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MA History dissertation....eeek!

tonysingh

tonysingh

Random Clever and Witty Strapline
So I'm just about to start my MS History disserttion, with the OU.

I know I want to specalise in LGBT+ history, that's a given. However, the scope and task ahead is making me want to crawl under a blanket and cry. Please tell me I am not the only one that feels like this? I can't even nail down a working title without it sounding clunky as hell. I know I want to examine the period from the Labouchere amendment to the 1967 Sexual Offences Act but that's too wide a scope for 15000 words, especially writing in an academic style. It'd be too much whistle stop stuff and not enough depth. So I've decided to study the lead up to 1967 since it's well known(ish) about the 1885 amendment, the 1967 Act and the famous men prosecuted but not so much has been done on the actual lead up to 1967. Can I word that into a working title though? Can I heck as like!

Sorry. This might just be a thread for me to ask advice and bend the ear of those that have written dissertations before me as well as a place to vent. Perfectly happy to forward copies of the finished work when it is done though.

Cheers
 
:)

hope it all goes well.

on the basis that my venture in to history academia only got as far as doing certificate of higher education (think that's about equivalent to the first year of a BA level degree) at birkbeck before i realised the cost post-2010 of going any further really wasn't justifiable, i can't offer any specifics

do you have to agree your intended subject with a tutor or someone before you start? i may be talking cobblers here, but i wonder if MA dissertations are supposed to be in depth on a narrowish subject? i tend to find that any bit of research can easily lead off in unexpected tangents, and as a strictly amateur historian, i can do that, but for something formal, it probably shouldn't.

i may be stating the obvious, but the archives at the bishopsgate institute may be a useful source. it's more or less across the road from liverpool street station although they have digitised some stuff. I'm not sure if they have the CHE archives but they will know who has if it's not them.

likewise, rictor norton tends to specialise in more distant history, but may be of interest, and may have some useful links.

what's the position with sources at MA level? while the wolfenden report and the official stuff around it is probably mostly public domain, a lot of the 'ground level' stuff would probably have (for obvious reasons) been relatively informal and not published widely. are personal recollections / oral history sources acceptable? there are / have been a few personal blogs from what are now older gay men out there (one that used to be quite good seems to have disappeared completely off the web, not even on wayback machine now) and i'm fairly sure there are / have been projects to try and record personal histories. (think one or two people on the LGBTQ+ sofa thread have been involved with something, so you may want to drop in there as well)

would what happened after 1967 in scotland / n ireland be relevant? decriminalisation there didn't happen until 1981 / 1982 respectively (which in turn is part of the story of migration from scotland and n ireland to england in general and london in particular but that's maybe another tangent.)
 
I did my history dissertation 13 years ago - so a bit rusty on how I did it!

I think most people start with too general a topic, and the trick is to narrow it down.
A key thing will be knowing what your sources are and how accessible they will be. (Err, one of the lecturers said a practical approach was to start with your sources, and then work backwards to a research question..)

Also what angle are you taking - when you say 'examine' what exactly it is you're going to examine and why?! Agree with Puddy Tat, on avoiding tangents, no matter how interesting. You'll score higher for keeping focussed and making a persuasive argument around your research question based on the sources.

I also bought one of those books on how to write a dissertation and found it very useful!
 
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tonysingh - good luck !

chunky / clunky titles seem to be a feature of dissertations. don'r worry about it.
you could find that narrowing the scope may make that easier.

only advice I've got is to leave yourself plenty of time to edit and re-edit once you have a passable first or even third draft ...
 
Good luck, mate.

Any chance of working this fella into it? :)

Aristocrat, but a v interesting character with a v interesting story.
 
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farmerbarleymow said:
Good luck with your MA tony.


How about something snappy like 'Bum Fun in the 1960s'?
Click to expand...

You laugh, but the inspiration for my MA dissertation was based on a pun. It meant I could talk about authorship in film and TV adaptations in general, and, at the same time, narrow it down to two writers who were writing about disaffected working class youth in England, by referring it back to them.

Tony, is there any particular individual, social club, or maybe even a politician who merits 15,000 words that are roughly a third about them, and the rest about the society they lived in. all tied together?

My knowledge of gay history in that era is woeful and is mostly about lesbians rather than gay men. I guess if I were to try to write about that era I might go for the Gateways lesbian club, but focus on intersectionality. It's been covered a lot, so there are tons of resources (and this is an MA, not a PhD), but there isn't much regarding its attitude towards non-white members. There is some info (which you would need), it's just not organised into one specific document.

