TIL/T&P Masterclass presentation by Ramon Landman and Bart van Arem on writing a PhD thesis. September 2011.

1. Writing your MSc Thesis
About mastering your thesis and
killing your darlings
9/30/11
Delft
University of
Technology
Challenge the future

2. Killing your darlings
• No
dating
and
sex
during
the
writing
process
• Not
participating
in
the
household
during
writing
process
• Being
rude
and
grumpy
to
your
environment
if
writing
fails
• else...
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3. Killing your darlings
• To
realize
a
clear
story
line
within
your
report,
kill
everything
that
does
not
contribute
to
the
message.
• How
do
you
kill
them??
• When
do
you
kill
them??
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4. Goal MSc Thesis
• To
show
all
I
know
and
learned
• There
is
no
real
goal
for
writing
the
thesis;
my
supervisors
already
know
what
I
am
capable
of.
• To
answer
my
research
questions
in
a
structured
way
for
any
interested
reader
• Else...
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5. Goal MSc Thesis
• Provides
insight
into
(for
different
types
of
readers)
• What
has
been
done
• Why
it
has
been
done
• How
it
has
been
done
• What
was
concluded
• Thoroughly
master
the
content
of
your
research
subject
(after
struggle)
• Learn
to
put
things
in
place;
•
introduction,
research
goals
and
questions,
literature,
method,
results,
discussion
and
conclusions.
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6. Themes
• Introduction
and
structure
• Language
and
layout
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7. Introduction and structure
• Not
important;
my
supervisor
reads
everything
• Very
important;
they
give
my
reader
a
hallstand
• Literature
not
needed;
its
all
about
my
own
cleverness
• Else...
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8. Structure
• Reading
a
report
• Rough
• Summary,
content,
conclusions
• Selective
• Content,
introduction
(Pirst
sentence)
of
sections,
headings
• Intensive
• Clear
structure,
not
too
much
detail
• One
subject
(point)
per
section
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9. Introduction - format
• 1.
Give
insight
into
background
of
the
research
• 2.
Establish
a
niche
• Problem
statement;
However,
unforunately,
but...
• Importance
of
solving
the
problem
• 3.
Occupy
the
niche
• Research
question
• Indicate
your
main
purposes
(concrete)
• WorkPlow
(literature,
method,
test
case)
• 4.
Present
main
Pindings
• 5.
Structure
of
report
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10. Introduction – State of the art
• Shows
student
is
aware
of
existing
theories,
methods
and
results
• To
rePlect
upon
own
method
and
results
in
discussion
• Places
research
in
existing
research
Pield
(stresses
relevance
and
prevents
double
work)
• Helps
to
distinguish
own
work
from
state-­‐of-­‐the-­‐art
and
state-­‐of-­‐
practice.
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11. Structure of report
• Separate
results,
their
interpretation
(meaning,
consistency
and
validity)
and
the
conclusions
• Isolate
required
background
information
for
the
reader
• Minimize
use
appendices
• Hardly
read
and
assessed
(why
if
information
is
not
important
enough
to
include
in
main
report)
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12. Language and layout
• Keep
it
vague;
if
you
can’t
convice
them,
confuse
them...
• Subjective;
I
am
the
expert,
so
my
option
counts
most
• Unambiguous
and
to
the
point
based
on
facts
• else...
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13. Language and layout
• Based
on
facts,
unambiguous
and
to
the
point
• Prevent
the
following
• adjectives
and
adverbs
like
important,
large,
etc…
• it
is
clear
that,
obvious,
evident
etc…
• If
it
is
clear,
it
is
redundant
information!
• If
it
is
not
clear,
am
I
stupid?
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14. Language and layout
• Figures
• Increase
the
number
of
pages
• Make
my
report
accessible
to
under
age
readers
• Bring
some
color
and
a
moment
of
relief
• else...
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15. Language and layout
• Figures
• Support
your
message
• Make
label
readable
(same
size
as
your
body
text)
• You
always
guide
your
readers
through
your
Pigures
(be
polite!!)
• Need
to
be
refered
to
(mind
the
capital
F
“in
Figure
2”)
• Caption
makes
Pigure
stand
alone
readable
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