塞瑞大學研究生dissertation手冊

Other points to note:其他注意事項：
 

•你的dissertation題目必須與你的學位，例如：旅游，零售，食品，酒店，金融，IMM，IBM，文，管理信息系統。

•您必須保持所有筆記/材料/草案的副本，以及收集和dissertation中使用的數據，至少一年您提交dissertation之后。如果要求這樣做，你必須出示這些。

•在今年夏天建立你的上司的可用性，并同意由他們將獲得工作草案的最后期限。

•通過設定最后期限，確保您在評審工作的手。監事不能指望給尾盤收工作的良好反饋。

•向學生休息室在薩里學習對學術誠信的指南和信息

•如果您打算使用薩里設計和印刷（校園打印機）到你的dissertation進行綁定，則必須允許提交日期前兩個星期。

•如果你希望你的dissertation的副本，請確保您打印一個額外的副本。

• Your dissertation topic must be relevant to your degree, e.g.: Tourism, Retail, Food, Hospitality, Finance, IMM, IBM, Man, MIS.

• You must keep copies of all notes/ materials/ drafts as well as the data collected and used in the dissertation, for at least one year after you have submitted your dissertation. You must produce these if requested to do so.

• Establish the availability of your supervisor over the summer, and agree deadlines by which they will receive drafts of work.

• Ensure you hand in work for review by the set deadlines. Supervisors cannot be expected to give good feedback on work received late.

• Consult the Student Common Room on SurreyLearn for guides and information on Academic Integrity

• If you intend to use Surrey Design and Print (on-campus printers) to bind your dissertation, you must allow two weeks prior to the submission date.

• If you want a copy of your dissertation, please make sure that you print an extra copy.

#p#分頁標題#e#

2. DISSERTATION STAGES EXPLAINED 學位dissertation說明

 

It is expected that you will dedicate regular time to your dissertation throughout the whole of the module, both during and after the scheduled support sessions, and throughout Semester 2 as well as during the summer period. You will need to bear in mind other module commitments (such as exam revision and/ or coursework in Semester 2), but you are expected to complete your literature review during Semester 2. Try to spend at least some time each week on your dissertation, even if this is only collecting literature. Week 15 of Semester 1 (Reading Week) should be used to finalise your topic and to start your proposal. Sessions will be run to guide you in the preparation of your Proposal during this week.#p#分頁標題#e#

Submission of the topic area and provisional title You need to register the topic area and a provisional title with the Module Administrators in order for us to allocate you a supervisor. You should do this as soon as you can, via the questionnaire on SurreyLearn, but NO LATER than the dates specified in the table on page 2. If you do not meet this deadline you will be assigned a supervisor, but they may not be a good match to your topic.

Allocation of supervisor You will be allocated a dedicated supervisor for your Dissertation. You will be informed who your supervisor is by the date specified on page 2. It is your responsibility to make contact with your named supervisor as soon as you can. More information about the role of your supervisor is in Section 5.0.

 

Complete Dissertation Proposal – submit no later than date specified on page 2

This is a valuable opportunity for you to get written ‘formative’ feedback on your ideas from your supervisor early in the process. Writing a proposal is the best way to clarify your ideas and plan your dissertation (see Section 3).

The proposal is not given a grade and does not affect your overall dissertation mark, but you are strongly advised to take advantage of this opportunity for feedback and advice. Submit your proposal on SurreyLearn AND also directly to your supervisor.

Formative Feedback on the research proposal and signing of the Ethics form:

You need to organise a meeting with your supervisor to get formative feedback on the research proposal and approval to continue as planned. This should take place no later than the dates specified on page 2.

Ethical Issues in research

This form should be completed once your methodology is finalised. It should then be presented to the FBEL Student Support Helpdesk no later than the deadline date stated on page 2. Your form will be checked, stamped and handed back to you. You will need to photocopy the form once stamped so that a copy can be bound into both your hard copies before submission (as an appendix in the back of your work). It is also a good idea to take an extra copy of the form for your own records. If you need to obtain ethical approval, you will be given further instructions. You may not collect data until you have the necessary approvals.

If you make any changes to your research method, you must check with your supervisor as to whether you need a revised form.

Your dissertation submission will NOT be accepted without a signed Ethical Issues in Research Form and you WILL be turned away and asked to obtain this. If you are subsequently late with your dissertation submission, it would be subject to the usual late penalties in line with the regulations.

Deadline for submitting drafts:

Your draft literature review should be submitted to your supervisor by the deadline stated on page 2. You should agree dates by which other sections of your work will be completed. It is unreasonable to expect your supervisor to read and comment on drafts of your work close to the submission date. Discuss the latest date that your supervisor will receive drafts prior to the submission deadline. You are expected to plan your time effectively – the final weeks of the module are for formatting, proofing, printing, binding etc. Your supervisor may still be available for questions and/ or meetings, but establish the availability of your supervisor at the beginning of your dissertation period.#p#分頁標題#e#

Printing and binding

If you intend to use Surrey Design and Print to print and bind your dissertation, you will need to leave around two weeks to do this prior to the submission deadline. We will endeavour to advise you of the latest date by which Surrey Design and Print will receive dissertations and guarantee that they will be available in time for the submission deadline. Off-campus printers may be able to offer shorter turn-around times, but you should establish this with them when planning your time.

