HOW TO: write the thesis / dissertation

Almost irrespective of what a postgraduate research student actually does, he/she is judged on the quality of the PhD or MPhil thesis/dissertation. It is therefore crucial to be able to round it off within the time available and make it of a standard that shows the work in the best possible light. This page offers suggestions, advice, tips and general help, in particular on creating a unified body of material and making the writing process more effective and efficient.

Chapters of a thesis should link together to make a unified whole with one or more storylines that lead inexorably to make the case or cases for which the thesis is arguing. It is always worth wording the headings of chapters and sections so that they convey as comprehensively as possible what is in them. Then it is helpful to keep an up-to-date contents list, as you work, to be able to see a developing storyline at a glance. It is here that any lack of coherence is likely to show up first. So the technique can save hours of writing that later have to be discarded.

It should be clear from a chapter’s introduction where that chapter fits into the rest of the storyline, i.e. where it carries on from previous chapters of the thesis. A good technique to accomplish this is to write a few keywords or notes under each of the following headings:

• Setting the scene for the chapter, i.e. the general area(s) that the chapter considers.
• The gap in knowledge or understanding which the chapter addresses – usually as identified as an issue in (an) earlier chapter(s).
• How the chapter fills the gap.
• A brief overview of what is in the chapter.

Then edit the notes together to form the introduction to the chapter.

The concluding section or paragraph of a chapter (except of course for the final chapter) should show how the theme of the chapter is carried on elsewhere in the storyline/thesis. The technique for doing this consists of writing a few keywords or some notes under each of the following headings:

• What the chapter has done
• What new questions the chapter has identified
• Where these questions are dealt with.

Then edit the notes together.

It is not usually productive to try to write the chapters of a thesis in sequence. Start with a chapter or several chapters that are currently fascinating you or that you have already come to grips with in your mind. Then develop them in whatever way is easiest for you, be it text on a computer, or scribble on blank sheets of paper, or as a ‘mind map’. The emphasis should be on producing a coherent structure, rather than on grammar or style. When you come to do the actual composition, it is most straightforward to do your own typing and then put it on one side for a time so that you can come back and edit it with a fresh perspective.

Ask your supervisors at what stage they would like to see the drafts. A common procedure is for students to write a chapter of a thesis, submit it to a supervisor and then rewrite to accommodate comments, but it is a mistake then to believe that the revised chapter is completely finished, never to need further modification. The ‘storyline’ of an entire thesis can never be clear from a single chapter. The full thesis is required, at least in draft. No supervisor will finally ‘approve’ a chapter in isolation. The scene-setting chapters are most likely to remain unchanged, but the analytical and interpretative ones depend too much on one another. The word ‘approve’ is in inverted commas, because it is the student’s not the supervisor’s formal responsibility to decide when a thesis (or chapter0 is ready for submission.

Updating drafts is so easy on a word processor that some students produce them copiously. So negotiate with your supervisor how many drafts he or she is prepared to comment on and in what detail. Most supervisors have to set some limits.

Your and your principal supervisor will have been very close indeed to your work for a considerable time. You, in particular, will know it inside out and back to front. So the links between its components may be entirely obvious to you both, while not being particularly clear to those who have met your work recently. It is important to minimize misunderstandings and to find out as early as possible where clarification is necessary. Giving departmental seminars will have helped, as will giving conference presentations and writing journal articles. If you have not done any of these recently, then try to find someone new to your work, who will listen to you explaining it or, ideally, will read the draft thesis and say where they have trouble following your arguments.

You must work through the final draft of the thesis in an editorial mode. Finalizing a thesis is always much more time-consuming than expected. The style must be academic; the text must be written to make a case; chapters have to be linked into a storyline; cross-references and ‘pointers’ need to be inserted to keep the reader orientated to what is where and why; there should be no typing or stylistic errors; and tables, figures and references should be complete, accurate and presented in whatever format has been agreed with the supervisor. Pay particular attention to the abstract, contents list, beginning and ends of chapters and the final chapter, as it is these which examiners tend to study first, and it is on these that they may form their impressions – and first impressions count. There may be departmental or institutional guidelines on maximum length.

Throughout the writing and editing process, be meticulous about keeping backups.

Most students choose to prepare the final versions of their theses themselves, although professional copy editors and typists can support to varying extents. If you need help, make enquiries well in advance of your deadline, because such individuals inevitably find that certain times of the year are busier than others. The departmental secretary or the students’ union should be able to make recommendations.

Although most students underestimate the time that a thesis takes, it is also worth pointing out that many students spend longer on it than necessary, either trying to bulk up the quantity or toying with unnecessary stylistic refinements.

More on this site for research students

Interacting with supervisors | Developing the research proposal | Getting into a productive routine | Writing research reports | Handling plagiarism | Transferable skills and 'Personal Development Planning' (PDP) | Succeeding as an 'overseas'/'international' student | Originality in research | Producing the thesis/dissertation | Handling the oral examination/viva | .... and more still ...