Lecture 5
HOW CAN I MANAGE MY TIME
AND COMPLETE ON TIME?
Lecture 5
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• to be thoroughly aware of the time-frame
within which dissertations are completed
• to appreciate how knowledge of the project
life-cycle and how work breakdown charts
and Gantt charts can help you complete on
time
• to understand the importance of maintaining
bibliographical data
Lecture 5
LECTURE OUTLINE
• recommended reading
• how long your dissertation will take to complete
• how knowledge of the project life-cycle can help
you to be successful
• work breakdown structures, and how they can be
used to manage the dissertation
• using time effectively
• managing bibliographical data
• the main barriers to completing on time
Recommended reading:
Chapter 5: How Can I Manage My Time and Complete On
Time?, in the associated book:
Horn, R. (2009) Researching and Writing Dissertations.
London: CIPD
Work-alone activity:
TASKS INVOLVED IN COMPLETING
Time allowed: 20 minutes’ preparation
3 minutes’ feedback
List the tasks you think must be completed when
preparing a dissertation.
This is an initial experience exercise so that you can
compare your initial thoughts with a typical time-scale.
Feedback to the group: ‘The tasks I need to complete for
my dissertation are . . .’
DURATION IN HOURS AND WEEKS OF THE TYPICAL
PREPARATION OF A MASTER’S-LEVEL DISSERTATION
DISSERTATION LIFE-CYCLE
Conceptual phase
Critical phase
Action phase
Analytical phase
Creative phase
DISSERTATION PHASES
TASK PLANNING
Like most projects, dissertations are made up
of tasks, and when all the tasks are complete,
the project or dissertation is complete.
There are many good reasons for investing
time in the planning of the dissertation. Your
dissertation proposal would normally contain
an estimate of the time required to complete.
The old saying about planning is that ‘failing
to plan is planning to fail’.
Task planning:
MAIN ADVANTAGES
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Planning creates a proactive approach that can replace
the more common reactive approach.
It allows you to initiate and influence outcomes in your
favour.
It enables you to meet deadlines.
It lowers academic stress.
It encourages the adoption of a systematic approach.
It improves your control of the project.
It permits the setting of milestones to assist in
controlling the project.
It highlights the areas in the dissertation where planned
assistance will be needed, such as data-gathering
and proof-reading.
Example of an excerpt from a Work Breakdown
Structure table
Work-alone activity:
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Time allowed: 15 minutes’ preparation
3 minutes’ feedback
List the steps you need to take in the next two months
to further the completion of your dissertation.
Use the form of Work Breakdown Structure featured
here (see previous slide).
Feedback to the group: ‘This is my WBS chart . . .’
Work Breakdown Structure sheet with
progress meter
Work-alone activity:
WBS SPREADSHEET WITH METER
Time allowed: 60 minutes’ preparation
3 minutes’ feedback
Using your WBS chart produce an Excel spreadsheet
(or equivalent) with a progress meter attached.
This can then be extended to cover all the tasks required
to complete the dissertation.
Feedback to the group: ‘This is my WBS chart . . .’
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA
Bibliographical data starts to accumulate in a dissertation
from the very first moment of a topic’s birth. Realising this
and planning a method to capture, record, access and
display this data is essential, or a very large and difficult-tosolve problem will become apparent later in the dissertation
– when most students are already very busy with the tasks
of analysing data and writing up the research.
Early planning will avoid this problem.
Storage
Store bibliographical data in one of the following ways:
• as an alphabetical list in a Word document
• on an Excel spreadsheet
• in a database
• using specialist bibliographical software
Bibliographical data:
USING AN MS WORD DOCUMENT
Many thousands of dissertations are written each year and the
bibliography data is stored as an alphabetical list in a Microsoft Word
document.
• The author adds new references manually into the correct alphabetical
space as the work proceeds. Any small errors or entries in the
wrong place are manually corrected.
• This approach is simple, cheap and easy to understand.
• However, it is not very flexible, is time-consuming and contains only
the basic reference data.
Later versions of Word from 2007 contain features that allow for the
development of a bibliography as the work progresses.
• As you write, you add citations (references) in the text; this is linked to
a source, and the bibliography is automatically produced as and
when you require it.
• In most versions you are able to choose your reference system and
change it dynamically.
• It is also easy to find a source you have previously used with the ‘Find
source’ command.
AIDS TO ON-TIME COMPLETION
There is remarkably very little research concerning the barriers to
completing on time and the rates of completion of UK dissertations.
A US survey (Rivera, Levine and Wright, 2005) of 138 resident hospital
physicians or registrars who successfully completed scholarly projects on
time discovered the following themes for success:
• Start early.
• Set aside adequate time.
• Adhere to a timeline.
• Work with a strong mentor (or supervisor, in the UK system).
• Choose a research topic that genuinely interests you.
• Keep the project simple yet innovative.
Residents’ suggestions about how their programmes could more
effectively facilitate scholarly activity were:
• Provide adequate amounts of protected time.
• Improve the technical resources available to residents.
• Enhance or establish a research curriculum.
• Match trainees with appropriate mentors.
Group activity:
CASE STUDY: Sam and Alex
Work in groups of three
Time allowed: 60 minutes’ preparation
10 minutes’ feedback
Read the case study ‘Sam and Alex’, and provide
considered responses in the form of an action plan, a
list of issues, and an answer to the question, as
requested at the end.
Feedback as three separate response elements, for collation
with the responses of other groups prior to plenary discussion.
Work-alone activity:
THEORY AND LITERATURE
Preparation for the next learning session
Prepare two PowerPoint presentation slides setting
out:
• the major theory and literature to be featured in your
dissertation
• a short critique of the theory
REFLECTION
on the learning points of this lecture
Consider how long your dissertation will take to
complete by thinking about:
• how much time you can set aside for the
dissertation each week
• the likely tasks that must be completed
• how long each task will take
• whether you can get help to complete some of
the tasks
• creating a detailed WBS chart
• potential distractions and delays