Thesis guidelines -General instructions

 Thesis guidelines

General instructions

Contents

1.     Introduction                                           3

2.     Writing a thesis                                               4

2.1.   The length and content of the thesis                         4

2.2.   Supervision                                                    5

2.3.   Getting started                                                           5

2.4.   Handing in the thesis                                     6

3.     Supervision                                                                                  8

3.1 Midway seminar                                                                                            8

4.     Being an opponent and a respondent                       9

4.1.   Being an opponent                                                     9

4.2.   Defending your thesis                                               10

4.3.   Other participants                                                      10

4.4.   Some final advice before the seminar                                    11

5.     Marking                                                 12

5.1.   Marking guidelines and criteria                                             12

6.     Schedule of events                                           13

Appendix 1; Supervision agreement, student copy            13

Appendix 2; Supervision agreement, teacher copy            14

1 Introduction

Welcome to the final and most important course of the programme. This is where you get to demonstrate the knowledge you have acquired in european studies. You should show that you have a good understanding of the academic field’s theoretical traditions, research methods, ethics and empirical material.

The purpose of this guide is firstly to give you some practical advice on how to write and defend your thesis, and on how to critique each other’s theses. It is also compiled to give you an overview of the seminars in the course and to outline the marking guidelines and criteria.

2 Writing a thesis

In this section you will find specific instructions on writing a thesis, supervision sessions, and practical information on handing in the thesis.

2.1 The length and content of the thesis

A BA thesis in European Studies should be max. 35.000 signs = approx. 30 pages (abstract and bibliography excluded).The thesis is always an individual project.

An academic work usually consists of certain components. These vary slightly depending on the purpose of the thesis. In our marking we look at the following components, developed by the course board at the Department of Global Political Studies.

For a BA thesis to be awarded a pass, it should include/display the following: 1.        A clear statement of the research problem and how it relates to the academic subject. 2.        A clear articulation of the aims of the thesis and any further specific research questions in the context of the stated research problem. 3.        An accurate and clearly motivated use of theory and method. 4.        A review and discussion of previous research undertaken in the area of the chosen research problem. 5.        Presentation of critically assessed material that is relevant to the chosen research problem. 6.        An analysis where the chosen theory (or theories) and the result of methodological choices are apparent. 7.        Clear and well-founded answers to the research problem based on the aforementioned analysis. 8.        A clearly designed structure that suitably supports the thesis’s purpose, theoretical framework and method. 9.        A clearly designed structure that suitably supports the thesis’s purpose, theoretical framework and method. 10.    Readability (based on a literate presentation of the text and component referencing).

2.2 Supervision

As supervision is limited, you will only be able to meet with your supervisor on a few occasions, it is vital that you and your supervisor plan each session and the work to be done in-between sessions. A few points of advice:

1.      Develop a work plan with your supervisor, dividing the thesis work into small items that are easy to grasp. This way the process will seem less daunting. Then complete one or a few items before each meeting with your supervisor.  

2.      Arrive on time. If you have to cancel, do so at least 24 hours in advance. If you don’t show up you will have lost one of your supervision sessions.

3.      Submit the text portions that you and your supervisor have agreed on, on the established date. Give your supervisor sufficient time to read it. Submit well-written and structured texts.

4.      Prepare questions to ask your supervisor before each session.

5.      The final session. Before the last session you should submit a final draft of the thesis to your supervisor. Your supervisor will read it, give some last points of advice and either encourage you or advise you not to submit it. If you are advised not to submit your thesis for defence, this should be respected.

2.3 Getting started

This purpose of this document is to give practical advice; it isn’t primarily an academic pedagogical text. For advice on how to think, as an academic, when writing an academic text, these books can be helpful:

Bryman, Alan (2008) Social Research Methods 3rd edition, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

Delanty & Strydom (Eds.) (2003) Philosophies of social science: the classic and contemporary readings, Open University Press: Maidenhead, Philadelphia.

