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# faq_ug_diss
A frequently asked questions document for Undergraduates working on dissertations under my supervision.
A frequently asked questions document for Undergraduates working on dissertations under my supervision. Read the actual document [here](https://gitea.sailf.in/kidwellj/faq_ug_diss/src/branch/master/index.md).

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@ -5,37 +5,37 @@ title: Undergraduate Dissertation FAQ
One of the joys of my work is to supervise bright and highly motivated undergraduates on a year-long dissertation project. This post will serve as a periodically updated guide to working with me as a supervisor on a UG dissertation at UOB.
Last updated: 18 Sep 2020
Last updated: 24 Sep 2024
Undergraduate Dissertation FAQ
1. When is the thesis due?
You should become very familiar with the handbook for the Dissertation course. It has all the details you need regarding deadlines and can be found in the Dissertation module page on Canvas.
For academic year 2020-21, dissertations are due 17th May.
You should become very familiar with the handbook for the Dissertation course. It has all the details you need regarding deadlines and can be found in the Dissertation module page on Canvas.
2. How do supervisions work?
If you are doing a 12k word dissertation, we should meet once a month, for a total of 7 meetings (the first is for planning and subsequent meetings are to discuss progress). If you are doing a 6k word dissertation, we should meet a bit less frequently, but still in the start of term for an initial meeting and then four more times before the final deadlines. Our first meeting is just to chat our your plans for your project, so you can just bring yourself and your topic. For each of the subsequent supervisions, I'll expect you to send me some form of written work that we can use as the basis for our discussion *no less than 3 working days in advance of our meeting*.
If you are doing a 10/12k word dissertation, we should meet once a month, for a total of 7 meetings (the first is for planning and subsequent meetings are to discuss progress). If you are doing a 5/6k word dissertation, we should meet a bit less frequently, but still in the start of term for an initial meeting and then four more times before the final deadlines. Our first meeting is just to chat our your plans for your project, so you can just bring yourself and your topic. For each of the subsequent supervisions, I'll expect you to send me some form of written work that we can use as the basis for our discussion *no less than 3 working days in advance of our meeting*.
I prefer to schedule out the whole year's worth of meetings in advance so we can both plan towards these deadlines as writing milestones. You should also bear in mind that supervisors are not allowed to review written work in the final month of your dissertation period, though in light of what I note below, this shouldn't be an issue as hopefully by this time you'll be an independent writer!
I will provide you with feedback ahead of our meeting, which I usually share in the form of recorded audio commentary. This will give us a chance to focus on additional questions you have based on my feedback and forging a plan for further writing and revision together on the basis of all that. I'm mindful that this format may not work for everyone. In particular, if you have accessibility requirements that require written feedback, I'm very happy to accommodate. Please let me know this as soon as possible via email. It's possible that you may want to focus on more expansive reflections, not necessarily a piece of writing during a supervision. The arrangement of supervisions are the context in which you have a chance to get my feedback on written work, so I'd strongly advise that you don't deny yourself an opportunity to get that kind of more specific feedback. It may be better to push back a supervision to a later week if you're behind schedule and need a bit more time. I'm always behind schedule on my writing as well, so I will be sympathetic!
For scheduling, I use a digital tool which sends out automatic reminders and allows you to reschedule without having to chase me down. You can access the page for dissertation supervison meetings here: [https://calendly.com/kidwellj/ug-dissertation-supervision](calendly link). As above, I'd be grateful if you could schedule a year's work of supervisions in advance. These can always be re-scheduled if you need to, and helps to protect that time as the year gets increasingly busy. It's up to you to choose meeting dates, so you can space these based on your own work plan, particularly if you want to emphasise working in S1 or S1. But please, once per month at a maximum. And do think about pacing yourself well for this big project!
I prefer to schedule out the whole year's worth of meetings in advance so we can both plan towards these deadlines as writing milestones on your project. You should also bear in mind that supervisors are not allowed to review written work in the final month of your dissertation period, though in light of what I note below, this shouldn't be an issue as hopefully by this time you'll be an independent writer!
For academic year 2020-21, you cannot send me written work after 19 April, and so our last supervision needs to be scheduled before May 1. So you might want to set up an introductory meeting in October, with subsequent supervisions in November, January, February and April. You can adjust as you like, this is just an example of how things might be set up in practice.
For scheduling, I use a digital tool which sends out automatic reminders and allows you to reschedule without having to chase me down. You can access the page for dissertation supervison meetings here: [https://cal.com/kidwellj/supervisions](calendly link). As above, I'd be grateful if you could schedule a year's work of supervisions in advance. These can always be re-scheduled if you need to, and helps to protect that time as the year gets increasingly busy. It's up to you to choose meeting dates, so you can space these based on your own work plan, particularly if you want to emphasise working in S1 or S2. But please, once per month at a maximum. And do think about pacing yourself well for this big project!
Thinking about the whole year, it's likely (but do confirm by checking deadlines for dissertation submission) that our last supervision needs to be scheduled before May 1. So you might want to set up an introductory meeting in October, with subsequent supervisions in November, January, February and April. You can adjust as you like, this is just an example of how things might be set up in practice.