Maybe "Sikh and 'sick,' in 66: The Experiences of People of Colour in Queer Communities in the Years Directly Leading Up to the 1967 Reform Act." Got it! :D

Not a totally serious suggestion, obvs. But maybe chat about what you find interesting about that era, and then try to summarise it in very roughly 250 words, then 100 words, then 50 words, then 25 words. That will probably be what you want to write about.
 
tonysingh, I did my Masters in 2019 and conclude with others who say keep the scope narrow if possible. Do you have a tutor yet ? Herewith some random thoughts in handy bulletpoint format:-
1) You're having the jitters. This is natural of course but more importantly, necessary, your mind is starting to think about it and prepare for it.
2) Prepare a number of ideas, don't get wedded to one in case your tutor rubbishes it.
3) For each idea, outline why you're interested in it and what you would hope to gain from pursuing it. Keep these ideas, they'll be useful if you decide to pursue a PhD.
4) If possible at this stage, prepare an outline plan of what you would like to achieve and when. Do not panic when you don't achieve it, the planning process is more a form of self-organisation, and a way of getting a mental handle on the task.
5) Again, keep the scope as narrow as possible, any big ideas are absolutely wonderful and should be kept for the PhD. I repeat this because it needs repeating.
6) Get on good terms with your tutor as soon as possible, you both need to have the kind of relationship where criticism is impersonal, if your tutor makes a criticism with which you disagree and you take it personally, this won't help you because they're marking it and not you. If they cut anything out, keep it for the PhD.
7) 'Plan' to finish before you have to, then you have contingency. You'll probably use it, this is entirely normal.
8) Your tutor will probably recommend a book on thesis-production. Buy it and read it, don't be intimidated by it and don't follow it slavishly but do follow it where appropriate..
9 ) You'll love it. My thesis was absolutely the funnest time I've ever done, I loved loved loved every second, even the times when I had 20 voices in my head telling me what not to forget all speaking at the same time.
10) Again, you'll love it. I'm seriously envious, you lucky barstid !
 
Ok - so breathe. This is the worst part.

I completed my MSc Politics dissertation in 2021. I should have finished it in 2020 but had to defer it for a year due to Covid and various family issues that caused. I'd completed everything else and it as weird to come back to it a year later but in the end I got a very high first for my dissertation which I was incredibly surprised by. Although different subjects, my dissertation was around the area of equality law but from a gender representation view - if you want a read as guidance for what a good dissertation looks like I'd be very happy to share with you - PM me your email and I can send it.

My top tips:

Get a very clear idea of what you want to focus on. It's really easy to get overwhelmed by how big it all feels, especially if you're looking at something over a long period of history. Once you've done all your reading/research and have the raw material 15000 words get eaten up really quickly!

Once you have the idea for focus think about what your research material is going to be. Are you going to try and interview anyone for this - if so you need to think about who and why. This should probably all be in your dissertation proposal.

Once all agreed by your tutor - talk to them regularly. Touch in as often as you need. If you do decide to do interviews get onto those asap. I wanted to interview some politicians and it was tricky to get time in the diary once agreed so you need a long lead time. Don't expect that everyone will agree to be interviewed - some people won't respond so don't hook everything on it. If your tutor or anyone else can help you get an in with someone you don't know use it.

Do your reading. Start now. Read widely. But don't read full texts unless you have to. There isn't time. Pick and choose sections of books and papers that are relevant. They may lead you on to other useful resources.

For your purposes you'll find that the House of Commons library is a great resource. The librarians are also very helpful. Email them for help if you need it.

As izz says set yourself a deadline before the actual deadline.

GOOD LUCK. YOU HAVE GOT THIS :cool:
 
tonysingh said:
So I'm just about to start my MS History disserttion, with the OU.

I know I want to specalise in LGBT+ history, that's a given. However, the scope and task ahead is making me want to crawl under a blanket and cry. Please tell me I am not the only one that feels like this? I can't even nail down a working title without it sounding clunky as hell. I know I want to examine the period from the Labouchere amendment to the 1967 Sexual Offences Act but that's too wide a scope for 15000 words, especially writing in an academic style. It'd be too much whistle stop stuff and not enough depth. So I've decided to study the lead up to 1967 since it's well known(ish) about the 1885 amendment, the 1967 Act and the famous men prosecuted but not so much has been done on the actual lead up to 1967. Can I word that into a working title though? Can I heck as like!

Sorry. This might just be a thread for me to ask advice and bend the ear of those that have written dissertations before me as well as a place to vent. Perfectly happy to forward copies of the finished work when it is done though.

Cheers
Click to expand...
See my pm. Can have some stuff with you by this evening
 
All of the above, and I suspect I won’t add much practicality to what Pickman's model will send.

But when I did my MSc I basically treated the dissertation as five essays. And I knew I could write essays. It made it easier to start. Worked for me.

If you write it half as eloquently as you write on here you will eat it.
 
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I did no higher education after O level GCE except for a City & Guilds course, I have no advise to offer but just to say good luck and wish you all the best - it must be scary but I'm sure you'll be fine once you've got started!
 
tonysingh said:
So I'm just about to start my MS History disserttion, with the OU.

