Faculty: Arts. Degree Programme: All foreign languages at Arts. Course: Graduate intro workshop. Course level: Master. Course size: 20.
Many students first think about the Master's thesis and possible topics shortly before they have to begin writing it. However, it would be an advantage if they had already searched for some ideas during their Master’s degree programme.
To start the students on the process of reflecting on possible thesis topics, and in this way make them more aware of their own academic skills and enable them to make more qualified choices of elective subject etc. in the Master's degree program.
The activity consists of a two hour workshop, which is included as an element in the graduate introduction for all new Master’s degree students taking the language subjects. At the workshop, the students are presented with some general points about writing and idea generation processes, while the workshop additionally consists of two main elements: an exercise for idea generation and a presentation of types of Master’s theses with examples.
Already here right at the beginning of the Master's degree programme, it turns out that the students have many ideas for possible academic topics that they could imagine working on, and through the exercises they also become clear about this. They become more aware of how they can make use of one another for academic sparring, and by hearing each other's ideas and being presented with the various types of Master's thesis, they at the same time get a sense of the breadth of their academic skills.
It is important to underline to the students that the ideas they come up with are not, of course, binding and that it is important to be open towards discovering new areas of academic skills and finding new interests, as they go further in their graduate studies. The aim is not for them to determine a thesis topic already at the beginning of the Master's degree programme, but to show that they already have many ideas, and provide tools for how they can work on further developing these or finding new ideas up until they write their thesis, so they do not start from scratch the day they begin on the Master's thesis.
The idea generation exercise may be combined with a non-stop writing exercise, where they write for e.g. five minutes about the idea they have selected so as to come a little further with it. The text they write here is solely for the purpose of giving them a push to further their thought process, and will not be shown to others.
