Version
2
Alison Cawsey, Feb 2006
This
document gives basic information about the preparation and submission of MSc
dissertations in Computer Science and Information Technology. Further
information and advice is provided in the Research Methods and Project Planning
module. We focus here on the final written dissertation, not the conduct of the
project, and cover format and length, typical content and structure, and
submission procedures. Note that slightly different guidelines apply to
IT(business) projects and are available online (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/macshome/courses/pg/index.htm).
As a
general rule, the body of the dissertation should be between 15,000-20,000 words
- this will normally correspond to about 45-60 pages if you include some
diagrams. Dissertations which are
significantly outside this range may be penalised We don't have a prescriptive style/format, but you should
choose a font that is easy to read (normally 10 or 12 point) and are encouraged
to use one-and-a-half line spacing.You are encouraged to include appendices for
additional material not central to the report (e.g., questionnaires,
screenshots) and these will be in addition to the 45-60 pages for the main
body.
Your project will be assessed
primarily from the dissertation and it is therefore essential that it is a full
account of your work and clearly presented. The detailed structure will depend
on the type of project, and you should obtain advice from your supervisor. They
may also be prepared to comment on outlines and drafts. When writing your
disseratation make sure to "pitch" it at the right level. You should not assume
that your reader is an expert in the specialist topic that you are reporting,
but should assume they have a good knowledge of the general discipline (CS/IT).
If you think a good fellow student would understand it then that is about
right.
All dissertations will normally have the following
elements:
Chapter 1 will normally start with
a short introduction to the problem you are addressing and your objectives, give
a short review of the context, and describe what follows in the main body of the
report.
Chapter 2 will normally include a critical review of relevant
literature, so the reader understands what you are building on. You may also
describe techniques, guidelines and even existing products if relevant to what
you will be presenting later. It is important that this review: is written in
your own words throughout; reads as a coherent and connected piece of writing;
shows the relevance of the material presented to the problem being
addressed, and provides some critique/analysis of the material and its
applicability to the problem. In essence it is your analysis and understanding
that we are interested in, how you build on existing work, understand its
limitations, select from available methods/tools, and present that
coherently.
It is important to select your references carefully in
your review. It is not sufficient to find 15 web sites which seem to have
something relevant to say. Sources should be authoratative, accurate, and
preferably should still be around in 5 years time. Academic papers and books
usually meet these criteria, but also some web site sources are acceptable -
sometimes a web site is indeed the most appropriate and authoratative source on
a subject.
See later for how to cite your references.
The structure of
the middle section of your dissertation will vary according to the type of
project. Many possible structures are possible but two typical structures are
discussed below:
The goal is to develop some
software to solve some problem. The chapters may cover: requirements; design;
prototyping and redesign; evaluation, conclusion.
This structure is
appropriate where you have a customer (external or supervisor) who wants some
software for a real (or imagined!) problem. A successful project is one where
you elicit the customers needs, develop a reliable and functional solution, and
test/evaluate the software to demonstrate that it does indeed meet the customers
needs. It should also of course be technically non-trivial. A simple web page
might satisfy some customers but would not result in you getting an
MSc.
The goal is to further understanding by carrying out
an investigation which may include prototyping a system. The chapters will
present the problem (sometimes as a hypothesis); review existing work (as
above); describe the research undertaken, including design of any experiments;
present the results of any experiments; present any conclusions, relating these
to past work and suggesting further work.
This structure is appropriate
for open-ended investigations inspired by either a novel idea (like "The use of
multimedia can negatively affect the experience of learning") or a plausible
principle or hypothesis (such as "Distribution of a database provides
information access speedup"). The aim is to investigate something about which
not enough is already known or understood, and hence make a modest contribution
to knowledge. Where a program is developed it is not an end in itself rather it
is an instrument for experimentation and discovery. The interest, significance
and quality of the results are the primary criterion of success (bearing in mind
that negative results of a well-conducted investigation are just as valuable as
positive.)
Many variants of these structures
are possible. For example, some projects will centre on the evaluation of an
existing software system, and the structure will reflect that. Some projects may
involve surveys of user or organisation opinion, and it may be the design of
these surveys that forms a central element. Don't feel constrained to structure
your document in a particular way, but ensure that the structure is discussed
with your supervisor.
Note that in both styles of dissertation the
final chapter will normally present conclusions and discuss further work.It
should be clear just what has been achieved against the original
objectives/problem description set out in chapter 1. It is important to make
clear what has been learned/achieved and what further work could be undertaken
by you or others to further the objectives of the project.
Your dissertation may cite a wide
range of sources (e.g., papers or web sites that you have used) as background
and context for the work. Sources are cited at the relevant point in the text
and full source information is given in the references section. There are a
variety of acceptable citation and referencing styles, but the most commonly
used styles in Computer Science are the Harvard style and the IEEE style. These
are briefly discussed below.
