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The process: From the idea to the grade





What is a master’s thesis?

Filing your master’s thesis is one of your final steps leading to the conferral of your graduate degree. You are required to identify a practically and theoretically interesting research gap, formulate a research question, and with the help of relevant literature – and in most cases an empirical study, finally arrive at a solution. This task goes beyond your previous university course routine and therefore will be especially challenging.

What does this mean exactly?

A master’s thesis is not a project report. Documents created for practical purposes (e.g. a project report) solve a so-called "singular" problem. Their statements are more or less exclusively related to a particular case, at a particular point in time, in a given situation. In the master’s thesis you are required to be able to generalize your findings.

A master’s thesis is neither an individual experience, nor a personal opinion. The fundamental characteristic of a thesis is that it is unbiased in nature. Problems are dealt with objectively, independently and impartially. Of course it helps if you have a topic in which you have experience, but the goal of a master’s thesis is to solve a specific, yet common problem.

A master’s thesis is not a textbook. Textbooks are used to enable an interested reader to get started in a new subject, and aimed at transferring knowledge in an explanatory manner.

A master’s thesis should of course be comprehensible to read, but it offers not just an overview or summary of existing literature; it goes beyond that: it identifies and solves a specific and definite problem.

 

2.A master’s thesis identifies a general problem. A problem is "general" when it refers not only to an individual case. "How should company XY set the price for the innovation Z?” corresponds to a singular problem. "What are the determinants of price setting in product innovation?” is a general question.

A master’s thesis identifies a relevant problem. A research question is relevant if it (1) has not been sufficiently answered by existing research, and (2) the answer is important and interesting.

A master’s thesis contains the solution of the problem (at least to some extent). This is achieved, for example, through the use or the formation of theory or from empirical data. Therefore, a quantitative empirical study, an exploratory empirical study or a literature analysis are possible approaches.

 

From the above structure (master’s thesis = developing a research question and answering it) it should be clear that a thorough and successful development of the research question is crucial for the future quality of the thesis.

The way the problem statement is elaborated and how well (in terms of methodically correct, thorough and critical) the question is answered determines the quality of a master’s thesis. This clear line is often referred to as the "common theme": a very good thesis is a compelling argument. It contains nothing superfluous and should be concise. The normal range is 60 pages (excluding bibliography and appendix).

Supervisor

Your first points of contact are the research and teaching assistants or assistant professors of the institute. They have the role of the so-called "co-supervisor", and they decide whether your topic ideas go in the right direction, whether the status of proposal and outline is sufficient for registering and then accompany you, after official registration with official supervisor of the thesis during the process.

Possible topics

The topics are predetermined in some way and are based on the areas of focus of the institution. The co-supervisors often have topic suggestions that you can adopt or that you can develop further. These are usually aspects in which the assistants have a high interest due to their own research.

Of course we are also open to your own topics. In this case you must find an assistant that is willing to co-supervise the subject. We take our responsibility very seriously, a relation to our research focus or our course content therefore is important.

In all instances the topics are typically kept relatively narrow. "Explaining the world" usually does not work, especially not if it is to take place on 60 pages. Your co-supervisor will assist in narrowing your research question, and help you develop the proposed topic into a proposal. This phase may take some time, so start early enough.

Working on the problem statement with two or several students is possible, and is especially

useful when there is a (large-scale) empirical study. However, the individual workloads must be clearly identifiable and separated from each other to be assessed.

The process: From the idea to the grade

Preparation Phase: First contact with the supervisor and the creation of a proposal

If you meet the requirements and are interested in a master’s thesis at the institute, please contact one or more assistants at the institute. Ask yourself what topics you are interested in, get informed about topic suggestions by (co-)supervisors and listen to their suggestions.

In coordination with the co-supervisor you will narrow down your topic and develop a proposal. At this stage you should focus on the master’s thesis, meaning you should not attend too many other courses. A delay in this early phase usually leads to everything becoming more difficult and strenuous for you than necessary.

A proposal is a preliminary concept, which will serve as a guide for both the author and supervisor. It ensures that there are no significant misunderstandings between (co-)supervisor and student, that the research question is answerable and relevant, and that you are generally on the right track. The proposal consists of two to three pages (excluding references) and includes:

Title. As part of the registration, the title of the thesis will be made formally binding.

