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1 Introduction
Hello, and welcome to your Dissertation Readiness Course (DRC). In the first section of this course we will help you to understand the answers to three important questions: What is research, exactly? What is a dissertation? What do I want to study (which you can rephrase as what would I like to become an expert on?)

Before we start lets define briefly what we mean by dissertation. A dissertation is an extended piece of original research based academic writing, containing a coherent argument or line of thought, dealing with a particular question or hypothesis. The question or hypothesis, you will define yourself and it will usually (but not always) be relevant to a real life problem situation. There are a few parts to this definition that we will explore further in the section below on what is a dissertation? but for now, lets look at the central element of a dissertation that separates it from a project, which is that it is research based academic writing. Lets now look at what we mean by research, before returning to the dissertation itself.

2 What is Research?
What is meant by the word research? Among the various definitions we find references to the word both as a noun, meaning scholarly or scientific investigation or inquiry, and as a verb, meaning to study (something) so thoroughly so as to present it in a detailed and accurate manner. Investigation can be conducted by reading, observation, and testing, while study is the purposeful application of ones mind to the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of the researched subject.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is the body
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responsible for allocating research funding to UK universities. It defines research (our emphasis) as
an original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding, including:

work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce and industry and to the public and voluntary sectors scholarship (research infrastructure) the invention and generation of ideas, images, performances, and artifacts, including design, leading to new or substantially improved insights

(HEFCE 2009)

Part of this definition derives from the so-called Frascati document. First composed in 1963 in Frascati, Italy, this OECD document sets out standard guidelines and processes applied worldwide by researchers and statisticians. It defines research as:
creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications.

The term research, according to this document, comprises two broad types of activity: basic and applied research:
Basic research (referred to also as pure research) is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view. Applied research is also original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective.

(OECD 2009)

Before we look more closely at what doing research at the Masters level involves, you will notice three themes running through these definitions: originality the acquisition or creation of new knowledge or insights, requiring research infrastructure

relevance

You may be asking yourself that this sounds like a very demanding, if not impossible, task to complete a dissertation that meets these requirements for research. In one sense, you are right, completing a dissertation is extremely demanding; but it is entirely possible if we look a little more closely at what each of these terms means. It is most likely that your dissertation will be completed using the definition of applied research. Let us therefore now look a little more closely at what applied research involves, and how, through completing you can meet these criteria of originality, new knowledge, and relevance. Applied Research Relevance Applied research is quite simply research conducted to lead to the resolution of specific problems. It therefore has a direct practical benefit to an organization, or to society in general (see the OECD definition above); but it must also provide an explanation as to why the question resolved was an interesting one to ask in the first place. Easterby-Smith et al. (2002) refer to the importance of both the what and the why questions when doing applied research. The what question is the result of the research, which may be turned into a recommendation or proposed course of action useful to an organization; the why question, on the other hand, is the one you need to answer to show that the question is founded on the knowledge that others have created (your literature review) and has been explored using rigorous methods (your research plan). It is in answering the why question, that your task will turn into a dissertation. Without it, your work will merely be a consulting or project report and will not meet the standards of a Masters degree. You may now begin to see how your dissertation can be relevant. But how might it meet the criteria of originality and of creation of new knowledge? Originality You will need to show that your work is original through the development of a coherent and integrated argument based on a solid foundation of the literature you investigate. We ask of you that a proportion of your reading is of peerreviewed, or academic, articles. Why is that? You may have heard the expression standing on the shoulders of giants. A peer-reviewed academic article is one which has been accepted by the
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community of fellow academics as contributing something knew to the world of knowledge. If you base your argument on such work you have a kind of quality guarantee that the author has made a valuable and original contribution to the field. So by using such an article you are building on a solid foundation of knowledge; by conducting your own research that extends that knowledge a little, your contribution is original. You will also use websites and other, non peer reviewed work in your review of the literature. This is permitted, but there is no guarantee, by using such material, that the knowledge you obtain from such work is original (in other words there is no way of telling whether it has itself been built on solid foundations). So such sources should never be more than illustrative or supportive to your main arguments. Creating new knowledge In applied research, this is not as difficult as it may sound. If your study involves working on resolving a problem in a specific context or situation, by definition that precise problem will never have been resolved quite in the same way (assuming you have met the criterion of originality described above). If your dissertation succeeds in creating new knowledge it can be said to have made a scholarly contribution. Cryer (1996) and Gain (HEFCE, 1998) define this as: Exploring the unknown by investigating a field that no one has investigated before Exploring the unanticipated to obtain unexpected results and investigate new directions in an already existing field Using data and interpreting it in new ways Applying new tools, techniques, procedures, and methods to alternative problems and trying known procedures and methods in new contexts

