Teaching and Supervision at NCT
Module Certificates
The (already filled out) certificates have to be handed in at the administration office in Erlangen Kochstraße 4 with Ms. Steiner or the administration office in Nuremberg Fürther Straße 246c with Ms. Schöttner.
Guideline to the writing of seminar and final papers at the chair “Technology – Labour – Society” at NCT/IfS FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg
As of 06/2018
This guideline is designed to help students interested in writing a paper at the chair. It is recommended to keep the following four “ground rules” in mind, even when deciding on a topic:
- The topic has to interest the student
- The topic has to be completed in the time asked by the lecturer
- The literature has to be accessible for the students and they should be able to understand and use them effectively
- The methodological requirements should correspond with the knowledge of the student
Please make shure that these criteria are appicable to you and your topic of choice: If you plan your paper accurately and realisticly, it will be easier for you to actually write and there will be a high chance that you will be satisfied with the final result.
To start planing your paper we recommend you to write an exposé. This is designed for you to write about your area of research, your questions and the (methodical) procedure. If you plan to write you final thesis (bachelor or master) you are required to write an exposé of about one page, additionally you will have to send in an outline draft and a first list of literature. Please send these to marco.m.blank@fau.de. This step is designed to gain clarity about your current process for us and for you. The goal is to create a good base for a successfull cooperation and a high-quality (and managable) final paper as well as an opportuninty for us to assign you the best fitting supervisor.
The following tips should help you to structure, construct and design your paper.
Formal Contents: A scientific paper consists of preliminaries (title page, if nec. prelude, contents, if nec. list of figures, tables, and/or illustrations), written passages (introduction, main chapter, conclusion) as well as appendices (if nec. appendix, bibliography, if nec. list of sources)
Citation: Please take care to correctly and fully cite as part of writing your papers – this includes citation as well as paraphrasing (writing the thoughts of other authors in your own words). To cite in text you have to list the last name of the authors (or “et. al.” when there are three or more authors), the year of the publication and if nec. the page. Should you cite or paraphrase multiple publications by an author/authors please use the alphabet to make it visible which publication you are using (“a”, “b” and so on). You are able to choose how you cite, f. e. “(Adorno 2003: 57)” or “(Adorno 2003, S.57)”, but please take care to use the same citation style throughout the whole paper. You are able to add the name of the author inside the continuous text as weel, f. e. “Adorno (2003: 57) writes” or “as Adorno (2003, S. 57) explains”.
Bibliography: Please take care to be thorough, work alphabetically, chronologically -when using more than one publication by an author/multiple authors- and for the bibliography to be uniform. Should there be a DOI for the publication do not forget to add this. Per publication take care to follow the list below:
- Monographies; “Last Name, First Name (year of publication): Title of monography. Place of publication: Publisher.” or “Last Name, First Name (year of publication): Title of monography, place of publication, publisher.”
- Essays in books: “Last Name, First Name (year of publication): Title of essay. Editor: Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher.”
- Journal Articles: “Last Name, First Name (year of publication): Title of Journal. (Volume)Issue, p.xx-xx.” Please do not forget the page numbers.
Online sources: Sources online have to be added using the same rules already listed. Please add the exact URL as well as the time of your last access. Grey literature, literature accessible as PDFs online, is to be handled like printed publications. You will have to list the place of publication, the URL and the last time of access.
Formatting and font: Please use justified text, one and a half line spacing and a standart font (like Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Helvetica ect.)
Sent in your papers as readable PDF!
We are excited to work with you and to read your paper!