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how-to-write-a-masters-thesis [2022/01/06 12:12]
strakova [Referencing, Plagiarism and These Things (Don't Skip Me!)] Plagiarism |
how-to-write-a-masters-thesis [2022/03/21 10:24]
lopatkova [Timeline] |
| ===== NLP Master's Thesis from Enrollment to Defense ===== | ===== NLP Master's Thesis from Enrollment to Defense ===== |
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| This tutorial could also be called ''"things I wish I had known when I was writing my diploma thesis"''. This guideline is intended to ease writing your master's thesis (and hopefully, to produce better theses and successful defenses, as a result) and what better way is there than provide you with a spectrum of information I gained being on both sides of the trench. I'm going to navigate you through the process of your master's thesis assignment, writing and defense. The guideline is mostly fitted to a typical experimental NLP master's thesis but I'm sure you can tweak it to other situation once you get the general idea. | This tutorial could also be called ''"things I wish I had known when I was writing my diploma thesis"''. This guideline is intended to ease writing your master's thesis (and hopefully, to produce better theses and successful defenses, as a result) and what better way is there than provide you with a spectrum of information I gained being on both sides of the trench. I'm going to navigate you through the process of your master's thesis assignment, writing and defense. The guideline is mostly fitted to a typical experimental NLP master's thesis (at [[https://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/|ÚFAL]]) but I'm sure you can tweak it to other situation once you get the general idea. |
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| I don't think I can emphasize enough: start EARLY. Seriously. You will make your life much easier if you start programming, measuring and writing (that especially!) in good time. Most opponents can recognize hasty writing hurriedly finished over the last week before deadline. As for the question ''what is the minimum time in which I can write a thesis'', let's pretend I never heard the question. | I don't think I can emphasize enough: start EARLY. Seriously. You will make your life much easier if you start programming, measuring and writing (that especially!) in good time. Most opponents can recognize hasty writing hurriedly finished over the last week before deadline. As for the question ''what is the minimum time in which I can write a thesis'', let's pretend I never heard the question. |
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| The exact dates of everything that happens at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, such as beginnings and ends of semesters, deadlines for courses and exams enrollments, deadlines for theses submissions and theses exams, is strictly bound by an official [[https://www.mff.cuni.cz/en/students/academic-calendar/|Academic Calendar]] of the faculty. Look out for the exact deadlines of the required actions in the current version. | The exact dates of everything that happens at the [[https://www.mff.cuni.cz/|Faculty of Mathematics and Physics]], such as beginnings and ends of semesters, deadlines for courses and exams enrollments, deadlines for theses submissions and theses exams, is strictly bound by an official [[https://www.mff.cuni.cz/en/students/academic-calendar/|Academic Calendar]] of the faculty. Look out for the exact deadlines of the required actions in the current version. |
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| With that in mind, let's say that a typical master's curriculum takes two academic years (four semesters). Master's thesis writing is officially a three-semester course, consisting of three subsequent (!) semesters each of which you must subscribe to in the [[https://is.mff.cuni.cz/|Study Information System (SIS)]], in the appointed deadline. | With that in mind, let's say that a typical master's curriculum takes two academic years (four semesters). Master's thesis writing is officially a three-semester course, consisting of three subsequent (!) semesters each of which you must subscribe to in the [[https://is.mff.cuni.cz/|Study Information System (SIS)]], in the appointed deadline. //ML: ALE to není oficiámní požadavek a často si studenti zapíší všechny tři kurzy až najednou na konci čtvrtého semestru.// |
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| That generates roughly the following course of action: | That generates roughly the following course of action: |
| * Read my [[how-to-write-a-masters-thesis-typesetting|advice on typesetting]], with good practices and frequent errors. | * Read my [[how-to-write-a-masters-thesis-typesetting|advice on typesetting]], with good practices and frequent errors. |
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| | {{:courses:masters-thesis:beautiful_typesetting_joke.png?300|}} |
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| | (Petricek, 2016)((Tomas Petricek [@tomaspetricek]. (2016, May 11). //Making silly #latex jokes is much more fun than doing final tweaks in my thesis on #coeffects...//. Twitter. [[https://twitter.com/tomaspetricek/status/730442442827304961|URL]])) |
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| ==== Referencing, Plagiarism and These Things (Don't Skip Me!) ==== | ==== Referencing, Plagiarism and These Things (Don't Skip Me!) ==== |
| Generally, plagiarism is presenting someone else's work/idea/text/source code as your own. Specifically, anything that appears in your thesis and is not referenced or is not general knowledge, is being presented by you as your work/idea/text/source code, unless properly referenced. Some very obvious examples of things that should be referenced are: | Generally, plagiarism is presenting someone else's work/idea/text/source code as your own. Specifically, anything that appears in your thesis and is not referenced or is not general knowledge, is being presented by you as your work/idea/text/source code, unless properly referenced. Some very obvious examples of things that should be referenced are: |
