Design Research Dissertation // Draft Dissertation
03.04.23 - 21.05.23 (Week 1 - Week 7) Emelyne How Sok Hing (0352938)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) Creative Media
Design Research Dissertation // Draft Dissertation
LECTURES
Week 1:
The topic of how to write and structure a literature review was covered in our first lesson of the semester. We were given some advices and tips on how to conduct this process as we should.
How to conduct the literature review
1. Select your topic (usually in conjunction with a lecturer or supervisor)
2. Put your topic into a context. What background needs to be included? Where does
your topic fit into the wider context of research in the area?
3. Search for relevant information:
• Examine the keywords of your question/topic: exactly what do you need to
know?
• Identify themes in your topic
• Isolate keywords for these themes together with their synonyms
• Decide which types of literature best address your themes
• Search for literature
o - Library databases and search feature
o - Google Scholar - Lecturers’ recommendations
o - Friends’ suggestions
o - Bibliographies and reference lists at the end of books or articles
• Identify key authors if possible (through reference lists or by seeing which
articles are cited most on Google Scholar)
4. Keep a record of all your references, using the style you will use in your final review
5. Always relate all your literature to your research question, essay or report
How to organise the review
As with any piece of writing, your literature review should include an introduction and a
conclusion. After that, it is up to you how you group your literature. Remember, your
focus should usually be on the topic you are reviewing, rather than on individual writers.
That means that you can group the pieces of literature in order to make particular
points, and you can refer to individual writers more than once in the review. The choices
are limitless, but here are a few ideas.
You could group by:
• main themes
• methodology
• theories
• types of study
• main writers in the field
• chronology (i.e. development of theories over the years)
Remember to state your goals clearly in the introduction, and address them again in the
conclusion. Above all, always relate your research to the literature under discussion.
Dissertation Structure
-Title Page
-Acknowledgements
-Abstract
-Table of Contents
-List of Tables (if any)
-List of Abbreviations (if any), alphabetically ordered.
-Introduction
Problem Statement, Research Objectives, Research Questions & Conceptual Framework
-Literature Review
-Methodology
-Findings
(Data Analysis - either in a certain part or an extended essay which has clearly identified sections)
-Discussion
-Conclusions
and (if appropriate) recommendations
-Bibliography
(a list of all the books, journal articles, web sites, newspapers and other sources that you have used in your dissertation)
-Appendices
(e.g. questionnaires, interview transcripts, pilot reports, detailed tables etc.)
Week 2:
After doing our literature matrix, we were given some examples and lecture notes on how to write a literature review.
Figure 1.0 Notes on how to write a literature review, 10th April 2023
Week 3:
Next, was a lecture about how to write the dissertation for the research methodology.
Here is what we need to include:
• Concluding paragraph:
• 1) Summary of key points;
• 2) Emphasis on key message of
the section;
• 3) Link to next section.
• General approach to research
• Qualitative / Quantitative
• Show why this paradigm is appropriate to
research the problem at hand and to
achieve the purpose of the research
• Cite sources.
Figure 1.1 Notes on how to write research methodology, 18th April 2023
Week 4 & 5:
This time, we moved on to the dissertation's research results, findings, analysis, and discussion stage. These are the lecture slides that the lecturer gave us.
Figure 1.2 Notes on how to write research results & findings, 25th April 2023
Week 6:
We finally reached the last part of this dissertation which consists of writing the conclusion, abstract, introduction and appendices and so on.
Qualities of a good abstract:
• Includes one or more coherent and concise paragraphs (usually 200-300
words)
• Uses an introduction-body-conclusion structure in which the parts of the report
are discussed in order: purpose, research questions, methods, findings,
conclusions, recommendations
• Adds no new information - merely summarizes
• Can be understood without reading the paper
• Provides a condensed and concentrated version of the full text (stay away
from long-winded sentences)
• Does not contain citations
• Does not contain lengthy background information (KISS)
• Does not contain any sort of illustration, figure, or table, or references to them
Figure 1.3 Lecture Notes, 10th May 2023
INSTRUCTIONS
- Describe the findings found in section 2.0
REFLECTIONS
Draft Dissertation
Week 1:
For our first task, we were asked to do our literature matrix and complete the cover page for our dissertation.
Figure 1.3 Draft Cover Page, 3rd April 2023
Literature Matrix & Review
I finished the cover page modifications and then started on the literature matrix.
Figure 1.4 Literature Matrix (Before Feedback), 6th April 2023
After completing the literature matrix, I also began writing my literature review because I had some free time and wanted to complete this assignment as soon as possible.
Figure 1.5 Draft Literature Review, 8th April 2023
Week 2:
I revised my writing after hearing Dr. Hayati's feedback. Here's the result of my new literature review.
Figure 1.6 Updated Cover Page, 11th April 2023
Figure 1.7 Updated Literature Review, 11th April 2023
Week 3:
A new week brings new feedback, which also implies that changes need to be done. Here are the adjustments I made, in the hopes that they will be the last for this section.
