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Writing the thesis

A thesis is an argument or proposition declaring a discovery or insight, based on research, which is relevant to others. It is intended to contribute to scholarly debate.

This section addresses how to approach the writing of the thesis and includes suggestions about the process and how to compose the text.

Thesis presentation, submission and examination  |  Research proposal and thesis  |  Milestones and requirements for candidature

 

Engage with the scholarly/professional debate

A crucial element in the genre of theses is the evidence that is provided to show that you are aware of the scholarly debates on and around your topic and that in your study you will engage with that debate in a significant way. One of the most common ways of doing that is in a distinct literature review chapter. If that is how you decide to present this element, you may wish to think of a more interesting title for the chapter than Literature review. You can, of course, also engage with the literature throughout the thesis in a way that makes it unnecessary or inappropriate to concentrate it in a specific chapter.

An exposition and justification of your research methodology and strategies

The reader of your thesis should be very clear about your general research orientation and why you have opted for such an approach, about how and why you selected your research context and/or your informants, how you collected and recorded your research data and how you analysed your data. The reader should also be made aware that you have called on the research literature in designing your research and engaged with the issues raised. All of this may be presented in distinct chapter/s devoted to methodological issues. This, however, is by no means a requirement. You can integrate your methodology into the various chapters.

A discussion of the ethical issues in your research methodology and reporting

The reader needs to be assured that in the conduct of your research and the reporting of your findings you have conducted yourself ethically and that you have not breached the norms for research involving human participants. This needs an overt statement in your thesis. Its most usual location is in the methodology chapter. The appendices can be used to show such things as information, letters, consent forms, letters of consent.

The research data

This is often the hardest to report appropriately and convincingly. It will very, very rarely be the case that you will be able to present all your raw data. You are likely to have masses of data which will not be used. But even the data you do use will need to be presented in a summary form. It is for this reason that the Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee recommends that the raw data on which the reported summaries are based be kept for seven years. Without this no-one would be able to check on the accuracy of your reported summaries should the need arise. How you report your data most convincingly and authentically is something you will need to discuss with your supervisor. You will also need to read the research literature on the issues related to reporting your data. Structurally this data may be presented in one or more chapters in the thesis.

The data analysis

Analysing the data is essentially relating the data to the questions and issues within your research topic. It is the process by which you attempt to bring answers to the questions asked or to generate theories or insights. Structurally it can be embedded into the chapter/s which report the data or it can be focused in one or more chapters which attempt to draw conclusions from the data.

It is up to you to decide how to incorporate all of these elements into your thesis/report structure so that the whole thing moves from a motivating introduction through an engagement with scholarly debate, methodological issues and research data and analysis to a satisfying conclusion.


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Writing as part of the research process

Theses are typically written over an extended period of time. They bring together the bits and pieces which have been written for different purposes during the course of the research. These bits and pieces are seldom written in the sequence in which they appear in the final thesis. Thus a draft review of the literature may have been written to prepare the proposal and worked on subsequently for any number of purposes including:

An early draft of the methodology may likewise have been used as the foundation of the proposal. This is also likely to have gone through many updates in the light of actual experience, further reading and reflection. New drafts of the methodology may have been written for seminar or conference presentations and/ or journal articles.

As you have collected your data and begun to analyse it, you are also likely to have written it up in a variety of forms and for a variety of purposes including seminar and conference presentations and journal articles.

As you come to write up your thesis you will revisit all these materials:

As you interact with this written material, your unwritten data and analyses, and your supervisor, you will work out your own strategies for composing your text. Some very general suggestions may assist you in this process.

Prepare a draft table of contents

You are likely to have done this first when you put in your proposal. During the course of your research you are likely to have changed this plan a number of times. Before you start composing the draft of the entire thesis sit down and attempt once again to plot the overall structure of the thesis:

Use this as a plan to guide your writing. This can be very useful provided you do not make it prescriptive. You are likely to modify it in various ways as you write. What such a plan allows you to do is to come back to your writing after substantial breaks and know how to pick it up again and move forward to the next section.

