A critical assessment of the following dissertation

• Target length: 800 words
• Assesses learning outcomes 1-5
• What topic or area of linguistics is being addressed?
• Do you think that sufficient background information or context is provided in the Literature Review/State of the Art?
• Is there irrelevant material in the literature review? Does it appear that the author is including everything he/she has read?
• Do the subsequent chapters follow in a natural manner from the literature review? Is there a research question and what is it?
• What research method(s) is used, e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed?
• If a quantitative method is used, are any statistical methods discussed?
• If a qualitative method is used is there an analytical or theoretical framework used for the analysis of the data?
• What results are found?
• How do the results relate to the background?
• Do the results support the theory?
• Approximately what percentage of the dissertation is taken up with: (i) the Introduction; (ii) the State of the Art; (iii) Results; (iv) Discussion; (iv) Conclusion.

In general the following aspects of the dissertation should be addressed in your critique although these will vary depending upon the dissertation. Feel free to address other points as you see fit. Note that this assignment is not just a list of yes/no questions but these types of question should be addressed in your report. The report should also enable the reader to learn what the dissertation was about and what the main conclusions were.

The Dissertation

Note that if your dissertation is judged to be one of the best ones, we may well put it on blackboard (anonymised) for next year’s students to critique in terms of the above questions.