As part of your degree at LSE, you’re probably going to write a dissertation. Each department has different requirements and topics vary between the different disciplines taught at LSE. Anyway, after talking with some academics and some of my classmates, I thought that sharing some advice would help different students across different departments!
How to Find a Research Question
If you have no idea where to start doing your research, do not worry. You are not alone. I was feeling the same when started preparing my dissertation and I was afraid to be the only one struggling with coming up with a research question. But I can assure you that many other students do feel the same. Even my academic mentor told me so: “it is difficult for everyone at the beginning, but then, once you start, things will become easier”. The first thing to do is thinking of a topic that might be interesting to you. What do you enjoy reading about? What are the papers you find fascinating? What is an area that you would not get tired of reading about it? This is the key to start. The dissertation is a long project and you’d better work on a topic that you actually enjoy!
Reaching out to Academic Mentor and Other Professors
If you have some ideas but you are not sure about it, do reach out to your academic mentor and other academics. Professors at LSE are used to deal with research questions and will be able to tell you whether your research idea works or if you need to improve it. Also, at LSE you will probably find professors who are experts in the field that you find interesting! Last week, I was reading about research conducted in a field I am interested in and discovered that the professor teaches at LSE. Long story short: I booked an office hour with him and he was happy to share his advice with me and help me with my research question.
LSE LIFE
Finally, do not forget to have a look at the events and teaching sessions organised by LSE LIFE! They have many different services to help you with your academic studies and they are there to help you with the dissertation as well. They organise specific events about coming up with research questions and writing a dissertation’s proposal which you could find helpful!
