THE FINAL YEAR DISSERTATION GUIDELINES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview: The eight most commonly asked questions about

the Dissertation

1. Introduction
2. The Dissertation Coordinator
3. What Is The Final Year Dissertation?
4. Stages to Completing the Dissertation
5. Choosing a Topic
6. Allocation Of Supervisors
7. Your Supervisor
8. The Dissertation Proposal
9. Doing the Research
10. Ethical and Safety Considerations
11. Plagiarism
12. Writing up the Dissertation
13. Submitting the Dissertation
14. The Marking Process
Appendix A: Some Recent Dissertation Titles
Appendix B: Title Page
Appendix C: Style and Referencing
Appendix D: Staff Research Interests

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 Overview
The eight most commonly asked questions about
the dissertation

Q. How long does the report have to be?

A. 8,000 - 12,000 words. You are required to note the word count in
your submitted copy - see section 12.

Q. Does it matter if my report is longer than the word limit?

A. Yes. You may not exceed the word limit. If you do, the
dissertation will be returned unmarked to you. A word count must
be included. See section 12

Q. What are the deadlines in the dissertation process?

A. There are three key deadlines:

1) A one-page "Topic Statement" is due Friday of Week 9 of the

Spring Semester of your placement year (or your second year if
you are going straight through to the final year).
2) A 1000-1500 word "Dissertation Proposal" is due Friday of
Week 1 of the Autumn Semester.
3) The dissertation itself is due Friday of Week 5 of the Spring
Semester of the final year.

Q. Does the report have to be presented in a particular

format?
A. Yes - see section 12.

Q. How much does the dissertation mark count for?

A. One-third of the overall mark for the final year.

Q. How often should I see my supervisor?

A. As often as is mutually agreed, up to a maximum of 7 hours from
the time you are assigned a supervisor.

Q. If my research involves in-depth interviews, how many do

I need to do?
A. This should be agreed with your supervisor, but would usually be
between 8 and 20.

Q. Are there any simple shortcuts to getting a good mark for

the dissertation?
A. No. Planning ahead, completing your data collection and analysis
as early as possible, keeping in touch with your supervisor, and
plain hard work are the keys to success.

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1. Introduction
These notes have been prepared to give you the information that
you will need in order to complete your final year sociology
dissertation successfully. They set out the basic rules and the "dos
and don'ts" of the process, as well as giving some more general
advice on how to undertake your dissertation. Please read them
carefully and early!

2. The Dissertation Coordinator

The dissertation coordinator is Kate Burningham
K.Burningham@surrey.ac.uk 06AD03 01483 686688 and she has overall
administrative responsibility for the dissertation process. In your
final year, you should normally direct queries about your
dissertation to your supervisor, but you can talk to the dissertation
coordinator if you have general questions or concerns about the
process. If you are in your second year or placement year, you
should contact the dissertation coordinator in the first instance to
discuss any matters relating to the dissertation.

3. What is the Final Year Dissertation?

The dissertation provides you with the opportunity to put together
the various skills that you have learned in the course of your
degree, and to demonstrate your competence as a social
researcher. The dissertation allows you to demonstrate your
acquired skills in studying a substantive sociological topic, using
appropriate concepts and theories, producing original research
through the application of an appropriate social science method,
undertaking data analysis, and presenting your results in writing. It
sounds daunting, but students generally manage to produce their
dissertation in time and even enjoy doing it!

The dissertation is a major piece of work which all final year

students on the Sociology, APS and SCNM degrees at the University
of Surrey undertake (NB, APS students who registered from 2003
onwards will be required to submit a psychology dissertation if they
wish for BPS accreditation). To reflect its importance, the
dissertation's mark is ‘double-weighted’. That is, it counts twice as
much as the marks of each final year option. Therefore, you should
devote a commensurate amount of time to it.

There are four main differences between the dissertation and the
essays that you are accustomed to writing for your other courses:

• It is focused upon a topic that you have chosen

• It is based upon your own original research
• It reflects your own sociological thinking, based on your
study of sociological literature and any data you collect
• It allows you time to develop your ideas and, in the final
report, space to present them.

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4. Stages to Completing the Dissertation
Different people work at different rates and at different times, but in
general it obviously makes sense to think about your dissertation
before the final year, and to work steadily on it in the summer
before your final year, and through the autumn, so that you are not
in a mad panic as the deadline approaches. The notes below set out
the kinds of things that you might expect to be doing in relation to
your dissertation at different points during the degree course.

