5 www.rsc.
org/education
03
Throughout writing up
Proof-reading
Proof-reading is crucial to any thesis. After
writing the first draft of a chapter, proof
Copyright © 2008. Royal Society of Chemistry. All rights reserved.
read it yourself and make any amendments.
Following this ask your supervisor or, if this
is not possible, a member of your research
group to proof-read it and give you feedback.
It’s better to correct any errors in
style, layout and language at an early
stage so you can take this information
forward when writing subsequent
chapters, rather than having to correct
your whole thesis in one go.
Mansfield, Natalie. Your Chemical Science Thesis : An introductory guide to writing up your research project, Royal
Society of Chemistry, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/leicester/detail.action?docID=1186228.
Created from leicester on 2020-03-02 05:18:45.
Make sure you proof-read every chapter
of your thesis yourself before asking your
supervisor or research group colleagues. Try
to leave a few days between finishing writing
a section and proof-reading it, that way you
are more likely to notice errors you have
made rather than just reading what you think
you wrote two hours previously.
You may find it useful to ask a “non-science”
friend to proof-read your work; this will
enable them to focus on the grammar
and structure of your work rather than the
content. However, remember to take their
comments in context as you may have
used a certain scientific phrase that makes
complete sense within your thesis but might
be completely foreign to a non-scientific
audience.
 www.rsc.org/education 

Revising text If you are using colour ensure you

It is likely that your supervisor/research
group colleague will make a wide array of
suggestions following proof-reading your first
attempt. Don’t be disheartened, the best way
to learn is from others with more experience.
Talk through any amendments with them so There are a wide range of useful computer
you understand why they are suggesting the programs available to download online; speak
changes.
Incorporate any changes as soon as
possible and keep their suggestions
in mind when starting to write
subsequent chapters.
Diagrams
Chemical Science theses often contain a
myriad of diagrams and schemes to describe
the complex chemical processes being
discussed. When using diagrams in your
thesis it is important to ensure that they are
centred on the page and of consistent size.
For example, you don’t want a tiny benzene
ring on page thirteen and one taking up
half a side on page fifteen. Obviously this is
Copyright © 2008. Royal Society of Chemistry. All rights reserved.
keep your atom colours consistent
throughout your work; it’s not ideal
having a dark grey carbon on page 47
and a blue one on page 90.
to your supervisor about which ones might
be useful to you.
A few useful links are listed here with a short
summary of the program.
ORTEP-3 www.chem.gla.ac.uk/~louis/
software/ortep3
This programme allows you to make
thermal ellipsoid plots of crystal structures
just by loading a coordinate file. ORTEP-3
for Windows is provided free of charge
for academic, scientific, educational and
non-commercial users, provided its use is
acknowledged.
ISIS-draw www.mdli.com/downloads/

an exaggeration but the most professional
looking theses have consistency across their
diagrams. Try to ensure the font size and type
remains constant as well as the chemical
bond thickness and length. If you are unsure
about how to set these limits within the
computer program you are using ask your
supervisor or colleagues or alternatively refer
to the computer program manual.
Use this programme to create line drawings
of chemical structures and mechanisms
ChemDraw – unfortunately this programme
is not available as a free download however
many universities have it available on their
computer systems for students to use. Ask
your supervisor for their advice as to which
programme they suggest.

Another aspect to consider is whether to RASMOL http://www.umass.edu/

use colour or to restrict yourself to black and microbio/rasmol/
white. Colour diagrams look great and are Particularly useful for proteins and
often helpful when trying to identify different macromolecules, this program enables you to
atoms within a molecule, especially when visualise your structures and rotate them on-
displaying crystal structures. However, if you screen to see macromolecular structure and
are submitting paper copies you need to bear its relation to function
in mind printing facilities and costs.
Mansfield, Natalie. Your Chemical Science Thesis : An introductory guide to writing up your research project, Royal
Society of Chemistry, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/leicester/detail.action?docID=1186228.
Created from leicester on 2020-03-02 05:18:45.