When is the deadline for handing in dissertations? How long should the research take?

Professor: Welcome back to the new term, Martina and Amanda. I hope you’ve had a good break and that you’re looking forward to writing your dissertations. In this tutorial, I’d like to give you the opportunity to ask questions on writing the dissertation, such as requirements, dates and who to see when you need help. I know that it’s all available on the department website, but sometimes students just like to check or confirm information ... or sometimes they need a little more detail. So, is there anything you’d like to ask?
Martin: Is there a fixed hand-in date yet? On the website it said that one hadn’t been decided on yet.
Professor: I’m glad you asked that question. I just heard this morning that the deadline has been decided and it is 28th May. That’s a week later than we had originally planned.
Amanda: What about the word limit? The website gave a very broad range. What was it, Martina? 10000 to 20000 words?
Martin: I believe so, Amanda.
Professor: Well, I believe that was a typing error. It should be 10-12000 words, but feel free to write a little more if you need to. However, make sure that your dissertation is at least 10000 words long, not including the contents, references and bibliography.
Amanda: Right. Thank you. And we can choose any topics we like, can’t we?
Professor: Any from year 3. And do remember to get your topic approved by your personal tutor---oh, that’s me, isn’t it? --before you start writing. I’d hate to have to tell you your topic was unacceptable after you’d spent a lot of time on it!
Amanda: What would you like us to show you initially, apart from the title?
Professor: Well, I’d like to see a basic bibliography first, along with an outline of your dissertation. You should get that done by the end of January--this month in other words.
Martin: According to the website, the research should take 8-10 weeks, so that takes us from, well, until mid-April, basically.
Professor: Yes, you should have the research pretty much done by the time you return from the Easter break.
Martin: It seems like a reasonable amount of time, but I bet it disappears fast.
Professor: It certainly does. You’ll probably find that you need to do some extra research during the second half of April. Ideally, you’d be writing then, but very few students get all the information they need and the personal tutors almost always need to make some further suggestions. That’s why it’s really important to get the bulk of your research done by mid-April.
Martin: I see. If we get into trouble or can see that we’re going to get into trouble with our research, we should obviously contact you ASAP.
Professor: Absolutely.
Amanda: Do you think that we should look at what other students have done in the past, in order to get a better idea of what to do and what to write?
Professor: It can be helpful, but what often happens is that students rely too much on what they read, so I would only use other students’ -- previous students’ work as a reference.
Amanda: Got it.
Martin: I know that we have the research guide to help us, but are there any other books or sources that you would recommend, I mean, to help us with planning a dissertation and the organisation and so on?
Amanda: Yes. I wanted to ask you that too.
Professor: There are several available from the library. I wouldn’t bother buying any. My personal favourite is "Dissertations and You" by Roger Kline. Another good one is "Mastering Your Dissertation" by Helen Blondel. There’s a book about research techniques ... Oh, what’s it called? It’s something simple like "Research Techniques for Dissertations". The author is Helen Trailforth. Oh, I know! It’s called "Dissertation Research Techniques". Very good book. There’s more than one copy of each of those in the library. One is for reference only and you know about the recall system if a book is being borrowed by someone else and you want it, don’t you?
Amanda and Martin: Yes.
Professor: Good. Very good. Anything else?
Amanda: Well, now that you’ve mentioned research techniques, I’ve got a question. Questionnaires. A good idea, professor?
Professor: The general consensus is that they are not very helpful, though some prominent researchers beg to differ. Clear them with me first, if you decide to go ahead and use them. You see, you need to be very careful about the questions that you ask and order of the questions. Questionnaires very often lead people towards giving certain answers rather than getting at their true feelings and opinions.
Amanda: Martin? Anything else?
Martin: No. I’m happy. Thank you, professor.
Amanda: Yes. thank you so much.
Professor: My pleasure.