How-to-Write-a-Better-Thesis

Dotting the ‘i’s and Crossing the ‘t’s
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• Does the discussion permit you to reach all of your conclusions?
Conclusions
• Are all your conclusions justified by the preceding discussion?
• Are you forming new points for discussions while drawing your conclusions?
(You should not be).
• Do your conclusions respond to your aim, as set out in your first chapter?
• Are your conclusions merely summaries of findings, or do they draw out the
implications of your own work in terms of improved theory or practice? (They
should).
Format
You will have to satisfy yourself that the format you have used helps readers to find
their way through the thesis and, in particular, that it is consistent. Most books on
writing theses give a chapter or more to this, with strict rules about the numbers of
spaces before headings, the method for emphasis of major headings, the use of numbering
systems, the spaces between paragraphs, and so on. Most such properties
are managed by effective use of templates in a word processor, as discussed earlier.
Figures and Tables
Check all figures and tables. All will have a caption that should consist of several
parts: a title (which will appear in the lists in the preliminary pages); explanatory
material that draws attention to or explains certain features of the figure or table;
and a citation giving the source of the material. You may lump all the figures, including
graphs, diagrams, plates, photographs, and maps together in one list and the
tables in another, although in the past it has been customary to make a separate list
of photographic plates (a practice that predates the use of high-quality, computergenerated
copies of photographs).
Any Figure or Table
• Does it add an extra dimension to your ability to give a piece of information,
demonstrate a trend or communicate an idea?
• Is it simple or cluttered? Do the important points that you are trying to make
emerge clearly?
• Does it, together with its caption, make sense by itself, or does the reader have to
read the text to make sense of it? (One should not have to).