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Norwegian Bokmål

Planning Your Thesis

Planning your thesis

Writing can be a messy and frustrating process with many steps back and forth. For most of us, it is a process of reading, thinking, and writing, and there are many things happening at the same time, for example finding information, reading a bit, writing a bit, reading a little bit more, moving text around, writing a little bit more, talking to someone, writing about something, reading, deleting etc. It can be useful knowing of some different methods to use to get started, but of course you decide what is most useful for you.

Interpreting the assignment

If you are working on a thesis with an assignment text, like an exam, it is important to understand what you are being asked to do. Read the text closely and look for command words, as they often decide your position as the author.

Command words

Here are some common command words: 

analyse 
describe 
account for 
explain 
discuss

The use of these words can make a significant difference in how an assignment is interpreted and can make thematically similar assignments turn out quite different in style.

Eksempler - planlegge oppgaven

Examples

Account for immigration policies in Norway from 2013 to 2016.   
In this example you are simply asked to recount facts. This requires little involvement of your own; tone down your personal voice, because you are simply asked to present key facts and statistics about the topic. 
Analyse immigration policies in Norway from 2013 to 2016. 
This example calls for the writer to have a clearer voice, because you are asked to analyse the policies. This means not only recounting facts, but also analysing what these facts mean. 
Discuss immigration policies in Norway from 2013 to 2016. 
This assignment requires a very clear voice and stance. When writing this text, you need to discuss implications, perceived advantages and disadvantages, as well as perceived strong and weak points of the policies. This means that you also need to offer up your own evaluations of the policies.

When interpreting an assignment, it is also important to keep in mind that there might be more than just one command word. If we continue with the examples from above, one possible assignment could have been “Account for the immigration policies in Norway from 2013 to 2016 and discuss whether or not they have been good or bad for the Norwegian economy.” In this assignment you are first asked to account for the policies, and then to discuss them. This involves structuring your text in two parts, where you first present facts and figures about the policies, and then discuss their implications and level of success.

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