Thesis How-Tos: DeMystifying the Process

The following was prepared by Marjorie Thompson and Jonathan Waage, and also excerpts from material at http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/thesis.html .

• WHAT IS A THESIS?
An original, substantial paper/project that addresses a question or hypothesis via an original research project and its outcomes

• ON WHAT IS IT BASED?
1. A question to be addressed and hypotheses tested via bench or field research
2. A question to be addressed and hypotheses tested via clinical study
3. A creative approach to a relevant problem or goal
4. A mathematical model or computer simulation that explores the question or hypothesis
5. A question to be addressed via literature-based research testing hypotheses or review, providing a new synthesis in a scholarly context

• HOW CONCLUSIVE SHOULD IT BE?
1. Process, structure, progress, thoughtful and critical assessment of information/data/protocols
2. These are more important that conclusive outcomes

• HOW LONG SHOULD IT BE?
1. The ranges of lengths for Biology thesis is 35-70 pp.
2. Originality and quality are more important than length

• WHERE CAN I SEE EXAMPLES OF HONORS THESES:
At the Biology Undergraduate Affairs Office, Room 124, Arnold Lab; no appointment needed
________________________________________________________________

What is a thesis? For whom is it written? How should it be written?
Your thesis is a research report. The report concerns a problem or series of problems in your area of research and it should describe what was known about it previously, what you did towards solving it, what you think your results mean, and where or how further progress in the field can be made. The readers of a thesis do not know what the "answer" is.

It is expected that the thesis make an original contribution to knowledge: your research must report on something hitherto unknown. Even negative results are valuable in science, so a thesis is not judged by whether or not it “worked”

Your sponsor and second reader will read the thesis. They are experts in the general field of your thesis but, on the exact topic of your thesis, you are also the expert. Your thesis may also be used as a scientific report and consulted by future workers in your laboratory who will want to know, in detail, what you accomplished

Mainly, your thesis is where you express your voice and your ideas – what have you discovered? – What have you synthesized or interpreted from literature, research, discussions related to the thesis?

How much detail?
The short answer is: rather more than for a scientific paper. Most published work is short because there is a premium on space in journals and readers want the details up front, also, most readers know the general subject and do not need extensive background. However, you can take a little more time to explore and express your understanding of the background related to your question and research and to relate it to past and future work. Your thesis serves as a statement of your accomplishment in addition to a statement of what you found out. You have probably read the theses of previous students in the lab where you are now working, so you probably know the advantages of a clearly explained, explicit thesis and/or the disadvantages of a vague one.

Make it clear what is yours
If you use a result, observation or generalization that is not your own, you must usually state where in the scientific literature that result is reported. The only exceptions are cases where every researcher in the field already knows it. Good referencing allows us to check the foundations of your additions to the structure of knowledge in the discipline, or at least to trace them back to a level which we judge to be reliable. Good referencing also tells the reader which parts of the thesis are descriptions of previous knowledge and which parts are your additions to that knowledge. In a thesis, written for the general reader who has little familiarity with the literature of the field, this should be especially clear. Above all, let the reader know where you are. Be proud of your ideas, present them in ways that are clear to others, relate them to previous ideas and show the reader where and how yours diverge

Style
The text must be clear. Good grammar and thoughtful writing will make the thesis easier to read. Scientific writing has to be a little formal – more formal than this text. Native English speakers should remember that scientific English is an international language. Slang and informal writing will be harder for a non-native speaker to understand. Short, simple phrases and words are often better than long ones. Always be aware that you are more familiar with the ideas being presented than most readers are. Work with your advisor and friends to make sure how you present ideas as clear as it can be. Usually, direct voice and first-person style is clearer and easier to read than text full of passive voice and indirect style. There is a mistaken idea that all science is written in the third person – only poorly written science is. Make full use of the University’s writing resources. Effective presentation of your ideas and results are essential no matter what will be your career path

Presentation
There is no need for a thesis to be a masterpiece of desk-top publishing. Your time can be more productively spent improving the content than the appearance.
A suggested thesis structure
The list of contents below is appropriate for Honors theses.

Abstract
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. It is a résumé of your thesis. Think of it as the part of your thesis most likely to be read. Your job is to convince the reader it is worthwhile to continue reading. Think of what they will need to know (what is it about, what was found out that is interesting, how was it done?)

Acknowledgments
Most thesis authors put in a page of thanks to those who have helped them in matters scientific. Be sure to acknowledge support you received (e.g., an UTRA) – this helps other students get a sense of resources available to support thesis projects.

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.

Introduction/Historical Background
What is the topic and why is it important? State the problem(s) as simply as you can. Remember that you have been working on this project for a few years, so you will be very close to it. Try to step back mentally and take a broader view of the problem. How does it fit into the broader world of your discipline?

The introduction should be interesting. If you bore the reader here, then you are unlikely to revive his/her interest in the materials and methods section. For the first paragraph or two, tradition permits prose that is less dry than the scientific norm. If want to wax lyrical about your topic, here is the place to do it.This section might go through several drafts to make it read well and logically, while keeping it short. For this section, it is a good idea to ask someone who is not a specialist to read it and to comment. Is it an adequate introduction? Is it easy to follow? There is an argument for writing this section---or least making a major revision of it–towards the end of the thesis writing. Your introduction should tell where the thesis is going, and this may become clearer during the writing.

Literature review
Where did the problem come from? What is already known about this problem? What other methods have been tried to solve it?

Materials and Methods
This varies 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.

Results and discussion
The results and discussion are very often combined in theses. This is sensible because of the length of a thesis: you may have several chapters of results and, if you wait till they are all presented before you begin discussion, the reader may have difficulty remembering what you are talking about. The division of Results and Discussion material into chapters is usually best done according to subject matter.

Make sure that you have described the conditions which obtained for each set of results. What was held constant? What were the other relevant parameters? Make sure too that you have used appropriate statistical analyses. Where applicable, show measurement errors and standard errors on the graphs. Use appropriate statistical tests.

Take care plotting graphs. The origin and intercepts are often important so, unless the ranges of your data make it impractical, the zeros of one or both scales should usually appear on the graph. You should show error bars on the data, unless the errors are very small. For single measurements, the bars should be your best estimate of the experimental errors in each coordinate. For multiple measurements these should include the standard error in the data.

In most cases, your results need discussion. What do they mean? How do they fit into the existing body of knowledge? Are they consistent with current theories? Do they give new insights? Do they suggest new theories or mechanisms?

Conclusions and suggestions for further work
Your abstract should include your conclusions in very brief form, because it must also include some other material. A summary of conclusions is usually longer than the final section of the abstract, and you have the space to be more explicit and more careful with qualifications.

It is often the case with scientific investigations that more questions than answers are produced. Does your work suggest any interesting further avenues? Are there ways in which your work could be improved by future workers? What are the practical implications of your work?

References
Should you reference websites and, if so, how? If you cite a journal article or book, the reader can go to a library and check that the cited document and check whether or not it says what you say it did. A web site may disappear, and it may have been updated or changed completely. So references to the web are usually less satisfactory. Nevertheless, there are some very useful and authoritative sources. So, it may be appropriate to cite web sites. (Be cautious, and don't overuse such citations. In particular, don't use a web citation where you could reasonably use a "hard" citation. You should give the URL and also the date you downloaded it. If there is a date on the site itself (last updated on ….) you should include that, too.

Appendices
If there is material that should be in the thesis but which would break up the flow or bore the reader unbearably, include it as an appendix. Some things which are typically included in appendices are: important and original computer programs, data files that are too large to be represented simply in the results chapters, pictures or diagrams of results which are not important enough to keep in the main text.