Guidelines for Bachelor's and Master's theses
LaTeX-Vorlage für die Ausarbeitung
The information provided on this page applies to both bachelor's theses and master's theses.
Final theses can be written in German or in English.
Scope
The scope of the bachelor thesis comprises 40,000 - 80,000 characters and the scope of the master thesis comprises 50,000 - 100,000 characters; this information relates to the main text, i.e. excluding appendix and references.
Number and Form of Submission
For Master's and Bachelor's theses:- One bound copy and, if necessary, additional copies for additional external supervisors
- The printed thesis (A4, double-sided) must be submitted in perfect binding
Structure
The thesis should contain the following parts in the order listed:
- Front page
-
Abstract (short summary)
In German and English, a maximum of 250 words each -
Table of contents
With indication of page numbers -
Main part
- Figures are numbered and labeled and must be referenced in the text. The numbering is made up of the number of the chapter and a serial number for illustrations within the chapter: <chapter no.>. <Serial no. for pictures>
- Tables are numbered and labeled and must be referenced in the text. The numbering is made up of the number of the chapter and a serial number for tables within the chapter: <chapter no.>. <Serial no. for tables>
- Code examples that exceed 20 lines or half a page of text are to be given in the appendix
-
Glossary (optional)
Definitions or brief explanations of terms, symbols and abbreviations -
Appendix (optional)
Code, technical details, listings, supplementary images, etc. - List of figures (optional)
- List of tables (optional)
-
Index (optional)
Alphabetical list of important keywords with page numbers of their mention. If the keyword in question occurs in several places, but is defined at a certain point or described in particularly detailed manner, the page number belonging to this point should be highlighted in bold. -
Bibliography
Contains all sources cited in the work, such as books, articles, specifications or texts that are on websites. Web references (see below) can be listed separately or included in the bibliography. -
Declaration of independence
"I hereby declare that I wrote the present work myself, marked all citations as such and indicated all sources and resources used." With date and signature.
Formatting
By using the LaTeX template, formatting is no longer necessary. The use of the template is mandatory. The template is optimized for double-sided printing.
Supplementary Files
- Electronic version of the work in the original format (e.g. LaTeX, OpenOffice Writer, Word document), in PDF format and, by arrangement, in HTML
- If applicable, all software with source code created as part of the work
- If necessary, all (!) Data collected as part of the work (e.g. from user studies). If these exceed the capacity of a DVD, an alternative transfer of the data must be discussed with the supervisor (e.g. USB stick, external hard drive).
- If necessary, pictures, videos
- Sources cited in the work that are available in electronic form (e.g. articles from the web or specifications as PDF)
- Software used in the work, as far as legally permitted
- Slides from presentations on the work
Notes on Content
The following section is to be understood as a pragmatic (incomplete) collection of information. For more detailed information, refer to the listed sources of literature.
A project or diploma thesis is to be regarded as a scientific work and must be designed accordingly both in terms of form and content. Formulations should be kept in a correspondingly functional style:
- Simple and concrete formulations without unnecessary filler words
- Careful distinction between the presentation of facts and one's own assessment / opinion
- When writing German, avoidance of the first and second person ("I / We" form)
- When writing English, avoidance of the first person ("I" form) and passive voice
- If the thesis is written in German, and if an appropriate German term is also available for an English technical term, then the latter is generally to be preferred.
Introduction
- Introduces the topic, taking into account questions such as:
-
- Motivation for working on the topic
- Principal methods to be used to solve the problem
- Gives an overview of the starting point of the work, ie the current state of research in the subject area. Depending on the scope, the state of research is often dealt with in a separate chapter, which usually follows the introduction.
- Should not be divided into several sub-chapters
- Should not end with an overview of the individual chapters.
Main Part
- Clear, logical structure
- Chapters that are as balanced as possible (in terms of scope and number of sub-chapters)
- All work contains as little redundancy as possible
- Is also well structured within the individual chapters or sections
- Chapters and sub-chapters always begin with a very short introduction (usually 1-3 sentences that explain what to expect in the following)
- Short, meaningful headings in a consistent style
- Description of concepts. Technical details, such as source code, extensive lists, supplementary images, etc. are included in the appendix.
