If you stick to these simple rules, your writing will be clear and jargon-free. Above all, take to heart Orwell’s advice: “Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.” Ingrid Curl is associate editor of Times Higher Education. and a former PhD student. 4. Fill the bibliography with references to blogs software management project, online journalism and textbooks 2. Use phrases such as “some academics” or “all the literature” without mitigating statements or references If examiners find ten errors, then students are required to perform minor corrections. If there are 20 anomalies comparison essay write, the doctorate will need major corrections. Any referencing issues over that number and examiners question the students’ academic abilities. I make my postgraduates pay for such statements. If they offer a generalisation such as “scholars of the online environment argue that democracy follows participation”, I demand that they find at least 30 separate references to verify their claim. They soon stop making generalisations. A quick way to move from a good doctoral thesis to one requiring major corrections is to write a short introduction and/or conclusion. It is frustrating for examiners. We are poised to tick the minor corrections box, and then we turn to a one- or two-page conclusion. Concurrently, I have been shepherding three of my PhD students through the final two months to submission. These concluding weeks are an emotional cocktail of exhaustion, frustration, fright and exhilaration. Supervisors correct errors we thought had been removed a year ago. The paragraph that seemed good enough in the first draft now seems to drag down a chapter. My postgraduates cannot understand why I am so picky. They want to submit and move on with the rest of their lives. 7. Leave spelling mistakes in the script Invariably, the answer to this question – often after much stuttering and stammering – is that the candidate had not read the analysis. I leave the question hanging at that point. We could get into why they have not read it, or the consequences of leaving out key theorists. But one moment of glimpsing into the abyss of failure is enough to summon doubt that their “originality” is original. Invariably there is a link between a thin bibliography and a high number of generalisations. If a student has not read widely, then the scholars they have referenced become far more important and representative than they actually are. I asked one of these postgraduates in their oral examination to offer a defence of their informal writing style, hoping that the student would pull out a passable justification through the “Aca-Fan”, disintermediation, participatory culture or organic intellectual arguments. Instead, the student replied: “I am proud of how the thesis is written. It is important to write how we speak.” Finally, we located a clear section in one chapter that was original. He signalled it in the abstract. He highlighted it in the introduction. He stressed the importance of this insight in the chapter itself and restated it in the conclusion. Needless to say, every examiner noted the original contribution to knowledge that had been highlighted for them, based on a careful and methodical understanding of the field. He passed without corrections. The key is to make it easy for examiners. In the second sentence of the abstract funny things to write an essay about, ensure that an original contribution is nailed to the page. Then we can relax and look for the scaffolding and verification of this statement. Again, this is another new problem I have seen in the past couple of years. Lazy students resume writing services india review, who may be more kindly described as “inexperienced researchers”, state that they have invented the wheel because they have not looked under their car to see the rolling objects under it. After minimal reading, it is easy to find original contributions to knowledge in every idea that emerges from the jarring effect of a bitter espresso. There is a reason why supervisors are pedantic. If we are not, the postgraduates will live with the consequences of “major corrections” for months. The other alternative, besides being awarded the consolation prize of an MPhil, is managing the regret of three wasted years if a doctorate fails. Every correction, each typographical error, all inaccuracies, ambiguities or erroneous references that we find and remove in these crucial final weeks may swing an examiner from major to minor corrections, or from a full re-examination to a rethink of one chapter. #4 Submitted by Ken.charman_260628 on January 21, 2016 - 6:50am Being a PhD supervisor is stressful. It is a privilege but it is frightening. We know – and individual postgraduates do not – that strange comments are offered in response to even the best theses. Yes, an examiner graded a magnificent doctorate from one of my postgraduates as “minor corrections” for one typographical error in footnote 104 in the fifth chapter of an otherwise cleanly drafted 100,000 words. It was submitted ten years ago and I still remember it with regret. 