Prepare draft outlines and abstracts of each chapter

Once you have drafted the outline of the thesis as a whole it is useful to prepare a draft outline and abstract of the chapter you intend to work on before you actually begin the process of editing earlier drafts or writing up fresh drafts. You could use the following format for this:

Chapter title _________________________________________

Topic _________________________________________

Abstract (maximum 200 words)

Outline (eg subheadings)

Preparing a draft chapter outline:

Prepare a preliminary draft introduction to your thesis

Even though you will probably write the introduction last in its final draft form, it can be a good idea to attempt to write an introduction before you do final drafts of any of the subsequent chapters. Doing this takes you back to the beginning and forces you to articulate as clearly as you can what your topic is, which is important because it is highly probable that your topic will have moved in significant ways from what it was when you wrote up your proposal. (When you come to write up the final draft of the introduction you may find it has shifted slightly yet again.) Getting the topic clear at the beginning of the process of writing up the final draft makes it much easier to ensure that each subsequent chapter is addressing this topic, rather than some earlier version of the topic.

An introduction’s primary function is to set out the thesis topic as clearly and unambiguously as possible. It can also serve a number of other functions, including:

In sciences and engineering, the Introduction (Chapter 1) generally has three components:

  1. the background and context of the research
  2. the aims of the research
  3. a summary of the structure and content of the thesis.

Write up final drafts of each chapter in sequence

In all probability, by this stage you will have drafts of many chapters or parts of chapters. The task now is to use these drafts, the abstract and the outline to do the necessary editing and writing to produce the final draft.

It is important to do this in the sequence in which the chapters will appear in the final thesis so that:

  1. you can have a better grasp of the developing logic and argument of your report
  2. at the end of each chapter you can write in overt and effective statements which point the reader to what is to come in the next chapter, and to do this in a way that makes the issues to be dealt with in the next chapter appropriate in the light of the issues raised in the current chapter. Phrases like ‘In the next chapter we will ....’ are apt here.

In sciences and engineering it is usually possible, and sometimes necessary, to write the chapters out of sequence. The chapters will, however, be read in sequence, so it is very important to ensure that theoretical principles and mathematical arguments are developed in a logical sequence and correctly cross referenced between chapters. In sciences and engineering your writing will need to be technical and very precise. Writing in this way can be very tiring, so it is generally better to write a few hundred words each day rather than trying to write large blocks of text in one session. A relatively modest writing target of 200 words each day will, if implemented early in your candidature, achieve all of the writing tasks required during your degree program.

When you have written up each chapter, it is important that you submit a copy to each of your supervisors (if you have more than one) for review and response. Do NOT wait until you have a draft of the entire thesis before submitting it to your supervisor(s). If you do, you are likely to have to wait a long time before your supervisors can make the time to read it.

Prepare a final draft of the thesis as a whole

Once you have had feedback on each of the chapters you will need to return to and edit the whole. To do this it is highly recommended that you make time available when you can sit down and, without interruption, read through the whole thesis. It is not advisable on this reading to attempt to make editorial changes. That will interrupt the flow of the reading. It is better simply to mark the points on the script to which you will return later to make changes. Once you have completed this reading, return to make the changes you have noted.

The above strategy may not be feasible in science and engineering where there may be mathematical development, test data, computer programs and modelling results to check. In some cases it may be preferable to check the mathematical and technical components separately, and then read through the whole thesis to check the grammar and flow of logic. Most researchers read through their written work between 20 and 30 times before submitting it for review and publication. Although this repeated reading serves to polish the work and detect errors, the author can become ‘blind’ and fail to see obvious problems. A review by your supervisor can be particularly valuable at this stage.

When you have done all of this and completed a final draft of the entire script, you should submit it for review and response to your supervisor/s. It is also a very good idea to ask a peer, or other competent friend to read chapter drafts. This will help eliminate irritating typographical and grammatical errors.

You are encouraged to make a formal presentation to a Division/ Institutes/ School/ Research Centre seminar prior to the commencement of the examination process. Constructive criticism generated about your presentation can be useful input.

You might also consider employing the services of a professional editor. A professional editor will help in formatting the thesis and ensuring that the layout presents all your hard work in the most effective way. See Presentation and writing guidelines for more details

Once you receive all the feedback on your final draft, make whatever changes seem necessary, then format your thesis in line with the physical specifications as set out in the Academic Guidelines and prepare your thesis for examination using the information in the ‘Thesis presentation, submission and examination’ section of this guide.
 

Resources

Research Education Support Activities (RESA)

Learning Connection's Research writing website
 

Resources for Research Degree Graduate Qualities

Resources for Research Degree Graduate Qualities has a section Thesis which provides links to resources within the University (including RESA and Learning Connection), as well as links outside the University.

 

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