Tips for organizing and writing your thesis

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Tips for organizing and writing your thesis

• Liz Schermer
• (with help from all other Geo dept. faculty and
  numerous web sources)

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Outline

• General aspects and philosophy
• Organization
• of the whole thesis
• Within the thesis
• Writing style and form
• Getting started, keeping going
• (personal advice from writers)
• Resources

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General philosophyHierarchy of importance

• Content
• the message given
• Style
• the way that message is presented (structure,
  language, and illustration)
• Form
• the appearance of the message (grammar,
  punctuation, usage, spelling, and format).

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General philosophy

• (1) A research paper (or thesis) is an attempt to
  persuade.
• (2) The key to persuasion is organization.
• (3) A picture is worth a thousand words.
• (4) Don't use a thousand words where five hundred
  will do.
• (5) If at first you don't succeed, try, try,
  try, try, try, try, try, try, try, again.
• Thanks to Bill Carlson

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A thesis is an original contribution to knowledge

• An advisor/reader will expect that
• you have identified a worthwhile problem or
  question which has not been previously answered
• you have solved the problem or answered the
  question.
• http//www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis
  .html

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A thesis is an attempt to persuade

• A reader/reviewer will ask
• what is the research question?
• is it a good question? (has it been answered
  before? is it a useful question to work on?)
• did the author convince me that the question was
  adequately answered?
• has the author made an adequate contribution to
  knowledge?
• http//www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thes
  is.html

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Know your audience

• Explain abbreviations, unusual terms
• CLEAR writing
• Explain assumptions, limitations
• For a journal article, know the usual audience
  and scope of papers

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Keep to the point

• A concise paper or thesis requires keeping the
  main points in mind--ONLY include background
  information, data, discussion that is relevant to
  these points

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Style and structure

• Organization
• Emphasis
• Depth
• Transitions between sections

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Organization the key to persuasion

• Start by writing down the single most important
  concept.
• Outline the critical observations and reasoning
  that support that concept
• Test your organization by careful evaluation of
  the outline
• Expand the outline to greater detail, then test
  it again
• Write the body of the text methods first,
  observations next, interpretations last.
• Write the contextual elements conclusion first,
  introduction next, abstract last.
• Insert carefully composed transitional sections,
  paragraphs, and sentences.
• thanks to Bill Carlson

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The outline is the necessary framework

• Use the MS Word outline tool
• Keep going back to outline view throughout the
  various drafts of your writing
• (more on this later)

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Organization of the thesis

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Background and Literature review
• Problem statement/research question
• Methods
• Data presentation
• Interpretation
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• References

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Question

• Do you want to go over each section?
• Details and main resource http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk
  /ming/Dept/Tips/writing/thesis/

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Nested hourglass model

• The whole thesis
• Each section, subsection
• Most paragraphs
• Broad focus at beginning, end specifics/narrow
  focus in middle

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Organization of the thesis

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Background/Lit. review
• Problem statement/research question
• Methods
• Data presentation
• Interpretation
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• References

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Abstract

• Write this LAST!
• Abstracts should be 1-2 pages and should be
  self-contained
• Model after a paper in your field
• Written to attract readers to your article or
  thesis, gives a good initial impression
• Summary of the contents of the thesis
• Brief but contains sufficient detail
• motivation for the work
• project objectives
• techniques employed
• main results and conclusions

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Introduction

• Write this second to last!
• This is a general introduction to what the thesis
  is all about -- it is not just a description of
  the contents of each section. Briefly summarize
  the question (you will be stating the question in
  detail later), some of the reasons why it is a
  worthwhile question, and perhaps give a brief
  overview of your main results.

