Classic Dissertation

What is a classic dissertation?

This stream provides students with the opportunity to undertake a piece of in-depth research on a topic chosen by them. Those undertaking an project in this stream will submit their work in the form an extended research essay. Students will have the option of doing this as a 5,000 word or 10,000 word option (15 or 30 CATS) taken in terms 1 & 2 (30 CAT) or term 2 only (15 CAT).

Sample of good practice

A classic dissertation sample from 2023:

Amelia Hibbert, A Victim’s Journey to Court: Exploring the Impact of Rape Culture and Myths on Attrition of RAOSO Cases (LLB Dissertation, University of Warwick 2023)

Not for sharing. If cited or quoted, please use the above citation.

What can you research?

The research topic is chosen by you! The topics have to be grounded in legal studies and students will need to identify the field of law their research is situated in e.g. human rights, criminal, commercial law, etc., but can propose a wide range of topics within established fields of law.

What kind of support will you receive?

Teaching support is delivered in streams and through supervision. In streams, you will have workshop style lectures that provide training and guidance on getting started, research methods, ethics, and writing.

All students will also be supported by a supervisor. Supervision will mainly consist of regular group meetings that will focus on proposals, literature, writing, and reviewing past work. In addition, there will be termly individual supervision to discuss draft written work.

Do you have questions about this stream? Contact the stream lead: Dr Laura Lammasniemi

Working towards a project proposal: step by step guidance

You can download the timeline and all exercises as a word document here if you wish to use it as a worksheet.

Timeline

When?	I need to attend	By the end of the week, I should have..
Week 2 Term 2	One of the project information sessions	Completed Exercise 1 (side tab) and read about different project options to decide on a stream
Week 3 Term 2		Considered an area of law or a broad topic I want to explore further Decided on the stream I want to do my research in
Week 5 Term 2	A stream specific session on developing proposal
Week 6 Term 2		Completed Exercise 2 (side tab) and in particular, narrowed down ideas from a broad topic to a more specific issue and identified five sources relevant to my research and considered why they are important.
Week 8 Term 2	If I have any questions, attend one of the drop-in sessions	Read further into the readings identified
Week 10 Term 2	If I have any questions, attend one of the drop-in sessions	Completed Roadmap to a topic (side tab)
Term 3 - Monday 29 April at 2pm		Final deadline for submission of my proposal

Exercise 1: Brainstorming

This exercise is designed to help you to get started.

Start by listing all of the ideas for dissertation topic you can think of in about 10 minutes. You can reflect on your past study experiences, news, and personal interests to do this.
List as many pros and cons as you can think of for each item.
After all pros and cons have been identified, rank each item based on the idea, the pros, and the cons.

Exercise 2: Finding focus

EXERCISE 2: Finding focus

Answer the questions on the right in 1-2 sentences per topic you are contemplating.

These questions are designed to help you crystallise your ideas and to find your focus as you are preparing for the proposal.

Questions to consider

What am I actually interested in finding out the most?
What do I hope to learn or gain by choosing this topic?
What kind of research or data would help me answer the questions I am interested in?
Using the Online Library search function, identify and write down 5 potential sources
Which one(s) of these sources is the most helpful and why? You can just read the abstracts for now, and save the most helpful ones to later to read in full.

Roadmap to a topic

Roadmap to finding a topic

Reflect on all the questions in the infograph; this is an aid to help you find your topic. When you can answer all the questions, you are ready to submit your proposal.

This infographic is made by Alison Phipps and it is freely available on her website: https://phipps.space/resources-for-researchers/ You can find other research resources there too.

Social Sciences School of Law

Classic Dissertation