The course prepares students for writing their final theses. It takes the form of an electronic course. The students work independently in the course, studying the methodology of research, the principles of academic writing, and the formal aspects of writing a thesis. They are asked to submit assignments in an electronic form. Some of the assignments are exercises in various aspects of academic writing, others represent preparatory steps to writing the final thesis (delimitation of the topic, compiling working bibliography, collecting material).

Syllabus

The course prepares students for writing their final theses. It takes the form of an electronic course. The students work independently in the course, studying the methodology of research, the principles of academic writing, and the formal aspects of writing a thesis. They are asked to submit assignments in an electronic form. Some of the assignments are exercises in various aspects of academic writing, others represent preparatory steps to writing the final thesis (delimitation of the topic, compiling working bibliography, collecting material).
1. Thesis topic, supervisor, and schedule
2. Topic description and two or three research questions
3. Research strategy description and preliminary list of primary sources
4. Preliminary list of reference works
5. Preliminary list of articles in periodicals, books, and websites
6. Preliminary list of field sources (if applicable)
7. Working bibliography of about twenty potentially principal sources
8. Annotated bibliography of ten selected principal sources
9. Information bank (organized notes in any format you find helpful)
10. Thesis proposal

Literature

FOWLER, Henry Ramsey. The little, brown handbook. Edited by Jane E. Aaron - Daniel Anderson. 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2000. xxviii, 96. ISBN 0-321-07507-2. info
Jak psát a přednášet o vědě. Edited by Zdeněk Šesták. 1. vyd. Praha: Academia, 2000. 204 s. ISBN 80-200-0755-5. info
ČMEJRKOVÁ, Světla, František DANEŠ and Jindra SVĚTLÁ. Jak napsat odborný text. Vyd. 1. Voznice: LEDA, 1999. 255 s. ISBN 80-85927-69-1. info
TURABIAN, Kate L. A manual for writers of term papers, theses and dissertations. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962. vii, 109 s. info
GIBALDI, Joseph. MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 5th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1999. xviii, 332. ISBN 0-87352-975-8. info

Assessment methods