English workshops
The SCI3027.kand course is held in Finnish (and in Swedish as a separate track JOINT.sv). If you do not speak Finnish or Swedish languages, you can enroll in the English course JOIN.BSc, if it is available, check MyCourses for further details about this course.
Those who write their thesis in English but attend the SCI3027.kand seminar, will attend two text workshops in English. The English workshops will be organized by Susan Gamache (susan.gamache@aalto.fi) on the following dates.
English workshop 1
Group 1: Wed 17.2. 10-11.30 https://aalto.zoom.us/j/62837224211
Group 2: Wed 17.2. 12.30-14 https://aalto.zoom.us/j/64079064129
Group 3: Thu 18.2. 10-11.30 https://aalto.zoom.us/j/68580074359
Sign up for English Workshop 1 here
Submit your text sample by Sun Feb 14 through Tehtävät
English workshop 2
Group 1: Wed 31.3. 10-11.30
Group 2: Wed 31.3. 12.30-14
Group 3: Thu 1.4. 10-11.30
Sign up for English Workshop 2 here
Submit your text sample by Thu Mar 25 through Tehtävät
This page contains some information about the course and the thesis writing process for students and instructors that supervise thesis writing in English.
Instructions:
- 1. On the format of the thesis
An example (in Finnish) of the suggested thesis layout ("Kandidaatintutkielman ulkoasumalli") is found in Dokumenttien mallipohjat (Document templates) -section of the MyCourses workspace. The corresponding LaTeX style file and sources etc. are available in the same MyCourses section. Use of LaTeX is recommended (but by no means obligatory). The MyCourses workspace provides the mentioned support onlyfor LaTeX. Still, a docx version of the English form for the thesis abstract is found from Into. Officially, a suitable length for the text part of the final thesis is "some 15-20 pages". The "text part" means the portion from the beginning of the introduction to the end of the conclusion.
- 2. Schedule
The course schedule (in Finnish) can be found here (when the course starts). The student has to make the following submissions (by the dates stated in the schedule):
- Research plan ("Tutkimussuunnitelman palautus"): some 1-2 pages.
- Version 1 ("V1-palautus"): at least 2-3 pages, at least one reference.
- Version 2: some 10 pages.
- Version 3: nearly ready, but more or less polishing is typically still needed.
- Version 4: the final thesis to be graded.
The course personnel checks that the submitted intermediate versions are, e.g., not substantially shorter than expected. Other submissions than the final version 4 (for which see below) are MyCourses assignments.
- 3. Meetings with the student
It is recommended that there are 4 meetings between the student and the instructor. The suggested "not-later-than" dates of each meeting ("KN-tapaaminen" for N = 1,2,3,4) are found in the course schedule.
- 4. Final seminar
Each student gives a 15-minute oral presentation on her/his thesis work. The final seminar consisting of these presentations typically lasts 3 days: see "Loppuseminaarisessiot" in the course schedule. The student presentation is in English if the instructor is not Finnish-speaking.
The student presentation is one of the components for which the instructor gives a mark in her/his assessment of the thesis. So it is strongly hoped that the instructor could be present in the audience. If that is impossible, the instructor may be able to rely on a proxy familiar with the topic who reports to the instructor, or the instructor's assessment may be based solely on the student's slides, which are found in the MyCourses workspace (Assignments-section,"Esityskalvot-keskustelualue"-forum).
- 5. Maturity essay
Each student writes a maturity essay ("Kypsyysnäyte") of some 450 words in Finnish (provided that the student's high-school-level education language has been Finnish) in a three-hour examination-like event common to all the students in the course.
For each student, the instructor chooses 1-3 alternative essay topics closely related to the thesis work, and the student learns these topics only when the examination begins.
Each non-Finnish-speaking instructor will be asked to suggest a Finnish-speaking proxy who is at least relatively familiar with the thesis topic. The proxy first completes/verifies the draft Finnish translation (provided by the course personnel) of the English essay topics (given by the instructor), and then reads the Finnish essay in order to confirm the student's knowledge of the area of the thesis work. In addition to the instructor (or the proxy), the maturity essay is also read by a Finnish language teacher (from Aalto language centre). The mark for the essay is either "pass" or "fail".
- 6. Instructor's assessment of the thesis
English Workshop 1 Feb 17 (Groups 1 & 2) and Feb 18 (Group 3) Group choice
Please sign up for both Workshop 1 and Workshop 2. The maximum number of participants per group is 12.- Please sign up for both Workshop 1 and Workshop 2. The maximum number of participants per group is 12.