Research Seminar "Qualitative Methods"

Master 2025/2026

ID 952233

Category 'Best Course for Career Development'

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'

Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'

Type: Elective course (Comparative Social Research)

Delivered by: School of Sociology

Where: Faculty of Social Sciences

When: 2 year, 1-3 module

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Marharyta Fabrykant, Arnab Roy Chowdhury, Safi Shams

Language: English

ECTS credits: 12

Full Syllabus Ask Question

Abstract

The course on master thesis writing is designed to provide students with a thoughtful understanding of what are the main steps and procedures of social research and how they are linked to the different parts of master thesis.

Learning Objectives

To have practical skills in conducting social research and writing master thesis

Expected Learning Outcomes

be able to conduct analysis according to research questing
be able to find and review papers on the subject of MA thesis
be able to interpret data and draw conclusions
be able to provide a nice visualization
have skills in writing research papers and master thesis
know basic principles of academic writing
know the basic principles of academic ethics
know the rules of writing master thesis
to be able to put forward correct research question and identify the novelty of the MA thesis
to improve formulations of theses' topics
to to develop research design
to improve thesis synopsis based on feedback
to improve the introduction section of the thesis
to improve the literature review section
to improve the data and methods section of the thesis
to improve preliminary researech results
to get feedback to the draft thesis

Course Contents

Structure of the master thesis
Introduction
Literature review
Data and methods
Results
Discussion and conclusion
Visualization
Group discussion of topics
Design of research
Synopsis defence
Introduction
Literature Review
Data and methods
Preliminary results
Pre-defence

Assessment Elements

In-class activity
Students should actively participate in discussing their own and their classmates' work in progress during seminars.
Thesis pre-defence
Students should pre-defend their MA theses.
Thesis presentation
Students should give in-class presentation of their theses.
In-class activity
Draft thesis
Studentsshould submit complete drafts of their theses.
In-class activity
Students should actively participate in discussing their own and their classmates' work in progress.

Interim Assessment

2025/2026 3rd module
0.05 * In-class activity + 0.1 * Draft thesis + 0.1 * In-class activity + 0.3 * Thesis presentation + 0.05 * In-class activity + 0.4 * Thesis pre-defence

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Commentary for academic writing for graduate students : essential tasks and skills, Swales, J. M., 2020
Contemporary academic writing. A comprehensive course for students in higher education : Course book, Sowton, C., 2016
How to fix your academic writing trouble : a practical guide, Mewburn, I., 2019
How to write a lot : a practical guide to productive academic writing, Silvia, P. J., 2019
Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, Berg, B. L., 2012
Seductive academic writing, Freeman, D., 2018
The Basics of Academic Writing - Слуднева Л. В. - Иркутский государственный университет путей сообщения - - - 2022 - русский - https://e.lanbook.com/book/342107 - ЛАНЬ - 342107
The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Vol.1: ., , 2008
Writing research papers from essay to research paper : student book, Zemach, D. E., 2011

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Core concepts in data analysis: summarization, correlation and visualization, Mirkin, B., 2011

Authors

Almakaeva Anna Mikhailovna
DESIATOVA MARIIA IVANOVNA
Fabrikant Margarita Saulovna
Frelikh KRISTIAN
Shams Safi
Roi Choudkhuri Arnab
Di Puppo Lili

Course Syllabus