How-to-Write-a-Better-Thesis

128 11 Before You Submit
Structural Editing
First, I look at the overall structure. There should be a table of contents that corresponds
with the chapter titles and main section headings in the text.
The table of contents should tell me straight away whether there are any major
logic problems. If it is not informative enough, I go to the beginning of each chapter
and read the introductions in order. This will probably help, but it may reveal that
the introductions themselves are inadequate. (I will already have done some reviewing
of this kind while the thesis was in early stages of preparation).
Finally, I read the introductory chapter as if I were a reader seeing it for the first
time. I ask myself: Is this telling me (the uninformed reader) why the work is being
done? Is it clear what the aim of the work is? Is there an adequate sketch of how
the writer intends to achieve this aim? Is the scope of the thesis clearly delineated?
Again, if any of these points are inadequate, I note the problems in the margin. Then
I go straight to the conclusions, and ask myself whether they respond to the stated
aim. If they don’t, I note the disparity.
The Main Text
Next, I read the whole draft from beginning to end, noting spelling, grammar and
typographical errors as I go, and also noting things such as obscurities, pullulating
patches of purple prose, and places where the argument seems to have logic gaps.
At the end of each chapter I write a few lines about how the chapter shaped up in the
context of everything that preceded it. The conclusions or summary of the chapter
are particularly important here. One of my most common comments on them is that
the author is still writing a list of the chapter contents, rather than giving me, the
reader, a sense of how the chapter is advancing my comprehension of the argument
in the whole document.
A related check at this stage is to see whether the text has flow and motivation.
When I am reading, say, an explanation of cellular metabolism, I want to know why
it is there—how does it relate to the overall topic of teenage dietary choice? When
I am reading a description of experimental apparatus, I want to know why that apparatus
was required, and what kinds of tests it is going to be used for. The old adage
is ‘tell the reader what you are going to say; then say it; then tell the reader that you
have said it’. Sometimes this is described as ‘make sure that everything has a head
and a tail’. At a coarse level, this is how a chapter is organized—the introduction
and summary provide motivation and context for the chapter’s contents. But the
same principle should be applied at a more fine-grained level, so that the reader is
never left wondering, for example, how a particular section or even paragraph could
possibly be relevant to the rest of the thesis. While head-and-tailing can easily be
overdone, it is a critical tool for helping to ensure that the thesis has narrative flow.