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Regular version of the site
Master 2020/2021

Research Seminar (Master Thesis Writing)

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'
Type: Compulsory course (Comparative Social Research)
Area of studies: Sociology
Delivered by: School of Sociology
When: 2 year, 3, 4 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Anna Almakaeva, Christian Fröhlich
Master’s programme: Comparative Soсial Research
Language: English
ECTS credits: 14
Contact hours: 40

Course Syllabus

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

Learning Objectives

  • To have practical skills in conducting social research and writing master thesis
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • know basic principles of academic writing
  • know the basic principles of academic ethics
  • know the rules of writing master thesis
  • be able to find and review papers on the subject of MA thesis
  • to be able to put forward correct research question and identify the novelty of the MA thesis
  • be able to conduct analysis according to research questing
  • be able to interpret data and draw conclusions
  • be able to provide a nice visualization
  • have skills in writing research papers and master thesis
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Structure of the master thesis
    Chapters of master thesis: Introduction, literature review, Data and Methods section, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. Main requirements for writing master thesis. Plagiarism and research ethics.
  • Introduction
    Aims of writing introduction, main parts of introduction. Examples of good and bad introduction. Basic mistakes in writing introduction.
  • Literature review
    Aims of writing a literature review, the content of literature review. Examples of good and bad literature review. Basic mistakes in writing a literature review.
  • Data and methods
    Aims of writing data and methods section, content of the section. Examples of good and bad description of data and methods. Basic mistakes in data and methods description.
  • Results
    Content of the results section. Examples of good and bad description of results. Basic mistakes in interpreting results.
  • Discussion and conclusion
    Aims of writing conclusion and discussion, content of this section. Examples of good and bad conclusion. Basic mistakes.
  • Visualization
    When visualization is necessary. Visualization in quantitative and qualitative research. Main principles of creating nice graphs, tables and charts. Examples of bad and good visualization.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Home assignment
  • non-blocking Pre-defence
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    0.3 * Home assignment + 0.7 * Pre-defence
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • 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
  • Rahlf, T. (2017). Data Visualisation with R : 100 Examples. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1377904
  • Yuk, M., & Diamond, S. (2014). Data Visualization For Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: For Dummies. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=685381