Thesis writing
Thesis Writing by Assoc. Prof. Nick Reid
Style Template
1. Choose a refereed journal to emulate and adopt the writing, formatting style and conventions assiduously in everything you write (expect papers for other journals with a different style), including your thesis.
Self-editing
2. Developing an ability to critically self-edit your own work is important. Please concentrate on this. After making a change, read the whole bit of text carefully to make sure you haven’t substituted one mistake for another. Also, carefully read the whole thing for errors. You may have to put the whole thing aside for a week or two to do this successfully.
Proof Reading
3. Make sure the thesis is entirely proof-read by someone competent other than yourself prior to submission.
Scientific and common names
4. The convention is to give the common name (Latin name) at the first mention and then use either the Latin name or common name only thereafter, no mish-mashes. Sometimes students omit common names at the first mention of a species with a common name; or use a mix of common name and L. name at subsequent mentions, without any consistency. Style inconsistencies should be avoided. Be guided by the style of the journal you are emulating.
5. Family names (e.g. Myrtaceae) should be written in Roman (i.e. in this font, not italics).
6. The thesis should either be an -s- thesis or a -z- thesis (in words such as fertilise, maximise, prioritise, recognise etc.), not a mish-mash of both. Be guided by the spelling convention adopted by the journal you are emulating. Generally, British journals are -s- journals and U.S. journals are -z- journals, but there are no hard-and-fast rules and English dictionaries often allow either spelling. Just be consistent. Again, be guided by the spelling used by the journal you are emulating.
Sequence of Components in the Thesis
7. It always seem logical to me to include four components in the first chapter(s) in the following sequence:
- Introduction to broadly describe the background to the project, the reason for doing it and the topic areas(s). 2 pp maximum
- Literature Review, which systematically addresses all previous information about the topics addressed by the research (20+ pages)
- Research aims and objectives (1-2 pages), followed by
- Outline of thesis, which explains the sequence of the chapters and how each chapter addresses particular research objectives.
Make sure the lit review leads up logically to all the issues and research objectives raised in the research aims section. Basically the research aims are the broad question or questions addressed by the thesis. The objectives become the research focus of each data chapter and perhaps the Concluding chapter.These four components can be one chapter, or separate chapters, or some combination thereof, but I prefer them in one. Helps keep the Literature Review from getting too long.So a general thesis chapter outline is:
1. Introduction (1.1 Background, 1.2 Literature Review, 1.3 Research aims and objectives, 1.4 Thesis structure)
2. Study Area
3. First Data Chapter ( with numbered headings 3.1 Intro, 3.2 Methods, 3.3 Results, 3.4 Discussion, maybe 3.5 Conclusions and numbered subheadings)
4. Second Data Chapter (ditto)
5. Third Data Chapter
6. Fourth Data Chapter etc¦
7. ConclusionsReferencesAppendices
Abstract
8. The Abstract should basically follow the sequence of chapters, should be between 1and 2 pages long, and contain in order an explicit statement of aims and objectives, the key methods, results and conclusions of each chapter in sequence. Do not try to over-generalise. If key findings involve interactions, explain the interaction in full.
Introductions
9. All Chapters must have an Introduction (including the Study Area chapter) and all Introductions must have an explicit statement of aims and objectives so the reader knows what the chapter is about.
Literature Reviews
10. In writing Literature Reviews, it is best to go from the general to the specific, from the broad to the detailed, from the qualitative to the quantitative, from the simple to the complex, from the empirical to the experimental etc. Thus, in a Literature Review, you would start off with the international perspective, then focus in on Australia, and finally on the region of interest. In other words, always start off with the international literature first, then delve down into the Australian and regional literature in that order in search of general and then more specific principles.
Glossary or Definitions
11. A table of definitions early in the thesis is often useful, so that the examiner does not throw a wobbly over semantics. For instance, on the Northern Tablelands in a thesis on native grassy vegetation, it may be necessary to define explicitly what you mean by a native pasture, natural pasture, semi-natural pasture, grassland, native grassland, natural grassland, derived grassland, grassy woodland, grassy vegetation, wooded pasture, open woodland, open forest, understorey vegetation, ground-storey vegetation, improved pasture, sown pasture, introduced pasture, top-dressed pasture, fertilised pasture, overgrazing, etc.
Results
12. In reporting the Results, it is best to go from the general to the specific, from the broad to the detailed, from the qualitative to the quantitative, from the simple to the complex, from the empirical to the experimental etc.
Discussion
13. This is how to write a discussion:
- First, before starting to write the Discussion, order the key results that you want to discuss in the most logical sequence as a series of bullet points.
- Then, for each bit of information in turn:
i. Reiterate the interesting result you are going to discuss
ii. Explain why you think you got this result, with reference to other literature to support your explanation if necessary
iii. Explain the larger or wider significance of this interesting result.
iv. Compare your result with any other studies that are supportive or contradictory, if you want (but this is not mandatory); if others work is supportive, you probably don’t need to explain much, other than it looks like a general finding; if their results are contradictory, you need to explain why you think they might have btained different results to you.
v. Don’t fall into the trap of forgetting to do (i)(iii) first (the most iimportant parts, after all), and only doing (iv).
