Hello all,

I am confused about what expression to use to define the social phenomenon I am studying. Basically, it is given a particular name by quite a few scholars, whilst others do not use this expression to refer to it. They define it by using general terms. Essentially, the two groups are talking about the same thing, but the first one emphasises particularism, while the second one treats it as a local variation of a phenomenon present in all societies. I agree with the latter, but still chose to use the expression to narrow down the literature I have to tackle and make my research manageable. Is this correct? I only have 2 months left to be done with this and don't know if I should use the second position and start researching all over again! I would have to tackle more than 100 sources for it (for a Master's Dissertation!)

Thanks. Hope you understood me!

If it were me, in the chapter where you discuss theoretical perspectives I would compare and contrast the two approaches to the phenomenon, concluding with your reasoning for using the later. You shouldn't then need to look at your 'research' using the alternative description. I don't think it needs more than this so you won't have to look at 100 sources, just cite the main authors. Also, be mindful or wordcount as how much you write on the subject will depend on the word count for your dissesrtation. An MA taught dissertation for example is only 16K words so a paragraph or so will suffice, whereas MRes will be aput 40K dissertaion and may require a whole chapter. BUT..ask your tutor to be 100% sure. Good luck :-)

Thank you WOWZERS! Actually my dissertation is only 11 000 words. I think I'll follow your advice. Thank you :)