How-to-Write-a-Better-Thesis

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From Data to Results 99 Jackie’s work was about food choices and its relationship to secondary education outcomes. Put simply, did what teenagers eat affect how well they went at school? The problem for Jackie was that the topic is part of a complex network of societal, economic, and political issues. There was almost an overabundance of data (she was reinterpreting materials previously collected by others), which had been previously harnessed in conflicting ways by a range of people and organizations. Many of them had used it selectively to support points of view that were driven by ideological goals: for and against providing meals in schools; for and against imposing dietary guidelines on school canteens; blaming parents for neglect; blaming the state for intervention, or failure to intervene; and so on. Worse, some of the data collection had been undertaken for political ends, and so was suspect. This data had both qualitative and quantitative aspects, but it was the quantitative aspects that were relevant to Jackie, who was trying to identify whether there were some biological underpinnings to the problem, and in particular had formed the view that chronic lack of exercise rather than specific diet was the more identifiable culprit in poor academic results. However, she had gotten lost in the detail, and had begun to worry about whether she might get publicly criticized by special interest groups if her findings were made public. A more qualitative example is that of a student, Don, who was examining food imagery in classic novels. He had collected forty or so examples from separate literary traditions that he felt supported his theme on how ‘meal episodes’ and food imagery were used to establish the morality (or otherwise) of the characters. For example, in some novels the first time the reader discovers that a character is selfish is when the character doesn’t share food. Don had already written detailed case studies that supported his argument in the context of several novels, forming Chaps. 3, 4 and 5 of his thesis, following a thorough review of relevant aspects of literary theory in Chap. 2. He now wanted to use his wider collection of examples to demonstrate that his argument held generally, but was struggling to assemble the material into a persuasive form. Despite the superficial differences, in many respects these students faced much the same challenges, as I now explain. From Data to Results You have a hypothesis; you have been busily gathering data and drawing inferences, and, informally at least, linking the data to your original goal. Now you have to take this activity and use it to persuade the reader to agree with your thinking. The process starts with your data.
100 8 Outcomes and Results What ‘the Data’ Is Comprised of One thing that these examples illustrate is a critical but hidden issue: each of these students had been making decisions as to what body of material they were thinking of as ‘the data’, and were managing that data somehow. That is, before you can begin analyzing your data, you have to have some data to analyze. A first step is to decide what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’. This is perhaps most obviously an issue in Don’s case—what actually constitutes a ‘meal episode’? What is the basis for choosing novels to analyze? What literary traditions should be sampled? These were issues that he had tackled in his early chapters. 2 Once the inclusion criteria were settled, and he was reasonably sure he had a representative selection of cases, he could then proceed to use the cases to develop his findings. A next step is to systematically organize the data. I cannot emphasize this enough. You need to create spreadsheets in which the data is laid out in a regular way, or build files in which material has been categorized by key criteria, or draw pictures showing how the data items relate to each other, or something else; but whatever you do, get the data under control. When a student walks into my office clutching a big pile of scruffy printouts, or shows me a Windows folder full of files with no idea of what the file names mean or what is in them, or has lost track of which version of the data is correct, or which graph is current, I know the student is in trouble. A casual approach to managing your data may not seem to create issues early on, but leave things too long and the complexities will compound and soon get out of control. Materials that are in a mess suggest that the thinking is in a mess. This is a good point for self-reflection: if you find that your arrangement of the materials has become chaotic, then maybe your grasp is chaotic too. Take yourself back to first principles, ask basic questions about the data and what it is supposed to represent, think about how you would like to see it organized—and then make it happen. Remember that a core skill of research is careful thinking. Take heed of signs that suggest that you can improve, and act on them. A good presentation of results rests on having the data—which as I noted above may be voluminous and contradictory—organized and under control. And this, in turn, rests on clear principles for what the data is: what is valid, what is included or excluded, and so on. The lesson for your thesis is that the reader needs to know too. An examiner won’t trust your results unless they understand that your data is fair. A clear presentation of how the data was chosen, what its properties are, and so on, is essential to establishing trust with the reader, and, just as importantly, satisfying yourself that your data is complete and correct. 2 When faced with doing the analysis, Don began to made some fresh judgments as to whether something should be included; an obvious risk in making judgments during the analysis is that subconsciously he might exclude cases because they did not fit his hypothesis, and initially he did make errors of this kind. What it also reflected was that his thinking had developed, and he needed to adjust his early chapters accordingly.
