Claude Lambert, Ph. D.
How to Brew a Better Thesis
65 tips to glory! 4400 words
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2012 Claude Lambert
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-0-9836791-5-8
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How to Brew a Better Thesis
Over the years, I corrected countless master’s dissertations and about 100 Ph.Ds This simple advice stems from experience. Theses come from a long tradition, and teachers in all fields, be it philosophy or biology, have a lot of expectations in common. The only exception is math: mathematicians have their own unique rules for it. I once met a mathematician who had a three pages thesis. If you are not a mathematician, here comes a list of tips that might help you. If I had known all this before I entered my field of research, I would have done a better job: in any field there are things that you are supposed to know or to guess, and not many people will think of telling you. Here come a few tips stemming from experience and past mistakes.
The subject
1. Very often, you do not have much of a choice with your thesis subject, because you need funding, and the only way to get paid is to be part of a team working on a subject that is part of a grant obtained by one of your professors. It is a wonderful opportunity to work within a team and learn a lot of things but it is only a wonderful opportunity if your work is well defined enough to provide you with a thesis at the end. Be pre-emptive: do not get into a situation where five students will fight at the end for the same data or into a situation where you provide slave work and you will be author number 25 at the end of a long list, if you are lucky. What will be in your thesis and belong to you should be well defined between you and the boss. Confirm it by a gentle email (thank you for…. It is my understanding that…my subject will be … and will encompass… please let me know if this is correct) and keep a copy.
2. Make sure that you will have access to and that you can measure everything you need in your field. For example, if you are an oceanographer with a subject like carbon dioxide (CO2) in seawater, you need to measure the pH and you need to use a technique that is competitive with what other people do in the field. There are countries where the facilities you need simply do not exist. And there are places in the US that do not have the know-how. Every year, we see students failing because they rely on professors to tell them everything. Do your homework on the subject before proposing it to your advisor or accepting the offer of a professor. The same advice is valid if you are in an art department: see that the technology you need to achieve your goal will be available to you. In art as in science, technology advances rapidly. At the end of the day, it is going to be your thesis: your responsibility.
3. You need a plan B. It is great to become part of an ambitious project. But you need to be prepared to get your Ph. D. anyway if this does not work out. For example, many experiments dealing with satellites start several years before the satellite is launched. What happens to your thesis if the launch fails? What if the experiment you try in any field fails? It often happens in an entirely new field. Negative theses (I tried and it did not work) are frowned upon. You need a plan B: if your main subject does not work, you will transform it into a subject that is more secure. It is not your professor’s responsibility to think about it, it is yours. The advice is valid in any field of research: I knew a student who translated and summarized some 18th century courtroom archives. When the work was done, she had nothing to say: the subjects of the trials were too varied to allow any constructive analysis. A subject like “The appellate court of this town in 1796” may sound attractive, but it is not an idea. “The justice system and the poor people (or businessmen) in this city during this time period” is a better subject. The importance of the plan B is emphasized with tip 59.
4. You need to think a little bit further down the road. The thesis looks like the end of what you need to do, but it is not: the end is to find a job. How will you sell yourself after you are done? Will you have a highly regarded technical knowledge? What kind of business or which faculty will find your subject interesting? At a time where there was a lot of unemployment in France, I knew a student in chemistry who had two years to go and his future job was already secure: he had chosen a specialty that was attractive to him but not to many: he aimed at being a highroad chemical safety controller. I knew a philosophy student who picked his subject because he knew that his advisor was due for retirement in a few years! Keep in mind that the endgame is about a job.
The advisor
5. Sometimes you have a choice of advisor, sometimes you don’t. It depends on many factors, some concern your college (big or small), your discipline (ultra active or moving slowly), the grants available, and some concern only you. For instance you can be ready to be entirely independent, in which case you might not get along with an advisor who is a control freak. Or you need some support to start with, in which case you might not want to work for a celebrity who is never there. Do your homework, read what the prospective advisor has published and ask former Ph.D. students about their experience. Also check the alumni and see how easily formers students got a job.
6. Most advisors dislike being treated with disrespect and receive emails starting with “Hey!” A bit of formality is not going to hurt you, especially in mails. Always remember that there is no privacy with emails. An advisor can be friendly, remind yourself she is never a friend, not until your Ph.D. is done.
7. Some advisors do not stick around: they take a sabbatical or a position elsewhere and leave you flat in the dirt. Try to find out what is going on in time to readjust.
