Larbert High School

Faculty of English

Advanced Higher

Dissertation

SAL

Deadlines

Read books by 20th August 2014

Notes on Text 1 by12th September

Notes on Text 2 by26thSeptember

Notes on Text 3 (if applicable) by8thOctober

Mitchell Library Visit – November. TBC!

Plan by21st November

Draft 1 by31st December

Final draftby1st April 2015

Literature chosen

1
2
3 - Optional

You may be assigned a Supervisor who will be another teacher in the English Faculty who specialises or has an interest in your topic. My email address is and this will allow you to email drafts of your Dissertation or contact me during the summer if you are struggling with your chosen texts.

The following periods are my non-contact periods when I will be available for consultation about the Advanced Higher course providing I am not given a cover class: Monday 1; Tuesday 1-2; Wednesday 1-3; Thursday 1-2; Friday 3-4. Please let me know in advance if you need to see me.

My Supervisor is: ______
Specialist Study

Outcome

Make an independent study of and produce a dissertation on an aspect or aspects of language or literature or media or some combination of these.

Performance Criteria

Understanding

A relevant and thoughtful approach is taken to the stated topic and secure understanding is demonstrated of key elements, central concerns and significant details of the texts or of the linguistic or media field of study.

Analysis

Relevant and thoughtful critical/analytical comment is made and secure handling of literary, linguistic or media concepts, techniques, forms, usages is demonstrated.

Evaluation

Judgements made are relevant, thoughtful and securely based on detailed evidence drawn from primary and, where appropriate, secondary sources.

Expression

Structure, style and language, including the use of critical/analytical terminology, are consistently accurate and effective in developing a relevant argument.
Evidence Requirements
  • draft title and proposals

  • outline plan

  • first draft

  • final submission

The dissertation must be between 3500 and 4500words in length, including quotations but excluding footnotes and bibliography.

Skills

The Dissertation will help you develop many valuable skills. There is a greater emphasis on independent study. Independent study in relation to this unit will demand a high degree of initiative and responsibility on your part:

• in selecting appropriate materials for study
• in formulating relevant tasks or topics
• in accessing and researching primary and secondary sources
• in managing time and meeting deadlines
• in developing a range of communication and production skills.

In preparing the dissertation, you will engage in a range of activities:

• negotiating a study programme
• meeting deadlines for the submission of work
• establishing regular opportunities for consultation
• studying the source materials to locate appropriate information
• comparing aspects of source materials
• applying a knowledge of appropriate critical and analytical approaches
• acquiring an awareness of contexts – literary, historical, cultural, ideological
• deploying evidence from secondary source
• drafting, editing and redrafting

  • presenting collated and revised material in an appropriate form.

Important Formatting Information

Please read this so that you produce your Dissertation properly.

• use italics or underlining to indicate the titles of texts
• set in from the margin all quotations of more than one line
• use footnotes and page references where appropriate to identify quotations from and references
• provide an accurate bibliography
• give footnote and bibliography references in the following way: D. Gifford and D. McMillan, A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, EUP, 1997. (writer, title, publisher, year published)


Taking Notes

Having successfully negotiated Higher English you will have had some training in taking independent notes. At this stage it might be useful to consult secondary sources but it is important that you inform your teacher of the sources you are consulting as you do so and ensure that acknowledge these in your dissertation final copy. Failure to do so may lead to plagiarism and will be considered cheating.

Your teacher will be able to guide you on how to take notes on your text but the following general areas will be useful to consider

Characterisation

Theme

Style

Structure

Narration

Setting

Symbolism

Personal reaction

Notes need to be detailed to help you connect aspects of the texts together and they will also be retained as evidence of the process you have gone through in order to produce your dissertation.

If you fail to provide detailed notes and then produce a full dissertation with no previous evidence you will fail the internal unit and will therefore gain no course award. Moreover a page or two of notes on each text will be insufficient. You must remember that this type of study is more like that expected at University than that of Higher English and you must aspire to a much higher standard as a result.

Bibliography

You must keep a record of everything that you have read. Primary sources are your texts that you are focusing on but you must also note any secondary sources that you use. These may include websites, articles, books like York Notes and so on.


Dissertation Profile / Note Taking & Meetings

The grid below should be used to note meetings with your Supervisor so there is a record of what you discussed, your progress and your next steps. This is your responsibility.