1. Submit an incomplete, poorly formatted bibliography Spelling errors among my own PhD students leave me seething. I correct spelling errors. They appear in the next draft. I correct spelling errors. They appear in the next draft. The night before they bind their theses, I stare at the ceiling, summoning the doctoral gods and praying that they have removed the spelling errors. The best PhDs are small. They investigate a circumscribed area, rather than over-egging the originality or expertise. The most satisfying theses – and they are rare – emerge when students find small gaps in saturated research areas and offer innovative interpretations or new applications of old ideas. The number of students who fling names around as if they are fashion labels (“Dior”, “Derrida”, “Givenchy”, “Gramsci”) is becoming a problem. I also feel sorry for the students who are attempting a deep engagement with these theorists. Then there are the “let’s talk about something important – let’s talk about me” examiners. Their first task is to look for themselves in the bibliography, and they are not too interested in the research if there is no reference to their early sorties with Louis Althusser in Economy and Society from the 1970s. The way to relax an examiner is to feature a sentence in the first paragraph of a PhD abstract that begins: “My original contribution to knowledge is…” If students cannot compress their argument and research findings into a single statement, then it can signify flabbiness in their method essay on economy, theory or structure. It is an awful moment for examiners when they – desperately – try to find an original contribution to knowledge through a shapeless methods chapter or loose literature review. If examiners cannot pinpoint the original contribution, they have no choice but to award the script an MPhil. Postgraduates entering a doctoral programme to make a film or create a sonic installation subject themselves to a time-consuming and difficult process. If the student neglects the exegesis until the end of the candidature and constructs a rushed document about “how” rather than “why” it was made, there will be problems. Cut the Materials and Methods section as necessary to avoid repetition with other chapters. Again, you'll probably want to paste some of the Materials and Methods text into the relevant sections in your thesis. Although it comes first, the introduction will probably be the last chapter you write. The introduction is where you need to place your work in a broader context, explaining why the research is relevant to the scientific community and (assuming it is) to society. Don’t reinvent the wheel: Transform your published articles into thesis chapters. Find a quiet place to write where you will be free from distractions. The lab is usually not a good place to write a thesis. Work from home or in a quiet place like the library. Most importantly, while writing your thesis, be sure to take care of yourself. Eat well, exercise buy research paper cheap, and get plenty of sleep so you're at your best when you sit down every day to write. This is the home stretch of your Ph.D. and you want to make sure you cross the finish line energized and ready for the next step. After you've transformed your published articles into chapters, you will have to write new material for the remaining chapters. When you first start writing, it helps to begin with an easy section. This will give you confidence and get you into the writing habit. Because the methodology chapter is relatively straightforward, you might want to start with that one. If you've already written several methodology sections for your peer-reviewed articles, it won't take much time to prepare a first draft for your thesis. Now that you have worked your way through the initial chapters and have written most of your thesis, it is time to tackle writing up your final project. You probably haven't written an article on this research yet, so you'll need to decide whether to write the article first and then transform it into a chapter or do it the other way around. Don’t save data analysis to the very last minute. Plan ahead. We suggest you do two things to help make this a reality. First, put the manuscript aside for a short while after you've written the first draft. Once you've gained some distance from the material, read it over again with a sharp eye--not for content, but as a proofreader looking for typographical errors. Second, give a copy of your thesis to one or two trusted peers to read. Devise a creative way to reward them for every error they find (free cups of coffee or beer, or pizza, for example). This will give them an incentive to go through your thesis with a fine-toothed comb. If you can afford it, you may even consider hiring a professional copy editor to do this for you. If there is stiff competition in your field, your supervisor will probably insist that you write the article first. Otherwise, we suggest that you write the chapter first, as this approach will allow you to describe your work in detail. While the thesis is out for review with your dissertation committee, you can select the appropriate parts from the chapter and transform it into an article to submit to a peer-reviewed journal. If someone else wrote one of your publications (i.e. you did the experiments but a more senior person wrote the manuscript), we suggest you rewrite the bulk of the text in your own words. Even if experiments were done in collaboration, a thesis has only one author--you--and the words in it should be yours. Drastically cut back or rewrite the introduction section of each article. There is no need to repeat what you will have already explained in the general introduction and literature survey of your thesis. Don't just delete those introductions, however; parts of your manuscript intros will be useful for your thesis introduction, so paste any relevant text into the intro section of your thesis outline for later editing. I don’t know. If you’re doing a PhD, one option is to get an extension. If you aren’t doing a PhD, I don’t deal with masters or undergrad. James Hayton says And whether you finish on time (i.e. before summer) is down to you. If you cut back on other commitments, and can write consistently every day, then of course it’s possible. On the other hand value of life essay topics, who cares if the department are happy? If you are happy to spend the extra months working, and you think it’s the only way, then do it! Again, you just have to decide. But either way you’ve go to stop gathering new material at some point and go with what you have. Because of the limited time, I had to make some tough decisions. Anything I did, I