Architecture Thesis

Architecture Thesis Writing - How To Write An Architecture Thesis - Masters Architecture Thesis

For an architect, writing masters thesis on architecture should be very similar to creating a blueprint. You begin with a vision that is more feeling than substance. An austere office building with efficient use of space that offers the air of classic professionalism. A turreted four level home carved into the rocky landscape overlooking the ocean. Already youre envisioning the shape of the windows, the number of rooms, the doorways, the height of the ceilings, the stairwells and bathrooms. Apply this idea to your architecture thesis. Take the mood you want to relate and go from there. Next, theres your architecture thesis topic. Whether you choose an architect that has deeply informed your work or a theory that you absolutely disagree with, you couple it with an evocative mood and youve got an original creation ready to take to the drawing board. Some great architecture thesis topics include:

Landscape Architecture Gothic Architecture Modern Architecture Southern Architecture Architectural Theory Aesthetics and Architecture Socially Constructed Architectural Practice Vernacular Architecture European Design Theory Non-Western Design Practice Urban Design Theory Digital Mediation Theory Graphic Media and Architecture Environmental Limitations to Architecture

When youve got the basic building blocks for your architecture thesis, a blank piece of paper can still look intimidating. Take your ideas to your advising professor. What do they have to say about it? Do they look dubious? Find out why. Is your architecture thesis topic too vague, too broad, too narrow, boring, done to death, abstract? Get specific. If your professor has a look that says that she wishes she had thought of it (or if you at least get a shrug that says thats fine), then youre on the right track. Still, press for more. See if they know of any resources that you could utilize. Do they know anyone who specializes in any aspect of your topic? Any exhibitions or buildings or thesis projects that may be of interest to you? Pick their brain until they look tired. Its your degree youre working on here. Make them take an interest in it and you.

Once youve got the approval from your advisor and a handful of leads to add to your mood and topic on the drafting table, hit the books, the internet, and chat up the locals. Anywhere and everywhere could be hiding a possible sentence or spark that will bring everything together, giving you the skeletal foundation for your architecture thesis. Make copies of everything you read that applies to your subject matter, even remotely. Ask classmates and other professors any questions you have about the time period, theories, or key players in your architecture thesis topic. Do online searches around your topic. Check out a few architecture professional associations, societies, and hobby groups online. If there are forums to post to, post away. The point get your building supplies anywhere you can find them. When youve got a solid stockpile of research, start with your proposal. A solid 3 to 5 pages (depending on your department requirements) will go a long way toward informing the final product of your architecture thesis. Give this a lot of thought, time, and effort. Go out of your way to clarify every point and the sources you will use to back up everything along the way. This will come in handy for the writing portion later. Once youve gotten the proposal approved, youve made the necessary changes and gotten the research necessary to fill the chinks in the new proposal, write. Ignore everyone. Dont go to work. Skip class and dont answer the phone. Concentrate on your architecture thesis until it is finished and dont look back until you have solid first draft. You wont be able to test for structural flaws until youve got a whole piece to look at. After a few days or a week long break, go back and make your first set of edits before submitting the draft to you advisor. You need this space to clear your head. Take it. After your professor looks it over, go back and forth between her office and the drawing board until its complete. Soon youll be done with the architecture thesis and the degree and well on your way to creating actual buildings and getting paid for it.

Thesis Writing: From Book To Brain Thesis writing starts with a long process of contemplation, filtering of ideas, reviewing and rejection of concepts until, finally, a focal topic is decided upon. You begin your graduate program with this topic in mind and spend the first part of your graduate program exploring this topic. You build a foundation of knowledge from which to pull unique ideas and explore your focus, ultimately deciding upon a question that interests you enough to spend the rest of your graduate career answering by writing a thesis. Though you no longer have the structure of lectures and reading assignments to guide you, thesis writing is best accomplished by working within the limits of your own self imposed organizational rules. Incorporate the following guidelines into your development process, and your thesis writing will be half done before you even turn on the computer. Should You Stay or Should You Go Save your work vacation days for the actual thesis writing as opposed to anytime during the development or research periods. Working may be just what you need to keep the ideas coming. This development and processing period is the first step in thesis writing. The four steps to thesis writing are as follows:

