Recently, the online course “Thesis Writing: A Guide for Economics Students” produced by the faculty of XMU College of Economics has been officially launched on the Chinese University MOOC platform. The course is available in two versions: fully in English and in bilingual English and Chinese. It aims to provide guidance for economics undergraduates and postgraduates in the writing of research papers and degree dissertations.
The course is led by Professor Linlin Niu, associate director of XMU Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics. Nine other young and middle-aged faculty members from different research areas, including Dingming Liu, Lei Meng, Ying Zeng, Huihui Li, Wenchao Xu, Huanjun Zhu, Yanan He, Junnan Zhang and Li Chen, also participated in the recording and production based on their summary of XMU College of Economics Thesis Guidance Faculty Group’s over ten years of teaching experience.
The main contents and features of the course include:
(i) A systematic introduction to the ethics, structure, elements and methods of thesis writing. Through specific writing cases, writing norms and writing methods, the course emphasizes the importance of academic integrity and the detriments of academic misconduct, helping students understand how to practice scientific spirit and truth-seeking in paper writing. The course discusses the structure and requirements of the sections of data description, empirical research, literature review, introduction, abstract and conclusion one by one, and introduces thesis structure and writing elements through bountiful examples and exercises.
(ii) In response to the training requirements for empirical research in economics papers, the chapters cover three empirical topics in a gradual way, and incorporate the teaching of empirical methods and analysis into writing training.
(iii) In the explanation of the structure and norms of thesis writing, examples of top Chinese and English journals in economics are included, taking into account the needs of both Chinese and English academic paper writing.
Please access the course online on China University MOOC by visiting:
https://www.icourse163.org/course/XMU-1470412183?tid=1471834465
