How Theses Get Written

& some cool tips

Dr. Radiah Abdul Ghani

Department of Biomedical Science
Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences
3rd April 2015
1

OUTLINE
1.

Writing your thesis

2.

Context: What is a thesis (for)?

How do I get started?
What should my thesis contain?
How do I get finished?
Summary

Examiners View

Uh no, not another thesis to read

Whats this one about?
Now there must be some corrections
Checklist for the chapter

Introduction

What is a thesis?
An argument.
An exposition of an original piece of research.
The product of an apprenticeship.
Probably the largest (most self-indulgent) piece
of work youll ever do.
Something that could be published.

Examination Issues
Your examiners need to appreciate
your work
Your examiners need to be told
about your research.
If its not in your thesis, they wont find out about it
No matter how good your research is, you MUST
write a good thesis

How do I get started?

Do this today (in case you were not)
-

Decide and confirm your title.

Write your title page.
Do all the appendices and easy part of the thesis.
Plan your argument.

Then:
Chapter by chapter

No matter how hard is your

project or how busy you
were, your FIRST STEP is
very important as it is a
basis for the following steps
!!

Overview on your project

One sentence for each
Introduction
(area of study)
The problem
(that I tackle)
What the literature says about this
problem
How I tackle this problem
How I implement my solution
The result

Example

One sentence for each

Example

Introduction
(area of study)

A completion of BSc Biomedical Sc

degree is examined by submission of
FYP thesis.

The problem
(that I tackle)

Many students fail to complete the

thesis within final year.

What the literature says about this

problem

Empirical studies indicate that late

submission is highly
correlated with delaying the start of
the write-up...

How I tackle this problem

A model of FYP study that encourages

an early start to
the thesis writing task is clearly
desirable

How I implement my solution

Such a model encourages the student

to plan a structure
for the thesis and collect material for
each chapter
throughout their study

The result

Application of this model dramatically

improves
submission rates.

Ok, now lets try on yours!

One sentence for each
Introduction
(area of study)

The problem
(that I tackle)
What the literature says about this
problem
How I tackle this problem
How I implement my solution
The result

Example

PLAN YOUR THESIS

Convert this argument into a chapter outline

Start a binder with a division for each chapter

Collect material in this binder
Set out clearly what each chapter should say
Dont be afraid to change your mind
As you write the thesis, your ideas will evolve
Dont wait for them to stop evolving:
Its much easier to change an outline that youve written
down than one you havent.

 Of course, your plan will

evolve as you proceed with
the research.
Or some of you might change the
topic due to some obstacle along
the way!

Component of Your Thesis

Title
Abstract (English and Malay)
Approval Pages
Acknowledgement
Table of Contents
List of Figures/Tables/Symbols and
Abbreviation.
List of Appendices

Component of Your Thesis

(Cont..)
Chapter 1 : Introduction
Chapter 2 : Materials and Methods
OR Methodology
Chapter 3 : Results & Discussion
Chapter 4 : Conclusion & Future
Work
Reference or Bibliography

Let us seeTitle
Cytotoxicity Study Of Piper porophyrophylum (Sireh rimau)
On Human Cancer Cells
Factors That Influence Breastfeeding Practice Among
Various Ethnic Mothers
Preliminary Screening of Cytotoxic Properties of Baccaurea
angulata In Cervical Cancer Cell Line In Vitro
Hepatotoxicity Effect of Oyster, Crassostrea iredalei Lipid
Extract In Mice

General Format of Thesis

Must follow the guideline (Please
check).
Spacing 1.5.
Content Outline and chapters must
have numerical. (This can be done
when you finish your writing).
Eg : 1.0 Introduction
1.1 Problem statmenet
1.2 Aim and Objectives

Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction - says I am going to look at
the following things. General background
the research/study.
- CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Research Background (1-3pages)
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Hypothesis
1.3 Research Questions
1.4 Literature Review
1.4.1 Overview on Cancer
1.4.2 Cervical Cancer
1.4.3 Plants as Anti-Cancer Agents

What is Research Background?

What is Literature Review?

A detailed literature review that embrace all
aspects of the study, including theories, models,
and techniques used.
You can decide the sub-title.
Ensure this part has a flow and highly related to
your project.
Citation is very important.
You are reviewing other previous studies..

Citation in Text
- How to cite?
1 author : Ibrahim (2013) reported that..
2-4 authors : Hopkin & Law (2013) .
5 and more authors:
Pitt et al., (2013)

Chapter 2: Materials and

Methods
- Or, Methodology for non-lab work
- Description of the work - details, so that
others can follow what you did.
- Detailed experimental procedures (work
done to test hypothesis), data collection,
and statistical analysis.
- Materials is one section, and methods is
another section. Do not mix them!
- Please include vouchering procedure and
reference number (if any).

Chapter 3 : Results and Discussion

You have TWO section here.
- 3.1 Results
Description of your findings.
Think the best way to present your
data. (Type of graphs/table?)
Must be easy for reader/examiner to
interpret your data.
Dont show the raw data in results
section.(but you can locate in
appendix if really interesting :P)

How to display your data?

Demographic Data

Common Mistakes in Chapter 2

No valid description.
Statistical analysis not valid..n ?
No error bar on the graph.
Tend to discuss the results here.

Chapter 3 : Results and

Discussion
- 3.2 Discussion
-

The most important part of your thesis.

Discuss the most significant results.
Relate back with your objective and hypothesis.
Is the objective achieve? If yes/no, how you
proof and justify according to your findings and
review from other peoples work?
- Impact of your study: relate with the problem
statement, or with Mission and vision of our
country or worldwide.
- Others.. (as required by supervisor)
- This section must have a story to tell.