Background, problem definition, goal setting. The theoretical and/or practical back-ground will be briefly presented. You also briefly summarize the current state of re-search and explain what you want to achieve with this thesis.

Research gap and research question. What specific research question do you want to answer and why is it relevant from a practical and theoretical point of view?

Approach and methodology. You describe how you will proceed to answer the research question and why this approach is suitable. You could also shortly mention any expected results.

Structure of the thesis. Give an overview of what chapters the thesis is subdivided into. Here you should clearly characterize the "common theme".

References. State the table of references.

Table of contents (1-2 pages). All of your considerations should be summarized in an outline. This is a "declaration of intent": In contrast to the title of the thesis you can change the outline throughout the process. Normally this will be very useful.

 

Third Milestone: Feedback

After the thesis has been graded, you can make an appointment with the co-supervision assistant for a feedback session. We want to ensure that you understand the details of the assessment so that it may benefit you as much as possible in future, similar challenges.

Role of the Supervisor

From the above explanations, the role of the co-supervision assistant should have become clear. He/She has the function of an advisor that helps and provides support for your thesis. The accomplishment itself lies with you and you have full responsibility. Understanding this is very important because it has a number of practical implications. For example, it means that the input of the co-supervision assistant is an opportunity, not an obligation. "Nobody told me" is not a valid argument. You also have the duty to critically verify any advice given. You should never follow a suggestion without understanding its importance. Misunderstandings are always possible and you bear the responsibility. If the thesis has a particular weakness or you make a mistake, the excuse "I didn’t understand it either, but Mr./Mrs. XY has told me to do it this way" will not help you. Wrong is wrong.

A good title

The thesis’s title should be descriptive and concise. Although it is not possible that it summarizes all aspects of the thesis, one should immediately know what it is going to be about. It should create a curiosity about its content. The final wording will be agreed upon as part of the registration.

Some key success factors

7.2.1 Text flow and structuring: the famous „common theme“

An important assessment criterion is the structure of the thesis. Do you understand the thesis immediately? Can you find your way around? The reader wants to be guided through the thesis and not have to put all the pieces together him/herself.

A good thesis is characterized by a clear theme and a compelling argument. This is known as the "common theme". In a thesis that has a clear common theme, the results are answers to the research question, the analysis of the literature supports the argument and has no unessential parts - in short, the thesis is well-rounded, complete and contains nothing unnecessary. The individual parts build on each other; there are no jumps and complicated pre- or recourses.

It is a lot of work to get a thesis to this point. In no case one will succeed right away. A thesis must usually be revised several times. Here, critical feedback from someone who is not involved in the thesis is very important to get an external perspective.

A clear outline

For a master’s thesis it should be sufficient to use a maximum of four numbered heading levels (e.g. chapter 4.1.2.3.). In general, you should be able to get along with three. If you have the feeling that you need more, you should critically question your fundamental structure. Otherwise, the danger is that the text almost exclusively consists of headlines that contain no argumentation.

An outline is logical and self-explanatory. What is fundamental for the title of the thesis also applies to the headings.

Avoiding digressions

One should always focus on the fundamentals, namely the topic of the thesis. This means that for every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence and even every word, you ask yourself one critical question:

Does it contribute to problem identification and/or problem solution?

You can take this sentence and paste it on your computer - that’s how important it is. There is a tendency to document your own learning process when working on longer, more complex projects. Also, there is a strong reluctance to delete something once it is written – whether it contributes to the topic or not. It is very likely that you will encounter this situation.

Believe us: Someone who is hard on himself in this aspect will at the end write a better thesis. Things that deviate from the common theme, even if they are interesting and well written, will make the thesis worse. It will be necessary to revise the work several times and you will most likely have to remove some passages that you have put a lot of work into and that you may be proud of. While this is unfortunate, you will have to make the sacrifice or face the consequences, i.e. the risk of living with a worse grade.

A clear writing style

A good thesis is clear and precise. Obviously the writing style also contributes to this. The ability to express yourself can be learned – make yourself aware of which texts seem clear to you and which do not, and what distinguishes them. Practice it. There is good literature on this subject.

