How To Write A Thesis
How To Write A Thesis
A Working Guide
R Chandrasekhar
Australian Research Centre for Medical Engineering (ARCME)
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
[email protected]
Written: 24 Feb 2000; Revised: 30 April 2002
Contents
1 Introduction 3
1.1 What is a thesis and why write one? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Differences between the undergraduate and postgraduate theses . . . . . . 4
2 Structure 5
2.1 Thesis structure at UWA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Rationale for structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 The hypothesis underpins the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Does an engineering thesis need a hypothesis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3 Substance 8
3.1 Begin at the beginning: keep records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Write with the reader in mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Think-Plan-Write-Revise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4 Attikiouzel’s aphorisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5 Lindsay’s laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6 Hartmann’s hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.7 Cobbling together your first draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.8 The Experimental Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.9 The Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.10 The Introduction and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.11 Linking your chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.12 The Summary or Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.13 Writing other parts of your thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS Contents
4 Style: Language 18
4.1 The craft of writing good English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2 Ambiguity and Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.3 Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.4 Brevity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.5 Examples of what to avoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.6 Punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.7 The I/We Active/Passive controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.8 Examples of good writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.9 Spelling and grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5 Style: Layout 27
5.1 Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2 Word Processor vs Markup Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3 Diagrams, Graphs and Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.4 Table of Contents, Bibliography and Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6 Conclusions 28
7 Acknowledgements 29
References 29
Abstract
This is a short guide on how to write a thesis at both the undergraduate and
postgraduate levels. It is aimed at students of engineering and science. A thesis
may be analysed into three S’s: structure, substance and style. Structure confers
logical coherence; substance, significance and depth; and style, elegance and appeal.
State your hypothesis clearly, ensuring that it is both reasonable and testable.
Keep meticulous records and write up rough drafts of your work as you go along.
Begin writing your thesis proper with the experimental chapters. Progress to the
literature review, introduction and conclusions. Write the summary or abstract last,
after writing the conclusions.
Write clearly and directly, with the reader’s expectations always in mind. Lead
the reader from the known to the unknown. Write clearly, precisely and briefly.
Think, plan, write, and revise. Follow layout guidelines and check spelling and
grammar. Re-read, seek criticism, and revise. Submit your best effort as your
completed thesis.
2
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 1 Introduction
1 Introduction
This is a working guide on writing a thesis. It is intended to assist final year and post-
graduate students in Electrical/Electronic/IT Engineering at the Centre for Intelligent
Information Processing Systems (CIIPS), and the Australian Research Centre for Medi-
cal Engineering (ARCME), at The University of Western Australia (UWA). The guide is
divided into three main parts:
I Structure;
II Substance; and
III Style
The structure of a thesis is governed by logic and is invariant with respect to subject. The
substance varies with subject, and its quality is determined by the technical knowledge
and mastery of essentials exhibited by the student. Style has two components: language
and layout. The former deals with the usage of English as a medium of sound technical
communication; the latter with the physical presentation of the thesis on paper, according
to the requirements laid out by UWA. All three components—structure, substance and
style—influence one another. A good thesis will not be found wanting in any of these
three1 .
One might infer from the etymology above that a thesis is an (obligatory) offering
placed at the desk of the examiner by a candidate who wishes to get a degree. This is
the most common, and often only, reason why a thesis is written. But there are other
reasons for writing a thesis.
A thesis is a written record of the work that has been undertaken by a candidate. It
constitutes objective evidence of the author’s knowledge and capabilities in the field of
interest and is therefore a fair means to gauge them. Although thesis writing may be
viewed as an unpleasant obligation on the road to a degree, the discipline it induces may
have lifelong benefits.
1
This guide does not cover the earlier phases, such as selecting a supervisor and research topic, doing
a literature search etc., nor does it give advice on how to do research, except as it pertains to writing a
thesis.
3
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 1 Introduction
An undergraduate thesis is, at present, graded on the quality of research, the signifi-
cance of the contributions and the style of presentation.
Thus, the undergraduate thesis is judged on a similar basis to the postgraduate one.
Indeed, the three most commonly cited qualities that earn an undergraduate thesis the
first class grade are originality, independence, and mastery [3].
Candidates writing a higher degree thesis—and the PhD thesis in particular—are
required to present their research in the context of existing knowledge. This means a
thorough and critical review of the literature, not necessarily limited to the narrow topic
of research, but covering the general area. The PhD candidate should also show clearly
what original contributions she or he has made [2]. Although neither of these requirements
applies strictly to undergraduate work, the candidate should demonstrate familiarity with
previous relevant work in his or her thesis.
In short, a thesis—whether undergraduate or postgraduate—is evidence of the can-
didate’s capacity to carry out independent research under the guidance of a supervisor,
and to analyse and communicate the significant results of that work. The candidate
for higher degrees must demonstrate, in addition, mastery of the literature and indicate
clearly which is his or her original work, and why it is significant3 .
2
Pun unintended!
3
Contrary to custom elsewhere in the world, the candidate for a master’s or doctoral degree at UWA
is generally not required to make an oral presentation and defence of her or his work. By contrast,
the final-year Electrical/Electronic/IT Engineering student is required to make an oral presentation that
contributes a small percentage to the total marks for the thesis.
