Theses
A thesis presents its author’s research for examination and is planned with a supervisor, written to the institution’s rules, checked and bound.
Know what academic writing is for
Much of the advice on theses and laboratory reports comes from a 2015 book on scientific and medical writing. Students write to explore a topic and become familiar with what is known about it, and every scientist has a duty to share new findings with the scientific community. Research performance, measured by the number of publications and citations a year, is always among the main factors in ranking universities. Poorly written or disorganised student papers hold back the student's advancement, and manuscripts, research proposals and grant applications deficient in content, structure or style are not approved. The 2015 book's admitted copy is a repaired conversion that had targeted review of its figure pages, formulas and tables but no fresh page-by-page proofread, and it gives its figures as text.
Match the thesis to its purpose
For many students the master's thesis is the first formal scientific document they write, and it has to meet high standards of content, format and writing style. Ideally it is written to suit later publication, and where the outcome is publishable, the chosen journal's instructions for authors essentially guide its structure. A thesis whose data will not be published should be written as a book of chapters. A project that does not lead to publication does not necessarily reflect on the student's ability: it may deliver no publishable results, form part of a larger study that other authors publish, or be bound by confidentiality in a collaboration with a pharmaceutical company.
A doctoral thesis is an exposition of original research, and it should show mastery of research techniques and the ability to deal competently with an important research question. Funding limited to three years, as is typical in countries such as the UK, can press a student to finish sooner than the research question allows, and that pressure can lead to careless work that damages the quality and credibility of the data, or tempt a student to falsify results or copy other authors' data.
Follow the institution's rules and earlier theses
No fixed rule governs the structure of a doctoral thesis, and the structure of a master's thesis depends mainly on the nature of the study and on the institution's guidelines and example documents. A thesis built as a series of publishable articles spares the student writing the thesis and the articles separately and builds the publication record a scientist's success hinges on, but not all universities support it, and the institution or the supervisor advises on it. Good examples written in the student's own group or department usually give the most appropriate guidance.
Advice on planning, writing and binding a doctoral thesis comes from the thesis chapter of a 2007 guide to medical writing. Thesis regulations, which differ in detail between institutions and even between faculties and departments, are worth reading early and consulting carefully while writing. Two or three completed theses on a similar topic or from a similar institution serve as a guide to headings, style, typeface and organisation. The 2007 guide's admitted copy lacks numerous internal pages, several of them in its thesis chapter, and ends partway through its first appendix, and its conversion has had no full page-by-page proofread.
Know what the examiners look for
To satisfy its examiners, a thesis for a higher degree must clearly identify a worthwhile problem or question not addressed before, make a worthwhile contribution to knowledge by solving or answering it, and derive the solution from robust research argued in an organised and coherent way. The candidate's objectives should be to demonstrate original critical thinking and an understanding of research techniques, as well as reporting experimental data; to use statements of critical thinking and analysis found in the literature as fact, referring the reader to the primary source for further clarification rather than repeating the details; to concentrate on principles and state clearly the lessons learned from the research; and to support every statement either with a reference to the published literature or with original work.
Plan a manageable research and writing project
A thesis topic has to be manageable and still give enough scope for meaningful research. Notes on the key words that describe it, and on how they interlink, give an indication of the potential breadth and depth of the work, and making them is useful in choosing where to study and in negotiating with a supervisor. Funding for fees and living expenses is worth thinking about early, and casual work taken on to pay for them could restrict the time available for study. A PhD place is more likely where the project contributes to an established research programme, and a student with no particular preference can choose a topic in which a target university already has an interest, where there will be colleagues to help.
An early rapport with the supervisor is recommended, because the supervisor has many important roles: he or she should encourage and motivate the student, give guidance on research methodology, advise on the structure of the thesis and the writing-up, say when the student is ready to submit the thesis to the examiners, and possibly even act as one of the examiners. Problems are best recognised early, while they can still be put right: not knowing what a thesis is meant to achieve, methodological difficulties that leave the thesis statement impossible to resolve, inadequate supervision or a student unwilling to respond to criticism, poor planning that loses focus, and poor time management, partly or wholly from personal problems.
Once an informal agreement on the field of study has been reached with the supervisor and the department head, PhD candidates are generally required to present a research proposal, which normally runs to about 2500 words at most, with 15 to 20 references, and sets out the objectives and the novelty of the contribution, the relation to existing work, the researcher's background, a justification of the methods with the cost of any specialised equipment, and a timescale of targets. A timetable for the research and the writing is essential across a typical three-year PhD. It should include a modest allowance for holidays and be pragmatic rather than optimistic, and the student should set small sub-goals they are confident of achieving rather than trying to complete whole sections at one sitting.
Use the outline as a working agreement
The outline lists each section and subsection with a bullet-point description of its content. It should be reviewed carefully with the supervisor for material not directly related to the thesis statement that needs to be deleted and for topics that need to be included or expanded, and once revised it becomes the basis of the table of contents. Once the outline is agreed, the most productive approach is to begin with the parts that interest the student most and are familiar, and items need not be written in chronological order. A folder for each chapter, with separate files for text, graphics and references, lets an idea for another chapter be filed without disrupting the current one.
Write in a formal, plain style
A thesis should be written in a formal style, without colloquialisms, undefined technical jargon or slang, and short simple phrases are in general better than long complicated sentences. The active voice is simpler and makes clear what happened, while the passive is more common in published work and may be the supervisor's preference. When each voice serves the reader is set out in choosing between the active and the passive voice.
