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

2. introduction General approach o Not : Regulations in faculty o Reduction in 1 hour? o Focus on : how to organise thesis work o Focus on 1 year master o 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 o summarize large amount of information, o conduct scientific research, o write in academic style o independent working (limited coaching of promotor) not : o world shocking new scientific discoveries o super intelligent insights

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

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

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

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

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

10. Temporary table of content Heart of the matter! Difficulty : o Large amount of information ?trying to have the whole content of your thesis in mind? o Unstructured o 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 o hypotheses, methodology, … Chptr 3 : research o implementation, results,… Chptr 4 : conclusions and suggestions for further research o 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: o there’s no structure that perfectly fits the data o structure = tool to communicate with the reader Decide yourself what structure should be o 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 o Example 2 : thesis

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

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

17. Temporary table of content Structure = communication with reader o Who is reader (to focus on) Not professor Interested, intelligent human being with not to much knowledge about your topic o Difficulty : “this is too obvious to write” Always an exception on structure o 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 o Appointments for an interview : 3 weeks before?

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

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

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

22. Writing Meta language : o Language about the language o Say what you’re going to say “to summarize” “on the contrary” “I will focus on ….” o 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 o Lots of discussion within K.U.Leuven(!) o Within text + in reference list o Facultary regulations o Plagiarism : http://www.kuleuven.be/plagiarism/ o 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 : o Initial indication o Suggestions on content, research o Reading text o +/- 4 appointments Expects you to work independently

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

28. Succes