Formal written proposals submitted after Block Three for approval prepare the ground for the student's engagement with advanced research leading to production of the final Project or the submission of the dissertation.

The dissertation or the Final Project represents the fullest applied and creative articulation of the student's achievement, and of the relationship to the course and to advanced enquiries into performance knowledge, skills and mastery which the course represents.  In developmental terms, the dissertation should clearly demonstrate the student's improved research skills, development of their critical position or positions and the ability to articulate these; their increasingly informed enquiry into performance or performance-related fields and their contexts, and, advanced skills in performance documentation, evaluation and analysis.  The Critical Commentary which accompanies the Final Practical Project assumes that it is the practical project itself which represents the fullest articulation of the student's achievements, where that achievement is in addition supported by the written commentary.  The written commentary is not an independent written enquiry into performance theory.  Its aim is to illuminate and differently engage with aspects of the Practical Project.  It is vital that the Project itself be documented as comprehensively as possible, and that this documentation form a coherent Appendix to the written submission.  The two options must represent differences in emphasis and application, rather than differences in competence or complexity.