DISSERTATION GUIDELINES – FOR STUDENTS

Table of Contents
A. Guidelines for the Intermediary Dissertation ...................................................... 2
1 – Choosing and registering a subject .................................................................. 2
2 – Semester 2: The Dissertation Progress Oral Presentation ............................. 3
3 – Semester 3: Intermediary Dissertation: Conception and Pattern of Work.. 3
4- Submission............................................................................................................ 4
5 - Layout and Presentation .................................................................................... 4
B. Guidelines for Mundus Final Dissertation ............................................................ 5
1 - Submission and Assessment............................................................................... 6
2 - Requirements on submission ............................................................................. 6
3 - General Presentation .......................................................................................... 7
4 - Supervision .......................................................................................................... 8
5 - Structure .............................................................................................................. 8
6 - Writing Style ....................................................................................................... 8
7 - Quotations ........................................................................................................... 9
8 - Acknowledgment and Academic Fraud ......................................................... 10
9 - Footnotes or Endnotes and References........................................................... 10
9.1 Books .............................................................................................................. 11
9.2 Articles in periodicals .................................................................................... 12
9.3 Articles in edited collections .......................................................................... 13
9.4 Classical literary works ................................................................................. 13
9.5 Manuscript sources ........................................................................................ 13
9.6 Illustrations .................................................................................................... 13
9.7 Use of material from the Internet................................................................... 14
10 - Checking your work ....................................................................................... 14

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 A. Guidelines for the Intermediary Dissertation

The Semester 3 Intermediary Dissertation is an extended scholarly essay of

approximately 6,000 words (5 ECTS) or 10,000 words (10 ECTS, if no internship),
reviewing the critical material available to the research topic to be addressed in the
Masters Final Dissertation or offering a first portion of the final dissertation.
Its topic must normally have been agreed by March 20th in the Home Institution.
It resumes the work presented in June (Semester 2) for the Dissertation Progress Oral
Presentation.
The Semester 3 Intermediary Dissertation will be submitted by the 10 December to
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the main supervisor (= supervisor of University B) who will assess it.

1 – Choosing and registering a subject

1.1 The student discusses the project with tutor(s) and/or potential supervisor(s)
during semester 2. You should have a fair notion of what you mean to do by March,
using the core modules to test your vocation and/or the potential of a promising area
of study. All course tutors and members of staff will be prepared to assist you,
providing you make clear requests with due warning.
1.2 You need to give precise thought during the first semester to what will interest and
inspire you. While you are free to draw on interests pursued during your first degree
in your own country, try to think forwards and not simply backwards; avoid subjects
which ‘retreat’ towards local concerns or will be likely to cut you off from the thought
and preoccupations of your current programme. What would be profitable to help you
move towards a PhD or a career? Where will you find the most opportunities for
drawing on stimulating support supervision?
1.3 You MUST, before the 20 March, write a 100-word description of the agreed
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project on the form provided and submit it for approval to your supervisor and the
local dissertation coordinator, who will liaise with his opposite number in University
C with a view to finding you an appropriate support supervisor in that institution.
Only then are you free to pursue your mobility track.

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2 – Semester 2: The Dissertation Progress Oral Presentation

The Dissertation Progress Oral Presentation represents an opportunity for you to put
your thoughts and ideas into a concrete shape by presenting them to a panel that will
include your local coordinator.
Although no grade will be given for this module (it is assessed by a Pass or Fail), you
must still obtain the corresponding 10 ECTS in order to be able to submit your final
dissertation in the 4th semester.
Over the course of the second semester, you will be required to make regular
appointments with your dissertation supervisor, and provide him or her with proof
that your dissertation project is progressing. Failure to meet this requirement will
jeopardize the award of 10 ECTS for the 3rd semester dissertation module.

3 – Semester 3: Intermediary Dissertation: Conception and Pattern of Work

3.1 During Semesters 2 and 3 spent at University B of the mobility track, the student
collects the necessary data and performs the following specified operations towards
the preparation of the Semester 4 (20 ECTS) Dissertation: (i) determination and
evaluation of a corpus of primary material, together with a first effort of analysis
designed to explore and demonstrate the potential of the subject ; (ii) bibliographical
survey of secondary sources, analysing and evaluating all critical material to be used;
(iii) definition of perspectives of approach and methodology to be followed by the 20
ECTS Dissertation; (iv) delimitation of the subject and determination of title, together
with a proposed plan – this latter being the recapitulative symbol of your work to date
and the agenda for your work to come. You may, optionally, submit one specimen
chapter, which you will be allowed to carry forward to the 20 ECTS dissertation. This
work should be written up in an agreed format, complete with bibliography and other
required attestations to gain the 5 or 10 ECTS credits.

