{"id":24356,"date":"2016-08-31T14:42:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=24356"},"modified":"2016-08-27T20:15:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T18:15:40","slug":"whats-the-problem-writing-a-thesis-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/whats-the-problem-writing-a-thesis-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s The Problem? – Writing A Thesis In French"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks I\u2019ve been hard at work on mon m\u00e9moire<\/strong> (my thesis). The last big project for un dipl\u00f4me<\/strong> (a degree) is always hard, and writing un m\u00e9moire<\/strong> in another language makes the whole process even more of un casse-t\u00eate<\/strong> (a headache).<\/p>\n

\""Place

“Place de la Sorbonne<\/a>” by Alan<\/a> on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.<\/p><\/div>\n

I came to France to do mon master<\/strong><\/a> (my Master\u2019s), and it has been an interesting exeprience learning how nobody\u2019s perfect<\/a> and what a CM and TD are<\/a>. Now hard at work on mon m\u00e9moire<\/strong>, I’m struggling to find enough caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/a> (coffee) to keep me going.<\/p>\n

Writing more than cinquante pages<\/strong> (fifty pages) en fran\u00e7ais<\/strong> has been tough. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve mixed up the words une m\u00e9moire<\/strong> (a memory) and un m\u00e9moire<\/strong> (a thesis). Not to mention all the other dual gender nouns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To make things easier, le m\u00e9moire<\/strong> should follow le plan<\/strong> (the outline), but sometimes il est difficile de savoir par o\u00f9 commencer<\/strong> (it’s hard to know where to start).<\/p>\n

\""Plan

“Plan de dissertation<\/a>” by dicophilo<\/a> on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Figuring out une probl\u00e9matique<\/strong> is a big part of writing un m\u00e9moire<\/strong>. Once you have une id\u00e9e<\/strong> (an idea) you have to fix not just le grammaire<\/strong> (the grammar), but le raisonnement et la logique<\/strong> (the reasoning and logic) as well.<\/p>\n

C’est quoi une probl\u00e9matique ?<\/strong>
\nWhat is une probl\u00e9matique?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Une probl\u00e9matique<\/strong> is a thesis statement<\/em> to some people. In my experience, they are used in the same general educational contexts. Cependant<\/strong> (however), they do not mean exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n

The word for a thesis statement<\/em> is une th\u00e8se principale<\/strong> or un \u00e9nonc\u00e9 de la th\u00e8se<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It’s a subtle difference, but la probl\u00e9matique<\/strong> is more about defining the research problem<\/em> or outlining the research problem<\/em> rather than a summary of the main point or presenting un point de vue<\/strong> (a point of view) and making a claim.<\/p>\n

It can be difficult to understand how to succeed in the French education system<\/a> without understanding this difference. Surtout<\/strong> (especially) because in the classroom you’ll hear le professeur<\/strong> (the professor) talk about the importance of la probl\u00e9matique<\/strong> in the same way you would hear le professeur<\/strong> talk about the thesis statement<\/em> in aux<\/a> \u00c9tats-Unis<\/strong> (in the United States).<\/p>\n

There is also a lot to learn about les travaux universitaires<\/strong> (academic writing). All the nuances of specific wordings can easily get lost in translation. The main ideas of writing clearly, citing your sources, creating a bibliography, and proper formatting are all the same, but the details can be different enough that figuring out how to write correctly is un casse-t\u00eate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

De plus<\/strong> (what’s more), if you went to school in the US, you are probably familiar with MLA<\/em> or APA<\/em> formatting and it\u2019s hard to realize that those are American<\/em> guidelines.<\/p>\n

Ne vous inqui\u00e9tez pas !<\/strong>
\nDon’t worry!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In France, all the information you need is in le guide de mise en page <\/strong>(the style guide) provided by le professeur<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Maintenant<\/strong> (now), the biggest problem I have is that with la canicule<\/strong><\/a> it’s too hot to drink du caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

These past few weeks I\u2019ve been hard at work on mon m\u00e9moire (my thesis). The last big project for un dipl\u00f4me (a degree) is always hard, and writing un m\u00e9moire in another language makes the whole process even more of un casse-t\u00eate (a headache). I came to France to do mon master (my Master\u2019s), and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":24363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24356","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}