Karel Joos
Study Advice Service
November 18th 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Takes time
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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 ?

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

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

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

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From chaos to structure????
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Initial data :
?

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How to structure unstructered info: o there’s no structure that perfectly fits the data o structure = tool to communicate with the reader
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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

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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??
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= One overview (working paper) o Later on : start from this document to write the same in full sentences

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Exercice : o
Try to structure the ‘streets of Leuven’

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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”
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Always an exception on structure o Houserooms : what with a ‘terrace’ or car port, is it a room or not?
• This will be the “remarks”

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Labo, interview, experiments,
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Takes lots of time
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Prepare in advance o Appointments for an interview : 3 weeks before?

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Confrontation with quality of data o Risk to postpone confrontation
• Also a ‘negative’ result is a result.

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

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

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Meta language : o o
Language about the language
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

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Quotes and references o Lots of discussion within K.U.Leuven(!) o o o o
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

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Differences between promotors
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Promotor : o Initial indication o Suggestions on content, research o Reading text o +/- 4 appointments
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Expects you to work independently

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