3rd April 2015

1

Dr. Radiah Abdul Ghani Department of Biomedical Science Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences

How Theses Get Written & some cool tips

OUTLINE

1. Writing your thesis Context: What is a thesis (for)?

How do I get started?

What should my thesis contain?

How do I get finished?

Summary

2. 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 Example

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

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.

One sentence for each Example

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

Ok, now lets try on yours!

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

Etc..

X

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)

- 3.2 Discussion

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 Abstract Introduction Discussion

Sounds ok or not?

What its about?

Look at problem

statement, and

objectives

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!