8. Do not confuse advice and criticism with a personal attack. Most of the time, advisors tell you to do this or that because it is the way it is done: it has nothing to do with you.
9. Do not fight the small stuff your advisor asks you to correct. You need to add this reference or displace this paragraph, or explain this in more details, just do it even if you think it does not add to your work. Do not lose everybody’s time and your own precious time on things that do not matter. Do as requested and forget about it.
10. Reserve fights for the big stuff, what really matters to you. But do not forget that the customer is usually right: did you express yourself clearly or carefully enough? Is there any way your idea will “pass” if you put more effort into the way you express yourself or in the way you prove your point?
Keeping notes
11. Never use loose pages. Use a computer or a thick notebook.
12. Date your thoughts and eventual experiments like in a diary.
13. In your notes, you should always use a symbol to distinguish what is yours and what belongs to somebody else. Today, you know it for sure, two years from now you will think: “Did I do this?” Or “Is this thought really mine?” “Where does this come from?” One sentence that you write as your own while it belongs to somebody else can lead to an accusation of plagiarism. You do not want that on your resume.
14. Write down why you do this experiment or read that book or think this way. Sometimes our thoughts become so intricate that we are losing the thread. And of course our thoughts evolve over the course of three years. Keep track.
15. Take the time to get the proper bibliographic reference the first time. If you copy a quote page 127 in the second edition of a book, it is going to be painful to find the quote when you go back to the library a year later and only the third edition is available. You will not gain time in the end by being sloppy now.
16. There will come a time when you feel you are too busy to see what is going on in your field of study. Do not succumb to the temptation, at least look at the abstracts once a week. It is much easier than in the past, now that you have access to Google scholar and your own university Internet facilities. Most colleges offer you access to abstracts and papers or pre-prints in your field. Get to the library once a week. A new paper can affect your presentation or the direction of your work or offer you access to a new technique.
17. Be especially attentive to the field when you get close to your deadline. One of the members of your committee is bound to look at the last publications just before your defense and ask you a question about it.
18. Three years of your life is precious time. Make a backup of your work every week, and make a Xerox copy of the new pages of your notebook. A successful thesis does not come from your superb intellect; it is a matter of discipline. In any university, there is a tragedy every year: how many students’ computers are stolen or die a sudden death? Do not be the one who has no backup.
Style requirements: do not delay!
19. Check one last time all the requirements of your department. Some want you to publish papers; some forbid it and want your work to be “original.” Most colleges impose to you the style of the manuscript, generally APA Style (American Psychological Association) or MLA Style (Modern Language Association). Some big universities, like Harvard, publish their own style requirements. The style handbook will tell you everything: how to set your margins; how big your headers must be; how to quote a paper or a book; where to put your notes and references, etc. You will find these handbooks in the library and on the web. The earlier you accept to obey the rules, the faster you will work. Moreover, leaving the rules for the end is not efficient: two weeks before the deadline, you will have better things to do than to fix your bibliography.
20. If you work with Word or Open Office, make yourself a template with examples of all the requirements. Templates are very obstinate animals. To tame the beast, check this very clear site www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm
Check in the library if they have a template all ready for you. If they do, check it first, see if it is accurate.
21. If your thesis is meant to be essentially a collection of papers, you might have to use Tex, AMS-Tex, or Latex. These processing systems are less intuitive than Word; so if you are bound to end with any of them, do not delay learning how to use them. Once you know how, they are very practical. Try to avoid having to convert your work from one system to another: that never works well and you would end up with a huge amount of last minute corrections.
Make friends
22. There are tough times with any thesis; it is not an enterprise for the faint of heart. Make friends, get a support group. It has been shown by psychologists over 30 years ago that the difference between a successful Ph. D. and an ABD (all but dissertation) is linked not to your IQ, not even to your level of anxiety, it is linked to how you organize your support group and how much help you are willing to receive.
23. Know the best people in your field; it is a lot of fun. Make place on your schedule and in your finances for good seminars and at least one big conference a year. You need to do your own work, but you also need to be confronted to the trials and tribulations of others. There are not many ideas in a closed vase.
24. Be supportive and polite. In a very big colloquium, always go and listen to the people from your own college as much as you can, even people you do not like. Selfish, arrogant and bitter attitudes get noticed, even if nobody tells you that your behavior sucks.
