IADSR International Conference

2012
Post Conference Workshop
Lahore, Pakistan
30 April 2012
 All About Writing
Theses and Dissertations
Barbara Gastel, MD, MPH
AuthorAID at INASP
(www.authoraid.info)
and Texas A&M University
 A Note on Terminology
• At least in some places in the United States:
– Strictly speaking, a thesis is for a master’s degree
and a dissertation is for a doctoral degree.
– Often, however, the terms are used interchangeably.
• In this workshop, thesis often will be used to
mean both thesis and dissertation.
• In general, a thesis and dissertation are similar
but a dissertation is based on more extensive
research and is longer.
 Another Note on Terminology
• “Doing a thesis” generally means both
– doing the research for a thesis
– writing and revising the thesis
• “Writing a thesis” generally refers to only
the writing and revising.
 Overview
• Reasons to do a thesis
• Constituting your advisory committee
• Choosing your topic
• Preparing a thesis proposal
• Writing and revising a thesis
• Defending a thesis
• Preparing publications based on a thesis
 Along the Way
• Open discussion
• Small-group work
 Note
• Requirements for theses and dissertations
often vary among universities or even
within the same university.
• I will present a general view, based mainly
on my experience in the United States.
• Please adapt what is said to suit your
situation.
 Preliminary Questions
• Experience
– Have you written a thesis or dissertation?
– Are you writing a thesis or dissertation?
– Have you supervised a thesis or dissertation?
• Materials—did you bring any of these?
– Guidelines
– Proposals
– Drafts
– Other
Now let’s get started!
Reasons to Do a Thesis
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, come up with a list of
reasons to do a thesis.
• If possible, list some reasons not to do a
thesis, at least at present.
• Be ready to present items from the lists.
 Some Reasons to Do a Thesis
• To gain an advanced academic degree (for
career advancement, prestige, or other reasons)
• To develop skill in doing research
• To see whether one likes doing research
• To develop skill in writing about research
• To become versed in the literature in one’s field
• To become a more informed user of research
• Other
 Some Reasons Not to Do a
Thesis (at least now)
• Interest mainly in areas other than
research
• Lack of aptitude for research
• Higher-priority uses of time
• Unavailability of suitable degree programs
• Unavailability of suitable guidance
• Other
Constituting Your Advisory
Committee
 Advisory Committee for a
Graduate Student
• Typically consists of a few faculty members
(professors) in the student’s area of study and
related areas
• Has a chair, who serves as the student’s main
advisor
• Functions include
– Evaluating plans for the thesis research
– Guiding the student
– Evaluating the thesis and conducting the defense
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, consider the following
scenario: “A graduate student is at a
university where students suggest faculty
members to serve on their advisory
committees. What advice do you have on
deciding whom to invite?”
• Be ready to present your advice.
 Constituting Your Committee:
Some Tips
• Choose a chair
– Whom you know and respect
– Who is doing research related to what you
want to do
– Who has the knowledge to guide you
– Who will have enough time to guide you
– Who seems to like working with students
– Who is a good role model
– Other
 Tips (cont)
• Before approaching other potential
committee members, consult the chair.
– Request suggestions of possible members.
– Request feedback on potential members
you’re thinking of.
• Try to include members who can advise
you on different aspects of your thesis
work (for example, study design, data
analysis, writing).
 Tips (cont)
• Try to avoid including members who have
conflicts with each other.
• Throughout the thesis process, stay in
touch regularly with your committee
members.
• Other
Choosing Your Topic
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, discuss the following:
What are the characteristics of a good
thesis topic?
• Come up with a list, and be ready to share
items from it with the full group.
Some Characteristics of a Good
Thesis Topic
• Greatly interests the person doing the thesis
– Otherwise, too hard to stay motivated
– One should be truly enthusiastic about the topic
• Is of interest and importance to others in the field
• Is likely to result in publishable work
• Is large enough to be meaningful
• Is small enough to be doable
• Other
 Preliminaries
• Before proposing a thesis topic, review the
literature relating to it.
• Doing so can help you to
– Identify unanswered research questions
– See methods used
– Otherwise develop context for your research
 Refining Thesis Topics
• Often the topics first proposed are too big.
• Don’t worry if it takes a lot of work to refine your
thesis topic. That’s common, and the time spent
refining a thesis topic is a good investment.
• Work with your advisory committee, and
especially your chair, to refine your thesis topic.
