Essay

Graded essay in Theory of Science and Scientific Methods

The purpose of this exercise is to give you training in scientific writing and an opportunity to think through how the contents of this course may be applied in a degree project. You will practice both writing in a popular science style and writing in a more scientific style. You will work with an old Bachelor’s Thesis in Computer Science.

The title of your essay is "What does a computer science degree project have to do with science?" and the intended readership is people interested in the second cycle education of Computer Science. The essay should be two or three pages, starting with the following abstract.

"The degree project used to be mainly proof of vocational skills, in particular programming, but recently the focus has shifted to scientific writing and methods. With an old project thesis as an example, we discuss how the new requirements may be met."

  1. Your essay should include an easily readable summary of the thesis intended for a lay-person probably without deep knowledge of computer science. You should give a brief explanation of what the thesis is about and a discussion of its possible interest for a general public. This part should be at least half a page and at most one page long.
  2. Next comes a section with general scientific considerations that come to mind in connection with the project. It may include historical references such as Occam or Galileo, philosophical terms such as anti-realism or the HD-method, statistical concepts such as correlation or null hypothesis, CS themes such as P vs NP and ethical issues. Try to make as much use of the course contents as possible while staying relevant to the topic (no more than one page).
  3. In the final section, you return to the project and give some suggestions about how it might have been carried out and reported with the requirements of a Masters' thesis today (no more than one page). Anna-Karin Högfeldt at the ECE school has been kind enough to lend us the informal translations she uses in her course:

Formal requirements

  • Title page with your name 
  • Second page: Part 1 (Summary)
  • Third page: Part 2 (Scientific considerations)
  • Fourth page: Part 3 (Suggestions)
  • Font size 10pt
  • Your essay must be submitted to KTH-Social no later than January 16, 2017. Upload your file as a pdf on the Assignments page.

Grading

The grading is A-F according to the following criteria. A late essay will not get a higher grade than E.

E: The essay fulfills the formal requirements and is written in clear English in appropriate styles. The writer shows clear understanding of the thesis and the course basics.

C: The writer also gives comments that show broad knowledge in scientific methods and suggests relevant improvements.

A: In addition to the above: The summary is interesting and thought-provoking. Considerations and improvements show deep insight in the theory of science.

Peer review

You have the option of handing in your essay for peer review in peergrade the week before deadline. Handing in your essay for peer review  is not compulsory.

Peer review questions for essay self evaluation.

Linda Kann skapade sidan 28 juli 2016

kommenterade 8 november 2016

When during this period will the essay subjects be handed out?

kommenterade 8 november 2016

"This is preliminary information. Essay subjects will be handed out in period 2."

When will further instruction be given?

Assistent kommenterade 8 november 2016

You will receive your essay subjects next week. 

Assistent Linda Kann ändrade rättigheterna 15 november 2016

Kan därmed läsas av lärare och ändras av lärare.

Assistent Linda Kann ändrade rättigheterna 16 november 2016

Kan därmed läsas av alla och ändras av lärare.
kommenterade 29 november 2016

Concerning question 3. Isn't it quite obvious that a problem and report fit for a bachelor thesis would have a long way to go to be fit for a master's thesis? We're comparing 15 ECTS to 30 and advanced level knowledge.

Assistent kommenterade 29 november 2016

This is a valid argument if your objective is only to prove that a bachelor thesis is not at the same level as a master's thesis.

Your assignment here is to "give some suggestions about how it might have been carried out and reported with the requirements of a Masters' thesis".

kommenterade 29 november 2016

The thing is no matter how a bachelor's thesis is carried out or reported, a bachelor's thesis has a problem and hypothesis which is on undergraduate level. A master's thesis needs to be graduate level where the student shows insight in where current research is and finds a relevant problem which advances academia with a nail, at least this is what is widely expected from a master's thesis. At bachelor level the requirements for the problem is lower.

Assistent kommenterade 30 november 2016

So your first suggestions for improvement concern the problem statement and the hypothesis. This seems to be a good starting point!

kommenterade 8 december 2016

Even with a set font size of 10pt, 3 pages typeset with LaTeX is very different from 3 pages written in Microsoft Word. Why isn't the length of the essay specified as word count? 

kommenterade 9 december 2016

In order to summarize the bachelor thesis, are we expected to talk about he underlying theory as well, or should we focus on the computer science aspect ? 
I'm working on the "A 19-Tone Scale Synthesizer" paper, and I don't understand a single thing about the underlying music theory. Is that a problem ?