4
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 2 Structure
2 Structure
2.1 Thesis structure at UWA
The UWA PhD regulations [4] give the following format for the doctoral thesis:
1. Title page: gives the title of the thesis in full, the candidate’s names and degrees, a
statement of presentation in the form ‘This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy of the University of Western Australia’, the department and year of submission.
2. Summary or Abstract—of approximately 300 words. (It should not exceed 700 words.)
The Abstract or summary should summarize the appropriate headings, aims, scope and
conclusion of the thesis.
3. Table of Contents
4. Acknowledgements
5. Main Text
6. Bibliography or References
7. Appendices
The format of the undergraduate thesis is similar, except that the title page is followed
by a letter from the candidate addressed to the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engi-
neering and Mathematical Sciences saying ‘This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (with Honours)’ and certifying
that it represents the candidate’s own work.
The thesis proper consists of the Main Text, numbered 5 above. If we zoomed in on
the Main Text, we should see something like this [5, p 110]:
(a) Chapter 1: Introduction
iii. Results
iv. Discussion
5
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 2 Structure
Table 1: This table shows the relationship between the structure of an experimental chapter
in a thesis, and its underlying logic.
Any flaw in the reasoning or gap in the logic will be easily spotted if this structure
is strictly followed. Thus, the structure of the thesis is designed to enforce logical and
scientific rigour and make it easy to read. Follow the structure and you can be sure that
you are telling your story in the right order. But what exactly is your story?
6
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 2 Structure
• ‘In every useful experiment, there must be some point in view, some anticipation of
a principle to be established or rejected’; such anticipations are hypotheses [7, John
Gregory quoted by Medawar, p22].
Your hypothesis must fit the known facts 4 and be testable. To comply with the first, you
must have read the literature. To comply with the second, you must do the experiment.
This is why the hypothesis is central to scientific investigation [5].
If you find time, read an account of the famous Michelson-Morley experiment [8] to
understand that if hypothesis and experiment are in conflict, it is experiment that prevails
and hypothesis that falls. If an experiment shows that a hypothesis is incorrect, then that
hypothesis must be erroneous, no matter how attractive. Moreover, failure of a hypothesis
may lead to a re-examination of assumptions, refutation of shaky theories, and ultimately
to new knowledge, as happened in this case.
7
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
for further investigation. Your own project would have demonstrated5 the correctness of
a hypothesis like ‘It is possible to sort good green apples from bad green apples, with an
accuracy of better than 90%, using ANNs and suitable hardware’.
Never forget that underlying every thesis, there must be a hypothesis. It is what your
story is all about. If you keep your hypothesis in view, you will never stray into irrelevance
when writing your thesis, which is what we look at next.
3 Substance
3.1 Begin at the beginning6 : keep records
The content of your thesis is being continuously gathered throughout the period of your
project/research. Remember this and keep clear, well-annotated records in your “CIIPS
Research Record Book”. You can afford to be wordy and repetitive here, because you
do not want to be lost when you refer to it later on. Because it is a running record of
experiment and observation, its only requirement is fidelity; not subsequent correctness.
Michael Faraday was an experimental scientist par excellence. His diary of his re-
searches can serve very well as a model of how your own research record book should be
like. For example, in one volume of his diaries [10], he has recorded the following:
• freehand drawings of experimental setups [pp 248–9]. You should do the same; your
diagrams in your record book need not be works of art: save that for the thesis!
• his accurate description of what he believed he was perceiving:“It still smelt strongly
of Electricity” [p 200]. The italics are his. Today we may hide a smirk if anyone
talks about smelling electricity; but remember that these are the observations of a
scientific pioneer. Do not be afraid to record your perceptions accurately.
• his own questions to himself: “Can induction through air take place in curves or
round a corner?” [p 420]. Such questions serve to clarify your own thoughts and to
steer further work.
In summary, your record book is where you record your thoughts, perceptions and mea-
surements, using words, numbers and pictures, as and when they are still fresh in your
mind.
Plan your experiments so that one experiment has only one hypothesis. Many exper-
iments may together shed light on a larger, unifying hypothesis.
Assuming that your experimental work is going well, the spectre of writing it up, so
that it looks like a thesis, still looms ahead. How do you do that?
In the following sections, we take a look at some guidelines on how to write well. This
is followed by advice from some experienced UWA professors on how to write a good
5
Philosophers of science contend [7] that a hypothesis cannot be proved conclusively, but only falsified.
We will steer clear of this controversy here.
6
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll [9, p 158]
8
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
thesis. The material that follows is the core of this working guide: so pay attention to it
and try to understand it thoroughly.
1. the maximum power transfer theorem: [11, p 432] The transfer of power from a
source to a load is maximum if the load impedance is the complex conjugate of the
source impedance (see Figure 1). The matching of source and load impedances for
maximum power transfer to occur is analogous to matching the writer’s technique
to the reader’s expectations for maximum communication to occur.
ZS
+ ZL
VS
-
Figure 1: Maximum power is transferred from the source VS if the load impedance ZL is the
complex conjugate of the source impedance ZS , i.e., if ZL = ZS∗ [11, p 432].