14. In writing the Discussion (and, indeed, in presenting the Results), it’s best to go from the general to the specific, from the broad to the detailed, from the qualitative to the quantitative, from the simple to the complex, from the empirical to the experimental etc.
References
15. Order of multiple references should be consistent throughout the thesis and follow the convention of the journal you are emulating, for instance, always chronological and alphabetical within chronological (Smith & Weston 1989; Abdul 1990, 1996; Zany 1992; Zar 1992; Zaphrod Beeblebox 1993) or vice versa (Abdul 1990, 1992; Smith & Weston 1989; Zaphrod Beeblebox 1993; Zany 1992; Zar 1992).
16. As a rule, put the citation in the first sentence of a passage based on a reference, not at the end of the last sentence of the passage.
Writing Styles
17. Be guided by the journal style that you are trying to emulate, including the -s-, or -z- question (above). I use the Australian Government Publishing Service’s (2002) Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (currently in its 6th ed) for all questions of style, although I occasionally defer to UNE’s Style Guide (on the UNE website). The AGPS Style Manual is good because it includes a list of editing marks, which explains all the hieroglyphics I leave in the margins of your work when I edit it. It is also excellent on grammar, punctuation, non-sexist language,
SI unit abbreviations, numbers and spacers (when to use a comma to delimit thousands, when not), when to use upper and lower case, the difference between acronyms and abbreviations, when to use hyphens and when not, the difference between hyphens, en rules and em rules (dashes), and all manner of other minor issues. Start using a rigorously defined style at the start of your writing, so that your style doesn’t drift from one page or chapter to the next. There is nothing more frustrating than to have to spend most of my time correcting style issues I have corrected a thousand times before. So define a style before you start writing and write it down (e.g. the journal you are emulating), with your first bit of writing, and stick to it throughout your PhD or Masters.Here is a miscellany of general hints which I build on with every new bit of work I have to read:
Write out numbers as one to ten (three sites, five apples, ten cuckoos), then use digits (11 cars, 12, 13 & 1349 species etc.).
However, always use digits for SI unit quantities (and abbreviations), including one to ten, and units of time, thus 1 day, 3 years, 6 ha, 10 m, 14 s, 16 dS/m (and note the hard space [<SHIFT><CNTRL><SPACE> keyed simultaneously]) between the last digit and the SI unit abbreviation or unit of time).
Use a hard space (above) rather a comma to delimit multiples of thousands, thus 356 000 ha, 1 345 000 km², etc. However, four-digit numbers do not require a space, thus 1234 elephants, 9876 m/s.
Although currency amounts are often written with a comma as a spacer, including four-digit amounts ($1,345,000 and $1,234, the AGPS Style Manual recommends that you don’t use a comma but a thin space: $1 345 000 and $1234).
Never separate a number from its unit abbreviation on two separate lines. To avoid this, use a hard space in between the multiples of thousands and the number and its unit abbreviation - this tells MS Word® not to break the line across the space. A hard space is <SHIFT><CTRL><SPACE> keyed together.
Avoid using bullets in theses (you never see them in scientific journal articles, do you?). Write out the list in paragraph format, perhaps using (1) ; (2); (3) …, and (4) . or (a) , (b), (c), and (d)¦ instead.
Avoid first and second person (”our planet”, “my belief”, “when you think” and so on).
Tenses: generally, write as though the work you undertook was in the past and you are reporting it as something that happened in the past (e.g. Six sites were sampled in September 2004, and a further three sites in October 2004). When citing literature, also write in the past, but if what an author found is general or current, it can be written in the present, thus: Reid (1999) identified 20 species of declining woodland bird that are declining in the sheep-wheat belt of NSW. If what the author found was a one-off relevant at the time of their study only, it should be written in the past tense, too: Reid (1999) sampled 16 sites but only recorded species incidence at each.
Hyphens and dashes are fun! Use hyphens for:
Prefixes (anti-corruption),
Doubled-up vowels (de-emphasise),
To clarify meaning (re-creation, meaning created anew, not recreation),
If a prefix is followed by a capital letter, a number, or an expression in italics or quotation marks (un-Australian, anti-Mexicano, pro-reconciliation stance)
Suffixes following a number (thirty-fold, 150-odd)
Some compound nouns (go-ahead, but red tape)
Compound adjectives (bitter-sweet)
Breaking a word across two lines
Use the em rule (dash) for:
Abrupt changes - but is this a waste of time?
Amplification and explanation - for instance, I could put one here
Parenthetic expressions - instead of parentheses in a sentence
Use the en rule (dash) for linking words and figures:
To show spans of figures, times and distance (e.g. 3-8 km, pp. 45-56, Sydney-Melbourne, 1999-2000)
To show an association between words that retain their separate identities (Asia-Pacific region)
Certain prefix situations (non-refundable but non-English speaking countries, to show the more extended link)
Negative mathematical sign (-4, -2, 0, 2, 4)
Use the spaced en rule:
To show an association between words when there is more than one word on one or either side to be linked (a Commonwealth - New South Wales agreement)
As a mathematical operator (10 - 5 = 5)
Good luck! Nick Reid Last update: 2 August 2007