Admission requirements
Students must have passed:
min. 2 BA2-seminars
BA2 Productie IIb
BA2 Studieverblijf Japan or BA2 Productie IIc
BA2 Kanji IIa
BA2 Teksten IIa
Propedeuse
Description
This course is designed to assist students in the production of their BA thesis, and to improve students’ related capacities in the reading, analysis, and discussion of Japanese language texts. It is conducted in weekly sessions, with an even distribution of academic content and language portions in terms of time, weight, and assessments. There will in principle be at least one seminar for each content “cluster” (LL, MACH, PEIR, SC), with the “content” portion of each taught by an instructor from each respective cluster, and the language portion taught by instructor(s) from the language section. Having already identified a BA thesis topic and conducted preliminary research in the autumn, students are required to complete the bulk of their BA thesis research (including locating and reading at least one Japanese language source) and post an outline of their BA thesis before the first class meeting.
The first two meetings (1-2) are “content” sessions devoted to discussion and mutual feedback on these outlines (students are required to post feedback on one another’s work on Blackboard);
the subsequent three sessions (3-5) are “language” sessions in which students will work on creating a wiki article related to their thesis;
in sessions 6-7 (“content”) they will make work-in-progress presentations and give/receive mutual feedback on draft thesis chapter(s) submitted on Blackboard before session 6, which include a literature review;
in sessions 8-10 (“language”) they will conduct a discussion on each wiki article and take part in a vocabulary quiz;
the final two sessions (11-12), which take place after the submission of their BA thesis first draft, are devoted to mutual discussion and feedback on these drafts (including Blackboard posts).
Course objectives
“Content” Component
The completion of a successful BA thesis on the basis of instruction on effective writing strategies, discussion and making of outlines, chapters, and a complete thesis rough draft in a logical order, and the giving and receiving of constructive peer feedback.“Language” Component
1) Learning vocabulary and academic expressions on a topic related to each student’s thesis.
2) Participating in Q&A activities on academic topics.
3) Commenting on short academic texts in Japanese.
4) Writing a summary of thesis in Japanese.
Timetable
Visit MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Grading in all BA3 afstudeerseminars is divided 50/50 between the “content” component and the “language” component. The final grade is calculated in as ‘weighted average’ (‘gewogen gemiddelde’), and not based on passing all the components. Please, note that the participation rule applies to both components of this course. Student who miss more than 30% of classes without any proof of extenuating circumastances will automatically fail this seminar.
“Content” Component
Participation: 50% (incl. attendance, in-class presentations, in-class participation)
Written Assignments: 50% (incl. thesis outline, literature review)
“Language” Component
Written Assignments: 60％
Vocabulary Quiz 20％
Oral Presentation 20％
Debriefing:
Students may make an individual appointment with the instructor within 30 days of the announcement of the exam grades in order to view their exam.
Resit:
Students who end up with an average grade of both components which falls lower than 6 can submit an abstract of their thesis in Japanese. This will be counted as a resit of the entire course. It is possible for students to submit this abstract until December 10, which is the deadline of re-submitting their theses (if they failed to meet the June 1 deadline).
Reading list
To be announced in class.
Registration
Inschrijven via uSis is verplicht.
Algemene informatie over uSis vind je op de website