argument dissertation

Wed, - 4:30pm to 6:00pmLocation: Education Building (room 2206), UCDMC – SacramentoEvent Category: GP: Writing & PublishingMost graduate academic genres—theses, dissertations, journal articles—require an argument supported by scholarly evidence. But, finding and sharpening your argument can be one of the most challenging parts of the writing process. This workshop will present how to find your “entry point” (Belcher, 2009) into an argument and how to consider audience, structure, and context when crafting one. The workshop presenter will also discuss the common pitfalls of argumentation in scholarly work and discuss strategies for overcoming them. Register at Instructor: Brenda Rinard, Ph.D., University Writing Program. See flyer for more information. Sponsored by the University Writing Program: Writing Across the Curriculum Program and GradPathways (Graduate Studies).
For a printer-friendly PDF version of this guide, click here This Study Guide addresses the task of writing a dissertation. It aims to help you to feel confident in the construction of this extended piece of writing, and to support you in its successful completion. You may also find the following Study Guides helpful: Introduction Sometimes writing is seen as an activity that happens after everything else: “The research is going well, so the writing should be straightforward - I can leave it until later”. “I know I’m not good at writing so I keep putting it off”. “I know I’m good at writing so I can leave it to later”. “I want to get everything sorted out in my mind before I start writing or I’ll just end up wasting my time re-writing”. These four very different perspectives lead to the same potential problems: regarding re-drafting as a failure or a waste of time; ignoring the further learning and clarification of argument that usually occurs during the writing and re-writing process; and leaving too little time for effective editing and final proofing. The process of having to describe your study in detail, in a logical sequence of written words, will inevitably highlight where more thought is needed, and it may lead to new insight into connections, implications, rationale, relevance, and may lead to new ideas for further research. Barras (1993:136) suggests that you ‘think of your report as part of your investigation, not as a duty to be undertaken when your work is otherwise complete’, and this Study Guide suggests that: writing is an integral part of the research process. Getting on with the writing The good news is that you have already started writing if you have written any of the following in relation to this study: a research proposal; a literature review; a report of any pilot studies that you undertook; an abstract for a conference; reports for your.
Be clear on what is your dependent variable – both conceptually and empirically. Outline your argument very early on in the dissertation – perhaps even in the first paragraph or two. It is helpful for the reader to know where you are going as this frames the rest of the text. You are not writing a detective story where the answer is only revealed at the very end! The literature review is there for you to carve out your niche in the literature, not show that you have read every article mentioning X, Y, or Z. It should be thorough and critical in the sense of showing that previous work has failed to consider something important, or has measured something inappropriately, or has conflated conceptual issues, or whatever else is appropriate. Note, however, that the most salient short-comings to highlight are the ones that you address yourself in your own work. The dissertation is not a vehicle for you to show that we have taught you how to criticise scholarly work. Rather, it is for you to make a positive research contribution. The critiques are an exercise for you to show what value your work adds. While an interesting argument is important, it can often be helpful to give a catchy example or puzzle at the start of the dissertation. Something that makes the reader think ‘Hmm, I wonder why that is’ and then want to go on and read more about your explanation. Depending on your topic, this can be more a less difficult to come up with, of course. Take your own theory seriously. Think in detail about the concepts that you use and the way you argue that they interact with each other. Apply this careful thought to the empirical part of your work when considering how to measure things. Your argument may be only subtly different from those of others, but it could still have strong implications for what is an appropriate (proxy) measure for your theoretical concept. Graphics are.
Many different ways exist to argue in a dissertation and what you choose to do depends on your research question, your field, and the available literature, amongst other things. However, some elements are to be expected in all fields regardless of the research question or the literature, and these include logic, coherence, careful use of evidence and clarity. In a non-empirical dissertation you use desk research and argument to answer your research question. You can approach this task in a variety of ways, for example: Reject someone's idea using reason and logic Corroborate a particular viewpoint providing new or additional evidence Compare two contradictory views and decide which is the most compelling Re-evaluate an existing idea, improving it somehow Present a new way of understanding something Dissertation argument: Deductive vs. inductive reasoning One issue to take into account concerns different types of reasoning. Commonly, you may find guides and support for dissertation writing that discuss deductive and inductive reasoning and so it’s worth getting to grips with what these words mean. Deductive arguments tend to verify theories and hypotheses. They’re more associated with quantitative research and a kind of positivist framework. Often, but not always, deductive thinking moves from the general to the particular, and results in clear statements. A good deductive argument is described as ‘valid’. Deductive arguments can play out in numerous ways and some of those most useful for undergraduate dissertations involve syllogism, which is a form of logic. Here’s an example of an argument that is trying to show a cause-effect relationship: Start with a main idea, or premiss, for your work, in this case improved funding for your work. This leads to a connected idea – more facilities can be provided for young people. The effect of better facilities is that less young.