Gopen and Swan [13] have written an excellent article introducing scientific method
into scientific writing. They claim that readers have certain implicit expectations about
what to encounter and when, each time they read a sentence. If the writer matches these
expectations, communication takes place easily; otherwise confusion or misinterpretation
results. They exhort the writer to write so as to match the reader’s expectations. The
reader should not waste the effort that would go into understanding the substance of
the writing, in trying to guess what the writer intended to mean. Although they warn
that “there can be no fixed algorithm for good writing”, they give seven sound generic
guidelines that are worth re-stating here [13]:
9
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
2. Place in the position of importance (stress position) the “new information” you
want the reader to emphasize in his or her mind.
3. Place the person or thing whose story is being told at the beginning of a sentence
in the topic position.
4. Place appropriate “old information” (material discussed earlier) in the topic position
to provide linkage with what has gone before and context for what is to come later.
6. Provide context for your reader before asking him or her to consider anything new.
7. Match the emphasis conveyed by the substance with the emphasis anticipated by
the reader from the structure.
3.3 Think-Plan-Write-Revise
Think. Plan. Write. Revise. This is the cycle advocated by Barrass [6] in his short but
very useful book on scientific writing. Messy thinking leads to messy writing: cluttered,
obscure and uninviting. Think and plan before you write and revise.
Writing is not a linear process but a cyclic one. What appears first may be written
last, with the benefit of hindsight and a unified perspective. But, where does one start;
how does one revise, and how many times? As an entrée, let us listen to those with
experience.
2. Spot errors early. A well-written “Technical Report” will force you to think about
what you have done, before you move on to something else. If anything is amiss,
you will detect it at once and can easily correct it, rather than have to re-visit the
work later, when you may be pressured for time and have lost touch with it.
10
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
3. Write your thesis from the inside out. Begin with the chapters on your own exper-
imental work. You will develop confidence in writing them because you know your
own work better than anyone else. Once you have overcome the initial inertia, move
on to the other chapters.
4. End with a bang, not a whimper. First things first, and save the best for last.
First and last impressions persist. Arrange your chapters so that your first and last
experimental chapters are sound and solid.
5. Write the Introduction after writing the Conclusions. The examiner will read the
Introduction first, and then the Conclusions, to see if the promises made in the for-
mer are indeed fulfilled in the latter. Ensure that your Introduction and Conclusions
match 100%.
6. “No man is an Island”7 . The critical review of the literature places your work in
context. Usually, one third of the PhD thesis is about others’ work; two thirds,
what you have done yourself. After a thorough and critical literature review, the
PhD candidate must be able to identify the major researchers in the field and make
a sound proposal for doctoral research.
7. Estimate the time to write your thesis and then multiply it by three to get the correct
estimate. Writing at one stretch is very demanding and it is all too easy to under-
estimate the time required for it; inflating your first estimate by a factor of three is
more realistic.
2. The hallmarks of scientific writing are precision, clarity and brevity, in that order.
3. Try to write as if you were speaking to someone: “see a face”. This way you get to
say it directly and clearly.
11
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
5. The Introduction should embody the (unified) hypothesis. The reader finds in a
clearly expressed hypothesis the skeleton of the thesis on which hangs all of the skin
and meat that will be presented later.
6. The scope and emphasis of the Literature Review must be directly relevant to the
subject of the thesis.
7. Include a common chapter that presents in one place all the experimental details
common to all your experimental chapters. This avoids boring repetition and clears
the way for a more fluent presentation of experimental results in different chapters
without the intervening distraction of tedious methodology.
8. Experiments and results must be set out in careful detail in individual chapters. See
i. to iv. on page 5 for the structure of each experimental chapter. Where several
related experiments are grouped into a single chapter, it is preferable to present
this sequence individually for each experiment but to conclude with one Discussion.
This will meld the experiments together and unify the chapter.
9. The General Discussion or Conclusions integrate the whole thesis and present its
main points at one place. This should be done in the context of the unifying
hypothesis of the thesis. The Introduction and this chapter along with the Summary
or Abstract are the most important parts of the thesis.
1. Title. The title should be succinct, focussed and objective, giving, if possible, the
scope of the thesis.
2. Abstract or Summary. Examiners will look here to find out whether it is new
knowledge; and if so what.
3. Introduction. Remember that the introductory pages are important because they
create the first, and perhaps lasting, impression on the examiner. Use flow diagrams,
headings, sub-headings etc., to create and sustain interest.
4. Literature Review. This should be a critical synthesis of the state of the knowledge.
Especially important are the areas needing further investigation: what has not been
done, as well as what has been done, but for which there is a conflict in the literature.
The examiner finds out how the candidate thinks from reading this section.
12
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
5. Hypothesis Testing. The hypothesis must be framed carefully and experiments de-
signed thoughtfully to test it.
6. Materials and Methods. Ensure proper quality control and statistical planning and
analysis. Retain enough details to allow repetition of experiments for up to seven
(7) years, as legally required.
9. Keep in mind that examiners read a thesis in instalments and display a natural
benevolence, i.e., they do not set out to read a thesis with the aim of failing the
student.
11. Read your thesis for ideas and read it again for editing (see point 4 in section 3.5).
13
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
Assumptions
Results Discussion
Hypothesis
Experiment Analysis
Methods
Conclusions
Materials
Figure 2: This diagram illustrates the relationship between the different stages in the exper-
imental process. Do not intersperse your Results with Materials and/or Methods. Resist the
temptation to pepper your Results section with a Discussion.
