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A Simple Approach to Thesis Writing

2010-03-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Abstract (<= 1 page)

one page stating what the thesis is about
highlight the contributions of the thesis

Chapter 1: Introduction (~5-10 pages)

Thesis Statement (one or two sentences)

What is your thesis about and what have you done?
If you have a hypothesis what is it?
How will you test (prove/disprove) your hypothesis?

Motivation

Why is this problem you've worked on important

Goals / Objectives

What are you trying to do and why?
How will you or the reader know if or when you've met your objectives?

**** Contributions *****

What is new, different, better, significant?
Why is the world a better place because of what you've done?
What have you contributed to the field of research?
What is now known/possible/better because of your thesis?

Outline of the thesis (optional)

Chapter 2: Background / Related Work (~8-20 pages)

More than a literature review
Organize related work - impose structure
Be clear as to how previous work being described relates to your own.
The reader should not be left wondering why you've described something!!
Critique the existing work - Where is it strong where is it weak? What are the unreasonable/undesirable assumptions?
Identify opportunities for more research (i.e., your thesis) Are there unaddressed, or more important related topics?
After reading this chapter, one should understand the motivation for and importance of your thesis

Chapter 3: Theory / Solution / Program / Problem (~15-30 pages)

continuing from Chapter 2 explain the issues
outline your solution / extension / refutation

Chapter 4: Implementation / Formalism (~15-30 pages)

not every thesis has or needs an implementation

Chapter 5: Results and Evaluation (~15-30 pages)

adequacy, efficiency, productiveness, effectiveness (choose your criteria, state them clearly and justify them)
be careful that you are using a fair measure, and that you are actually measuring what you claim to be measuring
if comparing with previous techniques those techniques must be described in Chapter 2
be honest in evaluation
admit weaknesses

Chapter 6: Conclusions and Future Work (~5-10 pages)

State what you've done and what you've found
Summarize contributions (achievements and impact)
Outline open issues/directions for future work

Bibliography / References

Include references to:

credit others for their work
help to distinguish your work from others
provide pointers to further detailed readings
support your claims (if evidence can be found in others work)

Ensure that ALL bibliographic entries are complete including: authors, title, journal or conference, volume and number of journals, date of publication and page numbers. Be careful to at least be consistent in punctuation.
Learn how to use a good typesetting program that can track and format bibliographic references (e.g., groff, latex, frame).
Within the text of the thesis, a reference with a number of people can be referred to as Lastname et al. (where et al appears in italics and the al is followed by a period).
My personal view is that URL's are not valid bibliographic references. They and their contents change and they often contain material that has not been refereed.

Appendix

Include technical material that would disrupt the flow of the thesis.
Included for curious or disbelieving readers

Writing Hints

Before handing in a copy of what you've written you should proof read it and make corrections yourself. Be critical of your own work when you do this. You should think not only about syntax and grammar but about the structure of the document and whether or not your are making good arguments and whether or not someone else will be able to follow and believe what you are saying. You should repeat this process a large number of times before you hand in a copy. Far too many people type something in, print it out and hand it in. If this is the case you as a student are not doing your job. It is not your supervisor's job to write your thesis.
Try to aim for around 100 pages or less.
Including a glossary or list of acronyms may be helpful.
Start thinking about what your contributions are early on.

How is what you are doing interesting and important?
How will it make the world a better place?
What are you doing or discovering that hasn't already been done or isn't already known?

For many people it is best to start by writing the "guts" of the thesis, Chapters 3, 4 and 5. In some cases the results and conclusions may not be known (or may change) while doing these chapters.
Chapters 3,4 and 5 can take on different forms depending on the thesis and approaches being used.
Sometimes design, implementation and performance are subsections within chapters and the chapters are broken down by other criteria.
Remember (especially those doing experiments) that you must include enough detail in your thesis so that someone else could read your thesis and reproduce your results - without ever talking to you.
The word performance is by itself quite meaningless. Stating that you've improved performance significantly does not tell the reader anything. There are problems with the word performance and the word improved. Remember that there are often a number of different performance metrics that can be applied to a system. Instead of using the word performance state precisely what performance metric is improved. Also improved may also be potentially ambiguous. State precisely what you mean. For example: The mean response time has been decreased by 20%. Peak bandwidth has been increased by 40%.
Try to get an outline and style guidelines from someone else for the system you use for formatting your thesis.
All figures included should add to the work. As such, there should be text included that refers to the figures (preferably before the figure is encountered). The text should explain what the reader should get from the figure - what are they supposed to notice and what is the figure explaining. Often people just include a figure with no reference to the figure and no explanation of what the figure is for - if the figure was not included no one would notice (this is not a good approach).
Using and misusing abbreviations.

