You are planning to write a term paper, a bachelor's thesis, or a master's thesis at the Department of Sociology of Gender Relations? Please take note of the following information:

For a bachelor's or master's thesis, you should have attended at least one seminar offered by our Department of Sociology of Gender Relations. For your master's thesis, you should work empirically and have already tested the method you want to use. We exclusively supervise qualitative studies with interpretative aims (no content analyses). If you meet these requirements, please contact us with a concrete research question and a draft of the outline.

You can find more information on how the paper should be structured and how to proceed with writing in our handout on scientific work. We also recommend the following selection of literature and internet dossiers on scientific writing:

• Becker, Howard S. (1986): Writing for Social Scientists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Siepmann, Dirk/Gallagher, John D./Hannay, Mike/Mackenzie, Lachlan. (2022): Writing in English: A Guide for Advanced Learners. 3^rd Edition. Tübingen: utb.
• Strunk, William/De A’Morelli, Richard. (2018): The Elements of Style: Classic Edition 2018. Vancouver, San Luis Obispo: Spectrum Ink.
• Swales, John, M./Feak, Christine B. (Eds.) (2012): Academic Writing for Graduate Students. 3^rd Edition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

We would also like to point out the offering of the writing workshop "w.space" at TU Dortmund University.

It is important for us that you use gender-appropriate language.

Please also note the information on scientific misconduct and plagiarism of the TU Dortmund University and on scientific ethics of the German Sociological Association (DGS).

In order to reduce plastic waste, we ask for plastic-free term papers. So please feel free to use paper filing strips.

After submission you will receive detailed feedback from us. Please contact us independently as soon as we have graded your performance.

Common mistakes in student theses and dissertations:

• the introduction promises more than the thesis delivers,
• the empirical material is not interpreted, but only summarized,
• the red thread in the argumentation is not or hardly present,
• the empirical findings are not linked back to the state of research,
• open questions resulting from the research are missing in the conclusion,
• the original literature is not quoted,
• the bibliography is numbered

Further materials for empirical research

Here you will find examples of acquisition flyers to use as a guide when you are looking for interview partners.

Acquisition flyer - Projekt Vielfam, HU Berlin

Acquisition flyer - Projekt „Eigentumsungleichheit im Privaten“, Uni Jena  

Before the interview, you will need to present the interviewee with a data protection statement, which must be signed. For guidance on this, see Helfferich (2011).

Helfferich, Cornelia. 2011. Die Qualität qualitativer Daten: Manual für die Durchführung qualitativer Interviews. 4. Aufl. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.