FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Media Studies THESIS GUIDELINES PROCEDURES AND ADMINISTRATION OF MASTER THESES OF THE DEPARTMENT MEDIA STUDIES

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1 FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Media Studies THESIS GUIDELINES PROCEDURES AND ADMINISTRATION OF MASTER THESES OF THE DEPARTMENT MEDIA STUDIES Department Media Studies 1 January 2013

2 PROCEDURES AND ADMINISTRATION Initiative, registration and supervision 1. It is the student s responsibility to initiate procedures and contact the thesis supervisor 1 of the chosen MA-course to meet for a preliminary talk (this applies even if the student has already approached the potential supervisor in an informal way). At this first meeting, the student will submit the following: A thesis application form, available from the programme administration, with the topic and name of the supervisor (provided he or she has been contacted previously) already filled out. A print-out of the credits that have been attained so far; also available from the programme administration. In consultation with the thesis coordinator, a university lecturer will be appointed as thesis supervisor; as a general rule, the supervisor has a doctorate degree and/or is specialised in the field that the thesis will be written on. 2. The thesis coordinator is also responsible for appointing a second reader 2. Registration of the thesis application form 3. Once the proposed thesis supervisor and second reader have consented, the thesis coordinator will present (a copy of) the final thesis application form to the Department Secretary, who will register the information in the database. The right to supervision 4. In addition to the stipulations found in the thesis regulations, there will be no thesis supervision in the months of July and August. For more information and examples of the supervision trajectory, see the Blackboard Organisation-site MA Thesis Media Studies (Examples of Time Management). 5. The student will write a research proposal, in the form of a work outline, in consultation with the supervisor. The outline should be drawn up in accordance with the sample for a work outline that appears in Appendix 1, and is subject to the supervisor s approval. Submission final version and graduation date 6. On the website of the different programmes for current students ( Academic A-Z; Diploma application) you can find an overview with all the dates for requesting a diploma. In cases where a student misses the application deadline for a diploma, the examination date will be moved forward by at least a month. The student will as a consequence be required to continue paying university fees right up to the month in which the examination date is finally set. Please note: the result of the thesis must be handed in to the programme administration, at least one week before the date mentioned in the column Results of the final examination component (thesis) have been registered in SIS. Students are required to submit the final version of their thesis and abstract to their supervisor plenty of weeks prior to the graduation date (students and supervisors must agree on a plan, taking into account the dates and deadlines which are fixed for requiring a diploma). This final version may only be assembled once the supervisor has judged that 1 For Media Studies: Research Master: the Master s coordinator. 2 For Media Studies: Research Master: second and third reader. This also applies to the other provisions in these guidelines with regard to the second reader. Version p. 2

3 the content of the provisional version complies with the requirements for definitive evaluation. The evaluative procedure runs as follows: - submission of final version in concordance with the requirements for completion - enter into an agreement for the final exam and the formal diploma request - application for the master s examination - determination en registration of grade by supervisors. Students who wish to obtain their degree on the 31 st of August will need to submit their provisional version not later than the last working day of block 2 of the study period of the second semester, and the final version not later than the last working days of block 3 of the study period of the second semester. Consult the Academic Calendar for the precise dates. 7. The digital Master s theses (see Thesis Regulations Masters Programmes - Graduate School of Humanities) will be archived and made available via UvA Scripties Online. On submitting his or her thesis, the student will need to supply a statement that gives the library permission to archive the digital thesis in a repository and publicise and make it available for consultation upon request. In exceptional cases, the circulation of the thesis may be placed under embargo for the duration of one calendar year, or for an indefinite period. The author s rights remain with the student at all times. If the Department should wish to publish the thesis, permission would first need to be granted by its author. The digital thesis and statement of permission will need to be submitted to the programme administration at least on the day that the results of the final examination component (thesis) must be registered in SIS. 8. The student will need to apply for the Master s Exam at the programme administration about 2 to 3 month before the intended graduation date, but may only do so once the thesis has been judged to meet the requirements for definitive evaluation and it has entered evaluation procedures (see article 5) Students who fail to submit the final version or to apply for their examination on time, will need to re-register for the programme. No examination date has been set aside for the month of September. 10. It is vital that students consult the programme administration regarding procedures, deadlines, required forms, etc. before applying for the examination. 11. Both student and supervisor are subject to the Thesis Regulations Masters Programmes - Graduate School of Humanities. General criteria 12. The thesis must comply with the Technical Instructions set out in Appendix 2. 3 In addition to the standard procedure, Media Studies: Research Master stipulates the following: it is the candidate s responsibility, after he or she has been given the go-ahead, to select a date and time on which he or she, as well as his or her supervisor and second and third reader, are able to attend. At this time, the candidate will defend his or her thesis in the presence of these three assessors and other interested parties. Subsequently, the assessors will make the final grade for the thesis known. By selecting the data for the defending, the deadlines for registration of the final grade must be taken into account. Version p. 3