Idea Processing and Proposal Development In this stage you come up with as many ideas as possible, develop outlines for your favorites, and choose one. Research, Research, Research This is another thing you can never document enough or have enough of. You want to err on the side of overkill. You absolutely do not want to have to return to research once you have begun writing. Thesis Writing This is when you write your first draft. Organize your research as best you can and create an outline or proposal accordingly. Then write straight through until you have completed the first draft. Any changes should be minimal. Re-Write This is the longest step because it has so many facets. You re-write your first draft to make it presentable to the public, workshop it within your department and with your advisor or professor, then re-write it again, taking everyones comments into account. Set it aside for a week or more, then go back and edit it again.

Its time to take vacation days during the actual thesis writing period. Youll need to spend as much time as possible by yourself and immersed in your research to get a sense of what the body of your thesis is and to write for as long as you can, uninterrupted. Keep an Open Mind When considering which angles to take and what details to focus on in thesis writing, the last thing you want to do is limit your options. Too quickly rejecting an idea may leave you with too little to choose from later on. Instead, jot down every idea you have and keep all your scraps in a file. Something that seems too distantly removed to be useful

now may turn out to be the perfect example for your argument later in the thesis writing process. Rough Draft Building Even though ideas change and evolve during thesis writing, you want to be sure that you can document its evolution in case you need to back track. Every book, author, quote, video, article anything and everything that contributes or spawns your ideas is a necessary piece of information. Hang onto it. If scraps of paper are too unwieldy, make a practice of typing up your notes from time to time. Influence of the Department The point of education is the guidance that is provided by your mentors, professors who are experts in the field that you are interested in. Graduate school has the double function of serving you as a guide and also preparing you to handle yourself out in the work force where you wont have someone to hold your hand through the process. It may seem like everyone in your department has an idea or opinion about how your thesis writing is coming along and what the eventual product should or should not be. Listen, but do not be swayed. You are the one who will have to write this thesis. Be sure that the focus is something that suits you and not someone else. Your Thesis Writing and its Effect on your Future It is true that future employers may be interested in the research you conduct during graduate school, looking to your thesis writing for a variety of tells on how you will function as an employee. Dont, however, expect to be swept into the arms of a foundation or grant providing institution and splashed across the pages of every professional journal in your field based upon your thesis writing. First and foremost, your thesis is a means to a degree in which the research itself may be the most rewarding part of the process. The more you enjoy the actual thesis writing, the easier it will be to write. Assess Your Options Chances are you have a great many ideas that you would love to pursue in your thesis writing. Unfortunately, you can only work on one in graduate school. You may hit upon a fabulous idea and then realize that it would take seven years worth of research to complete properly or that this one question is so broad that it is actually a number of questions that need answering. If you only have two or three years to commit to the work, then this obviously isnt the right time for this particular research. You want to have a very specific answer to a specific question when you have finished your thesis writing. Be sure that your chosen thesis statement is amenable to that outcome.

To come up with a good estimate of how long a potential thesis writing project will take to complete, develop an outline for your top five to ten interests. Assign a time allotment to each section of the project. When you find a thesis topic that you can complete in a reasonable amount of time, post the outline in a conspicuous place to keep you on target. Step 1 Process Your Idea Once youve chosen your topic and developed a timeline, do a few dry runs. Try a few outlines or do a small study to determine if this is actually the topic you want to study for the next year or more. Keep it simple. If it doesnt work out the way you had hoped or the research just isnt there, try again. If youre still having problems, return to your stash of ideas and choose another one. Step 1 continued Develop the Proposal When you are confident in your choice, create an outline or proposal that you can present to the department or your advisor. You will have plenty of material to draw from with your preliminary work, but if you find that you are still having trouble, try looking at other proposals. Often, your schools library files these away or perhaps older students in your program wouldnt mind sharing theirs with you. This gives you the opportunity to see a successful proposal so that you can develop yours to meet the same standards. Add an annotated bibliography to the end to show that you have resources to build on and that there is a body of work out there to form a solid foundation for your thesis writing. A solid proposal will have the following: A simple title composed of key words that most easily defines your research proposal with a sub-title if necessary

The thesis question that you intend to answer and what information or research brought the question to your attention List the books you intend to reference and a short annotation for each, demonstrating how they either support or develop your thesis question Explain briefly how you intend to answer the thesis question. If you intend to develop questionnaires or run interviews, provide examples.