Do not mix Materials and Methods with Results [18]; they are quite distinct in Fig-
ure 2. It is customary to describe your Methods before the Materials. For example,
you would describe your algorithm before giving details about the dataset on which you
developed and tested it. Use informative headings. If you are using a method that has
already been documented in the literature, do not describe it in full; describe it briefly or
not at all, and give a reference citation [15].
When to present your results in a table and when to show them in a graph is discussed
in section 5.3.
If your results convey no sense of the new or the unexpected, you must ask yourself
whether they are the right results to present, and also whether your hypothesis was well
framed in the first place. If your results are insipid, if they say nothing new, shed no light
on what was unknown and generally convey no sense of excitement or new knowledge,
you should sit down and think carefully about everything you have done. A discussion
with your supervisor may also be in order.
Do not present results chronologically; present them logically.
Adopt a standard nomenclature for all your chapters and introduce this in one place,
preferably in a chapter preceding your experimental work, and entitled “Common Mate-
rials and Methods”, or “Experimental Framework and Notation”, or something similar.
14
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
Do not change your symbols and their meanings as you go along: this will irritate your
reader no end.
Check all facts and results at least once, twice if possible.
Use SI units and the preferred abbreviations. It is unprofessional to write 75 mhz
when you mean 75 MHz. Leave a blank space between the number and the SI unit and
do not put a full stop after the abbreviation, unless it is at the end of the sentence.
Try to present your Results separately from your Discussion. There is a temptation
to commingle fact and opinion, but resist it. Your work will be easier to understand if
your results (measurements, observations, perceptions) are separated from your discussion
(inferences, opinions, even conjectures).
The Discussion section of your experimental chapter is where you add value to your
work. This is where you comment on your results. Why are they what they are? What
meaning can you wrest from them? Are they in accord with accepted theory? What do
they mean with respect to your hypothesis? Do your results uphold your assumptions?
How do you treat unexpected or inconsistent results? Can you account for them? Do
your results suggest that you need to revise your experiments or repeat them? Do they
indicate a revised hypothesis? What are the limitations in your methodology? How do
your results fit in with the work of others in the field? What additional work can you
suggest?
An A+ student distinguishes himself or herself by the quality, depth, knowledge and
subject mastery that is apparent from the discussion. Even if the hypothesis fell as a
result of the experiment, an excellent discussion of results alone can earn you an A+ .
Throughout your thesis, and especially in your experimental chapters, there should be
no gaps in the flow of logic. Keep the links of a chain in mind. Each link is connected to
two other links: one before and one after. Absence of any one link is a weakness. Absence
of both means there is no chain!
To sum up, your overall purpose is to tell a good story: interesting, coherent, and
plausible. Use your results to serve this purpose, keeping the hypothesis in mind.
15
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
• one word;
• one line;
• one sentence;
• one paragraph;
16
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 3 Substance
• one chapter.
This method is somewhat like asking a dying man for a message: he will tell you only the
most important thing(s). You begin at the most “compressed” level of describing your
thesis and successively relax the constraint on the number of words to achieve increasing
levels of detail. Somewhere along the way, you should have written your one- to two-page
abstract, summarising your thesis adequately. This is a disciplined way to distill what
is important from what you have written9 . If you have not gone through this process
yourself, it is unfair (and risky) to expect the examiner to do it for you.
17
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
of getting high marks for it. A well-written thesis is like a piece of highly polished fine
furniture: its elegance bespeaks its worth.
• Do systematic work.
• Don’t plagiarize.
4 Style: Language
4.1 The craft of writing good English
Writing good English is a craft. It has to be learned by careful reading and even more
careful writing. You must develop your own style: no one can teach or bequeath it to
18
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
you. It helps to read books devoted to the subject [21–27], but it helps even more to read
exemplars of good writing. I particularly like and recommend the books of the chemist
Peter Atkins [28, 29] and the biophysicist Harold Morowitz [30] which popularize science.
These authors have demonstrated how it is possible to present science simply, correctly
and engagingly.
As you progress in developing your own style, you will develop an internal feedback
mechanism that will tell you just when the rhythm, length and structure of a sentence is
right, and when it needs revising.
Read what you have written, slowly and carefully. If you find yourself backtracking for
any reason, revise what you have written. This may be because of bad sentence structure,
poor punctuation, excessive sentence length, poorly expressed ideas, or an unfortunate
choice of words. Whatever the cause, take the trouble to revise it: if you yourself stumble
on your own writing, your reader is bound to stumble too. The least courtesy you can do
to your reader is to revise your writing.
Verbs are words of action. They infuse life and meaning to your writing. A long
catalogue of nouns is lifeless; throw in a verb to add some sparkle!
Style and substance are intertwined. Say clearly why the busy reader should give you
her time and attention, when so many others are clamouring for it, and say this early.
Think of your writing as a tense wire connecting your reader to you. If everything you say
is old hat to the reader, the wire is slack and you have lost your reader to boredom or even
sleep. If everything you say is new and not linked to something the reader already knows,
the wire is too taut and will break at some point. You will again lose your reader, but this
time to incomprehension. Monotony leads to boredom; unpredictability to confusion. You
have a duty to keep the reader challenged but not frustrated, engaged but not confused,
comfortable but not bored.
The sections that follow are devoted to clarifying what good scientific writing is and
should be.
