Writing a thesis can seem overwhelming. It’s scary to imagine writing a paper of 200 or more pages and presenting it to distinguished academics whose opinion of your intelligence and talent talent will depend on what you’ve completed.
The biggest obstacle to completion is psychological. Without a doubt, a dissertation involves much more research than you’ve done before. But by the time you start your dissertation, you’ll have written countless essays, lab reports, and conference presentations. A doctoral thesis is, in the end, simply a collection of seminar papers, revised to give them conceptual unity. Therefore, completing a thesis is primarily a matter of perseverance.
Set deadlines at the beginning of the process of completing your thesis
Having a goal to work towards is incredibly important to stay motivated for a long period of time. If you’re a person who needs the pressure of a deadline to do anything, a list of deadlines is essential to stay on track.
But make sure those goals are flexible
Life’s unforeseen events often happen over the course of a year (or more!), and knowing that your deadlines are likely to change will help you avoid feeling guilty about it. If you’ve set early deadlines, you should be able to change things without spoiling your calendar.
Ask for opinions promptly and frequently
The sooner you contact your committee about your writing, the easier the editing phase will be. Sit down with your advisor with just a sketch of the chapter and find out if it works. Send partial drafts to anyone who is willing to read them. This will not only prevent you from feeling isolated while writing, as it will keep you connected to your committee and other writers, but it will also help avoid situations where you have to rewrite entire chapters.
As long as you can handle the feedback, at least
There may be times when you don’t need a real review and instead just need to write or someone tell you something encouraging. At a time when you need encouragement, listening to any criticism, no matter how constructive, can hurt your productivity. In a project like this, it’s important to know yourself and know what kind of feedback you need while writing. If you need someone to tell you “good job!”, look for someone to tell you.
Find out what your committee wants and expects from your job
By following the advice above on feedback, find out what kind of writing your committee expects. Read the theses made by the students with whom they have worked previously. Ask them often what kind of expectations they have for your chapters and your project: what kind of sources, how footnotes are used, the structure of the chapters, what they think of the titles, etc. Knowing expectations will help you write effectively for your audience, and communication is key to avoiding potential pitfalls.
Remember that this is your thesis
After all, it’s your job. It represents who you are as an academic (for now, at least). Stand up for what you think is important and what you mean. Trying to please the entirety of your committee can be impossible, and at the end of the day it’s you who should know what you have to write.
Take time off when you need it
Taking time off is important for personal happiness, and you should do so as blameless as possible. Dissertations take time, and at some point you’ll have to take breaks and recharge. There will be times when you will have to focus your energies on something else: teaching, the job market, writing publishable articles, participating in committees, taking care of your family, watching cartoons. It’s important to understand that there will be brief pauses in writing, and that you can take those breaks without feeling guilty.
But remember that you must rewrite your thesis
Short breaks are great. Take a week off to focus on fixing 150 jobs. Take two weeks off to prepare for job interviews. But then he writes again. Academic work is always a balancing act between various pressures, and you have to get used to taking time to write along with all your responsibilities. We probably all know that guy who’s in his seventh year of writing because he “can’t find time” to write. Don’t be that guy. To do this…
Reclaim time to write learning to say no
One of the challenges of writing a thesis is being surrounded by people who don’t understand it; some of your colleagues, friends and family probably have no idea what it’s like to write a long-running project as a thesis. It’s hugely overwhelming and distracting, and you have to be able to say “go away, I’m writing.” Sometimes this means turning down a seat on that committee, choosing not to go to that concert, or kicking your friends out of your office.
But also say “yes” from time to time
As we’ve said before, taking breaks is essential. The next time someone asks you to go out to eat, close the computer and say yes.
Spend a little time writing
Writing a thesis is a marathon, not a sprint. Often, writing takes place in small fragments spread over time. No matter how busy you are, take time to write half an hour a day. You can find half an hour somewhere. Get up early if necessary. If you write one page a day, you can finish a chapter in a month.
Stop making excuses when doing your thesis
There will always be a million reasons not to write. You have another job to do, you have to qualify for jobs, you have to apply for jobs, you have to go to meetings, your back hurts, your computer behaves strangely, the stars are not in the right position. There will always be reasons not to write. And it’s hard, but sometimes you have to tell those reasons to shut up. Sitting down to write, even when it seems like you can’t, is the only way to get something written.
Read as much as you can
Read this book. Or this one. Try this one. Many people, much smarter and more experienced, have written guides to write a thesis. Read them. But remember that reading about how to write a thesis is not the same as actually writing it. It’s easy to feel like you’re working when you read a book about writing a thesis, but reading GradHacker won’t help you code your data, compile your sources, or write your literature review.
Celebrate achievements as you progress through your thesis
Take the time to appreciate all the small achievements as you write. Working solely for the “reward” of defending or graduating is overwhelming, so find small places to celebrate as you go along. Have you finished a page? Eat a cookie. Do you end a chapter? Go out with your friends. Do you work with data that you find difficult? Take the rest of the night off! Find places to feel good about what you’re doing.
