How to Write Your Thesis (Part 3)

III. Editing Your Thesis

Even a rough draft should be edited.

Copy Editing Proof read your thesis a few times. Check your spelling. spellcheckers are useful for initial checking, but don't catch homonyms (e.g. hear, here), so you need to do the final check by eye. Make sure that you use complete sentences Check your grammar: punctuation, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement (plural or singular), tense consistency, etc. Give it to others to read and comment.

Content Editing logic repetition, relevance style

Avoiding ambiguity Do not allow run-on sentences to sneak into your writing; try semicolons. Avoid nested clauses/phrases. Avoid clauses or phrases with more than two ideas in them. Do not use double negatives. Do not use dangling participles (i.e. phrases with an "-ing" verb, in sentences where the agent performing the action of the "-ing" verb is not specified: " After standing in boiling water for two hours, examine the flask."). Make sure that the antecedent for every pronoun (it, these, those, that, this, one) is crystal clear. If in doubt, use the noun rather than the pronoun, even if the resulting sentence seems a little bit redundant. Ensure that subject and verb agree in number (singular versus plural). Be especially careful with compound subjects. Be especially careful with subject/verb agreement within clauses. Avoid qualitative adjectives when describing concepts that are quantifiable ("The water is deep." "Plate convergence is fast." "Our algorithm is better.") Instead, quantify. ("Water depths exceed 5km.") Avoid noun strings ("acoustic noise source location technique"). Do not use unexplained acronyms. Spell out all acronyms the first time that you use them.

Thesis length Write for brevity rather than length. The goal is the shortest possible paper that contains all information necessary to describe the work and support the interpretation. Avoid unnecessary repetition and irrelevant tangents. Necessary repetition: the main theme should be developed in the introduction as a motivation or working hypothesis. It is then developed in the main body of the paper, and mentioned again in the discussion section (and, of course, in the abstract and conclusions). Some suggestions on how to shorten your paper: Use tables for repetitive information. Include only sufficient background material to permit the reader to understand your story, not every paper ever written on the subject. Use figure captions effectively. Don't describe the contents of the figures and/or tables in the text item-by-item. Instead, use the text to point out the most significant patterns, items or trends in the figures and tables. Delete "observations" or "results" that are mentioned in the text for which you have not shown data. Delete "conclusions" that are not directly supported by your observations or results. Delete "interpretation" or "discussion" sections that are inconclusive. Delete "interpretation" or "discussion" sections that are only peripherally related to your new results or observations. Scrutinize adjectives! adverbs and prepositional phrases. Although it varies considerably from project to project, average thesis length is about 40 pages of text plus figures. This total page count includes all your text as well as the list of references, but it does not include any appendices. These generalizations should not be taken too seriously, especially if you are working on a labor-intensive lab project. If you have any questions about whether your project is of sufficient scope, consult one of us early on.

Writing for an International Audience Put as much information as possible into figures and tables. In particular, try to find a way to put your conclusions into a figure, perhaps a flowchart or a cartoon. Don't assume that readers are familiar with the geography or the stratigraphy of your field area. Every single place-name mentioned in the text should be shown on a map. Consider including a location map, either as a separate figure or as an inset to another figure. If your paper involves stratigraphy, consider including a summary stratigraphic column--in effect, a location map in time. Use shorter sentences. Avoid nested clauses or phrases. Avoid idioms. Favor usages that can be looked up in an ordinary dictionary. "Take the beaker out of the oven immediately..." rather than "Take the beaker out of the oven right away..."