Undergraduate Thesis Research Articles

Traditionalist Catholicism: The Case of the Society of Saint Pius X in Argentina

Based on the case of the Society of Saint Pius X which I studied ethnographically for my undergraduate thesis, I aim to understand how traditional identity is constructed within this particular sector of Catholicism. As will be seen throughout the text, it is through various educational instances of different kinds and levels of formality and through sociability that certain notions about sexuality, expected family models, and gender roles are transmitted, based on specific moral values. Additionally, a sort of myth of origin is constructed to reinforce the idea of an ‘everlasting’ Catholicism. The Mass ritual, besides synthesising all these elements, helps to remember the myth and reinforce belonging. According to the arguments of its members, this demonstrates a willingness to preserve the forms and maintain a specific order – that of tradition.

Language Teacher Researcher Identity Construction in Activity: Navigating Entanglement of Two English PSTs in Undergraduate Thesis Work in the Indonesian Context

ABSTRACT Addressing the issue of colonial humanism ideologies plaguing undergraduate thesis work of English pre-service teachers in the Indonesian context and perpetuating the dichotomy of teacher and researcher identities, this study explored two pre-service teachers’ entanglements in their day-to-day praxes of undergraduate thesis work as a site of identity construction by framing it in the lens of postcolonial, posthuman and transnational Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Orienting toward movement of actions and praxes, they actively participated in entanglements of identity construction by making visible layers of contradictions and continuously maneuvering the contradictions to achieve meaningful outcomes in each praxis. The contradictions at the micro level further revealed contradictions at the meso level of actions and the macro level of networked activity systems at the institutional level, indicating the pivotal role of understanding their micro level of praxes to unveil issues hindering undergraduate thesis to serve as a democratic space to generate meaningful knowledge.

Forming Dataset of The Undergraduate Thesis using Simple Clustering Methods

Each university collects many undergraduate theses data but has yet to process it to make it easier forstudents to find references as desired. This study aims to classify and compare the grouping ofdocuments using expert and simple clustering methods. Experts have done ground truth using ORBoolean Retrieval and keyword generation. The best cluster was discovered by the experiments usingthe K-Means, K-Medoids, and DBSCAN clustering methods and using Euclidean, Manhattan, CityBlock, and Cosine Similarity metrics. The cluster with the best Silhouette Score compared to theaccuracy of the categorization of each document. The K-Means clustering method and the CosineSimilarity metric gave the best results with a Silhouette Score value of 0.105534. The comparisonbetween ground truth and the best cluster results shows an accuracy of 33.42%. The result shows thatthe simple clustering method cannot handle data with Negative Skewness and Leptokurtic Kurtosis.

Analysis of Positive Politeness Strategies In Wish Movie

This undergraduate thesis is aimed to analyze the positive politeness strategies of the characters in the “Wish” movie. The collected data of this undergraduate thesis was analyzed based on the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson (1987). The method used in this undergraduate thesis was descriptive qualitative method. The results of this undergraduate thesis indicate that twelve positive politeness strategies were identified in the conversations of the characters in the "Wish" movie. These are; attend to H (Strategy 1), exaggeration (strategy 2), intensifying interest towards the hearer (strategy 3), employing in-group identity markers (strategy 4), seeking agreement (strategy 5), avoiding disagreement (strategy 6), joke (8) offering and promising (strategy 10), be optimistic (strategy 11), involving both speaker and hearer in activities (strategy 12), give or ask for reasons (13) and gifts to the hearer (strategy 15), which may include goods, sympathy, understanding, or cooperation.

Educational Research Methodology Trends of Southeast Asia English Major Undergraduate Theses: A Content Analysis

The present study thoroughly examines the predominant research methodology trends and topics applied in a specific time frame from 2019 to 2023 in educational research of the online searchable undergraduate theses in English major programs across Southeast Asia, utilizing a comprehensive content analysis approach. By employing keyword extraction, topic-specific modelling, and thematic evaluation, our objective is to ascertain the prevailing methodologies in English language teaching and the research interest themes from 347 undergraduate downloadable theses that have been investigated. The analysis explores the possible ramifications of these patterns on the caliber of undergraduate research, English language instruction, and the broader education domain within the given area. This study revealed a strong preference (54.5%) for quantitative approaches, highlighting the importance of empirical methodologies. Additionally common were qualitative approaches (24.8%), suggesting an increasing recognition of the importance of examining human factors. While action research (8.4%), particularly Classroom Action Research (CAR), was less prevalent than mixed-method approaches (12.8%), this suggests that action research needs to be recognized. The different ratios of research methods demonstrated a dedication to investigating various questions and advancing knowledge in language, literature, and education. The interesting research themes identified the complex and diverse nature of English language raising focus in Southeast Asia such as technological integration, teacher development, cultural studies, assessment, and language teaching methodologies. The study provides useful information for enhancing research mentorship and education, and it improves knowledge of research trends in this setting. Furthermore, the findings obtained from this study have the potential to contribute to the enhancement of curriculum design, instructional approaches, and distribution of resources in the English language education research area.