• In particular, come up with good research
questions—for they are the foundation for a
good thesis.
Preparing a Thesis Proposal
 Thesis Proposal
• Says, and justifies, what you want to do as
your thesis research
• Requirements vary
• Commonly
– Provides context via a literature review
– States the research questions or hypotheses
– Proposes methods
– Includes a reference list
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, list reasons that
preparing a thesis proposal before doing
the thesis research is worthwhile.
• If anyone in the group has brought a thesis
proposal, see what types of content it
includes. Note strengths, and identify
improvements to consider.
• Be ready to report to the full group.
 Benefits of Writing a Thesis
Proposal
• Helps ensure that the research is planned
thoroughly
• Allows feedback before doing the research
• Helps ensure that committee members
have consistent expectations
• Serves as a first step in drafting the thesis
• Provides practice in writing proposals
• Other
 Proposal: A Piece of
Persuasive Writing
• Your thesis proposal should persuade
your committee that
– Your topic is good.
– Your methods are suitable.
– You are prepared to embark on the research.
• Therefore the proposal should not only
state but also justify. For example, it
should state reasons for aspects of the
research design.
Doing the Research

(selected aspects)
 Doing the Research:
Selected Aspects
• Stay in close touch with your committee.
– Perhaps meet regularly with your chair and
periodically with the committee as a whole.
– Avoid the temptation to avoid your committee
if the research is going badly. Instead, seek
the committee’s advice.
– If changes in your research plan seem
necessary, consult your committee.
 Doing the Research (cont)
• While doing the research:
– Write down ideas that occur to you for items
to say in the thesis.
– Start drafting the parts for which you already
have the information (for example, literature
review, methods).
Writing and Revising a Thesis
 Mini Exercise:
Writing the Thesis
• If group members brought instructions for
doing theses, note some topics that the
instructions address. Perhaps note some
details of interest.
• If anyone brought a thesis or draft of a
thesis (or can access one electronically),
note parts of the thesis.
• Be ready to present observations to the
full group.
 Typical Structure of a Thesis
• Front matter—for example:
– Title page
– Abstract
– Table of contents
• Core: chapters [see next slides]
• Back matter—for example:
– References
– Appendixes
 The Core of a Traditional Thesis:
An Example of a Structure
• Introduction
– (The introduction may incorporate the
literature review, or there may be a separate
literature-review section.)
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
– (The discussion may incorporate conclusions,
or there may be a conclusions section too.)
This traditional structure resembles
the IMRAD structure for scientific
papers. However, the sections are
longer and more detailed.

If desired, later we can say more

about the content and crafting of
the sections.
The Core of a “Multi-Article Thesis”:
An Example of a Structure
• General introductory material
– Provides background for the set of articles
– Helps show how the articles fit together
• Published or accepted journal articles
based on the thesis research
• General concluding material
– Helps unify the thesis research
– Helps show how it relates to the bigger picture
The Thesis-Writing Process
 Establishing the Mindset
• Don’t view writing a thesis as a hurdle to
overcome. Rather, view it as preparation
for writing throughout your career.
• Include on your committee (or have as a
mentor) a faculty member with particular
skill, interest, and success in writing.
• Realize that people reading your thesis
want you to do well.
 Establishing the Mindset (cont)
• See structuring your thesis as a problem
with various reasonable solutions.
• Likewise, see organizing or wording the
parts as problems with various reasonable
solutions.
• Remember that you are writing to
communicate, not to impress.
 Preparing to Write
• Find and analyze some good theses in
your field. Use them as models.
– Tip: Ask your committee chair to note some.
• Obtain relevant instructions, and extract
key points from them. Examples:
– The thesis instructions at your university
– The instructions to authors if you are writing in
the style of a specific journal
– An appropriate style manual
 Preparing to Write (cont)
• When ideas occur to you while gathering
information, put them in files
corresponding to sections of your thesis.
• Do lots of “pre-writing”. For example,
gather all the information for a given
section, and organize it carefully.
• Realize that sometimes things need to
“percolate” for a while before you are
ready to write.
 Drafting the Thesis
• Make writing a part of your schedule or
routine.
• Break the task into manageable parts.
– Writing a 100-page thesis may seem
daunting.
– But writing a 2-page section probably seems
feasible.
• As noted, start drafting parts of your thesis
while still gathering data.
