Research and creative work are an important part of university studies. Besides regular classes, students are encouraged to develop their own ideas, think critically, and try out academic or artistic work in practice.

The Student Scientific, Professional and Artistic Activity (ŠVOUČ) is a yearly event where bachelor’s and master’s students can present their own research projects or artistic work. For many students, ŠVOUČ is their first experience with research, academic presentation, or public artistic performance.

By participating in ŠVOUČ, you can:

• work on your own research or creative project,
• gain experience with academic or artistic presentation,
• receive feedback from lecturers,
• get involved in research activities at your department,
• take an important step towards future academic or doctoral studies,
• and compete for prizes awarded to the top three presentations.

ŠVOUČ has two main stages:

1. Preparation & Submission

• You prepare your research paper or creative work in English (including commentary or reflection, if required).
  • You must consult your work with a supervisor before submission.
• You submit your work by the set deadline in both electronic and printed form.
• After submitting your work, you also prepare a presentation in English.

Presentation preparation:

• • Your presentation must be no longer than 15 minutes.
    • If there are many presenters, the time limit may be shortened; you will be informed in advance so you can adjust your presentation.
  • You are strongly encouraged to practice your presentation to stay within the time limit.

2. Conference (Live Event)

• You present your work at a live student conference.
• Your work is evaluated by an expert committee made up of lecturers, researchers, and sometimes students.
• After your presentation, there is a 10-minute discussion, during which you:
  • respond to questions from your opponent and supervisor (based on the reviews),
  • answer additional questions from committee members and the audience.
• After all presentations, the committee evaluates the work and announces the results.
• In each section, three winning works are selected.

ŠVOUČ is open to:

• students of all years,
  
• students from all study programmes,
  
• individuals or student teams.
  

You can take part in ŠVOUČ in one of the following 2 categories. Each category is judged separately:

1. RESEARCH PROJECTS:

These may include:

a. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

• • • language structure and use (morphology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, and phonology; e.g. studying sentence patterns or negation in English, or analysing accents and speech fluency)
    • language in society and media (pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis; e.g. analysing how English is used in social media, news reporting, or public discourse)
    • data-driven or applied studies (corpus-based studies, contrastive analysis, applied linguistics projects; e.g. using a corpus to investigate common English idioms or developing a small language-learning tool)

b. Pedagogy and Didactics

• • • research-based lesson plans or teaching units with reflection (e.g. a lesson plan for teaching narrative tenses in English, including reflection on student responses and areas for improvement)
    • classroom-based research (e.g. a small study on how using literary short stories affects student engagement and vocabulary retention in an EFL classroom)

c. Literary and Cultural Studies

• • • literary analysis (e.g. examining how the theme of the American Dream is presented through characters, symbols, and events in The Great Gatsby)
    • cultural studies papers (e.g. analysing representations of race and identity in contemporary American television series such as Atlanta)
    • adaptation studies (e.g. examining how Pride and Prejudice has been adapted into modern English-language films and TV series, focusing on changes in character portrayal, dialogue, and cultural context)

2. CREATIVE & ARTISTIC PROJECTS:

These may include:

• • creative writing (short stories, poetry, flash fiction, experimental prose)
  • film or video projects related to literary or cultural themes (short films, adaptations, video essays)
  • digital or multimodal projects (literary podcasts, storytelling websites, interactive narratives)
  • cultural or media projects (e.g. analyses presented through creative formats)
  • teaching materials (worksheets, digital activities, assessment tools with theoretical justification)
  • other creative formats related to English-language literature, culture, or media

Creative works must be accompanied by an explanatory text or critical reflection. For example, when submitting creative writing, your reflection can briefly explain the main theme of your story or poem, why you made certain choices for characters or structure, any literary techniques you used, and how your work connects to literary, cultural, or teaching concepts.

When registering a creative project, you should also describe how it will be presented.

General guidelines for editing  ŠVOUČ papers:

Font: Times New Roman
Font size: 12 pt for the main text

Heading 1: 14 pt, bold (main chapter titles)

Heading 2: 12 pt, bold (subchapter titles)

Line spacing: single
Alignment: justified
Margins: 2.5 cm

Length: the suggested maximum length is 10 to 15 standard pages (counted from the introduction to the conclusion)

Note: The final length varies by project and topic; consult your supervisor for specific guidance.

A Word template can be downloaded by clicking here or by finding the link at the bottom of the page.

STRUCTURE:

TITLE PAGE:

The title page presents the title of the project in English and Slovak, in bold 14-point font. After a space, the author’s surname and first name appear in italics, 12-point font.

The department is listed at the bottom of the page, followed by the supervisor’s surname, first name, and academic titles in italics, 12-point font.

ABSTRACT & KEYWORDS:

The next page contains the abstract and keywords for the work, written in Slovak even if the submission is in another language. The abstract is a short summary of the project (maximum 300 characters) that explains what it is about, what was studied, and what the main findings are. The keywords are 3 to 5 important words or phrases that best describe the topic and help readers find it more easily.

MAIN TEXT:

After the abstract and keywords, the main text of the submission begins. It includes an introduction, the core/body of the work, and a conclusion. The introduction presents the topic and its goals, the core develops the main ideas and arguments, and the conclusion summarises the findings and final thoughts.

For creative and artistic projects, the main part of the work should first describe the project in detail. This includes explaining what the project is (for example, a video or podcast) and where it can be accessed by the public. After that, you should include a reflective and explanatory section. In this section, you talk about the main theme or ideas of your work, explain and justify the key creative choices you made (such as form, structure, characters, medium, or techniques), and show how your project connects to literary, cultural, media, or educational concepts. The conclusion should briefly summarise what the project aimed to achieve, what you learned during the creative process, and any ideas for future development. Any materials that can be included in a Word document, such as creative writing or visual materials, should be added to the appendix.

REFERENCES:

After the main text, the References section follows. It lists all the sources used in the submission, including books, articles, videos, and other materials, in a standard format, following the university’s citation norm. If you use websites, make sure to remove the hyperlink so the address appears as plain text.

APPENDICES:

After the References section, the optional appendix section begins. This is where you can include extra materials that support your paper, such as tables, figures, charts, questionnaires, or additional documents that are not part of the main text but help explain your research.

You must submit both an electronic version and two printed copies of your paper.

Before submitting, please make sure you follow all formatting and structure requirements. See the Formatting Guidelines section for detailed instructions.

Printed copies:

Submit two printed copies, bound (e.g. comb, thermal, or spiral binding) to the department secretary.
Deadline: March 8

Electronic version:

Submit your electronic files here (paper/commentary + any additional files; alternatively, send your files to egyorgy@ukf.sk):

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