Writing Mentoring WiSe 2024

In the Winter semester 2024, "Writing Mentoring" will take place again at the Faculty of Physics.

Academic writing is a academic key-qualification. Interested students meet with specially trained writing mentors in writing groups that meet regularly throughout the semester to work on their writing. All information on dates and locations you can find here: https://ctl.univie.ac.at/en/services-for-students/during-the-degree-programme/writing-mentoring/overview-of-all-study-programs/

Who can participate at the writing mentoring?

All students of the Faculty (Bachelor studnets from the second semester onwards), who have to submit texts for their course - from a summary to a written paper - and are interested in writing and working strategies as well as feedback on their texts.

The writing groups are an extra-curricular service. There are no ECTS credits for this, but the opportunity to work together on texts that have to be written for courses anyway. It's also more fun together!

How can I register for writing mentoring?

If you are interested, simply come to the (first) session of the writing mentoring group, which takes place weekly on Monday, 6:15-7:45pm in Erwin-Schrödinger lecture hall starting at October 28th. Prior registration is not necessary.

The team of writing mentors, Valentina Perner and Martin Gessoni, is looking forward to seeing many familiar and (still) unfamiliar faces.

Further information for scientific writing and working in the context of multilingualism you can find here: https://ctl.univie.ac.at/en/services-for-students/during-the-degree-programme/scientific-writing-and-working-in-the-context-of-multilingualism/

Bachelor's Seminar & Bachelor's Thesis

As provisioned by the curriculum, the Bachelor’s Thesis is written in the “Bachelorseminar” course in the module “Bachelorseminar” and the results are presented orally in the form of talks. In the curriculum 7 ECTS are designated for the Bachelor’s Seminar.

In practice, this means:

The Bachelor’s Seminar is focused on the writing of the Bachelor’s Thesis. In detail, this consists of the analysis and interpretation of already collected data and not the methods of data collection or data collection itself. Hence, it is highly advised to obtain the necessary data in a prior course (e.g. WLPs) especially if the Bachelor’s Thesis is written about an experimental topic. Alternatively, Bachelor’s Thesis topics (“Literaturarbeiten” – theses based on literature) are presented in the preliminary meeting of the Bachelor’s Seminar and available for students with no collected data from a prior elective course. In certain cases, an independent data collection according to prior knowledge stemming from a WLP/WPF course is necessary.

The Bachelor’s Thesis supervisors are part of the Bachelor’s Seminar as teachers. They support the students in the process of writing the thesis and grade it as well as the presentation of the results.
To pass the Bachelor’s Seminar it is necessary to get a positive grade on the presentation and to submit a valid Bachelor’s Thesis on time. Further, the modalities for the Bachelor’s Seminar announced on u:find apply.

A doctoral degree is a prerequisite for the supervision of Bachelor's theses.

Please note:

  • To attend the Bachelor’s Seminar at least 90 ECTS points from the compulsory module groups A-C have to be completed.
  • The requirements are verified directly with the online registration.
  • The checklist of the office of the Studienpräses for the use of images as well as the legal guide for "Considering Copyright in Scientific Works" (both in German).
  • Typically, the Bachelor’s Thesis comprises 15-20 pages of text, excluding data/graphs/references.
  • The latest possible time for submission of the Bachelor’s Thesis is September 30th for the summer term and April 30th for the winter term. After that a correction is no longer possible as the grading by the supervisor has to happen latest on those dates.

Best practice model for a Bachelor's Thesis

Students proactively ask the lecturers of courses from the elective section (WLPs, WPFs) for Bachelor’s Thesis topics and if those can be done in their course.
When a supervisor is found and a topic agreed on, the student joins with reference to their supervisor next semester’s Bachelor’s Seminar and writes the thesis. This requires a registration in due time for the BACHSE in the registration period of the respective semester.
It is also possible to simultaneously take the WLP/WPF and BACHSE courses. For this purpose, a timely agreement with the supervisor on the topic is necessary already at the start of the WLP/WPF course. Furthermore, the lecturer of the BACHSE has to be informed timely (before the deregistration deadline) about supervision and topic. Students have to take care to register in due time for both courses.

Withdrawal from BACHSE:

Students who registered for the BACHSE, but did not find any topic and supervision until the deregistration deadline, are deregistered by the lecturers of the BACHSE without any consequence.

Repetition of the Bachelor's seminar in the case of partial non-fulfilled/not positively fulfilled partial performances:

Students who lack only partial performances for a positive completion, e.g.: timely completion of the Bachelor’s Thesis or presentation of the thesis, can participate again at the BACHSE in the following semester with the same topic and supervisor after an individual consultation with the supervisor and the lecturer. This is possible, provided the following:

  • In any case, the student had to be graded (positive/negative), otherwise no repeated timely registration is possible in the registration period.
  • The supervisor agrees to the continued supervison.
  • In any event, together with the lecturer and the supervisor on has to decide on which partial performances are recognized for the repeated course and which still have to be delivered.