Writing as a project

Approach the writing of your assignment as a project: before you start researching and writing, settle on a general approach and outline the individual steps. You need to be clear on the following key aspects:

• Scope and length. Does your assignment have a predefined scope or length? These generally determine how much research you need to do, and how many resources you need to process.
• Format.Does your assignment have a prescribed format and is there a template for it on your school’s website? If so, download the template first and save it to your computer under the working title of your thesis.
• Outline. With or without a template, create your own outline. Have the outline ready before you start searching – it will make it easier to organize your sources.
• Storage. Where and in what format will you store your materials? If you’re writing a thesis or dissertation, we highly recommend using citation managers right from the start.
• Experimental data, surveys, measurements. Do you plan to carry out experimental research of any kind? Be clear on how you’re going to manage your research data so that you can reliably use it to write your thesis or share it with others.
• Deadline. What is the final deadline for submitting your assignment? Create a detailed time plan and stick to it.
• Editing, proofreading, formatting. Pencil in enough time for final changes: this always takes much longer than you imagine.
• Dedicated writing time. Schedule a regular time for your writing when you’re not going to be disturbed. How? Use the Pomodoro technique.

Still not sure how to start?

• The Purdue Online Writing Lab offers this detailed guide on Invention: Starting the Writing Process that could give you a headstart.
• < Předchozí
• Další >

Navigating resources

You’re starting to search for literature and other resources to use in your writing. It pays to be organized. Ask yourself the following questions:

What exactly am I looking for?

The type of information I’m after determines the best way of searching for it: e.g., it might help me decide which AI tools to use, or how to go about combining keywords to search on Google Scholar.

Compare these two cases of a rather general X very specific combination of keywords:

Global warming AND polar bear

= handy in the initial stages, while you’re sounding out an area of research and trying to find out what kind of questions related to bears and global heating might work.

X

"global warming“ AND "polar bear*“ AND "population size“ AND "hunting success rate“ AND ("Hudson bay“  OR Manitoba OR Ontario) NOT Greenland

= a narrowly targeted search for information related specifically to how global heating affects the size of the bear population in relation to hunting success in the area of Hudson Bay, but not in Greenland.

Where will I find this?

Very often, the required information is not all in one place. You will need to choose a number of different search strategies to locate it:

• search for academic resources (academic/scientific articles and monographs, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings) using Google Scholar or specialized AI tools, such as Scite_.
• search for theses in university repositories. You can also use the portal theses.cz (for Czech universities only) or the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database.
• search for statistics, annual reports and similar by using Google or specialized webs and databases.
• manage your own research data in such a way that you can always find it and use it later in your writing: see our guide to Research Data Management for more detailed advice.

What am I going to use it for?

Before you start carefully studying any particular text or information source, read its table of contents or abstract, and quickly skim through it. Decide:

• whether it is a suitable source for academic writing. It is much better to use a smaller number of highly reputable and impactful sources than to rely on a huge number of sources of dubious quality.
• what exactly you need it for: in which chapter will you use it and for what?

Where will I store it?

If you’re writing a thesis or dissertation, we strongly recommend you use a citation manager right from the start.

The key is to sort all information sources as soon as you find them:

• Start from your outline. Set up folders that mirror the outline of your assignment: its main headings and chapters.
• Re-run your searches using different combinations of keywords to find enough good-quality sources for each section and chapter of your outline.
• File your sources as soon as you have selected them as relevant and suitable.
• When you start reading through each source, make notes and summaries immediately (do NOT leave this till after you’ve read everything). Insert the notes and summaries (complete with a citation) into the appropriate chapter in your thesis file. It may not seem like it, but at this point you’ve already started to write.

How will I cite it?

Be aware you will need to acknowledge every source used. This is called citing and it serves to avoid plagiarism. To cite a source, you will need to know (at the very least):

• the author (a person or an organization) responsible for it,
• the title (of the article, book, video, web page on a website),
• the publisher and sometimes also the place of publication (printed books),
• the precise date or year of publication or the last change (depending on the format),
• the official publication identifier (ISBN for books, ISSN for journals, DOI for journal articles and other works),
• the URL address (for sources on the web).

If you cannot identify some or most of this information, you will need to find a more suitable source.

• < Předchozí
• Další >

Use of sources

Different types of sources are suitable for different kinds of uses. When writing your bachelor or master’s thesis, be clear about what exactly you need to find out – and which type of source will best serve your purpose.

I need to get a general sense of the topic.

• Encyclopedias. You would not cite Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica to support arguments or conclusions in your thesis. But they can be helpful at the beginning to outline your topic and figure out how to search for suitable sources. Switching between different language versions of Wikipedia can help you with finding the correct English terminology.
• Comprehensive overviews such as handbooks (e.g., The Handbook of Robotics) or companions (such as Cambridge Companions) offer deeper insight into your research area or question. They summarize the development and survey existing research trends. They usually contain information useful in the introductory and theoretical parts of your thesis, such as:
• discipline-specific definitions and terminology,
• research history and development,
• commonly used abbreviations (e.g., HRI: human-robot interaction),
• useful context (major figures in the field, seminal publications).

I need to get an idea of what my assignment should look like.

• Existing theses and dissertations can serve as a template and source of inspiration, especially in disciplines where a great number of students are at work on rather similar topics (e.g., topics in SME Economics: the theoretical part is very likely going to be quite similar across a great number of such theses). You needn’t restrict yourself to just your university, school or department but do keep in mind that different institutions may have different standards and requirements.
• Always read through both examiners’ reports on a thesis to learn from your predecessors’ mistakes. Check out the reference list or bibliography to see if there are any interesting sources.

You must never copy the work of others or use it without acknowledgement: beware of plagiarism.

I have a clear idea of my topic/research question, I’m familiar with the required structure of my work. I need to study the existing literature to find out the current state of the art.

• Academic articles and studies tend to be shorter and focus on a specific problem. You can search for them on Google Scholar or directly in various library databases. Their structure and content tend to differ depending on what type of academic article they represent: an original research paper, a literature review, a methodology, or other.
• What if you find an article on exactly the same topic as yours? Ask yourself: What, in your case, is different? Are you expecting different results, and if so, why? Being able to answer these questions shows that you have familiarized yourself with the problem.
• Research articles can also be useful for finding out:
• what instruments are used in your research area,
• how is data obtained/measured,
• what methods are used to analyze measurements,
• what methods are used to interpret results,
• what are the (dis)advantages of using various approaches and methods.

• Statistics: this includes data published by governmental institutions, central banks, and professional bodies and associations (at national and international levels) in their own databases and annual reports (e.g., ČSÚ,  ČNB,  Eurostat, ECB, World Bank, OECD Data, OECD Stats, EIU, WHO, FAO, ITU, UNWTO). Whenever you’re using statistics provided by someone else, familiarize yourself with the applied definitions and terminology, as well as the methods used to gather the data – only compare what is actually comparable.
• Information on corporations, industries, and markets: you can find this data in annual reports, official company registers, professional bodies and industrial associations’ annual reports, and marketing surveys. Some information is freely available on the internet, but some can only be found in subscription-based databases in specialized libraries. Some data in these databases may be available for free: e.g., Orbis, Business Source Ultimate, Statista, Passport, MarketLine, Proquest One Business.

• < Předchozí
• Další >

Books available in the NTK

• < Předchozí