Consideration 2: Where to find the best marks in your dissertation write-up

Not every chapter, or every section of every chapter, is going to land you lots of nice marks, especially the particularly nice marks that are needed for a top grade. Some sections are fillers - necessary, but expected for a standard mark - whilst others give you the chance to show why your dissertation is significant, worthy of a higher mark. In Route #1: Replication-based dissertations, where these different sections are will depend on (a) the route you adopted (i.e., Route A: Duplication, Route B: Generalisation or Route C: Extension) and (b) your specific dissertation focus. Therefore, in the sections that follow, we explain what you should consider based on whether you adopted Route A: Duplication, Route B: Generalisation or Route C: Extension:

Route A: Duplication

When following Route A: Duplication, there are three main areas to focus on to get a good mark: (a) justifying duplication; (b) the creation and execution of a strong sampling strategy; and (c) the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis and comparisons.

• Justifying duplication

  Presenting a strong justification to duplicate previous research is very important to getting a good mark when following Route A: Duplication because more often than not, duplication is not considered to be a sufficient contribution, whether you are a student performing a dissertation, or even a seasoned academic. Therefore, you need to stress, right from the start of Chapter One: Introduction, the importance of testing the reliability, internal validity and external validity of the original study, as well as any other reasons that are specific to your dissertation.

• Creating and execution of a strong sampling strategy

  As you'll know, when pursuing Route A: Duplication, you cannot always rely on applying the sample sampling strategy as the one used in the main journal article. However, the characteristics of the sample and population you study should mirror, as closely as possible, the ones used in the main journal article. This enables you to make close comparisons between the findings in the main journal article and those from your dissertation. For this reason, when writing up Chapter Three: Research Strategy, you need to pay close attention to explaining and justifying not only the strengths and weaknesses of your sampling strategy, but also the fit between your sampling strategy and the one followed in the main journal article. This will strengthen your case when discussing the generalizability of your findings (i.e., the external validity of your findings) in Chapter Five: Conclusion.

• The appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis and comparisons

  Comparing your findings to those in the main journal article is particularly important in Route A: Duplication, so being able to make such comparisons in Chapter Four: Results is essential for a good mark. In addition, you need to remember that since you're doing a quantitative dissertation, the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis is vital to getting a good mark. You can succeed in everything you do up until this stage, and then perform the wrong analysis or interpret it incorrectly, failing to answer your research questions/hypotheses, which can seriously jeopardize the mark you're awarded for your dissertation. Now this doesn?t mean that you have to do fancy analysis. You just need to make the right choices, which means: (a) thoughtfully analysing your data, which leads to choosing the correct statistical tests (i.e., appropriateness); and (b) accurately interpreting the results from these statistical tests in order to answer your research questions/hypotheses (i.e., accuracy). These are things that you need to first explain and justify in the Data Analysis section of Chapter Three: Research Strategy, and then demonstrate throughout Chapter Four: Results.

Route B: Generalisation

When following Route B: Generalisation, there are three main areas to focus on to get a good mark: (a) the theoretical justification for your type of generalisation, (b) the external validity of your findings, and (c) the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis and comparisons.

• The theoretical justification for your type of generalisation

  As you?ll know, each approach within Route B: Generalisation is underpinned by different theoretical justifications (i.e., the reasons to carry out a treatment-based generalisation will be very different from a population-based generalisation). This makes it particularly important to theoretically explain and justify your particular approach. More often than not, such theoretical justifications will come from a critical analysis of the main journal article or from your understanding of the literature (i.e., STAGE FIVE: Building the theoretical case). In either case, high marks come from being able to theoretically justify the approach you have adopted, something you will do briefly in Chapter One: Introduction, but mainly in Chapter Two: Literature Review.

• The external validity of your findings

  Since the purpose of Route B: Generalisation is to make generalisations across populations, settings/contexts, treatments or time, demonstrating that your dissertation was externally valid is important to getting a good mark. To do this, you will need to explain in Chapter Three: Research Strategy how you reduced threats to external validity through the research strategy you set, as well as discussing how such threats could have affected your findings (i.e., something you will do in Chapter Four: Results and the Research Limitations section of Chapter Five: Discussion/Conclusion).