4 APPENDIX 1 SAMPLE WORK OUTLINE FOR A THESIS 1. Working title 2. General introduction A brief description of the purpose of the research and a demarcation of the area of research. 3. Statement of the problem and question/hypothesis The specific, concrete question that the research aims to answer; the hypothesis that is to be proved. 4. Research method How the student proposes to set about the research. A justification of the theory and/or research method to be used. 5. Sources and materials An overview of the data to be researched (films, television programmes, web sites, reviews, viewing figures, archive records etc.) and where they are to be found. 6. Literature Relevant literature that the student proposes to study. 7. Chapter organization The organization of the thesis, showing how the topic is to be divided into its various aspects. 8. Timetable An estimate, as precise as possible, of the time considered necessary for each phase of the work, up to and including the submission date. Version p. 4

5 APPENDIX 2 TECHNICAL INSTRUCTIONS Theses must always be typed (on a word processor). Use only A4 paper (21 x 29.7 cm). Set reasonable left and right-hand page margins. Line spacing: (ensure smooth and clear readability). Pagination: all pages (including notes, appendices etc.) should be continuously numbered using Arabic numerals. Spelling and punctuation should comply with the rules in a standard dictionary, e.g. Webster or Oxford, or, if written in Dutch, with the rules in the Woordenlijst van de Nederlandse taal (Het Groene Boekje). Figures: always write out numerals from one to twenty, and write out all round numbers in full. Exceptions are years, dates, amounts of money and page and line numbers. Acronyms and abbreviations are to be avoided unless they are in common usage, e.g. VARA or BBC, EG (in a Dutch text) or EC (in an English text), Bunia or FIAF, in which case the periods should be omitted. Quotations should be clearly indicated by means of quotation marks. Nowadays the English style using single quotation marks is most common,, with double quotation marks for nesting quotations (longer than 40 words). In the case of long quotations, the whole passage should be indented one centimetre to the left, and quotation marks omitted. Copy another author s words precisely. If you omit part of a quotation, indicate this by using three dots in square brackets, [ ]. If you change something in a quotation, indicate this in square brackets, adding your initials, e.g. [my italics, X.Y.]. N.B. A quotation is supplementary to your own argument and can never take its place. For further reference, see the MLA Referencing Guide on the Blackboard Organisation-site MA Thesis Media Studies. Personal titles: refer to the author of a work you have consulted without title or form of address: De Boer argues that.... If you have obtained information from someone personally, that person should be referred to by his/her title: Prof. J.A.M. de Boer [private communication] argues that.... The we form: do not refer to yourself using the we form. References to literature, films and television programmes and use of notes: see the the MLA Referencing Guide. Title page: include the name, address, telephone number, address and student number(s) of the author(s) as well as the title. Also include the date of completion, the name of the supervisor, the course, the department and the university where the thesis was written. The title page should be followed by a table of contents referring to the relevant page numbers. Introduction: the table of contents should be followed by an introductory chapter setting out (a) the assignment or topic, (b) a justification of the methodology used, (c) a concise but clear overview of the content. Chapters and sections: it is advisable to provide separate headings for the various parts of the thesis and distinguish these headings from the rest of the text typographically. Titles of chapters should be capitalized. Titles of subsections should be underlined or bold. Number the chapters (1, 2, 3,...) and sections (1,1., 1,2, 1.3,..., 2,1, 2,2,...). Leave at least one empty line Version p. 5

6 between the various parts of the thesis or paper. Do not, as a rule, have more than three levels of section numbering (e.g. 1,1,1). Paragraphs: do not start each sentence on a new line; instead, write in paragraphs (continuous passages of text). There are two types of paragraphs, those with and those without a blank line preceding them. Use this typographical aid to distinguish between main paragraphs and subparagraphs. If you precede your paragraphs by headings you are not permitted to use paragraphs without empty lines. Indent the first line of each new paragraph by three spaces (Tab) unless it is preceded by an empty line or subheading. Notes: there are two ways of using notes. Notes must be used to reference the sources used, and they may be used for information additional to the main text. Also see the the MLA Referencing Guide. Each thesis must have a bibliography of the literature consulted, which should immediately follow the last page of notes. This bibliography should be an exhaustive list of all the sources referred to in the text and nothing more. Also see see the the MLA Referencing Guide. Only add photographs or photocopies of texts and illustrations to the thesis if they are referred to in the text. Each photograph or photocopy should be provided with a number, an explanatory caption and a source reference. Also see the the MLA Referencing Guide. Tables, graphs, charts and diagrams and illustrations are incomplete without (a) a number and title and (b) a source reference. The latter should indicate where the data in the table, graph, chart or diagram come from. Only if the data are completely new and being published here for the first time may the source reference be omitted. Also see the MLA Referencing Guide. Non-paper appendices. A thesis may be accompanied by a video, CD-ROM or DVD containing research material that is difficult or impossible to reproduce on paper. In this case the status and origin of the material must be clearly indicated in the text. Version p. 6