Sometimes a simple test helps: Give the thesis to your parents or a friend without business background and ask if they really understand the text or whether there are sentences that are not yet entirely clear. Also ask if the work is structured clearly, whether the central arguments are clear, and whether it is fun to read.

Again: It's not enough to write a thesis that only has good content – Quality means being able to communicate the content. By the way, this applies not only to master theses.

Importance of documentation

It is very important to document the procedure accurately and comment critically. When conducting empirical research, there is often no ideal solution and you must make compromises due for practical reasons. The researcher almost always, through personal decisions, affects the results (through questions in the interview, analysis, interpretation, etc.) - this is perfectly normal and legitimate. However, it is essential that all actions, all ambiguities, all interventions etc. are disclosed and explained, so that the reader can understand this.

Interviews

Interviews are recorded and later (with information about interviewee and date) transcribed – this way you can make a meaningful reference to statements made by the interviewee in your thesis (with reference to the appendix, interviewee, and page). Confidentiality of course is essential. No personal data may be made available to third parties.

Do not make the mistake of underestimating the demands of qualitative interviews. They vary greatly from normal everyday conversations. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the relevant methods.

Ethical dilemmas

Especially in empirical work, clear ethical principles are important. Although we are not in the same situation as physicians or psychologists, who have to constantly worry, there are problems that can arise.

A guiding rule is that you cannot harm third parties, and must not abuse their trust. If you have promised respondents, for example, that after completing your investigation you will send them a brief summary of your findings, then you should do so.

Formal guidelines

The following formal requirements are “suggested requirements”, so you have some margin of discretion. Please use these responsibly.

Formatting the text

The thesis is one-sided, 1.5 line spacing. The font is Times New Roman, size 12, and the text alignment should be full justification. The top page margin is approximately 2 cm and the bottom margin about 3 cm. The left margin should be held at 3 cm, and the right at 2 cm. All pages of the text should be numbered with Arabic numerals.

Paragraphs make the text much easier to read. It is important to make sure that paragraphs tie together coherent thoughts. Figures, graphs, tables etc. are to be numbered chronologically and given a description. 8.3 Citations in scientific work

Verbatim quotations

Verbatim reproductions are to be put in double quotes. Quotations within a quotation are indicated by single quotes. Footnotes belonging to a quoted source are not incorporated. Long quotations (two or more lines) can also be shown by indentation and narrower font, but longer quotations are to be avoided if possible and replace with brief summaries.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing someone else’s thoughts or expressions also requires correct citation. In this case, “c.f.” (compare) can be added to the citation, but it is also common to leave that out. The correct page numbers are required when paraphrasing as well.

Presentation of Sources

Body of the Thesis

References in the body of the thesis are to be done either directly in the text (Harvard style) or by way of footnotes (German citation). Consult with your supervisor which method is preferred.

Harvard style displays the source in brackets directly following the quoted or paraphrased text. If you cite more than one publication in brackets, they are to be listed in alphabetical order and separated by a semicolon. The author’s name and the year are usually not separated by a comma, except in publications with three authors, where the names are each separated by a comma. When there are more than three authors, only the first is listed and then appended “et al.”.

German citation uses an Arabic numeral superscript in the text which refers to a footnote. The footnotes should be numbered consecutively for the entire work and be separated from the text by a solid line. Two or three authors are separated by a slash, and with three or more authors, you also only use the first author and add “et al.”. The publications are also listed in alphabetical order.

All references in the body of the thesis include the author's name, year, and – if you use a direct quote – the exact page numbers.

References for tables, figures, diagrams, etc., are placed directly below the object, preceded by the word "source" (or "sources"). To avoid any misunderstandings, any special notes to the figures in tables, diagrams, etc. are to be labeled with small letters (a, b, c, etc.) directly in the table or figure and referenced in the footnote.

Bibliography

Adhere to the following guideline for the bibliography:

Quoting from books

• Surname of the author (without any title)

• First name(s) of the author (either written out or abbreviated)

• Year (The year of the book is on the title page or on the back of the title page. If there is nothing to indicate the year of publication, this must be identified as "n.d." [= un-dated].)

• Title of book (subtitles can be omitted)

• Edition of the book (not required for the first edition)

• Location of publication of the book (if not identified in the publication, write "n.p" [= no place]. The location and the name of the publisher must be separated by a colon.