Adaptation to Environmental Stressors Conferred by Gene Copy Number Variation in Herbicide Resistant Amaranthus palmeri

Many rampant agricultural weeds have been found to contain gene copy number variation, a genetic adaptation that can facilitate the evolution of stress resistance. Amaranthus palmeri is a highly competitive and problematic agricultural weed in the United States which continues to naturalize, spreading northward to Canada. A.palmeri has gained attention due to its rapid evolution of herbicide resistance— a mechanism conferred by gene copy number variation of EPSPS. Researchers hypothesize that this gene is contained within an amplicon alongside other stress tolerance related genes. This raises the question of whether increased EPSPS gene copy number is associated with higher tolerance to environmental stressors, beyond herbicide stress. To prepare for addressing this hypothesis, I conducted a pilot project testing the ideal conditions for germination of A.palmeri. I planted 200 seeds divided between greenhouse and growth chamber environments. Many seeds benefit from a period of cold as a signal to break dormancy, thus, each category was further divided into two treatments: control and cold stratified (seeds were incubated in a –23 cold room for a week). I was interested in whether the increased consistency of temperature, light intensity, and photoperiod provided by a growth chamber, relative to a greenhouse, would increase germination rates. Results indicate that greenhouse grown seedlings had a 71% germination rate and within each treatment, 86% of cold stratified plants germinated while only 56% of the control group germinated. Whereas in the growth chamber, surprisingly only 26% of plants germinated with a breakdown of 22% cold stratified and 30% control. Thus, to germinate enough plants for a large-scale experiment, I chose to cold stratify seeds and grow them in the greenhouse for my undergraduate thesis. In this common garden experiment, I am currently growing 500 plants which will be divided into four stress treatment categories: control, salinity, drought, and salinity x drought. Using phenotypic measurements and digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) to quantify EPSPS gene copy number, I will test for a possible association between plants with a higher tolerance to these simulated environmental stressors and the presence of increased EPSPS gene copy number.

‘She should have explained and convinced me!’: student engagement with supervisory feedback on undergraduate dissertations

ABSTRACT Informed by basic psychological needs theory, this multi-case study explored four supervisors’ feedback practices and their effects on Chinese English-major students’ engagement with feedback on their undergraduate dissertations written in English. Data comprised interviews with students and supervisors, stimulated recalls with students, audio recordings of supervisor-student conferences, and students’ multiple dissertation drafts with supervisory feedback. Cross-case comparisons were made to gauge the supervisory support. The analyses revealed salient differences in pedagogical caring, optimal structure, and autonomy support provided by the supervisors. The supervisees engaged affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively with supervisory feedback to different extents, and their engagement depended on the types and amounts of teacher support available. The findings of the study contribute to the application of basic psychological needs theory by extending it to undergraduate dissertation supervision. Practical implications for improving undergraduate dissertation supervision in the Chinese context are proposed.

Diagnosis of Student’s Anxiety on Undergraduate Thesis Writing at Raden Wijaya State Buddhist College

This research aims to measure the level of anxiety and analyze the factors that cause student anxiety in writing their thesis. The research was conducted at the Raden Wijaya State Buddhist College, Wonogiri, Central Java using descriptive quantitative research. The sample for this research consisted of 55 students in semester VII of the 2023/2024 academic year. The instruments used were Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale and questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The research results show that students' anxiety level in writing their thesis is in the medium category with an average score of 40.8. Factors that cause student anxiety include: lack of understanding of research methodology, difficulty in finding references, fear of failure and disappointing parents, and worry about the thesis trial.

Contextualizing the Use of Slang Words With References to Venom: Let There be Carnage Movie

This research entitled Slang words and Contextualization in Venom: Let There Be Carnage Movie, aimed to discuss the types of slang words and the contextualization the use of the slang word in the movie. The undergraduate thesis analysed the used of slang words in the conversations regarding the types and the contextualization of slang words. This research used the theory types of slang proposed by Allan and Burridge (2006) and the theory contextualization of slang proposed by Gumperz (1992) for the main theory. For the supporting theory used theory of sociolinguistics by Un Nisa (2019). The data of this study are from the utterances, words, and conversation occurred in the movie, in the form of slang words uttered by the characters dialogues. The analysed was use descriptive qualitative method. The results found that there were 5 slang words in the movie types and contextualization of slang, namely: Fresh and Creative, Flippant, Imitate, Acronym and Clipping. The result after analysing the movie, there were fourty six data in types and contextualization of slang. In the types and contextualization of slang, the highest type was flippant slang type and the lowest was acronym type.