Write everything in the future tense since you have not yet completed the thesis writing. If you decide to use your proposal as the beginning of your thesis writing, you can simply convert the future tense to the past tense, correcting your proposed research that wasnt done by stating your actual performed research. Use questions to provide a framework, including the questions that you have asked yourself to arrive at your central thesis statement, your chosen thesis question, and the questions that you will serve your thesis writing. Make sure that each question is specific and simply stated and not two or three questions built into one. Begin with broad questions that relate the merit your research offers the community of researchers in your

field and string the questions together in such a way that they clearly relate the continuity of your thought bridging your research to the general field. Step 2 Research, Research, Research You and your thesis writing are lucky to be in the age of technology. Rather than lugging home tons of library books or spending hours outlining notes in pencil from the reference only library, you have at your fingertips copy machines and tape recorders. Find a section of a textbook that looks interesting? Copy it! What about those rare books in the special part of the library where you arent allowed to bring in anything but a pencil and paper? Read aloud (softly) into a micro-recorder and transcribe the tapes later. Better yet, if you have a few extra bucks, pay someone to transcribe them for you. Be sure that each photocopy and tape is clearly marked with the bibliographic information for easy reaccessibility should it be necessary. Courtesy is never wasted. When using technology or resources and interviewing or studying research participants, enough cannot be said for respecting everyone elses part in your thesis writing. Keep everyone who helps you up to date with your developments and understand if your changes dont suit their schedules or comfort level. The further in advance you conduct your research studies, the better you will be able to handle unforeseen snags and developments with others involved in your project. Dont be afraid of attempting the unknown. Just because you have not performed a certain type of research before, does not mean that you will not be able to utilize it to perfectly illustrate your point. Diversify your approach. The more ways and times you answer your thesis question and arrive at the same conclusion, the stronger your thesis writing will be. Qualitative and quantitative studies work together to create a solid support for your thesis writing. Take care to fully develop for the reader what equipment you used, the development of questionnaires or interview questions, and the background of the people who participated in the study. No detail of your thesis writing is too small to consider very carefully before making a decision. Everything from the place you conduct your research to what time of day the study takes place will impact the outcome. Consider how different choices will affect your research. Re-do the studies in different places at different times for comparison if you can. Or else clearly state what you believe the implications of your choices to be when discussing your research in the proposal and the thesis. Sometimes your research is so current and relevant that a non profit agency or professional foundation shares the same interest in discovering the outcome of your thesis writing as you do. They may offer to finance your efforts or assist you by offering resources and facilities and assistants. This may or may not be a good idea. Would you maintain control of the project? Do they want you to do additional research that you had not originally intended? Are they biased toward the outcome? If for some reason they should decide to pull out at the last minute after you have carefully crafted your research and expenditures around their offer, how will you finish the project without them? Can

you handle a delay? Do you want to have someone else watching every aspect of your research and possibly try to change some of your methods? Weigh the pros and cons of partnering and not partnering and go from there, choosing the one that is most advantageous to you and a successful project. Preparing Yourself for the Presentation If you have the advantage of choosing the board of advisees who will offer reactions to your thesis writing, you are very lucky. This is a serious matter. Consider your options very carefully. Making the wrong choice at this stage can set you back for months. Remember the following things when choosing the board and everything will go smoothly:

Pick a variety of advisors and professors to give reactions to your proposal. You will not only need the advice of people who have specialized in your area of interest, but you also need the support of professors who know you personally and are interested in your ideas. Professionals and experts can be accessed out in the world, but you must feel comfortable with the board of advisors that you choose so that you can go to them when you need help. This is probably one of the most difficult academic undertakings of your life. The need for emotional support should not be underestimated. The chairperson of your board of advisors is an especially important choice. This person above all the others should be interested in letting you take control of your project and have faith in your ability to see it through. They also need the balancing characteristic of knowing you well to know when you are going to far in the wrong direction and when to pull you back in and help you focus. The first part of your graduate program is spent in lectures and advising sessions that will show you who you should choose for this position. Remember that the advising board is not your enemy. They are there to assist you in producing the strongest thesis writing possible.

