EL7028 - MRes Dissertation

This is an individual project which is negotiated between you and your appointed tutor. There is therefore no set teaching syllabus but individual tutoring sessions are available on a regular basis. A series of seminar/workshops will provide you with information on sources, information retrieval, research skills and practice, and managing the dissertation. Thereafter, you will meet with your supervisor on a one-to-one basis for tutoring sessions. These offer the opportunity for formative feedback and for discussing plans for future work. During the supervisory sessions you will be encouraged to:
• Tackle research problems
• Outline plans
• Submit timely drafts
• Balance research and writing
• Think critically about the specific problems raised by research
• Apply appropriate methodological and theoretical approaches to underpin your research
• Demonstrate acuity in selecting approaches, methods, concepts and theories.

Supervision will support learning and help direct student research, and will be supplemented by email and written feedback on drafts. You will keep a written record of supervisory meetings and email one copy to the supervisor, and retaining one for yourself to support your learning. Feedback on non-assessed work and the first assessed piece of work will also serve as ‘feed forward’, giving guidance on how to improve during the module. Feedback from your supervisor will enable you to monitor your ongoing academic progress; will help you to develop self-reflection skills necessary for continuous academic development; direct you to further available services which can help you with your academic skills (e.g. Library’s Skills Plus).

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Plan and execute a sustained piece of literary research on a chosen topic and to communicate that plan in written form.

2. Interpret and analyse texts in a sophisticated and complex way and maintain coherent arguments based on a sustained piece of original research;

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. Demonstrate an ability to work independently on a sustained piece of research.

4. Demonstrate advanced self-management skills, including the ability to take responsibility for a large scale project, make editorial choices, and produce an extended piece of written work to high scholarly standards using academic conventions

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

5. Produce research which conforms to ethical standards of scholarly practice and the conventions of academic presentation.

Summative (graded) Assessments
There is one summative assessment, either:
• an extended dissertation of 20,000 words. The dissertation is intended to demonstrate a high-level of independence in research, problem-solving, writing and presentation.

OR

• The MRes Arts, MRes Design, and Social Research and Analysis for Organisation pathways provides for students to choose the 20,000 word dissertation or produce a major project with a 10,000 word dissertation.

Formative (practice) assessment
The submission of a draft introduction and chapters are considered important because feedback will be given to improve the work. This constitutes formative assessment which will aid the final, summative submission.

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Please find details of this module in the other sections provided.