The University of Edinburgh School of Divinity Honours Dissertation Guidelines
THE HONOURS DISSERTATION As part of your Honours assessment, you are required to submit a Dissertation which accounts for 40 credit points out of 120 credit points in your final year of study. This significant project provides scope for you to study further your own particular academic interests and to consolidate, develop, and demonstrate your research skills. The following is intended to help you prepare for and complete successfully your dissertation. Preparing your dissertation Identifying a topic and bringing a question into focus. Your degree programme will already have pointed you in a particular direction which reflects your own interests. These may be in the areas of biblical studies, or ecclesiastical history, or religious studies and particular religious traditions, or theology and ethics. Within those areas, there will be aspects and facets which are of particular interest to you and which raise further questions which you might like to explore in greater depth. Identifying a topic and bringing a question into focus is an initial step. Talking with members of the teaching staff will help you to focus on a question, and help in preparing your Dissertation proposal. Developing your project Once you have identified the particular question you wish to address in your dissertation, you will want to Marshall a bibliography which supports your research: This may involve engagement with primary texts, but also with secondary literature. It will also involve making use of the library research facilities, both in-site and on-line. Your supervisor will be able to advise on this. Record your research: Keep a complete bibliographic record for any publication you may wish to cite. Draft an outline of your project: this should enable the development of your argument towards its conclusion, and also help the reader to follow your argument. Using headings for sections of your dissertation helps this. They provide a map and a structure. 1
Dissertation Timetable In Semester 2 of your third year, there is an initial meeting to explain the dissertation. Towards the end of your third year, you should have made contact with a member of the teaching staff to discuss a possible area for your dissertation and the viability of your research topic. This will enable you to use the summer period profitably for background and related reading. By the end of Week 1 of Semester 1 of your final year, you should have completed and returned a dissertation proposal to the School Office (Appendix 2). This proposal should reflect your interests and also build on previous studies. It must also fit in with the profile of your degree programme. Your Director of Studies will be able to advise on this. A supervisor for your dissertation will then be assigned by the Dissertation Course Manager who will help direct your project. A Dissertation proposal form is attached. By the first Monday of block 5, your completed dissertation (2 bound copies) should be lodged in the School Office by 4pm. Supervision You will have at least three opportunities to meet formally with your supervisor, which approximate to 6 hours. These are intended to direct your research, and provide comment on your ongoing work. Normally, there would be: An initial meeting in October to help you map out your project. A meeting in the midst of your research and reading (December-January) A meeting prior to the final writing and submission of your dissertation (early March). Your supervisor will, of course, be available at other times to offer advice and comment. However, your supervisor will not comment upon a final draft. Assessment The Undergraduate Studies Handbook gives advice on the marking criteria for your Dissertation. After you have submitted your dissertation, this is read and marked independently by two members of staff, and reviewed externally. 2
Dissertation Format There is a required format for your dissertation. Your Dissertation must not exceed 10,000 words. You should ensure that you use a consistent style for footnoting and referencing. Details are appended below. The Order of Material, and Binding The dissertation should contain the following parts Title page (See example shown in Appendix 1 below) Table of Contents page Main text Appendix/Appendices Bibliography Two bound copies of the dissertation must be submitted. After the marking is finished, one copy will be retained by the School. If in doubt, contact the School Office for advice. 3
APPENDIX 1: Example of a Title Page University of Edinburgh School of Divinity Honours Dissertation From the il y a to Illeity: the phenomenological transgression of the non-phenomenal by Matriculation Number Date Word count A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies [or Divinity; or Bachelor Divinity with Honours] 4
Honours Dissertation Registration Form School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh Name of Student: Matriculation Number: Member of Staff Consulted: Proposed Topic/Title of Dissertation: Preliminary Description of Topic of Study (Use the reverse side if more space is needed): Initial Bibliography (Continue on reverse and/or separate sheet if necessary): Student s Signature: Date: Course Manager s Signature: Date: Assigned Supervisor: 5