How to discuss?
Depends on your supervisor.
It can be:
a) Integrated discussion.
b) According to sub-topics.
However, the way to discuss really
depends on your supervisor.

OR

Chapter 3 : Results and

Discussion
- 3.3 Limitations of Study
- Each study has its own limitation.
- show you know its limitations.

Chapter 4: Conclusion and

Future Direction/ Work
4.1 Conclusion
- It is a SUMMARY of what you have
done.
- Include some research problem,
objectives, the most significant
results analysis and ending of
statement.

Chapter 4: Conclusion and

Future Direction/ Work
4.2 Future Direction/ Future
Work
- show you know whats missing.
- Suggest what kind of work that can
be done by next researcher.

Reference or Bibliography
Cover the field; examiners will look
for the key references.
Usually we want the updated
references (not more than 5 years)
But, the key paper, it is ok to have
older than 5 years.

Reference vs Bibliography
The Referencing page is where you
reference all the pages, websites, journals
etc which you have used and
referenced in the text.
A bibliography page is all the books,
journals etc which you have read but not
used in the text. i.e you may of read
something about other related disease (to
your work) but not used it in your text.
Please choose either one, do you want
references or bibliography!

APPENDICES
Appendices are supplementary materials to the
text. These include tables, charts, computer
program listings, and others

How do I get finished?

Answer: by not getting stuck.
Youve written most of it ...
... but for the bits youre avoiding ...
... you keep rewriting other bits ...
.. doing more reading ...
... tinkering with the layout ...
... seeking cute quotations ...
Q: Why are you stuck?
: Because youve set yourself too hard a task.
Dont be afraid to change your plan if it proves too hard.
Be savage in cutting irrelevant bits.
Learn how to notice symptoms of being stuck, and ask for
help

What should I do if I have a

problem?
See your Supervisor.
See your Co-Supervisor(s).
See your Academic Advisor or Mentor
(Personal)
See the postgrad student in your
group.
Talk to friends.

Reviewing
Get other people to read your drafts
Peers will give friendly comments (and may
have the most time!)
Supervisor will steer you
Other academics will spot things your supervisor
has missed.

Above all:
get the bugs out before the
examiners see it.

Summary 1

Start writing today (never tomorrow)

Make up a title page for inspiration
Write down your argument succinctly
Turn the argument into a chapter plan
Maintain a binder of stuff to put into these
chapters
Dont be afraid to change the plan
Ensure you have the file back up. Use dropbox or
email the latest document to yourself, or keep in
thumb drive.

From the Eyes of Examiner

 Uh oh, not another thesis to read...

Your examiners are busy people
Examining theses is a chore, but:

It might help me keep up to date with an area

of research
It might inspire me
I might learn something
I might gain a new colleague
Note: the reading will be done in trains, planes,
with kids playing around and in the mid of
meetings!

What are we looking in a

thesis?
Whats this one about?
Examiners have little time available, so they
want to extract the most juice in the shortest
time
: Typical Scanning Order
Title
Sounds ok
or not?

Abstract

Introduction

What its
about?

Look at
problem
statement,
and
objectives

Discussion
Is this
student
able to
discuss
the data?

 Then:
1) What questions now spring to mind?
2) ...read through...
3) Were the questions answered?

Correction?
Now there must be some corrections
Some examiners dont feel theyve done the job
unless they find some corrections to do.
Typical corrections
Typographical / grammatical errors
Poor presentation
Missing statements / references
(Superfluous / redundant statements)
Missing pieces of work

Whole sections missing for example:

research questions

critical review of literature

research methodology
presentation of results
validation of results
discussion and conclusions
Detecting reference which is not cited at all or not related.

Checklist for you

Adapted from Brown, G. and Atkins, M. (2010) Effective teaching in Higher
Education. London: Routledge

English

Writing Style
Academic writing vs non-academic.

Checklist for Literature Review

To what extent is the review relevant to the
research study?
Has the candidate slipped into Here is all I know
about x?
Is there evidence of critical appraisal of other
work, or is the review just descriptive?
How well has the candidate mastered the technical
or theoretical literature?
Does the candidate make the links between the
review and his or her methodology explicit?
Is there a summary of the essential features of
other work as it relates to this study?

Checklist for Methodology

What precautions were taken against likely sources
of bias?
What are the limitations in the methodology? Is
the candidate aware of them?
Is the methodology for data collection appropriate?
Are the techniques used for analysis appropriate?
In the circumstances, has the best methodology
been chosen?
Has the candidate given an adequate justification
to the methodology?

Checklist for Results

Have the hypotheses in fact been tested?
Do the solutions obtained relate to the
questions posed?
Is the level and form of analysis appropriate
for the data?
Could the presentation of the results been
made clearer?
Are patterns and trends in the results
accurately identified and summarized?
Does the software appear to work satisfactorily?

Checklist for Discussion and

Conclusion
Is the candidate aware of possible limits to
confidence/reliability/validity of the work?
Have the main points to emerge from the
results been picked up for discussion?
Are there links made to the literature?
Is there evidence of attempts at theory building or
reconceptualisation of problems?
Are there speculations? Are they well grounded
in the results?

Please do not
plagiat! We shall
use Turnitin
software to check

Summary 2
Know your audience
Help them to understand
Keep it simple but precise
Get the contents right.
Make sure youve covered the
bases of your project.

What else you can do with your

FYP?
Poster / Oral Presentation at any
symposium.
Article for publication.
Entering competition?
Working as Research Assistant for
completing the project (if relevant).

IRIEE 2015

Thank You & Good Luck!