Thesis Writing Presenter: Maeve Gallagher Content: Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development

Slides:



Advertisements
Similar presentations
Writing at University Part 1 – General introduction to the academic writing process Cristina Felea, Ph.D.
Advertisements

Critical Reading Strategies: Overview of Research Process
Poster & Project Presentations The Robert Gordon University
HOW TO WRITE AN ACADEMIC PAPER
Planning, Structuring and Managing your PhD Dr. Mark Matthews.
Writing Abstracts Dr. Tamara O’Connor Student Learning Development P: E:
DR SIMON NASH TE PUNA AKO LEARNING CENTRE THANKS TO CAROLINE MALTHUS FROM TE PUNA AKO FOR USE OF HER MATERIAL IN THIS PRESENTATION Literature.
WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS Puvaneswary Murugaiah. INTRODUCTION TO WRITING PAPERS Conducting research is academic activity Research must be original work.
Writing for Publication Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development
Thesis Writing Dr. Tamara O’Connor Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development
Planning and Managing your PhD Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development 4pm 3rd Floor Room 318.
Thesis Writing Process For Postgraduate Students Dr. Tamara O’Connor Student Learning Development Trinity College Dublin
10 top tips to manage your essay Start early Find out marking criteria Understand the question Organise your thoughts, ideas and information Create outline.
Thesis Writing Process Getting Started For Postgraduate Students Dr. Tamara O’Connor Student Learning Development Trinity College Dublin
SOCI 380 INSTRUCTIONS RE. RESEARCH PAPER DUE DATE: The research paper is due on the last day of class You are required to write and submit a detailed research.
Effective Learning Service
Experimental Psychology PSY 433
Planning and Managing your PhD Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development
Writing a Research Paper pertext/ResearchW/index.html Drafting should the least time-consuming step Invention.
Lecture 3: Writing the Project Documentation Part I
Starting your Dissertation this calendar year; this means Year 2 students and many Post Graduate students ©The Learning Quality Support Unit, 2013.
Advanced Research Methodology
Writing a Research Proposal
How to write an academic essay When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less!
The Thesis Writing Process Maeve Gallagher Student Learning Development Student Counselling Service Trinity College Dublin.
Completing Final Year Projects Presenter: Dr Derek Richards _____________________________ Student Learning Development
Business and Management Research WELCOME. Business and Management Research Instructor:Rawaa Muhandes Office Number: 624 Term/yearSemester.
Taking stock and moving on Dissertation workshop Friday 28th November, 2008.
EMPRICAL RESEARCH REPORTS
Literature Review and Parts of Proposal
Be a Productive Writer: Goal- Focused Writing Matthew T. McCrudden Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Methodology Introduce the overall methodological approach. Indicate how the approach fits the overall research design. Describe the specific methods of.
Essay Writing Tips Presented by: Calumet College Student Peer Advisors Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011.
Invention and Arrangement
Chris Luszczek Biol2050 week 3 Lecture September 23, 2013.
Academic Essays & Report Writing
Report Writing.
Methodologies. The Method section is very important because it tells your Research Committee how you plan to tackle your research problem. Chapter 3 Methodologies.
Take the University Challenge: Writing in the Sciences The Academic Skills Centre.
ABSTRACT Function: An abstract is a summary of the entire work that helps readers to decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. (HINT…write.
Essay and Report Writing. Learning Outcomes After completing this course, students will be able to: Analyse essay questions effectively. Identify how.
The Conclusion and The Defense CSCI 6620 Spring 2014 Thesis Projects: Chapters 11 and 12 CSCI 6620 Spring 2014 Thesis Projects: Chapters 11 and 12.
DBQs What do I do?. Understand the Question Read the historical context carefully to understand what it’s all about. Read the DBQ question. In almost.
Business and Management Research WELCOME. Business and Management Research Instructor:XXXXXX Office Number:XXX Term/yearsemester two /2014.
Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, 9 th edition. Gay, Mills, & Airasian © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
How to read a scientific paper
Research Skills: Effective Reading Strategies. Task 1 Complete the questionnaire to discover how you read.
WRITER’S BLOCK AND HOW TO OVERCOME IT 7 September 2015 Dr Alison Yeung, Teaching Fellow in PGR Writing Skills, University of Surrey.
Critical Thinking Lesson 8
ITEC0700/ NETE0501/ ISEC0502 Research Methodology#5 Suronapee Phoomvuthisarn, Ph.D.
Thesis Statement-Examples
Preparation of a Research Report Literature review.
Anatomy of a Research Article Five (or six) major sections Abstract Introduction (without a heading!) Method (and procedures) Results Discussion and conclusions.
Academic Communication Lesson 3 1. Pick up one handout from the front desk. (You will also need the handout “Strategy & Checklist…”) 2. Please sit in pairs.
PSY 219 – Academic Writing in Psychology Fall Çağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology Inst. Nilay Avcı Week 3.
L ITERATURE REVIEW RESEARCH METHOD FOR ACADEMIC PROJECT I.
Level 3 Programme Case Study Introduction
Ian F. C. Smith Writing a Journal Paper. 2 Disclaimer / Preamble This is mostly opinion. Suggestions are incomplete. There are other strategies. A good.
Principals of Research Writing. What is Research Writing? Process of communicating your research  Before the fact  Research proposal  After the fact.
Writing for different formats by Eva Selenko Empirical journal article Books Review articles The general public Writing is hard. But it is also just a.
Experimental Psychology PSY 433 Chapter 5 Research Reports.
Test Taking Skills Make sure you prove what you know!
1 Welcome to KU 121 Unit 6 Seminar Louisa Fordyce Online Office Hours by appointment IM User ID: LRFordyce.
Research Proposal Writing Resource Person : Furqan-ul-haq Siddiqui Lecture on; Wednesday, May 13, 2015 Quetta Campus.
Research Skills.
Academic writing for researchers
Thesis writing Session 2017
Academic writing for researchers
Academic writing for researchers
Presentation transcript:

