Your MA Dissertation: Preparation and Pointers

If you are going for your Master’s degree, no doubt you are already thinking about your MA dissertation – as well you should. Even if you are still an undergraduate with plans to continue your education, you may be hearing a lot of horror stories that make you wary of having to write your dissertation. And it is true – this can be an extremely difficult endeavor. However if you take the time to research your subject thoroughly and organize your thoughts, it really is not an insurmountable task. But if you do not write a dissertation yet, then surely you have not a single course work ahead of you. And in that case, you probably need term paper help, do not hesitate to ask for help, this will save you time.

No matter what your field of study, there are innumerable dissertation ideas, and every one of them may be a possibility for you. You need to be careful when choosing a topic though – and this can be a very tricky process. For example, ideally you should choose a subject in which you are interested, but about which you are not exactly an expert, because this can lead to the presence of bias in your master dissertation. Furthermore, you may become bored during both the research and the writing process, which will undoubtedly have a negative effect on your final paper. By the same token, you need to make sure that there is enough background on your chosen subject without there being too much – that is, you have to be able to prove something new. So unless you have come across some groundbreaking information on Shakespeare that has never been studied, researched, or written about before, you may want to stay away from that area. However, you also want to stay away from topics which are so obscure that there are no real sources on the subject, otherwise you may find that you have no material to back up your own research.

Your chosen topic has a profound affect on your dissertation methodology, which is why it is so important to choose the perfect subject. All of your sources have to be relevant and your methodology has to show that. If it does not, your MA dissertation is going to fall flat before it is even presented. If you do not have a sound thesis statement and if you cannot prove your hypothesis, your paper is not going to go anywhere and all of your work will have been in vain.

Because of this, you should never be afraid to ask for help. When considering dissertation ideas, run them by a professor, an advisor, or your mentor. Any one of them will be happy to help you with you MA dissertation, and you should not shy away from accepting that help. After all, they have been in their shoes before, they know what you are going through, and their assistance can be invaluable.

Your MA dissertation is the foundation for the rest of your academic career. A bad dissertation can put all your hard work in jeopardy in one fell swoop. Giving in to anxiety and thinking that it is an impossible task will just psyche you out into believing that you cannot do this. Instead, view this as an opportunity to learn and to increase your knowledge and expertise in your chosen field of study.