Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: a handbook for Supervisors

Refining a research question
Stevens and Asmar (1999) point out that often new researchers start off with
a project that is overly large and ambitious. They suggest that ‘wiser heads’
know that a good thesis project is ‘narrow and deep’. In their words, ‘even the
simplest idea can mushroom into an uncontrollably large project’ (Stevens
and Asmar 1999: 15). They highlight how important it is for students to lis-
ten to their supervisor and be guided by their advice in the early stages of
their research.
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Writing a research proposal
Applications
●
Ask your student to draw up a shortlist of possible research topics,
writing a sentence or two about each one. Discuss this list with the
student, suggesting issues that might arise with each of them, such
as practicality, originality, focus and scale of the project, etc.
●
Once your student has selected a topic from their list, ask them to
carry out steps (iii) to (iv) in the checklist above and bring back
what they have done for further discussion.
●
Once this discussion has taken place, ask your student to read fur-
ther on their topic (step (viii)). Give your student the following
checklist (based on Stevens and Asmar 1999) to help with this:

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