Submission

Any time between 11.00 and 16.00 on the deadline date (please see the table on page 2). Please check your deadline carefully as you will see there are 2 dates in the table. If you have secured 120 credits after your semester 2 exams, you MUST submit by the earlier deadline. The second deadline is ONLY for those students who have late-summer re-assessments (August).

Location for submission will be advised by FBEL Student Support closer to the time. Late submissions (after 4pm) attract a penalty of 10 percentage points reduction in marks per each 24 hours after the deadline. The reduction is made after the work is marked. After 3 working days the recorded mark will be zero.

You must submit the following before 4pm on the deadline:

• An electronic copy via SurreyLearn

• 2 x hard copies (soft-bound copies with clear plastic covers)

• 1 x entry form (a copy of which can be found on SurreyLearn)

Students who have secured 120 credits may submit earlier than their deadline should they wish however please be aware that the result would not be available any sooner. Please take any early submissions to the FBEL Student Support Helpdesk during office hours (please check).

Overseas students are able to post/courier the required submission documents to FBEL Student Support but must ensure that work is sent with enough time to be received on or before the deadline to avoid late penalties. It is a good idea to ask for proof of postage. If any items are missing (including SurreyLearn submission) then we cannot send the work for marking and it will be subject to late penalties.

The address for posting is as follows:

Assessment, Awards and Timetabling Team

Student Support Office (34MS01)

Faculty of Business, Economics & Law

University of Surrey

Guildford Surrey GU2 7XH

3.0 RESEARCH PROPOSAL GUIDANCE研究計劃指導

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The research proposal of maximum 2000 words (excluding reference list) is designed to provide you with an opportunity to:

• organise your ideas;

• convince your supervisor that your research falls within the domain of your masters’ programme;

• convince your supervisor that your research is viable and has potential to meet the criteria for your masters’ programme dissertation;#p#分頁標題#e#

• develop a clear plan for your dissertation.

Based upon your proposal your supervisor will provide you with formative feedback on your dissertation ideas at an early stage, thereby helping you to ensure that you have a valid and viable dissertation. She or he will then advise regarding whether or not it is sensible to proceed with your dissertation or recommend that you need to undertake more work.

3.2 YOUR PROPOSAL SHOULD INCLUDE:

• Front page

• Working title

• Academic context and background

• Research objectives

• Methods (including access)

• Research ethics

• Timescale and resources

• References

Front page: The front page should include the proposed title of your dissertation, your name and URN number, the programme that you are studying and a word count.

Working title: This should represent the content of your proposal. It is recognised that it may alter as your research progresses.

Academic context and background: This section should introduce your research topic and set it within the context of the academic literature. It should also explain why you feel the research which you are planning is worth the effort and, where necessary, clarify terminology used.

In this section, you should begin by addressing the following question:

1. What is your research topic?

This question should be answered briefly. In answering it, you should express your research topic in the form of a problem which needs solving, a question that needs answering or something which you find exciting and has aroused your curiosity. You should also, where appropriate, provide a brief description of the organisational background and state why your research is worth the effort from an organisational perspective.

In addition, you should address the following questions:

2. Discuss the key academic ideas (theories) within the area of your research topic referencing them to their main proponents (authors)?

3. Indicate how your research relates to these ideas (theories)?

In answering these questions you will demonstrate some knowledge of the relevant academic literature and show where your proposal fits into this debate (a minimum of 10 articles/books from the academic literature is expected). You will also provide precise references (in Harvard format) for these ideas. This section is not the same as a critical literature review. It just outlines, compares and contrasts the key ideas from academic literature sources which will provide the academic starting point for your dissertation and provides prima facie evidence that your research is grounded in the academic literature.

Research objectives: In this section you need to address the follow question:

4. What are your research aim and objectives?#p#分頁標題#e#

Remember your background section should lead smoothly into clear statements of your overall aim and objectives. These should leave your dissertation supervisor in no doubt as to precisely what your research seeks to achieve. Your research aim should be a sentence stating what you intend to achieve through your research. Your research objectives should provide more detail, operationalising your research. Remember, you should have one aim and between two and four research objectives. Your research objectives should be achievable within the time frame of your masters’ programme and within your available resources.

Methods (including access): This section will outline how you intend to go about achieving your research objectives and help establish that your proposal is viable.

Initially you should address the following questions:

5. What is the strategy you are intending to use?

6. Why are you intending to use this strategy?

In addressing these questions you should explain briefly the strategy or strategies you intend to use (e.g. case study, survey, experiment, action research or perhaps a combination) and why you intend to use them referring to the philosophical position you intend to adopt.

