Coventry University Media & Communication Department

July 2011

306MC Dissertation/ 307MC Final Project Proposal

Initial (500 words)
Your Proposal should follow the format laid out below. Please respond to each named section. IMPORTANT: You must have a tutorial with your tutor to review your initial proposal, they will provide you with formative feedback in order for you to develop your ideas further. At this formative stage your initial proposal will be classified under one of the following headings:Approved Approved subject to the following changes Not approved until the following changes are made Not approved - new proposal Please include the following headings:a) b) Name Title of Dissertation/ Final Project

A clear, brief title - which can be modified at a later date if necessary - but which gives clear idea of the nature of the project c) Description of subject to be investigated

A brief statement of the main issue/subject which your dissertation or project will examine, together with: a statement about the context such an enquiry emerges from what precedents there are for such questions, what kinds of work by other authors does it lead on from etc.; what kinds of wider issues and debates will form the background to the study; and an indication of how you will be approaching the issue. d) Theoretical/ methodological position(s) to be adopted

A brief account of the particular position(s) or stance(s) you will adopt within the dissertation, e.g: radical feminism, neo-Marxist/Gramscian, liberal idealist. Some supporting comments indicating the particular theorists you have in mind is often a good short-hand way of mapping this out. Additionally a very brief statement justifying/rationalising this choice will be useful.) Continued overleaf

e)

Sources to be utilised

An account of the material which will form the evidence base from which your argument will proceed. This might be: first-hand data or experience, interview material or systematic observations, public records and archives, newspaper reports, TV programmes, Films, academic articles or books on primary research, 'Social Trends' type documents, statistical abstracts, theoretical works and 'secondary' interpretive texts (if your dissertation is about theory per se). f) Methods to be used in acquisition of sources

A discussion of the methods you will utilise to acquire such primary material. This may be a brief statement on archive/library based research and/or a fuller statement on interviewing strategies, together with an indication of difficulties you might encounter. g) Methods/ forms of interpretation/ analysis to be used with the information and sources

A brief account of the way in which your will organise, make sense of and examine/analyse the material you have acquired. E.g. what kind of 'filmic' reading you will use, a semiotic/symbolic one or a psychoanalytic reading, content or discourse analysis of TV programmes. h) Plan/ schedule of work

An over-view of the stages and progress of the work. This must identify: when you will be doing preparatory work - reading establishing contacts etc. [including work already undertaken], when the material/ data gathering/ acquisition will take place, when you will be involved in the analysis of material, and when you will be writing-up the project. However, these will necessarily be broad periods of time and will over-lap somewhat. (Maximum 500 words for above) i) Bibliography (in addition to the 500 word limit)

A bibliography listing both primary and secondary/theoretical/commentary texts mentioned above, together with an indicative list of those which will define and frame the dissertation. Please give the library reference/ class mark and an indication, if possible, that you know how this text will be useful. The bibliographic entry gives a strong indication of whether the dissertation project can be supported by the University's resources.