The word "it's" is an abbreviation of "it is" it is NOT a possessive form of "it".
The abbreviation of the phrase "for example" is written "e.g.". It contains a period after the "e" and one after the "g". A comma is also usually required with its use. This is an sentence that uses "for example" (e.g., this is how to use for example). Quite often it is enclosed in parentheses and you should avoid using it too often.
The abbreviation of the phrase "that is" is written "i.e.". It contains a period after the "i" and one after the "e". A comma is also usually required with is use. This is a sentence containing an example of how to use "that is" (i.e., this sentence is the example). Quite often it is enclosed in parentheses and you should avoid using it too often.
Don't use the abbreviation "etc.". The use of etc. is usually an admission of ignorance. It is like admitting that the list you've given is not complete but you don't know what is missing. If you did know what was missing the list would be complete".

You should purchase and use a book like "The Elements of Style" by Stunk and White.

Plagiarism

You must not make minor modifications to someone else's work and include it in your own work.
If you want to explain someone else's work the best approach is to read it over, put it aside, and then write in your own words what that work is about (do this without referring to the original source).

Useful Links

Latex thesis templates for UW
See the Section "UW E-Thesis Template".
The Elements of Style
LaTex thesis style info (I haven't checked this out but other students have used it).
Writing for Computer Science: The Art of Effective Communication, Justin Zobel, Springer, 1998

Source: http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~brecht/thesis-hints.html

Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) Guide (UoS)

2009-09-27T11:56:00.001-07:00

Despite its venerable name, a curriculum vitae is simply a specific type of resume commonly used for medical and academic (teaching and research) positions.

The c.v. is more conservative than a typical resume—almost never listing an objective and seldom having a long narrative profile. The c.v.’s emphasis is on content, favouring a plain look without fancy bullets or borders. Unlike a resume, a c.v. may comprise several pages. However, it should be very neatly organized, with clear headings and distinct conceptual divisions that can be skimmed as easily as a two-page resume.

The curriculum vitae, or c.v. is an important marketing tool for graduate-level students applying for medical or academic positions.

Write a cover letter (UoS)

2009-09-27T11:54:00.001-07:00

The cover letter should highlight your resume by identifying how you are qualified for the position. Tailor your cover letter to the position for which you are applying, linking your qualifications with the job description and/or qualifications requested by the employer. In order that it stand out from the hundreds of cover letters (resumes, application forms, etc.) employers receive for each job opening, your cover letter should emphasize the specific abilities, talents, skills and accomplishments that make you the ideal candidate for that particular position. Highlighting one or two of your greatest strengths will increase the chances of your standing out in the recruiter’s mind. Articulating this information in your cover letter demonstrates your ability to write and communicate—skills that are highly regarded by many employers.

If your cover letter is effective, it will provide the reader with a sense of your approach and potential fit with the organization. Keep in mind that the employer wants to know what you can do for them, not why and how the position would benefit you.

To help you tackle writing your cover letter for an advertised position, follow the step by step guide.

Resume Guide (UoS)

2009-09-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Your resume is an important marketing tool that advertises the experience, education, skills and accomplishments you offer to potential employers. It is designed to demonstrate to potential employers that you would be a valuable member of their organization. Your resume should present information in a manner and sequence that best connects your background with the requirements of the position for which you are applying.

The resume is not your biography! Instead, it is a brief summary of your skills, knowledge and relevant experience. It is crucial that you ensure that your resume’s form, content and appearance represent you to your best advantage.

