Thesis writing Course for students at IDI

1
Thesis writing Course for students at IDI

• Stewart Clark
• Student and Academic Division
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• stewart.clark_at_ntnu.no
• tel. [phone]

2
Contents

• 1. Report and thesis writing 1
• 2. Web resources 8
• 3. Style and standards 16
• 4. Academic language (from MIT) 33
  

3
Module 1-Report and thesis writing-

• Structure of theses
• Editing your work
• Vocabulary
• Link words
• Words to avoid
• Word order

4
IMRAD structure

• Abstract
• Introduction
• (problems to be solved)
• Methods
• Results and Discussion
• (analysis of findings)
• Conclusions and further
• research
• (logical result of the process)
• Appendix Details

• general gt specific
• specific gt general

5
Scientific reports and theses 1

• Audience
• Scientific peers, scientific community, academic
  work and theses
• Organization
• Paper published in journals, house-style rules.
• Organization is inductive, a logical process.
• Scientific reliability is central

6
Scientific reports and theses 2

• Abstract
• Introduction
• (problems to be solved)
• Methods
• Results and discussion
• (analysis of findings)
• Conclusions and further research
• (logical result of the process)
• Appendix Details
• (detailed analysis of findings)

7
Title

• Label not a sentence, no final stop (period)
• Lower case for articles, conjunctions
• (and, but, for, or, nor), and most short
  prepositions
• Avoid articles and fuzzy words (some, certain)
• as the first word
• Use
• Boolean Functions, Transforms, and Recursions
• Not
• Some Boolean Functions, Transforms, and
  Recursions

8
Abstract - format

• (For scientific reports and theses)
• Summary of the information in the report
• brief statement of why the work was undertaken
  (objectives)
• brief statement of methods (methods)
• clear statement of the significant
  facts/findings/ideas in the text
  (results-recommendations)
• An abstract should be as long as is necessary to
  sum up the essential information (250 to 500
  words as a rule of thumb)

9
Abstract - format

• Index Terms
• After final paragraph of the Abstract
• Written in bold as in the Abstract
• In alphabetical order
• Acronyms are defined in Index Terms if defined in
  the paper.

10
Abstract - style

• For spelling, IEEE uses Websters College
  Dictionary, 4th Edition.
• For guidance on grammar and usage, consult The
  Chicago Manual of Style
• Write good continuous prose
• Abstracts are stand alone texts
• By nature, Abstracts shall not contain numbered
  mathematical equations or numbered references
  (IEEE Style Manual)
• http//www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iport
  als/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.pdf

11
Abstract for comment

• Consider the following
• 'Certain problems (specify them) concerning
  dynamic Boolean systems (without saying which) in
  some high performance associative memory systems
  (unspecified) have been studied. Conclusions have
  been drawn and recommendations for analytical
  approaches are made.'

12
Format - Acknowledgement

• Be formal
• - I wish to thank my supervisor Professor Arne
  Olsen at the Department of XZY, Norwegian
  University of Science and Technology for his
  invaluable assistance.
• - I would also like to thank
• - I appreciate the assistance from
• - Special thanks are given to
• - Gratitude is also given to
• - I am grateful for the help from Anne Olsen,
  research technician and other department staff in
  preparing the FEM analysis
• - Finally, I acknowledge the generous financial
  support from the Research Council of Norway

13
Format Contents

• Table of Contents
• The structural pattern of the report
• Have a planned layout fonts, capitalization,
  indentation
• THIS IS CHAPTER 1
• This is Section 1.1
• Section 1.1.1

14
Contents layout example

• Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
• Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . ii
• Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
• List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . . . v
• List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . .vi
• Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . iii
• 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . . . .3
• 1.1 Thesis Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . .3

15
Other front material in theses

• Nomenclature
• Nomenclature lists the symbols and their
  definitions
• List of Abbreviations
• Some these have an alphabetical list of
  abbreviations and acronyms
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Check that the captions correspond to those in
  the text

16
Format Introduction 1

• Presentation of the nature/scope of the
  subject-matter
• - explains what the situation was before you
  began the work that you are about to report
• - your objectives and strategy in writing the
  report
• - your assumptions about the audience's
  expertise/needs
• Presentation of relevant literature for
  orientation
• - how the report relates to other sources of
  information
• - a review of previous work and theoretical
  considerations

17
Format Introduction 2

• Should NOT contain information you know as a
  result of having completed the work you are about
  to report
• Shows how the thesis/report is organized (only
  the chapters in a thesis
• Chapter 2 considers
• Then, Chapter 3 turns to the issue of
• After this, Chapter 4 demonstrates
• This is followed by Chapter 5 which presents the
  conclusions and applications of this work for the
  fish farming industry. Finally, Chapter 6
  outlines the implications and potential for
  further research in this field.

