HOW TO WRITE A THESISand survive the process

About me• Sofia Gomes

• PhD candidate in Computer Science, from Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias, NOVA

• IEEE Volunteer

• wrote a MSc and a PhD thesis

“THE” Thesis

• At least 1 (MSc) or 4 (PhD) years of work • Developing the work can be fun (at least at first) • Writing the thesis can be a torture

“THE Thesis” - Why it is so hard

“THE Thesis” - Why it is so hard

• It’s lonely

• It’s a lot of work and it takes time

• Involves a lot of writing • If the thesis document is not well-written, it does not matter

that much what/how you did • Most of engineering students are not trained to write properly

• Research means you don’t know the outcome • and a *lot* of times you can’t reach what you want

In this talk…

• Goal: give you tips for a successful thesis

• Before starting checklist • Overview of the writing process • Expected thesis outline • Writing style rules (english)

Tips before starting

Prepare yourself!

• Choose your advisor(s) carefully

• Choose your topic carefully

• Choose your writing environment

Choose your advisor(s) carefully

• (S)he will be your boss for at least a year

• Check for personality compatibility

• Ask for other colleagues experience

• Check if colleagues are finishing on time

• Very often 1 advisor is better than 2

Choose your topic carefully

Choose your topic carefully

• You will work on that for at least a year

• Make sure you like what you’re doing

• Ask and read background work before committing

• Make sure you’re solving something new • and if not, make sure it’s still relevant

Choose your writing environment• LaTeX vs. Word

• learn the right tool • check how to manage bibliography • check the document specifications

Choose your writing environment• LaTeX vs. Word

• learn the right tool • check how to manage bibliography • check the document specifications

• Writing English vs. Portuguese • English is the “science” language • but make sure you can handle it • British English vs. American English • always, always use a spell checker

Most common complaints

Most common complaints

• I don’t know how to start!

• I don’t know what is expected in each section/chapter

• I can’t find that paper

• I don’t understand that work

• I’m not inspired today, I’ll do it tomorrow

The Writing

Tips when starting “I don’t know how to start”

• Understand writing • Writing means you have something to say • Requires a clear knowledge about what your work and

background • It takes time and practice!

• Writing is hard for everyone • Don’t try to be Shakespeare • Stop waiting for “inspiration” • Start with the middle

Writing Process• Prewriting

• Organize and synthetize information • Define a take-away message • Outline and road-map

• Write draft • Just keep writing

• Rewrite and Revision • Read out loud, cut the clutter, check the verbs • Correct mistakes • Get feedback

(60%)

(10%)

(30%)

Outline

Research Paper

• Abstract

• Introduction • Background / Literature Review • “Real Work” • Evaluation and Discussion • Conclusions

• Abstract

• Introduction • Background / Literature Review • “Real Work” • Evaluation and Discussion • Conclusions

Thesis

Thesis vs. Research Paper

Research Paper Thesis

• Limited space

• Specialized context

• Tackles a specific question

• “Unlimited” space

• Broad context

• Tackles a large question

Thesis Outline Recommended Writing order

• Abstract

• Introduction • Background / Literature Review • “Real Work” - Your Results and Contributions • Evaluation and Discussion • Conclusions

(1)(2)

(3)(4/5)

(4/5)

(6)

Background / Literature Review

Background Chapter • Give the big picture of the field

• Give context and introduce seminal work

• Introduce the works that you will use

• Introduce the limitations of these works, and why they don’t solve your problem

• Give hints on what your solution will have to address

How to find Related Work “I can’t find that paper”

• Ask your advisor for the seminal work

• Google Scholar • Check citations and h-index • Most cited papers, are in principal more important

• Can’t find that paper? • Access by your campus internet (use proxies when at home) • Check the authors webpage / Research Gate / Citeseer • Ask your advisor for the paper and/or email the author

• Managing references • Use a proper tool (e.g. BibTex)

Writing about Related Work “I can’t understand that work”

• Can’t understand what they’re doing? • Check other papers citing this work • Read descriptions and comparisons by other people

• Careful with plagiarism • Never ever ever copy sentences! Use your own words

• Cite correctly! • A citation should come after the introducing the work

Writing about Related Work “I can’t understand that work”

• Can’t understand what they’re doing? • Check other papers citing this work • Read descriptions and comparisons by other people

• Careful with plagiarism • Never ever ever copy sentences! Use your own words

• Cite correctly! • A citation should come after the introducing the work

Your Real Work

Your results and contributions

• Be clear about what are you doing and why

• Don’t assume people are experts in your field

• Write like you were teaching some colleague

• Justify your decisions

• Restate your goals often

Evaluation and Discussion

Evaluation and Discussion• Show what you’ve done is correct

• Empirical Testing vs. Proofs • Graphs vs. Theorems

• Discuss and compare your results • Don’t lie! • But be positive on what you’ve accomplish • Compare with related work • Remember the reader why it is important • State what you can do and the others can’t • End with positive take away message

Conclusions

Conclusion Chapter• Should be understood without reading your whole thesis

• Restate what you wanted to accomplish • Restate have you accomplish • Defend your results (anticipate criticism)

