Synopsis

A rolling synopsis of your thesis is something you should write in your first year, advised Dunleavy. My brother swapping Christmas presents gave me the book as a 'mitbringsel' [1] last week, and it is indeed a good read. However, it is also scary. For instance in chapter three, Dunleavy says you should write a rolling thesis synopsis of three or four pages, and that you do this in your first year onwards. That's what's scary because I hadn't even thought of that and my supervisors hadn't mentioned it and I haven't done it - hadn't. I have now. I had to think about it for some days, but supervisor #2's advice to write up my case studies with my research questions in mind gives me a structure:

• Chapter 1 about consultancy and the public sector
• Chapter 2 the conceptualisation of engagement in the literature
• Chapters 3-7 address each of my research question in turn
• Chapter 8 conclusions

Now I just need to put together the 80,000 words to answer my research questions, and collect the data and analyse it.

---

[1] A mitbringsel is a small present for no particular reason but that you bring with you when you visit someone.