3.2 Students should take care to spread their work fairly evenly across the semester.
Assuming a 36-hour working week, you should devote roughly 6 hours per week to
your dissertation project. However, you should also be careful not to allow your
dissertation project to squeeze out work for other modules.

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3.3 You may expect four hours, but not more than five, of attention from your
principal supervisor (normally located University B). Remember: your supervisor has
many other concerns besides your work; you will get far more from her/him if you
take care to submit well-prepared work, with due warning, and a precise agenda, in
advance of any agreed meeting or set exchange.

3.4 Your supervisor will see specific aspects or sections of your Intermediary
Dissertation during its preparation, but will not normally see drafts of the whole work
before its final submission.

4- Submission

4.1 The submission deadline is the 10th December (or as otherwise specified in each
institution).

4.2 Candidates must submit their work and the Intermediary Dissertation Assessment
Form in an email to their supervisor (with copy to the local dissertation coordinator).

4.3 Only in very exceptional circumstances may an extension of one month be granted
by the Consortium's Dissertations Coordinator in St Andrews, after consultation with
the supervisor.

4.4 Your work will be assessed by your main supervisor who will then fill and return
the assessment form to you by the 10th January. It is your responsibility to show this
assessment form to your secondary supervisor (= from University C) when you meet
them at the beginning of Semester 4.

5 - Layout and Presentation

5.1 The Intermediary Dissertation should be in one of the languages of the

Consortium as agreed with the supervisor(s), word-processed in 1.5 or double line
spacing.

5.2 The various elements of the Intermediary Dissertation should appear in the
following order: title page; table of contents; the text of the Intermediary Dissertation
(divided into chapters if relevant); the bibliography.

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5.3 Conventions differ from language to language regarding quotations. Make sure
you adopt those prevailing in the language you have chosen to write in.
4.5 Students should follow the practice of scrupulously referencing their sources by
author, date and page. References are not meant to be either decorative or impressive.
In academic writing they are absolutely necessary for several reasons: (a) to enable
the reader to consult the original either to judge its aptness, or to see whether you
have quoted fairly and accurately, or to follow up his/her own particular interest; (b)
to acknowledge the source of existing ideas on the topic, which you wish to endorse,
extend, modify or refute; (c) to avoid any suspicion of plagiarism. You should
carefully read the chapter on Academic Misconduct in the Student Handbook!
4.6 For the conventions governing the presentation of footnotes and the bibliography
candidates should follow the conventions prevailing in the language they have chosen
to write in. Those writing in English may choose to follow the MHRA style book:
notes for authors, editors, and writers of theses. 4th ed., 1991, which may be
consulted online.

B. Guidelines for Mundus Final Dissertation

The Mundus Masters Dissertation is a substantial piece of scholarly research of

approximately 20,000 words, which will normally follow on from the work done in
Semesters 2 and 3. The broad topic will be decided in agreement with academic staff
and will normally be approved by the Head of Programme in the Home Institution
before the end of the second semester of study. The topic will be refined if necessary
and approved definitively by the latter in concertation with the named supervisor as
soon as possible following successful completion of the Semester 2.

Students will be supervised by two supervisors (a principal supervisor and a co-

supervisor), one in their Home institution and one the University where the
Dissertation is written. Both supervisors will be competent to supervise the subject
area selected. The principal supervisor will be fluent in the language in which the
dissertation is to be written. You must be in regular contact with your supervisors
until the dissertation is submitted.

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1 - Submission and Assessment

1.1 The Mundus Masters Final Dissertation will be assessed by the Main Supervisor
(semesters 2 and 3) and the semester 4 supervisor. In case of disagreement, the
dissertations coordinator at St Andrews will be called upon to adjudicate.

1.2 The deadline for the submission of the Mundus Masters Final Dissertation is the
10 June. Only in very exceptional circumstances may an extension of one month be
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granted by the Consortium's Dissertations Coordinator in St Andrews, after

consultation with both supervisors.

1.3 The Mundus Masters Dissertation may, in addition, be the subject of a short oral
presentation and discussion, involving two members of academic staff from the
Semester 4 institution, to take place not more than 3 weeks after the deadline for
submission of the Dissertation. This element will not be assessed separately from the
written Dissertation and will not normally affect substantially the grade awarded, but
is an opportunity for students to demonstrate that they have developed their ability to
discuss a substantial piece of independent work. Please contact your final university
local dissertation coordinator if you have questions about this exercise.

