Hello, this is my fist post, and a very negative one - apologies for that.

Three years ago I started a taught MSc. I should have completed it in 2 years but had to put it on hold for a while due to difficult circumstances (I lost a close family member).

I got back to Uni last September and at first I was doing fine. Then...I don't know what happened but just before Christmas my motivation literally went to shambles. For this semester I just had 1 essay to write: I spent months panicking over it and finally decided I wouldn't even bother to submit. Then I managed to pull myself together and got it done - not the most extraordinary piece of writing, but given the premises this was all I could hope for.

Now the whole thing is starting again with my dissertation, which is due end of August. It should be an "original piece of research" but I've never done research of any kind before, never designed a 'methodology' or written a literature review (as an undergrad I studied in a non-UK institution, where we never got to write anything, not even essays).


On the one hand I think this is not me: from primary school to my undergrad years I've always been good at what I did, always up for a challenge, always prepared to stretch myself. But now that everything's turned to such a nightmare I'm starting to think that I'll not manage to submit my dissertation, that a second miracle won't happen, that I'm just not cut out for research and that basically this is the end of my academic career.


Has any of you ever experienced such feelings before? If you have, could you please help - any advice will be appreciated.

You will make it, if you put your mind to it.

I don't know what overall topic your MSc is in but nevertheless you should be able to get some guidance from the library and from your supervisor - have you been assigned one yet? There also must be a course handbook which should give you some details of what is expected. There are a few things you can do to kickstart your work.

First I would try to access some of the completed dissertations from your course. Your department should have them stored somewhere and it is perfectly acceptable for other students to flick through them to get a feel of the standard, the type of topics etc other people have done. Have a look at the tables of contents in a few and also at the methodology chapters.

Then I would go to the library. Most subjects have books which cover conducting small scale projects. If you can't find one for your discipline a generic 'skills/methods' book looking at reserach design should help. There are literally 100s of these. Try the sociology section of the library, shelved around the 300s. Don't go for a massive book but one which specifically mentions small scale research. Flick through the contents to see if it has what you are looking for. I would borrow no more than two, bring it home and get going!

Then I would make an appointment with your supervisor if you have one, or with the course co-ordinator to look for some starting guidelines. I know it seems daunting but you must have 'some' idea of the type of topic people in your area do.

Re: literature review - nobody can get through a dissertation without one. Again, in that research methods book, there should be something about reviewing the literature. There is loads online so look at those. Try to stick to academic sites as a guide. There are a few universties which have handy two or three page pdfs about literature reviews. Also, looking at previous theses will help here. Lit reviews are a critical review of the key literature in your field, not a summary of everything that has ever been written.

Put the 'what will I do after' thoughts on hold for the moment. You have nearly finished your MSc so don't give up at the final hurdle. Academia may not be for you but make that decision with your MSc under your belt! It will make any job applications (academic or otherwise) more likely.

Hope this helps a bit

A

If you have got this far then undoubtedly you can research, write and submit a sound thesis. And the paper that you mentioned that you completed wasn't a 'miracle' or one off - no wonder it was hard to do after the loss of someone close to you. The thesis doesn't have to be extraordinary-just thorough, well researched and clearly written. You can do that but you do need to stop the cycle of negative thoughts that basically form the last couple of sentences of your fourth paragraph. They are not true-just fears- your critical inner voice. Many of us have had such fears and still do at times, but you can't let that sort of thinking stop you. (I had several points during the writing of my Masters thesis when I questioned myself and really wondered why I was putting myself through the whole thing. Sometimes the only thing that got me through or past some points was my determination to finish the thing-I am reasonably academic in my approach and nature, still I don't think that I would be the only person who felt like this. I think it is fairly common).

Ady's very sound advice about the academic support is great, but also her comment that you need to complete and then make any future decisions with the Masters behind you rather than in front. You can do it-you just need to commit and keep going-one step at a time.

I'm having similar problems with my MSc dissertation!  I was studying my MSc part-time whilst working full time, and managed to complete all the taught parts easily, however when it came to my dissertation I just ran out of steam, I had to change jobs a few times due to short contracts and was struggling financially and the dissertation just seemed less important then. As it was part time I had two years to do it, and put it off.  Now it's due in July and I have next to nothing done and next to no time to do it and am in a panic! The panic and stress makes it worse as I end up wasting time worrying and not actually doing the work! 

