1. Choice of supervisor and topic
The first step is to choose a supervisor and agree upon a thesis topic (the thesis title), at least 5 months before the expected graduation session (e.g.: to graduate in July, the supervisor and topic must be chosen at least in January/February). The first contact can be made via e-mail, but a following in-person meeting is strongly recommended.
Following the discussion with the supervisor, students must prepare a short paragraph with the research questions their dissertation should tackle and to be used as an opportunity for brainstorming. Next, after doing some preliminary reading (4-6 scientific articles), and taking into account earlier discussions, it is necessary to prepare a thematic index (a draft of an index or table of contents of the dissertation with a short sentence illustrating the heading/chapter possible content). This is the first step to do with the supervisor, before starting writing.
Once the draft of the table of contents has been discussed with the supervisor, the writing process can start following the supervisor's guidelines.