19
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
4.3 Precision
Precision distinguishes science as a field of intellectual endeavour. It is vital in quantitative
work. Precision allows your work to be repeated by others for verification and extension.
Vagueness hides in expressions like “quite small”, “a considerable length” etc. Avoid
them. They will besmirch your writing and your work.
Precision, accuracy and experimental error are an inseparable triad. You should know
how they differ and why they are related. If not, read a good text on the subject, for
example [34, 35]. Precision is related to resolution of measurements; accuracy, to fidelity
with truth; and error with departure from truth. All measurements embody errors, limited
by technique, instrumentation and other factors.
Do not record a measured voltage, for example, to five decimal places simply because
a digital multimeter displays it to that many decimal places. Generally, if a measured
voltage is quoted as 5 V, it means the value could be in error by half the least significant
digit, i.e., the true value lies within the interval 5 ± 0.5 V. Two other popular conventions
used in stating experimental results are: hvi ± σv and hvi ± 3σv where hvi is the mean
of a series of measurements of voltage, v, and σv is the standard deviation. State the
convention you have used in your thesis and stick to it throughout.
4.4 Brevity
Each of us is faced with more information than we can cope, let alone digest. The reader
of your thesis is no exception. As a courtesy to your reader, be brief. Repetition frustrates
the able reader. However, brevity must not be at the expense of clarity or precision. Avoid
saying the same thing twice except by choice. Eschew expressions like “in order to”, “as a
result of”, etc. When revising your thesis, try deleting phrases and expressions that are
“fillers”; in most cases, what remains would be clearer and read better.
The use of acronyms is convenient and often unavoidable in specialist writing. Some
acronyms like “laser”,11 have become entrenched in the common vocabulary. However,
acronyms hold other, darker attractions, especially for students: they may be used to
advertise the writer’s erudition12 or to separate the cognoscenti from the “ignoscenti”.
Such use of acronyms is best avoided, or it could lead to their proliferation, and the
disease, acronymosis,13 which destroys readability and sacrifices clarity for brevity.
20
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
1. Clusters of nouns. When clustered together, all nouns except the last function as
adjectives. Avoid expressions like “chemical healing suppression” and say instead,
“suppression of healing by chemicals”, or “suppression of chemical healing”, or
whatever else you intended to mean. Use prepositions to make your meaning clear.
3. Subordinate clauses at the beginning. This style puts the unimportant bits first and
the important ones later. It may be good electronics to do so (LSB14 first), but it
is bad English. Avoid beginning sentences with constructions like “Despite the fact
that . . . ”, “Notwithstanding the fact that . . . ”, etc. Compare these two versions:
Thus, although there were too few plots15 to show all of the interactions
which we sought [subordinate clause, apologetic], under the conditions of
the experiment [subordinate phrase, conditional], copper and zinc acted
additively [5, p 47].
Thus, copper and zinc acted additively under the conditions of our exper-
iment, although there were . . . [5, p 47]
The second sentence certainly reads better. It is also a good example of putting
the important information in the topic position, which is at the beginning (see
section 3.2).
4. Nouns instead of the verbs from which they are derived. Avoid writing “Recording
of pulse rates was made”; instead write, “Pulse rates were recorded”. We have
improved the original sentence in three ways by doing this. We have:
(a) replaced the original dummy verb “made” with the genuine verb “recorded”;
(b) shortened the sentence; and
(c) sharpened the impact.
5. Use of filler verbs. Do not write “We conducted a study of group III-V compounds”;
instead say, “We studied group III-V compounds”. The second sentence has five
words; the first, eight. Again, a dummy verb has been replaced with a genuine
verb and the sentence has been shortened and strengthened. Examples of dummy-
verb constructions to be avoided are “to be present”, “to occur”, “to perform”, “to
obtain”, etc.
6. Use of passive voice rather than active voice. Passive voice is appropriate when the
doer of an action is unknown or is irrelevant. Otherwise, passive voice lengthens
14
Least Significant Bit
15
Plot of ground, presumably. My footnote.
21
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
and weakens the sentence, whereas active voice is direct, succinct and more forceful.
Compare “Patients were observed by two people for signs of abnormal behaviour” [5,
p 49] with “Two people observed the patients . . . ” [5, p 49].
7. Use of imprecise words. Do not use words like “quite”, “some”, “considerable”, “a
great deal”, etc. in scientific writing. It is imprecise and unhelpful to the reader.
Be quantitative: you are writing an engineering thesis. Sometimes, you may wish to
avoid numerical precision for some compelling reason. If you want to avoid writing
“Fifty-two percent of the images were correctly classified”, do not say “The majority
of the images were correctly classified”, but rather “Slightly over half the images
were correctly classified”.
8. Use of compound prepositions. Debaters and politicians use expressions like “in the
case of”, “in respect of”, etc., usually to gain time to think of a proper answer during
a debate or a press conference. Such expressions dilute the force of the simple, direct
statement: they have no place in your thesis.
9. Multiple negatives. A double negative, when used carefully, has impact or conveys
just the right shade of meaning. Multiple negatives do not. They serve only to
confuse and should be avoided. What does “not unreasonably inefficient” really
mean? Anytime you cause your reader to backtrack or pause for mental breath to
take in meaning, you have done yourself and your reader a disservice. (Remember
the reflections on the transmission line in section 3.2.)
