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How To Make A Good Progress Report When Working On A History Dissertation

There are some simple but very effective ideas that will help you to complete your progress report for your dissertation.

Your work will be part of your life for quite a while, so it is important that right from the start you work methodically.

The more organised you are the easier it will be to review your progress on a regular basis. You can achieve this by following these strategies.

If you are organised then when your tutor asks for a review or progress report you will have all the information to hand rather spend time trying to produce another report.

  1. Project Diary. This is absolutely essential. From the start put everything that applies to your work in a dedicated project diary. This means that all of appropriate information is in one place and not on scraps of paper that are easily lost or mislaid. This the place where you write your ideas that need to be researched further or you jot down new information that is paramount to your work.

  2. Use a Spread Sheet. As well as your diary you can also use a spreadsheet. The type of information that you need to put in here is the sections that you have completed; working towards or not yet started. A spreadsheet gives you an at a glance picture of where you are at and a rough idea of how much more work you need to complete which can be represented as a percentage.

  3. Update regularly. You need to regularly update your spreadsheet and your diary. As you are probably referring to your diary on a nearly daily basis it may be a good idea to set aside a time each week to update your spreadsheet. This will give you a sense of satisfaction fro work achieve but also it means that you have a very precise update that you can pass to your tutor at a moments notice.

  4. End of week reviews. This is separate to the regular updates. It does not really require you to complete any additions work or report, it just means that as part of the update you will also review your progress throughout the week and make a plan or projection about the work that you will need to focus on the following week . Its just another way of helping you to be organised.

  5. Points for discussion. By regularly updating both your project diary and your spreadsheet, it means that you can easily target areas or sections of your work that you would like to use as points for discussion with your tutor at your next face to face meeting. It also cuts your work down as you do not have to produce a separate progress report, but it you do, all the information you need is in one place.

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