If you intend to base your research within a single organisation then you should state and justify this. However, if your research is more generic you should explain, for example, which sector(s) of the economy or setting or group of population/respondents you have chosen to research and why you chose these. You therefore need to address the following questions:

7. What is the setting in which you intend to base your research?

8. Why are you using this particular setting? 

 

If you are collecting primary data as part of your research you should state and justify, using the research methods literature the data collection techniques you intend to use (e.g. observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc.), your sample size, the method you will use to select your sample and the likely response rate. There is no need at this stage to have designed your research instrument. However, you must have ensured that access will be granted to enable you to collect these data and report this in our proposal. For example if you intend to collect data from an organisation’s employees, you must have obtained or been promised permission to do this from the organisation prior to submitting your proposal. NOTE: you will not have access to University e-mail lists in order to recruit students/staff as respondents. You will therefore need to think of an alternative recruitment strategy.

If you are using secondary data as part of your research you should state and justify this choice of method using the research methods literature. You must also ensure that you can gain access to the data you require. Where these data are organisationally based you must have checked their suitability for your research and obtained or been promised permission to do this from the organisation. This must be reported in your proposal. Where these data are published you must have checked their suitability for your research and provide precise references (in Harvard format) of these sources.#p#分頁標題#e#

You therefore need to address the following questions:

9. How do you intend to obtain your data?

10. Why are you using this or these data collection methods?

11. Have you ensured that you will be able to gain access to these data?

Research ethics: This section will provide evidence that you have considered issues associated with research ethics and that you intend to observe the highest ethical standards when undertaking research. The Faculty of Business, Economics and Law requires all students undertaking research to comply with the University’s Code on Good Research Practice. This is available from the University web site at

http://portal.surrey.ac.uk/portal/page?_pageid=719,333084&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

If the research involves staff and patients and falls within the National Health Service (NHS), then it is likely that you will also need to submit it to the correct NHS ethics review committee. This submission is your responsibility and it is quite normal for students’ proposals to be rejected at the first attempt. Although for student projects there is recognition of the short timescales involved and an attempt to expedite the review process, be aware, that such organisations’ ethical committees have their own timetables and deadlines which you will need to meet. In some organisations these committees meet infrequently, perhaps only two or three times a year.

If you wish to collect data from vulnerable groups, you may also need to apply for a Criminal Records Bureau check before you can access the respondents. This can take up to a month or more, and time would need to be built in to allow this.

Timescale and resources: This section will help you to assess the viability of your research proposal within the time and resource constraints of your masters’ programme. It will be helpful if you divide your research plan into activities with clear completion dates. This will give you a clear idea as to what is possible in the given time scale. However,experience has shown that however well you organise your time the whole process seems to take longer than anticipated. Ensure that you build in time for your supervisor to approve your data collection instrument. This is particularly important if you intend to collect data outside of the UK and will be making travel plans.

In this section, you should address the following questions:

12. What are the key activities that you will need to undertake to complete you dissertation?

13. How long do you think each of these activities is likely to take?

14. Are there any activities that need to be completed before others can be started?

15. What are the likely dates associated with the completion of these activities? Many students choose to present this information as either a table or Gantt chart. When doing this remember to include the activities in sufficient detail (e.g. designing questionnaire, piloting questionnaire, administering questionnaire) to ensure the time scale is meaningful.#p#分頁標題#e#

16. Do you have sufficient resources (money etc.) to undertake the proposed research? This is particularly important. For example, if you are planning to interview people in different locations can you afford associated travel and accommodation costs? If you are using a questionnaire, have you budgeted for photocopying, stationary and postage costs? Alternatively, if you are using on-line statistical data, will you have to pay for this?

References: It is not necessary to try and impress your supervisor with an enormous list of references. What is important is that you reference all the sources to which you have referred in your proposal using the Harvard form of referencing.

4.0 LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY AND METHODS學習和教學策略和方法
 

The overall aim of the learning and teaching strategy is to encourage you to take responsibility for your own learning within a supportive environment, developing self and project management skills along the way.

A range of resources are available to you including:

• This handbook

• Research Methods Lectures

• Dissertation lecture in Semester 1

• Support sessions in Semester 2 and in the summer

• Advanced library tutorials

• Your Dissertation Supervisor

5.0 SUPERVISION監理

This section details the supervision arrangements and mutual expectations for Postgraduate students and their dissertation supervisors. It also includes advice as to how to get the most from your supervisor.

5.1 The role of the supervisor

A supervisor will be allocated to you on the basis of the title of your proposed dissertation and on what you have written in your Dissertation Proposal Form. Whilst the exact nature of the role of supervisor may vary, they will all undertake to:

• Discuss the proposal for the dissertation

• Agree on the approach to be adopted and timetable of work

• Give guidance on reading (as appropriate)

• Give advice on structure and presentation

• Give advice and feedback on the acceptability of elements of student draft chapters.