Quality Assessment of Systematic Reviews Performed As An Undergraduate thesis in A Peruvian University: A Systematic Review.

To determine the quality of systematic reviews submitted as a thesis in the Medical School of Ricardo Palma University. We conducted a systematic review. We included systematic reviews submitted as theses from Ricardo Palma University, and we excluded narrative reviews, editorials, clinical experiments, and those with incomplete data. We performed a structured search on EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and Institutional Repository from the Ricardo Palma University and RENATI. The risk of bias assessment was performed through the AMSTAR-2 and the modified AMSTAR-2 tools. The primary outcome was review quality. A qualitative synthesis of the information was performed. One thousand four hundred eighty-seven theses were identified, and exclusion criteria were applied, whereby 11 theses were selected for review and thorough consultation. Of the 11 selected theses, and through the AMSTAR-2 and modified AMSTAR-2 tools, the findings reached were that 90.9% of the included theses presented critically low quality that was not modified even when the quality was reevaluated after its publication as a scientific article. The systematic reviews presented as undergraduate thesis in the Medical School of Ricardo Palma University showed low and critically low quality. Improvement in systematic review training is required for both students and institutional advisors.

The Analysis of the Factors Contributing to EFL Student's Difficulties in Finishing English Undergraduate Thesis

This research aims to analyze the factors contributing to students’ difficulties in writing an undergraduate thesis. The researcher used Narrative Inquiry as the research approach in this qualitative research. The participant was an 11th-semester student of the English Education department at one of the universities in Malang, Indonesia. The researcher conducted a direct Interview with open-ended questions to gain the data. This finding shows four significant factors that affect an undergraduate student in finishing the undergraduate thesis: psychological factors, English linguistic factors, English Proficiency factors, and student attitude factors. Considering the findings, the researcher suggested some solutions in the following: Improve English linguistic ability; improve English speaking proficiency; organize time effectively; build communication with the supervisor; and read many references.

Hypes in undergraduate thesis abstracts by Indonesian students across years

Previous studies showed that as a result of intense competition to succeed in academic pursuits such as publishing research papers and securing grants, promotional language known as hypes are pervasive in academic texts. This paper investigates hypes in a corpus of undergraduate thesis abstracts written by Indonesian English learners in a span of ten years, from 2011 to 2020. Taking a corpus-based approach, it examines the extent to which hypes are used in the thesis abstracts, including their linguistic manifestations, frequencies over the years, and the values they promote. We found hypes in all five moves of thesis abstracts, but they were most frequent in the introduction, in which they emphasized the importance and novelty of the research and stress the urgency of the research problems. In the span of the ten years, the frequencies of hypes generally increase, indicating the students’ awareness of the need to convince thesis supervisors, board of examiners, and their colleagues and the efforts to stand out in a competitive academic landscape. Important, investigate, and reveal were the most frequent hype words over the years and their instances suggest a growing emphasis on significance, a stronger commitment to evidence-based research, and desire to contribute new and concrete findings.

A Study on the Optimization Strategy of Teaching Models for Scientific Thesis Writing Courses for Undergraduates in Public Administration

This paper, using School S as a case study, examines the current state of undergraduate scientific thesis writing courses in the field of public administration. The research reveals several key issues, including a lack of comprehensive course content, an irrational course structure, and a relatively monotonous approach to teaching methods. In response to these findings, the paper proposes strategies to enhance the richness of the course content, refine the course structure for a deeper understanding of the thesis writing process, and integrate a variety of teaching methods to stimulate students' interest and improve their writing skills.

LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY IN STUDENTS’ THESIS INTRODUCTIONS

This study investigates lexical density and readability in students’ undergraduate thesis introductions. Documentation technique is used to collect the data while qualitative content analysis was employed as the method to present the data. The data of this study were content words and sentences taken from the data sources of 20 undergraduate’s thesis introductions. The scores of lexical density and readability were obtained by using Flesch Reading Ease Tool online. The findings show that all introductions exhibit high lexical density, with scores ranging from 51,28% to 68,08%. Whilst, the readability scores range from 10.92 to 17.58, and they are all categorized as being very difficult writings. In summary, the findings demonstrate that all thesis introductions exhibit a high level of complexity in their writing. These introductions showcase the deliberate use of rich and precise content words. Consequently, they pose a significant challenge for comprehension due to their density.

