Final year at university brings the dreaded dissertation. 10,000 words on a topic of your choice which fits within your area of study. At the beginning of my final year, I had no clue what I wanted to write about and frequently found myself overwhelmed with the responsibility of choosing a topic of research. I tend to get bored very quickly and to be honest I end of disliking the topics I have written my essays about before the submission. I was aware of the huge task of writing a dissertation and didn’t want to dread writing my dissertation. As I am coming towards the end of my dissertation, I wanted to share my experience, and hopefully share some tips for anyone who is yet to write theirs!
The first hurdle I came across was choosing a research topic. I had many potential topics which I wanted to write about (some of which have become topics I have blogged about) however, social media is something which has always interested me, and I ended up deciding it would be best to write about a topic which I was passionate about. I grew up alongside the evolution of social media and was within the first generation to experience social media celebrities, who are now better known as influencers. I think my interest in social media was one of the main reasons I went on to study PR as I have seen so many influencers be cancelled for a lapse in judgement or straight up mistake. Furthermore, having grown up seeing influencers begin to gain sponsorships and seeing how much monetary gain these individuals can access I have become interested in the ethics behind these deals. Therefore, I chose to write my dissertation about the authenticity of PR activity online. Despite finding a topic I was interested in and have thankfully continued to be interested in throughout my research, I have struggled with two things. One of which is motivation, and the other is staying subjective.
My tutor has been great at encouraging me to split up my work into segments and aim to have sections completed at different times. I have found this the most helpful tactic to stay motivated as it has allowed me to split up the research into more manageable chunks, 10,000 words is a daunting amount! Despite this, I think it is inevitable that at times you will face periods of being stressed, anxious or completely demotivated and that’s completely okay! For me, the stress has mainly surrounded me being unsure if I have kept my opinion out of my work. I am a very opinionated person and have an opinion about influencers and the endorsements they take. I have found that the most useful way for me to try to tackle this is having someone who is completely subjective on the issue read my work to ensure there is a balanced analysis from both perspectives. I think final year is a strange period for everyone, as no one really has a solid plan for their next year. You have to learn how to juggle so many aspects of your life in order to stay on track with your work but also have a social life.
Though I am feeling confident about my current progress with my dissertation, I have just under a month until it is due and still have a lot of changes to make! However, writing this blog has helped me with my motivation by allowing me to get my thoughts on the page and realise what I need to do. I hope this ramble has been interesting and has offered a small piece of advice to anyone who is about to write their dissertation.