Your supervisor, although experienced in dissertation supervision, may not have subject-specific information on your dissertation topic. Obtaining this material inevitably is your responsibility. Since the expertise of the School is extensive the supervisor may be able to refer you to another member of academic staff. However, it should be emphasised that the onus of responsibility for the dissertation rests with you, the student, and that the role of supervisor is one of guidance and not dependency. Your supervisor may wish to complete a progress sheet of supervision (Appendix C) or ask you to take and submit ‘minutes’ after each meeting, summarising your discussion and agreed actions.#p#分頁標題#e#

Please note: if you send work after the date agreed with your supervisor, and particularly send work at the last minute, you cannot expect your supervisor to have the time to do the necessary checks. Supervisors will not normally read and/ or comment on a complete draft close to the deadline for submission. You should establish, with your supervisor, the last date on which they will receive a complete draft. In addition, your supervisor cannot be expected to correct English. You should make use of the service provided by the English Language Institute in the University, and your supervisor may direct you to this service if they feel it is necessary.

Once you have agreed your methodology with your Supervisor, you must also complete and sign a separate Ethical Issues in Research form (Appendix G). If you have not completed this and had it signed by your supervisor, you will not be able to proceed with your data collection. If you require ethical approval, you will be given further instructions. Students who collect data without the necessary approval will be asked to destroy any data collected, and if this becomes apparent when the dissertation is marked, the dissertation will be failed.

5.2 Supervision meetings

You must arrange to meet your supervisor in March and June and three times between July and September. These latter meetings should be agreed with your supervisor. Remember that your Supervisor will be supervising other dissertations and that they have to share their time fairly. Please also ensure that you establish the availability of your supervisor over the summer, as it is likely that your supervisor will not be available throughout the period. By doing this you can plan your time effectively.

The following points are intended as guidance for you regarding your responsibilities during the process of supervision. Taking control of these meetings will ensure that all parties benefit.

• Be well prepared

• Make sure you have read any texts suggested

• Note down any problems you have and discuss strategies to overcome them

• Have a clear view on how the dissertation is progressing

• Submit written work well in advance of the meeting for discussion

Remember that this is your dissertation and you are expected to guide the meeting.

Make notes during meetings and keep a record of what has been discussed and agreed – your supervisor may ask you to submit this to them. Before ending the meeting with your supervisor think about whether you have:

• Raised all the key issues

• Agreed the date of the next meeting and discussed future work

5.2.1 Suggestions for meetings

The following notes may help to focus your ideas on the purpose of each meeting at the different stages of the supervision process. It should be emphasised that the following are only suggestions, and you and your supervisor may decide on your own approach to supervision, e.g.: group supervision, by email etc.#p#分頁標題#e#

First Meeting (after submission of proposal)

• Feedback on Dissertation Proposal

• Discuss any difficulties/problems

• Consider the overall structure of dissertation

• Review time-plan

Second Meeting

• feedback on literature review

• finalise methods

• Ethical issues form introduced here

Subsequent Meetings

• Discuss detailed aspects of your methodology

• Approval of research instruments, as appropriate

• Submit preliminary draft of methodology for feedback.

• Submit a final draft of your dissertation by an agreed date.

6.0 ASSESSMENT評定

In order to achieve the threshold standard for the award of credits for this module, you must demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes as described in the module outline. The pass mark is 50%.

6.1 Assessment criteria

The dissertation will be assessed on the weighted criteria listed in Appendix A.

6.2 Marking process

Your dissertation will be marked by two academic staff, and independent of your supervisor. Your grade is agreed by these two markers and will be ratified by External Examiners and the Board of Examiners. As you are at the end of your studies, qualitative feedback on your dissertation is not automatically forwarded to you. If you would like feedback, please contact your supervisor who will arrange for it to be sent to you by email.

6.3 What if I need an extension?

There is no automatic right to an extension.

If you believe significant extenuating circumstances will prevent you from submitting your dissertation on time (for example sustained serious illness), please contact the student advisor, Mr Paul Coward ([email protected]) by the date specified on page 2. You must be able to supply relevant supporting evidence. Please note: IT failure is not a valid extenuating circumstance at any stage of the dissertation – keep regular back-ups! Please read the extenuating circumstances information in the PG Programme Handbook for examples of what can be considered. Please ensure that you request an extension by the deadline specified.

6.4 What happens if I fail?!

The pass mark for the dissertation is 50%. If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of achieving a mark below 50% you will be advised by the Board of Examiners as to whether you can resubmit your dissertation. Dissertation can not be considered for compensation. In most cases, a second submission is permitted within 6-months of the Board of Examiners, usually based on the original work improved using the feedback from markers. The maximum mark that can be achieved on resubmission is 50%.

If you are told that you have failed, you should contact your supervisor who will summarise the feedback from the two markers to guide your resubmission. They will meet with you once to confirm that you understand the feedback and what you need to do. They will also look over one draft of the work that you intend to resubmit, and give general feedback. The draft must reach the supervisor no later than one month before the resubmission date.#p#分頁標題#e#

7.0 DISSERTATION CONTENT AND STRUCTURE學位dissertation內容和結構

Although you are free to structure your dissertation how you choose (heeding your supervisor’s advice) you may find it easier to include all the material necessary by using the following structure. Inevitably you will need to make decisions as to what to include in which section, if in doubt, devote your best critical material to those sections that carry the most of the mark weighting.