would either have to finish or let go. There would be some loose ends, but that was OK as long as I tied up others. Alas, this (point #4) is where I am struggling, and I’m not sure what I can do about it. My research efforts are rife with feedback loops between the calculating (the “research”) and explaining (the “writing”): I calculate something, try to explain it, realize that I needed to calculate something slightly (or entirely) different, after which I can explain it to a point but then get stuck on what I need to figure out (via calculating or explaining or a mixture of both) next, and so on. This makes it very difficult to set targets and be consistent (#6). James Hayton says If a diagram took 2 hours, so be it. If I couldn’t find a high-quality image in a paper to paste in, I would re-draw it myself. Why? Because it adds so much to the feel of quality running through the thesis. No, it is not ok to manipulate data. You might get away with it write case study proposal, but if you want me to say it’s OK, sorry but no. The two most important parts of the day are the beginning and end. It’s important to build momentum early, and have a routine for ending the day too. Trying to finish my thesis and getting bogged down in life commitment. Your blog has given me a bit of motivation to keep chipping away at it. For me I have to leave home when I want to study and find a quite spot in the university library. When at home my family assume I am available for all activities or chores such as putting the bins out, mowing the lawn, pick up and drop off for the kids including grocery shopping if my teenagers have consumed the contents of the fridge in a couple of hour. Thanks for the tips Sir, you simply rock ! Thank you so much for the advice. I’ve been really struggling to complete my Ph.D thesis, too often procrastinating on other (smaller) projects, but your blog has given me the inspiration I need to submit in the new year. I have a detailed, yet realistic, plan made out for myself from now until Xmas, giving me the break to tidy up the draft. etc. Will let you know how I get on! Awesome advice! lol, I’m in the same position and my thesis is due in 3 days, and my results don’t look beautiful. I hate looking at it. Was thinking of “manipulating” some data and have no plans to publish my work. just for the sake of completion! I hope everything goes well I have been delaying with my Masters because of pressure. I now know the best way put is to get in and finish it. Then kiss academia goodbye….I am glad the pressure has helped me discover what works for me and what doesn’t. I would not want a gap of 2-3 years strggling with a coerced project that stresses me. I can’t give you motivation, but I don’t think that’s what you need anyway; you just need to be decisive. Re fabrication… decide how long you are going to spend doing it, THEN STOP. It is the only way, and if you ignore everything else I say on the blog, just follow that one thing. You have to let go! James Hayton says Great help….have been tied up with family responsibilities so long and was under the impression that I can never ever complete my Research….thank you so much sir for this positive approach that has made me buck up in my work and finally hope to apply apply for my Pre-submission Seminar in November. Hi James. I’m a final year student in government university. I’m lose my motivation. I don’t know what my lecturer need. I already sent 3 proposals to her, but she said that my topic to big. What I don’t understand is, I already narrow down the topic. She keep comment my work but she accept my friends work. In this condition, I think I will repeat my semester just because she not accept my proposal. Sometime I think she hate me. I really sad. I also tidied the desk at the end of every day, which also helped close the day mentally and stopped my brain going over and over the thesis at night. Word or LaTeX… honestly, it really doesn’t matter that much. I would never go back to Word having used LaTeX for my 1st year report, but the most important thing is to just make a decision and stick to it. Somehow, a same case as with me. I have transferred to other country and the thing is that the company, that I am currently working for, doesn’t have a support on this effort. I am working on my own and currently in my second draft of thesis revision. I have done a lot of revisions on my simulations and also taught that my knowledge isn’t yet enough to finish the thesis. I have already lapsed my MRR and have been always followed up by focal person from Graduate Studies regarding the status. Though, the pressure is really on, I am currently doing my very best to be focused. So my piece of advise, just continue your thesis, we can do this! Thanks for the helpful thoughts. I have to defend my dissertation in five months but i feel i am nowhere with lots of paradoxical sets of data and theories in my mind. The most difficult part is that i am writing this social science thesis in English as my second language. I am not confident at all about the clarity and meaningfulness of my writing. It is frustrating and takes huge time and energy to focus on my subject and at the same time avoid any ambiguity in my writing. Any comments or thoughts how i can manage such chaotic situation? Very good article. Some very handy tips. I’m nearly finished writing my thesis now but i didn’t do the usual putting three months aside for writing. I just published my work as i went along. this is very convenient at the end when you can sit back and relax because all you have to do is the literature review. if this is possible i strongly suggest doing this as you will really appreciate it at the end. if possible of course. Waqar Ahmad says I’ve had some comments on this post reacting as if I completed my entire PhD in 3 months. No, I did three and a half years of research first, then wrote the thesis. I