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 Oct
2. Outline plan………………………………….. DUE: Early Nov
3. First draft………………………………………. DUE: December
The final draft of your dissertation must be completed
by… The Easter Holidays
Assessment Information
Selection
You 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.
Assessment Information
Authentication
You 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 assessment
Your 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.
• 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 Keneally
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Cry, 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 notemaking.
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
(publication, dates, author etc.)
from
- 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.
Style
If 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.