But I'm determined to get this thing done! I'm staring a PhD in October so literally NEED to finish it! Just hope my motivation stays with me!  I think the advice below is great, just do the planning first and the rest will come together easier. I read a masters thesis guide and it really helped me understand what markers look for in a thesis. I can't remember the title but if you want it I'll look for it once i'm home for the day.

Hope this rambling helps a little!

just to add to what Caro says, if you're feeling lost or overwhelmed, often the easiest thing to do first is look at other theses. You will see the style, the format, the level, the content etc. Don't get too het up about finding something in a similar field; rather skim through a few theses to get a feel for what's required :-).

I am right now writing the report for my second Master Internship (7 months of research) and after that, I have 7 weeks for a literature review (on a completely unrelated topic). I am also doubting if this is the right thing for me, to what use it is etc. But I like science. I started my Bachelor's out of interest in biology and I am still very much interested. What put me down recently, is seeing the PhD students here (in Amsterdam) still living in shared houses for which they often pay quite a lot of money, I see post-docs looking for money/positions and then I wonder where I'll be in a couple of years. But on the other hand, I put effort in finding a research project in Stockholm (6 months, and yes I am on the lookout for a room, anyone?), so I have something very exciting to look forward to.
I did not loose a close family member during my studies but also faced personal/emotional difficulties. University does not stop, and at some point you need to pick yourself up and work hard to manage all. I think you have to ask yourself what you want to do when you get your degree and why you started your studies. My ex boyfriend at some point, after also experiencing deaths in the family, only finished his BSc so he would not have to pay money back to our government (part of study allowance turns into gift when you get a degree). He already was accepted in art school which he did want to finish. That, is a really shitty motivation and it cost him so much effort to finish.

I got a book called "how to publish in biomedicine", Jane Fraser. It has handy tips for writing. Also on-line you can find all sorts of pages describing what should be in which section of a paper, how to start, pitfalls etc.

Good luck, if you want it, you can do it. You managed to come this far. It'll just take effort, maybe sleepless nights, stress. But there are millions of others who go through the same thing and they also manage.

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Thanks to all of you for your support: it helps to know I'm not the only one wondering why I put myself through this in the first place. I think it's a good idea to read some completed dissertations and to have a look at the research methods section in the library. My course coordinator is not very approachable, so I'll be using that option as a last resort; besides I think I should show a bit of independency if I want to go further. It's true that an MSc dissertation doesn't necessarily have to be a ground-breaking work but I want it to show that there is a research potential, especially because it's a relatively new field of study in social sciences. Caro, I do sympathise with you: I too was working part time but I recently quit my job to give myself more time for the dissertation. Hope everything goes well, but as you said you've already been accepted to do a PHd, then this is just a step in between. It would be great if you could send me the title of the book you mentioned, btw. As Platypus says, there's a lot of other students doing their masters - and some will have to juggle work and/or family commitments alongside their studies, so sometimes it's also a matter of motivation. So, good luck!

Hi bibliophilus - The title of the book is 'Succeeding with your Master's dissertation - A step by step handbook' by John Biggam

I got the new version just out this year. It's good, has good examples of what chapters should look like and gives you a good insight into the markers world.

Caro

Thanks a lot!

Hi Bibliophilous,
You have invested time and money into the programme so far, why give up now? You cannot say it is the end of your academic career until you at least give the dissertation a shot. I would therefore encourage you to take a stab at it and at least submit something. There is quite a lot of resources out there that you can utilise. For example, there are people out there who provide private one to one services to help students through their dissertations, if you are willing to pay for such services of course. Of course what I wouldn't recommended are those dissertation writing services where you purchase tailor made works. But there are PhD candidates and past masters students who offer such services to earn a bit of money on the side. Having gone through the process themselves they can give you a deeper insight into the process of writing a dissertation (especially when your supervisor is unhelpful). Best of luck whatever you do.

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Seeing as this post is still going, I thought I would add another point to Biblio's self-questioning or soul searching about the worth of it. I think it was Ady who said you should complete then make decisions with degree behind you. Would have to agree 100 percent with this. It might be different when doing a doctorate (as it takes so many years of one's life). People do stop doing a doctorate and sometimes that is the best and only decision, given their own hopes and life circumstances. PhD's can take up to a decade for many people...but with the Master's you have come so far anyway, and you can probably get a month or two extension without too much drama at all.

