compared to our ma courses, our mres programmes offer more flexibility and fewer taught modules, as the emphasis of your course is on your dissertation and individual research assignments. you must have a draft research proposal at your application stage, and a supervisor is assigned to you to guide your choice of modules and work on your dissertation. on this course, you gain familiarity with contemporary work in sociolinguistics and related fields such as conversation analysis, and acquire the theoretical and practical skills to pursue original research. you cover topics including: - quantitative and qualitative methodologies for analysing sociolinguistic data - interview, questionnaire and observation data - sociocultural factors in language use - variationist sociolinguistic theory if you want a global outlook, are interested in human communication, and want to study for a degree with real-world practical value in a world-class department, welcome to essex.