Prepering, writing, and
presenting diploma thessis
Jan Hanacek
Dept of Pathological Physiology JFM CU in Martin
Introduction
 To be useful, your DT needs to be explained clearly to others to colleagues, to referees
 This presentation provides information on how to prepare each section
of a diploma thesis (DT), covering the title, abstract, introduction,
methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements and references
 Essential informations and advice on how to present and defend
diploma thesis creates one part of this guide
 The presentation of DT is an attempt to make for the students the task
of finishing a graduate degree at Jessenius Fakulty of Medicine CU in
Martin much easier
Diploma thesis (DT)
The main purposes
Students can independently:
1) to report new results (experimental, clinical, review...),
2) put his/her work in a wider, interesting and exciting context,
3) plan and carry out a scientific study,
4) analyse present data critically,
5) interpret work critically while highlighting its main contributions
to the field.
6) to confirm their competence in defined field of medicine
Where you can find essential informations on DT
 Internal Regulation of CU No. 7/2011: „Basic Essentials of Theses,
Rigorous Theses and Habilitation Theses, Check of Their Originality,
Their Storage and Accessing at Comenius University in Bratislava“
 Internal regulation No. 3/2012 JFM CU: “Decision of the Deanof the JFM CU in
Martin CU on Theses (bachelor´s and master´s) of students of JFMED CU
 Manual for study evidence and diploma thesis
 Diploma thesis assignemnt form
 Record of diploma thesis preparation
Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin
DIPLOMA THESIS ASSIGNMENT
general medicine
Name and surname of student, e-mail:
Signature:
Topic of Diploma Thesis:
Name, surname, title and address of diploma thesis tutor, department, e-mail:
Signature:
Date of Diploma Thesis assignment:
Ethical aspects (please mark one of the boxes):
No approval of Ethical committee is necessary for the thesis.
The thesis constitutes a part of project already approved by Ethical committee
(please write No. of approval and duration of the project):
_______________________________________________________________
The thesis preparation needs to be approved by Ethical committee.
Change of topic or tutors of Diploma Thesis
Date of request:
Date of approval:
Signature:
New topic of Diploma Thesis:
Name, surname, title, address of new tutor, department, e-mail:
Signature:
Diploma Thesis description:
(minimal number of literature sources - 4)
Please submit the original of Assignment signed by tutor to Study department at Dean’s office, Záborského 2, 036
45 Martin, until April 15, 2010. The copy stays at the department of tutor.
Internal Regulation of CU No. 7/2011
Article 1
Basic Principles of bachelor´s and master´s theses
 Recommended extent of a master´s thesis is a minimum 30 – 50 standard pp
 Draft subjects of theses are published by training work places by means
of the academic information system (hereinafter referred to as “AIS”)
 A student selects a subject of his (her) thesis by means of AIS within 2 months
from the first day of a determined period for selection at the latest, and after
an agreement with his (her) advisor he/she signs in this subject in AIS. Time
period for signing will be determined by the dean
 After acceptance of the thesis subject and a student by an advisor, an advisor
prints out final assignment of the thesis and sends the original (after signing by
an advisor and a head of a work place) to the study department, the copy is
archived at an appropriate work place.
 In case the student selects his/her own subject, he/she also proposes an advisor.
The subject and the advisor must be approved by the head of an appropriate
work place. Administrator of Theses at an appropriate work place enters
the subjects in AIS.
 If the thesis content requires ethics committee approval, a student submits, at the
advisor´s recommendation, documents for approval to the Ethics Committee
of JFMED CU in Martin. This information must be entered to AIS by an advisor
when the thesis assignment is being approved.
Article 2
Submitting of Thesis, its Accessing, License Agreement on Use
of Thesis
Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin
RECORD OF DIPLOMA THESIS PREPARATION
Record sheet of contact lessons (consultations)
Semester (strike through invalid):
4th year SS
5th year WS
year SS
5th
Surname, and name of student:
Number of study group:
Surname, name, and title of tutor:
E-mail of tutor:
Date of consultation
No. of
lessons
Content
*Lessons total:
Comments and remarks of tutor to student`s evaluation:
Evaluation of student`s activity by tutor (A – E, poss. Fx):
Signature of
Date:
tutor:
Signature of
tutor
The sections of diploma thesis
 Depends on the type of DT (scientific/clinical/case study/
review) on which is the thesis based
I. If it is based on experiments and clinical trials
– title
– abstract and/or summary
– introduction
– material and methods
– results
– discussion
– aknowledgement
II. If it is based on casuistics (case studies)
– title
– abstract and/or summary
– introduction
– appropriate analysis of medical problem
– discussion
– proposals or recommendations for clinical practice
III. If it is based on objective summary of knowledge
in selected topic (review, survey, meta-analysis)
– title
– summary
– introduction
– review of relevant literature/problem, related to topic with own
comments and attitude of student
The skills you need to develop for a good DT
Are manifold:
– good overview of the literature,
– good planning (not to left all up to the last weeks close to deadline),
– hard and effective working in the face of a deadline,
– abilities to good data analysis,
– good writing qualities,
– feeling for nice lay-out (plan),
– endurance and a proper degree of perfectionism.