 Drafting the Thesis (cont)
• Consider starting with whatever part you
find easiest.
• Rather than getting bogged down
searching for small details, leave blanks
and fill them in later.
• If you need to stop, perhaps do so within a
passage rather than at a “logical stopping
place”; that way, you’ll have more
momentum when you return.
 Drafting the Thesis: A Note
• For drafting some parts of the thesis, you
may be able to use parts of your thesis
proposal as starting points.
• However, remember to make necessary
changes.
• For example, whereas the methods
section of a proposal is in future tense, the
methods section of a thesis should be in
past tense.
 Revising the Thesis
• Remember: You don’t have to be an
excellent writer. You just have to be a
competent rewriter.
• Realize that revising is an integral part of
doing a thesis.
– To achieve its potential, a thesis generally
needs several rounds of revision.
– Doing the revisions is part of the learning
process.
 Revising the Thesis (cont)
• In revising, strive to make your writing
– Clear
– Correct
– Concise
– Consistent
• Show drafts to several people, including your
committee members. Then revise some more.
• But don’t revise forever. No piece of writing is
perfect. Be satisfied with mere excellence.
 A Note on Thesis Format
• Increasingly, universities are allowing or
requiring theses to be in electronic format
(for example, as PDF files).
• Often, electronic theses can contain items
difficult or impossible to include in paper
theses—for example
– Color illustrations
– Video clips
– Sound recordings
Defending a Thesis
 Thesis Defense
• Thesis defense: an oral presentation on the
thesis research, followed by questions and
answers
• The questions commonly regard the thesis work
and more generally the student’s graduate work.
• Sometimes the presentation and initial
discussion are open to all interested.
• The final questioning commonly is open only to
the student’s committee.
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, identify and list some
purposes of having a thesis defense.
• Be ready to present to the full group some
items on the list.
 Some Functions of a Defense
• To show that the student can give a good
academic presentation, as would be expected of
someone with an advanced degree
• To give the student practice in presenting
• To probe the student’s depth of understanding
• To help consolidate the student’s graduate
learning
• To help bring the thesis process to closure
• Other
What advice do you have for
preparing for and undergoing
a thesis defense?
Some Tips on Preparing for and
Undergoing a Defense
• Follow guidelines for preparing and giving
presentations. (See earlier workshop.)
• Review material from throughout your graduate
studies. Think about how it fits together and
how it relates to your thesis and future goals.
• Know that you might not be expected to answer
all the questions well. Sometimes committee
members keep probing to see the depth of your
knowledge.
• After a successful defense, celebrate!
Preparing Publications Based
on a Thesis
 A Note on Wording
• One does not “publish a thesis” or “publish
a dissertation”.
• Rather, one publishes one or more articles
(or, in some fields, a book) based on the
research for a thesis or dissertation.
• As noted, sometimes a set of articles
based on the research can serve as the
core of a thesis or dissertation.
 Mini Exercise
• In your small group, compare and contrast
– The purpose(s) of a thesis
– The purpose(s) of a journal article based on
thesis research
• Note some implications for writing a
journal article based on thesis research.
• Be ready to present some of your points to
the full group.
 A Comparison
Thesis Journal Article
• Intended in part to show • Intended mainly to
that the student present findings that are
– Has obtained a thorough new and interesting to
knowledge of the field readers
– Has done a thorough job of • Thus, should focus on
research and analysis
what’s new
• Therefore contains a lot
• Therefore much shorter
of detail, including items
and more focused than a
that are new to the
thesis
student but not new to
readers
 From Thesis to Publication:
Some Tips
• Realize that thesis material is likely to
need considerable reworking to be
publishable.
• Promptly write one or more papers based
on your thesis research. The longer you
wait, the harder it generally is—and the
less timely the paper(s) will be.
• Consider first presenting your paper at a
conference if you haven’t yet done so.
 Tips (cont)
• Seek publication in journals that publish
lots of good work in your field.
– From doing the literature review for your
thesis, you should know these journals.
• Obtain and follow instructions to authors.
• Make good use of peer reviewers’ and
editors’ suggestions.
 Tips (cont)
• Know that everyone’s work sometimes is
rejected. If one journal doesn’t accept
your paper, try another.
• In doing future research, and in writing
future papers, apply what you learned in
doing and publishing your thesis research.
Note: For more about writing
journal articles, see
tomorrow’s workshop.
General Discussion
Closing Items
Thank you!