Writing a Dissertation

1. Writing a Dissertation Dr. Lorna Uden FCET Staffordshire University L.uden@staffs.ac.uk

2. Why do you need to write a dissertation? • To document work you have done, so that others might benefit from it, use it and cite it. • As part of course requirements. • To demonstrate your ability to put the coursework into practice. • To establish a claim for originality. Not necessarily the only reasons, but a fairly good set of explanations as to why a dissertation is normally required in degrees.

3. The General Idea: • A thesis is a hypothesis or conjecture. • A PhD dissertation is a lengthy, formal document that argues in defense of a particular thesis. • The dissertation must be “original” and “substantial.” • A dissertation highlights original contributions. • The scientific method means starting with a hypothesis and then collecting evidence to support or deny it. • Before one can write a dissertation defending a particular thesis, one must collect evidence that supports it. • The most difficult aspect of writing a dissertation consists of organizing the evidence and associated discussions into a coherent form.

4. The essence of a dissertation is critical thinking, not experimental data. Analysis and concepts form the heart of the work. • A dissertation concentrates on principles: it states the lessons learned, and not merely the facts behind them. • In general, every statement in a dissertation must be supported either by a reference to published scientific literature or by original work.

5. A dissertation does not repeat the details of critical thinking and analysis found in published sources; it uses the results as fact and refers the reader to the source for further details. • Each sentence in a dissertation must be complete and correct in a grammatical sense. • Each statement in a dissertation must be correct and defensible in a logical and scientific sense. • Moreover, the discussions in a dissertation must satisfy the most stringent rules of logic applied to mathematics and science.

6. Hints for Success a) Ideas for the Introduction • a clear statement of your subject • an explanation of why the research is worthwhile • an outline of methods used • an indication of the limitations of the study • a summary of the chapters to follow b) Ideas for the Chapters • each one should answer a major question • each chapter should contain lots of answers to smaller questions • use sub-headings to guide your reader • develop points carefully, step by step • each chapter should make sense if it were to be read on its own • give chapters introductions and conclusions as well

7. c) Appendices • are designed to let you include material which could not be fitted easily into any chapter. • a large document would look awkward in the middle of a chapter, so it should be included as an appendix. • important material referred to in more than one chapter should go in as an appendix. • check with your supervisor that appendixes are acceptable, and discuss the material you wish to include in them. Also check on whether material included in your appendixes counts towards the wordage for the dissertation. d) Bibliography • set out all sources used - printed or otherwise, • everything referred to in the text must be cited in the bibliography. • use the appropriate referencing system as advised by your supervisor or module leader.

8. What might we be seeking to convey to the reader ? • An understanding of why the work/project done is worthwhile and useful. • That our own work was performed competently. • Awareness of any related work performed elsewhere (and how it relates to our own work). • An appraisal of the significance and degree of success/relevance of our own work. • Ideas for future work.

9. Keep the reader’s attention Will be aided by a good logical structure, including the use of • lists • diagrams • headings • emphasis

10. ...but... ...beware of: • using too many typefaces/fonts • overuse of emphasis • excess clutter (redundant figures, over-detailed sub-headings, too many bullets) • using citations as a means of avoiding explaining something

11. Logical structure Technical content Technical document Presentation style Assumptions (context) Components of a document

12. Contents of a document • Logical structure: determines how the document is organised and partitioned. This is fairly independent of content. • Technical content: determined locally and specific to a given project. • Presentation style: individual, but needs to consider some rules. • Assumptions (context): determined by the intended audience/readership, their expected level of knowledge and familiarity with each aspect.

13. Logical structure: an example 1. Preamble 2. Introduction 3. Background 4. Literature Review 5. Solution 6. Results 7. Project Management 8. Conclusion 9. Bibliography/References 10. Appendices/Glossary

14. 1. Preamble Likely to include • Abstract. • Acknowledgements (optional). • Table of content. • List of figures and tables.

15. 2. Introduction • Short and to the point • Gives summary of: • why the work was done. • major features of the problem and solution. • any significant aspects of the solution that the reader might need to anticipate when reading the rest. • the structure of the rest of the document.

16. What is the topic and why is it important? • State the problem(s) as simply as you can. • How does it fit into the broader world of your discipline? • The introduction should be interesting. • This section might go through several drafts to make it read well and logically, while keeping it short. • Your introduction should tell where the thesis is going, and this may become clearer during the writing.

17. 3. Background • Elements may involve • Historical aspect (previous work in the area). • Technical features (specific aspects of the problem that make it of interest). • Specific techniques that the reader needs to be reminded of (have explained to them) in order to understand the solution. • Also has the effect of identifying the level of understanding expected of the reader.

18. 4. Literature Review • An examination of existing work related to your topic area • To include aspects of • Theory • Practice • Experience • MUST BE PROPERLY REFERENCED (see later) • Up to date references preferred

19. The literature review should ask: • Where did the problem come from? • What is already known about this problem? • What other methods have been tried to solve it?

20. 5. Solution your bit! (needs to be structured)

21. 6. Results • Main purpose is to capture information about • what happened • what was learned from this • This should be presented in as objective a form as possible, which might include a degree of analysis (this might be the topic of another section)

22. 7. Project Management • You need to describe how you managed your project. • Did the original plan need to be altered? If so, • Why did you need to alter it? • How did it affect the progress of your project? • Provide a final project plan.

23. 8. Conclusion • Keep it brief. • Provide a structure. • Look back. • Be analytical. • Draw conclusions. • Suggest further work/consequences.

24. 9. Bibliography/references • Bibliography sections are mainly suited to • books • review articles • but may be appropriate where the project involves a large degree of surveying of a field. • A reference section should always be included, and used to support your arguments by means of citation (see later).

25. ...citations • Two questions: • when? • how? • When involves the decision about whether we should acknowledge the source(s) of ideas, and how often this should be repeated. • How is a question of labelling. • Journals use different styles • YOU MUST USE Harvard Style.

26. Harvard referencing style The University standard: • Labelling by author name and year (Uden, 1995). • The References section of the dissertation will be in alphabetic order (not the order introduced in the text). See http://www.staffs.ac.uk/services/library_and_info/geninfo.htm

27. 10. Appendices/glossary • Any material that is so voluminous or detailed that it will change the level of abstraction within a section, or is likely to overwhelm the reader, should go in an appendix. • When in doubt, provide a summary in the section and provide an appendix. • Use of a glossary maybe helpful where the topic involves specialist use of language, especially where this comes from the application area.

28. Technical content A few points to remember: • Try to have one key message (usually the goal of the project) and concentrate on this. • Don’t obscure this message, present it so that it cannot be misunderstood. • Don’t try to say too much, especially about related areas that are not directly relevant.

29. Presentation style Relevant factors might include: • Sentence length. • Sentence structures. • Vocabulary. • Use of headings and subheadings to help the reader to navigate through the work. • Use of citations.

30. Assumptions Remember, it is unlikely that the readers will be as familiar with the detailed material as you are, So: • spell out those things that are important for understanding the problem and your solution. • where you refer to some item of ‘standard’ knowledge, a brief summary as a reminder might be helpful, but not a tutorial!

31. How to do it... • Have a plan that describes the structure of the dissertation (sections, subsections), and a list of the topics to be covered in each one. • Be prepared to modify the plan! • Don’t feel it necessary to begin writing at the first section, order of development is personal. • Make notes as you write, especially where you realise that something will need to be covered in another section, or that an item is missing, or...

32. What to do it with... • Really a matter of personal taste and of availability • Text formatters allow you to manage the document’s logical structure, but are less visual • Word processors allow you to see what the finished document will look like, but it is easy to get diverted into typesetting niceties as an alternative to thinking about content!

33. To Summarise (A suggested thesis structurefrom Joe Wolfe) • Title page • This may vary among institutions, but as an example: Title/author/ "A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology/at Staffordshire University " /date.

34. Abstract • Of all your thesis, this part will be the most widely published and most read because it will be published in Dissertation Abstracts International. • It is best written towards the end, but not at the very last minute because you will probably need several drafts. • It should be a distillation of the thesis: a concise description of the problem(s) addressed, your method of solving it/them, your results and conclusions. • An abstract must be self-contained. • Usually they do not contain references. When a reference is necessary, its details should be included in the text of the abstract. • Check the word limit.