also do not claim that anyone can write that fast, as it depends on a lot of different factors. This is why the title is “How I wrote…”, not “How to write…” Because I wasn’t allowed back in the lab, I just had to focus on writing. The hard part was behind me. The results weren’t going to change, so it was just a matter of making sure I was productive when writing. I decided to work at home, not at the office examples of the best college essays, because there would be fewer distractions. James Hayton says Dear Dr.Hayton, “It is much, much easier to write when you know the raw material isn’t going to change.” I set myself a target of 3 months, broken down into targets for each chapter. This would give me about 3 months in reserve before the final absolute deadline. Thanks Sir for your writeup, how can i describe my data in thesis, i have no idea about that Tnx for some great inputs. Could you say something about organising the structure of the text? I like the idea of setting do-able goals of which sections to write. But that requires a certain degree of top-down approach to writing. You need to know the structure in advance in order to put up a plan on how to write them. But i think that the structure often emerges through my writing, and i don’t know how the text will look in advance. This is also a great pain, as it implies that the structure keeps changing and expands in size, and it becomes impossible to finish it. Hi, it is very motivating that someone already finished by 3 months ! If you haven’t analysed the data, or if you don’t know how to analyse it, you might need an extension. Well you would need to register as a PhD candidate with a university to be eligible, but my question would be why do you need one? It sounds like you’ve already gone way beyond PhD level in your career! The problem you have with calculating, writing and recalculating is that you’re trying to do both at the same time. FORGET about writing, just sit and think about what your calculation means. If you go straight to writing, you are skipping a crucial step in the analysis. This means I was constantly re-reading and revising what I’ve just written, but also means that when I submitted something to my supervisor it needed very few revisions and saved months, simply by getting as close to “right” as I could the first time round. Thanks for the wonderful advice. I was on verge of giving up after spending 4 loooong years. At least I am happy to know I am not the only one. My guide is very particular for simulation based results but my thesis is completely based on mathematically calculated results. I am stuck between these two because to set up a simulation model will take up another year and I am not at all willing to waste further time. Any advice. Now I know I’m not alone college admission essays topic, now I got only 1 month to finish my draft, 2 month to refill anything that is not sufficient to my supervisor and my final deadline is the end of this year. Wish me luck. Hi James, The article is very motivating. I’m a busy mother of two. I have so much distraction around me and also lots of responsibilities as well. I have done lots of lab work but when now I’m looking at it it’s all repeated and to reproduce same results. I have not read a lot as well. Now from yesterday I have starting writing my thesis because I think if I will start writing I will then have to cite and read literature. Still not reading the whole paper which is not right may be. After reading your article I want to finish my thesis not in three but four months. Three would probably unreal ? thanks and congrats on such an achievement. Gosh, thank you so much I really needed this. Such a timely article for somebody just getting back into the saddle after months of not writing or even thinking about my PhD, working full time, single Mum and trying to figure out how to just sit down and write. I am on it, I have 6 months to go and if you can do in 3 months there are no excuses. Thank you so much for this blog post. I’m currently one thesis away from finishing my M.A degree. I was supposed to finish my thesis two years ago but life happened Marriage, baby, etc. Now i’m 100% committed to completing it and I have no other choice because my deadline will be January 1 2015! You gave me some helpful tips. Congrats on finishing. either do the experiments (and pause writing until you have done them, or make a clear decision not to. I got rid of the TV, and had no internet connection on my computer. The lack of internet meant I had to gather all the papers I would need beforehand, forcing me to think about what I would need. By the time I stopped doing experiments, I knew I had enough for a PhD. Not the best PhD ever sample essay of friendship, and not world-changing, but with two publications and enough data for another, I felt it was good enough. My self in the 4th year of PhD in Cancer therapeutics still struggling for some lab works. Planning to write daily atleast the review of literature and some introduction and the chapters will be my papers published. But not getting focussed yet on writing work. Wasting time in gadgets etc. Now I think that I must write atleast 3 A4 size pages daily with no plagiarism and decent english. May Allah help me in that….Aameen. I’m just two months into my PhD and i find this quite motivating. Good job in finishing your thesis. Hopefully, the tips i took of from your blog will help me. Best wishes. My supervisor (the brilliant Professor Moriarty ) then told me that I would no longer be allowed into the lab after the end of March 2007, and that I would have to write whatever I had. Tnx 4 sharing information,im weak student, im worry;i cant write a thesis that could be publish in ISI journal;my information is not enough;if i cudnt prepare i cant get phd university;tell me wt i can do,who can help me.
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