Harvard (author-date)
style
The author's name and the date of publication are used in
the body of the text when citing sources - e.g., (Jones, 2003). Variations are
possible, for example we can say that Jones (2003) has developed a new
technique. The bibliography is given alphabetically by author. Journal and book
names are are italicised, e.g.,.
Annas, G.J. (1997), 'New drugs for
acute respiratory distress syndrome', New England Journal of Medicine,
vol. 337, no. 6, pp. 435-439.
Grinspoon, L. & Bakalar, J.B. (1993),
Marijuana: the forbidden medicine, Yale University Press, London.
Notice that there is alot of information about the articles cited, not
just the title and author. This ensures that the reader can find the article in
question. Find out what is expected for different types of article (e.g., books,
conference papers) and aim to give as complete information as
possible.
Here
references are listed alphabetically but given a number. The citation number is
used when citing the document in the body of the text (e.g., [2]). Differences
in how the references are listed are otherwise
minor.
[2] W. Chen, R. Yeung, and P.P. Wainwright,
"Linear networks - assessing their feasability", Phys. Rev., vol. 12, no.
1, pp. A105-A119, Apr. 1994.
You should select which style to use and use
it consistently. Look up how to reference different kinds of sources, taking
particular care with electronic sources. Give as much information about these as
possible (title, author, date if possible) and consider just using footnotes for
non-authoratative electronic sources.
If you want to use another style
apart from IEEE and Harvard then you should discuss it with your
supervisor.
With the increase use of Web sources you should take
particular care how you cite these. You should make sure to put more than simply
the URL, as URLs often change. The guiding principle is that you should maximise
someones chances of finding the document. You should also state when the web
page was accessed, as web sources often change. One format that you can use is
the following:
Author's name, date of document
(if available), title of document, <web address>, (date
accessed)
For example, using the Harvard style we might
have:
Cawsey, A., (2006), MSc
Dissertation Preparation Guidance, <http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~alison/diss_prep.html (accessed 1/3/
2006)
Whatever style you use the references section should
come between the main text and the appendices. Normally references should start
on a new page, and should not have a chapter or section number, just the heading
"References". Some word processing tools may provide help with referencing
- consider using these. However, the main thing is to give proper thought to how
and what you cite.
Style in technical writing is discussed in more
detail elsewhere. The main point to make is to present material clearly and
concisely, and in an as objective fashion as possible. Your personal impressions
and feelings should rarely come into it. You should normally avoid using
expressions like "I did this" and instead report the work in a passive voice
("it was done"). However, where you are genuinely voicing an individual opinion
you can use the first person. Also, while the passive voice is normal for
scientific writing it is not used universally, so don't feel forced into a style
that you find awkward. The main thing is clarity and
objectivity.
While considering style we should re-iterate what
has been said elsewhere about plagiarism. If you copy more than half a line
directly from a source without quoting and citing it then it is considered
plagiarism. If something is so good you want to cite it literally then do it
like this:
'Cawsey provides a concise discussion of how we
can quote material:
"While considering style we should
re-iterate what has been said elsewhere about plagiarism. If you copy more than
half a line directly from a source without quoting and citing it then it is
considered plagiarism. If something is so good you want to cite it literally
then do it like this." [2]'
Note that the copied material
is in quotation marks AND the source is cited.
There are many tools to support
document preparation, from LaTeX to tools built into Microsoft Word. Find out
about them and use them. Spelling errors will not be acceptable if there are
spelling checkers you could have used. Errors in referencing and poorly laid out
graphics may be penalised where you could have used a simple tool to insert them
for you.
Your dissertation will be marked
by your supervisor and by a second reader. If it is borderline it may also be
assessed by the external examiner for the course. So what are the
assessors of your dissertation looking for? You will be given the assessment
form that we use, but to summarise some of the elements looked for we may be
looking for some or all of:
You
will be expected to submit three copies of your dissertation, one electronic
copy burned onto a CD together with code listings, software demonstration,
appendices, etc., and two spiral bound hard copies of the dissertation document
and appendices. Covers for the two copies of the dissertation can be obtained
from the Student Offices and spiral bound at the University Print/Copy Facility.
The covers are provided free of charge, but you will be expected to provide your
own CD and to pay for the spiral binding of your dissertation.
Your
document should include a signed and dated declaration that the work is your
own. The following form of words should be used:
"I
<name> confirm that this work submitted for assessment is my own and is
expressed in my own words. Any uses made within it of the words of other authors
in any form e.g., ideas, equations, figures, text, tables, programs etc are
properly acknowledged. A list of references employed is
included."
This is a serious declaration and examiners may refer any
disseratations with suspected plagiarism to the University disciplinary
committee. Properly acknowledging sources means quoting as well as citing the
source of any copied material.
A
standard page for inclusion which contains this text is available from the
student offices and will be provided along with the covers for your
dissertation.
A poster presentation of your
dissertation work will be required about a week after the submission
deadline