• Publisher

 

- Quoting essays from journals, periodicals, etc.

• Surname of the author (without any title)

• First name(s) of author (either written out or abbreviated)

• Year

• Title of the article

• Title of the journal, preceded by "in:"

• Name or the editors (without any title) with the suffix "(ed.)"

• Edition of the journal, if more than one edition has been published

• Location of publication

• Name of the publisher

• Page number

 

 

- Quoting articles from magazines and newspapers:

For articles with mention of the author the following information is required:

• Surname of the author (without any title)

• First name(s) of author (either written out or abbreviated)

• Year

• Title of the article

• Name of newspaper or magazine

• Volume, issue

 

 

- Quoting from URL (Publications on the World Wide Web)

References to publications on the World Wide Web are cited separately in the bibliography. The year corresponds to the last review by the author.

 

What is a master’s thesis?

Filing your master’s thesis is one of your final steps leading to the conferral of your graduate degree. You are required to identify a practically and theoretically interesting research gap, formulate a research question, and with the help of relevant literature – and in most cases an empirical study, finally arrive at a solution. This task goes beyond your previous university course routine and therefore will be especially challenging.

What does this mean exactly?

A master’s thesis is not a project report. Documents created for practical purposes (e.g. a project report) solve a so-called "singular" problem. Their statements are more or less exclusively related to a particular case, at a particular point in time, in a given situation. In the master’s thesis you are required to be able to generalize your findings.

A master’s thesis is neither an individual experience, nor a personal opinion. The fundamental characteristic of a thesis is that it is unbiased in nature. Problems are dealt with objectively, independently and impartially. Of course it helps if you have a topic in which you have experience, but the goal of a master’s thesis is to solve a specific, yet common problem.

A master’s thesis is not a textbook. Textbooks are used to enable an interested reader to get started in a new subject, and aimed at transferring knowledge in an explanatory manner.

A master’s thesis should of course be comprehensible to read, but it offers not just an overview or summary of existing literature; it goes beyond that: it identifies and solves a specific and definite problem.

 

2.A master’s thesis identifies a general problem. A problem is "general" when it refers not only to an individual case. "How should company XY set the price for the innovation Z?” corresponds to a singular problem. "What are the determinants of price setting in product innovation?” is a general question.

A master’s thesis identifies a relevant problem. A research question is relevant if it (1) has not been sufficiently answered by existing research, and (2) the answer is important and interesting.

A master’s thesis contains the solution of the problem (at least to some extent). This is achieved, for example, through the use or the formation of theory or from empirical data. Therefore, a quantitative empirical study, an exploratory empirical study or a literature analysis are possible approaches.

 

From the above structure (master’s thesis = developing a research question and answering it) it should be clear that a thorough and successful development of the research question is crucial for the future quality of the thesis.

The way the problem statement is elaborated and how well (in terms of methodically correct, thorough and critical) the question is answered determines the quality of a master’s thesis. This clear line is often referred to as the "common theme": a very good thesis is a compelling argument. It contains nothing superfluous and should be concise. The normal range is 60 pages (excluding bibliography and appendix).

Supervisor

Your first points of contact are the research and teaching assistants or assistant professors of the institute. They have the role of the so-called "co-supervisor", and they decide whether your topic ideas go in the right direction, whether the status of proposal and outline is sufficient for registering and then accompany you, after official registration with official supervisor of the thesis during the process.

Possible topics

The topics are predetermined in some way and are based on the areas of focus of the institution. The co-supervisors often have topic suggestions that you can adopt or that you can develop further. These are usually aspects in which the assistants have a high interest due to their own research.

Of course we are also open to your own topics. In this case you must find an assistant that is willing to co-supervise the subject. We take our responsibility very seriously, a relation to our research focus or our course content therefore is important.

In all instances the topics are typically kept relatively narrow. "Explaining the world" usually does not work, especially not if it is to take place on 60 pages. Your co-supervisor will assist in narrowing your research question, and help you develop the proposed topic into a proposal. This phase may take some time, so start early enough.

Working on the problem statement with two or several students is possible, and is especially

useful when there is a (large-scale) empirical study. However, the individual workloads must be clearly identifiable and separated from each other to be assessed.

The process: From the idea to the grade







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