Second Year
The dissertation coordinator will give a lecture in the Autumn
Semester of the second year about the dissertation process. This is
a good spur to start thinking seriously about what you might want to
do and how you will do it. If you would like to discuss your ideas at
this stage, make an appointment to see the dissertation coordinator.
She will be able to give you some feedback and perhaps put you in
touch with a member of staff who might have particular expertise in
the area. If you prefer, you might approach another member of staff
whom you think is especially appropriate for your topic, although
there can be no guarantee that they will be able to supervise you.
Remember that the more concrete you are about your topic, the
easier it is for your supervisor to give you useful advice, so try to do
some thinking before you see a member of staff.

If you do not plan to take a placement year, it is extremely

important that you start thinking about your dissertation project in
the early part of your second year, as you must declare your topic
before Easter Vacation in the second year (see Section 6). You will
have a meeting with your dissertation supervisor during May of your
second year if you are planning to go straight through to the final
year (otherwise, you will have supervision during May of your
placement year). You should continue your literature search,
prepare a draft literature review, and write a dissertation proposal
(see Section 8) during the summer vacation between your second
and final years.

Placement Year
It is often during the placement year that your ideas for a topic
really crystallise. Spend some time reading around topics that
interest you, with an eye toward choosing a dissertation question.
You may speak to your placement tutor about dissertation ideas or
concerns. The dissertation co-coordinator will give a talk on the
dissertation during the placement return day in February, and you
will have an opportunity on that day to talk to him or her and to
possible supervisors.

By March of the placement year (or by March of your second year if

you are going straight through into your final year) you should have
a fairly clear idea of your topic, as you must declare a topic by the
end of March in order to be assigned a supervisor (see Section 6).
During the spring and summer, you will need to start reading for
your literature review and to write up a dissertation proposal to be
handed in the first week of your final year (see Section 8). During
the spring and summer, you will need to work on a literature review
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(write up a preliminary version to discuss with your supervisor in the
autumn) and a dissertation proposal (to be handed in the first week
of your final year). Some students might have collected data before
starting back for their final year, but this is not normally expected. If
you wish to collect data while on a placement, be sure to discuss
this with your dissertation supervisor in May of your placement year.
(You may also discuss this before May with your placement tutor or
the dissertation co-coordinator.)

Some students do a dissertation which is based upon or relates to

the work that they did during their placement year. This can make
sense because you will already be well grounded in the relevant
material and will often be able to gain access to data that would not
be easy to obtain otherwise. Bear in mind two points, however:

Your placement employer must know about and approve the work
that you propose to do.
The work must be an original piece of research undertaken by you
alone for the sole purpose of the dissertation. You may not
reproduce work that you undertook during your employment in your
placement year. (An example of an acceptable project might be
undertaking a new analysis on a specific topic using data from a
more general survey that you were involved in collecting or
analysing as part of your placement).

Be mindful that there may be ethical considerations which will need

to be dealt with by the Faculty Ethics Committee before you can
collect data (see Section 10).

Final Year
You are expected to submit a dissertation proposal, of 1000 words
when you return, in Week 1 of the Autumn Semester (see Section
8). You should also have written up your preliminary literature
review. You will need to devote enough time in the final year to
refine your thoughts on the sociological aspects of your topic, collect
and analyse the data, and write it all up in your dissertation report.
You should have regular meetings with your supervisor in your final
year (see Section 7). The deadline for submission of the
dissertation is the Friday of Week 5 in the Spring Semester.

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5. Choosing a Topic
This is often the hardest part of the dissertation! This is because you
must choose the topic, your supervisor cannot do it for you (though
she or he can help you refine ideas that you do have). There are no
hard and fast rules about the topic for your dissertation, but the
following guidelines may help.

Think about the areas of sociology that you are most interested in
(e.g. deviance, race, gender, health) or a topic that you yourself are
particularly interested in to which a sociological angle can be
discerned (eg youth subcultures, religious or civil ceremonies). Also
consider which theories and concepts have interested you the most.

Along these lines, consider the courses you've taken so far. Which
lectures or courses most captured your imagination? You can go
back and look at your notes and textbooks to jog your memory.
Perhaps choose a topic in these areas. Are there aspects of your
placement year that are amenable to sociological inquiry, perhaps
areas you might have studied while working that you can study
independently in more depth, or aspects of the organisation in
which you worked? These may provide avenues of inquiry for a
dissertation topic. The television and news media often spark
interests in research topics, though if you chose one through this
route, be sure that you find a sociological aspect to it.

Find out what other researchers have written about this topic. Go to
the library and find some books and journal articles which are
broadly relevant to your topic. You can also consult past student
dissertations. These are held in the departmental library; speak to
the undergraduate secretary if you would like to borrow one. (A list
of selected dissertation titles is included in Appendix A). Bear in
mind that while there are many excellent dissertations held in the
department, not all of the dissertations in the department library
provide good models for you to follow!

You may also be influenced by the type of methods you wish to use
or learn more about, eg whether you wish to interview people,
analyse video data or newspaper reports, or conduct a secondary
analysis of existing large scale survey data.