Conclusion
- Picks up theses or questions from the introduction again
- Summarizes the work succinctly and concisely
- Arranges the results in an overall context
- Draws conclusions from the results obtained
- May also contain your own reviews or opinions
- Provides an outlook on possible consequences or necessary further problems to be solved
General
- The work is intended to provide the reader with as precise an understanding as possible both of all thematically relevant facts and of the overall context in the shortest possible time
- Leaving out unimportant information as briefly and precisely as possible, avoiding unnecessary digressions
- General knowledge from the subject area, e.g. content from the basic computer science course, can usually be assumed to be known and do not need to be introduced further in the work. All other terms and facts are to be introduced to the reader.
- All statements must be substantiated and justified by means of sources, unless they are part of the generally recognized general knowledge of computer science.
Citations and References
In the following, citation and source indication techniques that are important for scientific and technical literature are described. Traditional procedures such as the indication of the source by means of comments and footnotes (common especially in humanities subjects) are dispensed with. Notes and footnotes should be used sparingly or not at all in our context.
General Rules
-
Basically, quotes that have been adopted and incorporated into one's own academic work must always be identified as such. This applies not only to texts, but also to photos, illustrations, graphics, tables and the like. A distinction is made between
- literal (true to original) quotations and
- non-literal (analogous) quotations, so-called paraphrases.
-
Quotes should be short.
In technical papers, as well as notes and footnotes, citations should be used sparingly. If a quote is still available, it should be short. -
Quotations must be precise and accurate in content and form.
In other words, in the case of literal quotations, a text must be reproduced precisely in its spelling and punctuation, which also applies to typographical errors and outdated spellings. Any quotation that is put into a new context must keep its original meaning. -
Quotations must be immediate.
In other words, they should come from the original text and not be taken over from "second hand". Only in exceptional cases - if the original literature cannot be obtained - quoting from "second hand" is permitted. It then needs to be labeled with the addition "cited in", followed by an indication of the secondary source. -
Citations should be appropriate.
In other words, they should fit into the context of your own presentation and be cleverly integrated into the running text.
Special rules of verbatim quotation
When writing scientific papers, one should also know and master those techniques of verbatim quotation that relate to changing the form of the text (e.g. inserting a quotation into one's own sentence structure through grammatical adjustments). These techniques are rarely used in technical literature, however, reference is made at this point to the further literature at the end of the document.
In the case of English quotations, it can be assumed that the readership of the academic work is able to speak the language, so that a translation is not necessary and quotations can be reproduced in literal English.
Method of citing the source
To prove the origin of a text passage taken literally or analogously from the literature, it is customary in technical literature to indicate the source by means of brackets. The reference to the source is made in the running text immediately after the quotation or the presentation of a situation by specifying alphabetical or numerical keys in square brackets. Each key identifies an entry in the bibliography, which contains the detailed bibliographical information. There are a large number of variants for creating the keys. The consecutive numbering and the formation of a key from the author's last name and year of publication is very common. In the case of an alphabetical key, it is quoted in the work from different works of an author,
Creation of a bibliography
By using the LaTeX template, formatting the bibliography is no longer necessary. The use of the specified bibliography formatting is mandatory. Links to websites must be incorporated as footnotes in the running text.
Further reading
Further literature on the creation of scientific papers:
- Justin Zobel, Writing for Computer Science: The Art of Effective Communication, Springer- Verlag, Heidelberg, 1997.
- Dieter Scholz, Diplomarbeiten normgerecht verfassen: Schreibtipps zur Gestaltung von Studien-, Diplom- und Doktorarbeiten, Vogel Verlag, Würzburg, 2001.
- Marcus Deininger, Horst Lichter, Jochen Ludewig, Kurt Schneider, Studienarbeiten - ein Leitfaden zur Vorbereitung, Durchführung und Betreuung von Studien-, Diplom- und Doktorarbeiten am Beispiel Informatik, Verlag B. G. Teubner, Zürich, Stuttgart, 1993
- Wilhelm Petersen, Wissenschaftliche(s) Arbeiten. Eine Einführung für Schüler und Studenten, 6. Auflage, Oldenbourg Verlag, München, 1999
- Klaus Poenicke, Duden. Wie verfasst man wissenschaftliche Arbeiten? Ein Leitfaden vom ersten Semester bis zur Promotion, 2. Auflage, Duden Verlag, Mannheim, 1988