Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Week 4: Thesis Questions Answered...

Questions
As the clock continues to countdown to the deadline for the submittal of our initial thesis drafts, I thought it might be helpful to post a couple of my more general question/answer sessions with Laura Monroe, thesis advisor extraordinaire. If you’re anything like me, you shoot her an email every other day, which basically adds up to about a gazillion messages piling up in her inbox. As such I have posted the following FAQs in an effort to help her help us succeed with this first draft.

My Question:

Do we have to follow the order and titling of the components in the outline exactly or are we allowed to rearrange and rename the sections to suit the flow of our individual papers?


Laura’s Answer:

Unfortunately, the outline needs to be followed explicitly. The reason for this is that our panel is used to seeing the outline in a specific way, and know where to look for specific elements. They are used to the order, and our goal is to make things easier for them as they educate themselves on your topic prior to seeing your media project.


My Question:

I know in the last Wimba session Laura stressed a lot of grammatical points for our thesis drafts, particularly the verb tense associated with the sources we cite.

It makes sense to me to use past tense for something like:

In a study of 200 learners, Bates (2005) discovered...

But that for a generally held belief by an author, the present tense seems to be more appropriate. For example:

In discussing the ACTIONS model, Bates (2005) asserts...

Am I wrong? Should I always be using the past tense?


Laura’s Answer:

Generally, if you are talking about a book or a study or a document that has been published in the past, you will put it in the past tense. If it is a theory that is still in practice, like MI, then you can also put it in the present tense. You're correct in stating that the Bates sentence below should be in the past tense as the study of the 200 learners was done in 2005. The study was concluded, and it also is not ongoing. You are also right in regard to the ACTIONS model, as it is still a model that is in use.


My Question:

When listing an electronic source on our references page, Microsoft Word automatically formats any URL into an active link. Should we remove the hyperlink so that the text isn't blue and underlined?


Laura’s Answer:

Yes - please de-link any links!


Image Credit: Stock photography purchased by Emily Wray from http://www.photos.com.

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