3. What kind of supervisor am I?
Of all the work you'll complete during your degree programme, the dissertation is the piece of work which you have the most ownership over. On the basis of this, I approach supervisions as a kind of coaching - I will be ready to answer any questions you have that have arisen during your research and writing, whether about writing mechanics, the research process, or about your topic more specifically. I will also raise probing questions for you, drawing on examples from written work I have been able to review in order to highlight problems or issues more broadly for you as a writer. I will not provide a proofreading service (you should recruit a good friend or two to help with this), so you should always bear in mind that mark-up and feedback is not comprehensive, but suggestive. I'll usually mark the first few instances of an issue in the writing, leaving you to examine the remainder for repeated instances. So you shouldn't expect that anything I *haven't* highlighted or added remarks to on one of your drafts is perfect and shouldn't be revised. I expect you to take notes from our discussions and then review your work to find all the areas where my feedback may be relevant.
Of all the work you'll complete during your degree programme, the dissertation is the piece of work which you have the most ownership over. On the basis of this, I approach supervisions as a process of coaching - I will be ready to answer any questions you have that have arisen during your research and writing, whether about writing mechanics, the research process, or about your topic more specifically. I will also raise probing questions for you, drawing on examples from written work I have been able to review in order to highlight problems or issues more broadly for you as a writer. I will not provide a proofreading service (you should recruit a good friend or two to help with this), so you should always bear in mind that mark-up and feedback is not comprehensive, but suggestive. I'll usually mark the first few instances of an issue in the writing, leaving you to examine the remainder for repeated instances. So you shouldn't expect that anything I *haven't* highlighted or added remarks to on one of your drafts is perfect and shouldn't be revised. I expect you to take notes from our discussions and then review your work to find all the areas where my feedback may be relevant.
4. How do I format my bibliography? Citations? Title Page? Table of contents...
We have a flexible policy regarding citation style, so it's up to you to choose the one that you are most familiar with and then apply that style consistently throughout your dissertation. Please note - I will not serve as a reference for specific aspects of formatting. This is one of the aspects of independent research you should master early on in your research journey (if you haven't already). Each major referencing style has a style guide which covers all the intricacies of formatting as well as other aspects including table of contents formatting, headings, and really anything you could possibly imagine. Given how frequently you may have questions about this, you should purchase a paperback copy of the style guide which will tell you how to format references, number pages, write a table of contents etc. If you don't already have a preference, I'd suggest you go with Chicago Style (a.k.a. Turabian) as it is generally favoured by Theology, Religious Studies, History, and Philosophy. Chicago has both short and long form versions. As above, you can pick one, but if it's up to me, I'd prefer the notes and bibliography format, where you provide longer form versions of citations in footnotes and repeat them in your bibliography. There is an online version of this style guide here: [http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html]
We have a flexible policy as a school regarding citation style, so it's up to you to choose the one that you are most familiar with and then apply that style consistently throughout your dissertation. Please note - I will not serve as a reference for specific aspects of formatting. This is one of the aspects of independent research you should master early on in your research journey (if you haven't already). Each major referencing style has a style guide which covers all the intricacies of formatting as well as other aspects including table of contents formatting, headings, and really anything you could possibly imagine. Given how frequently you may have questions about this, you should purchase a paperback copy of the style guide which will tell you how to format references, number pages, write a table of contents etc. If you don't already have a preference, I'd suggest you go with Chicago Style (a.k.a. Turabian) as it is generally favoured by Theology, Religious Studies, History, and Philosophy. Chicago has both short and long form versions. As above, you can pick one, but if it's up to me, I'd prefer the notes and bibliography format, where you provide longer form versions of citations in footnotes and repeat them in your bibliography. There is an online version of this style guide here: [http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html]
5. How many books should I read for a dissertation?
There is no straight-forward way to answer this question, as every dissertation question is quite unique. I tend to favour a style of research that begins by hoovering up as much information as possible, reading a large pile of scholarly materials very quickly so as to get a sense of the breadth of opinion on your topic. Once you have reached an intuitive point of "saturation," you can circle back around to materials that you know superficially to be seminal or particularly relevant to your research and read them more closely so that you can engage with the author's arguments in your own writing. This style of reading is summarised in a now very old book by Mortimer Adler called "How to Read a Book" (1940, revised edition in 1972), which has been come to be called the [Structure-proposition-evaluation method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)#Methods_of_reading) of reading. I recommend you read Adler's book (quickly!), but you can also find a quick summary here: (https://fourminutebooks.com/how-to-read-a-book-summary/). PS, don't write in library books. PPS, don't bother with Adler's recommended reading list.
There is no straight-forward way to answer this question, as every dissertation question is unique. I tend to favour a style of research that begins by hoovering up as much information as possible, reading a large pile of scholarly materials very quickly so as to get a sense of the breadth of opinion on your topic. Once you have reached an intuitive point of "saturation," you can circle back around to materials that you know superficially to be seminal or particularly relevant to your research and read them more closely so that you can engage with the author's arguments in your own writing. This style of reading is summarised in a now very old book by Mortimer Adler called "How to Read a Book" (1940, revised edition in 1972), which has been come to be called the [Structure-proposition-evaluation method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)#Methods_of_reading) of reading. I recommend you read Adler's book (quickly!), but you can also find a quick summary here: (https://fourminutebooks.com/how-to-read-a-book-summary/). PS, don't write in library books. PPS, don't bother with Adler's recommended reading list.
So to circle back around to the original question... some rough unqualified estimates: (1) In the hoovering stage, you shouldn't read fewer than a dozen books and/or 3 dozen journal articles. (2) In the critical reading stage, you can focus in on a half dozen books and a dozen articles. But this is really just a rule of thumb - we'll work out a proper ratio in supervision.