• The appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis and comparisons

  You're doing a quantitative dissertation, so the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis is vital to getting a good mark. You can succeed in everything you do up until this stage, and then perform the wrong analysis or interpret it incorrectly, failing to answer your research questions/hypotheses, which can seriously jeopardize the mark you?re awarded for your dissertation. Now this doesn?t mean that you have to do fancy analysis. You just need to make the right choices, which means: (a) thoughtfully analysing your data, which leads to choosing the correct statistical tests (i.e., appropriateness); and (b) accurately interpreting the results from these statistical tests in order to answer your research questions/hypotheses (i.e., accuracy). These are things that you need to first explain and justify in the Data Analysis section of Chapter Three: Research Strategy, and then demonstrate throughout Chapter Four: Results. In addition, since the purpose of Route B: Generalisation is to make generalisations across populations, settings/contexts, treatments or time, comparing your findings with those in the main journal article is important for a good mark. Such comparisons will help to show the extent to which the results from your dissertation are similar to those of the main journal article (i.e., how far the results can be generalised to other populations, settings/contexts, treatments, or time; that is, how externally valid the hypotheses that were tested are).

Route C: Extension

When taking on Route C: Extension, there is a lot of potential to get high marks, especially when compared with Route A: Duplication and Route B: Generalisation, which do not have the same level of originality and independent thought. However, three areas in particular that you should focus on in order to get a good mark are: (a) the theoretical justification for your type of extension; (b) a thoughtful approach towards research quality; and (c) the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis.

• The theoretical justification for your type of extension

  As you'll know, Route C: Extension is more than just replication because the changes you make to components of the main journal article, such as the research design, constructs/variables, methods and measurement procedures, and/or data analysis approach adds a great deal more originality and independent thought to the traditional replication routes (i.e., compared with Route A: Duplication, and even Route B: Generalisation). This makes it particularly important to theoretically explain and justify your particular approach within Route C: Extension (i.e., whether a population and context/setting-based extension, design-based extension or method or measurement-driven extension). Such theoretical justifications can come a critical analysis of the main journal article or from your understanding of the literature (i.e., STAGE FIVE: Building the theoretical case), or an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the research design, methods and measurement procedures used in the main journal article (i.e., STAGE SIX: Setting the research strategy). In either case, high marks come from being able to theoretically justify the approach you have adopted, something you will do briefly in Chapter One: Introduction, but mainly in Chapter Two: Literature Review and the appropriate sections of Chapter Three: Research Strategy.

• A thoughtful approach towards research quality

  Whilst you will pick up more marks for carrying out a dissertation with greater originality and independent thought, this counts for little if your results cannot be trusted. Focusing on research quality is so important to a good mark in all approaches to Route C: Extension because of the changes that you make to the research strategy of the main journal article - whether some aspect of the research design, research methods and measures, or sampling strategy - any of which can significantly affect the quality of your findings. Implementing a thoughtful approach towards research quality means that you have carefully considered and incorporated all aspects of research quality into your research strategy (i.e., internal validity, external validity, reliability and construct validity). By doing this, you demonstrate not only the ability to produce a dissertation with greater originality and independent thought, but also the ability to effectively carry out such a dissertation in the field. This makes the Research Quality section of Chapter Three: Research Strategy particularly important in your write up.

• The appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis

  You're doing a quantitative dissertation, so the appropriateness and accuracy of your statistical analysis is vital to getting a good mark. You can succeed in everything you do up until this stage, and then perform the wrong analysis or interpret it incorrectly, failing the answer your research questions/hypotheses, which can seriously jeopardize the mark you're awarded for your dissertation. Now this doesn't mean that you have to do fancy analysis. You just need to make the right choices, which means: (a) thoughtfully analysing your data, which leads to choosing the correct statistical tests (i.e., appropriateness); and (b) accurately interpreting the results from these statistical tests in order to answer your research questions/hypotheses (i.e., accuracy). These are things that you need to first explain and justify in the Data Analysis section of Chapter Three: Research Strategy, and then demonstrate throughout Chapter Four: Results.