10. Unfamiliar abbreviations and symbols. Stick to SI units and prefixes. If you have to
introduce a new unit called a flip make sure that you define it somewhere, introduce
an abbreviation consistent with the SI system, use SI prefixes, and stick with your
nomenclature all through.
4.6 Punctuation
Good punctuation makes reading easy. The simplest way to find out where to punctuate is
to read aloud what you have written. Each time you pause, you should add a punctuation
symbol. There are four major pause symbols, arranged below in ascending order of “degree
of pause”:
• Comma. Use the comma to indicate a short pause or to separate items in a list.
A pair of commas may delimit the beginning and end of a subordinate clause or
phrase. Sometimes, this is also done with a pair of “em dashes” which are printed
like this: —.
• Semi-colon. The semi-colon signifies a longer pause than the comma. It separates
segments of a sentence that are “further apart” in position, or meaning, but which
are nevertheless related. If the ideas were “closer together”, a comma would have
been used. It is also used to separate two clauses that may stand on their own but
which are too closely related for a colon or full stop to intervene between them.
22
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
• Colon. The colon is used before one or more examples of a concept, and whenever
items are to be listed in a visually separate fashion. The sentence that introduced
the itemized list you are now reading ended in a colon. It may also be used to
separate two fairly—but not totally—independent clauses in a sentence.
• Full stop or period. The full stop ends a sentence. If the sentence embodies a
question or an exclamation, then, of course, it is ended with a question mark or
exclamation mark, respectively. The full stop is also used to terminate abbreviations
like etc., (for et cetera), e.g., for (exempli gratia), et al., (for et alia) etc., but not
with abbreviations for SI units.
The readability of your writing will improve greatly if you take the trouble to learn the
basic rules of punctuation given above. For further guidance on punctuation, I recommend
the books by Carey [36], Gowers [26], and Vallins [21, 22].
I have recently been engaged in describing and defining the lines of mag-
netic force . . . i.e. those lines which are indicated in a general manner
by the disposition of iron filings or small magnetic needles, around or be-
tween magnets; . . . —Michael Faraday in [38, p 407]
23
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
It is now, I believe, generally admitted that the light which we receive from
the clear sky is due in one way or another to small suspended particles
which divert the light from its regular course.—Lord Rayleigh [40, p 87]
2. The first person plural pronoun, ‘we’ is used when stating facts, assumptions or
previously derived results; in (mathematical) proofs; and especially in textbooks
where a didactic tone is normal. The use of ‘we’ conveys the impression of a dia-
logue between writer and reader: something that is lacking with ‘I’. Here are some
examples:
We have used the phrase Lines of Force because it has been used by Fara-
day and others. In strictness, however, these lines should be called Lines
of Electric Induction.—James Clerk Maxwell [41, p 98]
We have seen that the electrical charge on the surface of the glass is at-
tracted by the rubber.—James Clerk Maxwell [41, p 318]
The symmetry also requires that the intensity of the scattered light should
vanish for the ray which would be propagated along the axis; for there is
nothing to distinguish one direction transverse to the ray from another.
We have now got what we want.—Lord Rayleigh [40, p 89]
3. Passive voice is used in textbooks and in describing facts, and experiments done by
others, or where it does not matter who did the experiments:
There was also another effect produced, especially by the use of large elec-
trodes, which was both a consequence and a proof of the solution of part
of the gas evolved there. The collected gas, when examined, was found to
contain small portions of nitrogen. This I attribute to the presence of air
dissolved in the acid used for decomposition.—Michael Faraday [37, p 127]
In each cell the copper plate is placed horizontally at the bottom and
a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc is poured over it.—James Clerk
Maxwell [41, p 397]
24
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
There are two methods by which the pitch of a resonator may be deter-
mined without the use of a stream of air. The simplest, and in many cases
the most accurate, method consists merely in tapping the resonator with
the finger or other hammer of suitable hardness, and estimating with the
aid of a monochord the pitch of sound so produced.. . . The other method
is one of which I have had a good deal of experience, and which I can
rely upon to give results of moderate accuracy. It consists in putting the
ear into communication with the interior of a resonator, and determining
to what note of the scale the resonance is loudest.—Lord Rayleigh [40, p
320]
It is clear that some very eminent scientists had no hesitation in using the first person
singular pronoun “I” to describe what they did, perceived or inferred. This usage is direct
and is preferable to the passive voice, especially when used to describe what you yourself
did. If, for modesty or other reasons, you are uncomfortable with using the pronoun
“I”, use the passive voice instead, but not the first person plural pronoun “we”, which is
inappropriate for two related reasons:
1. You are describing work that you have individually done rather than some collective
effort for which the plural number would be apt.
2. The University regulations are clear, especially for the PhD thesis, that your original
work and contributions must be clearly distinguished from that of others [2]; again
the plural number would be incorrect when describing this work.
This is one of the founding fathers of the kinetic theory of gases holding forth on
his home ground. These are the opening lines of a paper entitled Molecules, originally
delivered before the British Association and published in Nature, Vol. VIII.
Maxwell uses the etymology of the word atom—from the Greek atomos, which means
“not cuttable”—to define it clearly and directly. The expression “cannot be cut in two”
is more picturesque and powerful than the usual textbook definition, “smallest indivisible
particle”, that we have been brought up on. He then progresses to molecules and provokes
our interest in what these mysterious, invisible, imperceptible entities might be. We are
left anticipating what ingenious experiments he might have devised to demonstrate the
25
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 4 Style: Language
existence and properties of molecules. If you can draw your reader into your work like
this, you have written a good thesis.
