Introduction This guide presents an outline of good practice in the preparation of thesis and dissertations. The intention is to direct you to some of the best sources of information that are available in the Koya University Library, so that you can explore these for yourself, and to provide guidelines for areas which often cause problems, such as the citation of references. This does not, however, lay down official policy of the University. You may find information about citing references and preparing your project or thesis in your Course Handbook. This will give accurate information about what is expected for your particular course. Please remember that your supervisor and your Higher Education Liaison Officer are here to help you, so if you are not sure about something, please ask.
1: Searching the Literature Before beginning your research, you ought to check systematically through the literature of your subject, to see what has already been published. This will ensure that you are in touch with current trends, and that you do not duplicate someone else's work. Be sure that you are clear in your own mind about the scope and extent of the literature search you are going to carry out. Use encyclopaedias and specialised dictionaries to get an overview and to clarify terminology. Search the Index to thesis to find out what thesis in Kurdistan Regional Government have been written. 2: Writing your Thesis How you start the writing of your thesis depends on the nature of your research, the discipline within which you are working, and your own temperament. You should ask your supervisor for advice and look through some of the books that have been published on thesis and report writing e.g Glatthorn, A (2005) Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation: A Step-by-step Guide, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin. It is a good idea to sketch the outline of your thesis as soon as you possibly can; titles of every chapter, with a page or so of notes for each of them. This will give your work a proper structure, and you will have gained a clear overview of the logic and direction of it. The first and last chapters in your thesis will determine the impact you make on your reader, so they are of crucial importance. For the first chapter, three sections are suggested: a broad review which puts the area of work into its wider context, a succinct argument for the significance of the problem to be considered, an outline of the thesis, which links together the elements of the work, and shows how the problem was approached. The last chapter should also fall into three sections: a brief restatement of the original problem, an answer to the essential question: `What has been achieved?' a discussion of the main avenues of potential future work. Make sure that all illustrations, tables, and so on are clearly numbered and labelled. Pages must also be numbered, but if you are preparing chapters out of sequence, and so cannot give continuous pagination, then you should assign to each chapter its own page-numbering sequence: 8.16 would thus be the sixteenth page of chapter eight. 3: The Layout of your Thesis The usual layout of thesis is as follows:-
It is not usual to include an Index to your thesis. You should note that "presentation", which is clear and accurate typing, unambiguous labeling of tables and illustrations, clear bibliographical references, and a logical progression in your argument, is taken into account by your examiners. You will find it helpful to look through some past thesis from your School/Department. Copies of Koya University thesis are kept in the Koya University Central Library. 4: Bibliographical References It is important for you to be able to read and interpret a bibliographical reference, and to know how to write one. Koya University uses Harvard Referencing system as its offical standard citation and referencing system. Supervisors and Researchers need to familiarize themselves with this system and follow the regulation when producing their dissertations. Some other Points to Note When writing your bibliographical references, there are three rules you must observe. Your references must be:-
5: Bibliographical Citations Your thesis must include a bibliography of all the works you have consulted, and in your text you should refer the reader to the sources you use. There are three main systems for citing bibliographical references. The best one for theses is:- The Harvard System The name and year system. Cite all references by using the author's name (either in the text, or in brackets), together with the date of publication (in brackets). If you are citing several works by an author from the same year, distinguish them by adding "a, b, c,....." to the date. The bibliography is arranged alphabetically by author, and within each separate author's name, chronologically. To make it easier to find references, it is usual, but not essential, to put the date of publication immediately after the author's name. The text:- Subjects were asked to do some reading between sessions, to enhance the orientation of looking for and changing irrational thinking. Frequently recommended was A new guide to rational living (Ellis, 1975), written specifically for non-professionals. Paul Hauck has written a number of problem-orientated books - for instances, on depression (1973), anger (1974), and anxiety (1975). Also recommended was Humanistic psychotherapy (Ellis, 1974b). The bibliography:- Ellis, A, 1974a. Growth through reason. N. Hollywood: Wilshire. Ellis, A, 1974b. Humanistic psychotherapy. New York: McGraw-Hill. Ellis, A, and Harper, R A, 1975. A new guide to rational living. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Ellis, A, 1977a. Fun as psychotherapy. Rational Living, 12(1), 2-6. Ellis, A, 1977b. A garland of rational songs. New York: Institute for Rational Living. Erikson, M H, and others, 1976. Hypnotic realities. New York: Irvington. Greenwald, H, 1973. Direct decision therapy. San Diego: Edits. Hauck, P A, 1973. Overcoming depression. Philadelphia: Westminster. Hauck, P A, 1974. Overcoming frustration and anger. Philadelphia: Westminster. Hauck, P A, 1975. Overcoming worry and fear. Philadelphia: Westminster. When quoting an author's actual words, always include a page reference:- This theory, then, is not deterministic. Humans have freedom of choice, although this freedom has its limitations. To quote Ellis (1974b, p.307): "Deterministic theories see individuals as not responsible for their behaviour, as the pawns of society, heredity, or both." Quotations in the text should appear between quotation marks, and should run on from your own words, using standard spacing between lines. If, however, you wish to quote at length (say, more than five or six lines), you should instruct your typist to indent the quotation, and type it single-spaced, without quotation marks. The Harvard system is widely used. Its main advantage is that it gives information in the text (author and date), so that your reader can evaluate the reliability and currency of your source, without having to look it up in your bibliography. Some other Points to Note
Further information may be found in, British Standards BS 1629: 1976, Recommendations: bibliographical references, and BS 5605: 1978, Recommendations for citing publications by bibliographical references. 6: Including Copyright Material You should seek permission from the copyright holder if you want to include substantial parts of any third party copyright material, e.g. extracts from publications such as books and journals, or illustrations such as photographs, images, maps, tables etc. In most cases this will mean contacting the publisher of the original work. If the publisher does not hold the rights to the work they should forward your request to whoever does. If a copyright holder replies granting permission you should indicate this at the appropriate point in your thesis, e.g. "Permission to reproduce this ... has been granted by ...". Keep a copy of any letters or emails you receive from rights holders. For further guidance and templates for permission seeking letters see Including Third Party Copyright Material in your Thesis. 7: Regulations for Presentation The University's regulations for theses for higher awards (i.e. Masters & Doctoral Degrees) are made by the Senate of the University. Changes may be made occasionally, so if you are not certain about anything, you should ask the University Examinations Officer in the Registry for advice. 8: Copyright Statement On the page following the Abstract of your thesis, you should include a copyright statement, in the following form: (c) Mary Smith 1996 This secures your legal position as the owner of the copyright. However, the University's regulations lay down that the Librarian is authorised to make further copies, in whole or in part, should they be required for legitimate academic purposes. The British Library Document Supply Centre is given a list of PhD theses submitted and will be lent a copy to satisfy any requests it might have from other individuals or institutions. If a candidate completes a prescribed form, the British Library will make a payment in respect of copies supplied in certain circumstances. If the sponsoring organisation or collaborating body considers that the thesis contains matter of a confidential nature, the author may instruct the Librarian to restrict access to a thesis for a period not exceeding five years. Access to the thesis may be allowed during this period only with the permission of person(s) specified by the sponsoring organisation or collaborating body. Similarly, if it is desired to seek a patent from matter in the thesis, the author may instruct the Librarian to restrict access for a period not exceeding one year. If it is desired to extend the restriction beyond the above periods, or restrict access on other grounds, application must be made in writing to the University Examinations Officer. 9: Typing-Binding-Publishing your Thesis
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Preparing Thesis
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Referencing System