7.1 Contents

Your dissertation should include the following elements:

• Title page (see Appendix E for template): This should include the word count of your dissertation.

• Executive summary (1000 words; 10% of marks): Set out on its own immediately after the title page. This often takes the form of a series of summary statements, ordered under similar headings to those used within the Dissertation. These summarise the key information or findings. The Executive summary should be written for an intelligent layman. An example of an Executive summary can be found in SurreyLearn.

• Declaration of Originality (see Appendix F)

• Table of contents: An outline of the entire dissertation in list form, setting out the sequence of the sections with page numbers. It is conventional to number the preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents) with lower case Roman numerals (i.e. (i), (ii), (iii) etc.) and the main text pages (starting with the first chapter) in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3 etc.) as shown below:

CONTENTS PAGE

List of Tables i

List of Figures ii

List of Abbreviations iii

Acknowledgements iv

CHAPTER 1 (Title) 1

1.1 (First section heading)

1.2 (Second etc.)

1.3 (Third etc.)

• List of tables and figures: A table is a presentation of data in tabular form; a figure is a diagrammatic representation of data or other material such as graphs, photographs, images or maps. Tables and Figures should be numbered consecutively according to chapter (e.g.: Table 1.3 is the third table in Chapter 1, and Figure 4.2 is the second figure in Chapter 4). Each should be separately listed with page numbers.

• List of abbreviations: Abbreviations should be used sparingly, and those that are not self-evident or in common use should be explained where they first appear in each chapter by giving the full expression and the abbreviation in brackets, e.g. ‘gross domestic product (GDP)’. Abbreviations not in common use should appear at the beginning of the dissertation.

Useful rules for abbreviations:

No full stops in abbreviations consisting of initial capital letters, UK, US (adjective), EEC, OECD, BBC, UN. Note: ‘United Kingdom’ and ‘United States’ should be spelt out when used as nouns;#p#分頁標題#e#

No full stops after abbreviations ending with last letter of word abbreviated, Dr Mr Mrs St;

Full stops to be used in abbreviations consisting of phrases or single words, e.g., i.e., cet. par., op. cit., et al., p., pp., vol., No.

• Introduction and/or definition of research problem: The introduction should set out the purpose and scope of the dissertation, clearly explaining what it is about, how it is structured, but more importantly, why the research is necessary and to whom. You need to ensure that the academic and applied rationale is well explained and justified. An academic rationale should answer the questions “Why don’t we know this already? Why is more study on this topic needed?” and an applied rationale should demonstrate the relevance of the topic to contemporary business environments. The section should end with the main aim and objectives of your study.

• Literature review (this may be more than one chapter): This section gives an overview of the context and background to the research problem. It builds on your problem definition and aims and objectives and so is an expansion of the concise arguments you make there. It is probably the section that will give you most scope to show off the wide range of sources you have consulted. Although based on existing literature, you should still present your material critically.

• Methodology: This section evaluates and justifies the research methodology that will be used to obtain the data to answer the research questions. It states the research problem, discusses the operationalisation of hypotheses (where relevant), discusses the research instrument used, the method of collecting the data – including sampling, the analysis of the data and the validity and reliability of data. It should contain enough detail to allow someone else to repeat your study.

• Results: You should present your data in an appropriate form, which may include tables, graphs or in the case of qualitative data, verbatim quotes. Select the format that best suits your data, and do not present your data in more than one form. Ensure that the text around your presented data pulls out the key findings, rather than repeats what is already given. A table/figure should never be presented without supporting text. Tables and figures should be clearly and consistently labelled either above or below, and the reader should be able to understand the table/figure from the title without referring to the text for explanations. Units of measurement, the year to which the data refer, geographical area covered, and sources should be clearly stated. The labels in the text and in the lists should correspond exactly.

• Critical analysis and discussion: It can be hard to know which section to discuss your results – this or the preceding one – and you may decide to combine these two sections into one or more chapters based on theme, depending on your topic and your supervisor’s views. However, what is vital is that your Dissertation contains sufficient analytical discussion in addition to the more descriptive ‘scene setting’ material of the literature review sections, and presentation of results. It is here that you will compare and contrast your findings with those already reported in the literature.#p#分頁標題#e#

Conclusions: Here you need to answer the o what??question. What significance do your research findings have? For whom? Why? and How? In this chapter you link the research problem with literature review and findings, stating what you can conclude based on the work conducted. Based on your conclusions you should comment on managerial implications, the limitations of the research, suggest further work and better ways to resolve the problem.

?Full list of references used in the dissertation: You should provide correctly formatted bibliographic details for every citation included in the dissertation. Do not include material which is not referred to in your text (also see Section 8.0 below on referencing and academic misconduct).

?Appendices: Often misused and misunderstood, an appendix should only be used to include supplementary (but non-essential) material which, if included, would disrupt the flow of the text. Appendices are not marked so do not include any vital information, e.g.: results of analysis, in one if you want the content to be considered as part of the assessment. Appendices do not contribute to the overall word length.