On the basis of the above, try to turn your general area of interest
into something more specific, by honing the topic into your research
question(s). See if you can formulate a list of specific questions that
you might be able to answer by doing the research. Think about
what kind of data would answer the questions you propose, and
whether it is possible to obtain such data, through surveys,
interviews, secondary data analysis or any of the methods you've
learned on the course. If you are considering a more theoretically
orientated dissertation consider what materials and resources you
would draw upon.

Do not try to be too ambitious about what you can achieve given
your time and resource constraints. The best dissertations are
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analyses of modest scope done well rather than broad ones done
poorly.

Think about the kind of research that you will actually do, and make
sure that it is something that you yourself can feasibly do in the
time available.

A general word of advice is to choose a topic that is interesting to

you. You will spend a great deal of time working on a relatively
narrow issue, so choose one you will enjoy! Members of staff may be
able to help you refine your thoughts, but the ideas and the
motivation has to come from you.

6. Allocation of Supervisors
The dissertation coordinator will allocate you to a supervisor in May
of your placement year (or your second year if you are going
straight into the final year). Be mindful that supervisors use the out-
of-semester time to carry out research fieldwork, for writing and to
take annual leave, so their availability over the summer may be
very limited.

In order to allocate students to supervisors you are required to

submit a Topic Statement to the dissertation coordinator at the end
of Week 9 of Spring Semester in either your placement year or your
second year if you are going straight through to the final year.

The topic statement will consist of a page, with: (1) your name and
contact details (address, phone number, email address), (2) a
paragraph or two on your research topic, and if you have formulated
them, your research questions, and (3) your proposed method of
enquiry. You must submit a topic statement regardless of how well
you have specified a topic. The topic statement should be
electronically attached, not in the body of the message, in an e-
mail and sent to K.Burningham@surrey.ac.uk The attached file should be
formatted thus: ‘surname topic statement year’ eg ‘Smith topic
statement 2008.doc’. You will be notified of your supervision
allocation by email.

NB: If you do not have a research topic when you are asked to
declare one, do not use this as an excuse to delay. You must return
a topic statement, and continue to think about your dissertation. It
is your responsibility to choose a topic and to inform the dissertation
coordinator.

If you are keen to have a particular supervisor, you should approach

them as early as possible in your second or placement year. If they
are agreeable, it should normally be possible to allocate you to them
but you must keep the dissertation coordinator informed. Each
member of staff has a certain number of students to supervise, so
their allotment can sometimes get filled up early on.

Dissertation supervisors will be allocated, to the best of our ability,

on the basis of the topic and methodology you propose in your topic
statement. Though it may seem ideal to be allocated to a supervisor
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with expertise in your particular topic and method, this will not
always be possible. Indeed, any member of staff should have the
general sociological expertise to supervise any undergraduate
dissertation, so do not worry too much about the match between
your supervisor's interests and your own. It is always possible to
discuss specific issues beyond your supervisor's area of expertise
with another member of staff. A list of members of staff and their
areas of research expertise is given in Appendix D.

Once you have received notification of who your supervisor is it is

your responsibility to make contact with them. Your
supervisor will be prepared to see you once (or have an email or
telephone conversation with you) at this time of the year in order to
get you started off on reading and refining your ideas over the
summer and then will commence full supervision when you return
for the final year.

For the first meeting it is advisable to have undertaken some further

reading and literature review to develop your research question in
more depth. It is a good idea to produce an indicative list of the
materials you have already read in this direction (whether in class or
through your independent study), your supervisor will then be able
to point you in the direction of further reading and related studies –
it is important that you begin your own initial investigation as an
independent researcher, however tentative, then you will have
something concrete to discuss when you meet your supervisor.

It would be beneficial for you to have already done some of the

development work on your research question – say a two-page
summary of your research question, initial background/literature to
it, and tentative thoughts on the methods you might use to
investigate it ‘Essential Guide to Doing Research’ has a useful topics
on developing your research question, and it is an electronic
resource in the library. Once you’ve developed your initial thoughts
a little further and handed it on to your supervisor, it would then be
a much more useful initial meeting where you can discuss the
further direction of your work and a timetable for study towards
your dissertation.

The first supervision will allow you to discuss how to sharpen your
research questions, or to formulate them, if you still need to do so,
what to do during the summer, and how to write the dissertation
proposal (see Section 8, below). Your supervisor will also discuss
any ethical or safety implications of the research, should you plan to
collect data during the summer (see section 10).