Once you have chosen all of the members of your advising board and have drawn up a solid proposal for your thesis writing, be sure to give everyone a copy of the proposal well in advance of the meeting. Giving everyone time to look everything over will also give them time to ask you questions when they come across you in the hall or in lectures. Having answers prepared for those questions will serve you well when it comes time to meet them. Look at your meeting with the advising board as if it were a business meeting in which you were trying to sell your newest marketing strategy for their company. In a sense, thats what you are doing. Your field of research is their company and your proposed thesis writing is the marketing strategy. Will your thesis help their careers or research interests in any way? Bring graphs or charts, something visual for them to look at while your present. Have individual folders prepared with an extra copy of your proposal and addendums that you will address in the meeting. Look your best and be on time. Be friendly but take it seriously enough to address the specifics of your intended research

with back up information. Be prepared to move along if they express that they understand and dont need explanations. Be open to comments instead of confrontational. Ask questions if necessary. And relax. If youre not enjoying yourself by talking about your thesis writing, no one will enjoy listening to you talk about it.

Thesis Writing: How To Write A Masters Thesis

The thesis is the single most significant achievement of your graduate degree. It is a formalized expression of the fact that you have made a significant and original contribution to knowledge. A successful thesis has two main qualities: first, it identifies a good question; and second, it provides a satisfactory answer to that question. What makes a thesis question a good one? First, it must remain unanswered. Second, its answer must serve as a contribution to knowledge. By convincing the reader that you have chosen a good question and that you have answered it, you have also convinced the reader that you have made a significant and original contribution to knowledge. This is intended as a guide to successful masters thesis writing. A general outline of the thesis is given first, followed by a few remarks on the outline and a miscellany of tips for keeping your readers happy and engaged. General Outline of the Thesis 1. Introduction In the opening paragraphs, your goal is to introduce the reader to the particular question your thesis is seeking to answer. Unlike in the traditional five-paragraph essay, in thesis writing the introduction is not merely a summary of points to be elaborated on in later sections. Rather, your objective here is to inform the reader of what the question is, why it is important, and how your thesis will provide an answer. 2. Background Information Thesis writing often produces works of highly esoteric content. Depending on the nature of your work, it may be necessary to provide the reader with some measure of background information relevant to the topic. This is particularly useful when your work is interdisciplinary, in which case it is even more likely that the reader will benefit from a section that contextualizes the question and supplies the history and terminology so that the reader will be better able to follow the pages the come. It is often more engaging to use a topic-specific title for a section on background information, e.g. A General Overview of the Proto-Germanic Vowel System. 3. Review of the Literature and Research The next step is to review the current state of research on the topic entertained in your thesis. This differs from a section on background information in that whereas background information remains more general in scope, this section concentrates on those issues and aspects of the field that specifically relate to the question you seek to answer. As such,

this section should also incorporate an examination of the varying viewpoints surrounding your question, in order to orient the reader in the discourse of the field. Keep in mind, however, that at this stage of the thesis writing your goal is simply to present these varying viewpoints, not to be critical of them. That comes later. This section should also be given a topic-specific title, and should be organized by ideas rather than by authors or works. Using subsections is a practical means of distinguishing the different approaches to the problem. 4. Statement of the Question or Problem Different disciplines use different words to refer to the central focus of the thesis. Whether it is a question you are trying to answer or a problem you are trying to solve, there are three important steps to take in establishing the role of your thesis:

State the question. Assert that this question remains unanswered. Argue why this question is worth answering at all.