ANALYSIS OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND STICKY COST ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE SUB-SECTOR COMPANIES LISTED ON THE INDONESIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

NURSAMSI. 2024. Analysis of Capital Structure and Sticky Costs on the Financial Performance of Companies Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Undergraduate Thesis. Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Muhammadiyah University Makassar. Main Supervised Mira and Co-Supervisor Firman Syah. The purpose of this research is a quantitative study aimed at analyzing the impact of capital structure and sticky costs on the financial performance of companies in the food and beverage sub-sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The sample for this study was drawn from the financial reports of companies in the food and beverage sub-sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The data used in this research is quantitative data obtained from the financial reports of companies from 2018 to 2022, sourced from the respective websites of food and beverage companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange or from the website www.idx.co.id. This study employs secondary data. The research instruments used in this study include descriptive statistical analysis, panel data regression analysis, and hypothesis testing using F-test (Chiw Test) and Hausman Test. From the analysis of Debt To Equity Ratio (DER), it appears that companies may need to consider strategies to manage and reduce their dependence on debt in order to improve their financial structure and reduce long-term financial risks. Additionally, the analysis of Sticky Costs indicates that these costs are becoming increasingly unresponsive to fluctuations in production and sales volume. Furthermore, Return On Assets (ROA) is significant in optimizing financial performance over the study period, although improvement efforts are observed in the final year

Undergraduate dissertation problems: an aggregate cross-sectional analysis from five Latin American universities

ABSTRACT Latin America may have higher attrition rates than previously assumed. Many students in Latin America do not graduate on time because they cannot complete the traditional undergraduate dissertation. This paper examines the factors contributing to delayed graduation for a context-specific variable: dissertation problems. We designed a questionnaire survey based on multi-item scales and surveyed 480 university students from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Aggregate-cross-sectional data and multilevel structural equation modeling show that institutional assistance and supervision quality [personal problems] reduce [increase] dissertation problems. These results may enable university authorities to identify undergraduate students with dissertation problems and thus improve their strategies for reducing attrition rates.

Undergraduate thesis proposal writing: Problems and causes

Undergraduate thesis proposal writing: Problems and causes

Rhetorical organizations of method chapter in bachelor’s theses by Indonesian TEFL undergraduates

In the scientific realm, the validity of studies and the reliability of empirical findings are of high significance to be presented through research reports, one of which is a thesis. In an undergraduate thesis, the methodology chapter plays an important role in reporting any key details, including research procedures, tools, data collection, and data analysis. Novice writer-researchers such as Indonesian undergraduate students face challenges in writing their methods chapters, one of which deals with the issue of rhetorical organization. Using a genre analysis approach by adopting the comprehensive moves model developed by Chen and Kuo (2012), we analyzed the rhetorical moves in the methods chapters of five Indonesian undergraduate theses. Five bachelor theses in the field of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) were selected as data sources due to their relevance to our objectives and predetermined criteria of data selection. The findings show three key moves used in the chapters, with varying frequency. Move 2 was the most frequently used, followed by Move 3, while Move 1 was the least one. Several recurred steps were presented to achieve the communicative purpose of the key moves. Thus, our findings can be useful for Indonesian student writers’ awareness of the importance of utilizing moves and steps in writing and crafting systematic and compelling method chapters.

Reflections on the first decade of the HPGRG undergraduate dissertation prize: The geography and politics of reward

The History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group launched its undergraduate dissertation prize in 2008. This paper reflects on the dissertations submitted throughout its first decade, highlighting particular themes in Deleuzian-inspired vitalism and immanence, attention to the politics of knowledge production, and the emergence of critical physical geography. The paper also discusses the practice of awarding a prize, noting evidence that this is both shaped by, and reproduces, structural inequalities in academic work. The prize exhibits a particular geography and politics within the academic prestige economy.

Fieldwork nearby and far away: Student-geographers and the expanded field in the history of geography

This essay argues for a connection between studying the history of geography as an academic discipline and the research experiences and knowledge productions of undergraduate geography students. The whereabouts of undergraduate dissertation research and the conceptions of what the field actually constitutes shapes geography students’ perceptions of the discipline, and thus affects shifts in what future and novice practitioners see as geography, or geographical knowledge. When comparing the local educational versions of academic geography taught at one university to more traditional, perhaps canonical, narratives on the history of geography, it becomes obvious that although there are many similarities, the timelines between disciplinary trends and educational practices never fully match.