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Introduction

• Topic?
• Defines scope and limitations of study
• Importance?
• Background?
• Arrangement of thesis?
• You probably wrote this for your thesis proposal
  REWRITE IT AFTER body of thesis is written

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Background

• A brief section giving background information may
  be necessary. Your readers may not have any
  experience with some of the material needed to
  follow your thesis, so you need to give it to
  them. A more informative title is usually better,
  e.g. Regional geology of the North Cascades

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Review of the State of the Art(Literature review)

• Limited to the state of the art relevant to your
  thesis. Again, a specific heading is appropriate
  e.g., Previous work on Cretaceous orogeny in the
  Cascades." The idea is to present (not analyze)
  the major ideas in the state of the art right up
  to, but not including, your own personal
  brilliant ideas. You organize this section by
  idea, and not by author or by publication.
• Some advisors think this section should come
  after the problem statement (next section)

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Literature review

• Provides context for and details about the
  motivation for the project
• States why the problem is important
• Sets the scene for the work described in the
  thesis
• Describes what others have done and hence sets a
  benchmark for the current project
• Justifies the use of specific techniques or
  problem solving procedures

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Tips for literature review

• Make it a point to keep on top of your field of
  study by making regular visits to the library and
  to the electronic journals websites.
• When reading a technical paper, jot down the key
  points and make a note of the journal or
  technical publication where the paper was
  published.
• Devise a cataloguing system that will allow you
  to retrieve the paper quickly. (e.g. use ENDNOTE)
  
• Make sure that you have read and understood cited
  work
• Organize your content according to ideas instead
  of individual publications.
• Do not simply quote or paraphrase the contents of
  published articles. Weave the information into
  focused views. Demonstrate your deeper
  understanding of the topic.

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Research Question or Problem Statement

• a concise statement of the question that your
  thesis tackles
• 2. justification, by direct reference to previous
  work, that your question is previously
  unanswered. This is where you analyze the
  information which you presented in the state of
  the art section
• 3. discussion of why it is worthwhile to answer
  this question.

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Data and interpretation

• No standard form. But still organized!
• One or several sections and subsections.
• Methods, Data, Interpretation sections are
  separate
• Only one purpose to convince the advisor
  (reader/reviewer) that you answered the question
  or solved the problem stated in the previous
  section.

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Data and Interpretation

• Present data that is relevant to answering the
  question or solving the problem
• if there were blind alleys and dead ends, do not
  include these, unless specifically relevant to
  the demonstration that you answered the thesis
  question.
• Note for some theses it may be important to
  include these in an appendix

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Methods

• Depending on your topic this may be one paragraph
  or a long section
• If measurement error is important to your study,
  state how this was assessed.

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Data presentation

• Draft your figures first (A picture is worth a
  thousand words)
• Make captions stand alone
• Use enough figures to present the data that
  justifies your interpretations and conclusions.
  No more, no less. (Dont use 1000 words when 500
  will do)
• Write your text around your figures

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Use the proper tools (for your research AND your
writing)

• Spreadsheets, analysis tools
• Plotting programs
• Graphics programs
• ENDNOTE
• Writing resources
• Start learning these before you collect the data
  (e.g., during the thesis proposal process)

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Focus on one important thing in each paragraph
Each paragraph needs a topic sentence Contents of
paragraph should only relate to that topic Use
Outline view to see and revise this
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Interpretation

• Keep separate from data, clearly distinguished by
  paragraph, section, and/or words like are
  interpreted to show.
• Depending on your topic, it is often useful to
  subdivide interpretation into a local or small
  scale (directly flows from your data) and a
  regional or big picture scale, that flows
  from consideration of your data with that of
  others. This latter type is usually included in
  the discussion section.