In stating the question, clarity is of utmost importance. Here it is not a good idea to beat around the bush. Use clear, concise language and exact terminology to avoid misleading the reader. In the second part, your goal is to assert that your question remains unanswered. It is in this phase of the thesis writing that you provide critical analysis of the information you presented in the preceding section. Take the various approaches that have been put forth by other authors and in other works, and show that each of them fails to provide a wholly satisfactory answer to the question. Of course, it is not necessary to pick them apart one by one. Since you organized the preceding section by ideas, you can now take on entire classes of approaches rather than individual authors or works. Now that you have established that your question remains unanswered, your final task in this section is to argue why it is worth answering this question at all. What good will come out of finding an answer? In what ways will the answer contribute to knowledge? The reader needs to have some understanding of the purpose of your thesis writing in order to be sympathetic to your views. This section is central to the thesis, and the reader will definitely be looking out for it. You may actually want to include the word question or problem in the title itself in order to make it stand out to the reader. 5. Presentation of Your Work If a thesis had a climax, this would be it. What did you do to answer the question, and what results were obtained? The structure of this section is highly flexible, and will depend much on the nature of your work. Whatever the format, the goal is the one and

the same: convince your reader that you have done what you set out to do in writing the thesis. Show all relevant evidence to support your position, and avoid weakening it with the mention of dead ends or blind alleys, unless they too are relevant to demonstrating that you answered the question. 6. Conclusion As with the introduction, the conclusion section in thesis writing is not the same as it is in the five-paragraph essay. A typical thesis conclusion comprises three subsections: the conclusions drawn from your work, a summary of the contributions your thesis has made, and a prospect of future research. In the first subsection, avoid amorphous summarizing, and strive for a clear and concise presentation of the conclusions of your work. From the most to the least important, describe the inferences that you were able to make as the result of your research, and be sure to relate them directly to the question of your thesis itself. Next, provide the reader with an overview of the contributions to knowledge that your thesis has made. Make sure that you present these as new and original contributions; otherwise, the reader will overlook them as filler. Naturally, this subsection may overlap with the preceding one. Again, order your contributions from most to least significant. Finally, share your thoughts as to how your thesis can serve as the starting point for future research. This subsection is intended for future researchers who may be interested in taking your ideas further. 7. References Every citation made in the body of your thesis must appear in the list of references. The list of references can be used as a measuring stick to evaluate the breadth of your research. A good review of the literature, after all, is essential to good thesis writing. The reader will typically review the list of references to determine whether you have consulted the more prominent works in the field. The reader may also search for his or her own publications if they are relevant to the thesis topic, so be sure to work those in as well. Know that unlike a bibliography, which may include titles that are not directly referred to in the text, every item in your list of references must be referred to in the body of the thesis. The preferred way of organizing your references is alphabetically by author surname, although you may also organize the list by order of citation in the thesis. 8. Appendices Appendices are a useful tool for presenting material that may otherwise interrupt the flow of the thesis writing, such as lengthy data tables, complex charts and graphs, extensive

listings of any kind, etc. In general this is information that is not absolutely essential for the reader to continue on with the thesis, but which should be available to the reader to back up relevant points in your argumentation. Remarks on the Outline This outline addresses the fact that the thesis reader has two main concerns. The reader wants to know first whether you chose a good question, and second whether you answered it. Sections 3 and 4 of the thesis respond to the first concern, while section 5 responds to the second. The rest of the framework shoulders this body, easing the reader into the problem and then drawing him or her back out again with a new understanding of the question. This is the art of thesis writing. Tips for Successful Thesis Writing Be sensitive to your audience. Theses often treat subjects of obscure nature or in intense detail, and while your readers may have a background in the field, they may not be as intimately associated as you are with the particular question your thesis addresses. Be sure to explain difficult concepts clearly and thoroughly, and to provide sufficient background information so that the reader will be able to follow your ideas. Always strive for clarity. If your readers have to work too hard to understand your point, they may grow frustrated and unreceptive. Use precise language and clear constructions to effectively communicate your ideas. Also be sure to make the important parts stand out for the reader. A thesis is long and complex and contains an enormous amount of information. Direct the reader to focus on those aspects of the thesis that are most relevant to supporting your position. Avoid unnecessary editorializing. Personal opinions such as education is the most important part of society are subjective and unsubstantiated, and open the way for a picky reader to stump you with a question like Can you prove to us that education is the most important part of society? Other things to avoid in thesis writing include phrases such as It is clearly obvious that... or It goes without saying... These statements have the potential to antagonize readers by implying that if they do not follow, then they must be stupid. Perhaps most importantly of all, give yourself the time you need to produce a successful thesis. Thesis writing takes time a long, long time and the amount of time you put into it will show in the final product. Start early. Be sure to devote enough time to researching and developing your ideas before you actually sit down and start writing. Once you do start writing, take the time to formulate those ideas clearly and to present them in a convincing way. Also be sure to leave yourself enough time in the end to review your work and flesh out any weaknesses, and do what you can to fix them. Finally, a few words on Masters thesis vs. Doctoral thesis writing. Thesis writing for Masters theses differs from thesis writing for Doctoral theses not in format but in the

