PHILOSOPHY COURSEWORK SUBMISSION FORM

Programme: MA in Philosophy and Literature

Name: Amy O Brien Address: Bohernore Knocklong Co.Limerick

Student No.: 0744581 Contact Number/s 0876661629

Due Date of Submission:

14/Dec/2011

Name of Lecturer/s:Dr. Stephen Bond

Module Code and Title: PI5001 Phillsophy and the Subject

Coursework Title: Research and Methodology Confirm that Electronic copy has been submitted to the Lecturer:
Yes

Statement of Original Authorship:

I confirm that this material contained within this assessment is all my own work. Where the work of others has been drawn upon (for example, books, articles, unpublished papers including the work of staff and students) it has been properly acknowledged according to the appropriate academic conventions. I also confirm that I have read and understood the College guidelines on academic honesty.

Signature _______________________________________________Date: ______________

If you intend to go further with academic writing in your career, then a master s thesis is a very important piece of writing to getting a foothold in the academic world. It must in any case be strong, concise and well researched. In the following I will give some guidelines on how to write your thesis, including the thesis proposal statement, research, organization, referencing, grammar, layout and the bibliography.

Picking a thesis statement is a crucial part to any master s dissertation. There are a few critical elements to take into account when going through this process. Pick an area that you have an interest in, this will make researching and writing it a lot easier. When looking at certain philosophers try to see what links you can make with analysis. Try to come up with a few variations of the proposal. When you have this done, choose a supervisor/advisor that has a suitable understanding of your area of study. See what he/she thinks of your proposed ideas; be sure to get their approval on the thesis statement before you proceed with your research. Meeting with your advisor makes sure that the subject you have chosen is something relevant to the course and there are enough research resources available to help you in that area.

After getting your Philosophy and Literature thesis statement approved, and your chosen supervisor is willing to guide you through your MA dissertation, this is where the research begins. The main thing to keep in mind when doing research is that your resources are scholarly, relevant and most importantly reliable. Try to cite academic articles only, nothing from tabloid magazines/newspapers and never cite Wikipedia, as it is unreliable and not academically approved. An easy way to create original research is by phone, email or formal interview. Attending lectures in your chosen field of research can open your mind to new ideas and may even spark the influence for a chapter or two in your thesis.

Libraries are an essential role in the element of research. Mary Immaculate college has one of the best selection of philosophy books in the country, along with this UL has a substantial amount of resources that are useful

to Masters students including many late opening research study rooms. Look further a field for some specialized writing in your chosen area that will make your thesis stand out from all the rest. The Internet is a massive resource to all students, if used correctly. A lot of the information on the Internet may not be academically approved. Make sure that the website link includes .edu or is from an academically revised resource. Google offers a search engine especially designed for academic research called Google Scholar. There are also many websites that offer students access to journals, and articles such as JSTOR, Project Muse , Sciencedirect and many more. When researching articles, read the abstracts, or the synopsis given at the back of books, they will give you an idea whether the article/book is relevant to your thesis and whether it is worth taking the effort to read it. This will save valuable time and it can also lead to spin-off research for other areas of your topic. Power reading, skimming the article saves time also. The search tool available in PDF s is very useful when looking for a quote that is linked to a certain term. Keep notes, but most importantly keep track of all your references.

Organization is paramount when researching, planning and writing your thesis. Make a timetable which is realistic, allows time for mistakes, and that is also aware of all deadlines. Try to read an article or journal a day, keep notes in a folder specifically for research. RefWorks is extremely helpful for keeping track of your references. It will keep account of all journals or articles accessed and on which dates and times you did so. It would be useful to met your supervisor when you have finished your research, to show what information you have gathered, and give them an idea of what type of analysis you intend on using throughout your thesis. Take for example my own thesis topic, I will be using the works of literary theorists in the area of feminism to try and investigate the work of phenomenologists such as Husserl and Heidegger. Show the supervisor any change in the proposed thesis proposal and get their opinion on any of these modifications. Try to plan when you will have drafts to send to your supervisor and when you will be finished certain chapters. Before beginning any writing try to layout a spider diagram to give you structure prior to drafting your chapters.

Privacy is also a significant part of your writing process. After the initial consultations with your advisor have been undertaken in terms of your research, it is now time to isolate yourself from others opinions and comments on your thesis and find a peaceful and quiet place to begin your writing. Begin by writing drafts, and re-writing them based on your supervisors comments, send emails and keep in contact with your supervisor, so that they can correct any points and they can give you direction. When writing a thesis language and grammar is extremely important. In the following I will point out some things to remember in terms of grammatical use, layout and referencing. The draft and rewriting stage of your thesis will expose any grammatical errors you have incurred. A fresh pair of eyes, either a willing friend or your supervisor, may see mistakes that you have over looked. This is why last minute writing of the thesis opens your writing up to deduction for weak use of grammar. Easy marks to gain in this section become your enemy and will allow heavy penalization on your end result. The language must be formal, and it is better to keep everything in the present tense. You must remember that this is a formal academic piece of writing and the tone of your work must be kept this way, there is no room for jokes.

The layout of the thesis must be clear, tidy and consistent throughout the document. It must also abide by the department rules, which are given in the master s handbook. Margins, line spacing and referencing must be as given in the handbook and must be constant throughout the entire dissertation. Referencing is a major part of any academic piece of writing. You must be aware of what style of referencing the department of Philosophy and Literature have specified i.e. Harvard, MHRA, Chicago etc. The majority of Arts departments in Mary Immaculate College use Harvard. Every piece of work cited from the Internet, journal articles, or any external sources must be referenced. Academic scholars do not look lightly upon plagiarism, taking someone else s work and trying to pass it off as your own, and it is a punished by your work receiving a Fail.

When writing the chapters keep yourself on track, try not to waffle. Keep all your writing clear and to the point, but be aware that this type of formal writing exposes your flaws throughout your work and opens you up to

questioning, make sure that every sentence of your work is properly worded and written and most importantly does not leave the external examiner questioning what you meant by a certain statement. If you make a point, explain it clearly with good grammar and expression, and back it up by supporting it with references. Pass each chapter by your supervisor, any advice that they give you take it on board, they are there to guide you not lead you astray. Another very important point to remember while preparing your thesis, is to save your work, on a USB key, on your email account, on another computer, anywhere you can think of, its better to be safe then sorry.

This leads to the final step of the thesis, your Bibliography. There are different types of Bibliography to be aware of, for example a citation list, a reference list and an index of words used in your thesis. These are all expected to be included in your dissertation and also your table of contents at the beginning. Another aspect to remember at the end of the process is binding your thesis, make sure it is bided as the department has outlined it to be, the college normally has a company that they recommend to bind your paper. Make sure that you check once more that the layout and style of font is consistent throughout the thesis and that all information is given on the front paper.