On the last day of my final year of Secondary School, my English class teacher gave us all little good-luck cards, which was very sweet. On the inside of mine, and in flawless fountain-pen calligraphy, she wrote: “Dear Stuart, wishing you the greatest fortune. Remember ‘This above all – to thine own self be true’”. Following this seemingly excellent instruction, I came to the University of Glasgow to study English Literature, where I quickly learned that the character who spoke these immortal Shakespearian lines wasn’t, perhaps, the most reliable source of advice.

Keeping a methodological journal matters a lot to both the product and process of your dissertation. In terms of product, a written-up account of what you did is crucial to detailing to justifying and detailing what you did. In a methodology chapter, every step you took must be detailed and rationalised clearly. An effectively kept journal is a gift in the writing up stage after the project is over.