expectations of the reader, with a Doctoral thesis necessarily responding to a question or a problem of a higher level, be it in complexity or in scope. While a Masters thesis can seek to expand on knowledge by advancing a known position in a new direction or applying a known technique to a new matter of inquiry, a Doctoral thesis must convey an original and significant contribution to knowledge. Always aim to meet and surpass the expectations of your readers.

Thesis Writing: A Guide For Students

A thesis is essentially a research report. It addresses a very specific issue and describes what is known about that issue, what work the student has done to investigate or resolve it, and how that issue may play out in the future. It is the thesis writers responsibility to familiarize herself with the history of the issue and the different points of view that exist. The thesis writer works with a mentor who is an expert in the field that the thesis concerns, but not necessarily an expert on that exact topic. Usually thesis topics are so specific that very few people in the world except the thesis writer herself could be considered an expert on them. Your thesis writing will make a contribution to the field about which you are writing, and in a larger sense, to all of human knowledge. A thesis is distinctively different from an undergraduate research report because it is so original. How Specific Should My Thesis Get? When writing a thesis, you should get extremely specific. The intended readers of your thesis are only (1) your advisor and (2) future researchers in the field you are studying. Thesis writing is not for the common man. Therefore, there is virtually no limit to how involved you can get in the subject matter. In fact, besides the writing in the body of your thesis, it will also be necessary to include diagrams, charts, tables, and images to illustrate your results and data. How Should I Write My Thesis? Like any good piece of writing, your thesis should be well organized, have a clear thesis paragraph, and be written in a simple, clear active voice. Naturally, you will have to use an abundance of field-specific terms and, in fact, it is easier for other researchers to read scientific terms than it will be for them to read oversimplified English. As thesis writers come from a multitude of countries, slang or jargon should not be used. Choose formality over informality when writing your thesis, but do not be wordy or ungrammatical. How Should My Thesis Look? In general, worry more about the substance and writing of your thesis than about its presentation. Diagrams may be neatly hand-drawn instead of created in a graphics program if the results are easier to read that way. Other than that, standard academic form should be used. 12 point, Times New Roman, 1 margins, double-spaced type will do. Follow the guidelines given by your advisor on title pages, tables of contents, and other parts of the thesis. How Will Thesis Writing Affect My Life? During the couple of months before your deadline, a good part of your time should be devoted to thesis writing. Writing a thesis is a consuming endeavor. However, the work

you put into it is at least equivalent to the satisfaction of having finished your thesis and obtained your degree. Anyone that was ever involved in the writing of a thesis remembers the experience for the rest of their life. Before You Begin Writing Your Thesis Before undertaking the task of thesis writing, it is necessary to clear you mind. Do not think about the fact that you have nothing done yet, and seventy-five pages left to be written. Take the project in small steps. The challenge is similar to that of a five-mile run. As you are taking your first steps, you cant picture how you will feel an hour later when, panting, you complete that fifth mile. But you always finish. I assure you that when you are twenty pages into writing your thesis, you will feel far less intimidated. Like the run, there is indeed a stride one gets into when thesis writing. And when it is all over, the satisfaction you feel will be immense. Step One: Making An Outline How To Think Of An Outline For Your Thesis If youve played with the idea of writing your thesis straight and organizing it into chapters and sections afterwards, Id like you to give yourself a good shaking and accept the fact that it will be necessary to produce an outline. Writing a thesis without an outline would take the average student approximately twice as long as writing a thesis with an outline. The advantage of making an outline is that the project can be seen in terms of smaller parts rather than one daunting whole. Instead of saying Residual Polar Ice Caps On Mars: Go! why not calmly state Lets begin with the scientific significance of residual polar ice caps. After that, well go on to their history. How To Make Your Outline An outline should have chapter names, headings, subheadings, and indications of graphs and figures. If organizing your thesis seems difficult, think of it just as you are thinking of writing your thesis: baby steps. Start with your chapters, change their order a bit, and when you feel relatively satisfied with the chapters youve chosen, go chapter by chapter and make headings. Repeat the process with subheadings. Doing so will make organizing your thesis, and your thesis writing as a whole, far easier. Different universities employ different methods of outlining chapters for your thesis. How should you do it? For each chapter, decide which findings you will report, which graphs you will use, and which results you will chart. Create a sensible order for these figures and list them on a sheet of paper. Then pretend that you are relating to a colleague how you found your results or came to your conclusions. Make note of the important parts, or keywords, of your pretend discussion. These keywords will serve as the headings and subheadings of your thesis outline. When You Think Youre Finished