II. How to prepare casuistic/case study/case report
 A case report is a way of communicating information to the medical world
about a rare or unreported feature(s), condition, complication, or
intervention by publishing it in a medical journal.
 Case report can be one form of diploma thesis
 A case study is a puzzle that has to be solved
Stages in writing a case report
● Finding a rare/sutable case/cases
● Literature search (related to analysed case)
● Collecting information related to the case, including consent
● Summarising and writing
● Revising and editing
Format for writing a case report
 Introduction
– Case report—the real story
– History
– Clinical features
– Investigations
– Treatment and outcome
– Progress
● Discussion—review of literature
– Arguments
– Message
– Recommendations, if any

Conclusion
● References
 Introduction – describe your case report in one sentence/ shortly
– also mention how rare/frequent it is
Case report
 You have to summarise the information that you have gathered:
- a brief history
- important and relevant positive and negative findings
- details of investigations, treatment, and the condition
of the patient after treatment.
 Don’t include unnecessary details,
 Remember, this part should be read like an interesting story, which
your reader should enjoy
 One common form of presentation is to divide it into separate
paragraphs with history, examination, investigation, treatment, and
outcome in separate paragraphs
Discussion – review of literature
1) explain the objective of reporting the case,
2) you must subsequently describe what others have written before
about the condition or any related feature, be generous in quoting
the literature but don’t go into unnecessary details
3) - most important stage in the discussion is to substantiate the message
you are trying to convey
- you must be able to describe the cause of the condition or why
a particular procedure or feature was chosen
- how did it influence the outcome?
- how does it differ from usual and what are your recommendations?
- Are there any lessons to be learnt? All (or at least, most) of these
questions need to be answered in the discussion
Conclusion
This is not always necessary in a case report but if it is, summarise
your message in a few sentences
Remember:
 A good case is more than just a description. It is information arranged
in such a way that the reader is put in the same position as the case
writer was at the beginning when he or she was faced with a new
situation and asked to figure out what was going on.
You are allowed to have a party once you have put your
completed case report in the mailbox!
How to write a literature review
 The purpose of a literature review is to offer an overview of significant
literature published on a topic.
 There are different forms of literatury review, e.g. traditional clinical
review (updates), systematic reviews, meta-analysis
Updates selectively review the medical literature while discussing
a topic broadly.
Nonquantitative systematic reviews comprehensively examine
the medical literature, seeking to identify and synthesize all relevant
information to formulate the best approach to diagnosis or treatment.
Meta-analyses (quantitative systematic reviews) seek to answer
a focused clinical question, using rigorous statistical analysis
of pooled research studies
Elements of a literature review - 1
A literature review should include:
– An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along
with the objectives of the literature review,
– Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in support
of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative
theses entirely),
Elements of a literature review - 2
– Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from
the others,
– Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument,
are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest
contribution to the understanding and development of their area
of research.
Steps to prepare a literature review
Preparation of a literature review may be divided into 4 broad stages:
– Define your topic: you must define your topic and components of
your topic
– Search for materials: use search tools (such as the library catalogue,
databases, bibliographies, internet) to find materials about your topic
– Evaluate what you have found: read and evaluate what you have
found in order to determine which material makes a significant
contribution to the understanding of the topic
– Analysis and interpretation: provide a discussion of the findings and
conclusions of the pertinent literature
Evaluating material
In assessing each piece, consideration should be given to:
– Provenance: What are the author's credentials? Are the author's
arguments supported by evidence, if yes, what kind? convincing evidence
or rather vague
– Objectivity: Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent
information ignored to prove the author's point?
– Persuasiveness: Which of the author's theses are most/least
convincing?
– Value: Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to
an understanding of the subject?
How to present diploma thesis orally
Organisation of the paper
 The best way to organise a paper for oral presentation is to proceed in the same
logical pathway that one usually does in writing a paper, starting with "what was
the problem?" and ending with "what is the solution?"
 Oral presentation of a paper does not constitute publication,and therefore different
rules apply.
 The greatest distinction is that the published paper must contain the full
experimental protocol, so that the experiments can be repeated.
The oral presentation, however, need not and should not contain all of
the experimental detail,
 Extensive citation of the literature is also undesirable in an oral
presentation
Presentation of the paper
 Most oral presentations are short (with a limit of 15 minutes at defense
meeting).
 No matter how well organized, too many ideas too quickly presented will be
confusing. You should stick to your most important point or result and stress
that. There will not be time for you to present all your other ideas.
 There are, of course, other and longer types of oral presentations. Even so,
you should go slowly, carefully presenting a few main points or themes. If you
proceed too fast, especially at the beginning, your audience will lose the
thread; the daydreams will begin and your message will be lost.
Slide-Show Presentations
 Digital slide-show presentations provide you with the means to create
and slide-shows from a computer.
 The electronic slide show allows you to include sounds and video clips.
 Regardless of the medium you choose, organization of your topic is
the key:
- Each slide should be designed to cover one major point, with a
bulleted text listing no more than six subtopics related to it.
- The main heading should be at least 20 to 24 points, with subtopics no
smaller than16 points. If the room in which you are presenting is large, use
larger font sizes.
- When a tables or graphs is used, list them by name and set all the type
in at least 14 points, so that it can be read at a distance