Dissertations

[Bad Wolf]

hmm, bad wolf.
aren't you doing some type of music degree?

whats your dissertation on?

Yeah I'm doing Sound Studio Technology, my dissertation is on the 'Evolution of DJing and how Technology has changed the way people DJ.'

It sounds ridiculous to be honest lol

I've interviewed a few DJs, ranging from Locally know to world wide know but I just can't seem to put it all together and get my head down and work.

I DJ nearly every weekend now, and pretty much all I think about is doing it proffesionally, so you would imagine I had plenty of interest in the subject. Although I just can't seem to start it.

Thanks for your comments by the way, they have already helped my mind set.

If anyone is a DJ and fancys having a chat drop us a message, Id jump at the chance to talk to you.

Bad Wolf

The Man Behind the Decks

looks like the music is sorted for the next sgw meet

i know a few people involved in it, seems like a nice bit of money if you can get your name out there. seems to me that the business is all about who you know.

get many gigs?
and apologies for sidetracking the conversation xD

Yeah I play most weekends, and yeah its a good way to earn alot of money, I play in local clubs and a few private parties, I also produce some of my own music. I would like to be a lot better at that side of things. But for now i'm very happy with DJing and I hope it can take me to were I want to be in life.

And yes I would defiantly DJ the next SGW meet up :p

@ Semper = That sounds like a pretty MENTAL project, I'm very interested in it though, it sounds fascinating.

@ Lord Neqa'el = Ill PM you now

Bad Wolf

The Man Behind the Decks

[Mordack]

I think it's the research, rather than the writing, which has challenged me.

I'm writing about the impact which China's emergence as an economic, cultural and military superpower will have on the 21st century. The problem is that given how contemporary and contentious a subject this is, there's a hell of a lot of literature on it available. Too much, if I'm honest. The challenge has been sifting through it and establishing what is and isn't garbage, what is and isn't relevant and what I should or shouldn't use. I'm having a similar problem to Semper, as it's gotten to the stage where 20,000 words almost seems like it isn't going to be enough. I could easily write twice as much from just the material I have already.

The lesson here, to anybody reading it who might do one in the future, is not to pick something so ridiculously ambitious and grandiose. Pick something which is relatively easy to research and collate information about, because it'll save you a lot of time and twice as many headaches. I'll get it done, I hope, but my penchant for the needlessly 'epic' and pretentious has already come back to bite me in the proverbial behind.

[deni]

The real challenge of every (good) dissertation is to be able to seperate the essential from the non-important and to structure the contents.

It is what takes most effort in my opinion and it is what those who have to read the dissertation value the most.

When writing a dissertation, everyone goes through several phases. At first they are usually overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information/papers on the subject. Then the critical mind comes into play and most start to realize that not everything being published is "true" or has to be believed without reservations. This step implies that they have already a grasp of the subject they want to write about. In the next step, if they are good, they will start to see all the inter-connections within the "worthy"-information and reduce it even further to a set of fundamental concepts. If they manage to write it up in a structured, easy to read way ...then voila, we have a grade A dissertation


So guys and gals, a dissertation is about structure and identifying the important and not about showing off how many facts you have found, or how many papers you have read.

@Mordack: It is true that most students pick a relatively large subject for their dissertation. Unfortunately, to realize how large it really is, they need to have spent time and effort already on researching the subject. But that's when your prof should come in and guide you into researching a well defined sub-problem of the original subject you wanted to cover.

[Mordack]

Spot on, Deni. I have had help, and I do (sort of) know where I'm going. But as you say the sheer task of researching is an enormity in itself, and I'm never happy unless I'm moaning.