MSc Dissertation - Classical Art and Archaeology (P01708)

? Credit Points : 60 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-DissCA&Ar

The final stage of the programme, this Dissertation of 15,000 words serves as a forum for the candidate to demonstrate their progress in American History. All students will undertake a 15,000 words dissertation on a topic agreed with the supervisor/s, to be submitted by a date specified in the University Regulations. The dissertation is an extended piece of scholarship in which a student is expected to formulate and sustain a substantive piece of research within the field of American History. The dissertation is expected to engage critically and analytically with the literature in the field, building upon relevant concepts and theory covered in the taught element of the degree and deploying a range of primary and secondary sources as well as appropriate data-analytic and bibliographic skills. Each student will be allocated two research supervisors from the start of the academic year.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : Candidates will not be allowed to proceed to the Dissertation stage of the programme unless they have demonstrated sufficient progress as outlined in programme documentation.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Block 5 only

? Contact Teaching Time : 1 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The Dissertation exercise binds the different elements of the programme together while exploring candidates' abilities to undertake original research, and to make a sustained argument, in their chosen field of study.

The dissertation provides students with the ability:
- To formulate and implement a plan of research.
- To formulate hypotheses relating to the student's research subject and to test them by marshalling a range of primary and secondary evidence.
- To locate a specific thesis within its broader historiography.
- To reflect critically on the processes and methods involved in research and writing.
- To construct and pursue a coherent historical argument based on the hypotheses which have been formulated and tested by reference to primary and secondary source material.
- To locate an argument - whether verbal or written - within a broader intellectual context and to evaluate its implications from that more general perspective.
- To conceive and pursue to its conclusion a coherent argument founded on evidence provided by the sources at the student's disposal.
- To undertake a sustained independent research project, and to complete it within a strict time limit.
- To write clear, accurate, precise and concise prose.