Design Research Dissertation / Draft Dissertation

29/8/2022 - 10/10/2022 / Week 1 - Week 7
Nurul Adlina Rizal / 0345429 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Design Research Dissertation
Draft Dissertation


LECTURES

Week 1:

Week 2: 

Writing Literature Review

Approach for Writing A Literature Review

- be concise and analytical
- have clear grasp of major points of the field
- intro, findings, discussion and conclusion for Literature Review

Where to start?
- consider central research questions
- come up with keywords
- ask your peers
- draw up your bibliography (list of articles)

How to search?
- use your keywords !

How to Structure Your Review?

- use subheadings (break it up, make it easy to navigate)
- color code
- cross-referencing
- only essential quotations
- bibliography as well as work cited

Concluding
- what are the major trends?
- what are the main contributors?
- is the review worth continuing and updating, are you happy with it?

What to include?
- relate clearly to your own research question
- do they exemplify a particular methodology which you will use
- intro > conclusion
- state goals in the introduction and conclusion
- group by theme, methodology
- relate research to literature

Week 3: 

Writing Research Methodology

- explain your research approach
- why you chose this methodology and research design
- you are making an argument for this methodology and not others
- cite sources

Research Design
- architecture

Data Collection
- step-by-step process

- what have you done to ensure the data is reliable and valid 

Data Analysis
- how you will organize the data
- work out an analytical strategy
- constant comparison


Week 4: 

Writing Findings and Discussion

Discussion
- explain and evaluate the findings
- show how it relates to the literature review and research questions
- make an argument in support of your conclusion

Start of discussion chapter:

- start you research problem
- summarize your main findings

Step 1 
Give your interpretations (what does the result mean)

Step 2
Discuss the implication
- does it agree with previous research
- different from other studies?

Step 3 
Acknowledge the limitations

Step 4 
State recommendations


Week 5:

Writing an Abstract

1. Background / Introduction
2. Research Problem
3. State the Gap
4. Objectives
5. Methodology
6. Results


INSTRUCTIONS


Draft Dissertation

Week 1 (29/8/2022)

Dr Hayati explained to us the requirements of the module and what we should start working on. 

Week 2 (5/9/2022)

I had worked on Section 2 Literature Review since it had an interim deadline on Sunday 12/9/2022. It was a good refreshment on the past study and pieces of literature I had chosen for my research. Creating a Literature Review Matrix also aided me in completing the draft of Section 2. 

Week 3 (12/9/2022)

For week 3, I worked on drafting Section 3, Research Methodology. There are many parts of it I wanted to make better and I feel as though I want to try to update it if I have the time. 

Week 4 (19/9/2022)

For week 4, I finish drafting Section 3 and start on Section 4, Findings, and Section 5, Discussions. This week the workload is added a bit more. I create a new draft to make changes that were discussed in class. 

Week 5 (26/9/2022)

I managed to finish section 4. Since section 5 requires comparing primary and secondary data, I wanted to take extra time in completing it. 

Week 6 (3/10/2022)

This week I work on the Analysis and Discussion part of the dissertation which is Section 5. I have a bit of difficulty structuring this section. I compared the evidence from my primary and secondary data and compiled them together to prove my hypothesis and create a solution to the research’s problem statement. 

Week 7 (10/10/2022)

Final Draft Dissertation


Fig 1.0: Final Draft Dissertation (8/12/2022)



FEEDBACKS

Week 1

General Feedback: -

Specific Feedback: Try to write 300-500 words per week. Give a bit more effort and think positive. 

Week 2

General Feedback: Don't forget to update your weekly progression sheet. You know your articles best, decide on a structure of Section 2 based on your knowledge. 

Specific Feedback: Make some amendments to your working title and sub-headings. 

Week 3

General Feedback: Be analytical and critical, see what other others have said about the themes and try to compare and contrast all the five articles. 

Specific Feedback: It is good that you have followed the interim deadlines. I am happy with your work. You can rework your overview and summary to include the requirements that were previously mentioned. 

Week 4

General Feedback: Add citations to your research methods and designs to justify why you had chosen those methods and support your decision. 

Specific Feedback: Try to be descriptive in your writing and reflect on it. Take some time to look back at what you wrote and notice what you can change or add. Try to use language more suitable for academic writing. 



REFLECTIONS

Experience

This was a new experience for me. Even if Design Research Methodology had prepared me for this, I was still experiencing new things when creating my research dissertation. There were many sections I had to elaborate in detail on my research process and I was not used to that. However, it did make me rethink my research overall and what it meant. This has caused me to make some changes that helped me later in the long run. In conclusion, while it was an entirely new experience, I had a good one. 

Observation

I observed that I had a hard time in the Discussion section because I did not think about what comparing the results would mean to the research objectives and research questions. Moreover, I also had difficulties completing the work on time despite it having interim deadlines. I believe this could be due to it being something new. Even if it is similar to the previous module, there were some things that needed to be elaborated in detail and supported with references. 


Findings

I found that I need to be better at managing time well. I could better work on the parts I had a hard time with such as Discussion. I did it last so there were certain parts that were rushed. However, it did help make me summarize the work better. 

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