Now for the second example:
A structure is an arrangement of particles, such as atoms, molecules, or ions.
For example, a crystal is a definite structure. It is distinct from a gas, a liquid,
or even a splodge17 of butter, because in these the arrangements of particles
are indefinite. Whereas in a crystal we can be sure to find a particle at some
definite location relative to another, . . . in the “structureless” states of gases,
liquids, and amorphous solids, the relative locations of particles are indefinite
...
We can summarize these remarks (and sow the seed for the generalization) by
saying that the particles of crystalline solids are arranged coherently: the lo-
cations are correlated. In contrast, in gases (and to a smaller extent in liquids)
the locations are uncorrelated. The idea that structure signifies coherence,
with orderly regiments of particles, whereas lack of structure signifies inco-
herence, with a hodge-podge of locations, neatly captures solids as structures
but allows gases to escape as structureless.—Peter Atkins [29, pp 179–180]
This is a fine example of leading the reader from the known to the unknown, progres-
sively increasing the complexity of ideas. Atkins paints a picture in words, first relating
structure to regularity in position. Then he moves on to the more mathematical and sub-
tler concept of coherence and relates it to structure. The last sentence summarizes and
binds together the three ideas: structure, positional regularity and coherence. The paren-
thetical statement “sow the seed for the generalization” again keeps the reader anxiously
waiting for the rabbit out of the hat.
26
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 5 Style: Layout
5 Style: Layout
The layout is the packaging for your thesis. A pleasing font and adequate margins make
your thesis visually attractive. The convention is to choose a font with serifs (e.g., Times
Roman) for the main text and a sans serif font (e.g., Helvetica) for text inside diagrams.
All figure captions should be in the same font as the main text, preferably at one size
smaller. The details of thesis layout are considered next.
5.1 Format
The regulations governing size of paper, size of margins, etc., vary with Department and
University. At UWA, the regulations for an Engineering thesis are in harmony with the
layout of the PhD thesis, where an extra left margin should be allowed for binding the
thesis. At present, these regulations are:
Theses are not restricted to one volume. They should be double or one and a
half space typed on A4 paper with a left hand margin of 4 cm. There should
be a 2 cm margin on all other edges. Typing on both sides is encouraged, and
margins should be mirrored accordingly. [2].
The actual regulations may vary with time and the interested student is referred to the
web site [2].
27
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS 6 Conclusions
A graph should be reserved for exciting findings or interesting, but unexpected re-
sults. Trends, departures from trends, dramatic behaviours of variables, etc., are good
candidates for graphs.
Caption all diagrams, graphs and tables so that they may be read by themselves,
independently of the main text, by a reader who wants only to skim your paper. It is
discourteous to embed the explanation or commentary for a diagram or graph somewhere
in the text and let the skimmer hunt for it.
Refer in your text to every diagram, graph and table, especially in the sections where
you present and discuss your results.
The ready availability of graphical software should not entice you into presenting
everything indiscriminately in pictorial form. Emphasis is rightly gained with sparing and
selective use; and this applies to the use of diagrams, graphs, italics and bold typeface.
Three books that give helpful guidance on presenting diagrams, graphs and tables
are [18, 42, 43].
6 Conclusions
Writing a thesis well is simple if you know how. There are three aspects: structure,
substance and style, but all three are entwined.
Start at the beginning by keeping good records. Understand what it is you are doing
and why. Be clear what story you are going to tell. Keep the hypothesis to the fore
always. Stick to the thesis structure you have been given.
Start writing your Experimental Chapters first. If you have done a Literature Review,
write it next. Then complete the rest: Conclusions, Introduction and Summary, in that
order. The other bits and pieces like the Appendices may be written as you go along.
Think, plan write, revise. Think clearly and write carefully. Clarity, precision and
brevity are the three watchwords. Leave no gaps in the chain of logic or ideas you express.
Avoid verbiage. Avoid clutter. Develop your own writing style by careful reading and
even more careful writing. Polish what you have written by repeated reading and revision.
Ask your supervisor to critique your thesis draft and amend it accordingly.
Enjoy writing your thesis and good luck!
28
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS References
7 Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Professor Yianni Attikiouzel, Dr Chris deSilva, Professor Peter Hartmann,
Mr Peter Jones, Emeritus Professor David Lindsay and Dr John Morris for their helpful
comments on earlier drafts of this guide. I also thank Professor Attikiouzel for correcting
the Greek etymology that is given here.
References
[1] D. Thompson, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 9th ed., 1995.
[2] The University of Western Australia, “Doctor of Philosophy Regulations.” [web page],
30 August 1999. http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/research/phd/regs.html [cited 29
February 2000].
[3] Honours Working Party, “Honours Working Party Report: 30 June 1999 (Amended
14 July 1999).” [web page], 10 August 1999. http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/reg/
internal/sec/hwp/6.htm [cited 29 February 2000]; Internal report of The University
of Western Australia.
[4] The University of Western Australia, “PhD Examination Procedures.” [web page],
13 January 2000. http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/research/phd/exam.html; [cited
29 February 2000].
[6] R. Barrass, Scientists Must Write: A guide to better writing for scientists, engineers
and students. London, UK: Chapman & Hall, 1991.