1.4 All Dissertations should be submitted word-processed, in one of the languages of

the consortium, as agreed with the supervisors.

1.5 Your final university (Sem. 4) supervisor will return the assessment form to you
once your two supervisors have agreed on a mark and feedback. Please note that this
mark is only provisional until it is confirmed by the Academic Council held in
September.

2 - Requirements on submission

2.1 The 20,000 word length includes text, notes and appendices, but excludes the
bibliography.
2.2 The dissertation should be in one of the languages of the Consortium, word-
processed in 1.5 or double line spacing (and, if printing it, on one side only of A4
paper). The left-hand margin should be at least 30mm.

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2.3 On the cover page should appear the name of the author, the names of the
supervisors, the title of the Intermediary Dissertation and the year and place of
presentation.
2.4 A declaration should be included as follows:

“I, .....(your name)..., hereby certify that this dissertation, which is ..... words in
length, has been written by me, that it is a record of work carried out by me, and that
it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. All
sentences or passages quoted in this dissertation from other people's work (with or
without trivial changes) have been placed within quotation marks, and specifically
acknowledged by reference to author, work and page. I understand that plagiarism –
the unacknowledged use of such passages – will be considered grounds for failure in
this dissertation and, if serious, in the degree programme as a whole. I also affirm
that, with the exception of the specific acknowledgements, these answers are
entirely my own work."

Signature of candidate....................

2.5 A Contents page should list chapters or sections and give page numbers (see any
good book for an example). A synopsis of no more than 300 words should give a
summary of the subject and argument of the dissertation.

3 - General Presentation

Make sure you understand the ground rules at the beginning, and establish the
conventions you will be using for footnotes or endnotes and bibliography, to save
time making alterations at a later stage. Allow plenty of time for final corrections
and improvements. It is easier to be self-critical if you have the time to take a break
from the material for a few weeks, and come back to it fresh. This helps you to read
it as others will. Alternatively, let a sympathetic (but honest) fellow student read and
comment upon it, in addition to your supervisor. Always remember that the purpose
of both your text and any illustrations is to convey your argument accurately and
convincingly. Clarity of expression is the keynote, especially if the concepts under
consideration are difficult and the evidence complex. Clear, objective and direct

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writing has to be worked at patiently and demands considerable understanding,
powers of logic and skills of expression.

4 - Supervision

Supervisors and students should ensure that a series of meetings is phased over the
semester 4 period. Students should be provided with at least one supervision
meeting/exchange a month, with adjustments agreed with the student to
accommodate a supervisor’s holiday periods. No extension will be given to cover
delays arising from commitments outside the University during the summer period.
Students are encouraged to keep a log of supervisory meetings/ exchanges,
recording dates and times and summarizing what was discussed.

5 - Structure

You need to think carefully about the structure of your dissertation so that the reader
can see your argument clearly. A good general rule is that you should introduce your
topic at the beginning (in an Introduction, or in Chap. 1), describe and analyse your
research material in the middle, and provide a Conclusion or final chapter which
brings together your argument. Each chapter, too, should have its problematised
introduction, signposted and methodic progress through the material analysed or
discussed, and its concluding statement of progress achieved in the framework of
the overall argument of the Dissertation.

6 - Writing Style

The basic purpose of academic writing is to present arguments clearly and

persuasively. This is crucial and must always be borne in mind.

Establish your personal ‘house style’ and stick to it. Consistency is extremely
important. The conventions you are following should be indicated at the beginning
of your thesis.

Whereas an essay should be written as a continuous text, a dissertation must be

divided into chapters, and the use of sub-headings may be helpful in certain
circumstances. Bullet points, however, and other such devices designed for writing
reports, should not normally be used in academic writing. Similarly you should not

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use bold type or italics for emphasis, and should avoid the use of exclamation marks
or slang. Italics would generally be employed, however, for individual foreign
words or phrases used in the text of your thesis (e.g. bas-de-page, sinopia,
Gesamtkunstwerk) - e.g. ‘Arnolfo di Cambio was capomaestro at the cathedral of
Florence around 1300.’

Aim for precision and conciseness in your writing. The first person should normally
be avoided in any thesis as unnecessary, since if it is not your opinion you should
not be expressing it. It may be appropriate in the ‘Introduction’, where your working
method is being explained, but not otherwise.

