Successful completion of the CE00293-M, Discipline Specific Module or its equivalent.

You will need access to these resources:
- Published journals and text books and the inter-library loan service;
- Electronic and on-line information sources (e.g. BIDS/Searchbank) and World Wide Web;
- Word processing, data analysis and presentation graphics software;
- Regular supervision from a member of faculty staff with advanced research credentials in your research topic.

These learning strategies will occupy your time:
- There will be a heavy emphasis on independent learning as a facilitator of research;
- Personal supervision sessions, between the supervisor and student.
- Students will be invited to attend the programme of regular seminars and presentations given by researchers and external speakers as part of the faculty research activity;

The study structure of the module is as follows:
- 600 hours on the Masters Dissertation.

The module is delivered as follows:
- 40 hours direct supervision;
- 560 hours independent learning

100% Coursework, consisting of 1 item:
- Masters Dissertation - The Masters Dissertation must demonstrate that you can apply your specialist knowledge and work under supervision, in line with a Learning Contract in a methodological way. The Masters Dissertation will be an implementation of the Research Proposal, which in turn builds on the specialist topic addressed in the Advanced Research Module. The Masters Dissertation report will normally consist of around 20,000 words in the Faculty's approved format, and may also include other deliverables, as agreed with the supervisor. (Learning outcomes 1,2,3 and 4).

A viva voce examination will take place before an External Examiner and a small panel of research staff from the Faculty, including the Supervisor, MRes Award Leader and Second Assessor, which is a mechanism for in-depth examination of a students understanding of the specialist subject. It is expected that the examination will begin with a short audiovisual presentation of the student's work.

Both items are combined in the assessment (Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 4).

Recommended texts:
- Madsen, D. (1983) Successful Dissertations and Theses: a Guide to Graduate Student Research from Proposal to Completion, Jossey-Bass, ISBN: 0875895557
- Rudestam, K. E. and Newton, R. R. (2000) Surviving Your Dissertation: a Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process, Sage Publications, London, ISBN: 0761919627

The Masters Dissertation extends and unifies the students understanding of the specialist focused research topic as developed through the Learning Contract in the Advanced Research Module and defined formally in the Research Proposal Module. The Learning Contract may be further refined (if necessary) before commencing the Dissertation. The Dissertation involves a critical study of the historical background and recent developments in the chosen research area and will result in the development and validation of a practical component or artefact that may be a method or model, a specification, a design document, a software implementation or any other practical and usable deliverable. The production of this deliverable should involve an organised and 'engineered' approach or methodology that considers the ethical implications of the work and contains a substantial element of originality. It is expected that the deliverable will be validated and that the process by which it is produced will be evaluated critically and the scope for future research is considered.
Note: where the word 'originality' appears in this Module Descriptor, this is taken to mean work that is original to the student, rather than to the world in general. Thus, an original piece of work would be one that the student has produced on his or her own initiative that is does not draw heavily on the work of others. A demonstration of originality would mean that the student shows innovation and/or initiative in arriving at an idea, a conclusion or an artefact. It is not expected that the item would be completely original in the sense of never having been done before.