Your resume should:

Have eye appeal (well organized and easy to read)
Highlight strengths and accomplishments
Be logically displayed for a 30-second review (concise)

The Student Employment & Career Centre (SECC) houses a wide variety of online and in-house resources to help you with your resume preparation. With technology continuing to change the way employers search for candidates, you may require several versions of your resume—those for computers to read and scan in addition to a version for people to read. Regardless, your resume should specifically target each type of job/position/industry you are seeking. Resumes that are general or generic result in far fewer interviews.

Whether you are writing your resume for the first time or revising you resume, consider following the step by step guide.

How to Write a Research Proposal

2009-09-06T18:26:00.001-07:00

Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Research Director, Graduate Program in Counselling Psychology
Trinity Western University
Langley, BC, Canada

Most students and beginning researchers do not fully understand what a research proposal means, nor do they understand its importance. To put it bluntly, one's research is only as a good as one's proposal. An ill-conceived proposal dooms the project even if it somehow gets through the Thesis Supervisory Committee. A high quality proposal, on the other hand, not only promises success for the project, but also impresses your Thesis Committee about your potential as a researcher.

A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile research project and that you have the competence and the work-plan to complete it. Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key elements involved in the research process and include sufficient information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.

Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions: What you plan to accomplish, why you want to do it and how you are going to do it.

The proposal should have sufficient information to convince your readers that you have an important research idea, that you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the major issues, and that your methodology is sound.

The quality of your research proposal depends not only on the quality of your proposed project, but also on the quality of your proposal writing. A good research project may run the risk of rejection simply because the proposal is poorly written. Therefore, it pays if your writing is coherent, clear and compelling.

This paper focuses on proposal writing rather than on the development of research ideas.

Title:

It should be concise and descriptive. For example, the phrase, "An investigation of . . ." could be omitted. Often titles are stated in terms of a functional relationship, because such titles clearly indicate the independent and dependent variables. However, if possible, think of an informative but catchy title. An effective title not only pricks the reader's interest, but also predisposes him/her favourably towards the proposal.

Abstract:

It is a brief summary of approximately 300 words. It should include the research question, the rationale for the study, the hypothesis (if any), the method and the main findings. Descriptions of the method may include the design, procedures, the sample and any instruments that will be used.

Introduction:

The main purpose of the introduction is to provide the necessary background or context for your research problem. How to frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest problem in proposal writing.

If the research problem is framed in the context of a general, rambling literature review, then the research question may appear trivial and uninteresting. However, if the same question is placed in the context of a very focused and current research area, its significance will become evident.

Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules on how to frame your research question just as there is no prescription on how to write an interesting and informative opening paragraph. A lot depends on your creativity, your ability to think clearly and the depth of your understanding of problem areas.

However, try to place your research question in the context of either a current "hot" area, or an older area that remains viable. Secondly, you need to provide a brief but appropriate historical backdrop. Thirdly, provide the contemporary context in which your proposed research question occupies the central stage. Finally, identify "key players" and refer to the most relevant and representative publications. In short, try to paint your research question in broad brushes and at the same time bring out its significance.

The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be followed by the rational or justification for the proposed study. The introduction generally covers the following elements:

State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose of the study.
Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in such a way as to show its necessity and importance.
Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be addressed by your research.
Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your experiment. Alternatively, specify the phenomenon you want to study.
State your hypothesis or theory, if any. For exploratory or phenomenological research, you may not have any hypotheses. (Please do not confuse the hypothesis with the statistical null hypothesis.)
Set the delimitation or boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.
Provide definitions of key concepts. (This is optional.)

Literature Review:

Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introduction section. However, most professors prefer a separate section, which allows a more thorough review of the literature.

The literature review serves several important functions:

Ensures that you are not "reinventing the wheel".
Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your research.
Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem.
Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research issues related to your research question.
Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature information.
Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature.
Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the conceptual framework for your research.
Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a significant and substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue or filling a major gap in the literature).

