What job guidelines would you give for writing a good thesis? Would you share what is the formula for writing a good thesis.
Silvia - a good question. One has to remember, firstly, that a 'good' thesis does not usually 'naturally' unfold. Especially for a PhD thesis - there will be many drafts of individual chapters and the thesis overall. In most cases, this will be a 'team' effort - with supervisors determining and contributing direction, structure and quality. My main advice to students is:
1. Concentrate on a single early chapter i.e. literature review chapter. Keep working on drafts and feedback until it is mostly 'ready - structurally and critically. Use that early draft then as the 'template' to structure all other chapters. This avoids repeating mistakes and frustrating both the student and supervisors - and allows more focus on the task at hand.
2. Keep referring back to the early chapters tom ensure that the student doesn't lose sight of the original aims and questions and then wanders offtrack.
3. Write two versions of a chapter. One is the full thesis submission chapter - and the other is a summary version that is 'ready' for potential submission as a publication i.e. the integrative literature review chapter.
Here is an outline I recommend (unless your school has a recommended outline that is different).
Method Scholarly Writing Outline for Thesis or Dissertation
The following publications and link (the discussions and some more recommended publications) may further help:
- Lajom, J. A. and Magno, C. (2010) Writing Your Winning Thesis, International Journal of Research and Review, 4, pp. 28-36.
- Nenty, H. J. (2009) Writing a Quantitative Research Thesis, International Journal of Educational Sciences 1, 1, pp. 19-32.
- Peat, J., Elliott, E., Baur, L. and Keena, V. (2002) Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How. London: BMJ Books.
- Perneger, T. V. and Hudelson, P. M. (2004) Editorial - Writing a research article: advice to beginners, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 16, 3, pp. 191-192.
- Roberts, C. M. (2010) The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and Defending Your Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
- Wu, J. (2011) Improving the writing of research papers: IMRAD and beyond, Landscape Ecology, 26, 10, pp. 1345-1349.
- What are the ingredients of a good thesis?: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_ingredients_of_a_good_thesis
Thank you for your tips and recommended sources Mr. Kenneth Lui-ming Ngie Mr. Michael W. Marek Mr. Dean Whitehead !
Silvia Zarkova - Thank you for your question. However, the best advice to your question is: 1) I recommend attending a training workshop on writing the dissertation/thesis. 2) read published theses, copies are available at your university library, and 3) I recommend for you reading the book by Parija SC and Kate V, titled "Thesis Writing for Master's and Ph.D. Program 1st ed. 2018 Edition, published by Springer. Good luck.
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