I'm in my first year studying outdoor education at Liverpool John Moores University and starting to think about what to write my dissertation on. Everyone seems to suggest that you should write it on something that your passionate about, as i'm very passionate about bushcraft as I've always had a passion for it. Has anyone got any ideas on what i could base my research on within bushcraft?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Ste
ogri's advice is spot on.
Whilst collecting two masters degrees I've battled through my fair share of dissertations, and in the last 10 years i have sponsored a quite a few guys though mba's that my employer has sponsored.
For one of my earlier ones i picked a subject that i was really passionate about and
made a mistake and i hope you can learn from my story. The college required an academic basis for the dissertation and after ploughing my way though what felt like tonnes of research papers and cross referenced articles the passion i had became more of a burden, then a chore, in fact afterwards i secretly hoped to never cross paths with the subject again. The temptation for your pet subject is also to boil the ocean to create the masterpiece and loose the focus on the task objectively which is to provide the examiner with evidence that you know what you are talking about. using the dissertation as a vehicle to write a business plan may set you up for your next life phase but won't tick off the academic rigour required by some institutions to pass for award for the qualification.
Of those i mentor through the process i strongly council that the subject should be one that you are prepared to "loose" from your soul as no you will have a likely probability of wanting to never see it again afterwards. Ask any mba just how many times he/she has been back to re read that masterpiece.
It is my strong view that you should pick something;-
*aligned with your key passion,
*not totally it,
*that clearly and objectively has potential to end in a answer
*avoids the aspirant this mba/dissertation/phd is going to change the company/world once you've finished it (as it probably won't and you'll more than likely be looking to one on to a new employer afterwards)
*be prepared to hate it passionately as it is ripped from your soul,
*and to party like you've never lived afterwards
hope that makes sense. go and seek out others that have written similar dissertations and understand the pain they had (was it closing the topic, the research, the analysis etc) and make you selection knowingly.
it might be however that I'm the outlier but evidence of the guys i know is that the above is good advice.
hope that helps.
John