General description

This course is intended for students of the International School of Social Sciences and other Faculties who will have to write their Master's thesis in English.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to make the participants aware of how to express in English the results of their critical thinking in a form which is consistent with the conventions governing the writing of theses. To this end the students will be analysing past theses in their field and will also be working with the Master's degree thesis which they have in process.

After successful completion of the course the students will be able to…
- review a thesis critically
- construct a thesis argument
- structure a research plan in English
- write a literature review

Contents

The course will go through…
- common types of Master's theses and their structures
- the thesis process from choosing a research topic and formulating initial research questions to writing the research plan
- using the arguments of others to construct one's own argument
- the differences between academic and non-academic style
style conventions including formatting and writing references

Further information on prerequisites and recommendations

This course is especially recommended for international master's degree students as well as students who are thinking of writing their thesis in English.

Teaching methods

Teaching method	Contact	Online
Tutorials	26 h	0 h
Personal instruction	1 h	0 h
Group work	10 h	0 h
Independent work	18 h	25 h

The course will be made up of class sessions, an out-of-class group analysis task, independent writing and reflection through a journal as well as an individual tutorial. The class sessions will include whole class discussions on information introduced through Moodle as well as the presentations of the group analysis tasks. The independent writing task will consist of a representative sample from the students' research plans or theses which will then be discussed in the tutorial.

Teaching language

English

Evaluation and evaluation criteria

Pass/fail.
Completion of all the necessary tasks to a satisfactory level as well as active participation in the class sessions.

Study materials

The necessary materials will be available on-line through Moodle.

Belongs to following study modules