MA History Dissertation

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• interrogate the validity of existing historiographical perspectives and/or theoretical models through your own in-depth historical research.
• conceptualize a feasible and intellectually adventurous research project as well as a programme of study to bring it to fruition.
• synthesize and integrate the analysis of primary sources and secondary texts into a coherent, sustained and convincing dissertation argument.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the means by which empirical research and a response to historiographical and theoretical debates can be integrated to produce an original scholarly argument.
• the processes by which understanding is achieved and new ideas advanced within the historical discipline.
• the subject chosen for your dissertation, including principal primary source materials and relevant scholarly literature.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• identify a significant research question and a practical means of addressing it.
• communicate a coherent, sustained and convincing argument within a word limit.
• demonstrate the capacity for self-directed problem-solving, independent working and autonomous time-management.

You will complete a 12,000-word dissertation on a subject of your choice, subject to available supervisory expertise. This dissertation may follow on from (but not replicate) work completed in other elements of the programme, but this is not a requirement. You will be allocated an appropriate supervisor, and develop the project under his or her initial guidance. The bulk of the work, however, is done independently.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include tutorials with your supervisor and feedback on written work.

Learning activities include tutorial discussion with supervisor, conceptualization of dissertation project, and research, organization, and composition of a dissertation.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Derek Swetnam (1997). Writing Your Dissertation: How to Plan, Prepare and Present Your Work Successfully. Oxford.

Roy Preece (1994). Starting Research: an Introduction to Academic Research and Dissertation Writing. London.

James E. Mauch & Jack W. Birch (1993). Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation: A Handbook for Students and Faculty. New York.

Liz Hampson (1994). How's your Dissertation Going?: Students share the Rough Reality of Dissertation and Project. Lancaster.

Fred Pyrczak (1999). Completing Your Thesis or Dissertation: Professors Share Their Techniques and Strategies. Los Angeles.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External