Thesis WritingThesis Writing

THE GOOD NEWS ARE…

�You only have to write ONE thesis

� Except in some universities that a version in

Bahasa Malaysia is required for Malaysian

student.

At the end, you can add “Dr.” (or Ph.D) to �At the end, you can add “Dr.” (or Ph.D) to

your name

� Earn little bit more respect from public.

� Better chance to get a job in academic and/or

research institution.

� Give you a priceless chance to say “I am not

that kind of Doctor”. ☺

THE BAD NEWS ARE…

� Writing a thesis is hard and painful works.� Assuming you see doing “research” is the fun

part.

� It’s unlike any other document that maybe sold for money.� Thesis writing is not a marketable skill, that is � Thesis writing is not a marketable skill, that is

unless you choose to be a “professional” thesis writer ready to be hired. ☺

� Not many people going to read, I mean, if (and only if) you’re lucky, your thesis may be read by:� Your supervisor

� Your examiner

� YOUR STUDENTS!

WHY WRITE A THESIS?

� It’s the union card for academician� See what happened around, you all have to

suffer like we did!

� In the process, you will learn� How to research� How to research

� How to write

�You get to add “Dr” (or Ph.D) to your name� Family, friends and even strangers gonna to be

impressed.

� In some official letter or event, you may been address as Yang Berbahagia Dr. XXX XXX.

WHY WRITE A THESIS?

�It will advance our knowledge?� Just a little, however the main benefit is in

teaching you to do research.

�It will make you famous?

� Unlikely, just look at the statistics ☺

�It will radically change science?

� Unlikely, just look at the statistics, again

SO, WHEN DO I START?

�When do I actually start writing a thesis?

� Few months before the end of my

grant/scholarship /sponsorship?

� No, the day you start your registration

� Write it all down!

� Don’t worry, it’s never too late to start

WHAT A THESIS ISN’T?

�Is a thesis is about what I did in the lab over the last 3-7 years?� I first read the background material

� I then implemented an algorithm

� I ran some experiments� I ran some experiments

� I obtained some results

�A thesis is a logical reconstruction of a full research, not a historical narrative.

WHAT A THESIS ISN’T?

�A brain dump of everything you’ve done� You get to leave out the dead-ends

� But you have to fill in any obvious gaps!

�Available to buy?� Some “website” even offer you one thesis but at

RM50/page. I wish I got those rates! �

SO, WHAT IS A THESIS?

�Demonstration of an understanding of

the state of the art

� Critical appreciation of existing works

�A novel contribution

� Evaluated systematically with argument, data

and results.

TYPE OF PHD THESIS

� Opens a new area and thoroughly explores area

� Provides unifying framework

� Resolves long-standing question

� Contradicts existing knowledge

� Experimentally validates theory

� Produces ambitious system

� Provides empirical data

� Derives superior algorithms

� Develops new methodology

� Develops new tool

� Produces negative result (but avoid the best unless critical issue)

THEN, HOW DO I START?

�Write a thesis message

� 1 sentence

� 1 paragraph

� 1 page� 1 page

�Everything you write should be directed

� A proposition maintained by argument

� advancing original research

� So simple say � Thesis message

THESIS MESSAGE

� You’re tackling an important research problem

� plasticity-stability issue of a online learning neural

network.

� constructing linguistics knowledge from raw data

� You’ve made an original contributions to its � You’ve made an original contributions to its

resolution

� A new neural network model has been developed with

ability to learn new knowledge from the data samples

on a one-by-one basis without disturbing the existing

knowledge base.

� Its knowledge can be transform to “If-Then” format.

� Effectives of developed neural network has been proven

by many applications from several different domains.

WHAT NEXT?

�So, I’ve got a good thesis message

�What do I do next?

� Write the table of contents

� Logical structure of your thesis, i.e., come out � Logical structure of your thesis, i.e., come out

a Table of Contents (TOC)

TABLE OF CONTENT (TOC)

� Introduction

� Motivation and Critical Review

� A Introduction of scopes of research/works

� Problem Statements

� Objectives� Objectives

� Background and literature review

� Theoretical or algorithmic development

� Experimental Setup, empirical results and Analysis

� Conclusions

� List contributions that tally with objectives

TABLE OF CONTENT (TOC)

� Background & related work overlap

� Need to discuss related work at start to set scene (“Introduction” of every chapters other than first and last chapter)

� Need to discuss the outcomes at end to highlight your works. (“Summary” of every chapters other your works. (“Summary” of every chapters other than first and last chapter)

� Summary of the chapter also useful to make a link between this and next Chapter.