May, Tim (2001) Social Research, Issues, Methods and Process (3^rd ed.), Maidenhead: Open University Press

In addition to the guidelines in those books, here are a few pointers:

1.      Where do I start? There is no one answer to this question. The answers vary depending on the nature of the thesis and the author’s experience and expertise. However, it can be a good idea to start with the simpler parts. This can be a detailed description of the empirical material. This will help the reader understand the analysis, but it will also make it easier for you to get started and get better acquainted with the material. It can also be a good idea to start with defining your research project and start thinking about how you want to formulate your research questions. 

2.      Writing a BA thesis feels overwhelming. It’s important to divide the work into manageable parts. Write an outline of your thesis, listing the different sections you want to include. Discuss the order you want to put them in with your supervisor.

3.      What is a suitable research project? Your thesis is a project designed to be carried out over ten weeks. Therefore it is important that you choose a well-defined topic. You can’t save the world with a BA thesis or solve big scientific dilemmas. It’s much better to choose a very limited research project and do it well.

2.4 Handing in your thesis

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

1. The thesis should be posted in the “Folder to upload you BA thesis” at It's learning by Friday May 25, noon, at latest for students participating in seminars 29/5 or 30/5, by Monday 28/5 for students participating in the seminars Friday 1/6 and 4/6, and Monday 4/6 for students participating in the seminars Friday 8/6. To make the folder easy to navigate, name the thesis document with your own name (last name.name). No submission of paper copies will be necessary!

2. The thesis must also be electronically submitted to Urkund for plagiarism-check. To do this, the thesis is sent as an attachment to your supervisor’s Urkund-address: name.last name.mah@analys.urkund.se. In the subject line of this message write the course code in brackets (e.g. [ES221E]).

The file format for both of these submissions must be Word or fully compatible with this programme.

3. The opposition seminar schedule will be posted May 25 at 15.00 for seminars 29 and 30/5, and Monday 28/5 15.00 for seminars 1 and 4/6. Aside from acting as main opponent/discussant at one paper (which one will be detailed in the opposition seminar schedule!), each student is expected to read all thesis submitted to his or her seminar. For this purpose, all theses will be available in the Thesis folder.
Consequentially, you are expected to participate during the whole seminar session.
Each opponent is expected to hand in his/her opposition in writing at the beginning of the seminar
.

AFTER THE OPPOSITION SEMINARS:

5. At the opposition seminar no grades will be decided. The student will however receive a notice on whether he or she passed or failed. After the opposition, each student is given the opportunity to make minor corrections (spelling mistakes and grammar), and is thereafter to submit a final copy of the thesis for archive purpose no later than June 15 (no grades will be reported before the archive copy has been handed in!).
The archive copy should be submitted in paper format (A4, unstapled and unbound and single sided) to the seminar examiner. The front page should contain the following elements:

· Name of the student

· Title of thesis

· Supervisor’s name
Name of department and study program (e.g. Department of Global Political Studies (GPS); International Programme for European Studies)

· Examination semester (Spring semester 2012)

6. Grades will be decided and reported three (3) weeks after the opposition seminar, at latest.

3 Supervision seminars

3.1 Midway seminar

Some students want other in-put than the supervisor can give. The students are therefore offered a group supervision seminar with 10-15 students and two teachers.  By listening to the teachers and each other the students can gain new and valuable perspectives on their own work.

The seminar takes place about halfway through the ten-week course. You submit your draft about a week ahead of the seminar. Seminar times and when to submit your draft will be listed in the schedule.

4 Being an opponent and a respondent

The seminar where you present and defend your thesis and comment on someone else’s BA thesis is the most important seminar of the programme. This is not an occasion we rush past. This is when you get to demonstrate you skills in arguing for how you’ve gone about writing your thesis. It is also the opportunity for you to show that you can review another student’s work and discuss weak points, alternative methods or theory, and compliment the strong points. The opposition is both written and oral. The oral presentation is delivered at the seminar. At the end of the seminar you hand in your written opposition. The seminar is public. This means that you are welcome to invite two guests (friends, partner, parents, siblings) to the seminar. When you submit your thesis, tell the teacher responsible for the course how many guests you plan on bringing. After the seminar 1/6 we will arrange the annual farewell ceremony for all students in the BA-semester, please check its learning for details.

