On this page you find different resources that could be useful when you are going to write a paper, report or thesis. This list is not meant to be complete, but to work as an example of different types of resources. In other words, there are many more resources available than can be mentioned here, so do look for more on your own.
Templates
In the Writing guide we will publish different types of templates for report writing, theses etc. The templates should be seen as examples; remember that it is always your teacher who decides which template, or in which format different assignments should be made.
Report writing for engineers (in Swedish)
Gunilla Åkesson-Nilsson, senior lecturer at BTH, has produced this thorough instruction on report writing for engineers. It can also be useful for students in other programs, since there are several general sections on basic principles of writing. It should not be used as a template for student theses.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
When you read scholarly texts for your writing assignment you will come across words and terms which are not commonly used. To fully be able to take part of these texts, it is necessary to look up these words and find out what they mean.
Dictionaries
English
Oxford Dictionaries (free online) from Oxford University Press.
English – Swedish / Swedish – English
Ord.se (free online) from Norstedts both have English – Swedish / Swedish – English dictionaries.
Swedish
The Swedish Academy Dictionary, Svenska Akademiens ordbok, is a comprehensive historical dictionary, and The Swedish Academy Glossary, Svenska Akademiens ordlista, is the (unofficial) norm for the spelling and inflexion of Swedish words. They are both free online Swedish dictionaries from the Swedish Academy.
Writing together, sharing documents and spellchecking
SpellCheck.net allows you to check the spelling by pasting short texts. An alternative to checking the spelling errors on Web pages is to enable the spell-checking functionality directly in your browser.
Study skills
Check out tips from Björn Liljeqvist from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Reference management
Reference management is about keeping track of references to books, articles and other material you want to refer to. It is also about presenting the references correctly, in the text, as well as in the list of references. Reference management software will help you manage your references throughout the whole writing process, from information seeking to the publishing of your completed text. Read more about reference management in the Writing guide.
In the Writing guide, there is also a section on reference management tools.
Watch a film with short clips on how references work.
Referencing – how does it work
Translation
Sometimes you may need to translate parts of texts when you write your thesis. In academic texts there are usually many technical terms and specialized language, and if English is not your native language, it may be useful to translate the texts into your native language, to increase your understanding of what you are reading. Another example is if you want to translate a quote which was written in another language. In these cases, remember to always add to the reference that it is your own translation, for example (Stevens, 1998, my translation).
Keep in mind that you cannot fully trust the result from an automatic translation service! Therefore, always check the translations carefully before you use them in your text. On the web there are many different translation services, for example Bing Translator and Google Translate.