When you have a rough outline, let a sit overnight. Come to it the next day with a fresh attitude and make revisions. Dont be afraid to spend up to a week making an outline. Naturally, as you write your thesis, new headings and subheadings may pop up. In fact, your initial thesis outline will rarely look exactly like your final thesis outline. But that shouldnt motivate you to allow your outline to remain incomplete. Try for a perfect outline. It will only help uproot writers block later on. I recommend beginning with the Materials and Methods chapter, for it is the easiest to outline. Simply record what you used and what you did. Once your outline is completed, you have come to an important milestone in your thesis writing. But dont rejoice yet; proceed directly to your advisor or mentor to find out if youre on the right track. Speaking to your advisor will not only assuage your worries, it will show them that you are making progress with your thesis writing. Once your outline is accepted, hand over a copy to your advisor for reference as he or she reads your thesis chapters. Step Two: Preparing Yourself To Write Your Thesis Organize Your Thesis Using Electronic Folders In preparing yourself for weeks or months of thesis writing, your computer will come in handy. Make a folder for your thesis, a subfolder for each chapter, an additional folder for your references, and a final folder just for general notes. As you proceed with writing your thesis, you should include notes and reminders in each folder as well as your general notes folder. Try putting notes and text in different colors. Back Up Your Thesis Files Every Day Errors, viruses, and computer crashes do happen. I do not need to describe the horror of a scenario where your thesis is lost. To back up your files, I recommend copying your files onto a CD and putting that CD in a safe location. You might also try uploading the files to the internet in case the CD gets lost. Lastly, external hard drives are quick, reliable means of backing up files. Organize Your Thesis Using Physical Folders You should also print out your progress and keep it in physical olders. As much as we have all grown to trust technology, paper is a surer bet. Physical folders can also be used for notes, scraps, scribblings, letters, and other artifacts of your thesis writing experience. Place all of your folders in a fireproof filing cabinet with at least one full draw reserved just for thesis materials. Now that youre organized, you dont want to go mixing up your precious thesis writing notes with other papers. You might also want to make a second copy of all your chapters, notes, and findings, and store it in a different place that you visit from time to time.

Take Care of Thesis Paperwork When writing a thesis, there is always some university paperwork to deal with. At the very least, your thesis must be filed with the department and examiners must be nominated. There is no reason that you should have to experience bureaucratic delays at the end of the thesis writing process when you should be celebrating. Step Three: Make A Schedule Deadlines are the mother of invention. You and your advisor should discuss a reasonable schedule for producing chapters and ultimately, finishing your thesis. Make a schedule that is broken down into chapters. Depending on who your advisor is, these schedules might e loose indications of when certain chapters are due or strict timetables. I recommend taking them seriously. As each deadline passes and another chapter is stamped complete you will be getting closer and closer to the finish line. Step Four: Start Writing Your Thesis Thesis writing is like any other difficult task in that it can be tempting to procrastinate. As a result, you must make sure that you get something finished each time you sit down to write. Do not discard your work even if it seems far from final draft material. You will be surprised how your scratchwork is often laden with inspiration for future thesis work. Also, dont worry about handing in draft work to your advisor. He or she will not be expecting you to be a perfect thesis writer. Nobody produces perfect work on the first try. The first time you get a chapter back from your advisor, be prepared to see a great deal of corrections. Red ink is a rite of passage when it comes to thesis writing. Thats simply the way things go. Most students learn from experience, though. You will be proud to see how few corrections are made to the final chapter of your thesis as compared to the first. Keep in mind that your scratchwork is not being evaluated; only the final product will receive a grade. How To Structure Your Thesis The sections below apply to most, but not all, thesis projects. Your own thesis will use many of them, or some combination. Depending on your University and advisors policies, you will either be given a list of sections to use in your thesis writing or decide on your own. Regardless, here is a description of what is generally expected for the most common thesis sections. Title Page The format of your Title Page is specific to your university. You will always need to put your name, the date, the name of your university, and the title of your project. Abstract