18
Format Body

• Methods
• - The defence of your results and their
  reliability
• Results and Discussion
• - Presentation of principles, relationships and
  generalizations
• Exceptions/unsettled points
• Applications/implications
• Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Work

19
Format End matter

• References
• This has no section number in front
• Appendix/Appendices
• Presentation of important experiments, data and
  computations.
• Label Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C...
• See Figure A.12 and Table C.11 for

20
Order of writing

• B gtCgt Igt Agt T
• gtBody
• methods (details to appendices)
• results (details to appendices)
• gt Conclusions
• recommendations for further
• work
• gt Introduction
• gt Abstract/Executive summary
• gt Title

21
Editing your work 1

• Formal editing
• Do the section titles in the report match the
  contents list?
• Are tables and figures in chronological order?
• Are words like table, figure, equation, section
  correctly capitalized?
• Are terms like figure, equation, section
  consistent? (Figure 3/Fig. 4. Equation 6/Eq. 4)
• Use of brackets. Are sections and
• equations easy to pick out? What is (3.3)?
• Check the cited references for consistency.
• Use (Olsen 1997) or (Olsen, 1997), not both.

22
Editing your work 2

• Stylistic editing
• Check the recommended style in "Instructions to
  Authors" from the journal you are submitting to?
  
• The Harvard reference system, preferred in this
  journal, uses the name of the author, the date of
  publication and, following quoted material, the
  page reference, as a key to the full
  bibliographic details set out in the list of
  references.
• Examples in the text
• This has been questioned by several authors
  (Smith 1990, Jones and Cook 1998, Dobbs et al.
  1991).
• (N.B. et al. is used in the text when
• there are three or more authors.)
• Swanwick (1988, p. 56) has attempted to

23
Editing your work 3

• Reference list
• Where there are two or more works by one author
  in the same year, use 1997a, 1997b, etc.
• The reference list must include every work cited
  in the text. Ensure that dates, spelling and
  titles used in the text are consistent with those
  listed in the reference list.
• All co-authors are to be cited. Do not use et al.
  here.
• Check the correct use of italics and
• punctuation in the reference list.

24
Editing your work 4

• Reference list
• Check the reference list for consistency
• - institution names,
• - names of journals,
• Avoid Norwegian and English terms for
• the same institution.
• (Use Google to check on the home page.
• Be careful a PhD degree from NTNU in 1995
• is impossible in two ways).

25
IEEE Style ManualDecide reference format

• NOTE Editing of references may entail careful
  renumbering of references, as well as the
  citations in text. (From IEEE Style Manual)
• My suggestion use the Harvard system (name and
  year) as a working tool, then convert to IEEE
  style when finished.

26
IEEE Style ManualReference format

• References in Text In square brackets, inside
  the punctuation. e.g.,
• as shown by Brown 4, 5 as mentioned earlier
  2,
• or as nouns
• as demonstrated in 3 according to 4 and
  69.

27
IEEE Style Manual Reference format

• Reference list Basic Format
• 1 J. K. Author, Name of paper, Abbrev.
  Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx,
  Abbrev. Month, year.
• Example
• 1 R. E. Kalman, New results in linear
  filtering and prediction theory, J. Basic Eng.,
  ser. D, vol. 83, pp. 95-108, Mar. 1961.
• NOTE IEEE style use pp. for both printed works
  and papers

28
IEEE Style Manual Caption format

• Suggest consecutive numbering in each chapter
  with stops
• Fig. 3.1. Example of linear filtering.
• Fig. 3.1. Example of linear filtering
• See Figs. 3.1 3.4
• alternative
• Fig. 3-1. Example of linear filtering.
• Fig. 3-1. Example of linear filtering
• But if you take this format, consider
• See Figs. 3-1 3-4

29
A or an?

• Indefinite articles are assigned to
  abbreviations to fit the sound of the first
  letter (e.g., an FCC regulation a BRI).
• (From IEEE Style Manual)
• Note A is 4 in the 100 most frequent words
• Abbreviations are read letter by letter, NTNU
• Acronyms are read as a word, SINTEF, CERN

30
ARTICLES A/AN RULE THE SOUND, NOT THE
SPELLING, DECIDES. A BEFORE A CONSONANT
SOUND AN BEFORE A VOWEL SOUND
Mark which of the letters of the alphabet could
take AN if they start an abbreviation A B C
D E F G H  I J K L M N O
P Q  R S T U V W X Y Z  
31
Mark A or ANa) A/AN European Commission
regulation b) A/AN EU national c) A/AN
euro d) A/AN UV-spectrofluorimeter e) A/AN
ultraviolet light change f) A/AN HES
regulation g) A/AN Health, Environment and
Safety regulation h) A/AN 8 mm gap i)
A/AN Master of Science degree j) A/AN MSc
degree
32
Module 2 -Useful web resources-

