This course supports students of informatics in all aspects with regards to writing their MA thesis. The aim is to learn to understand scientific writing as a thinking and working process,to optimize writing between target production (thesis) and individual process orientation (time and work management),to develop scientific reading, research, and documentation skills, andto consolidate individual knowledge of scientific text standards.

Input, exercises, and assignments: collective discussions, single- and group work, techniques and strategies from the field of writing didactics and writing consultation, peer-feedback, text-feedback, and guided revising. PowerPoint slides of each session as well as other materials will be provided on Moodle.

time-management and process-planningdescribing one's project and placing it into a larger contextnarrowing down a topic (formulating a title) and formulating (a) research question(s)research and documentation: reading, excerpting, and referencing/citingcontent-planning: establishing a preliminary structurecohesion and coherencechapters and contents of a thesis: from introduction to conclusionthe theoretical part of a thesisformal prerequisites and norms of a thesisfeedback on already drafted passages

Students should be planning or already drafting their thesis or attend a Master Seminar, as the aim of the course is to work on the concrete writing project throughout the semester.

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A selection of reference literature, guidebooks, and helpful links will be provided during the course of the semester.

Active participation is expected. Timely upload of several assignments during the semester is requested. Students will receive feedback on all uploaded assignments. 

A portfolio must be uploaded at the end of the semester containing the original assignments plus a revised version. Two paragraphs of any part of the thesis should be added to the portfolio.

Active participation. Timely upload of assignments. Complete portfolio with focus on the revised texts.