Bachelor’s Thesis Process Double Degree Programme Building Services Engineering (BSE) Marianna Luoma, MSc, PhD

Structure of the Bachelor’s Thesis Introduction The aim of the study is written at the end of the introduction Literature review / Theory part Method Results and analysis of results Discussion This structure is widely used in research reports and scientific articles.

The duration of the project 15 ECTS equals about 400 hours of work which equals 2-3 months of full time studying The final version of the thesis report About 30 pages Checked by Urkund for text plagiarizing Oral presentation to teachers and students Written test (called maturity test)

Research oriented approach Accurate concepts Systematic and transparent working methods Developed data acquisition and analyzing methods Source critisism Justification of research results and validity of the evidences Well-founded conclusions The use of literature sources Proper reference markings Text plagiarizing is not allowed

The roles of the student and the supervisor The roles of the student and the supervisor may differ from the roles that students have in their home university Student The role is clarified in the ”Bachelor’s thesis guide” Independent working is emphasized Working method is research-oriented The rules of honesty and reliability should be followed Professional and linguistic supervisor Guides and assists the student through the project Sets the dead lines

Introduction Introduces the work to readers Is normally quite short (1-4 pages) Typically have three components Small talk Aim of the study / research problem Structure of the study Some supervisors likes to have a sentence: ”The aim of the study is ..”

Literature review Researchers never start from scratch but base their work to earlier works done by other scientists In literature review the writer shows that he or she knows the basic concepts of the research area and studies done earlier in that field In literature review, the standard referencing styles are used Language teacher helps with this Literature review is sometimes also called as the theory part

Own contribution Own contribution can be e.g.: Laboratory experiment Field experiments Survey Case study Simulations with a software program Testing The corresponding chapters in the thesis are: method, results

Analysis of results / Discussion This study was designed to … The main results showed … Specifically, …. Furthermore, … (less important results, but still worth mentioning) The results supported an earlier finding … and/or … Compared to earlier studies … This finding suggests… In conclusion, … / The main implication of this study … Need for further research…

Starting the Bachelor’s thesis during the spring term Selecting the field and topic Select the field of your thesis Discuss it with the supervisor Literature Study literature Write a literature review Discuss the review with the supervisor Research plan Write a research plan Discuss the plan with your supervisor