Date of Meeting / Discussed at Meeting / Next Steps / Date of Next Meeting

Selecting a Topic & Title

You must ensure that you choose a topic which is: carefully selected, realistically limited & precisely worded. Eventually this will be crafted into a title. This is important as your SQA Marker will be assessing your Dissertation based on your title. Here are some examples of titles:

Title / Is it appropriate?
A detailed study of the education of children in Victorian times as revealed in the works of Charles Dickens. This study will look at the role of the school and the family as well as society in general and decide how successful Dickens was as a truly radical reformer. / There is simply too much going on! Is this on the education of children? Is it on the role of the school, the family, THE WHOLE OF SOCIETY or whether Dickens was a radical reformer? Which books by Dickens are being examined?
An examination of how a character achieves self knowledge through changes in his or her personal and social relationships in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and Persuasion by Jane Austen. This will involve an analysis of the narrative methods by which knowledge of self is conveyed. / This is clumsily worded but has the right idea. However, it should be noted that the SQA normally encourage pupils NOT to mix genres. This is a better wording of the title:
A comparative study of the narrative techniques employed by Arthur Miller in The Crucible, Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day and Jane Austen in Persuasion to convey the central character’s achievement of self knowledge through changes in his/her personal and social circumstances.
A comparative study of the literary presentation of the central female characters in these three novels, and in particular, how they cope with a central crisis in their lives.
- GraceNotes, by Brenard MacLaverty
- One by One in the Darkness, by Deirdre Madden
- Morven Callar, by Alan Warner / This is a good example as it is manageable, valid and the topic is clear.

Now write your own proposal and submit it to your teacher for approval.

Dissertation Profile / Line of Argument

Proposal: This is a brief outline of what you wish to study
Draft Title

Planning

How to plan your Dissertation is one of the trickiest aspects of the whole process. You have two main options:

Plan 1:By Novel

You may find yourself dealing with three novels that lend themselves to a study which chronological.

This would mean looking initially at the first novel, followed by the second novel and then the third novel. There may be good reasons for doing so but remember a comparative approach is still required. If for example you choose to consider The Scot’s Quairyou may choose to focus on the development of Chris Guthrie across the three novels. Your structure would therefore be along the following lines.

Introduction
Novel 1 / Key Area 1 (Setting)
Key Area 2 (Symbolism)
Key Area 3 (Relationships, turning points, ending)
Novel 2 / Key Area 1 (Setting)
Key Area 2 (Symbolism)
Key Area 3 (Relationships, turning points, ending)
Novel 3 / Key Area 1 (Setting)
Key Area 2 (Symbolism)
Key Area 3 (Relationships, turning points, ending)
Conclusion

Plan 2:By Key Point

In order to really compare and contrast how an author deals with a particular theme you may wish to deal with the same aspect of each novel at the same time. This requires a different structure. For example you may wish to explore how different authors present brutality within society

Introduction
Key Aspect of the text such as how the title/opening is used symbolically / Novel 1 / Novel 2 / Novel 3
Key Aspect of text such as how characterization is used / Novel 1 / Novel 2 / Novel 3
Key aspect of the text such as how structure is used / Novel 1 / Novel 2 / Novel 3
Key aspect of text such as how brutal images/endings are used / Novel 1 / Novel 2 / Novel 3
Conclusion


Dissertation Profile / Outline Plan

Number of Key Points is optional

Introduction
Key Point One:
Novel 1 / Novel 2 / Novel 3?
Key Point Two:
Novel 1 / Novel 2
Key Point Three:
Novel 1 / Novel 2
Key Point Four (Optional):
Novel 1 / Novel 2
Conclusion

Checklist

Prior to the submission of your first draft, you must:

  1. Read all of your chosen texts (at least once!)

  1. Make notes

  1. Submit a proposal

  1. Create a draft title (in conjunction with your Supervisor)

  1. Devise a plan or structure

  1. Complete some research and read some secondary sources

  1. Follow instructions on the format of the Dissertation and how it should look – especially when it involves referencing!

  1. Complete the first draft – on time!

Record of Completion

Outline Plan
Teacher Comment / Pupil Comment on Next Steps
First Draft
Teacher Comment / Pupil Comment on Next Steps

1