7. Your Supervisor
Your supervisor is a member of staff to whom you are allocated who
will help guide you through the various stages of your dissertation in
the final year. She or he should be your first point of contact for all
matters relating to your dissertation in the final year. You should
meet with her or him roughly every fortnight during your final year
but you will usually have most contact at the start of the year when
your supervisor will be able to discuss your ideas with you and go
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over issues to do with the research methods that you have adopted,
and also later on when he or she will be able to read and comment
on draft chapters of your report. The Department of Sociology
guidelines stipulate a maximum contact time of 7 hours per
student per supervisor in the course of the dissertation, so use
them wisely! In general, it is best to come to a supervision session
with some specific issues to discuss. If you want comments on a
draft chapter you should make sure that you give it to your
supervisor with enough time before you meet for her or him to read
it.

Please note that supervisors will comment on no more than

one draft of each chapter in the dissertation.

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONTACT YOUR SUPERVISOR

TO SET UP MEETINGS AND TO DISCUSS YOUR PROGRESS.
YOUR SUPERVISOR IS NOT EXPECTED TO CONTACT YOU.
ALSO, PLEASE PLAN AHEAD. YOUR SUPERVISOR HAS OTHER
RESPONSIBILITIES AND IS NOT EXPECTED TO DROP
EVERYTHING TO MEET YOU, TO READ YOUR WORK, OR TO
GIVE FEEDBACK. SET UP MEETINGS AND ARRANGE FOR
FEEDBACK IN ADVANCE.

Do keep in mind, however, that your supervisor is there to help you.

Maintain regular contact with your supervisor; she or he can help
you refine your ideas and can give suggestions for things to read or
how to overcome problems. If you run into difficulty, do not hide out;
seek out your supervisor for advice instead. If, for any reason, you
are unhappy with your supervisor you should discuss this with
him/her first, and if you are still unhappy you should see the
dissertation coordinator or the course director.

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8. The Dissertation Proposal
You are required to submit a dissertation proposal in Week 1 of
Autumn Semester of the final year. Hand this into the Departmental
Undergraduate Secretary in the Sociology Office, with the NAME OF
YOUR SUPERVISOR on the front. It will be logged in and passed on
to your supervisor. CONTACT YOUR SUPERVISOR BY THE END OF
WEEK 2 in order to set up a meeting to discuss the proposal.

A dissertation proposal, about 1000 words in length, sets out three

aspects of your work:

(a) Your research question(s).

Once you have chosen a topic, you will need to narrow down your
focus to a research question, or set of questions, that can be
addressed in the time allotted and with the methodology you have
chosen. Formulate your research questions sharply and state them
in the introduction to the proposal.

(b) Preliminary literature review.

During the summer, you should read around your topic and start to
identify relevant literature. The proposal will briefly set out the
sociological literature as it relates to your question. (You should also
write up a longer preliminary literature review, based on your
summer reading, to discuss with your supervisor early in autumn
semester.)

Hint: You will look for research studies in sociology that directly
address your topic or research question. Look for journal articles as
well as books that relate to your area. Think also about the theories
or approaches in sociology that might help you address your topic.
Though these might, in some cases, be directly related to your
topic, in many cases, they will apply to a much broader range of
topics than your own research. You may find it helpful to look at
research studies in areas that you can relate to your study by
analogy. That is, you do not need to focus your reading narrowly on
your topic and question at this point. During the summer, it is
advisable to read widely. You should read much more than you will
include in the proposal, or even the literature review.

Reading will help you to find your topic, and then to define your
question. It will also help you to think sociologically. Keep notes, as
some of your summer reading will come in handy when you are
writing the literature review for your dissertation. Some reading,
however, will serve only as background information for your own
use, and some may prove to be of little direct benefit in writing the
dissertation. This is not time wasted, however, as it will help you
sharpen your thinking. That said, it is also advisable to practice your
skimming skills during your summer reading, so that you can look at
a wider variety of material. You should certainly read your key
sources carefully, but there is no reason to read every word of a
book or article that will be of no use.
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(c) A short statement of method

This will be your early thinking on how you will approach the
research, for instance, semi-structured interviews, secondary
analysis of a data set, or a semiotic analysis of documentary data,
and will normally take a paragraph to present.

You are not expected to have developed a fully elaborated

statement on your method(s) with completed research instruments
(survey or interview schedules, coding schemes, etc.), though of
course, it is acceptable to propose these should you have thought
about these. (You will hone your research method, with the advice
of your supervisor early in the autumn semester of your final year.)

9. Doing the Research

Unlike most other pieces of work you do in the course of your
degree, the dissertation involves your own empirical research.
Above all, you need to devise a research strategy which is feasible
and appropriate for the research questions that you wish to answer,
and also one that you feel comfortable with doing.

