This is a
task to complete during interview week (9th March - 13th March).
1.
Go to the library
2. Find BA (hons) Graphic Design dissertations from 2013/14 -
hint: upstairs and to the right
3. Grab at least 2
dissertations
4. Study each of the dissertations and focus particularly on their
written FORM paying close attention to punctuation,
grammar, tone-of-voice, referencing, vocabulary.
NOTE: not all the dissertations are "perfect" but
studying a number of them will help to demonstrate how written work should be
presented at undergraduate study.
5. Write a blog entry for this task - discuss 3 things that you
have learned, observed, noted about the dissertations that you looked at and
how this will help when addressing your own written piece.
The first dissertation I looked at was from
2013/14 entitled: ‘How has Postmodern Theory Informed Graphic Design Practices
and Aesthetics?’ by Emma Johnson. Her introduction is successful in the fact
that she introduces the topic well and explains it in a way that doesn’t
instantly confuse or overwhelm the reader. She makes it clear that to
understand postmodern design you must have a basic knowledge and acceptance of
what modernist design can be defined as. I noticed that her sentence structure
is quite irregular, in the sense that she uses a range of sentence types, with
some of them being quite short and punchy, lacking explanations and development.
She does make attempts at using the PEE sentence structure but not all of the
time.
Her referencing is good, but not
standard to me. She puts the page and date reference in brackets next to the
quotes accompanied by an *, I am used to referencing with numbers and putting
everything in a bibliography at the end of the written piece but at least she
has actually referenced her quotations. Her range of vocabulary is mature and
consistent and she refrained from using basic words for her descriptions which
is good. In place she could have used more sophisticated vocabulary and perhaps
could have developed her point a little more, but the general standard is high.
High levels of grammar and punctuation and the general tone of voice is
appropriate for this type of academic writing. She makes good points and doesn’t
go into too much detail in terms of historical context, so it doesn’t get
boring and she doesn’t detract or wonder off too far from the actual topic. Her
paragraph sizes are good, not too long and not too short either. When it comes
to her conclusion, i think this needed to be a bit longer and more in depth.
Postmodernism is such a vast topic and you can really make strong statements
about it and really convey your personal opinion. I feel she lacked this in her
conclusion. Having said that though, she did wrap up her essay well and in a
concise way which I guess is what conclusions are all about, I would have liked
to have seen more personal views though.
The second dissertation I examined was titled
‘Diffusion of Style in Global Culture’ by Abbas Mushtaq – out of the two this
was the thicker one, and from first glance you would assume that this was the
more advanced and accomplished piece of writing. This persons introduction is
very sophisticated and really tackles the question in a detailed and thorough
way. He outlines the essay, breaking down the structure of the paragraphs and
tells the reader what to expect content wise from each section. I like this,
you could argue that this pads out the essay and uses up unnecessary parts of
the overall word count, but I think it has been done in a concise enough way
and gives the reader an idea of the general tone of the writing. The general
tone of voice is very sophisticated and mature and it definitely reads like a
successful piece of academic investigation.
The paragraphing and sentences are mature
and vocabulary use is good, but I feel more synonyms and more sophisticated lexis
could have been used, it felt a bit repetitive at times. He goes into a lot of
detail which is good, but at times boring. Historical knowledge is extensive
and this is seen throughout the introduction. The conclusion is at least double
the length of the first dissertation, and I feel sums up the issues covered a
lot better. The last paragraph sums up his views in a concise way and generally
ties the whole text together nicely. I think he did waffle on a bit in his
conclusion so perhaps could have worked on making it less padded and more to
the point. But again, this is such a large topic to tackle that I guess detail
in required in this context.
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