25. You need to exercise in your field; posters and presentations will help you.
26. Keep posters very short: five or ten sentences and a graph or picture should say what is on your mind. Not many people will stand there and read ten pages in small characters! Interested people will ask you questions.
27. Develop only one idea per presentation. Many international conferences will restrict you to ten minutes: it is the bare bones of one idea; do not even try to say everything that is in your thesis.
28. Sometimes, nobody thinks like you or is interested in the same stuff as you, for instance if you are confined in a small college. It is never true in a big conference. Go and look for people who are on the same path as you are.
29. Published papers tell you about the science or the train of thought of two years ago; a colloquium will tell you what is going on right now.
Keep your corrections in order
30. Advisors usually read your stuff online and send you corrections as they go through their mind. As a result, you get back a mixed bag of small stuff (pesky blanks, unfinished sentences, poor references) and important stuff (like a request that you change the order of the arguments). DO NOT do the important stuff and send it back without correcting the small stuff. Your advisor has only so much time and there is nothing irritating like a text coming back twice with Einstin instead of Einstein. This is the start of many poor relationships.
31. Print the suggestions and corrections. Print also your text one-sided. Deal with one problem at a time. Cross the corrections you have done. If you have a problem or if you do not understand what to do, call or write back about it, explain why you have a problem. Do not send the same text back without comment. Then archive this in a folder with a date. If your advisor is wrong on something minor (like the date of a paper), make a polite note when you send your text back (I checked this and it appears to be…). If your advisor is wrong on something major, ask for a meeting and go prepared.
32. The easiest way to re-shuffle a text is to take your printed one-sided text version and cut and paste with scissors. When you are satisfied, you can get it done on the computer. The reason why it is easier to do in print is that the whole text is under your eyes.
33. Correct all mistakes that you see as you see them. Do not leave that for later. Later, you won’t see them any more. Most people find more mistakes on a print copy than on a computer display. Print your stuff. Let one day go by and read it again.
34. There are two ways of reading: one for sense (how does this flow? Is this convincing?) and one for style (is this the right adjective, did I spell this correctly?). You need to decide which kind of reading you make. Nobody can deal with the two mental focuses at the same time.
35. It is not the end of the world if you are wrong. Take a day off. Think again: you were wrong on this point? Well, too bad. Move on. Consider that being wrong is usually great: it opens a new door. Don’t be afraid of changing your mind.
The acknowledgements
36. This is a university document. Don’t start with thanking your dog, even if he helped you more than all the members of your jury put together.
Start with your main advisor, the other members by order of importance (usually age, if they have the same title). Your university comes first; invited members from other colleges or from abroad follow. If you are not thankful for anything, thank them for accepting to be in your committee and for their time.
If you participated in a research program, if you got financed, here is the time to mention it.
Then thank the people who helped you, teachers first, then colleagues. The dog comes at the end, sorry!
37. By the way, do not thank your spouse for putting up with it. Thank your spouse for her/his support. Be positive about this experience.
38. Guess what is the first thing that an advisor looks at in your thesis? The acknowledgements (it is the very small reward they are going to get for putting up with you) and the bibliography (What? I am not even quoted for my major work!). Smart students get their jury abundantly quoted.
The Introduction
39. What is your subject, the problem you are trying to solve. You would not believe how this simple statement can stump you. Tell us what this is about, in one or two paragraphs.
40. You have worked three years on this subject; of course you think that your subject is important. Most people in the world do not think so. They prove it by doing something else. So you got to start like this: give us reasons to think that what you do, your objective is important.
41. Then comes the easy part; where was the problem before you started your wonderful work? Give credit where it is due. Do not be squeamish about it. The more honest and thorough you are, the more people will trust your results. End this by telling what was missing: this where your thesis comes in.
42. This part is supposed to be a critical review. The input of each paper you discuss is emphasized, and the aim is to lead to your work. You are effectively building up to the necessity of solving your problem, the basic question of your thesis.
43. Somebody has thought about it before you? That is usually how it goes. Thoughts are cheap. Give credit for the thought. You did the work. What was the problem again?
44. So the introduction in essence says: This is my subject and why it is important. This is what went on before me, and this is what I did. Go into what you did in general terms: this is my input, the approach I took.
45. It is a tradition to introduce here your different chapters (a few lines for each): in chapter 2, a new methodology, in chapter 3, I assess this …
This is where you lie!
