re-visit, and perhaps modify the Aims & Objectives of your original Dissertation Proposal. A general introductory paragraph should lead to the statement of; the main Research Question, followed by the statement of 3 to 4 specific Research Objectives that you believe can be achieved during the Dissertation process. These should be; investigative aims and therefore problem-based rather than solution-based, and bear in mind the need to analyse rather than merely describe.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 6 The Interim Report - Content?  Literature Review The idea here is to place your Research into relevant contexts; i.e. matched to specific Aims & Objectives. Re-visit, and expand upon, the Relationship to Previous Work of your original Dissertation Proposal. No investigation starts from scratch; someone else MUST have done something relevant to the Aims & Objectives of you Research in the past. It is NEVER sufficient to say, “There has been little work done in this area before…”

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 7 The Interim Report - Content?  Literature Review (continued) Appropriate contexts might be subject-based; e.g. “What has been done in this subject area before?”, Or problem-based; e.g. “How has this kind of problem been approached in previous studies?” Only include citations/extracts from relevant literature here, i.e.: relevant to the topic/subject of your Dissertation.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 8 The Interim Report - Content?  Methodology This section must detail the way in which the Aims & Objectives of your Research are to be achieved. This means not only a description of the methods to be used, but also a discussion of the logic of those methods. It should answer the question; “Why are you using these methods?” The discussion should, therefore, include consideration of alternatives and demonstrate the appropriateness of the approach being proposed.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 9 The Interim Report - Content?  Methodology (continued) This section must go beyond merely itemising a data-collection approach. What you really need to do here is to explain what will be in each Chapter of the final Dissertation Document. If basing your research upon a previously used methodology, then it should also answer the question; “Which methods have been judged to be appropriate in the past in previous work?” You have to move beyond this previous work in some clearly identified way (therein lies your originality).

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 10 The Interim Report - Content?  References A reference list for each of the citations in your Interim Report should appear under this heading. Only include those references which you have actually cited. This list of references must be presented using the Harvard System: See the ‘Study Skills Handbook’, i.e.: “Chapter 8 – Referencing, Bibliography and Plagiarism” and “Appendix A – Referencing and Bibliographies”, which is available at: (under Student Resources - Study Skills Manual).

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 11 The Harvard System?  You MUST use the Harvard System: This applies to everything that you produce throughout your time at this University.  All documents ‘used’ should be listed (in a References section at the end of the text) in the general form: Author (Date), Title, Publisher.  NB. Only ever list References to works actually cited in the text.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 12 Harvard - a system of two parts!  References A full bibliographic description for each source that has been used, e.g: BSI (1989), Recommendations for references to published materials. (BS 1629), British Standards Institution.  Citations From the text to the Reference source used, e.g.: "a set of data describing a document, or part of a document, sufficiently precise and detailed to identify it and to enable it to be located" (BSI, 1989 ).

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 13 List References by Author’s Name  Bournemouth University (2005), Citing References, [Online], Academic Services, University Library, Bournemouth University, Available: [Accessed: 06 Sep 2005]  Bryman A. & Bell E (2003), Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press.  BSI (1989), Recommendations for references to published materials. (BS 1629), British Standards Institution.  Ghauri P & Gronhaug K (2005), Research Methods in Business Studies: A Practical Guide, 3rd Ed., Financial Times Prentice Hall.  Trochim W M (2005), The Research Methods Knowledge Base, [Online], Available: [Accessed: 9 Aug 2005]  University of Hull (2005), References: how to collect and present them, [Online], Academic Services, Libraries, University of Hull, Available: [Accessed: 06 Sep 2005]

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 14 What do Citations look like?  If a citation can NOT contribute to the sense of a sentence: There is some evidence (Alas, 2003) that these figures are incorrect.  If the citation can contribute to the sense of the sentence: Smith (2004) has provided evidence that these figures are incorrect.  If referring to particular sections of a document: … is positively associated with educational achievement. (Jones, 2005, p.151)

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 15 Remember!  We treat Plagiarism very seriously. If it is not yours, i.e. you have read it elsewhere, then you must reference it.  You MUST use the Harvard System : This applies to all documents that you produce throughout your time at this University.  References, MUST appear in full, at the back of your text, in the form: Author (Date), Title, Publisher.  Citations, MUST appear in the text, in the form: (Author, Date)

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 16 The Interim Report?  The Aims & Objectives, Literature Review & Methodology sections of this ‘Interim Report’ should provide a ‘prototype’ of the first 3 Chapters of your final Dissertation Document; see Assignment 4 – Dissertation Document.  It is almost certain that the content of these Chapters will change; but you really need to have done something under each of these headings by now; in order to be able to complete your Research on time.  It is NEVER too early to start building your References section; Remember, you need a ‘full’ reference (i.e. in the Harvard style) for anything you cite/use in your Dissertation.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 17 Don’t miss the second Deadline!  You MUST hand-in an Interim Report; see Assignment 2 – Interim Report, which can be found in the Assessment Method section of the Dissertation Web-site.  On (or before?); 14 December 2005  If you fail to submit: You will throw away 15% of the marks for the Dissertation Module.

Ian Perry44241: Dissertation: Interim Report?Slide 18 Don’t miss the next Lecture!  The next Lecture will take place: 2:15pm, Thursday, 12 Jan, in CG6 i.e. 1 st week after the Christmas Break.  This Lecture will introduce the next stage of the Dissertation Process; i.e. the Oral Presentation