Figure 1.8 Updated Literature Matrix, 19th April 2023
Figure 1.9 Updated Literature Review, 19th April 2023
Week 4:
Research Methodology
Next section of our dissertation was based on the research methodology. Based on the slides and examples provided to us, here's my first draft for this section.
Figure 2.0 Draft of my research methodology, 27th April 2023
Week 5:
Research Findings and Analysis
Moving on to section 4.0 and 5.0 which consists of the research findings and discussion based on our study. This part took me quite a while to analyse and write but here's what I managed to come up with. For now, I finished the section 4.0 which is about the research findings and analysis.
Figure 2.1 Draft of my research findings and analysis, 7th May 2023
After finishing the section 4.0 of my dissertation, I started to write section 5.0 which was about conducting a discussion of my findings and results.
Figure 2.2 Draft of my findings, 7th May 2023
Week 6:
After the feedback session, I added more description to the first paragraph of my section 5.0. I added more content as well related to my literature review.
Figure 2.3 Updated Findings, 13th May 2023
I finally completed what I needed to do. I revised the sections that needed to be amended. I wrote my conclusions, abstract, appendix, references and design recommendations. Here's the draft 3.0 of my dissertation.
Figure 2.4 Draft Dissertation, 14th May 2023
Week 7:
Final Draft Dissertation
Here's the final outcome for my draft dissertation.
Figure 2.5 Draft Dissertation, 17th May 2023
FEEDBACKS
Week 1:
General Feedback:
We must try to follow the deadline given to us so that we are able to finish the module right in time.
Week 2:
General Feedback:
-Post our work as word document or google docs on the drive.
-Go and do some more research if it is necessary for your articles.
Special Feedback:
-Rename cover page as draft dissertation
-Rework on my working title. Specify if it’s an article for animators or studio production
-Do a finding/conclusion/discussion column in the literature matrix
-If the sub-headers are related to each other, put it as 2.1 and 2.1.1 etc…
Week 3:
General Feedback:
-Don’t write the initials in the literature review when doing citation.
-Don’t put the PDF of the files but the files themselves
Special Feedback:
-The aim in my literature review paragraph should be written in my introduction instead.
-Change the title of ‘literature review’ to ‘A review of the 12 principles of animation’
-Put POA as reference to principles of animation
-Change my 2.1 title into ‘The 12 principles of animation adoption’
-State what the focus of this adoption is about.
-Define contemporary animation
-Replace Western to American
Week 4:
General Feedback:
-The limitation section for part 3 is based on the limitation experienced for the instrument used only.
Special Feedback:
-My visual analysis for section 4 should be very descriptive
-I can put my information in a table
Week 6:
General Feedback:
- Write the acknowledgement as the last part.Special Feedback:
- Section 4.0 - It’s method not methodologies.
- Section 3.0 - Do a diagram for research section- Describe the findings found in section 2.0
- Discussions - Add some more description to it. Relate it to your next paragraph and sub sections.
Week 7:
General Feedback:
Some of our seniors did both section 7.0 and 8.0, while some did only section 7.0 or only section 8.0 depending on your understanding of your research.
REFLECTIONS
Week 1:
The debrief for this class felt a bit heavy but it wasn’t like this is my first time doing this. The task for this week doesn’t feel too hard to do since it’s something which is being done in order to refresh our mind.
Week 2:
Doing this literature matrix and review didn’t turn out as hard as I thought it would be. It was pretty doable and quick to finish. The most challenging part was to find a suitable working title and sub-headers for the reviews. Nevertheless, the notes given to us were helpful as well and I didn’t feel too lost when I was doing my work.
Week 3:
I had a somewhat better understanding of what was right and wrong with my work after hearing the feedback. I felt that I had a better comprehension of the subject area of the literature review and learned what I should have done. Making the changes didn't actually bother me that much. Instead, I'm relieved that there aren't as many adjustments to be made as I had anticipated.
Week 4:
Writing the research methodology took longer than the literature review. It felt quite tiring at some point because sometimes I wasn’t sure on what to write for some sections. Despite that, I managed to do it and finish it.
Week 5:
My research findings and analytical writing process took longer than I was expecting. It wasn't difficult per se, but it was time-consuming because I had 12 questions for each of the 5 interviewees, so I had to carefully organise the structure of my analysis. As I had to refer back to what I had written in my literature review and research findings, writing the discussion part of my dissertation took a lot longer and was more difficult and time consuming than section 4.0.
Week 6:
Writing the dissertation's final few sections wasn't too difficult because I feel like I understand my findings, analysis, and conclusions from those six weeks quite well at this point. Maybe I didn't understand the design project recommendation section very well because there weren't any notes yet. But I made an effort to write something from what I understood. I’m glad that I finished this assignment in time so that at least I don’t have to sweat about it at the last minute. I would say that my hard work paid off.
Week 7:
I think that writing the dissertation wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I managed to get it done in time and I’m grateful for that. For now, I’m a bit stressed for the second part of this assignment which consists of creating a visual design for this dissertation. I’m a bit anxious since I know that I’ll have to relearn from scratch how to use InDesign since it’s been a while since I’ve used this software.
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