Introduction to writing your thesis
Welcome to
the first of three courses where we want to help you develop your bachelor
thesis.
What is a bachelor
thesis and why is that super important for you? Well, in a nutshell, bachelor
thesis is:
o
The long-term single biggest and the single
most important individual project you will do during your bachelor studies;
o
Important part of your evaluation. You will
have to defend your thesis at the (oral) final examination and the grade for
the thesis will be one of just two grades you will get at the final exam;
o
An important piece of your work that will be
made public and will be accessible (together with the reviews and grading) in the
future as you will build your professional career;
o
Excellent opportunity focus yourself in a
particular area and further develop your academic and professional skills
Having
said that, it should be clear to you now that bachelor thesis is super important.
You are going to spend the rest of your studies developing your thesis. It should
be clear to you now that the hard work, time and effort you spend on it is
going to be a time well invested. But it will be a good investment ONLY IF you
do work hard, only if you do invest your time and effort into it.
The good
news is, that you are not alone – we – your teachers and supervisors – are here
to help!
We are
going to guide you through the process, offer advice and feedback to help you
navigate around potential pitfalls that may lie ahead on the long road to successful
defence.
The first
set of advice is just coming:
o
BE RESPONSIBLE – this is YOUR project, your responsibility
and ultimately your grade and degree. That means YOU are responsible for timely
delivery of good quality work. Your supervisors will help you but they are not
responsible for your results. nor to cover up for broken deadlines or poor
work.
o
WORK HARD – that is the only safe way forward.
You will work with your supervisor to develop the thesis. It is a big project
and finishing it will require hard work: studying the literature, preparing
your research, collecting and analysing data, discussing results and providing
suggestions. We are here to help, not to do the work instead of you.
o
BE ACTIVE – we can help you only if you let us
know that you need help! That requires active communication from your side. The
sooner you let us know you have a problem or need advice, the sooner we can guide
you through the problem.
o
MIND YOUR DEADLNES – it’s a long project and will
be inevitably broken down into smaller staps, milestones and deadlines. Some of
them are formal (and binding even to supervisors), some of them are more
flexible and result of your cooperation with the your supervisor. But they all
have one thing in common: it is your responsibility to mind and meet those
deadlines. We will guide you so that you can meet all the important formal
deadlines, but it is not our job to observe the deadlines for you or remind you
of what should be (or even worse: what should have been) done.
Student
responsibilities include:
o
to review all materials concerning the thesis
(relevant regulations and instructions, study materials for methodological
preparation),
o
to work continuously, individually and
conscientiously on your thesis,
o
to initiate consultations, in person or
on-line,
o
to submit all supporting documents within the
established deadlines, range and quality, which correspond with requirements
determined by this document and a supervisor.
If you do all
that, you will be successful in the end. For that, we all wish you all the
best.