Choosing a Dissertation Topic
Upper Intermediate (B2)
Campus life
American Accent
62s
A student meets her supervisor to discuss two possible dissertation topics and, with his help, narrows her idea down to a clear, manageable research question.
Vocabulary Highlights
- manageable /ˈmænɪdʒəbəl/
- Small or simple enough to be dealt with or completed successfully.
- "Breaking the project into stages made it much more manageable." — possible to complete
- "Her hair is more manageable since she had it cut short." — easy to control
- "Ten pages a day is a manageable reading target." — a reasonable amount
Dialogue Transcript
Speaker 1:
So, Maya, have you narrowed down your ideas for the dissertation at all?
Speaker 2:
Sort of. I'm torn between social media and teenage sleep, and the effects of remote work on productivity.
Speaker 1:
Both are interesting, but the remote work topic has been done to death over the last few years.
Speaker 2:
That's what I was worried about. I'm actually more passionate about the sleep one anyway.
Speaker 1:
Good. The key now is to come up with a research question that's specific enough to answer in a year.
Speaker 2:
Maybe something like, does using phones after ten p.m. affect high school students' grades?
Speaker 1:
That's a lot closer. You might focus on one age group, say fifteen to seventeen, to keep it manageable.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Would surveys be enough, or should I collect sleep data, too?
Speaker 1:
Combining a survey with sleep diaries would make your findings much stronger.
Speaker 2:
That makes sense. I'll write up a short proposal and email it to you by next Monday.
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