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How to Write a Better Thesis
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David Evans † University of Melbo
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Preface to the Third Edition When I
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Introduction Thesis writing can be
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Contents 1 What Is a Thesis? ......
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Contents xiii 8 Outcomes and Result
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Chapter 1 What Is a Thesis? Simply
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Types of Thesis 3 These questions
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Examiners’ Reports 5 layout. See
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Summary of Chapter 1: What Is a The
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10 2 Thesis Structure Research is u
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12 2 Thesis Structure Some of these
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14 2 Thesis Structure are ‘finish
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16 2 Thesis Structure 2. Background
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18 3 Mechanics of Writing that even
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20 3 Mechanics of Writing have oddi
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22 3 Mechanics of Writing I recomme
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24 3 Mechanics of Writing • Frequ
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26 3 Mechanics of Writing There is
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28 3 Mechanics of Writing The agric
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30 3 Mechanics of Writing wrong. Th
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32 3 Mechanics of Writing • Long
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34 3 Mechanics of Writing might giv
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36 3 Mechanics of Writing thesis. Y
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Chapter 4 Making a Strong Start In
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Creating a Structure 41 are trying
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Initial Efforts 43 of it in detail
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Starting, and Starting Again 45 ad
Page 58 and 59: The Creative Process 47 you must a
Page 60 and 61: Writing an Individual Chapter 49 H
Page 62 and 63: Literature 51 From ‘Chapter Five
Page 64 and 65: Styles of Working 53 And don’t f
Page 66 and 67: Working with Your Supervisor 55 Th
Page 68 and 69: Working with Your Supervisor 57 pa
Page 70 and 71: Summary of Chapter 4: Making a Stro
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Page 82 and 83: 72 5 The Introductory Chapter 3. Ai
Page 84 and 85: 74 6 Background Chapters Developing
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Page 88 and 89: 78 6 Background Chapters Throughout
Page 90 and 91: 80 6 Background Chapters • You un
Page 92 and 93: 82 6 Background Chapters • In som
Page 94 and 95: 84 7 Establishing Your Contribution
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Page 110 and 111: Presentation 101 Presentation In t
Page 112 and 113: Analysis 103 haste, and overconfid
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Page 116 and 117: Reflection 107 in his thesis, wher
Page 118 and 119: Illustrations 109 interpreted, and
Page 120 and 121: Illustrations 111 they can read an
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Page 124 and 125: Structuring the Discussion 115 can
Page 126 and 127: Writing with Authority 117 criteri
Page 128 and 129: Summary of Chapter 9: The Discussio
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Page 134 and 135: From First to Second Draft 127 abo
Page 136 and 137: Dotting the ‘i’s and Crossing t
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Page 146 and 147: Kinds of Dissemination 139 Feedbac
Page 148 and 149: Dissemination Plans 141 • Primar
Page 150 and 151: Seminar and Conference Presentation
Page 152 and 153: Being a Graduate Student 145 more
Page 154 and 155: The Arc of a Research Degree 147 t
Page 156 and 157: Summary of Chapter 12: Beyond the T
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Appendix Afterword The creation of
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Appendix 153 Appendix: Analysis of
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Appendix 155 • The text is unnece
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158 Notes on Further Resources Phil
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160 Index Books, writing, 25 Bracke
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162 Index H Harvard reference syste
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164 Index Proper names, 20 Punctuat
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166 Index discussion of results, 12
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