Japanese: Bachelor‘s Degree Thesis

On completion of the course, students will be able to:

• explain and discuss detailed and current knowledge within academic fields related to Japanese literature, linguistics, cultural anthropology, or translation studies
• formulate relevant questions and an independent plan for an academic study that can be completed within a set time
• search for and evaluate the usefulness of material relevant to the study and use it in an independent and creative way
• take into account relevant issues related to research ethics when carrying out the study
• argue for the strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical perspectives and give reasons for their use in an academic study
• present a completed scholarly project in writing in English or Japanese using logically convincing language and detailed arguments
• give due consideration to the structure of an academic paper, its references, footnotes and quotations
• evaluate their own scholarly process and apply the conclusions of this evaluation
• give constructive criticism on the work of another student and deal with the criticism of others in an objective way.

The course consists of an individual scholarly project within a subject area related to Japanese literature, linguistics, cultural anthropology, or translation studies. It begins with a seminar in which students present the planning of their own project. Most of the course consists of independent scholarly work and supervision. Supervision can take place individually or in groups depending on the situation. The project is presented in the form of a degree thesis that is defended at the final seminar. The thesis can be written in English or Japanese and must be about 8,000 - 10,000 words if written in English or 24,000 - 30,000 characters if written in Japanese. The thesis abstract must be written in English.

• Active participation during supervision
• A written degree thesis
• Oral defence of the degree thesis
• Oral review of another student’s degree thesis

The grading scale used for the final course grade is A–F.

Grades are reported as follows:

• Degree Thesis - 15 Credits | A–F

This course overlaps previous course codes GJP23Y and JP2011.

Students are only entitled to supervision the first time they take this course and in accordance with the information in the course handbook.