Each student will undertake an individual programme of study related directly to their chosen dissertation title. Initially the student will review and may carry out further research related to their dissertation in order to identify a relevant issue or topic on which to write the research paper. Identification of the topic should be carefully carried out in order to assure the value of the paper to the computing community. The following are acceptable examples: a) write a paper with a specific focus, e.g. based on a given computing technology, such as a specification review of the AVI media format, b) write a paper that is review based, detailing state of the art approaches or technologies, e.g. a comparison of existing multimedia methods and their relevance for the design of educational applications. Before starting the paper the student and dissertation supervisor must agree the topic and full scope of the paper and a target journal or conference. The created paper must include comprehensive referencing to other research papers, journals and books etc. to make the work academically sound. Throughout the module, the student will be given direction by the dissertation supervisor in preparing work for publication, and directed to good examples of written papers. Please note that the content written in the paper must be original in relation to your dissertations content, i.e. you must not copy and reuse content directly from your dissertation.

- The student will work with their dissertation supervisor to identify a relevant topic / issue to base their paper
- The topic will be carefully scoped in conjunction with the supervisor
- The student will need to find similar research papers to identify how such a paper is constructed and presented
- It will be required that students identify and effectively reference the work of others
- Writing skills guides related to publication production will be used, such as the reading list below to develop technical writing skills
- The paper will be developed and reviewed as it progresses between the supervisor and student
Supervision will be on a one to one basis over one semester.
2 hours of lectures and regular meetings with a supervisor.

Coursework - 100% (Learning outcomes 1 - 3)
An assessed research paper, within word limits of 5,000-7,000 words

Tutors will provide a small handbook to guide students, it is recommended that students do further reading from one of the following texts:
Turabian (1996) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, University of Chicago Press, ISBN: 0226816273
Huff (1998) Writing for Scholarly Publication, Sage Publications, ISBN: 0761918051

Access to the library, journals and web-based resources

Be enrolled on the MSc Dissertation