As a Masters student, however you are most likely to meet the criterion of creating new knowledge through context. To illustrate this point about new knowledge in context, the Programme Info section of this class contains a selection of topics accepted for study on the Masters programmes.

3 What is a dissertation?
Let us remind ourselves of the definition we gave above of a dissertation: an extended piece of original research based academic writing, containing a coherent argument or line of thought, dealing with a particular question or hypothesis. When you enter your dissertation period, you will be given specific advice about the requirements and quality standards you will need to meet. For this course we will not cover this level of detail, rather our intention here is to give you a broad understanding of what your dissertation should do. This in turn should help with the next subject beginning the search for a dissertation topic. White (2002) describes the key features of a dissertation: It is an independent piece of work (unlike your previous assignments, no one else is working on the same subject) It shows a detailed level of knowledge (you will become an expert, perhaps the expert, in the subject) It needs good planning and organizing (9 months soon passes and no one else than you is responsible for delivering on time, not even your supervisor) It shows critical and analytical thinking (developing, and supporting with research and study, your arguments on the subject) It illustrates the context of existing knowledge (to show how your work relates to others) It has a high standard of communication and presentation (as your work will be published in the Liverpool University Library) It demonstrates original work and research (in the way we have described in the section above) It demonstrates an academic approach (including precisely following referencing guidelines) (White 2002 p.3-4)

What will your dissertation contain? Depending on your school (management, computing, health etc), the exact structure will vary a little. But there are some elements that are fundamentally the same in any dissertation: An introduction. The introduction may briefly discuss relevant literature as necessary to support the existence of the subject of the research and/or provide pertinent background information. The introduction will contain a clear and concise statement of the aim(s) of the dissertation. A review of the literature. This is an examination of the literature relevant to

the dissertation subject, and the subject area to be researched should logically flow out of it. You will be expected to show a thorough understanding of what has already been written about the subject, and how the research question or hypothesis derives from the knowledge you have gained from your reading. A good literature review will not merely list all the works you have read and describe what you thought of them. You should weave your review into a narrative in which the various aspects of the subject you are studying form the red thread. Remember also that we are interested in your views and evaluation of the literature and not merely a repetition of what has been said before. The research methodology. This section presents the details of the research process; it is the way or ways you use to answer the question specified in the Aims section. Analysis and discussion of data. This is where you put the findings from your data. This will offer a clear narrative to the reader, all the time bearing in mind how your findings help to answer your research question. The discussion should contain your thoughtful perspective on what you have found, and in particular how what you have found relates to your question; does it answer the question? If not, why not? Conclusions and recommendations. Conclusions refer backwards; recommendations look forwards. This section will draw together all the threads of your work over the dissertation, referring of course to your dissertation aim(s). You may also include a recommendations category. This may be relevant for example if your work has been of value to an organization and you wish to describe here the recommendations resulting from the research. References. You will give a complete list of all the sources you used in your dissertation, formatted according to the Harvard style.

It is likely that when you have completed it your dissertation will be in the region of 15,000 20,000 words.

References: Cryer, P. (1996): The research students guide to success. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Dawson, C.W. (2005): Projects in computing and information systems: A students guide. Harlow: Addison-Wesley. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Lowe A. (2002).Management Research: an introduction. London: Sage HEFCE, (2009), available from http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/ (accessed 20th November 2009) OECD (2009), available from: http://www.oecd.org/document/6/0,3343,en_2649_34451_33828550_1_1_1_1,0 0.html (accessed 30th November 2009) White (2000) Dissertation skills; London: Thomson White, W. (2002) Writing your MBA dissertation. Continuum. ISBN: 0-8264-6012-7.