Undergraduate Dissertation...

[Shay HTFC]

TheDon, I am in a similar position to you in that I have what seems like an unimaginable amount of final year work to do before the end of April.

Take solace in the fact that you have at least acknowledged the fact that lots of work needs to be done.

Once you get into the habit of some 8 hour days then it will be fine. I think that once you get on a roll, some days you could be knocking out 1000+ words of good quality content without realising it.

I too am incredibly stressed at the thought of uni work right now. I have to do a final year project also involving the coding of a large piece of software. I still have some of this to complete as well as an 80 page report. This however, contains a lot of computing diagrams and tests etc, so isn't as insurmountable as it sounds.

For the past 2 weeks however, I have put down the special cigs and got into a habit whereby I'm in uni every day from relatively early, working through till 10pm or so and chilling for a bit before getting an early night.
It gets easier, trust me. At first I just wanted to do anything but work, but now I can get on with it for hours at a time and really make progress.

You can do it if you accept that change needs to happen in your day to day life. Start a fresh day soon where you tell yourself that this is it. For the next 1.5 months you are going to become some sort of working freak.

I found it easier to just jump straight in at the deep end and start working full out, rather than saying "I'll do 3 hours today, 5 hours the next..."

Don't worry, year in, year out loads of people are in the same boat and pull through to get their dissos completed to a good standard.
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Full Motorbike License - GS500E '95

[Andy C]

Yea very true, I always start early as ive seen people in the library for 24hours and just dont think i could do it if im honest, have a lot of respect for them though

Good luck and just keep in mind how important it is
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Shay HTFC]

Nobody's saying that 24hr stints need to be done just yet! Save those for the final few days!
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Full Motorbike License - GS500E '95

[JonB]

The main problem i'm finding right now is that i'm not sure that my dissertation flows, but I guess that is something I can adjust when it comes to editing. /shrug/

Going into the library at 8.30AM tomrrow and want to have my final chapter planned by the end of the day, ready for typing on saturday, sunday can be dedicated towards my intro and conclusion.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Suitor_Stu]

[smug rant]

Ah, dissertation time again - this is the one time of the year where I tend to get a bit smug because even though we are in uni roughly 42 weeks of the year, and mostly 4 full 9-5 day weeks (what with some mornings and afternoons off) with exams at both Christmas, Easter and finals in May too we don't have to do a dissertation. Biggest thing I've had to write at Uni have been a few critical report things at around 3k words!

Not that I want to be too smug about it (and this year anyway my time is currently being taken up having several rounds of interviews trying to secure a job for next year whilst also trying to finish treatment on a handful of patients for case reports) but it does make me feel a wee bit better that having spent some 5 years doing this sort of thing that other students get to feel what having to work actually feels like!

[/smug rant]

On the other hand though, I've had to try and calm down a good few of my friends along the way when inevitably (because it is pretty much inevitable!) they find out that they have forgotten to look at something or have fallen way short of the word tally, so I know it's a pretty stressful time! My only advice would be to just get on with it - it's a total game to get yourself into the mindset to study or research and that even spending time in a library makes you feel a bit better, like you are actually doing something about it rather than just stressing.

However, I tend to avoid the university library like the plague - I prefer to go to council ones (after taking the books out of the uni library) because there is generally no one I know there! I found that when I tried to do anything in the uni library either someone would come talk to me and just get me more stressed because I had come there to work or that I would get paranoid about how much work the other folks I knew were doing which put me right off. So I would say, find a local library that DOES NOT HAVE WIFI!!! and just take your laptop/pen and paper there and get down to it.

Cheers, Stu

[colin1]

you students of today, dont know how easy you have it to research things, with your internet access and world wide web, and google to make it even easier, and wikipedia to make it easier still

in my day, we had books, and you had to get them from a library

mind you, at least I didnt pay a penny towards getting my degree, unlike you lot who will have a growing debt, until you reach a salary where you are obliged to pay it off.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[JonB]

[colin1]

You can do a lot of research on the internet as background information if nothing else. Even if you later look for suitable references to use in book form.