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Hi again, 

Since half of the bachelor thesis is about music theory, and since I have zero knowledge in music theory, I would like to have an answer regarding my previous question before I start writing the essay. Should I solely focus on the computer science aspect, or should I also summarize the other half that I simply don't understand ? 

Thanks in advance

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Wow! I have a deep understanding for music theory and would LOVE to have your thesis instead... maybe we could switch? Whaddya say Linda Kann and Jonathan Guichard?

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Absolutely, I'd very happily switch with you. To be honest I was really hopping to work on any project BUT this one. 

Assistent kommenterade 13 december 2016

@Elias @Jonathan Good plan, please do so!

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Mine is about comparisons of native C and Java code in Android apps :)

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Great! @Guichard: I'll send you a mail!

kommenterade 13 december 2016

Anyone interesting in board-games? Totally not my cup of tea.

kommenterade 14 december 2016

"You have the option of handing in your essay for peer review in peergrade before December 20 2016."

Is this still an option? I don't see any hand-in option for the essay on peergrade.io

Assistent kommenterade 15 december 2016

@Nedo: Yes, this is definiely an option. But perhaps the deadline for peer review should be later, say January 9th?

kommenterade 15 december 2016

I would like to submit my essay for peer review too, but the current deadline seems a bit hard to achieve. I think it would indeed be a good idea to have the submission deadline for peer review in the beginning of January.

kommenterade 5 januari 2017

The hand in was supposed to have the deadline at 22:00 but it seems that the deadline was actually at 21:00 and I was unable to upload the essay. Did anyone else face this issue ?

Assistent kommenterade 5 januari 2017

Hmm, I can see hand-ins from 17 and 18 minutes ago so it does not seem to be a problem for everyone. The time is 22:13 now.

kommenterade 6 januari 2017

Regarding the first point(summary), "... an easily readable summary of the THESIS intended". Is this my own thesis, or is it the thesis from the project we are writing about?

Assistent kommenterade 6 januari 2017

We refer to your work as essay, and the Bachelor’s Thesis you are working with as thesis.

kommenterade 7 januari 2017

I'm getting a permission error when I try to upload my essay to KTH Social.

I will e-mail it to you Linda, but maybe others have similar issues.

kommenterade 9 januari 2017

Is there no possibility to add comments or remove files submitted as a student?  

kommenterade 9 januari 2017

The requirement on this page for section three is to give "some suggestions".  However, one of the questions in peergrade is: "Have all seven requirements been checked (omit oral part)?"

Are we required to check all seven requirements?

kommenterade 9 januari 2017

Would also be great if we could get access to the questions from the peergrading even if one didn't decide to turn in for peergrade that way you can still reflect over your own essay if it fulfills the questions. 

Assistent kommenterade 10 januari 2017

@Mattias:

It is possible to add comments, see "Submission comments"

The hand in system does not allow you to remove files, but if you number your submissions (essy1, essay2, essay3) we will look at the last one (essay3).

Peer review questions are now available, see Peer review section above.

Assistent kommenterade 10 januari 2017

@Chaya: This peer review question is intended to force the peer reviewer to check the Masters' thesis requirements in order to be able to give good feedback. You are not required to comment on all seven requirements in your essay.

kommenterade 11 januari 2017

Is it OK to have a fifth page with references?

Assistent kommenterade 11 januari 2017

Yes.

kommenterade 16 januari 2017

It doesn't say anything about references in the description. Should one have references in the essay or is it okay to obmit them if only citing material from the course?

Assistent kommenterade 31 januari 2017

All essays handed in before deadline have now been graded. Please check your results in rapp.

If you have Fx you should also have received an email explaining what you need to do.

kommenterade 31 januari 2017

I missed the deadline because of some personal issues. Will there be a make up assignment for this?

Assistent kommenterade 31 januari 2017

There is now a "Late essay" page where you can hand in late essays!

kommenterade 31 januari 2017

Thanks.

kommenterade 31 januari 2017

Haven't got any result yet. 

En användare har tagit bort sin kommentar
Assistent kommenterade 31 januari 2017

@Martin: Sorry, there was some confusion about your name - now you have been found and reported in rapp!

kommenterade 31 januari 2017

Thank you! 

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