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| - **big inventions with names:** People who invented them should get credit. The first time you mention HMM, NNs, RNNs, LSTM, word embeddings (word2vec, FastText), contextualized word embeddings (BERT, ...), etc. | * **big inventions with names:** People who invented them should get credit. The first time you mention anything with a name, you should consider adding a reference. E.g., HMM, NNs, RNNs, LSTM, word embeddings (word2vec, FastText), contextualized word embeddings (BERT, ...), etc. |
| - **general ideas without names:** The first attempts at solving some problem in a way which is similar to yours, or not similar, but was simply the first. | * **general ideas without names:** The first attempts at solving some problem in a way which is similar to yours, or not similar, but was simply the first. |
| - **copied material**: Any time you copy anything more than a sentence, it should be referenced. Also **definitions**, adopted **figures**, **tables**. | * **copied material**: Any time you copy anything more than a sentence, it should be referenced. Also **definitions**, adopted **figures** and **tables**. |
| - **related publications**: publications closely related to your work. Many master theses are incremental changes to one influential publication - which, obviously, must be referenced. | * **related publications**: publications closely related to your work. Many master theses are incremental changes to one influential publication - which, obviously, must be referenced. |
| - **source code**: Give credit to those who implemented source code you use or build on. It is not necessary to reference Python, but one should reference specialized software (like TensorFlow) and especially the source code you modified. Most source code authors give exact instructions in README about how they wish to be referenced. Usually, by citing a publication. | * **source code**: Give credit to those who implemented source code you use or build on. It is not necessary to reference Python, but one should reference specialized software (like TensorFlow) and especially the source code you modified. Most source code authors give exact instructions in README about how they wish to be referenced. Usually, by citing a publication. |
| - **data**: It is highly unlikely you did not need any data for your thesis. If you did, the data must be referenced. Most datasets are described in an accompanying publication. Some (older ones) are not, then at least give the url in footnote. | * **data**: It is highly unlikely you did not need any data for your thesis. If you did, the data must be referenced. Most datasets are described in an accompanying publication. Some (older ones) are not, then at least give the url in footnote. |
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| Every time you copy/reproduce a sentence/definition/figure/table, the reference must be repeated. It is not OK to state in the beginning of the section "And from now on, I shall draw from publication XY" and then go on three pages freely mixing your text and sentences from XY. With some exceptions, it is also not OK to copy entire paragraphs or pages, even if they are properly referenced, as you are supposed to write you own thesis, not copy someone else's work. It is however allright if you introduce/explain an idea with a proper reference and then discuss the idea in the next three paragraphs without referencing it again and again. If your discussion, however, replicates someone else's opinion, you should reference it, e.g. "Our data support hypothesis ABC, as well as results of REF-to-XY." | Every time you copy/reproduce a sentence/definition/figure/table, the reference must be repeated. It is not OK to state in the beginning of the section "And from now on, I shall draw from publication XY" and then go on three pages freely mixing your text and sentences from XY. With some exceptions, it is also not OK to copy entire paragraphs or pages, even if they are properly referenced, as you are supposed to write you own thesis, not copy someone else's work. It is however allright if you introduce/explain an idea with a proper reference and then discuss the idea in the next three paragraphs without referencing it again and again. If your discussion, however, replicates someone else's opinion, you should reference it, e.g. "Our data support hypothesis ABC, as well as results of REF-to-XY." |
| Less obvious and not always necessary references may be required by: | Less obvious and not always necessary references may be required by: |
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| - sentences like ''It is (generally) considered that ...'', ''It is (generally) thought that ...'' are always tricky and will attract ttention. By whom it is considered? Ideally they would be supported by references to publications. | * statements like ''"It is (generally) considered that ..."'', ''"It is (generally) thought that ..."'' are tricky. By whom it is considered? Ideally they would be supported by references to publications. |
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| | In scientific writing, there is a rigid, accustomed way of proper referencing. TODO write about reference norms. |
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| ===== Submitting the Thesis ==== | ===== Submitting the Thesis ==== |
| ==== Thesis Defence === | ==== Thesis Defence === |
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| | {{ https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/thesis_defense.png?400}} |
| ==== Final State Examination === | ==== Final State Examination === |