Bibliographies and Citations: A (very) Brief Guide Overview Academic writers use agreed conventions for citing works. This means that a reader can check and explore sources used, and that the information for finding a given source is consistent and clear. Generally, one needs to know: author title publication details But, there may be more than one author involved; title can refer to short article, chapter, book, or multivolume work; so that publication details vary from case to case. In general: Authors The primary author given is that of the bit you are citing: the article or chapter author if citing a short work, the book author if citing a longer work. Editors are also given, of course (and edited works are found in the library by editor's surname); see examples below. Titles Short-work (essay, article, chapter) titles go in quotes; titles of books and multivolume works are given in italics (or underlined). Publication Details for books, edited volumes, etc., include PLACE of publication, PUBLISHER, and DATE (year); for journals, give VOLUME NUMBER and YEAR; for essays, chapters, articles (short works), PAGE NUMBERS must always be given. 6
Styles Broadly speaking, two main styles of citation style are used, one more common in the humanities, the other (often referred to as author-date ) in the social sciences. They are used differently in the body of an essay for notes, and result in differently formatted bibliographies. Examples of both systems are given below. Humanities: This system uses author names and publication details in footnotes. Bibliographies are sorted by author + title. Author-Date: Intended to make citations more compact, this system uses only surname, year, and page number in the body of the essay, and organizes entries in the bibliography by author + date. Sample Bibliography Entries Here are the same four references given in a selection of styles. (These have been generated by EndNote, a bibliography database manager available for use on the Divinity LAN.) In each case, the references represent these main types of document: 1. book 2. article in journal 3. chapter in edited (multi-author) book 4. article in multivolume work Chicago A (= Turabian for the Humanities in these examples) 1. Heal, F. Reformation in Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 2. Nuyen, A. T. "Realism, Anti-Realism, and Emmanuel Levinas." Journal of Religion 81 (2001): 394-409. 3. Davies, G. I. "Were There Schools in Ancient Israel?" In Wisdom in Ancient Israel, edited by J. Day, Robert P. Gordon, and H. G. M. Williamson, 199-211. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 4. Rahman, F. "Islam, an Overview." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by M. Eliade, vol. 7, 303-22. New York: Macmillan, 1987. Chicago B (= Turabian for the Social Sciences in these examples) 1. Heal, F. 2003. Reformation in Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2. Nuyen, A. T. 2001. Realism, anti-realism, and Emmanuel Levinas. Journal of Religion 81: 394-409. 7
3. Davies, G. I. 1995. Were there schools in ancient Israel? In Wisdom in ancient Israel, edited by J. Day, Robert P. Gordon, and H. G. M. Williamson, 199-211. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 4. Rahman, F. 1987. Islam, an overview. In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by M. Eliade, vol. 7, 303-22. New York: Macmillan. Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) Bibliography (UK) 1. Heal, F., Reformation in Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 2003). 2. Nuyen, A. T., `Realism, Anti-Realism, and Emmanuel Levinas', Journal of Religion 81 (2001), 394-409. 3. Davies, G. I., `Were There Schools in Ancient Israel?' in Wisdom in Ancient Israel, edited by J. Day, Robert P. Gordon, and H. G. M. Williamson (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 199-211. 4. Rahman, F., `Islam, an Overview', in The Encyclopedia of Religion, 7, edited by M. Eliade (New York, 1987), pp. 303-22. Sample References (foot/endnotes) Humanities Davies identifies two different approaches scholars have taken in their attempts to assess scribal education in Iron Age Israel. 1 [and at the foot of the page, or on endnote page:] 1. G. I. Davies, Were There Schools in Ancient Israel? in Wisdom in Ancient Israel, ed. J. Day, Robert P. Gordon and H. G. M. Williamson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 201-2. Author-Date (Social Sciences) Davies identifies two different approaches scholars have taken in their attempts to assess scribal education in Iron Age Israel (1995: 201-2). Notes: Subsequent citations of the same work in the humanities system need only use author plus abbreviated title (e.g., 2. See further, Davies, Were there Schools, 209.) 8
In the author-date system, if an author has more than one work from a single year, they are distinguished thus: 1995a, 1995b, etc. If an entire work is being referenced in the author-date system, simply use name plus year (as in the example of "Blenkinsopp" in the box above). Links You may find the following links helpful. A useful overview from the University of Liverpool: (http://www.liv.ac.uk/education/hd/bibref.html) A very comprehensive guide from Dartmouth College, USA. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/) Links provided by the University of Leeds Library (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/roads/subject-listing/service/01.1.html 9