How to write a film studies dissertation

INTRODUCTION

Writing a dissertation will be the toughest writing assignment that most university undergraduates will undertake. Commonly, a dissertation will be three to five times as long as any other essays previously written as part of a course. Dissertations in any subject take a great deal of planning and writing. The object of this essay to look at how to write a film studies dissertation. Many of the elements discussed herein are common to writing any dissertation, but we will also consider some elements that are specific to writing to a dissertation in film studies.

There are four key areas to think about in setting out and producing a film studies dissertation. The first of these four key areas is deciding the theme for the dissertation. This should be original but not so obscure that it is difficult to find adequate information about it. The second of these key areas is the gathering of the evidence. An important part of any dissertation is that an extensive amount of research is required. The third key area is the writing of the dissertation. This area involves the planning and writing of the actual text of the dissertation itself. The final key area to be considered is the proof-reading and the presentation of the dissertation. It is important that the dissertation is free from factual and grammatical errors and that your argument is laid out in the best possible way to highlight your research and work.

DECIDING THE THEME

What is going to be the theme of your film studies dissertation? You may already have some idea of what your theme will be. You may even know exactly what your intended title is. Whichever of those categories you fall into, now would be a very good time to talk to your film studies dissertation supervisor, as they are there to help you. They will be able to advise you as to whether your topic is viable, or whether some more thought needs to be put into either choosing a topic or rethinking your subject area. During your studies you should have developed a sense of what sort of subjects in your chosen field of study are of greater interest to you than others, as well as getting a sense of what sort of subjects are easier to find information on.

For example, writing a film studies dissertation on a film that has been released in the last twelve months certainly has a contemporary feel to it, but may be much harder to find information on or academic writing about than, for example, 1960s French cinema. All these different factors need to be taken into consideration. However, a recent film which is a remake of an older film may have more to be commented upon. All these factors need to be taken into consideration when preparing a dissertation theme, as it needs to be a subject on which you feel to be sufficiently comfortable and with adequate research to support your arguments.

GATHERING THE EVIDENCE

It is tempting once you begin a dissertation to just dive in and begin writing, and it may be helpful to at least do an abstract (a one or two sentence summary of the key argument of your dissertation), but it is important to do the research before you just begin to write. This is a good practice and makes it much less likely that you will have to go back and do major rewrites later on.

Do you know where to get the materials that you need? Does your university library have all the research materials that you need or do you need to arrange inter-library loans? As these can take some time to arrange, it is important that you start getting hold of external reference materials that you need as soon as possible, so save potential headaches later on. As you gather materials together, make sure that you start compiling them into a bibliography straight away. By this stage of your studies you should know how to reference materials, but if you not sure, remember that your film studies dissertation supervisor will be available to advise you. Make sure that when you are making notes that you clearly mark from which source they are coming from. It gets problematic at a later stage if you have notes and you are not sure where they are from, or worse still whether they are your idea or someone else’s.

WRITING THE DISSERTATION

So you have worked out a theme with your film studies dissertation supervisor, you have done your research (or at least most of it) and now it is time to begin writing your dissertation. This will require a certain amount of planning. You will already know how many words you need for your dissertation and you will need to plan how that will be apportioned out as part of your time management. For example, if you have one month to write 15,000 words, then that works out as approximately 500 words per day. Of course, you will also have to factor in time for proof-reading and presentation, so perhaps about 750 words per day may be more appropriate.

You should always aim to write at least that number of words per day, and preferably more. It is also wise to allow time to reread the previous day’s material to check for clarity and continuity. If your dissertation is broken down into a number of sections, then you may wish to plan your writing that way, for example, one 3,000 word section per week. It will be your timetable, so it is important that it is one that works for you. By this time, you should also be assembling any DVD clips that need to be used as part of your film studies dissertation, as well as any script elements that need to be included and formatted. You should have accepted ways of doing this, and this can be checked with your film studies dissertation supervisor.

PROOF-READING AND PRESENTATION

You will eventually get to the point where your film studies dissertation is finished, hopefully with plenty of time left for the final part of your work – proof-reading and presentation. Don’t just pass your dissertation through a spell checker but read it thoroughly, and perhaps even get someone else to pass an eye over it. Spellcheckers are useful tools but by no means 100% accurate, and sloppiness in grammar and punctuation can also be perceived as sloppiness in argument.

Check with your film studies dissertation supervisor as to the presentation requirements for your work. Is it to be bound, in which case by whom? What are the typesetting requirements, and have you followed them. Make sure that everything is fully and correctly referenced, and any film clips that you are using are presented appropriately (and preferably with a script counterpart somewhere in your work). You shouldn’t just be finding out about all this in the two or three days before your presentation is due. This should’ve been part of your early research into your film studies dissertation, and not something that you have thought about at the last moment. Good advance planning makes these late tasks so much easier and less stressful. If you are providing a video or a DVD of film clips in your dissertation, make sure that these are well referenced and well marked in whatever medium you are presenting them in. If you presentation is in video, then make sure that there are clear time counter references for the beginning and end, and if it is on DVD that the different clips have different chapter markers (time counter will help too) and a clear and easy menu structure on the DVD. Any video and DVD casing should also have your name and dissertation details on it so that it can easily be traced back to your dissertation.

Once you have fulfilled all these steps, you should have a very good quality film studies dissertation that is ready to hand in and ready to be marked, and for which you should receive a good grade if you have followed the steps in this guide.

CONCLUSION

We have seen therefore that there are a variety of key elements in producing a good quality dissertation, and in particular a film studies dissertation. Although this is a fairly comprehensive guide, it works best alongside a good channel of communication with your dissertation supervisor, who will be able and willing to advise you on the specifics of your own dissertation. The key elements to remember are that planning is a vital part of the preparation, as well as good advanced planning, and making sure that there is plenty of time to achieve the different steps of putting your film studies dissertation together, without relying on a last minute rush.

Putting all of this guide and its helps into practice will enable you to put together the best possible film studies dissertation that you can.

Other dissertation help pages in this category

Dissertation Title Examples

How to write a film studies dissertation

Other dissertation help pages in this category

Need help writing a dissertation?

Services

Information

Popular Content

Updates