• Strengths and Limitations • Future Work

• Open challenges / directions • What would be interesting to do

• Show how awesome your thesis • Restate the big picture, and give take away message

Introduction

Introduction• Written for a general audience

• Clear, concise, non-technical • Any colleague must be able to understand it • Even your mom should be able do understand some of it

• The most important part along with the conclusions

• Keep paragraphs short and well-written

• Summarize at high-level. • Leave details and criticisms of others’ work out

Introduction• Introduce /define your area in general

• Artificial Intelligence is.. / Network Security aims to… • What is known • What is unknown

• Limitations and gaps of current works • Your question / goal • How will you solve it • Why is your approach different and important

• State your contributions concisely • Roadmap of your thesis (optional but recommended)

Abstract

Abstract

• Completely independent of your thesis

• People read the abstract to know if they will read your thesis or not

• High-level, but not as in the introduction

• Overview of the main story • Should fit in one page!

Abstract• Why you’re doing it

• Background • Your question / goal / hypothesis

• How you’re doing it • Methods and Experiments • What are your key results

• How it relates to the real world • Conclusions and implications

Writing Style Rules *

* Most examples here were taken from the Coursera’s Course: Writing in the Sciences

https://www.coursera.org/course/sciwrite

Writing Style Rules• Keep it short and simple

• You’re not writing a novel • It should be understandable

• Use a spellchecker • Expand your vocabulary

• Read other people’s work • Use a dictionary for synonyms

• Avoid negative sentences • She was not often right vs. She was usually wrong • They did not believe the drug was harmful vs. They believed the

drug was safe.

Writing Style Rules - after writing• Read and re-read everything

• Is my sentence/section/chapter understandable? • Is it enjoyable to read? • can I make it better?

• Distance yourself from the work • Wait a few days before re-reading again • Put yourself in the reader’s shoes • Ask for feedback

Common English Mistakes (made by portuguese)

• Don’t forget the subject • Subject is mandatory (Use we, one, they, it)

• Sabemos que é impossível • We know it is impossible • One knows it is impossible

• Avoid beginning sentences with “It is…” • É importante destacar os trabalhos recentes que… • It is important to highlight the most recent works that… • The most recent works that…

• Remove unnecessary that • Os resultados mostraram que muitas pessoas gostam de fruta • Results showed that many people like fruit • Results showed many people like fruit

Writing Style Rules (english)• Cut the clutter

• Conveys the same message, stronger

• Cut dead weight words and phrases • As it is well known • As it has been shown • It can be regarded that • It should be emphasized that

• Cut adverbs • very, really, quite, basically, generally, etc.

Cut the clutter

• A majority of • A number of • Are of the same opinion • Less frequently occurring • All three of the • Give rise to • Due to the fact that • Have an effect

• most • many • agree • rare • the three • cause • because • affect

Writing Style Rules (english)• Use the active voice

• (subject + verb + object) • helps direct communication

• It is ok to use “We” or “I” • A solution was developed to save the world • We develop a solution to save the world

• Gives clear meaning to what is done • Makes you responsible for your work

• Unless it’s someone else work • in [3] a solution was developed • The authors of [3] developed a solution

Writing Style Rules (english)

• Write with verbs • avoid turning verbs into nouns

• Provide a review vs. Review • Offer a confirmation vs. Confirm • Provide a description vs. Describe • Take an assessment of vs. Assess

• use strong verbs

• don’t bury the main verb • keep the subject and main verb close

Avoid turning verbs into nouns

• Compare: • During DNA damage, recognition of H3K4me3 by ING2

results in recruitment of Sin3/HDAC and repression of cell proliferation genes.

• With: • During DNA damage, H3K4me3 recruits ING2 and Sin3/

HDAC, which together repress cell proliferation genes.

• Say exactly who does what to whom!

Use strong verbs• avoid common verbs

• Compare: • “Loud music came from speakers embedded in the

walls, and the entire arena moved as the hungry crowd got to its feet.”

• With: • “Loud music exploded from speakers embedded in the

walls, and the entire arena shook as the hungry crowd leaped to its feet.”

Don’t bury the verb• One study of 930 adults with multiple sclerosis (MS)

receiving care in one of two managed care settings or in a fee-for-service found that only two-thirds of those needing to contact a neurologist for a MS-related problem in the prior 6 months had done so.

• One study found that, of 930 adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were receiving care in one of two managed care settings or in a fee-for-service setting, only two-thirds of those needing to contact a neurologist for an MS-related problem in the prior six months had done so.

Common english mistakes• That vs. which

• Affect vs. effect

• They’re vs. their

• Who vs. whom

• Assure vs. ensure

Final Tips

Final Tips• Prepare, and practice writing

• Set realistic goals and do your best to accomplish them

• Stay focus!

• Follow a schedule • Fix an amount of working hours • Create work habits • (whatever works for you)

• Eat, sleep and exercise

Final Tips

• Stay optimist

• Don’t try to make it perfect

• Follow a schedule

• Ask for feedback

QUESTIONS?