USESEC125 Basics of Scientific Work

Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Summer 2018
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Michal Kuděla (lecturer)
Mgr. Michal Kuděla (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Dušan Janák, Ph.D.
Institute of Central European Studies – Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course is composed of three blocks; their aim is to prepare the students for matters related to their studies at university and principles of scientific work from which the university studies result. The first block will make the students familiar with a principle of functioning of university, its position in the frame of educational system in the Czech Republic, history of the university and basic principles of its functioning. The second block is dedicated to the issue of obtaining information and a work with it. Therefore, the teaching in this block contents the presentation of options of acquisition of information (excursion to library; basics of work in archive; overview of crucial scientific journals in the field of study in the Czech Republic and abroad; use of electronic databases; matter of appropriate selection of sources including the ability to distinguish their quality). The third block is focused on practical skills and basic abilities in a work with scientific text and its creation. Gradually, the students will become familiar with the types of academic texts (review, study, article, monograph, popularization article etc.) and the requirements which are to be observed for writing such types of texts (structure of work, introduction to work, main text of work, conclusion, bibliography etc.) This block puts emphasis also on an ethic side of scientific work and an issue of plagiarism.
Syllabus
  • 1st week
    Lecture + seminar: Welcome to the Silesian University in Opava
    A brief history of the university and its introduction, structure + personalities, the significant graduates. The means of university teaching, basic rules.
    2nd week
    lecture: information, information, information or where to search ?
    The basics of searching for scientific sources of information, their types (primary and secondary), basic overview of the periodicals according to a field of study
    seminar: Excursion to university library (or archive)
    3rd week
    lecture: What is science?
    seminar: examples of researches in the social sciences
    4th week
    lecture: scientific work and text (how to read and write a scientific text?)
    seminar: practical examples of types of academic texts
    5th week
    lecture + seminar Methods of scientific work
    Basic, brief overview of approaches to research of world around us
    + assignment of task 1 for the next seminar; study the introduction of text of "model" study (according to a given field of study), determination of key places, prepare a summary of introduction´s content of the assigned study (100 words)
    6th week
    lecture: What is the introduction of work and what is it for?
    Presentation of basic requisites of text´s introduction, its structure etc. (aim, research question, etc.)
    seminar: exercising of the lecture´s content - work with introduction of a selected scientific text and its analysis (see previous task)
    + assignment of task 2 for the next seminar; study the core of the text of a "model" study (according to a given filed), marking the key places (theory, used method, introduction of results), prepare a summary of content of the text´s core of the given study (100 words)
    7th week
    lecture: Core of the text
    seminar: exercising of lecture´s content, discussion (see previous task)
    + assignment of task 3 for the next seminar; study the conclusion of a "model" study (according to a given field), prepare a summary of conclusions of the assigned study (100 words), analysis of used sources of the given study
    8th week
    lecture: work´s conclusion and its sources
    seminar: exercising the lecture´s content - work with conclusion of a selected scientific text and its analysis (see previous task)
    9th week
    lecture: formal requisites of work
    seminar: practical exercises (how to generate a content, list of tables, charts, footnotes, basics of typography)
    10th week
    lecture: citation standards
    seminar: practical exercises of quotations from various sources (monograph, article, electronic source, sources, conference speech, video etc.)
    11th week
    lecture: ethics in scientific work and issue of plagiarism
    seminar: practical examples (what is and what is not plagiarism, direct quotation vs. paraphrase, etc. )
    12th week
    lecture: presentation of a scientific work, creation of presentation, structure, performance)
    seminar: Practical examples and pieces of advice. How to present own work, defence of scientific work, intelligible formulation of content etc.)
Literature
    required literature
  • MARE3, Jiří. Přehledové studie: jejich typologie, funkce a způsob vytváření". " Pedagogická orientace, 2013, roč. 23, č. 4, s., 2013. info
  • ŠANDEROVÁ, Jadwiga a Alena MILTOVÁ. Jak číst a psát odborný text ve společenských vědách: několik zásad pro začátečníky. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství, 2005. ISBN 80-86429-40-7. info
  • Spousta, V. Jak psát recenze. Pedagogická orientace, 2003. ISBN 1211-4669. info
    recommended literature
  • ŠESTÁK, Zdeněk. Jak psát a přednášet o vědě. Praha: Academia, 2000. ISBN 80-200-0755-5. info
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
Teacher's information
The course is to be completed by a written exam testing the knowledge of the students acquired during the course. The test will be performed on PC and will comprise questions including information from all three blocks of the course. The reason for the form of a test written on PC is that the test will include also practical testing of knowledge of work with databases in searching for scientific sources and their citations.
The final marking will comprise also continuous completion of tasks which will be a part of the third block (work with text). This part will constitute 30% of a total grade of the course. The remaining 70% of a grade are constituted by a final written exam.
The course is also listed under the following terms Summer 2017, Summer 2019, Summer 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Summer 2018, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fvp/summer2018/USESEC125