The abstract is a short section that describes the issue or problem you are approaching, your results and conclusions, and the larger significance of your work. Your abstract should be written once you have completed your thesis writing. Table of Contents The table of contents is a neat list of chapters, headings, and subheadings, along with the page numbers where each begins. It should be numbered using the Roman Numeral system. Introduction The thesis introduction should explain why you have chosen to write about the particular issue or problem you are addressing. What significance does it have in the realm of science or humanity? Try to write from a teachers point of view, not a specialist who is speaking to another specialist. Although technical language is necessary and proper, people in related realms might read your thesis one day and you want your language to be somewhat user-friendly. You should also do your best to arouse the interest of your readers; this may be the only time during your thesis writing when you are permitted to employ a bit of creativity. Literature Review This section addresses what is known about the issue. You should write about the background, from where the problem arose, and how others have attempted to resolve the problem. It is normal to consult between 75 and 125 sources. Much of this information will come from the research you have done over the past couple of months and throughout the course of your graduate or post-graduate studies. For the exceptionally organized among us, the literature review section is the easiest part of the thesis writing process because it focuses on what you have been studying for the past three or four years. The Body Of Your Thesis When writing the body of your thesis, you must use more detail than you have ever used in any other writing, be it a research paper or ajournal article. Not only should you expound upon your findings more thoroughly, but you should describe exactly how you performed each experiment. Thesis writing can be challenging if one is not exceptionally organized and detail-oriented. How exactly you organize the body of your thesis writing depends upon the logic of your progression of thought as well as your own preferences. You might have to build upon a hypothesis, describing how you tested it and what your results were, concluding with some kind of solution that you have devised yourself. For that type of thesis writing, you might use the following headings: Theory, Material and Methods, First Problem, Second Problem, Third Problem, Possible Solution, Conclusion. Other types of thesis writing

might require you to discuss various methods in subsequent chapters instead of one Materials and Methods section. Theory When deciding upon which pre-established theory to include in your thesis writing, note that not all researchers will be familiar with your theories unless they are quite famous. Do not present multiple pages of mathematical proofs or the like, and do not forget to summarize even semi-well known theories. Original theory is best, for it nearly always guarantees that you will write with both thoroughness and passion. Thesis writing has no place for cliffhangers: be clear about what you are claiming so that your readers can keep it in mind as they peruse your work. The Materials and Methods Section While many theses have a Materials and Methods section, humanities theses may not. If you are writing a scientific thesis, however, you will need to describe the ways in which you performed your experiments. This should be simple thesis writing for you; all it takes is a literal description of what was done. Make sure you are as comprehensive and adept as possible in detailing your techniques, for it is very likely that other people will test your experiment in the future. Results and Discussion While these sections could easily be separated, it is common to combine them in your thesis writing, as their content tends to be interrelated. You may further break down this section into chapters based on subject. Be sure to discuss the premises of your experiment before listing the results. You should also mention the variables of the experiment, the value of standard deviations, and other applicable background information. Diagrams, graphs, and charts will be very useful in illustrating your results. The discussion part of this section should explain the meaning of your results, where they fit in the current literature concerning your issue, and whether they concur with or deviate from other experimenters work. The Conclusion The conclusion section is less detailed than the rest of your thesis, and requires a more literary sort of thesis writing. Remember that you have already told readers the conclusion of your research at the very beginning of your thesis, in the abstract. The difference between that description and the one in the conclusion section is that here you will be more specific, and also get into the possible limitations of your results.

Keep in mind that definitive conclusions are not always the best finale for your work. Researchers will always have further questions; they will want to know which problems still exist, and which other problems arose from your investigation of the issue.