7.2 Length

The dissertation should be no more than 15,000 words in total to include a 1,000 word Executive summary. A margin of 10% above this is acceptable, but any submitted dissertation which is above these limits will be subject to penalties. All penalties will be applied at the discretion of the module convenor, in consultation with the supervisor.

The following do not count in the word-limit:

?Supporting text pages (table of contents, bibliography, references).

?Tables, graphs, legends, annotations or illustrative material.

?Footnotes and Appendices

You must state the actual word count on the Title page of the dissertation.

Including large amounts of important material in footnotes, tables and/ or appendices is poor practice and will be reflected in the marks awarded.

7.3 ` Common Faults in Dissertation

Title Page

?Title too long

?Wrong degree title

?Surplus information

Executive Summary

?Too long; should be 1,000 words max

?Not written in a concise style, too much waffle at the expense of required detail

?Does not contain enough detail to allow reader to make judgements over credibility of work Statement of the problem

• In the introduction, this must be clear and of managerial relevance. There must be some evidence that there is a problem.

Literature Review

• It is just a listing of paragraphs quoted directly from different authors. It has no logic or coherence.

• Literature reviewed is often irrelevant to the problem or outdated,

• Contains personal opinion, not substantiated through the use of the literature#p#分頁標題#e#

References

• Poor referencing; some missing, spelling mistakes, inconsistencies

• Use of third hand sources - avoid listing works which others have referred to but you have not actually read yourself. In these cases, use the ‘cited in…’ construction in the text, and reference the source that you actually read in the reference list

• Excessive use of inappropriate sources

Hypotheses (where relevant)

• Very poorly written

• Often expressed in causal form

• Obsession with use of word “significant”

• Not stemming from theory / Not related to problem

Methods

• Inadequate justification for chosen approaches

• Lack of detail about what you actually did

Research instrument(s)

• Indiscriminate borrowing

• Lack of understanding

• Poor language skills apparent

Analysis

• Inadequate feel for data through careful descriptive work

• Simplistic analysis not commensurate with Masters’ level study

• Inappropriate use of statistics

• Lack of understanding of appropriateness of a test

• Obsession with significance, yet it is set randomly, without reference to subject norms or literature

• Inadequate development of results in relation to their practical importance

• Too much naïve material in the form of simple % (nothing wrong with %, but not suitable for everything); too many pretty pictures repeating information available on tables

Logic

• Inadequate link between problem, theory, hypothesis, method, data analysis 

 

Critique

• Insufficient evidence to support ideas

Conclusions

• Insufficient evidence of awareness of the limitations

• Conclusions not based on facts established through the study

Tables and Graphs

• Inadequate title

• Source not given

• Not referred to directly from the text

• Inappropriately located in text or appendix

Appendix

• Pages must be numbered, ideally in continuation of text

• Material must show title

• Contains material irrelevant to the main body of the work

English

• Far too many spelling, grammar and syntax errors.

• Ambiguity and misinterpretation more frequent than lack of clarity

Attribution

• Mixture of writing styles and insufficient attribution, leading to suspicion of plagiarism

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7.4 Formatting and Binding – Please see Appendix D

If you intend to use Surrey Print and Design to print and bind your dissertation, you will need to allow around two weeks prior to the submission deadline to do this. We will endeavour to give more accurate timings closer to the submission date. Off-campus printers may be able to offer shorter deadlines, but you will need to ascertain their requirements well ahead of the submission deadline.

8.MISCONDUCT不當行為

In your dissertation, as with all academic work you will be expected to demonstrate a high standard of academic referencing. To recap, this is for three reasons:

1. To show the breadth and depth of research you have carried out

2. To enable the reader to follow up on interesting ideas/ research that you have discussed

3. To avoid being accused of plagiarism.

8.1 What is good scholarship? What is plagiarism?

Academics (including you!) are engaged in the generation of new knowledge and insights that contribute to what we already know about the natural, supernatural and social world – this is called ‘scholarship’. Good scholarship is the result of conventions that help the readers of academic research to see exactly what is new, what is the work of others and how it all fits together – the main way this is done is through the referencing system.

In the academic context, plagiarism is generally understood to mean the use and citing of the words, scientific results, inventions or ideas of others and presenting them as one’s own, without due reference to or acknowledgement of the author, whether the author is a researcher, journalist or another student. Sources may be many and varied and will include the spoken word, printed text, data or text held electronically on a database or accessed via the Internet. Put simply, authors (including you!) need to add a citation after every idea or set of ideas they write about that are not their own. Thus you need to reference any idea that comes from another source, not just direct quotes. There are several different ways of doing this, and at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law we use the Harvard Referencing System.

The Library has a web page about Bibliographic Referencing at http

There is also a new page on Learning Skills at http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/learningskills.html which includes some useful links for plagiarism.

It is also strongly recommended that students read the guides and information on SurreyLearn regarding Academic Integrity. These can be found within the Student Common Room.