46. A thesis is not the story of your life. Do not try to follow what you did (First I thought of this, then I bifurcated like that, etc). It is interesting, but it is not what your college wants. You must reconstruct your work in a logical way, as if you had thought all along what you are thinking now. The more logical it is, the stronger you appear.
The most useful tip to write your thesis
47. Write it like a textbook. Explain your work like you would explain it to fellow students.
48. Use the active voice, not the passive voice. Make perfectly clear what you have done yourself or in cooperation and what somebody else has done. The passive voice (“This was measured”) is confusing and must be avoided. Make sure you use gender-fair language.
49. Start each chapter by telling people what to expect - it is like a summary of what is coming - and finish your chapter by telling them what to expect in the next chapter.
50. Make your subtitles as explanatory and clear as possible: it helps with the flow.
51. Do not lie about your data. Suppose you had a bad batch, you are not requested to talk about it in a published paper; but in a thesis, you should say something like this: “Twenty data consisting of batch number xx has been eliminated because it was contaminated.”
52. At the time you finish your thesis, you are the world expert on your subject. Even your advisors know less than you do. Explain everything: you think everybody knows this or that, but they don’t. You think that this or that is “obvious”; well, it is not. But do not be condescending. I once knew a student who flunked because he was treating his committee like a bunch of idiots.
53. Make sure you know what you are talking about, especially when you use general terms outside your field of expertise like evolution or climatology or structuralism. There will be a member of your jury who will ask for a definition, you can bet on that. I once went to a thesis defense where the candidate could not define photosynthesis, a term he had used several times. He passed, but it made a terrible impression and made it harder for him to find a position.
54. How you divide your chapters: see if one idea per chapter works for you. If you are at a loss, go to the library and see how theses in your field are organized. You might get inspired!
55. What you did not do and probably should have done, what is missing is called with pure Victorian hypocrisy “perspectives” and should go in the conclusion. The conclusion is like a long abstract. It includes what should come next and it should show that you know the limitations of your work. Remember what people want to know: they want to know if you brought something new to the field and where you go with this work.
56. Protect your reputation. Do not give trash to read to your advisor, even if you are very anxious to know if you are on the right track. Once again: your committee is not a group of friends of yours, and they are busy. Have a real friend read your first draft and make as many corrections as you can before submitting a chapter.
Abstract
57. Your thesis abstract tells what is your main objective and what are your main findings. An abstract usually needs several versions and a lot of reviewers. It is difficult to get it right, do not do it at the last minute.
Getting stuck
58. It is common to get stuck. Sometimes you stuck yourself: the problem is with you, not with the work. Use your support group. See if your lifestyle is healthy enough. Humans are built to have some degree of physical activity, being deprived of it can make you despondent and depressed. You may be depressed by something that happened to you, like the death of somebody dear to you, or just rejection. Throw yourself into work, even if it does not make much sense. Two thinks heal: time and work.
I have seen very stupid people get a Ph.D., so even if we never met, I can assure you that you are smart enough. A Ph.D. is proof that you are obstinate enough and that you have enough discipline, nothing more. It is a rite of passage.
59. Sometimes you get stuck for a reason related to the work itself. Reassess your project and ask yourself the following:
- Am I too ambitious? Most of us are, because we start without knowing what our idea entails. Questions like “What is time?” could be too vast for a philosopher. I once read the obituary of a very old man who had almost finished his Ph.D. His subject was: “The history of the rose.” See if taking the best part of your vast ideas can do the trick.
- Was I wrong? See tip 35.
- I think that I am right, but I cannot prove what I think. Is there another tack? Another method? Would more data do the trick? Talk to more than one advisor, talk to people who know the field. Sometimes you are really stuck, and it is not your fault at all. It happens when data sampling was not right and cannot be redone, when data are unique and too scarce (for instance they come from satellite information or from a bunch of old papers or from a place where you cannot back.) Then, it is time to go to plan B. See tip 3.
The Defense
60. This is the time to say “I”, not “we”.
61. Assemble some friends and colleagues and do as many repetitions as you need to, but one at least. Listen to critics: that is whole idea.
62. Keep it simple. What is important is not necessarily what gave you the most trouble.
63. Keep it short, shorter than the maximum time allowed (like 50 minutes instead of one hour). It will be appreciated, no matter how inspired and interesting you are.
64. On small critics expressed by the committee, say “thank you”; on big ones, defend yourself.
65. Relax. Sometimes it is easier to be detached: defend your ideas for the sake of your ideas, not for yourself.
The End