Dissertation Reflection: Topic Selection and Research Process

毕业论文反思：选题过程与研究经历

Before the summer holiday of my junior year, our advisor asked us to start thinking about possible topics for our graduation dissertation and to write a rationale for the chosen topic. Since the fashion industry changes very quickly, there were many possible areas to explore. Personally, I have always been interested in online fashion, so I initially decided to focus my dissertation on this field.

At the beginning, I noticed that online magazines had become a recent trend in the fashion industry. Therefore, I chose “The Development of Online Magazines” as my original dissertation title. However, after the new semester began, I found that research on online fashion magazines had not developed as deeply as I had expected. As a result, I started to look for a new research direction.

At the same time, a new trend in the fashion industry attracted my attention. One typical example was fashiolista.com. On this website, users could browse the latest fashion information, upload fashion items they liked, and share them with other consumers. The website also cooperated with several fashion bloggers, which was how I first discovered it. In my opinion, this type of website represented a new form of online fashion platform.

However, after discussing the topic with my advisor, I realized that it had several limitations. First of all, there were very few websites of this kind, which made the dissertation look more like a business project than an academic research paper. More importantly, because this industry did not yet have a clear definition, I would have needed to spend too much time explaining what the industry actually was. This would have made it difficult to develop a focused and well-structured dissertation. This problem was also confirmed during my later presentation.

Therefore, I eventually decided to broaden the scope of my research. My research object became UK pureplay e-retailers, and I chose the Chinese market as my target market because I was more familiar with it.

My dissertation mainly consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the online market in China, while the second part examines fashion pureplay e-retailers in the UK. During the process of collecting academic materials, I found that many sources could potentially be used in my dissertation. However, I also realized that selecting useful materials and organizing key points logically were extremely important.

In this aspect, my advisor Andrew gave me a great deal of help. He not only pointed out important content that I had overlooked, but also discussed my research objectives with me in order to make the dissertation more coherent. Through this process, my ability to organize academic arguments and structure a research paper improved significantly.

During the research and investigation process, I gained a great deal of knowledge and developed a more professional understanding of the online fashion retail industry. The industry analysis, communication with different people, and selection of relevant documents were all valuable experiences for my future career. Therefore, I believe that completing the graduation dissertation was not only an academic requirement, but also an important opportunity for self-improvement.

The completion of this dissertation was not entirely smooth. Due to several unexpected problems, my progress fell behind that of many of my classmates. However, my advisor Andrew continued to support and encourage me, and he provided many useful suggestions and much help throughout the process. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to him again.

At the same time, this experience also helped me recognize some of my own weaknesses, such as time management and working efficiency. I realized that my abilities still have certain limitations, and I hope to improve these aspects in the future.

在大三开始前的暑假，我们的导师就要求我们开始留意自己感兴趣的话题，并将其作为毕业 dissertation 的选题方向，同时撰写一份 rationale。时尚行业变化非常快，因此可以选择和研究的范围也比较广。对我来说，我一直对网络时尚比较感兴趣，所以最初便把研究方向定在了这一领域。

一开始，我发现网络杂志是当时比较流行的趋势，于是将论文题目初步定为“网络杂志的发展”。然而，新学期开始之后，我发现关于网络时尚杂志的研究并没有进一步深入，相关资料和研究空间也没有达到我的预期。因此，我开始尝试寻找新的研究方向。

与此同时，时尚行业中的一个新趋势吸引了我的注意。其中一个比较典型的网站是 fashiolista.com。在这个网站上，用户可以浏览最新的时尚资讯，上传自己喜欢的 fashion item，并与其他消费者分享。该网站还与一些 fashion bloggers 有合作，而这也是我最初发现它的原因。在我看来，这类网站代表了一种新的网络时尚平台形式。

但是，在与导师进一步交流之后，我发现这个题目存在很多局限性。首先，这种类型的网站数量很少，这会使 dissertation 看起来更像一个 business project，而不是一篇学术论文。更重要的是，由于这个行业本身还没有一个准确清晰的定义，我需要花很多时间向读者解释它到底是什么。这样一来，反而会影响论文主题的集中性和整体结构。后来在 presentation 中，这个问题也得到了进一步验证。

因此，最后我决定扩大研究范围，将研究对象调整为 UK pureplay e-retailers。同时，我选择中国市场作为目标市场，因为我对中国市场更加熟悉，也更容易进行分析和理解。

这篇 dissertation 主要包括两个部分：第一部分是对中国网络市场的分析，第二部分是对英国时尚网络零售商的研究。在查找资料的过程中，我发现有很多文献和内容都可以被使用。然而，如何有针对性地选择真正有价值的资料，并将其中的关键点有逻辑地整理出来，是非常重要的一步。

在这方面，我的导师 Andrew 给了我很大的帮助。他不仅提醒我注意一些之前被我忽略的重要内容，还和我一起分析 research objectives，使整篇 dissertation 的逻辑更加清晰、结构更加连贯。通过这个过程，我在学术写作、资料整理和论文结构安排方面都有了明显提高。

在研究和调查的过程中，我学到了很多新的知识，也对网络时尚零售行业有了更加专业和深入的理解。无论是行业分析、与不同人的交流，还是对资料的筛选和整理，这些经历都对我未来的就业有很大帮助。因此，我认为毕业 dissertation 不仅仅是一项学术任务，也是一次提升自我的重要机会。

这篇 dissertation 的完成过程并不是十分顺利。由于中途出现了很多问题，我的进度一度落后于不少同学。但是，我的导师 Andrew 一直给予我支持和鼓励，并在整个过程中为我提供了许多有用的建议和帮助。在这里，我想再次向他表示真诚的感谢。

同时，这次经历也让我发现了自己身上的一些不足，例如时间规划能力和做事效率还有待提高。我意识到自己的能力仍然存在一定的局限性，也希望自己能够在今后的学习和工作中不断改进这些方面。