Know what goes in each part of a thesis
The 2015 book suggests the following structure for a master's thesis written as chapters, and says it can be applied to most situations:
- Title page: in the institution's format, on one unnumbered page, indicate that the document is a master's thesis and give the title, the author's name, current degree and affiliation, the date of release, and the supervisors where the university requires them; a formal statement of the degree the thesis is submitted for is commonly required.
- Abstract: keep it brief, usually no more than 250 words, structure it by IMRAD in line with the main part of the thesis, and include the most important findings with their numbers, such as percentages and p-values.
- Chapter 1, background or introduction: give the rationale for the project and what is already known, crediting its authors, and reveal none of the new findings.
- Chapter 2, literature review: add it only where the literature supporting the research question has been reviewed; where that literature is limited, summarise it in Chapter 1.
- Chapter 3, methods and materials: describe every method, including the statistical methods and data analysis, with sufficient and accurate information for other scientists to apply the methods or repeat the experiments; some templates foresee a separate section for data analysis, which may not make sense for a particular project.
- Chapter 4, results: summarise them under subheadings that let readers quickly find what they look for, with tables for numerical findings and graphs for trends.
- Chapter 5, discussion and conclusions: give sensible explanations of the findings, without over-hypothesising where no explanation is plausible, and set them in the context of what is already known, crediting those who reported earlier findings.
- Chapter 6, list of references or bibliography: list every reference cited in the thesis in an accepted format, as the institution suggests or a reference manager formats it, used consistently throughout.
- Chapter 7, appendix: include supporting material such as raw data, detailed method descriptions, randomisation codes, and tables and figures left out of the main part.
In the 2007 guide's account, a thesis opens with a preamble of a declaration, the title page, acknowledgements, the table of contents, a list of abbreviations and key terms, and the abstract. Its example of a doctoral title page gives the title of the thesis, the candidate, the degree and university, the department or school, and the month and year. Acknowledgements credit those who helped, such as supervisors and those who gave laboratory, statistical or editorial assistance, and where any of the work is collaborative they make clear who contributed to which sections. The table of contents is usually developed from the outline and gives the chapter titles and up to two levels of subheading with their pages.
The introduction gives a general overview of the thesis, summarises the hypothesis, question or problem statement briefly, and gives some of the reasons the project is worthwhile, and the thesis statement states the question concisely, shows that it has not been answered before and says why answering it is worthwhile. An optional background chapter is included where necessary, for example where the work spans more than one traditional field and readers are unlikely to have the background to follow it. The literature review describes, summarises and critically evaluates each work, with full references, and the student reviews the published work that contributes to understanding the subject, perhaps dividing it into categories such as work that supports a position, work that opposes it and work that offers a different approach; describes the relation of earlier work to the project and shows that the research is worth doing; finds novel ways to interpret and assess earlier research with regard to its methodological approach and how its results were interpreted; identifies gaps in current knowledge; resolves conflicts between seemingly contradictory studies; and identifies where similar work has been done, to prevent duplication and ensure originality.
The results and discussion record the results and show how they were relevant to answering the question or solving the problem, treating them appropriately and discussing them fully. Any limitations should be mentioned, but the account should stay positive, mentioning research problems only where they were part of finding the solution: trying several subtly different methods before one worked might be mentioned, while experiments repeated because a supplier sent the wrong materials would not. The conclusions chapter usually includes three sections, the conclusions, a summary of the contributions to knowledge and the recommendations for further work, which come from the experience of carrying out the research rather than repeating the initial proposal. The abstract is best written towards the end of the project, as a synopsis of the nature and scope of the work and the contribution it makes.
Detail that would impede the argument, such as program listings, mathematical derivations and questionnaires, goes in appendices. The complete reference is recorded at first access, and web addresses are checked again before submission where a long time has passed. All major word processors have a scheme for inserting references that keeps a citation linked when text is copied and pasted, which may be useful depending on the referencing system chosen. The 2007 guide asks the student to note the difference between a list of references and a bibliography, and says references should be cited throughout the text and collected at the end of the thesis, or possibly at the end of each chapter. Examiners generally scan the reference list to check that the most important works in the field have been found and cited accurately, and where they work in the area they are likely to look for their own publications, which it is appropriate to cite too. Numeric and author–date reference systems, and checking each reference against the item it identifies, are covered in references and attribution.
Check and bind the final copy
The final checks before binding confirm that the headings are worded exactly as in the table of contents, the formatting and page numbering are intact, the binding margins, checked with the binder, are right, the graphics and tables are correct, placed, labelled and introduced in the text, the citations are correctly inserted, the reference list is complete, and there are no obvious spelling or typing errors, by running a spell-check and re-reading thoroughly.
The binder needs one carefully checked printed copy, or a file in a format that printing will not corrupt, such as PDF, particularly where the computing platform changes, and advises on photographs and large fold-out items. Some universities accept a soft-bound copy for examination and hard-bound copies for the libraries once amendments are made, while others require hard binding from the first submission. In the 2007 account universities typically required three copies, and the student paid for binding: about £30 a hard-bound copy for a four-to-five-day turnaround and about £45 for a 24-hour service, and about £6 a soft-bound copy for a week, with the spine lettering and the first two lines of the cover title usually in the price.