But don’t let good feelings stop you from working
Don’t be distracted by the little feelings of accomplishment: finishing one page means you’re ready to write the next one, after all. Know you can do it. You can do it, seriously. It will be great.
Cross-cutting issues in the development of the thesis
What are we looking for?
We seek critical analysis. We want you to answer a scientific question or hypothesis. Or maybe we want you to gather evidence – from various sources – that allows you to make interpretations and judgments. Your approach/methods should be carefully designed to reach a closure. Your results should be clearly defined and discussed in the context of your topic.
The relevant bibliography should be cited. It should place its analysis in a broader context and highlight the implications (regional, global, etc.) of its work. We look for a well-reasoned line of argument, from your initial question, the collection of relevant evidence, the location of the data in a general/universal context and, finally, the formulation of a judgment based on your analysis. Your thesis should be clearly worded and in the format described below.
Plan the thesis in advance
If possible, start researching your thesis during the summer between your third and final year of your degree – or even earlier – with an internship, etc. … then work to complete the base material and lab work during the fall, so that you are prepared to write and present your research during the spring. The best strategy is to choose a project that interests you, but is also being worked on by a faculty member or other professional. This person will become your research mentor and this will give you someone to talk to and from whom to obtain reference material. If you are not sure of the choice of a project, let us know and we will try to get in touch with someone.
Who is your audience?
Researchers working in similar areas in other parts of the world (e.g., other landslide faults, other deep-water fans).
Those who work in their area, but with different techniques.
Researchers working in the same geological time interval in other parts of the world.
All other researchers who use the same technique as you.
If your study spans an active process, researchers working on the same process in the old registry.
Conversely, if your study is based on the rocky record, people who study modern analogues.
People who write a synthesis document on important new developments in their field.
People who apply earth sciences to society’s problems (e.g., earthquake risk reduction, climate warming) who will try to understand your article.
Possible reviewers of your manuscript or your thesis committee.
Look at it vs. reading
Due to the explosion of literature, articles are leafed through more than read. Reading above involves reading the summary and looking at the figures and captions. Therefore, the article must be elaborated in such a way that it can be understood above, that is, that the conclusions, as written in the summary, can be understood by studying the figures and captions. The text completes the details for the most interested reader.
Order of writing
His thesis is not written in the same order in which it is presented. The following gives you an idea of how to proceed.
First organize your document as a logical argument before you start writing
Make your figures to illustrate your argument (think of an outline)
The main sections are: background of the argument (introduction); describe the information to be used in the argument, and make observations on it (observations), connect the points relating to the information (analysis), summarize (conclusions).
Outline the main elements: sections and subsections
Start typing, choosing options in the following hierarchy: paragraphs, phrases, and words.
First write a preview of the background section. This will serve as a basis for the introduction of the final work.
As you collect data, compose the methods section. It is much easier to do so right after you have collected the data. Be sure to include a description of the research equipment and the relevant calibration charts.
When you have some data, start making graphs and tables of the data. These will help you visualize the data and see the gaps in your data collection. If time permits, you’ll need to go back and fill in the gaps. You’re done when you have a set of charts that show a defined trend (or the absence of a trend). Be sure to do proper statistical testing of your results.
What else should I do?
Once you have a complete set of charts and statistical tests, organize the charts and tables in a logical order. Write the titles of the figures for the charts and tables. As far as possible, legends should explain charts and tables on their own. Many scientists only read the abstract, figures, figure captions, tables, table footers, and conclusions of an article. Make sure your figures, tables, and captions are well labeled and documented.
Once your charts and tables are complete, write the results section. The wording of this section requires extreme discipline. You should describe your results, but you should NOT interpret them. (If you can think of good ideas right now, save them at the bottom of the page for the talk section.) Be objective and tidy in this section, but try not to be too dry.
After you’ve written the results section, you can move on to the discussion section. This section is usually fun to write, because now you can talk about your ideas about data. If you can create a good drawing/outline that shows your ideas, do it. Many works are cited in the literature because they have a good vignette that later authors want to use or modify.
Other Recomendations
When writing the discussion session, be sure to properly discuss the work of other authors who collected data on the same scientific or related issues. Be sure to discuss how your work is relevant to your work. If there are flaws in your methodology, this is the place to discuss it.
The Conclusions Section
Once the data has been analyzed, you can write the conclusions section. In this section, we take the ideas mentioned in the discussion section and try to reach a conclusion. If any hypothesis can be ruled out as a result of your work, say so. If you need to keep working to get a definitive answer, say so.
The last section of the work is a recommendations section. It is the end of the conclusions section of a scientific article. This section makes recommendations for future research or policy action. If you can make predictions about what you will find if X is true, do so. In this way, you will get credit from subsequent researchers.
After you’ve finished the recommendations section, look again at your original introduction. The introduction should prepare the ground for the conclusions of the article, setting out the ideas that will be tested in it. Now that you know where the work is going to take, you’ll probably have to rewrite the introduction.
You must write the summary last.
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Surviving the Thesis