4.1 The opponent

Depending on how many theses are submitted, the time spent on each thesis varies slightly. The goal is 45 minutes per thesis. Each thesis is discussed according to the following points:

1.      Welcome. The chair of the seminar, usually the examiner, welcomes the author of the thesis and the opponent.

2.      Errata. After the introduction by the chair, the author will be given a few minutes to correct errors in his or her text.

3.      Brief summary of the content. The opponent will briefly summarize the thesis, without criticising or judging it. This should take approximately three minutes. The opponent describes the aim of the thesis, the research questions, operational issues, theory, method and empirical material, as well as results.

4.      Agreeing on the content. When the above summary has been made, the seminar chair will ask the author whether the thesis has been adequately represented. If so, the opposition continues based on this common understanding of the BA thesis.

5.      Opposition. Now the actual opposition begins. It should take some 25 minutes and should be systematic. This means that you must under no circumstances critique the thesis page by page. Instead, work through it systematically, one academic problem at a time. You should apply the criteria discussed in section 2. 1 and organise the work according to this model:

                                                              i.      Aim and research questions. Examples of questions you can base your reading of the thesis on: Is the aim and purpose relevant for peace and conflict studies? Do the operational questions correspond well to the research questions? Are the operational questions motivated by the chosen theory?

                                                            ii.      Choice of method(s). Examples of questions: Which method has the author chosen? Go through everything from the design, method, criticism of sources, and collection of material. Everything to answer how the author has gone about. Discuss with the author to which extent you feel that the methods are well-founded, for example in relation to the research question/s.

                                                          iii.      Choice of theory (or theories). Examples of questions: which theory (or theories) has the author chosen? Are these represented correctly? Has the author considered alternate perspectives? Are the theories appropriate, do they contribute to clarifying the research questions? Does the theoretical foundation affect the operational research questions?

                                                          iv.      Choice of material. Examples of questions: Has the author chosen relevant material for the study? Does the author demonstrate a consciousness about the strengths and weaknesses of the material? Is the criticism of sources discussed in the method chapter really applied?

                                                            v.       Analysis. Examples of questions: Is the analysis systematic? Are the operational research questions outlined in the beginning answered?

                                                          vi.      Conclusions. Examples of questions:  Has the research question been answered? Is the aim of the thesis reached? If the results are inconclusive, does the author acknowledge it?

                                                        vii.      The conclusions in an academic context.  The author of the thesis is most likely not the first to have explored the issue. Examples of questions: To which extent is the author aware of other research on the area? To which extent does the author place his or her own findings in relation to previous research?

                                                      viii.      Format, style and structure. After you’ve discussed the important issues above, turn to briefly assessing format, style and structure. To save time at the seminar, it can be enough to summarise you impressions of style, references, and so on. If you have found several errors, say so. You can also compose a list of errata, the spelling and referencing mistakes you have found, instead of taking up time with it at the seminar. Finally, it is also important that the thesis is well-structured, with its specific purpose in mind but also in order to make it easier to read and understand. It is also important that the structure is systematic and that each discussion is held in the right place. Finally, it is also important that the text is balanced, that the most important sections are given adequate space. Long background descriptions are always a bad sign.  

The opponent isn’t supposed to hold a monologue. The author of the thesis should be allowed to respond and explain his or her choices after each section of critique. When the discussion has covered everything relevant, move on to the next question. If the conversation turns too argumentative, the chair of the seminar will interfere and direct the conversation in a more productive way.

This is also important: if you are the opponent and find that the author has made perfectly adequate choices of theory, method, empirical material, and so on, it’s not enough just to express that. It’s better in that case to discuss alternatives. Every author has to make choices, choosing theory X instead of Y in the study of a conflict means that certain aspects will be emphasised, and others become less visible. Discuss with the author what might be overlooked due to the choices made when writing the thesis.