Be advised that all dissertations are put through a plagiarism detection service, which in the past has detected plagiarism from academic sources, the internet, other students in Surrey, and students in other academic institutions. The University takes plagiarism very seriously, and has strict penalties. Through the SurreyLearn Common Room, you have the opportunity to submit your work through Turnitin ® for checking before you submit your dissertation.#p#分頁標題#e#

8.2 What do I reference?

As the above section suggests, you should attribute all your sources regardless of the medium the material comes in (e.g.: You Tube video, journal article, blog, radio programme, book chapter etc.) There is a general rule of thumb that says that which is ‘common knowledge’ does not need to be referenced, but it can be difficult to define common knowledge. If it is common knowledge, there are usually numerous sources supporting this, so use them! It is also a good idea to completely avoid cutting and pasting text from the Internet, even if you correctly enclose a paragraph in quotation marks and add the reference underneath, you are very unlikely to get many marks since this is not your own work and does not demonstrate your understanding.

Quotations are good to see, when appropriate, but use them judiciously for the above reasons. If you can say it just as well yourself, write it in your own words and integrate it into your text, adding the citation at the end of the sentence/ passage.

8.3 Avoiding plagiarism

In writing your dissertation, you may often be working with ideas and terms which are not familiar to you. This can lead to the temptation to ‘lift’ words or sections of text from books or other sources. Your supervisor must be able to see your own thought processes, copying from the text suggests you cannot use the ideas yourself, and thus a lack of understanding. Supervisors are familiar with differences between the writing style of students and experienced authors.

Plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional, is a form of cheating, as a result of which an individual gains or seeks to gain an unfair academic advantage. It includes the use of another author’s words verbatim, summarising or paraphrasing another person’s argument or line of thinking, or use of a particularly apt phrase, without proper attribution.

Tips for avoiding ‘unintentional’ plagiarism:

• Don’t cut and paste from the web

• Don’t copy notes from sources word for word – reword at the time you are reading the material (this also helps your understanding)

• Fully reference your notes as you go, including page numbers if applicable

• Use several sources in your writing, this minimises the reliance on any one author and reduces the risk of accidentally leaving passages unreferenced.

• Run a draft of your work through the Turnitin software available on SurreyLearn to check any problematic areas. A tutorial is also available on the SurreyLearn to help you understand how to do this, and how to interpret your report.

8.4 What happens if I am accused of plagiarism?

It is unacceptable to the University of Surrey that any student registered with the University or one of its Associated Institutions for an award of the University should cheat in order to gain themselves an academic advantage. The University will penalise any student who is found to have cheated in accordance with its Regulations for the Conduct of Examinations and Other Forms of Assessment (see your Student Handbook for details).#p#分頁標題#e#

If an allegation of plagiarism arises, you will be offered an opportunity to defend your work (which may include bringing all your notes and other materials used to write your dissertation) to a panel convened for the purpose. This panel will recommend action to the next Board of Examiners. Penalties for academic misconduct, including plagiarism, extend from reducing marks to zero for the assessment in question (for a first offence) through to termination of your studies for repeated offences. In the latter case you will not be able to repeat your work and receive your Masters degree. 

 

9.0 APPENDICES附錄

 

 

APPENDIX B – ‘Assessment words’ explained

Please refer to the following notes to ensure you fully understand the criteria your work will be assessed against (see also Section 6.1 ‘contents’).

Descriptive

Work which is labelled ‘descriptive’ simply gives the reader information that communicates what the topic or issue is about. It usually means you have just restated what others’ have said about the subject and often reads like a list of points or statements. Work which contains too much description will attract lower marks even if it is correctly referenced.

Critical

Writing critically does not necessarily mean being negative! A critical reading of something means to ask questions about the information you are using so that your text includes more information than was in the original source. When you are reading, ask yourself ‘why did the author write this?’, ‘what are they trying to prove?’ ‘who benefits?’, ‘so what?’ ‘how is this similar or different to what I have read before?’ ‘do I agree with this? – why? or why not?’– this will give you good grounding for writing a more critical account of the material you include in your dissertation. Critical writing attracts higher marks because it shows what you think about the topic in question based on logical thought and the use of different authors’ perspectives on the topic.

Analysis

An analysis is the result of critical writing. It means that you have ‘pulled apart’ what you’ve read to find its strengths, weaknesses, importance or error in relation to your research problem and reformulated this as a thorough brainstorm of an issue from different angles, not just the one you find most persuasive (although you can certainly give different interpretations different emphasis).

Discussion

Once you have critically analysed several issues, the next step is to evaluate the relative importance of each with regard to your research problem. Evaluation is usually hinted at throughout the main body of the text and then more fully undertaken in the discussion and conclusion. Evaluation always implies criteria to evaluate against – e.g.: if you are saying something is important, you need to say how, why and for whom. It will also involve comparing and contrasting your findings with existing literature. Evaluation is usually closely related to application.#p#分頁標題#e#

Application

Business problems are by their very nature applied. They concern real industries, people, products, places and things. You need to show that you are aware of the ways your evaluations might impact on the ‘real’ world of work and organization.