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Discussion

• Look at discussion sections in papers in your
  field. See what they cover.
• Usually is a broader scale interpretation than
  just your data (relate to previous published
  results)
• Addresses the bigger problems of your research
  topic and how your study fits into solving those
  problems
• Is NOT a conclusion section

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Conclusions

• 1. Conclusions
• 2. Summary of Contributions
• 3. Future Research
• Conclusions are not a rambling summary of the
  thesis they are short, concise statements of the
  inferences that you have made because of your
  work. It helps to organize these as short
  numbered paragraphs, ordered from most to least
  important. All conclusions should be directly
  related to the research question stated

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References

• All references cited, including those in Tables
  and Figure captions. No more, no less.
• Use consistent style throughout (e.g. et al. OR
  and others, not both)
• Use ENDNOTE program (start NOW building your
  library database)

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A few words onForm

• Format Typography, layout
• Follow the Grad. School guidelines
• Plan ahead! (e.g. do you really need 50 color
  figures?)
• Mechanics
• Grammar
• Usage
• Punctuation
• spelling

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Shed light on your subjectclarity is everything
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Avoid convoluted writing
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Avoid ornate language, words you dont really
understand(look it up!)
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Be professional! (or at least try really hard)
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Resources for style, word use, etc.

• How To Write A Dissertation or Bedtime Reading
  For People Who Do Not Have Time To Sleep
• http//www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertat
  ion.html
• Example of a term to avoid
• this'', that'' As in This causes concern.''
  Reason this'' can refer to the subject of the
  previous sentence, the entire previous sentence,
  the entire previous paragraph, the entire
  previous section, etc. For example, in X does
  Y. This means ...'' the reader can assume
  this'' refers to Y or to the fact that X does
  it. Even when restricted (e.g., this
  computation...''), the phrase is weak and often
  ambiguous.

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AGU Grammar and Style guide

• Will be on Geo dept. web site (pdf download)
• Very useful!
• Example
• 3.2. Comprise Versus Compose
• 1. Whole (subject) comprises parts (object)
  (must be active verb) The book comprises five
  chapters.
• 2. Parts (subject) compose (make up) a whole
  (object) These chapters compose this book. This
  book is composed of three chapters.
• Never use comprised of change to composed of.

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Resources from Dave Hirsch

• Columbia Bus. School style manual, after Chicago
  Manual of style. Contains info on punctuation,
  capitalization
• http//www0.gsb.columbia.edu/news/media/style.html
  hyphen
• More than you could ever hope to know about
  hyphens
• http//www.grammartips.homestead.com/hyphens1.html
  
• http//www.grammartips.homestead.com/hyphens2.html
  
• http//www.grammartips.homestead.com/hyphens3.html
  

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Resources from Chris Suczek

• Use books, not just web sites to help your
  writing
• Elements of Style
• USGS Suggestions to Authors
• the Glossary of Geology,
• one or more style manuals (e.g., The Chicago
  Manual of Style by the University of Chicago
  Press),
• maybe even a thesaurus and a dictionary of
  synonyms and antonyms.

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Getting Started

• Prepare an extended outline.
• Use MS Word outline tool
• List each section and subsection
• For each section and subsection, write a brief
  point-form description of the contents.
• Review with your advisor. Look for
• unnecessary material? Remove it.
• missing material? Add it
• It is much less painful and more time-efficient
  to make such decisions early, during the outline
  phase, rather than after you've already done a
  lot of writing which has to be thrown away.

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Choose a good role model

• Papers in your field
• Author who consistently writes clear, important
  papers
• Note content, style, form
• Remember this paper likely went through many
  drafts too!

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Keeping going

• Write as you go (e.g., previous work, geologic
  setting can be done in year 1)
• Share writing early and often with your advisor.
  
• Deal with procrastination. Keep lists of tasks,
  broken in to small manageable pieces, including
  writing tasks (a few pages at a time).
• Identify a time and location where you can write
  with good focus and few distractions, and take
  advantage of it regularly -- at least weekly,
  possibly daily.
• thanks to Juliet

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• FinallyIts an uphill battle(if at first you
  dont succeed..)

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Web sites

• http//www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/thesis.html
• http//www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis
  .html
• http//www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertat
  ion.html
• http//oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth595/thesis.htm
  l
• http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/writing/wr
  iteindex.htm