Thesis Writing Presenter: Maeve Gallagher Content: Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development

Learning Objectives 1.Learn about the writing process – 2.Identify self-management strategies to aid process 3.Consider the structure of a thesis 4.Share strategies, experiences & tools

R. Murray’s Model (2002) Social  Interactions, discussion  Support Psychological  Motivation, goal setting, self-monitoring Rhetorical = Writing  Regular writing  “Snack” writing + “binge” writing

We write theses A professional thesis writer? Learn how to write Learn how to think Learn how to conduct research Plus much more

Preconceptions It takes 6 months You do it at the end You can cut and paste from papers

Where & When do I start? Immediately – keep a journal Read theses

Start with…. A thesis statement Research Statement (25-30 words) Get feedback on it Discuss with supervisor Reach agreement as early as possible

Then develop an abstract A tool to think about your thesis/research

Outline / Table of Contents Planning before you build

Drafting, re-drafting, re-drafting

10 ways to not write 1. Open your at the start of the day and never quit it. 2. Keep your writing goals quite general. 3. Don’t talk about your writing-in-progress. 4. Only seek feedback when you have a full draft. 5. Don’t write unless you know exactly what you want to say. 6. Wait till you’re ready to write. 7. Don’t bother defining sub-goals – you know what you have to do. 8. Don’t bother with the 5-minute warm up for writing -- you know what to do. 9. Always write in large chunks of time. 10. Try and find more time for writing. Rowena Murray

Habit of Writing

Tools? Academic Writing: What do you use?

Rule of Three Within each chapter, repeat yourself 3 times –Intro. We will show.. –Body. Show them.. –Concl. We have shown.. Within thesis, repeat your contributions 3 times –Intro chapter –Main chapters –Conclusion chapter But don’t bore reader –E.g. in introduction be brief, in conclusions be broader

What are examiners looking for? Review of literature –Is the literature relevant? –Is the review critical or just descriptive? –Is it comprehensive? –Does it link to the methodology in the thesis? –Does it summarize the essential aspects? Methodology –Is there a clear hypothesis? –Are precautions taken against bias? –Are the limitations identified? –Is the data collected appropriately? –Is the methodology justified?

