eg-353:writing_an_honours_project_thesis
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eg-353:writing_an_honours_project_thesis [2008/09/15 12:42] – eechris | eg-353:writing_an_honours_project_thesis [2012/03/11 10:45] (current) – [Introduction] eechris | ||
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+ | ====== Writing an Honours Project Thesis ====== | ||
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+ | //M.S. Towers & J. Bonet// | ||
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+ | College of Engineering, | ||
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+ | ===== Introduction ===== | ||
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+ | This short article describes the basics of writing a good thesis. It should be read in conjunction | ||
+ | with the many references listed below [1-10] and taking into account the advice of your supervisor. | ||
+ | The {{eg-353: | ||
+ | be used as a template for the two page, two column extended abstract that has to be submitted | ||
+ | together with the thesis. | ||
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+ | ===== What is an honours thesis? For whom is it written? How should it be written? ===== | ||
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+ | In most cases, your thesis is a genuine technical report. The report concerns an engineering or scientific problem and it should describe what was known about the problem previously, what you did towards solving it considering the alternative approaches, and what you think your results mean. | ||
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+ | A thesis is not an answer to an assignment question -- there is a big difference. The reader of a student' | ||
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+ | More importantly, | ||
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+ | Your thesis will, of course, be read and marked, and then put away on a shelf in the School library. However it may also be used seriously in the future as a technical report, especially by future students working on related projects. Write your report with this audience in mind too. | ||
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+ | ===== Getting Started ===== | ||
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+ | Once you have a list of chapters and, under each chapter heading, a list of things to be reported or explained, you have struck a great blow against writers' | ||
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+ | ===== Adhering to standards ===== | ||
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+ | Use of units should conform with the SI units standard. A single space should appear between a number and the symbol for the units. | ||
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+ | Graphical symbols conforming to appropriate standards (for instance IEE standards for electrical and electronic items) should be used. The external examiner will look specifically for such details. | ||
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+ | References should be made using the format seen in the references provided with this guide. | ||
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+ | ===== How much detail? ===== | ||
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+ | There should be more detail given than for a technical journal paper. Once your thesis has been marked, and your interested family have read the first three pages, the only further readers are likely to be people who are seriously doing research in just that area. For example, a future research student might be pursuing the same research and be interested to find out exactly what you did. ("Why doesn' | ||
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+ | You have probably read the theses of previous students in the laboratory where you are now working, so you probably know the advantages of a clear, explicit thesis and/or the disadvantages of a vague one. | ||
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+ | ===== Make it clear what is yours. ===== | ||
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+ | If you use a result, observation or generalisation that is not your own, you must usually state where in the scientific literature that result is reported. The only exceptions are cases where every engineer knows it: Maxwell' | ||
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+ | Good referencing also tells the reader **which** parts of the thesis are descriptions of previous knowledge and **which** parts are **your additions** to that knowledge. In a thesis, written for the general reader who has little familiarity with the literature of the field, this should be especially clear. | ||
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+ | It may seem tempting to leave out a reference in the hope that the non-specialist reader will think that a nice idea or a nice bit of analysis is yours. We advise against this gamble. The reader will probably think: "What a nice idea -- I wonder if it's original?" | ||
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+ | The work that is actually yours may be only a small part of the whole thesis, especially in a non-numerical theoretical thesis. Do not feel bad about this: all of us who work in engineering or science know that one has to do a lot of work just to get to the boundary between the known and the unknown, and that any small advancement of that boundary is an important achievement. | ||
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+ | If you are writing in the passive voice, you must be more careful about attribution than if you are writing in the active voice. "The sample was prepared by heating yttrium..." | ||
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+ | ===== Presentation. ===== | ||
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+ | Your thesis must be easy to read, so typing it is preferable to handwriting. There is no need, however, for the finished product to be a masterpiece of desk-top publishing. Your time can be more productively spent improving the content than the appearance. | ||
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+ | There is no strong correlation (positive or negative!) between length and mark. Readers will not appreciate large amounts of vague, irrelevant or unnecessary text (i.e. avoid padding). There is no need to leave big gaps and empty pages or to use cardboard sheets to make it thicker. (We sometimes see this). | ||
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+ | The text must be clear. Good grammar and well thought out writing will make the thesis easier to read: it should read smoothly, with a flow. Try to link the sections together so that the thesis does not read as if different parts have been written in isolation and just bolted together to make up a report. Be careful that cross-referencing of sections, figure and equation numbers are accurate and consistent. Avoid sudden inexplicit changes of subject; the logical structure behind the arrangement of the material should be clear. Technical writing has to be a little formal -- more formal than this article. Native English speakers should remember that scientific or technical English is an international language. Slang and informal writing will be harder for a non-native speaker to understand and has no place in formal reporting. | ||
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+ | One common convention is to use the passive voice. The active voice ("I measured the frequency..." | ||
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+ | The layout and structure are described in more detail in a [[Layout and Structure of an Honours Project Thesis|separate article]] [9]. | ||
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+ | ===== References ===== | ||
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+ | - Booth W.C., __The Craft of Research__, University of Chicago Press, 1995. | ||
+ | - Eisenberg A., __Effective technical communication__, | ||
+ | - Fisher E., __Enjoy Writing your Science Thesis or Dissertation!: | ||
+ | - Kirkman, A.J., __Good Style: writing for science and technology__, | ||
+ | - Kirkman A.J., __Full Marks: Advice on Punctuation for Scientific and Technical Writing__, Ramsbury Books, 1993. | ||
+ | - Lindsay D., __A Guide to Scientific Writing__, Longman 1995. | ||
+ | - Shortland M., __Communicating Science, a Handbook__, Longman 1991. | ||
+ | - Silyn-Roberts H., __Writing for Science: a Practical Handbook for Science, Engineering and Technology Students__, Longman, 1996. | ||
+ | - Towers M.S. & Bonet J., “[[Layout and Structure of an Honours Project Thesis]]”, | ||
+ | - Van Emden J., __Handbook of Writing for Engineers__, | ||