When my Master's thesis went over time (eventually by around almost 3 months!), being fairly compulsive (back then-I'm different now) about deadlines, I found this really hard to take but was reassured by supervisor and admin staff that what I was doing was very common-it just wasn't written up in the handbook. It then took ages to be examined...lot's of people around me questioned the whole process when they saw my stress and real emotional turmoil towards the end.

However, now, having given myself a break of 12 months between submission and starting doctorate, I am really happy that I stuck with it. And it does open doors. I am giving a 20 minute paper at a National Conference in September (purely on aspects of my thesis and findings) and have been invited to write a chapter in an edited book aimed at beginning teachers in an area that is close to my area but a bit to the right of it...if you know what I mean. None of these things would have happened without this Masters and completing the thesis. When attending work conferences, I am far more confident about all that I do and far more critical (not in a horrible way-just in a detached but intellectual way) about the presenters. And finally I was invited to take on an acting role at my workplace for a month, that was very high level indeed, and am certain that it wasn't just because I could do the job (competency) but also because I could manage more than one large process, commit and see it through. The qualification also really helped for this role. So it is worth it...it does open doors and I am so glad I finished. I have no doubt that I will feel the same about the doctorate in five to six years time.

Hope the thesis is progressing Biblio-good luck and cheers(up)

Thank you all for your advice and support. At the moment things have not changed much - have been stuck for a month, not really knowing how to go about it. However, I still have 2 months to go and during this time I can at least make the effort to sit at my desk and do some work - hoping that enthusiasm and motivation may kick in again. If I still can't get the hang of it, I will turn to my supervisor for help - though I'd rather approach a tiger (and he knows it full well!). Getting an extension is not an option, as there are set rules for that in our Uni.
As suggested, I've stopped thinking about the future: I'll be happy if I manage to submit something that reflects my ability. Reading through the various threads I know there are more advanced students freaking out about an approaching viva or having to cope with the impossible demands of an egotistic supervisor and hundreds of other problems, not to mention that any masters students at this time of year will be in exactly the same situation as me: still, putting together 50 pages of independent research is like flying to the moon for me in the state of mind I'm in. There's not much advice I can give to other students, not having been long into research and knowing little about academic politics, but I'll let you kwow the outcome when everything's over - hopefully good news.

Bibliophilus, do you have your topic yet? What I mean is when reading your initial post, it is hard to tell what part of the dissertation is the blocker at the moment...

Usually, your topic tends to define your research-as to the scope and preferred methodology. You are science though aren't you. Hence no undergrad essays in your non-UK university-so it is easy to see why you might be daunted at present.

This might sound simplistic but once you have your topic (or an idea of it), you basically read everything you can find on it (but only on it-don't get sidetracked) for your lit review. But you might be beyond this now...and looking at actual data collection? Your topic would also tend to define how you collect your data, so to some extent your rough methodology would be sketched in prior to completing the lit review-even if you finetuned it and changed it during the actual collection of data.

The introduction and question or line of inquiry, the lit review and the methods section are the big three-they are like the three challenges you have to overcome in most children's stories. Once you have tackled them, you are able to progress further.

Writing up the data, I found, and analysis was a long time and difficult, but because the first three parts or chapters of your dissertation are pretty much completed (bar tweaking and editing), you sort of know where you are headed and it is just a question of knuckling down it.

If you are following the guidelines in the book that was recommended, what stage would you be at right now?
What is the next stage that follows? Can you identify that next step and break it into daily tasks for a week? If your supervisor is really unhelpful, is there someone else who can provide some support?

I hope my last post did not make you feel worse-it wasn't intended that way-more to indicate how when you are in the middle of something and fighting blind in a forest of fears, it can be hard to know what to do, where to go until you are out of the forest. (So the decisions about future need to be made once you are out of the forest-not while you are in the thick of it). Hope things are okay...

Well, when I wrote my first post I had a vague idea of the topic I wanted to work on. Now I have a proposal and have started collecting data while at the same time reading up for my lit review (I didn't know it was meant to be the other way round but I chose to do it this way because in my case data collection is nothing more than data entry, so it can be done even if I'm not much concentrated).
Your post didn't make me feel worse - quite the opposite in fact: it encouraged me to push my way forward, knowing that I'm not the only one having problems. Most other students manage to overcome theirs - I'll try to do the same.