What are examiners looking for? Presentation of results –Have the hypotheses in fact been tested? –Are the results shown to support the hypothesis? –Is the data properly analysed? –Are the results presented clearly? –Are patterns identified and summarized? Discussion and Conclusions –Are the limits of the research identified? –Are the main points to emerge identified? –Are links made to the literature? –Is there theoretical development? –Are the speculations well grounded?

Core Strategies Goal Setting Writing Strategies – Getting started Creating Structure

Writing Timetable Deadlines –Hard deadlines –Soft deadlines Your thoughts and experiences?

Getting Started Topic Issue or Problem –Subject –Context –Variable Benefit or contribution Research design

Writing Strategies Book/journal Write to prompts Freewriting Generative writing Writing Sandwich Practicalities

Writing to prompts What writing have I done and what would I like to do? Where do my ideas come from? How does what I read compare with my own views? What I want to write about next is… What do I want to write about next?

Freewriting Writing for 5 minutes Without stopping In sentences Private – no external reader No structure needed Topic related to your research Like brainstorming in sentences

Generative writing Writing for 5 minutes Without stopping In sentences Focusing on one topic (maybe from your freewriting To be read by someone else

Writing Sandwich Writing – 10 minutes Talking – 10 minutes Writing – 10 minutes

6 / Outline Before you start writing Structure Flow Logic Sections meaningful titles Feedback

Outlining – Level 1 Background Objectives Method Findings Conclusions

Outlining – Level 2

Level 3

Structure Outline Generic thesis structure Allocate word count for each section Design sub-sections Table of contents feature Write in layers

7 / The Habit of Writing Writing at the end of a long list of tasks – no fixed deadline “I can’t find the time for writing….” “I have no energy for writing…”

2 / Best Practice 1.Make a rough plan 2.One section at a time 3.Use a word processor 4.At least 3 drafts 5.Spend 2/5 hours each week 6.One quiet place 7.Set goals and targets 8.Invite feedback (Hartley and Branthwaite 1989: 449)

5 / Abstracts words Structure Precise, clear & interesting Avoid generic statements like: “The results we be discussed” “Methods are presented” “Future research is discussed”

SPSE Technique Situation: Describe the general background / setting in which your research takes place Problem: Describe a problem that the research addresses. Solution: What did you do or try to address this problem? Evaluation: How did you evaluate the proposed solution and what were the results? In pairs, ask each other these questions. Take notes 10 mins

5 / Abstracts 1.Who are the intended readers? (name 3-5) 2.What did you do? (50 words) 3.Why did you do it? (50) 4.What happened? (50) 5.What do the results mean in theory? (50) 6.What do the results mean in practice? (50) 7.What is the key benefit for readers? (25) 8.What remains unresolved? (50) (Brown 1994/95)

5 / Abstracts In your handouts, answer Brown’s 8 questions. Write in full sentences Stick to the word count 10 minutes

3 / Warming Up What I want to write about today is….. (30 words) This is important because…. (30 words) Today, I will not write about…… (30 words) 5 minutes

Balance Where you work When you work What you do

Writing in layers Write a list of chapter headings Write a sentence or two on contents of each chapter Write lists of headings for each section in each chapter Make notes for each heading on how you will develop the section Write an introductory paragraph for each chapter Write the word count, draft number and date at top of first page

Overcoming blocks? Freewriting & Generative writing Writing with others Mind-mapping Verbal rehearsal Write down all you know about ‘X’ Write down all your ideas on ‘X’ Visualise completed thesis Combine strategies

Tips for successful writing Plan to write regularly Make a time plan and stick to it Write up section as soon as it’s ready Stop writing at a point where you could go on – makes it easier to start next time! Decide where and when best for you Don’t write when exhausted Seek support

Student Learning Development Thank you for your time Visit our website at: