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The masters dissertation, irrespective of the subject, allows a student to :
- carry out a critical analysis and summarise a given scientific topic,
- put a specific issue/statement in context drawing on existing information,
- present the results of the dissertation by justifying the methodological choices, explaining the hypotheses and scientifically stating the results obtained.
The dissertation must demonstrate the author's ability to describe correctly the results of a personal, objective and methodical work. The length of the dissertation is not a criteria in evaluating its quality.
Similar to the other forms of learning, the dissertation is an essential component of the programme to which it belongs. It consists of research work which students should consider as a first step in research in their particular field.
The dissertation is a research work :
- specific, as regards the other teaching activities ;
- methodical, the underlying methodology has already been acquired in the bachelor and masters programme ;
- integrated in the programme and limited to the scope of the subject. Guidelines regarding the dissertation can be found on http://www.uclouvain.be61093.html.
The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
The Master Dissertation will be evaluated by a supervisor and two readers. The grade given at the end of the second Master is based on the average of their respective appreciations.
In their evaluations, the supervisor and the two readers will pay attention to the following aspects:
- the student's ability to accurately define the topic of study and to correctly point out the research problem or working hypothesis
- his familiarity with various bibliographical and documentation research tools
- the quality of the work of collecting and interpretating source material
- the overall articulation and coherence of the work
- the soundness, comprehensibility and systematic reasoning used in the written text
- the degree to which the formal requirements of a scholarly text have been respected.
The Dissertation will be orally defended, in a session that allows the student to present the main outline of his research project and to answer questions and remarks from the the supervisor and the readers. The quality of this thirty-minute oral defense (including both presentation and discussion), will be taken into account in the final evaluation.
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The Master Dissertation is a personal contribution to scholarly knowledge. It is the crown on the student's education process, in which the student provides evidence of his familiarity with the methodological tenets of the study of language and literature, particularly in the field of Latin and/or French.
The student must display his ability to handle the various stages of scholarly research: from defining a research problem, via collecting primary sources, bibliography and other research data, to evaluating and interpreting the documents concerned, as well as elaborating a synthesis and reporting on the results obtained.
The main body of the Thesis, excluding bibliography, illustrations and annexes, should consist of 100 to 150 pages (2000 characters per page).
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