I haven’t started my dissertation yet and I don’t know what to do it on!

“I haven’t started my dissertation yet!”

“I don’t even know what to write it on!”

It’s okay. You are not the only one. It doesn’t matter. You can still write an excellent social sciences dissertation. I’m going to teach you how to ensure your title is so focused, so specific, that your supervisor will never say, “That’s too broad, you need to narrow it down!”. By the time you read to the end of this blogpost, the path to that amazing dissertation is going to be considerably clearer than it is now.

We’re going to cover the three things that every social science dissertation title needs.

(1) People

(2) Issue / Interest

(3) Context

People.

Every social sciences dissertation topic needs to have people in it. As a social science student, the main thing you’re studying is people, so they need to be the focus of your dissertation! Make sure you have people in your dissertation topic and that those people have at least one thing in common.

Think about age, social class, ethnicity, profession, disability, health status, religious belief system, education level, relationship status.

For example…

You might want to focus on older people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

You might want to focus on law students with aspirations to work in criminal law.

You might want to focus upon young people with ADHD.

Make sure that you have a specific group of people at the centre of your dissertation.

That’s your first building block in place.

Issue or Interest.

Next up, you need to identify an issue that these people experience or an interest that they have. As social scientists, we study all kinds of issues and interests: problems, challenges, injustices, discrimination, inequality, exclusion, opportunities, hobbies, passions, causes. Identify an issue or interest that your group of people are experiencing.

To build on the examples we’ve identified so far…

You might want to specify that you’re looking at the issue of digital literacy among older people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

You might want to focus upon the issue of financial challenges for law students with aspirations to work in criminal law.

You might want to focus upon the issue of discrimination as it’s experienced by young people with ADHD.

That’s your second building block in place.

Context.

Lastly, you need to identify a context. The context is the location in which people are experiencing the issue or interest you’ve identified. That location might be an actual physical place like a city, town, region, country. It might be a virtual space – an online forum for example. It might be a social institution like education or government. It might be an organisation like a business or a charity. It might be a historical period. It might be within a particular policy framework or government programme.

Let’s build up the examples we’ve looked at so far, adding this third layer of context.

Firstly, older people and digital literacy. Perhaps the context for this is a government programme to encourage digital literacy, our dissertation title question might be, “To what extent are national digital literacy programmes inclusive of older people from ethnic minority backgrounds?”.

Secondly, in relation to our law students with ambitions to work in criminal law who are experiencing financial challenges, we could look at this in relation to prestigious law firms. Prestigious law firms are our context. Our dissertation title question might be, “How true is the idea that only law students from wealthy backgrounds are able to succeed as criminal lawyers in the top ten law firms?”.

Lastly, if we’re thinking about discrimination against young people with ADHD, we might want to look at their experiences within the education system, higher education in particular. Higher education is our context here. Our dissertation title might be, “What impact does discrimination have upon the progression of young people with ADHD within higher education?”.

Can you see how you can incrementally build up your own dissertation title now, starting with people, thinking about an issue or interest that they experience, then locating that within a particular context?

If you use this formula – people, issue or interest, and context, you will end up with a dissertation title that is laser focused. Your supervisor is never going to say to you, “That’s too broad, narrow it down!” because you’re starting off with the specifics. The more specific you are at the start, the more efficient your literature review will be, the easier you’ll find it to develop a methodology, and the rest of your dissertation – whilst it is never going to be EASY – will be much more straightforward.

Dissertation Launch Pad

If you want me to walk you through the process of getting to your people, issue or interest, and context, using my tried and tested step-by-step process, then sign up for Dissertation Launch Pad. This mini course will take you from lacking motivation and feeling uninspired with vague ideas about what to do your dissertation on, to driven and directed, with a focused title question that reflects your passions and interests, so you can begin their dissertation lit up, enthused and on track to produce a thesis you can be proud of. If that sounds like the kind of thing you need to get your dissertation on track, click here to find out more.