I’ve now received the marks back for my presentation from Tuesday, so that’s two out of three dissertation elements complete.

While my actual score (62, one mark higher than my proposal score) was unexpectedly high, the feedback I received was what I had already assumed: the weakest point by far was in not explaining my sample and method clearly enough, while the strongest point was in how I explained my results. Also, the feedback said I made sense of why the research is taking place within UWE and right now- that I got its relevance across and connected it to the study aims. I’m glad I got that feedback, as I struggled with explaining the research relevance in my proposal, so to know I successfully communicated it this time is reassuring.

The XKCD cartoon I used went down well too, apparently. Ultimately, the feedback concluded that I was nervous in my presentation, but confident in my results. That’s good enough for me.

Doing some maths on my marks so far,  I’ve done enough to get a Merit for the MSc as a whole, providing I get at least 60 on the dissertation itself. So that’s a relief!

Now the only part left is the writing. While this is technically the easy part, by virtue of not being a presentation, I find it difficult to tell whether what I’m writing will be straightforward enough for anyone who isn’t me to follow. Having spent the last few months researching a lot about the fuzzy pile of ideas, organisations and definitions involved in making sense of open ideas, I’m not sure if what I’m writing actually makes those ideas clearer or just adds to the noise.

So, in order to keep myself on track with what needs doing over the next month, I’ve broken the dissertation down into a checklist. While the idea that submission is exactly a month away is a little unnerving, seeing the component parts instead of just “the dissertation” has made it seem easier overall, reducing that fear slightly. I wish I’d thought of this idea for my presentation and proposal.