A Manual for Dissertation

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A Manual for Dissertation

• Yong Zheng
• DePaul University
• May 17, 2011

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Outline

1. Introduce Dissertation
2. How to Write Organize Dissertation
3. Dissertation Style
4. More About Dissertation
5. Good habits for Dissertation

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1. Introduce Dissertation

• In view of the process and milestones

Ph.D. Degree Graduation Career
Course Credits Ph.D. Exams General Research
Further Research Dissertation Defense
Directed Research Proposal Defense
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1. Introduce Dissertation

• In view of the purpose and significance
• To fulfill the promises in your dissertation
  proposals
• To clearly document an original, significant,
  innovative contributions to knowledge

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1. Introduce Dissertation

• In view of the differences among papers and
  Master thesis

Paper Proposal MS Thesis/Dissertation
Length/Time Short/Depends Short/Depends Longer/Longer
Examiner Reviewer Proposal Committee Thesis Committee
Audience Researchers, Experts Interested People Proposal Committee Thesis Committee Generalist
Focuses Purpose Specific problem Quick publication Academic communication Academic Recognition Supports Systematized problems General and Thorough Cover specific trivial aspects
Significance Contribution Targeted on specific smaller problems A plan/direction for further research MS Thesis incremental improvement Ph.D. Thesis More difficult problems Original, Substantial, Innovative Contributions to prior knowledge
Hypothesis (ProblemSolution) Convincing
Evidence Organized Literature
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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 1st Question When to start writing Ph.D. thesis?
• Start as early as possible, do not wait you are
  fully ready.
• Write early, write often, writing is thinking!
• Assumption successfully defend the proposal
• At least start with an outline or skeleton
• Do not have to start from the 1st section to the
  end
• Start taking notes of problems, goals, brief
  descriptions, experimental designs and expected
  outcomes
• The theories, algorithms or experiments, as well
  as the thesis may require numerous revisions to
  cover weaknesses/errors
• Set deadline/due dates for each stages!!

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• Common Skeleton (formal structure depends on
  Universities)
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Background and Literature Review
• Research Questions/Problem Statement
• Solutions, Methodologies and Experiments
• Evaluations and Discussions
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendices
• Others Table of Contents, Acknowledgements, etc

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• Principles of Thesis Organizations
• Take the readers views/focuses into account
• Logically Clear, Sound, thorough, Reasonable
• Be honest and justified
• Highlight the novel ideas and main contributions
• For each section, ask yourself relevant questions
  to validate whether your writings have meet the
  requirements of each section
• Basic Routine Goal-gtWriting-gtQuestion

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 1). Abstract
• General introduction of the background
• Briefly introduce the problem you want to address
• Summary of your solution and methodologies
• State a bird view of your results/conclusions
• Highlight your novel ideas and main contributions
• Is it concise? Is it clear and easy to learn the
  background and the targeted problem?
• Did you clearly indicate your solutions,
  conclusions and highlight your contributions?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 2). Introductions
• General introduction to what the thesis is about
• Summarize the research questions/problems
• Indicate why this is a worthwhile problem
• Give an overview of your solution, experiment and
  main results/conclusions
• Can general readers easily understand the
  introduction?
• Did you explain some terms to avoid readers
  confusion?
• Did you briefly introduce your solutions and
  contributions?
• Did you highlight the novelty?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 3). Background and Literature Review
• Give the background to let the readers know and
  understand your topic the knowledge of this
  area
• The state of the art related work, existing
  research
• Organize these by logical and reasonable ideas,
  not simply by time/author, etc
• Is the background clear enough?
• Is the literature review well organized?
• Is the literature review thorough enough?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 4). Research Questions/Problem Statements
• Concise statement about the problems you want to
  address
• Justification, indicate the problem is unanswered
  based on the previous literature review
• Thoroughly discuss why it is worthwhile to solve
  this problem
• Will readers be convinced to agree with your view
  on the problems, about the originality, novelty
  and applicability?
• Did you refer to some literature references to
  convince your points?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 5). Solutions, Methodologies and Experiments
• Main purpose to convince the examiners that you
  have answered the question or solved the problem
  by your own solutions
• It may require several sections to thoroughly
  explain the solutions, experiments and
  evaluations here I simply split them into two.
• Show relevant methodologies/work to your solution
• If there were blind alleys or dead ends, do not
  include them unless they can be used to serve
  that you have solved the problem
• Can readers clearly understand your solutions?
• Did all these parts have a logical basis and
  convinces?
• Did you mention the experimental conditions and
  limitations?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 6). Evaluations and Discussions
• Analyze your experimental results and evaluate
  your assumptions/solutions performance
• Focus on the positive contributions of the
  results, also explain the negative results
• Reasonably discuss the limitations of your
  solution, focus on the scale of the applicability
• Did you thoroughly evaluate the experimental
  results?
• Did you thoroughly discuss the relevant issues,
  such as limitations, flaws, etc?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 7). Conclusions
• Conclusions short concise statements about the
  results of work you have done must be directly
  relevant to the problem you raised in this
  thesis How you complete your promise?
• Summary of contributions whether your results
  can contribute to the knowledge of your area
  organize from most to least important. Original?
  Novel? Thorough? Meaningful?
• Future research in order to let other
  researchers pick up relevant work and follow your
  tracks. Feasible? Reasonable?

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 8). References
• Closely tied to the literature reviews in
  previous sections
• Examiners usually scan this list looking for
  important works in the field, which may be
  considered as a preliminary assessment
• If your examiners are one of the experts in your
  topic, it may be necessary for you to read their
  relevant papers and put them into the references
• Do not just list them, make sure you have
  referred them in the main body!
• Organize them either alphabetically by author
  surname or order of citation in your thesis

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2. How to Write Dissertation

• 9). Appendices
• This part may include materials impede the smooth
  development of your presentation but can
  contribute to justify the results of the thesis.
• For example program listings, huge tables of
  data, mathematical proofs or derivations

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3. Dissertation Style

• The formal structure/format depends on the
  University
• Be clear, sound, reasonable as literature style
• Latex tool is recommended for writing Grammar
  logic written
• Keep the figures and tables clear enough and well
  organized
• Spell check, also check for missing chapter or
  figure references
• Avoid simply use obviously/clearly, etc
• Avoid simply use XX is the most important
• Avoid personal moral judgements and
  self-assessment
• More How to Write A Dissertation or Bedtime
  Reading for People Who Do not Have Time To Sleep

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4. More about Dissertation

• Results of your dissertation defense
• Pass, Fail, Major Revision, Small
  Revision, etc
• Evaluate your thesis by yourself
• Did you clearly and reasonably describe all?
• Did you logically demonstrate your solution?
• Were all questions well answered?
• Is there a significant contribution to previous
  knowledge?
• Ethical Issues Original, Honest, Justified
• Thorough literature review
• Keep original, honest justified about ideas
  evidences
• Take references seriously (literature, figure,
  table, etc)

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5. Good Habits/Tips

• Write early, write often, do not wait all things
  to be ready
• Grow your Ph.D. thesis from previous research
• Keep notes about your ideas daily
• Keep the readers backgrounds and views in mind
• Keep asking yourself questions about the thesis
• Predict examiners questions and answer them in
  thesis
• Get feedbacks from others, especially advisors
  committees
• Submit early to committees in order to get
  feedbacks early

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Thanks!

• Any Questions?