Varying sentence and paragraph lengths will make for a more readable text. Each
paragraph should address a single point in your argument, and a new paragraph
should begin when you move on to the next point. The recognition of where
paragraph breaks should come is important. Finally, remember that correct grammar
is not pedantic. It means no more, and no less, than writing in a precise and
unambiguous manner.

Plan the structure of your topic and progress logically through it, establishing and
building upon arguments as you go along.

7 - Quotations

Quotations, from original sources or from the work of other scholars, may be
included in your text in order to make a point more effectively or succinctly than
you can. But be sparing in the number of occasions on which you quote, and do so
only where the quotation makes a point with particular effect. It will often be
appropriate to analyse the material quoted, so that the justification for quoting is
fully apparent.

Quotations of four lines or fewer should be incorporated within the main text, using
inverted commas. Quotations of more than four lines should be separated from the
main text by being further indented, and usually single-spaced if the text is double-
spaced. In this case, do not include quotation marks.

If you choose to omit words from within the block of text that you are quoting, then
the missing words should be represented by three dots, separated from the adjacent
words by a space. You may also need to add one or more words in square brackets

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to make your new sentence grammatically correct. For example: ‘If you choose to
omit words ... [they] should be represented by three dots.’

The question of quotations in foreign languages can cause difficulties. Here there
are no hard-and-fast rules. One established solution is to provide a direct translation
or paraphrase in the text, with the foreign language quotation in a footnote or
endnote. Once again, the key is consistency throughout the dissertation. Both in
quotations from foreign languages and in citing books and articles in foreign
languages, it is essential to include all accents and to follow any specific rules of
capitalization in these languages.

8 - Acknowledgment and Academic Fraud

Academic Fraud as defined by the Consortium means deliberate deception in an

academic context. Plagiarism is the act of deliberately taking another’s ideas and
representing them as one’s own. Where you wish to reproduce material you have
read, you can either paraphrase it in your own words, or quote it directly (using
quotation marks - see below). In either case, you must acknowledge your use of it
by employing a footnote or endnote or other form of reference to indicate the source
of the information. Failure to acknowledge someone else’s words or ideas is
plagiarism, whether this omission is accidental or deliberate. In order to be sure you
are never guilty of plagiarism, even by accident, you need to be aware of the
potential problem when you are taking notes, and make it clear to yourself where
you have summarised material and where you have directly copied text.
The laws of copyright, particularly where they concern illustrative and manuscript
material, may be relevant to your dissertation. In every case you should ensure you
have the permission to reproduce such material.

Do not forget to acknowledge formally any help you have received from others, or
any permission granted to make use of copyright material in your thesis.

9 - Footnotes or Endnotes and References

The purpose of any referencing system is to support your argument by referring to

relevant sources and secondary literature. The guiding principles are clarity and
user-friendliness. You must aim always to provide sufficient information to allow
the reader to find the original source accurately and quickly. Only cite sources

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which you have actually consulted. Never cite references you have not actually
consulted, unless you make this quite clear, for example: ‘as cited in R. Muir
Wright, Art and Antichrist in Medieval Europe, Manchester 1995, 57’.

Keep precise notes of all your references as you are doing your research, otherwise
you will waste a great deal of time subsequently, tracking down missing citations or
page numbers. One of the advantages of using a word processor is that you can
build up a bibliography and/or insert your footnotes or endnotes as you go along.
This is a valuable facility - use it. But you should note that you will have to be
careful to keep track of where, in the finished thesis, you make first use of a work
(see below).

Footnotes or endnotes are the referencing system normally employed by literary

critics and culture theorists. In addition to providing references to your sources or
secondary literature, they also enable you to include supporting material or critical
source analysis, or to add comments relevant to the subject but inappropriate to the
flow of the text. Be careful not to use such asides to excess. Footnotes should
normally be located at the bottom of the page of the text to which they refer,
something which modern word-processing has made much easier, and not at the end
of the chapter or dissertation. They should be numbered consecutively throughout
the chapter.

There are several different conventions governing the presentation of footnotes or

endnotes: that given here is one of several possible conventions currently employed
within the Consortium. The golden rule is that you should be consistent, using the
same form of referencing in every chapter of your dissertation. In what follows,
examples are given of the most common type of material you will need to cite.

9.1 Books

On the first mention in each chapter, a book might be cited as follows:

T. Normand, The Modern Scot: Modernism and Nationalism in Scottish Art 1928-
1955, London 2000, 42-56.

Where there is a sub-title, as in this example, it is separated from the main title by a
colon (:), or more rarely by a semi-colon (;). On second and subsequent occasions in

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each chapter, this reference could be cited as: Normand, The Modern Scot, 42-3. or
alternatively as: Normand (as in n. 16), 42-3.

