Admission requirements
A completed and sufficient (>6.0) BA thesis
Students can start working on their thesis only after they have earned at least 20 EC for MA Translation courses including Translation Studies (5 EC) and a first-semester specialization course (10 EC).
Description
At the start of the academic year, writing an MA thesis may seem like a daunting prospect. The thesis seminar aims to provide you with support in formulating a research question; finding, processing and critically discussing relevant secondary literature; choosing the right methodology; conducting proper analyses; reflecting on your findings as well as limitations and future research; and structuring your chapters – in short, everything you need to know about writing a thesis.
The thesis seminar is only offered in the first semester. Participation is mandatory. Feedback on the thesis proposal is provided via the seminar. Students can only start writing their thesis in the second semester after having successfully completed the seminar, culminating in an approved annotated bibliography and thesis proposal (see Assessment).
The thesis seminar starts with a general information meeting. During this meeting, the different topics will be discussed; these topics are linked directly to the expertise of the available staff. Topics will be broad enough to allow students to explore their own interests within the predefined themes. In principle, students write a thesis on a topic directly related to their specialization (Literary translation; Legal translation; Medical Translation; Multimodal translation & Subtitling), or one of the obligatory courses (Translation Studies; The Translator’s Tools; Advanced Translation).
Course objectives
Knowledge of different areas of translation research
Knowledge of theoretical models of translation
Ability to independently formulate research questions, claims and hypotheses and present these to peers
Ability to independently find, process and critically discuss relevant secondary literature and present summaries of secondary literature to peers
Ability to present an annotated bibliography to peers
Ability to write a thesis proposal with an appropriate research question, methodology and theoretical framework
Ability to independently select, collect and analyze data for a MA thesis
Ability to integrate and synthesize findings and relate these to the relevant literature for an MA thesis
Ability to reflect on findings, limitations and future research in an MA thesis
Ability to independently write an MA thesis that meets the requirements and standards with regard to language use, formality, structuring & formatting, and use of sources
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Independent study
Assessment method
Annotated bibliography (pass/fail)
Thesis proposal (pass/fail)
Both components need to receive a pass before students can start writing their thesis.
Resit
Both components can be resat.
Reading list
A reading list will be made available via Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Reuvensplaats.
Remarks
Not applicable.