What makes a good dissertation?
The key to a good dissertation is the formulation of an interesting research question, that gives you a good angle on your topic. This research question should allow you to approach the subject and the material you have collected analytically rather than simply descriptively. For example, if you were interested in writing a dissertation on the 2006 World Cup, the sort of research question that might produce a simplistically descriptive dissertation might be what happened during the championship. A more sophisticated piece of work, however, might be produced by the questions: how did the way Germany staged the World Cup reflect social attitudes to sport / the country’s new-found economic optimism / the country’s changed attitude to foreigners .
A good dissertation will analyse a topic identifying the important areas within the topic. A poor dissertation will describe a topic without any analysis. Also a good dissertation will use a wide variety of sources to reach its conclusions. Sources will include journal articles, books and the internet. A good dissertation will also be well structured, well written and presented.
