This month I have been on a big push to get my dissertation first draft finished. Although I am not quite on target to have finished this by the end of March I am finally starting to get the hang of writing and will (hopefully) finish before Easter. As the dissertation is so long I am eternally glad that my dissertation supervisor warned us to pick a topic we were interested in as otherwise I think I would find the whole writing process far more stressful. Obviously this means I have not been having much fun but finally edging towards finishing a first draft is enough to keep me focused on work. I think the main piece of advice I would give, when doing the dissertation, is to take a break when you feel overwhelmed as coming back to it, refreshed, makes me far more productive.
The only thing I did that was vaguely interesting, although also dissertation related, was to deliver a presentation on my dissertation topic at the annual Bristol Religion and Theology post-grad conference. All final year undergrads have the opportunity to present but only eight of us took up the challenge in the end. All the other presentations I saw were brilliant and it was really interesting to learn what other people were researching and what they found most interesting about their topic. Furthermore all the feedback received was incredibly useful and something we will all try to incorporate into our dissertations. In terms of my own presentation I was very nervous speaking but in the end I am glad I took the chance to try something outside of my comfort zone.
– Katherine
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