The main kind of research strategies which are adopted are as

follows:

In-depth unstructured or semi-structured face-to-face interviews

with individuals, usually from one or more specific sub-groups of the
population relevant to your topic. Usually, these will be tape-
recorded and often fully transcribed.
Structured written questionnaires administered to one or more
specific sub-groups, as above.
Focus groups incorporating one or more specific sub-groups, as
above.
Observational/ethnographic research in a 'natural' setting, possibly
supplemented with interview data.
Discourse analysis of relevant texts.
Analysis of primary documents; for example, government reports,
newspaper articles, or, in the case of a theoretically orientated
dissertation, published academic work. Analysis of television
programmes, films or other cultural products.
Secondary analysis of existing (usually government-produced) social
surveys. It makes most sense to analyse surveys that are already
held on computer files in the department. These include: the British
Social Attitudes Survey; the General Household Survey; the British
Household Panel Survey; the World Values Survey.
You will be familiar from your methodology courses with the kinds of
issues that arise in conducting each type of research. Different
methods employ different types of skills and will require different
kinds of analysis (eg statistical analysis using a computer package
like SPSS, or qualitative analysis of interview transcripts). In general,
all social research methods can be more time-consuming than you
might think, so plan ahead!

It makes sense to link your methodology with your chosen research

question. Alternatively (and more commonly) students feel more
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comfortable with some methods than others. In that case, formulate
your research question in such a way that your chosen methodology
will allow you to answer it well.

It may make sense to employ more than one method in order to

address different aspects of your topic. This can add strength to the
dissertation, but take care not to overburden yourself with too much
data collection or analysis that you cannot feasibly complete. The
mark for the dissertation is based upon the quality of the final report
(how you write it, the connections you draw between existing theory
and your research, the depth of analysis, the quality of your
conclusions, and the like), and not upon the amount of data that you
collect.

10. Ethical and Safety Considerations

Your research should be conducted in accordance with ethical

principles. Research with certain subjects, on certain topics and
using certain methodologies raise ethical issues and may require a
decision from the faculty ethics committee. This should be discussed
with your supervisor at an early stage. Comprehensive advice is
available at http://www.surrey.ac.uk/SHS/ethics/briefing.htm.

You, along with your supervisor, have a responsibility to:

• Protect those people who participate in your research. You

should identify and eliminate, mitigate or reduce any potential
harm anyone may experience as a consequence of their
involvement in your research
• Ensure that you, as the researcher, are protected from
possible harm
• Obtain and record informed consent from all participants (or
appropriate other)
• Preserve the confidentiality and anonymity of all those who
participate in your research
• Ensure that all those who participate in your research do so
voluntarily
• Obtain the appropriate level of authority in granting a
favorable ethical opinion
• Protect the reputation of this academic institution

Ethical opinion for research will be required where:

• There is any risk to a volunteer’s health or well being

• Participants are considered vulnerable (children, the mentally
ill, patients, prisoners)
• You have items within a survey/questionnaire or interview
schedule that may be considered offensive, distressing or
personal to a particular target group
• Payment or benefits in kind are given to participants
• Your research involves fellow students or members of
university staff (unless the supervisor decides otherwise)

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 • Participants are associated with your profession or place of
work

It is less likely that ethical approval will be required where:

• The sample is not drawn from students or staff associated

with the student
• The sample does not include vulnerable respondents
• Your participants are adults
• You have a non-sensitive subject matter
• Deception is not part of the research design
• There are no confidentiality issues

Should you and your supervisor decide that ethical approval is

required the forms that you need to fill in along with instructions
about the information that you need to provide are available at
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/SHS/ethics/documents/documents.htm.
Please ensure that you provide all documentation that you are
asked to. Failure to do so will result in a delay to your application.
Note that the process of gaining ethical approval from the
committee can take up to four working weeks. The ethics committee
will contact you within that time and either give a favourable
opinion; require some adjustments; or, pass your proposal onto the
University of Surrey ethics committee if necessary.

Please note that there are certain circumstances where additional

ethical approval and clearance is required:

1. National Health Service (NHS) based research: Research

with current patients and users of the National Health Service
along with their relatives or carers requires ethical approval
from NHS research ethics committees. This is required before
you submit to the faculty ethics committee. Acquiring NHS
approval is lengthy and wouldn’t usually be possible in the
time frame available for an undergraduate dissertation. If you
are thinking of conducting research in this area, early
discussions with your supervisor are advised and refer to
http://www.corec.org.uk/applicants/apply/apply.htm or, for
applications for research in the area of the University of
Surrey, http://www.royalsurrey.nhs.uk/intranet/Royal-
Surr/Research-a/Resgov0203-1-1-1-.doc_cvt.htm
2. Research with children and vulnerable adults: If you are
planning to carry out research on children and/or vulnerable
adults you are likely to need to complete a Criminal Records
Bureau (CRB) check. If you think that this might apply to your
research, inform your supervisor as early as possible and
contact Rob Meadows (r.meadows@surrey.ac.uk) for further
details.