4.2 Defending your thesis

Prepare for defending your thesis by thinking about the types of questions listed in sections 2.1 and 4.1. Go over your own thesis with these questions in mind and think about the choices you’ve made regarding theory and method and your arguments for those choices.

4.3 Other participants

All the students on the thesis course are to participate in the seminar. Every participant is to have read all the theses in the seminar group. All participants should come up with a few central questions about each thesis. If these haven’t been covered in the opponent’s discussion, and there’s still time, the questions can be asked in the final part of the seminar. Active participation like this is also a factor when seminar performances are assessed for marking.

4.4 Some final advice before the thesis seminar

1.      As you may have noted, a lot of works goes into the seminar. Plan to spend around four workdays to prepare, perhaps a few days for the thesis you are going to be the opponent on, and a few days to read the other theses. You also need time to prepare the defence of your own thesis.

2.      The seminar is an oral presentation. This means that you have to practice it at home. Avoid just reading straight from your written opposition. Prepare everything you want to say and deliver it in a relaxed and confident manner.

3.      Have all the theses with you at the seminar. If you don’t print all of them, have them on your laptop and bring written notes for every thesis to be discussed in the seminar.

4.      Follow along in the discussions, even when you’re not the respondent or the opponent. When the opponent for example is discussing the choice of method, find the section in the thesis and follow the discussion. Vacant stares and passivity are not encouraged.

5 Marking

Marking is a very important task, especially when it comes to the final BA thesis. Below are the guidelines and criteria for marking.

Marking guidelines and criteria

The Department if Global Political Studies has found marking of BA thesis to be very important and thus stipulated a number of criteria. These were listed in section 2.1 (see the ten-point list in that section).

In addition to that, it is important to stress that besides the quality of the final thesis, the writing process and the performance in the final seminar will also be part of the grading. That the writing process is marked means that the student’s independence is assessed. If a student has made independent choices and not relied on the supervisor for all decisions, this will mean a higher mark.

The student’s examiner marks the thesis. The student can’t appeal a final mark. However, if the student is failed twice, the student has a right to demand a different examiner.

Appendix 1

Supervision agreement (student copy)

According to the verbal information I received at the introduction meeting and in section 2 of this document, I am aware that

·         I am only entitled to a limited amount of meetings with my supervisor

·         I can choose to use them during the current semester or postpone the supervision period

·         If I re-register for this course in the future I won’t be entitled to additional meetings with my supervisor.

Based on this information and my personal circumstances, I choose to

                      □       use the supervison sessions (approximately 5) that I am entitled to this current semester. I am also aware and have been informed that additional supervision will not be offered next semester, even if my thesis is failed.

                      □       use the supervison sessions (approximately 5) that I am entitled to during a future semester. I am also aware and have been informed that additional supervision wont be offered during subsqequent semesters, even if my thesis is failed.

Student’s signature                                              Course responsible teacher’s signature

___________________________________              ___________________________________

Supervisor			Date	Supervision theme	Student’s signature
	Supervision	Reading
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Appendix 2

Supervision agreement (teacher copy)

According to the information I received at the introduction meeting and in section 2 of this document, I am aware that

·         I am only entitled to a limitied amount of meetings with my supervisor

·         I can choose to use them during the current semester or postpone the supervision period

·         If I re-register for this course in the future I won’t be entitled to additional meetings with my supervisor.

Based on this information and my personal circumstances, I choose to

                      □       use the supervison sessions (around 5) that I am entitled to this current semester. I am also aware and have been informed that additional supervision wont be offered next semester, even if my thesis is failed.

                      □       use the supervison sessions (around 5) that I am entitled to during a future semester. I am also aware and have been informed that additional supervision wont be offered during subsqequent semesters, even if my thesis is failed.

Student’s signature                                              Course responsible teacher’s signature

___________________________________              ___________________________________

Supervisor			Date	Supervision theme	Student’s signature
	Supervision	Reading
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9