35. Acknowledgments • Most thesis authors put in a page of thanks to those who have helped them in matters scientific, and also indirectly by providing such essentials as food, education, genes, money, help, advice, friendship etc. If any of your work is collaborative, you should make it quite clear who did which sections. • Table of contents • The introduction starts on page 1, the earlier pages should have roman numerals. It helps to have the subheadings of each chapter, as well as the chapter titles. Remember that the thesis may be used as a reference in the lab, so it helps to be able to find things easily.

36. The First Chapter should give: • The general background of your work, • A review of the work done by other people, • The objective of your own work, • The reasons why your work is interesting and useful.

37. The Middle Chapters should give detailed information about your work so that other people could repeat what you have done, or could do further work starting where your work finished. In these chapters you should: • Explain the theory, • Describe exactly how you did the work, • Give the results you obtained.

38. In some theses, the middle chapters are the journal articles of which the student was major author. • The exact structure in the middle chapters will vary among theses. • In some theses, it is necessary to establish some theory, to describe the experimental techniques, then to report what was done on several different problems or different stages of the problem, and then finally to present a model or a new theory based on the new work.

39. For such a thesis, the chapter headings might be: Theory, Materials and Methods, {first problem}, {second problem}, {third problem}, {proposed theory/model} and then the conclusion chapter. • For other theses, it might be appropriate to discuss different techniques in different chapters, rather than to have a single Materials and Methods chapter.

40. Materials and Methods vary enormously from thesis to thesis, and may be absent in theoretical theses. It should be possible for a competent researcher to reproduce exactly what you have done by following your description. There is a good chance that this test will be applied: sometime after you have left, another researcher will want to do a similar experiment either with your gear, or on a new set-up in a foreign country. Please write for the benefit of that researcher. In some theses, particularly multi-disciplinary or developmental ones, there may be more than one such chapter. In this case, the different disciplines should be indicated in the chapter titles.

41. Theory • When you are reporting theoretical work that is not original, you will usually need to include sufficient material to allow the reader to understand the arguments used and their physical bases. Sometimes you will be able to present the theory ab initio, but you should not reproduce two pages of algebra that the reader could find in a standard text. Do not include theory that you are not going to relate to the work you have done. When writing this section, concentrate at least as much on the physical arguments as on the equations. What do the equations mean? What are the important cases?

42. When you are reporting your own theoretical work, you must include rather more detail, but you should consider moving lengthy derivations to appendices. Think too about the order and style of presentation: the order in which you did the work may not be the clearest presentation. • Suspense is not necessary in reporting science: you should tell the reader where you are going before you start.

43. The Last Chapter should: • State the conclusions you have drawn from your work. • Compare your conclusions with the opinions of other people (Are your conclusions the same or different?). • Suggest what new work should be done to answer questions raised by your work and extend our knowledge further.

44. What to avoid • Excessive description. The dissertation should offer an analytical treatment of the subject under investigation. This is probably the most common weakness cited by examiners. • Poor definition of the question. One of the biggest differences between a dissertation and an essay or exam is that it is up to you to define the research question you wish to answer. Often, this is the most difficult task of all. It is also one of the most important. A fuzzy question often results in a weak overall structure, since the structure of the dissertation should be designed so that each section contributes to the argument you are making in response to the question.

45. Poor integration of theoretical and empirical material. This is probably the second most common weakness. Many dissertations contain theoretical discussions that are meant to inform the analysis of the material under study but that are never rigorously and clearly applied to it. All too often, the theoretical section simply stands isolated from the rest of the text - a summary of some political science theory that is never referred to again in the dissertation. Its inclusion reflects an awareness that it is somehow relevant but it is never brought to bear on the case or cases under discussion.

46. Final thoughts... • Have a plan. • Produce a draft outline before writing any sections. • Be prepared to: • modify the plan; • reorganise the outline; • rewrite each and every section; • scrap what you have written for a section and start again!