Book titles should be italicized (as above). Books which have been translated from
their original language should include the name of the translator: J. Poeschke,
Donatello and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, trans. R. Stockman,
New York 1993, 125.

Books by more than one author are dealt with in exactly the same way: I. Carradice,
J. Cribb and B. Cook, The Coin Atlas, London and Sydney 1990. And on subsequent
occasions in the same chapter as: Carradice, Cribb and Cook, Coin Atlas, 142, or:
Carradice, Cribb and Cook (as in n. 15), 142.

9.2 Articles in periodicals

There are several ways in current use to cite articles in periodicals. Choose one you
prefer and make sure you employ it consistently throughout your dissertation. The
convention employed in the examples below is economical in key strokes and
should be unambiguous to most people. The title of the article is placed within
inverted commas; the title of the periodical is italicised (or underlined) exactly as
for book titles, and is followed directly by its volume number, its year of publication
and page numbers: G. Smith, ‘Talbot and Botany: The Bertoloni Album’, History of
Photography 17, 1993, 1-16. In subsequent mentions in any chapter; this would be
abbreviated to: Smith, ‘Talbot and Botany’, 14; or, Smith (as in n. 29), 14.

If a journal has been produced in several series, the series number should also be
included: B. de Montgolfier, ‘Charles Le Brun et les confréries parisiennes’, Gazette
des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 55, 1960, 323-42.

And if an article runs over two issues of a journal: R. Spencer, ‘Whistler’s Early
Relations with Britain and the Significance of Industry and Commerce for his Art,
Parts I and II, Burlington Magazine 136, 1994, 214-24; 664-74.

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9.3 Articles in edited collections

D. Walker, ‘The Country Houses and Larger Villas of Sir John James Burnet’, in A.
J. Rowan and I. Gow (eds), Scottish Country Houses 1660-1914: Essays Presented
to Catherine Holway Cruft, Edinburgh 1995, 298-323.

Subsequent mentions in a chapter: Walker, ‘Country Houses’, 300; or, Walker (as in
n. 25), 300.

9.4 Classical literary works

Standard texts should be cited by their accepted system of text division: Ovid,
Metamorphoses, IV, 28; Dante, Inferno, XIII, 19-21. Use the established spellings
for books of the Bible, for which standard abbreviations may also be employed: II
Chronicles 9: 2.

9.5 Manuscript sources

Here it is conventional to give the name of the town and the archive where the
manuscript is located (often identified by an abbreviation e.g. BL for British
Library, ASP for Archivio di Stato di Pisa, BN for Bibliothèque Nationale),
followed by the archival reference to the document and relevant folio numbers. If a
letter in manuscript is being cited it is usual also to give the names of the sender and
recipient, together with as precise a date as is known.

Primary sources should be listed alphabetically by archive, and alphabetically or

numerically within each archive. For example:
London, British Library Add Ms. 235 Harley Ms. 452 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale
Ms. fr. 289 Ms. lat. 464

9.6 Illustrations

Illustrations should be carefully selected to elucidate the salient points of your

argument. You may direct the reader’s attention to relevant illustrations using the
standard abbreviations (e.g. pl. 1, pls 2-4, or fig. 4, figs 6-7). Captioning is
particularly important but again may take various forms. The kind of information
required very often depends on the type of object and the period in which it was

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made. Choose a convention that is current in your area of study. A general rule is to
give enough information to make the image uniquely identifiable.

Acknowledge and provide a source of the illustration and ensure you have
permission from the copyright holder before you reproduce it. Copyright holders
often charge (hefty) fees for permission to use their images in articles or books.
They may or may not choose to waive their usual fees if you explain that the
illustration will appear in an academic dissertation.

9.7 Use of material from the Internet

If you do refer to a website in a footnote or bibliography, always remember that, as

with any printed information, the point is to allow your reader to check it, if he or
she wishes, and refer to it accordingly. Anything really ephemeral is of limited use,
and should be avoided. And always remember that material on the internet, just like
printed material, is the copyright of the author.

10 - Checking your work

This vital process will almost certainly take more time than you expect. A dissertation
should go through several drafts, each improving both the tightness and flow of the
argument and its presentation. The spell checker is an excellent tool and you should
make use of it. But it cannot tell you, for example, whether a word makes sense in its
context or deal with words in foreign languages; indeed it may render them
incorrectly. If in doubt, consult a standard dictionary.

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