Thesis / dissertation

Sample of the type of thesis asking on attachment !!!!!

Theme: Environmental & Business concerns

SUBJECT: Obstacles and barriers to the development of sustainability strategies in companies.

Within 10 days -let’s say by February 6th- I will ask you to send me a file with :

1 – Refined and justified problem of your subject: you are going to explain me your “problem” (which is not really a problem yet) because for the moment I can imagine many things behind your title;; also want to work on :
– The nature of the obstacles and barriers you identify?
– The way in which companies overcome them or on the contrary fail to overcome them?
– Both of these aspects?

– Do you want to identify a particular sector? Yes ? No ? Which one(s)?
– Or a particular type of business?

– Do you want to make comparisons?
– etc… you see I can imagine a lot of things…

2 – Issues at stake in this reflection: what are you going to bring through your work compared to what already exists in the literature on the subject?
Why is this subject interesting on a personal, professional, scientific, methodological etc…??

3 – Bibliography of 6 or 7 articles that will help you to better understand the subject.

4 – Plan your work: distinguish two parts with :
– for the first one : the literature review

– and for the second one: the empirical part: which method (quanti or quasi or both?) should be used? Rather exploratory or confirmatory?).

Then I will give you a “GO” for redaction after my chief validated this first work.

Here below some information about what the thesis document must contain :

The dissertation (60 to 70 pages) represents real research, in which you report and analyze a terrain using a conceptual and theoretical framework solidly defined and controlled. Your field and its analysis must not be a simple illustration of a concept and a notion: they are the very heart of your demonstration. The Master 2 thesis, especially – but not only – if you want to continue with your thesis, is the result of a process by which you have donned the researcher’s clothes

introduction → 3-4 pages minimum, usually 4-5 pages

1) A catchphrase (a situation, image, text, interview extract, document…) which allows the

the reader to get to the heart of the matter (avoid introductions such as de

all the time men…)

2) Contextualization (especially for history dissertations)

3) Presentation of the theme, the field of research.

4) Presentation of the theoretical and conceptual framework

5) State of the art which situates the contribution of your dissertation to the research in progress

6) Formulation of the research problem and hypotheses ;

7) Presentation of the plan ;

8) Presentation of the sources/field

Warning! these objectives are general; adjustments/precisions must be made according to the discipline.

The body of the dissertation will generally consist of three or four chapters, which should be as balanced as possible. The plan can follow a chronological order, or to unfold the different moments of your logical argumentation. Each end of chapter must include a transition to the next chapter.

The brief will end with a conclusion (5 to 10 pages), which will come back :

– on the main conclusions that can be drawn from the research and analysis carried out ;

– on the contributions and limitations of the work;

– on the possible extensions to be given to it.

Cover of the brief

It will include :

– the surname, first name of the student,

– the title of the dissertation,

– the name(s) of the director(s) of the dissertation and their institutional affiliation,

– the year and the month in which the dissertation was presented,

– the name of your institution (Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 – IHEAL).

– A photo, map, illustration (with its caption indicated on the same page or the page next) is welcome.

Format

Paper size: A4, print double-sided

Font: Times Roman size 12 for body text and size 10 for footnotes.

Line spacing: 1,5

Margins: 25 mm on each side

Number the pages in the top right-hand corner (except the cover page) and continuously.

Remember to justify (left and right alignment) your text!

Presentation of figures and tables

Figures, maps and tables

The author is completely free to create or add diagrams, figures, tables, maps, photos, plans, etc… taking care to make them legible.

A caption must be added and they must be numbered. It is imperative to indicate the source (own production or external source). A distinction is made between illustrations, figures, tables and cards. At the end of the memory, a summary must be added to list them and indicate their

location (page) in the memory.

Presentation of the bibliography

It must be classified by theme and in alphabetical order. For each title, the nature of the support (individual/collective work, thesis, journal article, etc.) must be taken into account.

They should not be classified by nature (book, article, etc…). The bibliography should always be classified by major themes and, within each major theme, in alphabetical order. It is important to make a clear distinction between what comes under sources (primary and secondary) on the one hand, and the bibliography on the other hand: these are both headings quite distinct from the annexes presented at the end of the memorandum. Organizing your

bibliography implies going from the most general to the most particular. To have identified beforehand the keywords of your subject is essential. Example of the subject: Brazilian cultural diplomacy in the inter-war period

Organization of the Bibliography :

Primary Sources

Secondary sources

Bibliography

– International relations

International relations in the inter-war period

Cultural diplomacy

– Brazil

General History of Brazil

History of Brazil in the period studied

– Brazil in international relations

Brazil’s foreign policy

Brazilian cultural diplomacy

Footnotes are guided by a spirit: in order to make what one proposes for others to think about “verifiable”, one must reference, justify, “prove” WITH PRECISION all that

that one writes, without losing the fluidity of reading. Making this effort to justify everything very often makes it possible to make discoveries. Avoid quotations of the type “according to So-and-so who quotes X…” always try to go to the primary source.

The footnote is part of the periphery of the text; it can improve the text by making it clearer and richer. It is reserved for additional information, for

brackets (small digressions in the reflection), to explanations that do not have a central argumentative value for the text. What is said in notes is not useless but simply secondary to the main thread of the text.