• Collocation
• English Matters
• British National Corpus
• Academic writing
• Lix readability

33
Collocation natural word partnerships

• Some words belong together naturally, others do
  not.
• Insert the opposites
• Heavy traffic/ ________traffic on the roads
• He suffered from a heavy cold/_______ cold
• A cup of strong coffee/________coffee
• A strong/_________wind was blowing

34
Collocation exercise

• Match each of these nouns to one of the groups of
  verbs. All the verbs must collocate with the
  noun
• battle struggle fight war
• avoid, get into, pick, provoke
• declare, go to, lead to, prolong, wage
• be engaged in, continue, give up, take up
• fight, force, go into, lose
• (See English Matters, Vocabulary exercises from
  Stewart)

35
Resources on the Web

• Oxford Teachers Club
• www.oup.com/elt/global/teachersclub/
• British Council Education and Training
• www.britishcouncil.org/education
• English Matters
• www.ntnu.no/intersek/english_matters

36
English mattersNettportal for deg som bruker
engelsk som arbeidsspråk. www.ntnu.no/internationa
l/english_matters/

• Online dictionaries EN/EN
• Longman (BE), Miriam Webster (AE),
• Rogets Thesaurus, Slang dictionary
• Dictionaries with pronunciation and translation
  help
• Online dictionaries EN/NO and NO/EN
• Ordnett, Clue, UMBs Green Dictionary

37
English matters

• Longman online dictionary - Collocations
• Chance - collocations
• there's a chance (that) (it is possible that)
• there's every chance (that) (it is very likely)
• some chance little chance no chance a good/fair
  chance (something is likely)
• a slight/slim/outside chance (something is
  unlikely)
• a fifty-fifty chance (the possibility of
  something happening or not happening is equal)
• a million to one chance/a one in a million chance
  (something is extremely unlikely to happen)

38
British National Corpus (BNC)

• Exercise
• something that is quite likely to happen
• Is it a large? great? big? possibility of
• or a strong/real/distinct possibility?
• Use Longman and BNC to find out, and which verb
  to use

• 100 million word collection of BE texts
• Oxford UP, Longman, Chambers and British Library
• Free search sampler
• http//sara.natcorp.ox.
• ac.uk/lookup.html

39
Use to BNC to check collocations

• Standard collocations I found it on the Web
• absolutely convinced (20) extremely convinced
  (0)
• (adverb verb)
• slight breeze (20)
• light wind (25) weak wind (0)
• (adjective noun)
• Numbers refer to hits on the British National
  Corpus

40
English matters

• Just the Word
• Helps you to find word combinations
• Based on British National Corpus
• Use suggest alternatives option
• Generates suggestions, note colour code
• Try it with weak wind

41
English matters

• Terminology EN/NO and NO/EN
• UHR Termbase (educational terminology), EØS base
• Norwegian ministries
• Norwegian legislation (Lovdata)
• Style
• Emails and letters
• English Style Guidelines
• Academic writing portal, self study exercises
• CV writing

42
English matters

• Vocabulary
• Vocabulary and current affairs BBC World Service,
  select "News English" 3 new stories a week.
  Often lesson plans in pdf
• BE and AE newspapers
• Self-study
• Collocation exercises
• Agreement exercise
• Phrasal verbs
• Prepositions
• Prefixes (BBC English 1)

43
Using English for Academic PurposesA Guide for
Students in Academic Writing

• Linked on
• English Matters

44
Writing paragraphs

• Click on Paragraph
• Try Exercise 2 (Pesticide Suicide)
• Continue to Topic
• - Identifying topic sentences
• Do Exercise 7 in groups of 3
• Click on Flow
• - Flow of information in paragraphs using key
  words
• Try Exercise 8

45
Writing paragraphs

• Click on Paragraph
• Continue to Signalling link words
• Note all the examples
• Do exercises 10 and 11.
• Any contrasts?

46
Writing paragraphs

• Continue to Cohesion,
• see lexical cohesion key terms
• use reference words like
• this process, this view, this solution, these
  approaches
• Words that summarize the text in the first
  sentence and connects the next sentence.

