Tips and tricks 4: Master thesis @ KU Leuven

1. Tips and tricks 4: Master thesis @ KU Leuven Karel Joos Study Advice Service November 18th 2013

2. introduction • General approach • Not : Regulations in faculty • Reduction in 1 hour? • Focus on : how to organise thesis work • Focus on 1 year master • This session : sometimes to general

3. Overview of session • Goal • Long term planning • choice of topic • brainstorm • library research • temporary table of content (!) • (labo) research • analysis of results • writing • rewriting • finishing touch • Role of promotor

4. Goal of master thesis • proof you can • summarize large amount of information, • conduct scientific research, • write in academic style • independent working (limited coaching of promotor) • not : • world shocking new scientific discoveries • super intelligent insights

5. Long term planning • Okt-Nov : • choice of topic • brainstorm • library research • temporary table of content : word document that is growing • Dec : • writing first draft chapter 1 : literature • Jan - Feb : • (labo) research • (statistical) analysis of results • March - April: • writing : • rewriting literature part • Mai : • rewriting • finishing touch

6. Choice of topic • Facultary organisation • How to decide? • Information about other facultary rules • How many pages • Criteria • Regulations about style : • academic reporting • quotes and references • tables • formal aspects (front page, …) • … • Deadlines

7. Brainstorm • About : • Where to look for information? • Relevant aspects (broader scope) • Library (search engines) • Other thesis, phd research • …. • How to conduct your research? • Hypotheses • …

8. Library research • Takes time • Copy and mark • Avoid reading everything twice • Elements of reference list • author(s) • name of book, journal • year of publication • publisher • ? quoting from website ?

9. Library research • Composing references : • ‘Reference manager’ • ‘End note’ • Library : search engines • http://bib.kuleuven.be/english/ub/searching • Limo, Eric, Web of Science, …

10. Temporary table of content • Heart of the matter! • Difficulty : • Large amount of information • ?trying to have the whole content of your thesis in mind? • Unstructured • Uncertain (results?) • The very problem for most students in individual coaching!!!

11. Temporary table of content • preface • table of content • introduction • Chptr 1 : overview of literature • Chptr 2 : research plan • hypotheses, methodology, … • Chptr 3 : research • implementation, results,… • Chptr 4 : conclusions and suggestions for further research • Comparison : hypotheses - results • list of tabels, figures • bibliography – reference list • annexes

12. Temporary table of content • From chaos to structure???? • Initial data : ?

13. Temporary table of content • How to structure unstructered info: • there’s no structure that perfectly fits the data • structure = tool to communicate with the reader • Decide yourself what structure should be • Example 1 : “house” : structure according to : • different rooms • different looks from the outside • different phases in which it was built (first basement,…) • different sorts of material used • Example 2 : thesis

15. Temporary table of content • Word document • With key words on different levels • Easy to change structure • Write down everything you think of • Concepts, formulas, remarks, quotes, theories, articles,… • Suggestions • Things to do?? • = One overview (working paper) • Later on : start from this document to write the same in full sentences

16. Temporary table of content • Exercice : • Try to structure the ‘streets of Leuven’

17. Temporary table of content • Structure = communication with reader • Who is reader (to focus on) • Not professor • Interested, intelligent human being with not to much knowledge about your topic • Difficulty : “this is too obvious to write” • Always an exception on structure • House-rooms : what with a ‘terrace’ or car port, is it a room or not? • This will be the “remarks”

18. Research • Labo, interview, experiments, • Takes lots of time • Prepare in advance • Appointments for an interview : 3 weeks before?

19. (Statistical) analysis • Confrontation with quality of data • Risk to postpone confrontation • Also a ‘negative’ result is a result.

20. Writing • Final tabel of content • Will be read by almost anyone • Text itself will not always be read from a to z • Text • Starting from temporary table of content • 1 page per day

21. Writing • Comprehensible • Tell story to someone • Academic • Objective : • verifyible facts • verifyible sources • Clear difference between personal opinion and facts

22. Writing • Meta language : • Language about the language • Say what you’re going to say • “to summarize” • “on the contrary” • “I will focus on ….” • Explicitation of links • from paragraph to paragraph • “the same result was found in…” • “on a more general level, the results of …” • from part to part

23. Writing • Quotes and references • Lots of discussion within K.U.Leuven(!) • Within text + in reference list • Facultary regulations • Plagiarism : • http://www.kuleuven.be/plagiarism/ • What in case of : • Paraphrasing • Summarizing only the idea of an author • Common sense

24. Rewriting

25. Finishing touch

26. What to expect from promotor • Differences between promotors • Promotor : • Initial indication • Suggestions on content, research • Reading text • +/- 4 appointments • Expects you to work independently

27. Contact • Study Advice Service Naamsestraat 80 3000 Leuven 016/32 43 11 www.kuleuven.be/studyadvice • Karel.Joos@dsv.kuleuven.be

28. Succes