Writing a Built Environment Dissertation: Practical Guidance and Examples

As a built environment student you are likely to be required to research, write and submit a dissertation as a core component of your degree studies. As a vocational profession, students of the built environment often have strong practical aspirations. Writing a Built Environment Dissertation provides practical guidance and will help to steer you into a position where you can develop a good dissertation by mixing your practical strengths with more theoretical tools.

The book is ordered around a common dissertation structure: that is, it starts with material that should be in the introduction and finishes with material that should be in the conclusion. Each chapter provides a commentary on the kind of information that you should put in each chapter of your dissertation, supported by a variety of examples using a range of methodological designs. The book has a strong focus on data collection, data analysis, reliability and validity – all areas where student dissertations are often weak. Material that will help you think about study skills and ethics is embedded throughout the book, and the chapters on qualitative and quantitative analysis will show you how to carry out a rigorous analysis while avoiding some of the complexity in statistical work.

If you are an under-graduate student in the final year of an honours degree programme in the built environment, or perhaps a student at masters or PhD level and have been away from academic study for some time, then this book will help you to write a more innovative and thorough dissertation.

Dr Peter Farrell, MSc, FRICS, FCIOB, FRSA, is Senior Lecturer in the Department of the Built Environment at the University of Bolton. He is the programme leader for the MSc in Construction Management and has taught research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate students for over ten years. He also delivers modules in construction management and commercial management. His industry training was in planning and quantity surveying, whilst most of his post-qualification work was as a contractor's site manager.