47
Writing paragraphs

• Group exercise Add suitable reference words to
  complete this paragraph
• As soon as it gets to a certain size, every
  organization begins to feel a need to systematize
  its management of human resources.
• Some suggestions account, advice, answer,
  argument, assertion, assumption, claim, comment,
  conclusion, criticism, description, difficultly,
  discussion, distinction, emphasis, estimate,
  example, explanation, fall, finding, idea,
  improvement, increase, observation, proof,
  proposal, reference, rejection, report, rise,
  situation, suggestion, view.

48
Functions

• Click on functions in academic writing
• No.16. Introducing
• - note useful phrases at the bottom
• No. 9. Including tables
• note language tips at the bottom
• Click on Exercises and try Ex. 1 and 2 (Gap
  filling)

49
Functions/Citing sources

• Functions
• Click on functions in academic writing
• No. 17. Conclusions
• - note useful phrases at the bottom
• Citing sources
• Reporting and summarizing
• - note useful phrases at the bottom

50
Academic vocabulary

• Academic Word List (AWL) about 600 core terms
• An AWL term has to occur over 100 times in the
  3.5 million word Academic Corpus.
• The AWL is like the icing on a cake.
• BUT dont overdo it. A text that is full of AWL
  terms will be heavy to read.
• Details of the Academic Corpus
  http//www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicw
  ordlist/corpus.aspx

51
Academic Word List

• Note the derived terms 3000 words
• Dictionary link on left
• Pronunciation help
• Visual thesaurus
• Two sets of exercises based on AWL

52
Readability

• How can this text become clearer?
• Creditworthiness decreases with increasing
  debts and increasing cash-flow problems caused by
  an increase in ordinary depreciation, an increase
  in provisions for bad debts, an increase in loss
  reserves and increasing bad debts for the
  company.
• LIX readability index gives this text 78
• (gt 60 Mycket svår, byråkratsvenska
• http//www.lix.se/index.php

53
Readability

• How can this text become clearer?
• Creditworthiness decreases with increasing
  debts and increasing cash-flow problems caused by
  an increase in ordinary depreciation, an increase
  in provisions for bad debts, an increase in loss
  reserves and increasing bad debts for the
  company.
• LIX readability index gives this text 78
• (Score of 60 or more Very heavy language
  byråkratsvenska)
• http//www.lix.se/index.php

54
Readability

• Creditworthiness decreases for several reasons.
  First, there are increasing debts and cash-flow
  problems, which may be caused by a rise in
  ordinary depreciation or an increase in
  provisions for bad debts. Second, the cause may
  be the need to raise loss reserves, or more bad
  debts for the company.
• LIX readability index gives this text 43
• (40 50 Average difficulty, normal for journals)
  
• http//www.lix.se/index.php

55
Analysis of the changes

• Creditworthiness decreases for several reasons.
  First, there are increasing debts and cash-flow
  problems, which may be caused by a rise in
  ordinary depreciation or an increase in
  provisions for bad debts. Second, the cause may
  be the need to raise loss reserves, or more bad
  debts for the company.
• ---------------
• - header more to come for several reasons
• - link words first, second, or
• - blessing of punctuation 2gt4 commas 1gt3 stops
• - explanatory clause which

56
Sentence length

• Even though pervasive gaming is a fairly new
  field, and there are just a few pervasive games
  developed, it is already possible to identify
  several unique types of pervasive games such as
  smart toys, affective games, augmented tabletop
  games, augmented reality games and location-aware
  games (ref).
• (Over 40 words). The Lix readability score is 76.
• Very heavy language byråkratsvenska
• What can be done to make this more readable?

57
Sentence length

• Even though pervasive gaming is a fairly new
  field, and only there are just a few such
  pervasive games have been developed, it is
  already possible to identify several unique types
  of pervasive games. These include such as smart
  toys, affective games, augmented tabletop games,
  augmented reality games and location-aware games
  (ref).
• What are the changes?
• Red deleted text
• Underlined inserted text

58
Sentence length

• Even though pervasive gaming is a fairly new
  field and only a few such games have been
  developed, it is already possible to identify
  several types of games. These include smart toys,
  affective games, augmented tabletop games,
  augmented reality games and location-aware games
  (ref).
• (Two sentences). The Lix readability score is 52.
• (Normal for official texts)

59
Readability exercise

• Exercise take a text of about 100 words on your
  laptop and enter it in Lix
• http//www.lix.se/index.php
• Results over 60 need revision, aim at 50.
• Discuss changes with your neighbour.
• What features are interesting with Lix?

60
Other readability indexes

• Most other readability indexes are computed using
  5 steps
• Count the number of words in the document.
• Count the number of syllables in the document.
• Count the number of sentences in the document.
• Compute the index formula given
• The result is the number of years of formal
  education needed to understand the text
• Examples
• http//www.online-utility.org/english/readability_
  test_and_improve.jsp
• http//www.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/