Prospectus

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MA Thesis seminar Translation

Course
2023-2024

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

  • Ability to independently find, process and critically discuss relevant secondary literature

  • Ability to independently select, collect and analyze data

  • Ability to integrate and synthesize findings and relate these to the relevant literature

  • Ability to reflect on findings, limitations and future research

  • Ability to independently write a 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.

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.