Overview
Master's programs compress an independent research project into a few months, often alongside final modules or a full-time job. Typical lengths run from around 12,000 to 20,000 words for a one-year UK taught master's dissertation to longer research theses in two-year programs, and many US programs offer a thesis option and a non-thesis (exam or capstone) option. Examination ranges from two markers with no oral component to a committee defense, depending on country and program.
What examiners look for is a well-justified question, a method applied correctly and transparently, a literature review that positions your study, and conclusions that stay within what your data can show. A modest contribution — applying an established framework in a new context, or testing a relationship in an under-studied population — is normal and entirely acceptable.
Our support focuses on decisions that are hard to reverse later: the question, the design, access to data and the analysis plan. We then give structured feedback on each chapter you write, and help you prepare for a defense if your program has one.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- MA and MSc students on taught or research master's programs
- MBA students writing an applied dissertation or consulting-style business project
- MPH students completing a thesis, integrative learning experience or applied practice project
- LLM students writing a doctrinal or comparative legal dissertation
- Part-time and working master's students who need a plan that fits around employment
Common problems we help with
- Your program gives you only a few supervision meetings and you are unsure whether your design is sound
- You have a dataset or company access but no clear question it can answer
- Your literature review is long but does not lead to a gap your study addresses
- You are unsure whether your MBA dissertation should be a research study or a practical recommendations report
- The analysis you planned will not work with the data you actually collected
- Your program has an oral defense and you have never presented research to a panel
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Review of your program's thesis handbook and assessment criteria, and how they shape the scope
- Refining your research question, objectives and (if relevant) hypotheses
- Design coaching: choosing and justifying qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, doctrinal or secondary-data approaches
- Feasibility and ethics planning, including data access agreements for organizational research
- Literature review structure and gap articulation
- Analysis planning and explanation of your results so you can report them accurately
- Chapter-by-chapter written feedback on your drafts
- Guidance on degree-specific conventions: MBA practitioner recommendations, MPH public-health competencies, LLM doctrinal and comparative methods
- Defense or presentation preparation where your program requires it
Not included
- Writing your thesis or any part of it for submission
- Completing analysis that the assessment expects you to perform, without your involvement and understanding
- Promising a distinction, merit or particular grade
- Obtaining organizational data access or ethics approval on your behalf
What you receive
- Thesis plan
- A concise plan with your question, objectives, design, data source, ethics route and a dated timeline to submission.
- Design feedback memo
- Written comments on your proposal or methodology, flagging risks such as sampling limits, missing variables or unclear case selection.
- Chapter feedback
- Margin comments and a summary memo per chapter, ranked by importance so you know what to fix first.
- Defense practice
- Where relevant, a mock presentation and question session with feedback on clarity and handling of limitations.
How it works
Brief
You send your handbook, degree type, deadline and current material. We ask a few questions about data access and supervision.
Plan and priorities
We agree which stages you want support with and produce a plan that fits your remaining weeks.
Design check
Before you collect or analyze data, we review the design so problems are caught while they can still be fixed.
Draft feedback
You write each chapter and receive structured feedback; we can review revised versions if agreed.
Pre-submission and defense
A final coherence check across chapters and, if required, a mock defense.
Degree-specific conventions we work with
- MA (humanities and social sciences)
- Argument-driven theses built on close reading, archival work, interviews or discourse analysis, where theoretical positioning carries much of the weight.
- MSc
- Empirical studies with an explicit analysis plan, from surveys and experiments to secondary-data modeling, often with reproducible code or syntax expected.
- MBA
- Applied research on a real organizational problem: frameworks such as PESTLE, resource-based view or stakeholder analysis, primary data from the organization and actionable, evidence-based recommendations.
- MPH
- Public-health projects such as secondary analysis of surveillance data, program evaluation or policy analysis, often mapped to program competencies and population-health outcomes.
- LLM
- Doctrinal, comparative or socio-legal dissertations using primary legal sources, with citation styles such as OSCOLA or Bluebook.
- Research master's (MRes, MPhil)
- Closer to a doctoral pilot: greater methodological depth and often a longer thesis, sometimes as preparation for a PhD.
What 'good enough' originality looks like at master's level
Master's students often stall because they believe the thesis must be ground-breaking. In most programs the expectation is a competent, well-positioned study: a clear question, a design that can answer it, and a discussion that links findings back to the literature. Replicating an established study in a new setting or sector is a legitimate contribution when you explain why the setting matters.
We help you phrase your contribution precisely and modestly, which examiners tend to find more convincing than inflated claims.
Timelines, supervision and examination
One-year taught master's programs usually leave a summer or a single term for the dissertation, with limited supervision hours. Two-year research-track programs, common in the US and continental Europe, spread the thesis over a year and often end with a committee defense. We plan around the model you have, including how to make the most of scarce supervision meetings.
- UK taught master's: first and second marker, possible external examiner moderation, usually no viva
- US thesis-track: advisor plus one or two committee members, often an oral defense
- Continental Europe: frequently a public or panel presentation with a grading committee
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Turning MBA company access into a researchable question
A fictional part-time MBA student has permission to interview managers at their employer, a regional logistics firm, and a 15,000-word dissertation due in 14 weeks, but only a general interest in 'digital transformation'.
Question refined
'What barriers do middle managers perceive when adopting a new warehouse management system, and how could the rollout be adapted?' — focused on one change the firm was actually making.
Design chosen
Qualitative single case study with 10 semi-structured manager interviews and document analysis of internal rollout plans, analyzed thematically against a technology-acceptance lens.
Risks handled
The student negotiated anonymization of the firm, clarified their dual role as employee-researcher in the methodology, and built a limitations section on single-case generalizability.
Illustrative example with an invented student, firm and timeline, not a real client case.
What you’ll need to provide
- Your degree name and program handbook (word limit, structure, assessment criteria)
- Submission and defense dates
- Proposal, draft chapters or notes, and supervisor comments
- Information on any data, organization or participants you have access to
- Your institution's policy on external feedback or editing
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Stages you want support with (planning, design review, chapter feedback, defense)
- Length and number of drafts reviewed
- Methodological complexity, for example multi-method designs or advanced statistics
- Number of live sessions
- Time available before your deadline
Turnaround depends on
- Draft length and stage of completion
- Whether several chapters must be reviewed at once close to submission
- Availability of your handbook, data description and supervisor comments at the start
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
I chose the thesis option but I am thinking of switching to non-thesis. Can you help me decide?
Yes. We look at your career plans (a thesis is often valuable if you may apply for a PhD), your remaining time and whether you have a viable question and data. The decision, and any approval from your program, remains yours.
Can you help me with statistics or qualitative coding?
Yes. We explain appropriate methods, check your analysis plan and help you understand output or coding frameworks. You run the analysis, or work through it with us in guided sessions, and you write it up.
My program is in a language other than English. Can you still help?
We work on theses written in English. If your thesis must be in another language we can still review your design and plans, but chapter-level language feedback is limited to English.
What if my supervisor and your feedback point in different directions?
Your supervisor's guidance takes priority. We help you understand the reasoning behind their comments and, where there is a genuine methodological choice, prepare a clear question for your next meeting.
How early should I start?
Ideally before your proposal is approved or data collection begins, because design problems are cheap to fix at that point. We can still help later, but options narrow once data are collected.
Is my work kept confidential?
Yes. Your drafts, data and organizational information are used only to provide the support you requested, and we can sign a confidentiality agreement if your organization requires one.