THESIS!

Bigbird1

Im currently studying rural and environmental science, this year i have a thesis to do, im really not sure wat to do it on,was thinking of looking at organic farming,how many words should it be and where can i get a layout to help me

Thanks

Cat Melodeon

Where are you in college? Normally you would be appointed a thesis supervisor who would go through all aspects of the thesis with you, help you to choose a viable research topic, check that you're hitting your chapter deadlines and generally oversee the writing process. You should also be given a thesis handbook laying out the guidelines re. length, structure, how to reference, formatting, binding etc. If you haven't been given a supervisor, contact your course director or one of your lecturers, they should be able to point you in the right direction. The college library usually keeps copies of theses from previous years.

Bigbird1

thanks for that, studying at GMIT galway, havent been given a supervisor yet,but met head of dept today and he told us we must have decided on our topic title by next week. i just dont know what to choose,where i will be able to get plenty of information on, dont want to do it on bogs or hedge rows, they seem to be popular

Cat Melodeon

If you ask the course administrator or someone in the library, they might be able to give you a list of previous topics that were done. That might help point you in the right direction. Be careful not to choose too broad an area though - it can be hard to find the right balance between being swamped and directionless and being too tightly constrained. If you're drawn to a particular area (ie organic farming), make sure you pick an angle on it. I have no knowledge of the area, but possibly something like an investigation into the economic worth of organic farming to the national economy (or the local economy), or the impact of the recession on pricing strategies for organic producers or something a bit more specific than just 'organic farming'. Remember though, you really just need a rough proposal for now, you'll be able to fine tune it as you go along.

This list is on the GMIT website, maybe there's something of use on it? http://www.gmit.ie/science/projects-placements/project-titles.pdf

Tom Dunne

You could try asking in the Farming and Forestry forum.