Advanced Higher

Guide to your Dissertation

What you must do…

Make an independent study of and produce a dissertation on an approved aspect or aspects of language or literature.

Criteria Calendar

• Throughout the course of producing your dissertation, you will have to produce the following, which will be kept as proof of authenticity:

1. Draft title and proposals ………………. DUE: Early Oct2. Outline plan………………………………….. DUE: Early Nov3. First draft………………………………………. DUE: December

The final draft of your dissertation must be completed by… The Easter Holidays

Assessment InformationSelectionYou will choose your texts and topic but they must be approved by your presenting centre. These topics/texts must not be the subject of teaching or assessment in other units of the Advanced Higher English and Communication course or of other units or courses.

Length

Your dissertation or specialist study must be between 3500 and 4500 words in length, excluding footnotes and bibliography but including quotations.

You must write the number of words you use on the Dissertation Flyleaf when you send it for external course assessment. If you exceed the word count you will be disqualified from achieving the unit.

AuthenticationYou will be required to sign a declaration that the dissertation you submit is your own work.

Your presenting centre will file your draft copies as proof of the authenticity of your work. These drafts will include: draft title and proposals; outline plan; first draft.

External assessmentYour dissertation must be submitted to the SQA by 30 April. It will account for 40% of the total marks available for an Advanced Higher in English and Communication.

Assessment Information

• Write or word-process the dissertation on one side of A4 paper only

• use italics or underlining to indicate titles of texts • set in from the margin all quotations of more than one line so

that they are clearly distinguishable from the text of the dissertation

• use footnotes and page references where appropriate to identify quotations from and references to primary sources

• use footnotes and page references at all times to identify and acknowledge quotations from, references to and information/ideas gleaned from secondary sources

• provide an accurate bibliography • give footnote and bibliography references in the following

form:

D.Gifford and D. McMillan, A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, EUP, 1997.

Assessment Criteria

• You must meet all of the performance criteria in your dissertation in order to achieve a pass at Grade C.

• A pass at Grade C is required for unit/internal assessment.

Study the Performance Criteria and try to put the main components into your own words to help you gain an understanding of them.

Assessment Criteria

‘Grade A performance will be characterised by overall high quality showing at least four of the Indicators of Excellence across at least two of the categories listed in the Performance Criteria and Indicators of Excellence tables for each outcome. Where the overall quality of a piece goes beyond Grade C, but falls short of Grade A, it will attain Grade B.’

Study the Indicators of Excellence and try to put the main components into your own words to help you gain an understanding of them.

Choosing Texts

• They must be texts of literary merit: they have something of value to say which is expressed in a considered and thought-provoking manner.

• The best choice, however, will be when you have found texts that genuinely interest you; your enthusiasm will be apparent to the marker.

Proposing a Topic

• You must explore the literary merits of your chosen texts, showing your understanding of them by analysing them. You will therefore be expected to identify literary techniques used by the author(s).

• The dissertation usually involves the study of two or more texts and therefore you will be expected to offer a detailed comparison of these texts.

A typical proposal might be:

Texts: Schindler’s Ark, Thomas KeneallyTo Kill a Mockingbird, Harper LeeCry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton

Topic: A detailed comparative study of the literary techniques used in the above texts to portray racial prejudice and its effects on society.

Aspects to Consider• A substantial body of reading should be dealt with but, there

should be a limited number of texts being studied in detail.

• The texts chosen should be of a reasonable literary quality

• The topic of study indicated should be reasonably specific allowing a focussed analysis and comparison.

• You should concentrate on literary and/or linguistic aspects of the topic/text.

• There should be a detailed comparison of texts

• Two or more candidates from the same centre should not have the same or similar focuses of study.

Task

• Look at the ‘Analysis of Proposals’ sheet and discuss each proposal deciding:

1. Is the proposal an acceptable focus for study?2. What each proposal’s strengths and weaknesses are

Note-Making• Organise your notes in a way that is suitable for you.

• Remember you will have to have a detailed comparison of your texts so organise your notes under similar headings and in a way that allows easy comparison.

• Consider the focus of your task when considering relevant areas to take notes on.

• If possible, begin noting down possible quotations or page numbers of significant quotations/extracts.

• See separate sheets for some help and guidance on note-making.

Critical Perspective

• Once you have your own initial notes and impressions of your chosen texts it is a good idea to see what critical works there are already out there:

- You must take note of the exact place you got these from (publication, dates, author etc.)

- These can be used as secondary sources in your final dissertation and can be used to support your argument or be something that you argue against.

Outline Plan• Your outline plan must show how you plan to explore your

topic. In note form, you must:

i) state which points you intend to make

ii) show how you will support these points with reference to particular techniques and concepts used by the author(s)

iii) refer to details of the text that you will use to support your arguments.

Title page

Your title page should include:

• your centre name • your centre number • your name • your candidate number • your title/topic/texts.

StyleIf word-processed, your dissertation should observe the following conventions:

• each page should be numbered, including the title page and the bibliography

• each page should be single-sided • each page should be typed in single line spacing • the font used should be Times New Roman • the font size should be 12 point • your text should be left-justified • titles of texts - novels, plays, poems, critical or reference works - should

be in italics, without quotation marks • quotations, unless only a few words long (when quotation marks should

be used), should be preceded and followed by a double line space.

Citing references in the body of your dissertation

• Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and numbered sequentially from the beginning to the end of your dissertation.

• The first reference to a text cited or quoted from should be given in full as follows: Bennett, Joan, Four Metaphysical Poets, (London, 1953), p23.

• The normal convention for subsequent references is: Bennett, p47.

• It is acceptable to abbreviate lengthy titles in footnotes or textual references. For example: All's Well That Ends Well can become AWTEW.

• Simple references, such as line numbers or page references of quotations from a book or a play or a poem already cited in full, can usually be incorporated in the text, normally in parentheses after quotations.

• Internet sources should be referred to thus: Crowley, J, New York Times (1985), Review of Lanark. Available: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~crumey/gray1.html

Listing sources in your bibliography

• You should take a fresh page for your bibliography.

• Make separate lists of primary texts (those chosen for study) and secondary sources (critical or reference works, periodicals, Web documents).

• List sources in alphabetical order, according to the author's surname.