Most topics are covered on the net, and its not more inaccurate than a book.

There was a test done comparing wikipedia, to the encyclopaedia britannica, and they found a similar percentage of errors.

I think its daft if you get marked down for using the internet. You should be able to use web links as references just as well as using books.

Anyone can put whatever they want on the internet, but anyone can get a book published too.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[JonB]

Yes and no. Most web sources don't have enough information to cite correctly. Some lack a name of an actual author, some without a date (I had to email the actual author of one document to get a date of publication).

I have used the internet occasionally for background as you say, sometimes you need something laid out in laymans terms. They were quite good for seminars as well, cause at least I could get a foot into a discussion on the Munich agreement for example.

Also you have to consider that web sources can disappear off the face of the earth, due to server issues, or they just get taken down. All published articles will at least be able to be obtained at the British Library.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[colin1]

in the time between you writing a dissertation, and submitting it, the webpage would still be in googles cache

you have the option to click cached when anything comes up in a search, that way if the website doesnt exist, its still there in google's cache

having more than a handful of sources to refer to can be handy particular with difficult topics, where something better written off the net, might explain things more clearly than the recommended text
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[LankyPaddy]

Just dug mine out for a trip down memory lane

11'000 words and 39 pages on 'Autostereograms' (magic eye pictures to you and me )

Made these:
https://paddy.woollyfoot.org/DIS/Dino.jpg

https://paddy.woollyfoot.org/DIS/Jet.jpg

Keep at it people - find a space to work without distractions and go for it.
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Say, do you have any Gatorade? I'm afraid I left all my electrolytes with your daughter.
Current bike: SV650S K8

[Annabella]

You'll be fine. I had to write two dissertations and whilst my research one took me all year my second (analysis) was written the week of the deadline...

I knew what was going in and what I wanted to say, but hadn't written a word

The thing that took the longest was drawing my diagram/picture things so they were obviously 'Fibonacci'!!
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Avast! Pirates ahoy!
I did Cadwell!
www.bikepics.com/members/bella

[LankyPaddy]

I'm intrigued by the "central point of climax"
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Say, do you have any Gatorade? I'm afraid I left all my electrolytes with your daughter.
Current bike: SV650S K8

[Annabella]

[Andy C]

[JonB]

I'm nearly done now. 9,000 words complete.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[LankyPaddy]

[TheDonUK]

Yesterday i spend 7 hours in the library, I am currently sitting in the library and will be untill 2AM and the same every day for the next three weeks, its going to be such a good day when i can post the same message jon just posted...

I watched coach carter again for a bit of motivation, that should keep me going for at least a couple of days...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Andy C]

I finsished the bulk on thursday night and then went to Bristol for a night out.

Sat in the library staring at the screen all day when all i had to do was read over/correct it.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Hope you get there Don
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Andy C]

So how did everyone get on, Don you get your finished?

Got mine in and had to do a two week design project (finish friday). Not fun at all.
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Mine's pretty much done, just need to put my code into the appendices and give it a general tweek. Deadline's thursday and the limit is 40 pages + appendices.

I have 40 pages + 12 pages of appendices, I suspect the code will give me another few pages. At 10,176 words at the moment.
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My Flickr

[ThoughtContro...]

[Mrs Kickstart]

Hi

IMPORTANT ADVICE

Please back your work up often to a different file names each time top you have a history to go back to. Also backup to onto external storage. Maybe post copies to your parents so when you loose the laptop you do not loose everything.

If you have very large MS word documents they are almost certain to corrupt the day before the work is due.

Regards
C
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Help fight the safety camera partnerships -- www.pepipoo.com

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

I've been uploading mine to megaupload every time I do a chunk of work on it.

Can't fault it.
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My Flickr

[Andy C]