Tips for Writing Theses
Tips for Writing Theses
A/Prof Nick Reid,
Ecosystem Management
UNE (nrei3@une.edu.au)
22 August 2007
Mary White College
Hints about Doing the Research
1. Do do a literature review (of sorts) at the start of the project, so that you know what’s important in your field and where the knowledge gaps and research questions lie from the start.
However:
· Prioritise, you can’t read everything, pick the 20 most important works that cover your field, if you can’t read everything
· Learn to skim, don’t try to write (rewrite) copious notes on everything you read
· For each of your 20 most important papers/works/books, write down just 1–4 dot points (1–2 lines only) about the most important things to emerge from each source for your research
· At the end of skimming your most important works, write down about 6 dot points that you think are the most important conclusions for your research from the lit review
· Don’t necessarily write the lit review at the start of the project … if your supervisors and course structure allow, the lit review can be the last thing you write, not the first (assuming you have done what I suggest above)
2. Write to a logical outline of your thesis and each chapter (but be flexible, outlines can change)
· Soon after starting your project, work out a logical thesis outline of chapters and main subheadings with your supervisors, so there are no misunderstandings from the outset about what is expected and what you are working towards
· Before starting to write each chapter, again map out a chapter outline with headings and subheadings for your supervisors’ approval, so you know what you are aiming at
· But be prepared to change thesis and chapter outlines along the way… with the agreement of your advisors
3. Logical and consistent internal structure
· Make sure your research aims and objectives near the front of the thesis (in the Introduction?) marry with your conclusions in the final chapter—if necessary, address each research aim and objective explicitly in the final chapter to show the examiner how you addressed each one
· If your separate chapters have their own subset of research aims and objectives in the Introduction to a chapter, again show the examiner in the Discussion and Conclusions of that Chapter how you met each one.
4. In order of writing, I find it easiest to write up:
i. Results first
ii. then Methods
iii. then Discussion and Conclusions
iv. and Introduction (research aims and objectives) last … so that your aims and objectives marry with your results and conclusions
v. But people differ … and if you have it all clearly mapped out in your head or on paper, you can start at the start and finish at the finish
5. Don’t start writing up a section of your research without finishing it off to first draft stage
· Get everything you start (e.g. a chapter) to first draft stage (writing, tables, figures, plates, references)
· Don’t strive for perfection at your first attempt … if you are spending hours on every sentence, you don’t understand the concept of a first draft … just get it down on paper (or computer screen) … it can be really rough, but get the ideas down
· If everything has been started but is unfinished with large gaps, you will have difficulty getting your whole thesis written in time
Hints about Writing a Thesis
6. Pick a style guide from the start
· With your supervisors’ approval, pick a writing style guide (e.g. a journal in your discipline in which you might publish your findings) and emulate each and every convention, style and format embraced by that journal …
· Always have that style guide (e.g. a recent copy of the journal) and a dictionary by your side whenever you write … and use them!
· Never deviate … half of the edits of my students’ work are style inconsistencies from one sentence, paragraph, page or chapter to the next
· And do use the spell checker in your word processor
7. Don’t be upset by supervisors’ red ink
· Unless you are brilliant or an experienced writer, your first drafts should come back covered in edits … don’t despair … this is a good thing!
· Ignore the implicit kick in the guts, and treat your supervisors’ comments like an inspired meeting of minds, not a comment on the value of your writing … most comments are in fact suggestions and things for you to think about, not issues of right or wrong … it’s your thesis, after all!