FIN-1 Research Paper Course Overview FIN-1 (TRENAK1) Finnish Institutions Research Paper (Hopkins) Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

The TRENAK1/FIN-1 Finnish Institutions Research Paper is a required course in the TREN and FAST curricula. FIN-1 exploits the expertise of native-Finnish students in the society and culture of Finland in the production of a supervised research paper. Selected papers will form an on-line archive in Finland Studies for both general and professional readers.

Required Courses Prior to FIN-1

The writing, digital editing and web publication of the FIN-1 paper employs skills learned in PK5 Digital Literacy and PK6 Academic Citation & Documentation, both of which are required in the English Translation and FAST basic curricula. Students (including 'transfer' students who may have completed Basic Studies elsewhere) must have completed TRENPK5 and TRENPK6 prior to FIN-1. Same-year transfer students may do them concurrently. ETRAN students should also have completed TRENAK2 Basic English Professional Writing prior to FIN-1.

Topic Selection and Course Objectives

Topics for FIN-1 papers may be selected by each student, but must be presented in class for discussion and approved by the instructor. Topics should be chosen from areas in which the student has a personal interest and ideally prior involvement. An optimal topic would be of personal interest to the author while also of professional interest to translators and interpreters and the general academic community.

Topics normally focus on Finnish phenomena as such. In special cases they may also contrast aspects of Finland with parallels in American, British, Canadian or Irish society and culture. Contrastive topics presume that students will have completed the relevant FAST courses on those cultures, or have firsthand knowledge from living or studying in those cultures, and also have access to adequate primary and secondary sources for the 'other' culture as well as that of Finland. Students may also compare or expand papers or topics used by past students which are in the paper archives, or create annotated references or specialized terminology glossaries dealing with Finnish topics.

The primary objective of FIN-1 is to illuminate or clarify perspectives on Finnish phenomena via an English-language research paper. The paper will be a learning experience in academic exposition and citation, as well as digital editing and web archiving. As such, the paper will exercise multiple foundation skills of direct relevance to the student's degree work at Tampere University.

In brief, the four basic course objectives are:

• Writing a supervised, multi-draft English-language academic research paper, using the style and procedure commonly employed for such a paper, as required by the B.A. curriculum in English Translation (and the FAST Area Studies minor);
• Expanding the student's native knowledge of Finnish culture and 'institutions' as the equivalent of the parallel ETRAN courses in American, British, Canadian and Irish culture and institutions, and forming in so doing an archive of information on Finnish institutional material in English of use to both present and future students and the broad international scholarly audience;
• Demonstrating the student's competence in academic citation and documentation using MLA style, building on the PK6 foundation course;
• Demonstrating the student's competence in the HTML publication of a specified 'house style' of the finished paper, building on the PK5 foundation course.

A further key aspect of the course, connected to the first two objectives above, is the accurate depiction of Finnish phenomena in the English language. Emphasis will be placed on documenting 'official' English terminology for Finnish phenomena. As terminology may differ between national variants of English, students will identify their papers as being written in either American or British English, with attention given to accuracy and consistency of terminology and spelling, grammar and punctuation within the chosen English variant.

Deadlines and Credits

FIN-1 is intended to be completed in one academic term (two 'periods'). The first period of the term will include class background meetings, plus initial research and writing of the paper. The second period following the mid-term break is for independent work on and guided completion of the paper.

Papers which have been fully completed on schedule (using the same number of weeks for both fall and spring term students) will be awarded an additional two credits, thus bringing the total to 8 for the paper. Papers which incorporate an approved original research component will qualify for a further two credits, bringing the potential total to 10. Such additional credits may be applied directly toward FAST degree requirements or used as part of the student's optional credits for the B.A. in English Translation.

The optional research component requires separate approval. Approval will be granted only after the basic paper (which would determine possible need for the research) has undergone several drafts and is largely complete. In short, students should first write the basic paper. If time remains and the need exists, approval may then be sought for the research component.

Continuation into a Second Term; 'Expiration' of Overly-Late Papers

While FIN-1 is intended to be completed in one academic term (the same term for which the student was accepted to the course), circumstances sometimes do not allow timely completion of the paper. In such cases, where students have submitted and received back at least one full draft of their paper during the fall term, for example, it could be completed during the spring term. However, certain caveats apply:

1. Teacher priority for the 'second' term must go to that term's new students, so the interval between submission of drafts by students from the previous term may be much longer than it would have been during the previous term. This may influence whether the student can complete the paper even during the 'second' term.
2. Extra credit for completing the paper 'on time' will not be awarded for papers which extend into the next term. Further, approval for the independent research option will not be given for papers which have extended beyond the term in which the student began the course. Finally, the longer the paper remains incomplete may also influence the grade which may eventually awarded to the paper.

Further, as noted in the Section Study Code, the validity of papers will expire (unless force majeure considerations apply) if they still have not been completed more than one additional term after the student first began.

Completion of FIN-1 and Eligibility for Advanced-Level ETRAN Courses

FIN-1 is a required intermediate-level course in the English Translation curriculum. Normally ETRAN students should complete the course during their second year of study. University requirements stipulate that students should complete Intermediate Studies, with an overall grade of 3 (HT), before progressing to Advanced Studies. The English Section requires that students must have completed all compulsory Intermediate courses before continuing into Advanced-level courses (see the Study Code on this point). Accordingly, students are expected to have completed FIN-1 before entering the TRENSM2 and TRENSM3 Translation Seminars and the TRENSM5 M.A. Thesis Seminar. (FIN-1 also provides the foundation in research paper writing expected for students entering TRENSM5, so logically must be completed prior to TRENSM5.)