It is important that you consider your own safety when carrying out
research., If you intend to carry out research which may pose risks
to personal safety, it is imperative that you discuss the matter in
advance with your dissertation supervisor. This is to allow you and
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your supervisor to discuss how you may anticipate, avoid or deal
with any possible risks in the proposed research or method of data
collection. She or he will keep a written record of the discussion. You
may be reassured to know, however, that there have been no
incidents relating to the personal safety of students undertaking
undergraduate dissertations.

11. Plagiarism
If it appears that you have presented the work of others as your
own, this constitutes plagiarism and is therefore a form of academic
misconduct. Further information about what constitutes plagiarism
are available at
http://staff.soc.surrey.ac.uk/phodkinson/plagiarism/index.html .
Details of the departmental procedure for dealing with cases of
plagiarism can be found at
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/pdfs/studentinfo/procedure.doc. There
are very strict penalties for those students found to have
plagiarized.

12. Writing up the Dissertation

The dissertation report must describe fully the work that was
undertaken, associated methodological issues and the overall
sociological significance of your research. It should be between
8,000 and 12,000 words long. The upper word limit is strict -- you
may not exceed 12,000 words. The word count includes tables,
quotes and citations, but does NOT include title page,
acknowledgments, contents and abstract, the bibliography and
appendices. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DECLARE THE WORD COUNT
WHEN YOU SUBMIT THE DISSERTATION.

There are few hard-and-fast rules about the structure of the report,
which will depend upon the kind of research undertaken. Normally,
however, we would expect to see something like the following:

Title page in standard format (see Appendix B)

Acknowledgements (optional). It is courteous to thank people for

any special help you have been given. Acknowledgements are
usually placed at the beginning of the dissertation after the title
page and before the contents page, but may be placed at the end.

A table of contents.

A brief abstract of 200-300 words setting out the nature of the

project, main findings and conclusions.

An introduction which sets out the general topic that you

researched, the specific questions that you addressed, and why
these are interesting and important from a sociological point of
view.

A review of relevant research literature undertaken by other

researchers which informs the theoretical and empirical questions
underpinning your own research. While you should show that you
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know what others have written on the topic, do not simply
summarise other research or string together a number of unrelated
summaries. Instead, write a critical review of the literature which
explains why the pieces you review are important and how they
inform your own project.

A discussion of methodology and the methods adopted. Since one of

the aims of the dissertation is to allow you to demonstrate that you
are able to apply social research techniques appropriately, this
should be a little more in-depth than you might find in academic
research papers. Explain which method or methods you adopted,
why these were appropriate, what the possible limitations of your
methods were, what kind of problems emerged in the course of the
research and how you analysed the data.

A presentation and analysis of the results. The form of these will

obviously depend upon the kind of research you undertook.
Whatever method you used, however, you need to make sure that
the assertions you make in your analysis and discussion can be
justified in relation to your research findings. To do so, you will need
to provide the appropriate evidence (tables, quotations etc.) in the
text.

A conclusion in which you draw together the different parts of the

dissertation. Here you should connect your own empirical research
back to issues or concepts you considered at the beginning of the
dissertation and to the sociological literature you reviewed. In some
cases, you may discuss sociological literature not included in the
literature review, if this helps you to analyse or discuss your
findings. In the conclusion you may wish to suggest the overall
implications of your study for sociology or for social policy, to
speculate beyond the findings in your own study, and perhaps to
highlight some further questions for further research or areas of
uncertainty raised by your research.

A reference list, or bibliography, which provides full citations for all

of the sources (public documents, scholarly literature, internet
resources etc.) that you have mentioned in the text. It is vital to
make sure that you do this properly (see Appendix C for advice on
referencing). Include only cited works in the bibliography. Do not
include works that you read but did not make use of in the
dissertation.

Where relevant, your dissertation will include appendices. Copies of

cover letters, interview schedules or questionnaires should be
presented in an appendix. You may also include some statistical
tables not analysed in the text. Visual data is often included in an
appendix. In general, try to keep these to a minimum. You should
not feel the need to include absolutely every bit of data you have in
the written report; for instance, interview transcripts are considered
raw data and are not customarily included in an appendix. Part of
the skill of doing the report lies in choosing to present the
appropriate findings. You should make sure that any really

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important pieces of information are in the main text, and not in
appendices.

13. Submitting the Dissertation

The dissertation is due in on the Friday of Week 5 of the Spring
Semester of your final year.
As with all coursework, you should hand it in to the sociology
undergraduate secretary who will log it. It must be presented in a
standardised format, as follows:

The dissertation must be typed, with a minimum of 1.5 line spacing

(preferably double-spaced), on numbered, single-sided pages with a
one-inch margin all round.
The title page should be set out as in Appendix C.

The dissertation must be bound. It is best to get it 'heat-bound'. AVS

can do this for you, for a small fee. Alternatively, you can ring bind
in the department for the cost of the materials.
You must produce three copies of the dissertation. Two must be
handed in; you should keep the third for yourself.