Range of sources

You are expected to have read a variety of different types of material and this should be reflected in your reference list. You are expected to draw your academic material from high quality peer-reviewed journal articles and use reputable trade sources for your industry information. Broad sheet newspapers, quality news media, professional organizations, government sources and so on are all potentially valuable sources too. There are occasions where you may need to glean information from more ‘popular’ sources (e.g.: for really new social or technological phenomena or for a ‘public’s eye’ view of things) but before you use them, ask yourself ‘does this organisation have a particular bias?’, ‘can I find this from a more convincing source?’ – this is especially so for theory, statistics and research findings.

Conclusions

A good conclusion is more than just a summary of what you have already discussed. This is an important part of it – but the significance of each of your key points (or findings) should be evaluated and applied (see above) and their implications stated. A good way to approach your conclusion is to imagine you are a lawyer trying to persuade the jury that your argument is the truth. This will mean identifying the flaws in other possible arguments to show how your analysis is the best. Conclusions must, however, be based on the information that you have collected for this study – both literature sources and primary data.

Limitations

No knowledge or source is ever the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Similarly, no primary research is ever perfect – there is always something that could have been done better, whether in hindsight or given unlimited resources. You need to show that you understand what the differences are between different types of information/ methods and how they may be limited in helping you to understand your research problem. In discussing limitations you should do more than just list ‘pros and cons’ – think about the particular ways your sources are limited in relation to your research problem.

Presentation

This includes more than just making your dissertation look nice on paper. Of course, your formatting should be clear, consistent and look professional, but presentation also includes your standard of English and grammar, punctuation, referencing and the quality of your vocabulary and expression. In particular you should avoid jargon (unless you define it), slang or casual language, and unnecessarily complex or ‘flowery’ language. Don’t be tempted to waffle or use meaningless ‘management speak’ – make sure all your sentences convey their point in an interesting but concise manner. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

APPENDIX C: SUPERVISION MEETINGS RECORD

Student:

Course:

Topic:

Date:

Comments:

Next Meeting:

Date:

Comments:

Next meeting:

APPENDIX D: Layout and formatting requirements

Page layout: Please lay out your text using 1.5 line spacing one side of the paper only. Your margins should be a minimum of 3cm on the left and 2.5cm on the right, top and bottom. Text should be left or fully justified. Use a new paragraph for each substantive point you make and leave a blank line between paragraphs please. Include page numbers on every page and ensure they correspond with the relevant entry in the table of contents.

Font & formatting: For the body of the text, use a professional font of 12 pt and black in colour. A judicial and professional use of colour is fine, but you should avoid fussy formatting. Ensure your emphases (e.g.: bold or italics) are consistent throughout the text.

Headings and subsections: Please number your chapters and subsections including meaningful subject headings. This helps your reader to follow the flow of your argument and find important information quickly and should correspond to the list in your table of contents.

Tables, figures and images: All tables, figures and images must be numbered consecutively within each chapter, and have a self-explanatory title. Do not use clip art or any other form of decorative image unless it is essential to the analysis you are undertaking, e.g.: a screen shot to illustrate a specific feature of an organization’s website.

Footnotes: Use footnotes only when absolutely necessary – e.g.: when you want to signal an important but tangential issue that would otherwise interrupt the flow of text. Overuse of footnotes is poor practice and will be reflected in marks awarded.

Binding: Students should submit 2 soft bound (heat bound with a clear plastic cover) copies of their dissertation along with 1 electronic copy via SurreyLearn and an entry form. Please note that spiral bound dissertations will not be accepted.

Students can have their dissertations bound anywhere, providing it conforms to the above format. Dissertations not conforming to the above format will not be accepted for marking.

Recommended Binders:

Surrey Design and Print George Edwards Building University of Surrey,

Guildford, GU2 7XH Telephone +44 (0)1483 68 3068 Email: design&[email protected]

Youngs of Guildford 12 Holford Road Guildford, GU1 2QF Tel/Fax +44 (0)1483 534488

Priory Bookbinders 37 Invincible Road Farnborough, GU14 7QU Telephone +44 (0)1252 515 843

APPENDIX E: TITLE PAGE TEMPLATE (Amend as appropriate)

Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Management#p#分頁標題#e#

The Outlet Manager and Pricing Decisions by Supermarkets

by

Katherine Summers

Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

University of Surrey

September 2014

Word count:

© Katherine Summers

 

APPENDIX F: DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

This declaration must be included in your project and should be on the page immediately following the abstract. The statement is written below and you should fill in the necessary details and make the relevant deletions:

"I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed by myself and has not been presented or accepted in any previous application for a degree. The work, of which this is a record, has been carried out by myself unless otherwise stated and where the work is mine, it reflects personal views and values. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been acknowledged by means of references including those of the Internet. I agree that the University has the right to submit my work to the plagiarism detection sources for originality checks."

Author's signature, full name and date.