How-to-Write-a-Better-Thesis

Appendix
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• The text is unnecessarily long and wordy. Material is repeated.
• Lack of critical self-evaluation of the research.
There are several aspects of poor theses that I find plainly bewildering, but that
do seem to be common. In addition to the issues listed above, I note: descriptions
of processes that cannot be understood; theses that seem incomplete, with some
entire component missing (most damning is a lack of critical analysis of the work
presented in the thesis, or even a complete absence of discussion of results); insufficient
data to support the conclusions, or indeed any concrete conclusions at
all; whole bodies of work unreferenced, despite obvious relevance; and persistent
‘microgarbling’, in which sections and even paragraphs don’t have a clear thread of
ideas, but instead are just a jumble.
I suspect that many such theses are a consequence of the student simply having
run out of time. If there is one single lesson I have learnt from examination, is
that starting the thesis early is not just important, but is critical. If you are doing a
research degree and haven’t yet begun to write your thesis, don’t delay any further!