Finding yourself in this dilemma suggests that you are facing this problem for the first time. Along with having to juggle course-work while you plan and carry out research, you will probably be facing several other new situations.

For example, this may be:

• the first time you are working with a supervisor. The role of the supervisor is to guide and help you, but it is expected you will take considerable responsibility for organising, researching and writing your dissertation. It is a good idea to establish at the beginning how often you and your supervisor would meet and what mutual expectations are. Your supervisor is usually pretty busy, so make sure you go to your meetings prepared; it could be you want to ask particular questions, clarify your understanding, or submit parts of your written work for feedback. It’s also a good idea to show your supervisor sections you are working on to ensure you’re on the right track.
• the first time you have had so much independence and responsibility. While your supervisor will provide you with feedback and help, it is your responsibility to develop a timetable and keep your work moving. Don’t expect to be assigned tasks and indeed take the initiative in suggesting where you see the work heading next. Your supervisor will help you to gauge the standards and guide your research, but it is your intellectual input and the quality of your involvement with the subject matter which ultimately counts. You control what belongs in the thesis and how it is interpreted. While it is your responsibility, doing research and writing a thesis doesn’t need to be a lonely occupation. Take advantage of seminars and other opportunities to talk with your fellow students and other academic staff in the department. This keeps you in touch with developments in the field, may give you new ideas, and could increase your interest. Also, in requiring you to explain what you’re doing, talking to others puts you on the spot and forces you to clarify and justify your own thinking.
• the first time you are carrying out research on this scale. The pitfalls of this are that it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the quantity of information and the details and either never construct or lose the big picture. The most important thing is that you conceptualise the whole thing in your head so you see the logical flow of your argument and the work you have to do. Having done this, it then frees you to concentrate on working on parts with the understanding of where they belong and how they contribute to the overall argument you are carrying through the thesis.
• the first time you will have to produce an extended piece of writing. Basically there is not much difference between this and other writing you have done, except that it is bigger. The most important thing is to have your argument clearly established, supported by your research and other relevant information, and making sure it runs through the whole. Although to get through a larger work, students sometimes envisage it as just so many assignments—and this can help to defuse it—nevertheless a dissertation or thesis is unlike a collection of assignments because the argument has to carry through and unite the parts.
• the first time you have had to follow a set of procedures governing presentation, submission etc. It is as well to make yourself familiar with the formal requirements as soon as possible for two reasons: at the end you won’t have time to sort this out and knowing what has to be done, what format to follow, what referencing conventions you have to use, etc. will allow you to do it once, doing it right from the beginning.
• the first time you have course-work and research together. It is as though you have to split yourself in two—working through the rhythm of a semester with its due dates and exams, while at the same time following a parallel timetable that you have set for yourself for your research. The risks here, of course, are that it is too easy to allow the immediate demands of the course-work to take precedence over your research and, conversely, that your research consumes you and you neglect the course-work subjects. Certainly it is difficult to maintain a strict ratio of amount of work equalling credit points awarded so that very few dissertations take only the work equivalent of the 40 or so credit points assigned. However, remember that this project or dissertation is not the major masterpiece of your life and be realistic about what can be achieved in the time limit and the level at which you are working. Research that is wonderful but never gets finished or written up is wasted. Also, even if you are good at planning, what you need to look at are the requirements of research, which can dictate what happens when (e.g. the growing season of plants, or the time phases of the moon for some insects, or the school year when students are available for research), and these could conflict with the due dates for assignments and exams of your subjects.

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