Introductory description

This dissertation module will enable students enrolled on the English and History degree to undertake a substantial independent and inter-disciplinary research project, and produce an article-length essay. It gives students the opportunity to work in a way similar to an academic literary scholar or historian: identifying a suitable research topic; mastering the relevant scholarship; identifying and critically analysing a substantial field of primary texts; and articulating and sustaining a coherent and logical argument. As a final-year module, it will complete the intellectual training that students have undertaken through their earlier modules, particularly the two core modules for the English & History degree (EN126 History & Textuality, and EN2J9 Writing History).

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

From the spring term of the year before the dissertation, students will discuss the dissertation project with the module and/ or degree convenor(s) and with other relevant academic staff. During the Easter vacation students will write a draft proposal, including a topic and c.100-300 words briefly describing the proposed project. This proposal will be considered by the convenor of the dissertation module, who will assist students in identifying an appropriate supervisor in either the English or History departments. Before the end of the year before the dissertation, students will attend a workshop which will train them to begin planning and researching their dissertation over the summer vacation. This workshop will cover: how to identify, select, and use sources; how to conduct literature searches; how to plan the writing of the dissertation; how to start writing. Upon returning for their final year, students will have six meetings with their supervisor, spread across terms one and two (at least two meetings per term).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Develop a capacity for independent study and self-directed inquiry and research, including an ability to manage a long-term research project successfully
• Identify, analyse, and plan an appropriate topic for independent study, with limited supervision
• Develop an ability to employ and critically reflect upon relevant research methodologies
• Develop excellent written communication skills, specifically an ability to draft, revise, and edit an extended piece of academic writing with the full apparatus of citation and referencing
• Critically evaluate evidence from a range of primary and secondary sources, and employ it to support an extended original argument about the dissertation topic
• Demonstrate thorough knowledge of their chosen research topic, including consolidating and critically reviewing existing scholarship in the area
• Demonstrate an awareness of research ethics and personal responsibility and incorporate this into their practice where appropriate

Interdisciplinary

Students will employ analytical and research skills that they have developed during earlier years of the inter-disciplinary English & History joint degree, including reading and critically reflecting on primary sources; current approaches to literary history; referentiality in historical readings of sources; understanding the relationship between history and literary studies as textual disciplines; writing critical précis of academic essays and articles; and close reading of literary texts.
Dissertations may be undertaken on topics at the interface of English and History as academic disciplines, but even those that focus firmly on either discipline will be informed by the inter-disciplinary research and analysis skills students have developed in earlier years of the degree.

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes