Dissertation Deadlines

As we haven’t had any exams this January, and our other coursework pieces have been handed in by now, the focus for us third years really is on our dissertation.  Last week we all gave presentations on our dissertation to our supervisor, and to the other students who have our supervisor. There were only three of us in my group, but it was really interesting to hear about what other two people have been doing, as within geography as a whole there area such a wide range of topics being studied.

It was a bit odd doing our presentation, because basically several months of hard work was simply summarised into a 15 minute presentation, which doesn’t really seem to give a fair representation of how much effort we have put in! But I guess that will be shown in the final, written version. The presentation was formatively assessed, which means we receive feedback on what we did, but no grade is given and this doesn’t count towards our degree. This is what all of our dissertation work handed in so far has been (apart from our proposal in year 2, which was assessed properly), and it’s really useful for us to get tips on how to improve our work. So basically our presentations were the last chance for us to get feedback to help us improve our dissertation – and now it’s completely up to us to finish it!

I am about half way through my first written draft, and hopefully within a week I’ll have a completed it. Then it will be proof reading and editing many times before finally printing, binding it, and submitting it. The deadline is 25^th Feb, but with your dissertation, I really don’t think you should leave it to the last minute, as it is worth such a large part of our degree, having marks removed for late penalties really wouldn’t be worth it! I’m planning on handing it in several days early.

But that’s all I’ve got to say for now, as I must get back to writing my dissertation. I’m trying to get as much done as I can before my lectures start again on Thursday… it’s scary to think that this is my last semester ever in Leicester, time has flown by!