Individual final project

llafr2898  2024-2025  Louvain-la-Neuve

Individual final project
15.00 credits
Q1 and Q2

  This learning unit is not open to incoming exchange students!

Language
French
Prerequisites
/
Main themes
The masters dissertation, irrespective of the subject, allows a student to :
- summarise a given scientific topic,
- put a specific issue in context drawing on existing information,
- present the results of the dissertation.
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 The dissertation must demonstrate the student's ability to describe correctly the results of a personal, objective and methodical work. The length of the dissertation is not a criteria in evaluating its quality.
Similar to the other forms of learning, the dissertation is an essential component of the programme to which it belongs. Status quaestionis about an issue of the masters, this piece of work is more limited than a dissertation and must be done in one year.
 
Content
Regardless of the topic, the Individual Final Project will give the student the opportunity:
- to produce a critical analysis and a synthesis of a given research question
- to contextualize a problem against the background of up-to-date knowledge
- to report in a scholarly manner on the results of his inquiry, with justification of methodological choices and discussion of hypotheses.
The individual final project pursues the same objectives as the MA 120 dissertation, but focuses on a more limited set of issues: it should be at least 50 pages (i.e. 125,000 characters including spaces) of original, personal writing (including bibliography and notes, but excluding appendices).
Evaluation methods
The individual final project is assessed by the promoter and a reader appointed by the Master's jury (represented by the jury chair).  It is defended orally before a jury comprising at least the promoter and the reader. The oral presentation is a time for discussion between the student and the members of the jury. The practical arrangements for the oral examination are communicated to the student no later than the first day of the session in which the individual final project is registered.
The mark will take into account the quality of the written document and the oral defence. In assessing the individual final project, the promoter and reader will take into account the following aspects:
- the ability to identify precisely the subject of the research and to set out a problem or working hypothesis correctly
- mastery of the various bibliographic and documentary research tools
- the quality of the collection and interpretation of sources
- the articulation and coherence of the work as a whole 
In addition, the reader is responsible for drawing up a detailed written report on certain formal aspects of the individual final project:
- spelling
- language (accuracy and appropriateness of terms, syntactical correctness);
- punctuation;
- presentation of the text itself, bibliography, notes, references, etc.
This report may lead the jury to revise the mark awarded to the individual final project according to the procedures defined in section 2 "Mastery of standard language" of the ROM Vademecum (https://myalfresco.uclouvain.be/alfresco/service/ucl/streamDownload/workspace/SpacesStore/18e60fbc-ab6c-426b-9786-b77206423b32/Vad%C3%A9m%C3%A9cum%20m%C3%A9moire%20ROM.pdf?a=true).
Throughout the individual final project, the student must demonstrate a perfect command of the rules of bibliographic referencing; at the risk of being suspected of plagiarism, he/she must NOT
- Copy a text without inverted commas and/or without mentioning the source;
- Reproduce a graph, data, illustration, etc. without mentioning the source;
- Reformulate or summarise an author's original idea without quoting the source;
- Translate, in whole or in part, a source without referencing it;
- Use the work of others and present it as your own (even if the author of the work has given his or her agreement);
- Buying a work.
See https://uclouvain.be/fr/etudier/uss/lutter-contre-le-plagiat.html
This definition supplements the definition given in art. 107 §2 of the RGEE, which constitutes a special provision within the meaning of §3 of the same article. Any student who fails to comply with the scientific referencing standards set out above is liable, in the event of irregularity or plagiarism established by the jury, to academic sanctions as detailed in the RGEE (section 7).
If generative artificial intelligence (AI) is used, it must be used responsibly and in accordance with academic and scientific integrity practices. As scientific integrity requires that sources be cited, the use of AI must always be reported.
Other information
The Individual Final Project (15 credits) is not to be validated in the case of continuing study for a Master 120 degree.
Faculty or entity


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [60] in Ancient and Modern Languages and Literatures