#dissertationpreparation

In today’s Advanced Concepts in Photography lecture, we learnt what a dissertation is and everything else that comes with it. 

It’s a 10,000 word written project on a freely formulated topic in/on photography with a +/- 10% boundary. It needs to be structured into chapters: introduction, roughly 2-5 chapters, and a conclusion. In this dissertation we get to choose our own topic of interest. develop and formulate the idea/topic.

The deadline for the dissertation is January/February 2019. During this time we will be appointed a supervisor to help guide our research, suggest possible modifications, suggest different ways to approach the topic, tell us what ideas need more clarification. We will see our supervisor approx every two weeks in the first semester of our next academic year. 

Things that shouldn’t be in a dissertation: spelling mistakes / bad grammar / inconsistent and weird referencing / sloppy internet research / obscure, convoluted presentation. 

Things that should be in a dissertation: well defined, focused topic / careful drafting and redrafting / careful attention to grammar and punctuation / appropriate and consistent referencing / careful attention to specific images. 

We are able to hire a proofreader to help us before turning it in. 

We should start our research NOW! My dissertation presentation is on the 7th March 2018, and the deadline for the dissertation proposal in the 2nd May 2018. We will be given feedback and allocated a supervisor all before the summer and will meet once before the break. 

During the summer we should try to look our for things, think about things, read and look for possible connections and ideas. We should try to visit different places like libraries, galleries, exhibitions, archives or anywhere else that seems relevant to our project and research. 

When we come back from the summer break we must have most of our fundamental research done. Read and gathered our theoretical material. Gathered the basic facts about the topic and gathered visual materials to be addressed. We must have a good idea of what we will be writing about and at least a rough idea of what you want to say about it.