Mgr.Antonín Zita, M.A.
Seminar on Master’s Thesis Writing
Parts of Master’s Thesis
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Main Chapter
 Conclusion
 References
 Appendix (pl.Appendices)
Literature Review Example
 Introduction
 Main Concepts
 Approaches + Main Analysis
 Or one chapter on comparison and analysis
 Conclusion
Empirical Research Example
 Introduction
 (what is the goal?) Main concepts and theories
 Related research
 Experiment and Results
 Material, Methods, Results, Discussion
 Conclusion
Example Abstract
 Background/setting the scene:
 Icons are used increasingly in interfaces because they are compact “universal” pictographic representations of
computer functionality and processing.
 The focus and innovation:
 Animated icons can bring to life symbols representing complete applications or functions within an
application, thereby clarifying their meaning, demonstrating their capabilities, and even explaining their
method of use.
 The problem:
 To test this hypothesis, we carried out an iterative design of a set of animated painting icons that appear in the
HyperCard tool palette.
 The method:
 The design discipline restricted the animations to 10 to 20 second sequences of 22x20 pixel bit maps. User
testing was carried out on two interfaces – one with the static icons, one with the animated icons.
 The results:
 The results showed significant benefit from the animations in clarifying the purpose and functionality of the
icons.
Abstract from: Ronald Baecker, Ian Small, and Richard Mander. 1991. Bringing icons to life. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '91),
Scott P. Robertson, Gary M. Olson, and Judith S. Olson (Eds.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1-6.
Paper Structure
 Introduction
 Context/motivation
 Background/literature review
 Hypothesis/thesis/problem statement
 Goals/methods
 Thesis overview
Paper Structure
 Introduction
 sets the scene
 background
 motivates
 provides definition of terms and concepts
 describes problem and argues for the approach taking
 references other existing work
 summarizes the structure of the paper
 “The next section details the experimental methodology, which is a 2x2
Anova design.The subsequent section describes the results, the most
notable being...”
Paper Structure
 Main body
 organization important -> reflects how you present your
argument
 each section should have a main point
 each paragraph should have a main point
Paper Structure
Summary/Conclusions
 summarize the paper
 some people only read abstract, intro and conclusions
 talk about connections to the general area
 discuss future work
Paper Structure
 Figures andTables
 should help the reader
 needs to be large enough to be visible in print
 tables:
 summarizes data
 collects main points described in text
 figures
 system snapshots
 conceptual diagrams
 should be legible, instructive, adequately labeled and titled
Paper Structure
 Figures andTables
 should always refer to both in text
 provide a description of the figures and tables
 bad:
 “...animated icons contain movies ( Figure 1).”
 better:
 “...The several images in Figure 1 illustrates an example of an
animated icon, which represents a printer. Each image is actually a key
frame of a “movie” that, when played, would show the user what
would happened if the icon were selected.We see a document being
moved on top of the printer, and the printer putting out some paper...”
should assist the reader
Plagiarism
 1) Using someone else’s ideas without acknowledging the
source
 2) Paraphrasing someone else’s argument as your own.
 3) Presenting someone else’s line of thinking in the
development of an idea as your own.
 4) Presenting an entire paper or a major part of it developed
exactly as someone else’s line of thinking.
 5)Arranging your ideas exactly as someone else did – even
though you acknowledge the source in the parenthesis.
 Qtd. in Day 145.
Plagiarism
 Original text:
 In the secondary and 16-19 education sectors in England andWales
some form of action planning, in which a teacher or tutor sits down
with a student and discusses their progress and negotiates learning
targets with plans to achieve them, has emerged to become a
recognizable feature of teaching practice within the last 25 years (Day
andTosey, 2011, p. 515).
 Student text:
 In secondary and further education, action planning has become a
recognizable feature of teaching practice within the last 25 years (Day
andTosey, 2011, p. 515).
 PLAGIARISM
 Day, 145-146.
Common Formatting Issues
 Font – use a serif font
 Illumination vs Illumination.
 Apostrophes and quotation marks
 Czech versus English – „Ježek“ vs.“Hedgehog”
 Format – “Hedgehog” vs. "Hedgehog."
 A dash ( – ) is different than a hyphen ( - )
 Dash separates elements of a sentence
 The study – not taken seriously at first – had eventually lead to a major
breakthrough.
 Hyphen connects words (Post-WIMP interface)
References
 Saul Greenberg , University of Calgary,AB, Canada: GradTips , http://saul.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/saul/
 Trevor Day. Success in AcademicWriting. NewYork: Palgrave, 2013.