A dissertation submitted after the deadline of 5 pm Friday in

Week 5 of the Spring semester will be subject to the deduction
of 1 percentage mark for each part or full WEEKDAY that
it is submitted late.

Penalties apply for all weekdays when the University is open

(i.e. excluding bank holidays and University Closure days the
dates of which are published in the University Calendar).
Weekdays during the Christmas and Easter vacations when the
University is open are subject to penalties.

14. The Marking Process

The dissertation will be read by your supervisor and independently
by another member of the teaching staff, and it may also be
moderated by an external examiner. You will not receive your mark
until after the exam board in May. After this time, you may approach
your supervisor for feedback if you wish.

Appendix A

Some Recent Dissertation Titles

Young peoples’ attitudes and experiences of policing

“Beautiful crime” a study of how people interpret and define graffiti

Are drug treatment services for the under 18s in the community as
good as drug treatment services for under 18s in custody?

Defence workers: a research study of how criminal defence studies

are constructed

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Do our experiences and perceptions of crime in the night-time
economy influence our choices of evening activity? Is there a
difference between the older and younger generation?

Legalized or not? A research study into public awareness of the

reclassification of cannabis in the UK

Britain’s ‘underclass’: a ‘culture of dependency’ or a case of

‘blaming the victim’

A quantitative analysis of teacher stress and the family across

infant, junior and secondary education

Caring for special needs children. A mother’s view

Hard Graft. A qualitative study looking at the experiences of

teachers

How useful is careers’ advice and education to 15 and 16 year old

school pupils?

Life accounts of dyslexia and oppression

Summer is not summer, it’s exam time. An insight into curriculum

2000

Mentoring; ‘Fad’ or ‘positive intervention’? A case study of a

mentoring scheme

Vocational degrees versus non-vocational: which is the key to

success for graduates?

A study of the relationship between the amount of watching TV and

the construction of sex-role stereotype among primary school
students in Korea

What’s the reality? Are boys under-achieving at GCSE level?

The under-achievement of black pupils in the British education

system with reference to stigma and deprivation

Ethnic survival and ethnic dissolution in inter-ethnic relationships

Ethnic minority formation of Irish women in Britain

Identity, segregation and racism: the social construction of a

locality

“We are Exeter, say we are Exeter!” A case study of community

and local identity in the fans of Exeter City FC

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre: the sexual interaction process

Causes of female body dissatisfaction

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A study into men’s views on body image “the Ideal body” and
masculinity

An investigation into the role of the father in contemporary society

“You are my daddy and my mummy, aren’t you daddy?” The

construction and reported experiences of lone fatherhood

When is termination acceptable?

Does the media provide a true representation of teenage parenting?

Who affects the decisions of radio station news editors in their gate-
keeping role: unwrapping the myth of the conspiracy

Behind the front: an investigation into web logs as a public release

of the private self

“Who says there’s no ‘I’ in the virtual team”? An exploratory study

into the virtual team and factors affecting the cohesion amongst its
members

A sociological study of the relationship between the audience and

the movie industry

“I found Nemo in Howl’s Moving Castle”. A study exploring

globalisation, cultural imperialism and animated films

A qualitative investigation into celebrity articles in the genre of

men’s magazines

The relationship between celebrity culture, society and the

individual
l
“The right pair of trainers is a passport to happiness”. How is
fashion used in the construction of male identity in a student setting

Do social factors influence what people wear, or do people dress as

individuals: Assessing postmodernism

Retiring gracefully or still rocking out? An exploration into the

effects of the post-war youth sub-cultures

Women’s perception of ageing through the medium of magazines

Women’s ageing experiences and their perception of anti-ageing

strategies: a comparison of two ages

What are the principal factors that affect women’s relative poverty
in later life?

Women and pensions: an analysis of thoughts and experiences

across age cohorts
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The discursive construction of a marginal perspective or, why
anarchists will never get a good press

Ban the burner: the social construction of local opposition to an

environmental problem

Entering the corporate maze: a sociological study into the

perplexity of organisational culture to the newcomer

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 Appendix B:

Title Page

The title page of the dissertation should indicate the following

information:

TITLE OF REPORT
Report presented by
A N Other

For the Degree of Bachelor of Science

in
Sociology

(OR)

Sociology, Culture and New Media

(OR)

Applied Psychology and Sociology

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
Month, Year

Word count

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 Appendix C

Style and Referencing

The first goal of writing is clarity. Your readers must be able to grasp
what you are trying to say, and you accomplish this through clear
writing. If you writing is muddled, your reader is likely to assume
that your thoughts are muddled, too. A sloppy manuscript may give
the appearance of sloppy work in general and your mark could
suffer as a result. Make sure that it is well written, with good
spelling, grammar and punctuation throughout. PROOF-READ YOUR
WORK AND USE A SPELL CHECKER, not US English. Be mindful that
a word may be correctly spelt, but incorrectly placed: to/too/two or
there/their/they’re for example.

