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Brianna

April 27th, 2020

My Dissertation Journey (So Far)

0 comments | 2 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Brianna

April 27th, 2020

My Dissertation Journey (So Far)

0 comments | 2 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

One of the scariest parts of my master’s program has been my dissertation – it has always felt overwhelming and out of reach for me. As an undergraduate, I didn’t have to write a dissertation, and the longest paper I wrote was about 15 pages. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not even close to done, but I’ve overcome a lot of the pre-dissertation writing obstacles that I was so worried about at the start of my LSE journey.

Obstacle #1: A Topic

Okay so, I have to be honest – I missed my first dissertation “deadline” (really just a soft date to keep us on track) because I asked for an extension in order to think of my research question.  It took me so long to submit because I thought it needed to be perfect.  But the reality is, no research question is perfect from the start, and most likely, your question is going to change! If not entirely change, your question will at least adapt as you delve deeper into research and receive feedback. This is totally normal. And expected!

Obstacle #2: A concise question

I knew I wanted to focus my dissertation on food policy because I’m really passionate about the subject. The only problem was that ‘food policy’ is quite a broad topic and I was struggling to find faculty at LSE who specialized in that area. But after many discussions with my academic mentor and a few other professors, I was finally able to narrow all of my research down into a research question that would work (yay!). I almost gave up and wrote about a more frequently written about social policy topic, but I’m glad I stuck to food policy because I love learning and writing about it.

Obstacle #3: Submitting a “final” outline

I used quotes again because “final” doesn’t mean your outline has to be the exact, word for word format of your final dissertation. Submitting my final outline was a step in this process I thought I’d never reach. I was so behind in hitting all the other benchmarks, it felt really good to turn this in. (Only 30 minutes late this time, as I thought it was due by midnight, not noon!) What I learned from this stage is that the more detailed outline you submit, the more detailed feedback you get from your mentor and the easier it is to start writing your first draft.

Obstacle #4: Writing a first draft

This is where I am now. While it may seem easy to put off writing the dissertation since it’s not due until August, I’m not falling into that trap! We are able to submit a chapter to our mentors to read over in June, so I am most definitely going to meet that deadline – feedback is so helpful! I try to set a goal for myself each week in terms of what I want to accomplish.  They may be small for now, but I’ll keep chipping away until June when I send a chapter through to my mentor!

What I learned and what future dissertation writers should remember:

1 – Your question is going to change
2 – Focus on what you’re passionate about, even if it takes longer to develop a clear idea
3 – Ask for help
4 – Don’t panic – you’ve got plenty of time and plenty of help from LSE

About the author

Brianna

My name is Brianna and I'm currently a master's student studying international social and public policy.

Posted In: Student life | Study: Masters

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