Scanning	past	projects	within	your	university	or	college	can	be	a	useful	way	of	generating
ideas.A	risk	of	relying	too	heavily	on	previous	research	and	doing	little
original	research	to	advance	it;	and	settling	on	a	dissertation	or	report	that	was
originally	weak	in	terms	of	topic	choice,	execution	or	some	other	criterion	(to
assist	with	this	aspect,	it	may	be	possible	to	find	out	how	'good'	such	pieces	of
work	were	by	talking	to	tutors).Riley	 et	 al.	 (2000:	 32)	 highlighted	 the	 advantages	 and	 disadvantages	 of	 referring	 to
previous	projects:
o				Advantages.