I know I want to specalise in LGBT+ history, that's a given. However, the scope and task ahead is making me want to crawl under a blanket and cry. Please tell me I am not the only one that feels like this? I can't even nail down a working title without it sounding clunky as hell. I know I want to examine the period from the Labouchere amendment to the 1967 Sexual Offences Act but that's too wide a scope for 15000 words, especially writing in an academic style. It'd be too much whistle stop stuff and not enough depth. So I've decided to study the lead up to 1967 since it's well known(ish) about the 1885 amendment, the 1967 Act and the famous men prosecuted but not so much has been done on the actual lead up to 1967. Can I word that into a working title though? Can I heck as like!

Sorry. This might just be a thread for me to ask advice and bend the ear of those that have written dissertations before me as well as a place to vent. Perfectly happy to forward copies of the finished work when it is done though.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Good luck! Can't hel you with the History aspect, but if there's anything more general about MA dissertations post your Qs as you they arise and I (and others) will surely pitch in!
 
I haven't done a masters but I recall enjoying doing my BA dissertation. I recall one of the less fun things was learning how to quote properly and how to list citations references and whatnot. I particularly enjoyed doing the primary research.
 
I did my history MA 9 years ago now but remember it well. Don't get bogged down in the title p, mine didn’t finalise until the final month of writing.
my advice? Do some broader reading around the area you want to look at and write down any questions/queries/arguments this throws up. use those questions as a basis to narrow down.
take your time, take it steady, enjoy it. Find an area that really floats your boat and see if it’s already out there. Get some supporters and some detractors and see where your thoughts fit. My dissi took a while to form, but I was playing in a hospital archive, so got distracted.
some great advice on here already but if you want/need someone to bounce ideas, happy for you to drop me a line
 
You can do this tonysingh it's normal to feel overwhelmed at the start but try to think about research questions, such as what exactly did X piece of legislation change? How did society change, were certain clubs allowed to flourish? What about queer booksellers, how were they affected, for example? Did any part of life disappear because of the effects of the legislation in practice?

Are there are any oral history projects that you could use as first hand sources perhaps? I'd advise checking on source availability as early as possible - you might have a great research question but if there's no source information it won't come to anything.

One thing my supervisor got me to do at the start of the process was to do a lot of reading and source identification and from that, using no more than one side of A4 for each question, come up with three potential areas of research, commenting on how much source material there was and how active the research was around that area. Doing that helped me to identify a truly novel research question with enough sources to make it viable.

Note: this was a multidisciplinary mathematics research topic but I think the basic principles still apply.
 
another thought - don't know what the budget might be for books, but housmans bookshop at kings cross may be able to help. they do have a second hand section, although obviously that's variable what it gets.

(incidentally, their building provided the first premises for london 'switchboard' in 1974, and believe gay liberation front used part of the building in the early 70s.)
 
tonysingh said:
I've decided to study the lead up to 1967 since it's well known(ish) about the 1885 amendment, the 1967 Act and the famous men prosecuted but not so much has been done on the actual lead up to 1967. Can I word that into a working title though? Can I heck as like!
Click to expand...
How about 'before the 1967 partial decriminalisation of homosexually' or just 'before the act.'

Have you read Amicable Warriors by Peter Scott Presland?
 
Puddy_Tat said:
another thought - don't know what the budget might be for books, but housmans bookshop at kings cross may be able to help. they do have a second hand section, although obviously that's variable what it gets.

(incidentally, their building provided the first premises for london 'switchboard' in 1974, and believe gay liberation front used part of the building in the early 70s.)
Click to expand...
Not to mention marchmont street's gay's the word, the bookshop
 
Puddy_Tat said:
another thought - don't know what the budget might be for books, but housmans bookshop at kings cross may be able to help. they do have a second hand section, although obviously that's variable what it gets.

(incidentally, their building provided the first premises for london 'switchboard' in 1974, and believe gay liberation front used part of the building in the early 70s.)
Click to expand...
Yes. Switchboard grew out of the GLF. It was set up and answered by people involved in the movement. GLF imploded/ fell apart / faded away after a couple of bright loud years that we are hearing alot about since the 50th anniversary, but switchboard survived. If you haven't listened to The Logbooks is a good podcast taken from the daily logs of Gay switchbord volunteers and paints a vivid picture of the early years on the phones.

What ever you do don't cite Dan Glass, Queer Footprints, it is full of crap. full of made up quotes and inaccuraties in every chapter. Some of the GLF are furious, and demanding corrections which would require a rewrite. Not all modern authors bother to fact check.

friendofdorothy said:
Amicable Warriors by Peter Scott Presland?
Click to expand...
Full of facts to the point of dullness. But does cover the events and campaigns that lead up to the '67 partial decriminalisation, and I haven't found many books that do.
 
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