The Master's thesis is written during the third/fourth semester; it corresponds to a workload of thirty credit points. It can be written in English or in German. You have 23 weeks to complete your thesis. The deadline can be extended by up to six weeks upon request (by using the application form for extension). The deadline begins with the announcement of the topic in the examination office, and is noted in Almaweb.
Registration
You may register for the Master's thesis at any time. However, we recommend to register in the first half of December (for writing the thesis in the summer semester) or in the first half of June (for writing the thesis in the winter semester).
Please think about the area in which you want to write your Master’s thesis and contact a possible supervisor. Ideally, you should do this several weeks before the registration deadline. All regular institute members can be considered as supervisors, but also employees with a doctorate from third-party funded projects who regularly participate in teaching. At the point of registration, the topic of the Bachelor's thesis and the second reviewer have to be finally decided. Please get the signature of your supervisor and the second reviewer before you submit the registration form.
Topic and Advising
Ideally, you should choose a topic for the Master's thesis that is related to teaching or research at the Institute of Linguistics. Topics in areas of linguistics that are not represented at the institute may be possible, but you must find someone at the institute for linguistics who is willing to supervise this topic. Please make use of your advisors in the early phases of your work as well!
Technicalities
When designing your Master's thesis, use articles from renowned specialist journals as a guide. The Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics journals has become the standard for citing literature and the bibliography in a large number of specialist journals. The Leipzig glossing rules apply to the glossing of examples. We recommend the use of LaTeX for writing the thesis.
Submission
You must submit two printed copies of the Master's thesis to the examination office before the deadline. If it is not possible to submit the copies in person, you can send them via mail to the examination manager (address: Universität Leipzig, Studienbüro der Philologischen Fakultät, Prüfungsmanagement Sabine Steinhagen, IPF 140022, 04081 Leipzig) or insert in the deadline mailbox from the Leipzig University in the Gothestraße 6, in a closed envelope. The postmark date will count as date of submission. You also have to submit the signed declaration that you wrote the thesis independently and did not use any sources or aids other than those specified. You also have to submit the signed declaration that the electronic version of the thesis is identical to the printed version.
New regulation for the electronic version of the thesis: Please send the electronic version of your thesis (in PDF format!) via your student email account to your supervisor (respecting the deadline). You (and the examination officer) will receive a confirmation by your supervisor that you submitted the electronic version on time. A CD-ROM or a USB stick with the electronic version is no longer necessary.