Report, Dissertation and Thesis Writing

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Report, Dissertation and Thesis Writing A Guide
to Good English
2
Typical Plan for a Final Year Report,
Dissertation or Thesis

• Appropriate title
• Abstract
• Chapter 1. Introduction to the subject, problem
  statement and nature of research
• Chapter 2. Literature Review
• Chapter 3. Theoretical background
• Chapter 4. System or software design
• Chapter 5. Experimentation and results
• Chapter 6. Discussion
• Chapter 7. Summary, suggestions for further work
  and conclusion
• References
• Appendices

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Reported work, whether conducted by you or
another researcher, should be written in the
third person, past imperfect tense. For
example "The oscilloscope was connected to the
interface..." not "I connected the oscilloscope
to the interface..." not "The oscilloscope is
connected to the interface..."
4
Facts should be written in the present tense. For
example "The speed of sound in water is 1480
ms-1..." not "The speed in sound of water was
1480 ms-1..."
5
Normally, you should use impersonal context,
passive voice. For example "It can readily be
demonstrated..." not "We can readily
demonstrate..."
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• All chapters, section headings and figures should
  bear a number and a title.
• Figures should always be numbered according to
  the chapter (e.g. Figure 4.21) and include a
  legend.
• All equations must be numbered (e.g. Equation
  7.13).
• References must conform to the numerical or
  alphabetical style.

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Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the theft or expropriation of
someone elses work without proper
acknowledgement, or presenting material produced
by another individual as if it were ones own.
Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and the
consequences are severe. Unacknowledged direct
copying from the work of another person, or the
close paraphrasing of somebody elses work, is
called plagiarism and is a serious offence,
equated with cheating in examinations. This
applies to copying both from other students work
and from published sources such as books, reports
or journal articles. Plagiarism can be tempting
and it is simple to do, given the ubiquitous
presence of the web. However, it is also very
easy to detect and is routinely penalised. It is
quite permissible to include the direct account
of another individuals work in your report.
However, it must be clear to the reader that the
work is not your own, and original text which is
not your own must be presented in quotation
form. For further information,
see www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/staffnet/policie
s/plagiarismguidencetostudents www.socialscience
s.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/current/plagiarism
.htm
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Verbal Presentations

• Learn your material thoroughly.
• Practice alone.
• Time yourself.
• Speak with confidence do not apologize, for
  example, do not preface a talk with such words
  as
• Well Im not so sure about this, but here
  goes.
• This predisposes your audience to expect a bad
  presentation.
• Speak with clarity and fluidity. This requires
  practice.
• Speak with sufficient volume if necessary, use a
  microphone.
• Do not read verbatim from notes.
• Engage your audience with a direct gaze. Do not
  stare at the floor or the ceiling.
• Do not chew gum.