"It looks OK" vs "It is OK" in dissertation works
For a dissertation report to be really OK, a student needs to put in serious effort in study and to have good intellectual capability developed over the years. A student needs to have a genuine interest in study and in the dissertation topic. Such learning attitude takes time to cultivate and such intellectual capability cannot be built up via a few "intensive" workshops on Research Methods. Thus, to produce a dissertation report that is OK requires internal drive to learn from the student. Lecturers can, in this case, act like a mentor or a coach. Lecturers share their research experience (and sometimes, some resources) and facilitate students to find their answers that they already have in their mind.
In dissertation workshops, what I can offer is briefing on the subject of Research Methods as well as some additional resources on Research Methods, e.g. blog articles from me. I can offer some advice on how to make a student's report looks OK at first glance (i.e. no obvious and fatal defects). For example, I would say that a proper dissertation report needs to have the following basic report structure: 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Research Methods 4. Findings and Analysis 5. Conclusions and Recommendations; Appendix. Morever, a proper dissertation report needs to have proper referencing. A proper report should have "a low similarity index figure" from turnitin. A proper report should not have lots of spelling and grammatical errors, etc.. All in all, such advice can be explained in a 3-hour workshop. The goal of such kind of worskhop is to ensure that the students' dissertation reports "look OK".
As a lecturer, I am concerned about students' reports "looking OK" [the short-run perspective]; but I am more concerned about students' reports "being OK". Reports being OK indicate that the students have experienced intellectual learning and have developed the capability to learn how to learn. This then is the long-term goal of learning [the long-run perspective of education]
There are students who are solely interested in learning how to make their reports look OK; that is fine with me.
In dissertation workshops, what I can offer is briefing on the subject of Research Methods as well as some additional resources on Research Methods, e.g. blog articles from me. I can offer some advice on how to make a student's report looks OK at first glance (i.e. no obvious and fatal defects). For example, I would say that a proper dissertation report needs to have the following basic report structure: 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Research Methods 4. Findings and Analysis 5. Conclusions and Recommendations; Appendix. Morever, a proper dissertation report needs to have proper referencing. A proper report should have "a low similarity index figure" from turnitin. A proper report should not have lots of spelling and grammatical errors, etc.. All in all, such advice can be explained in a 3-hour workshop. The goal of such kind of worskhop is to ensure that the students' dissertation reports "look OK".
As a lecturer, I am concerned about students' reports "looking OK" [the short-run perspective]; but I am more concerned about students' reports "being OK". Reports being OK indicate that the students have experienced intellectual learning and have developed the capability to learn how to learn. This then is the long-term goal of learning [the long-run perspective of education]
There are students who are solely interested in learning how to make their reports look OK; that is fine with me.
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