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WRITINGYOUR

THESIS

Dr Khurram Khurshid

RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

1

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Contents Thesis Writing

What it is When to start How to start

State of the Art

Plagiarism

Terms and Phrases to Avoid

Summary

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Thesis vs. Dissertation In general, used interchangeably

Thesis

Conduct original research

Dissertation

Synthesize the information collected and include

your thoughts on it

Thesis vs. Dissertation

USAPhD Dissertation and Masters thesis

UKPhD Thesis and Masters Dissertation

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Thesis Writing Could be hard and painful

work

You have already done the

fun part The Research

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What a Thesis is?

A thesis is a logicalreconstruction

Not a historical narrative

Not a dump of everything that you have done

Leave dead-ends

Fill obvious gaps

Read the background material

Implemented an algorithm

Ran some experiments

What did you do in the lab over the last 2/3 years?

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What a Thesis is? Demonstration of an understanding of the state

of the art

Critical appreciation of existing work

A novel contribution

Evaluated systematically

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When to Start? When do you actually start writing?

3/6 Months before the expected end of your MS/PhD?

No, the day you start your MS/PhD

Practical?

Bibliography summary

Experiments summary & results

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How to Start? Write the thesis message

1 Sentence, 1 paragraph, 1 page

You have made an original

contribution to a researchproblem

Write it down This is your message

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What Next?

You have a good thesismessage

What to do next?

Write the table of contents

Logical structure of your

thesis

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Table of Contents Introduction

Thesis message

State of the Art

Critical Appreciation

Theoretical or algorithmic

developments

Results and Analysis/Comparison

Conclusions

List contributions

Future research directions

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What Next?

You have a good thesismessage

And the table of contents

What to do next?

Make a time table with targets to

meet

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Time Table How long the thesis will take?

Depends on a number of factors

How much you have written as papers

Could take up to

Minimum 2 months

Maximum Infinity

Median 6 months

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What Next?

You have a good thesismessage

And a table of contents with

time table

What to do next?

Work to your time table

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Writing each Chapter Dont start with the Introduction or

Conclusion

Start where you feel happiest

Typically a middle chapter

Write outwards

Finally Conclusions and end with the

Introduction

Write everything with your thesis

message in mind

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Writing each Chapter Youll discover gaps/holes in your

research

Theorems you havent proved

Experiments you didnt run

Different parameters

Mix writing with more research

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Rule of Three Within each chapter, repeat yourself 3 times

Intro. We will show ..

Body. Show them ..

Concl. We have shown ..

Within thesis, repeat your contributions 3 times

Intro chapter

Main chapters

Conclusion chapter

But dont bore reader

E.g. in introduction be brief, in conclusions be broader

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State of the Art/

Literature Review

Refer to the lecture on literature review

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Reference Management Use a reference management software

JabRef

Free and Open source

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State of the ArtWhy?

To demonstrate to readers and examiners that we are

familiar with the field

To provide an overview of current knowledge in a

particular area of application

To review other studies critically

To provide a context for your current study and to

locate it within a specific field

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State of the Art Bringing other writers into your writing

Rephrasing in our own words & adding an

acknowledgement

Summary, Paraphrasing

Common norm in science and engineering

Direct quotation and acknowledgement

Less common in science and engineering

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State of the Art Integrate other studies into your own text, rather than read

as a series of disconnected voices of other researchers

Avoid narrative accountsFind a way of grouping

studies

For each study discussed

General idea of study

Application/relevance

Strengths and weaknesses

If relevant, relationship with to the present study

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Verbs for reporting others findings

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acknowledges criticises explores observes shows

admits deals with expresses points out /to signals

agrees decides finds predicts states

alleges defines focuses presumes studies

argues demonstrates highlights proves suggests

assumes denies hypothesises proposes tries to

identify

believes depicts identifies provides

evidence for

sums up

challenges determines implies questions underlinesclaims diagnoses indicates recognises views

classifies discovers infers reports wonders

comments doubts interprets reveals

concentrates

on

emphasises makes the

point

says

concludes establishes maintains seeks to

explain

considers explains notes seeks to

identify

Verbs for reporting other scientists findings

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Position towards the source Reporting verb indicates your position towards the cited

source

Selecting a particular verb involves taking a particular

position in relation to other scientists ideas

Strong level of agreement strongly negative stance

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Position towards the source

Show can be seen as positive as it reports an observation or finding as a

proven fact

Claims disassociates the writer from the position of the author cited. This

allows the writer to establish a critical perspective and follow with a

counterargument.

found concludes claims

shows neglects

POSITIVE NEUTRAL NEGATIVE/CRITICAL

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Plagiarism

Refer to the lecture on Plagiarims

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Terms and phrases to avoid

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Terms and phrases to avoid Complex sentences full of long words

A thesis should be a simple, convincing argument!

Jokes

No place in a formal document

Avoid qualitative judgments

bad, good, nice

Method A requires less computation than method B'

Use correct/incorrect

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Terms and phrases to avoid Soon

How soon this evening, in a week, next decade

lots of, kinds of, something like, just about

Vague and conversational

You will read about

Second person has no place in the thesis

Voice

Prefer active constructions

The operating system starts the device instead of the device is

started by the operating system.

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Summary Thesis

An original contribution to a problem A clear thesis message

Start Early

Keep record of bibliography, experimental studies etc.

Logical reconstruction Not a historical narration

State of the Art

No stories Critical Analysis

Plagiarism

Be careful

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References

Dissertation/Thesis Writing Andrea

Cheshire & Robert Blake

How to Write a Thesis - Toby Walsh, UCC

& Uppsala

How to write a dissertation Douglas E.

Comer

www.plagiarism.org

http://www.plagiarism.org/http://www.plagiarism.org/