A thesis is the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge.

1. Thesis • A thesis is the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge. • In order to demonstrate this, the author must demonstrate that they understand what the relevant state of the art is and what the strengths and weaknesses of the SoA are. • For someone's work to be knowledge there must be a demonstration that suitable and systematic methods were used to evaluate the chosen hypothesis. • It is important that "new" is not just new to the researcher, but also new to the community. • Novelty/originality/new understanding/marshalling existing ideas in ways that provide new insights is what it is all about.

2. A PhD Thesis • Must Contain: • Knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the field. • This will show motivation, relevance to X, Y, & Z, who is doing what, why & how. • Critical analysis of related work. • Person X is doing Y, this is important because ..., this doesn't address these points ... Need to link the failings of related work to your own work. • Importance (relevance) of own work. • State contributions, is this an incremental improvement on the state of the art, an evolution on existing work, & why. Beware of appearing to be too original, don't appear to have missed or ignored existing work.

3. A PhD Thesis is Not • Not "a diary of work done" • In order to be awarded a PhD you must be able to present your work so that it is accessible to others and so that it demonstrates your mastery of a given subject. Although PhD theses may differ widely, you certainly won't be awarded a PhD just for doing three year's work and you won't be awarded a PhD for "a diary of work done". • A common attitude is "well, I've done my PhD, now all I've got to do is write it up". Beware! The thesis IS the PhD - it doesn't really matter how great your research has been during the three/four years - all that really matters is the thesis. • Not "a collection of papers". At VIT this need not be an acceptable PhD thesis (some other universities allow this as a PhD route, e.g. for staff, but the required standard is very high). At VIT your thesis must have a THEME. It is similar to writing a book. You can however take a collection of papers and turn it into the core of a PhD. • Not "a big final year project". Though some final year projects are excellent, most do not contain sufficient critical analysis or scientific method.

4. A PhD Thesis is Not • Not "a lone journey". • It is important to have other people involved, if for nothing else then for proof-reading. • You need to have an ‘experienced’ supervisor who can tell you when to stop! (this is often the biggest problem faced by students). • As the person doing the PhD, you are too involved and therefore you have the worst judgement on what is good or bad - you must get external advice. • Also remember that a thesis should be designed for the benefit of the reader, not the writer! • So get lots of people to read your thesis and tell you what parts they could not understand.

5. Typical PhD Thesis Layout • Abstract • 1. Introduction • Set the scene and problem statement. Introduce structure of thesis, state contributions. • 2. Background • Demonstrate wider appreciation (context). Provide motivation. The problem statement and the motivation state how you want the PhD to be judged - as engineering, scientific method, theory, philosophy, & why. Related Work - Survey and critical assessment. Relation to own work. 3-5. Analysis, design, implementation and interpretation of results • Critical assessment of own work • State hypothesis, and demonstrate precision, thoroughness, contribution, and comparison with closest rival. 6. Summary and Conclusions • Appendices • References

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