How-to-Write-a-Better-Thesis

Dotting the ‘i’s and Crossing the ‘t’s
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• Acknowledgments recognize help received in the execution of the research and
in the preparation of the report or thesis.
• If you are fortunate to have received financial assistance, don’t forget to acknowledge
the organization that granted you a scholarship or other funding.
Declaration
• Most universities require certification that the work in the thesis is your original
work, and has not been used for the award of any other degree.
• If you have published work from your thesis in journals before making a final
submission, you must list complete references to such articles. You need to do
this to avoid possible accusations of ‘self-plagiarism’ or submitting work that is
not entirely original, and you will need to clearly identify the extent to which the
papers are your own work as distinct from that of your co-authors.
The Main Text
• If you have been following the methods I advocated in the preceding chapters,
everything appearing in this checklist should already have been done. But do
check. If you have just picked this book up and have not been following my
suggestions, I strongly urge you to use this checklist. If you find any of the suggestions
puzzling, go back and read the chapter concerned.
Aim and Scope
• Can the aim be located in the table of contents?
• Is the reason for doing the work outlined?
• Does the aim follow clearly from this problem statement or rationale?
• Are constraints stated that limit the scope of the investigation?
• Is the aim followed by a brief outline of the way you intend to go about achieving
it? (This refers not only to the experiments, surveys or investigations that you
will design yourself but to the whole of the project, including reviews of theory
and so on).
• Do the conclusions you draw in the last chapter relate clearly to your aim?
Background
• Do the introductions to chapters and sections clearly state their purpose?
• Is there any material in the background chapters that does not contribute directly
to the later development of the report or thesis? (If there is such material, it
should be relegated to appendices, or omitted altogether).