MA Modern Languages and Cultures

This course unit gives students the opportunity to identify a research project of their own choice, to develop their topic by demonstrating their skills in research design (including formulating a set of coherent research questions, establishing appropriate methodologies with which to answer them, and setting their project within the context of existing research on the topic), and to carry out their research in order to investigate their topic in a detailed and sustained manner, so that they are able to make an original contribution to knowledge in their chosen field. Their completed dissertation will demonstrate their ability to synthesize and analyse the results of their research and to present their findings using a clear, coherent and sustained argument.

•  To enable students to develop an independent research project that makes an original contribution to knowledge in their chosen field ·
• To equip students with the appropriate skills to enable them to design a postgraduate research project effectively ·
• To assist students in the development of appropriate skills to enable them to carry out and complete a piece of independent research ·
• To provide guidance to assist students in synthesizing and analysing the results of their research, and in presenting their findings using a clear, coherent and sustained argument

This is a project-based course-unit tailored to students’ individual interests. As such it involves one-to-one project supervision structured according to each student’s chosen area of specialism.

The student's research project is developed in individual tutorials arranged via the student’s supervisor. Students receive a maximum of 12 x 30-minute sessions or equivalent. Students submit a written Research Outline early in Semester 2, in which they set out their proposed project design for the dissertation. They receive preliminary feedback on this outline when they give a five-minute Oral Presentation at a specified Research Forum prior to the submission date of the written outline.

Students also are encouraged to attend relevant subject area research fora to benefit from engagement with guest lectures, research seminars and discussion groups held during term time. Course documentation, bibliographies and practical guides are provided on Blackboard.

•  Demonstrate detailed specialist knowledge and conceptual understanding of the chosen topic and related fields, including of the surviving primary sources and their contexts ·
• Show comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the available secondary literature
• Make an original contribution to knowledge in the chosen field, appropriate to a dissertation at MA level

• · Demonstrate the ability to identify and apply appropriate research methodologies that enable them to investigate and write about their chosen topic ·
• Undertake wide-ranging critical evaluation of their research materials in order to place the results of their original research in context
• Demonstrate an ability to organize and synthesize the results of their research in order to develop a sophisticated, sustained and convincing argument

• · Identify and locate relevant primary and secondary sources in order to address a research question ·
• Show an ability to draw together their ideas by interpreting and synthesizing information from a broad range of primary and secondary sources ·
• Demonstrate skills in organising the results of their research in a complex, coherent and convincing argument that is sustained over the length of the dissertation ·
• Demonstrate advanced skills of written expression through which they can communicate their ideas clearly and coherently ·
• Show an ability to present the results of their research appropriately, including through the use of well-chosen examples, illustrations, figures and tables

• · Show the ability to work under self-direction on a research project of their choice
•  Produce high-quality work with a disciplined approach to time management, self-motivation and critical self-awareness ·
• Show advanced problem-solving skills through the identification and analysis of appropriate data ·
• Demonstrate well-developed IT skills enabling them to communicate their research results with professional presentation standards

Students will compile their bibliography with advice from their supervisor, but may also consult the following guides:

Biggam, John, Succeeding with your Master’s Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Handbook, Maidenhead, 2011.

Bond, Alan (ed.), Your Master’s Thesis: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Revise, 2nd edn., Taunton, 2005.

Furseth, Inger and Larry Everett Euris, Doing your Master’s Dissertation: From Start to Finish, SAGE Study Skills, London, 2013.

Wisker, Gina, The Postgraduate Research Handbook: Success with your MA, MPhil, EdD and PhD, Palgrave Research Skills, 2nd rev. edn., London, 2007.