Most students' literature reviews suffer from the following problems:

Lacking organization and structure
Lacking focus, unity and coherence
Being repetitive and verbose
Failing to cite influential papers
Failing to keep up with recent developments
Failing to critically evaluate cited papers
Citing irrelevant or trivial references
Depending too much on secondary sources

Your scholarship and research competence will be questioned if any of the above applies to your proposal.

There are different ways to organize your literature review. Make use of subheadings to bring order and coherence to your review. For example, having established the importance of your research area and its current state of development, you may devote several subsections on related issues as: theoretical models, measuring instruments, cross-cultural and gender differences, etc.

It is also helpful to keep in mind that you are telling a story to an audience. Try to tell it in a stimulating and engaging manner. Do not bore them, because it may lead to rejection of your worthy proposal. (Remember: Professors and scientists are human beings too.)

Methods:

The Method section is very important because it tells your Research Committee how you plan to tackle your research problem. It will provide your work plan and describe the activities necessary for the completion of your project.

The guiding principle for writing the Method section is that it should contain sufficient information for the reader to determine whether methodology is sound. Some even argue that a good proposal should contain sufficient details for another qualified researcher to implement the study.

You need to demonstrate your knowledge of alternative methods and make the case that your approach is the most appropriate and most valid way to address your research question.

Please note that your research question may be best answered by qualitative research. However, since most mainstream psychologists are still biased against qualitative research, especially the phenomenological variety, you may need to justify your qualitative method.

Furthermore, since there are no well-established and widely accepted canons in qualitative analysis, your method section needs to be more elaborate than what is required for traditional quantitative research. More importantly, the data collection process in qualitative research has a far greater impact on the results as compared to quantitative research. That is another reason for greater care in describing how you will collect and analyze your data. (How to write the Method section for qualitative research is a topic for another paper.)

For quantitative studies, the method section typically consists of the following sections:

Design -Is it a questionnaire study or a laboratory experiment? What kind of design do you choose?
Subjects or participants - Who will take part in your study ? What kind of sampling procedure do you use?
Instruments - What kind of measuring instruments or questionnaires do you use? Why do you choose them? Are they valid and reliable?
Procedure - How do you plan to carry out your study? What activities are involved? How long does it take?

Results:

Obviously you do not have results at the proposal stage. However, you need to have some idea about what kind of data you will be collecting, and what statistical procedures will be used in order to answer your research question or test you hypothesis.

Discussion:

It is important to convince your reader of the potential impact of your proposed research. You need to communicate a sense of enthusiasm and confidence without exaggerating the merits of your proposal. That is why you also need to mention the limitations and weaknesses of the proposed research, which may be justified by time and financial constraints as well as by the early developmental stage of your research area.

Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing

Failure to provide the proper context to frame the research question.
Failure to delimit the boundary conditions for your research.
Failure to cite landmark studies.
Failure to accurately present the theoretical and empirical contributions by other researchers.
Failure to stay focused on the research question.
Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research.
Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues.
Too much rambling -- going "all over the map" without a clear sense of direction. (The best proposals move forward with ease and grace like a seamless river.)
Too many citation lapses and incorrect references.
Too long or too short.
Failing to follow the APA style.
Slopping writing.

Source link

English study (general) - web resources

2009-02-18T12:51:00.000-08:00

http://learnerdictionary.com/pronex/pronex.htm Practising pronunciation

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/ Learning words from different topics by picture

http://www.curriculumassociates.com/professional-development/topics/Six-Traits-Writing/objectives.htm Six Traits of Writing

http://www.elllo.org/ Listening exercises at various levels—extra practise

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/index.htm There are good reading exercises (by level)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ OWL has some of the best grammar resources

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/ They also have some resources that specifically target ESL needs

English grammar and punctuation - web resources

2009-02-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Comprehensive Grammar Guide from Capital Community College Foundation

Conquering the Comma – PowerPoint slides from Purdue University Writing Lab, dealing with clauses, sentence structure and commas

PowerPoint Presentations on common grammar errors from Capital Community College Foundation

English Page - grammar tutorials and exercises

Self Study Grammar Quizzes from the Internet TESOL Journal

NASA handbook for technical writers and editors.
Everything you probably never wanted to know about grammar and punctuation - 101 riveting pages of grammar!

Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. Includes strategies for improving your writing and focuses on both larger issues and sentence and word level issues

Proofreading for Common Surface Errors: Spelling, punctuation, and grammar from Indiana University

English writing - web resources

2009-02-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

Academic Writing

General

The Writing Centre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A very comprehensive site for writing, grammar and referencing help

Charles Sturt University - An introductory tutorial on academic writing

Academic Phrasebank - Lists of suitable phrases for tasks such as referring to the literature, reporting results and discussing findings (compiled by Manchester University)

Science Specific

Scientific Writing Booklet (pdf)
A very comprehensive guide to scientific report writing covering the structure of scientific reports, the writing process and referencing, from the University of Arizona Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Physics

Scitext Cambridge
The principles of writing a scientific document

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students - edited by Penn State and Virginia Tech.

Literature Reviews

Central Queensland University – This website has detailed tutorials and video presentations of academics in different faculties discussing literature reviews.

University of Canberra
A short guide to writing a literature review

University of Toronto
A list of questions to ask when searching for and evaluating sources for a literature review

University of North Carolina
Quite detailed guidelines for structuring and writing a literature review

Thesis Writing

Australasian Digital Theses Program
A database of digital versions of theses, which, as of April 1 2008, contained 23,634 theses. La Trobe University students can publish their theses to this database.

NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations)
Searchable databases containing hundreds of thousands of theses and dissertations from around the world

Index to Theses
A database of over half a million theses accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireleand since 1716

University of Melbourne
Pamphlets on various aspects of thesis writing and links to other useful websites

University of Canberra
Institute for Applied Ecology - Notes on Writing Theses and Papers

University of NSW
How to Write a PhD thesis by Joe Wolfe, School of Physiscs. A little dated (1996) but is a concise overview of some important considerations when writing a thesis

Monash University
Brief guidelines on thesis writing

Scholarly Abbreviations

2009-02-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

Latin words and abbreviations are becoming less common in academic writing; however, a number of important terms are still widely used in scientific writing and it is important to understand them and to use them correctly. These Latin abbreviations are often written in italics, but style guides and journals have their own house rules.

Most commonly used and confused

i.e. (Latin = id est) “that is, that is to say”: Data on sex determination suggest that this species has only two sexual genotypes i.e. female XX) and male(XY).
e.g. (Latin = exempli gratia) “for example”: Several of the plots (e.g., Plots 4 and 9) showed evidence of nutrient deficiency.; Note - don't forget the full stop after each of these two abbreviations. A comma normally follows both abbreviations and then the specific items are given, but this can depend on the style guide or journal that you are following.

Other abbreviations you may find in your reading

ad hoc - “for this particular purpose”: The initial experimental method was very ad hoc as these variables had never before been tested in an ecologically valid setting.
ad libitum - “freely”: The pigs were housed in holding pens and food and water was available ad libitum.
a priori - “from cause to effect”: If we use a priori reasoning we would argue that the noise must have been loud because the animals were startled.
a posteriori - “from what comes after”: If we use a posteriori reasoning we would argue that the animals were startled because the noise was loud.
c. or ca. (Latin = circa) - “about”: The specimens dated from c. 1250.
cf. (Latin = confer) - “compare”: The data differed significantly between the experiments (cf. Table 6 and Table 7).
et al. (Latin = et alii) - “and others.”: The tag is used in citations to indicate that there are three or more authors. Note: you must not use et al. when then there are only two authors.; Princeton et al. (1998) established a link between intoxication and alcohol.
etc. (Latin = et cetera) - “and so forth“: A number of crops (maize, rice, corn, rye etc.) are planted in the area.
N.B. (Latin = nota bene) - “note well“ (this abbreviation is generally not italicised): Table 5 below presents the data from the feeding trials. (N.B. non significant data have been excluded.)
per diem - “each day“: The light regime was 8 hours light and 16 hours dark per diem.
per se - “of/in itself“: The argument is not convincing per se but in context it could be persuasive.

(Note: the bold type in this handout is used for emphasis. Consult the appropriate style guide for your composition.)

Source: latrobe.edu.au