[7] P. B. Medawar, The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and other classic essays on
science. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.
[9] L. Carroll, The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking Glass. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK: Penguin Books, 1978. Illustrated
by John Tenniel; with an Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner.
[10] M. Faraday, Faraday’s Diary: Being the Various Philosophical Notes of Experimental
Investigation made by Michael Faraday during the years 1820–1862, vol. II, Aug 25
1832–Feb 29 1836. London, UK: G Bell and Sons, 1932. edited by Thomas Martin.
[11] M. E. Van Valkenburg, Network Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall,
3rd ed., 1974.
29
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS References
[12] B. P. Lathi, Signals, Systems and Communication. New York, USA: John Wiley &
Sons, 1965.
[13] G. D. Gopen and J. A. Swan, “The science of scientific writing,” American Scientist,
vol. 78, pp. 550–558, 1990.
[14] Y. Attikiouzel, “Writing the PhD Thesis.” Private verbal communication, as the
author’s PhD supervisor, Centre for Intelligent Information Processing Systems, De-
partment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Western Aus-
tralia, Nedlands, WA 6907, Australia, 1993–1996.
[15] D. Lindsay, “Writing and Publishing in Scientific Journals.” Staff Development Pro-
gramme entitled “Writing and Publishing in Scientific Journals” organised on 3 June
1999 by the Centre for Staff Development, The University of Western Australia,
Nedlands, WA, Australia, 1999.
[17] T. Buzan and B. Buzan, The mind map book. London, UK: BBC Books, revised ed.,
1995.
[18] D. Holtom and E. Fisher, Enjoy Writing Your Science Thesis or Dissertation!: A
step by step guide to planning and writing dissertations and theses for undergraduate
and graduate science students. London, UK: Imperial College Press, 1999.
[19] M. R. Schroeder, Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise.
New York, USA: W H Freeman, 1991.
[20] E. M. Phillips and D. S. Pugh, How to get a Ph.D. : a handbook for students and
their supervisors. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, 2nd ed., 1994.
[21] G. H. Vallins, Good English: How to Write It. London, UK: Andre Deutsch, 1964.
[23] G. H. Vallins, The Best English. London, UK: Andre Deutsch, 1971.
[24] R. A. Day, Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals.
Phoenix, AZ, USA: Oryx Press, 1992.
[25] M. H. Manser, ed., Bloomsbury Guide to Better English. London, UK: Bloomsbury,
1994.
[26] Sir Ernest Gowers, revised edition by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut, The
Complete Plain Words. London, UK: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 3rd ed., 1986.
30
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS References
[27] M. Cutts, The Plain English Guide: How to write clearly and communicate better.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.
[28] P. W. Atkins, Molecules. New York, USA: Scientific American Library, 1987.
[29] P. W. Atkins, The Second Law. New York, USA: Scientific American Library, 1984.
[30] H. J. Morowitz, Entropy and the magic flute. New York, USA: Oxford University
Press, 1993.
[31] J. Joyce, Finnegans Wake. London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1949.
[32] G. Lernout, ed., Finnegans Wake: Fifty Years. Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Rodopi, 1990.
[33] T. J. Rice, Joyce, Chaos, and Complexity. Urbana and Chicago, IL, USA: University
of Illinois Press, 1997.
[34] N. C. Barford, Experimental measurements : precision, error, and truth. Chichester,
Sussex, UK: Wiley, 2 ed., 1985.
[35] J. Topping, Errors of observation and their treatment. London, UK: Institute of
Physics, 1956.
[36] G. V. Carey, Mind the stop : a brief guide to punctuation with a note on proof-
correction. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK: Penguin, revised ed., 1971.
[37] M. Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity. London, UK: J M Dent and
Sons, n.d. edited by Ernest Rhys.
[38] M. Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, vol. III. London, UK: Richard
Taylor and William Francis, 1855. Reprinted from the Philosophical Transactions of
1846–1852 with other Electrical Papers from the Proceedings of the Royal Institution
and Philosophical Magazine.
[39] J. C. Maxwell, The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell. New York, USA: Dover
Publications, 1965. Edited by W D Niven; two volumes bound as one.
[40] Rayleigh, John William Strutt, Baron,, Scientific Papers by Lord Rayleigh (John
William Strutt), vol. I: 1869–1881. New York, USA: Dover Publications, 1964. Six
volumes bound as three.
[41] J. C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, vol. 1. New York, USA:
Dover Publications, 3rd unabridged ed., 1954.
[42] R. A. Day, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. Phoenix, AZ, USA: Oryx
Press, 5th ed., 1998.
[43] H. B. Michaelson, How to Write and Publish Engineering Papers and Reports.
Philadelphia, PA, USA: ISI Press, 1982.
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HOW TO WRITE A THESIS Quick Reference Guide
– structure
– substance
– style
– Conclusions
– Introduction
– Summary
in that order.
• The other bits and pieces like the Appendices may be written as you go along.
• Think clearly.
• Write carefully.
– Clarity
– Precision
– Brevity
32
HOW TO WRITE A THESIS Quick Reference Guide
in that order.
• Avoid verbiage.
• Avoid clutter.
• Ask your supervisor to critique your thesis draft and amend it accordingly.
33