Some basic stylistic conventions are as follows:

Use bias-free and gender-neutral terms.

You may wish to see the British Sociological Association's
statements on bias-free and gender-neutral writing:

Avoid using jargon and define any specialist terms you use. Do not
use big words just for the sake of it. Shorter words are often just as
good, or better. More important, do not use big words (or any words)
incorrectly; if unsure, check in the dictionary or use a different word.

Choose active voice over passive voice. Do not use contractions

(use "cannot" instead of "can't", "does not" instead of "doesn't" etc.)
except where quoting direct speech.

Do not begin sentences with a numeric, for example Three blind

mice, not 3 blind mice.

Indent all quotes from informants as separate paragraphs in the

text, and indicate the informant by name, pseudonym, or interview
number.

Tables and figures should be numbered, titled and clearly

presented. Abbreviations and codes used in the tables should be
made clear, perhaps in a key at the bottom of the table. Only
include tables that are mentioned and discussed in the text. If the
table is based on data other than your own, provide the source of
the table or the data at the bottom of the table.

The referencing protocol at the University of Surrey is the Harvard

Convention, or Author Date

It is very important that you provide proper citations in the text and
a full set of references at the end of your dissertation. References
should be given as a name/date reference in the text - eg Smith
(1998) - and then a full reference in the bibliography. Where there is

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more than one publication by the same author in a given year use
an alphabetic suffix in the text and references, eg Smith (1998a),
Smith (1998b).

Indent long quotations from published sources as separate

paragraphs in the text (without quotation marks), and give a
reference, including page numbers. Short quotations should be
enclosed in quotation marks, and include a reference with page
number.

Full references should take the following form:

Book: Calhoun, C. (1995) Critical Social Theory, Oxford: Blackwell.

Book chapter: Wallman, S. (1986) 'Ethnicity and the boundary

process in context' in Rex, J. & Mason, D. (eds) Theories of Race and
Ethnic Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Journal article: Halpern, D. (1993) 'Minorities and mental health',

Social Science and Medicine, Vol.26, No.5, pp. 597-607.

Official report: Office for Population Censuses and Surveys (1981)

General Household Survey 1980 Series GHS no.10, London: HMSO.

Unless very short, quotations from other authors should be

indented, single-spaced, in the text. All quotations must have a
name/date and page reference, eg (Smith, 1998, p.20).

David Fisher and Terry Hanstock of the Library and Information

Services at Nottingham Trent University have compiled a useful
guide to citing references using the Harvard style, available on-line
at:

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 Appendix D

Staff Research Interests

Please note that academic staff may be on sabbatical leave

during the year, the Dissertation Co-ordinator will allocate
supervision with those lecturers currently teaching

Victoria Alexander - Sociology of Art; Sociology of Culture; Sociology

of Organisations

Sara Arber - Sociology of ageing; sociology of gender; women's

employment: secondary analysis of data sets

Viv Boon - Human rights; issues of diversity and identity;

multiculturalism and Europeanisation.

Ian Brunton-Smith – Criminology; Quantitative Sociology

Karen Bullock – Criminal justice; policing; crime reduction; organised

crime
Kate Burningham - Sociology of the environment; qualitative
research

Geoff Cooper - Sociology of science; qualitative research;

theoretical sociology

Rachel Condry – Crime and the family; parenting and the state
regulation of family life; victims of crime.

Ann Cronin – Sexuality; sociology of gender

Kate Davidson - Sociology of ageing; gender; social policy;

qualitative research

Sarah Earthy – health and illness;qualitative research; theory and

policy
Jane Fielding - Secondary analysis of data sets; computing
applications in social research
Nigel Fielding – Crime; criminal justice; policing; deviance
Nigel Gilbert - Computational approaches to sociology; analysis of
secondary data sets; sociology of the environment

Nicola Green – Science and technology; new media; body politics;

popular culture; gender in these fields

Christine Hine – Qualitative methods, particularly ethnography and

discourse analysis; Internet and society; sociology of science and
technology

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Paul Hodkinson – Sociology of media and new media; popular
culture; consumer culture

Paul Johnson – Surveillance; sexuality; qualitative methods;

deviance
Keith Macdonald - Historical sociology; sociology of organisations
and professions; documentary research

Rob Meadows – Quantitative analysis; theoretical perspectives

Jo Moran-Ellis - Sociology of childhood; sociology of personal social

services; violence against women and children
Florian Pichler - Political sociology; quantitative methods
Michael Williams – Political sociology; contemporary British politics

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