Writing a good seminar paper Seminar in Software and Service Engineering

Transcription

1 Writing a good seminar paper Seminar in Software and Service Engineering Marjo Kauppinen and Marko Nieminen Department of Computer Science

2 Outline Learning goals of the course Structure of good seminar papers Characteristics of a good seminar paper Systematic analysis of scientific publications Summary 2

3 Learning goals of the course You can deepen your knowledge about an interesting topic of software and service engineering. You learn to define a clear goal by formulating a good research question. You learn to analyse research papers and other material in a systematic way. You learn to report the results of the analysis clearly. 3

4 Structure of good seminar paper 4

5 Structure of good seminar paper the same as the typical structure of the master s thesis the same as the typical structure of scientific publications 5

6 Characteristics of good seminar paper Motivates why the topic and the research question are important and interesting Introduces all the key concepts used in the research question Defines clearly the research question(s) of the paper Is based on the scientific publications 6

7 Characteristics of good seminar paper Describes how systematically you did the literature review How you searched interesting and relevant articles How you selected articles to be analysed How you analysed the selected articles Is written in the past tense (what was done). 7

8 Characteristics of good seminar paper Describes the results of the analysis of the selected publications clearly and in an understandable way based on the research question(s) The structure of the sections and subsections is clear and logical. Headings of the sections and subsections are compact and informative. Contains informative figures and tables that summarise the results of the analysis of the selected papers. 8

9 Characteristics of good seminar paper Summarises clearly the main results i.e. the answers to the research question(s) Analyses critically how well it was possible to answer to the research question(s) i.e. describes what the limitations and weaknesses of the literature review are 9

10 Characteristics of good seminar paper States sharply and clearly conclusions based on the results i.e. what can be said about the research question based on the results. Most challenging part of the seminar paper Requires critical analysis of the main results Requires several iterations 10

11 Characteristics of good seminar paper Reports systematically all the important information about the publication Journal articles Conference articles Books Other material Look at good examples 11

12 Characteristics of good seminar paper Motivation (a couple sentences) Research question (exactly the same way as in the paper) (a couple of sentences) (the main results, focus on this) (the most important conclusion) Abstract is the most important part of the seminar paper. It summarises the main content of the paper. 12

13 Systematic Analysis of scientific publications Research question(s) guides the analysis Depth of the analysis Depth of the analysis Number of papers Analysing the results and conclusions of the publications Comparing the results of the papers and/or combining the results of the papers Analysing critically the research methods of the paper Clear figures and well-structured tables are typically signs of good analysis. The text can be organized systematically based on figures and tables. Do not repeat in the text the same things that can be seen in tables. 13

14 Summary Structure of a good seminar paper including the research question(s) Analysis of the selected publications based on the research question(s) is the corner stone of a good paper. Leave enough time for writing discussion, conclusions and abstract. Do the analysis and writing work iteratively. First complete version by and final version by