Get best of the week

How to programmer write a diploma. Complete guide

Hello everyone, my name is Alexander and this year I am finishing my master's program.

It so happened that now I am writing 2 diplomas or, more correctly, 2 master's theses simultaneously: one in Russian according to Russian standards, and the second - in English according to German standards. Why it happened, I’ll tell you something later (a completely different story), and now, I would like to share my knowledge in the field of writing the work of bachelors and master's theses on the eve of summer defenses.

image

Introduction Foundation of work


As in your diploma, my article should also have an introduction. We will talk about the structure later, but now, I would like to say where it all starts.

And it all starts with the fact that you need to do something , for example, if you are a bachelor, then your work should be more projected (70% Technical part 30% Research part). Usually, the work of bachelors in Computer Science is to create some kind of application that automates a specific task, for example, “Automated library system”.

The work of masters should formally and actually consist more of a research part and a lesser part of a technical part (70/30). But often, programmers do master's work similar to bachelor's work, only in a more advanced version and try to drag any kind of “science” into them.



If you want to write a good diploma, think about it in 1 year, and even better in 2. If you are a bachelor, you can start asking at the department about projects in which you could take part. If the department allows you to write diplomas on your own projects - also good. If you are a master, then the easiest option is to continue to do what you already did in your undergraduate program, try to invent something new or use something existing in a new task. The publication of articles and trips to conferences form the background in order to successfully write your work and be able to protect it.

Personal example:The theme of my bachelor's degree is at the intersection of Computer Science and Natural Language Processing (NLP) and was called: "Development of a dialogue system to help students and university graduates." A sort of university chatbot. In this work, I paid more attention to writing a web application and less examined the individual methods from NLP that I used in my chatbot. In the master's thesis, on the contrary, I pay more attention to specific methods and subtasks. I study the effect of input on output quality, and so on. Application development is given minimal attention, this is the difference.

So what should you do?If you are a bachelor, write an application; if you are a master, do research. In both cases, try to go to conferences and publish articles - this will help lay a solid foundation for the final qualifying work.
When do you need to do this? You need to start 1-2 years before the deadline for graduation, and it costs 1-2 months to complete before graduation. This time you will need to write a report, which we will talk about later.

Why do you need to do this? First of all for yourself. If you can write a simple CRUD application, then you have every chance to go to work as a Junior developer in a local IT desk. And yet, you need to graduate from high school, so you have to write code anyway.

Report writing


Usually, under the diploma, students understand the report, especially such an opinion is popular in Russia. Moreover, I know a person who wrote part of his diploma using a text generator (about which his diploma was). Unfortunately, this approach, in my opinion, is wrong, because the report is just a description of what you have done. And we already talked about what to do in the previous part.

Before writing a report, you need to read scientific articles on your subject, preferably those that you can then use in the list of references to your work. Choose 15-20 articles (50% Russian, 50% foreign) and start to study. You can search for articles here: E Library and Google Scholar. It is also useful to have a couple of full books on your topic, from them you can take fundamental concepts, for example, about the principles of OOP. You can search for books here: Vkontakte Documents OZON . You do not have to read everything in its entirety, but only quickly and consciously go over the main points, later, to clarify the details, you will return to this or that article more than once.

After you become familiar with the literature, you can begin to throw the "skeleton" of your diploma. Where to do it is up to you, usually everyone writes in Word, you can do it in Google Dock, and if you are full and know how to use LaTeX , then look for the appropriate template and write there! The approximate structure of a programmer’s diploma in accordance with GOST 7.32 is as follows:

  • ( )
  • ( , — )
  • ( , « — ...». )
  • ( )
  • ( , , , )
  • 1. ( , )
  • 2. ( — , , )
  • 3. ( — , — , ).
  • ( , , )
  • ( , snoska.info)
  • ( , ..)

I would like to note that chapters 1, 2, 3 can be divided into several chapters, for example, Technical and Theoretical foundations - separately. Also, each of these chapters can and should consist of several subheadings, because a more detailed structure helps to understand its essence by the content of the work. It is recommended in each of the chapters of the main part to write a small introduction and conclusion.

Also, two chapters can be added to this diploma structure: Business Case and Information Protection. It all depends on the requirements of your department or university.

Regarding the design - I would not want to go into details in this article, the requirements are quite fully described in GOST 7.32 .

Personal example:I wrote a bachelor’s diploma in Word, and from that I received a lot of buttherts, now I am writing a diploma in Google Docs and so far I don’t bother about registration. By the way, in Germany there are no strict requirements for registration - the main content. But, about this, in the next article.

So what should you do? Find 15-20 scientific articles and go over them. Create a document in Word (or in something else), distribute its structure in accordance with the content given here and start writing the text step by step. Next, open the GOST and adjust the design.

When is this to be done Start writing a report 2-3 months before graduation.

Why do you need to do this?This is a formality that will allow you to graduate from high school. There is a nice bonus: writing a report helps you structure in your head all the knowledge gained in the process.

Presentation preparation


Okay, you did a great job and wrote a report, it remains to present it beautifully. Start preparing slides when the report is almost complete. The structure of the presentation should approximately correspond to the structure of your report, and the design of the slides individually for each university or department.

What NOT to do:

  • Embed code on slides
  • Paste long algorithms onto slides
  • Write long definitions
  • 100% fill the slide with text

As for the text of the report, write it in a separate document, where for each slide, highlight a bold title to make it easier to navigate. You can practice in front of the mirror, also, remember the thesis of what you need to talk about, it will help you speak on defense without a piece of paper without peeping. I think, if you rummage about your topic, a paper with the text of the report is definitely not needed.

Personal example: I always structure the slides for the presentation on the same principle as in the report. I prepare slides depending on the design requirements, if there are no frames, then I use LaTeX, if there are strict rules for design and there is no template in LaTeX, then I use Power Point.

So what should you do?Create a slide structure according to the table of contents of your report and fill them out step by step. Then, by the same principle, write a report and rehearse the presentation.

When do you need to do this? Start preparing a presentation 2-3 weeks before the defense.

Why do this? Again, this is a formality that will allow you to graduate from high school. And also, it will help you learn to correctly present your research.

Conclusion


Instead of a conclusion, I would like to wish everyone who graduates from a university this year - successful defenses, and those who will do this later - “prepare a sled in the summer.” If you are too lazy to read, just go over the items in bold, there I tried to collect a brief squeeze from each paragraph. Waiting for your comments below!

More articles:


All Articles