� Often one chapter can be a conference/journal paper. But not cut and paste directly.

� The other way around, write journal/conference papers first, then expend them to be chapters of your thesis!

TOC OF MY THESIS

� 1. INTRODUCTION

� 2. INCREMENTAL LEARNING SYSTEMS AND ADAPTIVE RESONANCE THEORY

� 3. A GENERALIZED ADAPTIVE RESONANCE THEORY NEURAL NETWORK

� 4. AN ENHANCED GENERALIZED ADAPTIVE � 4. AN ENHANCED GENERALIZED ADAPTIVE RESONANCE THEORY NEURAL NETWORK

� 5. THE ENHANCED GENERALIZED ADAPTIVE RESONANCE THEORY NEURAL NETWORK WITH RULE EXTRACTION

� 6. APPLICATION TO PATTERN CLASSIFICATION PROBLEMS

� 7. APPLICATION TO DATA REGRESSION PROBLEMS

� 8. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORKS

WHAT NEXT?

�So, I’ve got a good thesis message and a

table of contents

�What do I do next?�What do I do next?

� Make a timetable

� Targets to meet

� Discussion with your supervisor

TIMETABLE

�How long will it take?

�Depends on many factors� How much you’ve written as papers

� How many hours per day

� How many words you can type per minutes� How many words you can type per minutes

� …

� …

� Do you really want a thesis to be done?

TIMETABLE

�Generally, the taken for a good Ph.Dthesis� Min = 2 months (very rare)

� Max = infinity

� Mean = infinity� Mean = infinity

� Median = 6-9 months

� “Your thesis is your baby” (P. Prosser)

� Give it 9 months

� “You have to know when to let it go”

� Put a fence around what you’ve done

WRITING EACH CHAPTER

�Don’t start with the first and last chapters, i.e., Introduction or Conclusion.

�Don’t start with Chapter 2 (Literature Review) however you should have necessary materials ready in your mind necessary materials ready in your mind and desk.

�Start where you feel happiest� Typically a middle chapter (Methodology,

experimental and results)

� Then come back to Chapter 2 (Literature

Review).

WRITING EACH CHAPTER

�Finally Conclusions and end with the Introduction.

�Once done with all chapters, make a summary which is your abstract.

�Most important, write everything with �Most important, write everything with your thesis message in mind.

� Get feedback before you write too much

� One person to read each chapter as it is written

� Another person to read thesis in order by chapters

RULE OF THREE

� Within each chapter, repeat yourself 3 times

� Introduction: Tell the reader what are you going to tell…

� Body: Start telling your reader

� Summary: Remind the reader that what has � Summary: Remind the reader that what has been told.

� Within thesis, repeat your contributions 3 times

� Introduction chapter

� Main chapters

� Conclusion chapter

COMMON MISTAKES

� Informal or poor formatting of texts, diagram and table.

� Examiners will jump on imprecision.

� Personal Opinions without proof:\� “The main problem in XX method is modelling is

impossible.” Always remember a thesis is an argument impossible.” Always remember a thesis is an argument with fact and data, or at least, include a journal paper from a reputable publisher to support your opinion.

� Complex sentences full of long words

� A thesis should be a simple, straighforwardand convincing argument!

� Entertainment or humour� Joke footnote

COMMON PROBLEMS

� It’s never possible to cover all issues in a research

� Know when you should stopped. Ask your supervisor to

cross check your works.

� Best, write a paper and send to reputable international

journal for review.

Much of your thesis is joint work� Much of your thesis is joint work� Identify some work that is yours alone

� Writing too much

� Usually not more than 300 pages for PhD and 150 pages

for Master.

� But rarely rules about the minimum

� At some point, your brain will surely become toast� Take a break

� Eat properly, exercise, sleep

DEFENDING YOUR THESIS

�Specific to the country

� Private (Close door viva) or Public (Seminar

Style)?

� 2 to 9 Examiner?

Presentation?� Presentation?

� Casual talk or Strictly Questions and

Answers?

� Corrections allowed or expected?

SUPERVISOR

�Your not in this on your own. Your

supervisor is on your side

� Your success is their success

� Intellectual supportIntellectual support

� Quality assurance, i.e., what standard a thesis

should reach

� Indication of when to stop

�Emotional support

� Encouragement

� Constructive atmosphere

DEFENDING YOUR THESIS

�Don’t panic, don’t even need to be panic.� You’re probably the world’s expert on this topic

by now. Assume you did a quality research!

�Your examiners are human�Your examiners are human� They have sat in your seat

� They will help you find what changes (if any) are needed to make this the required quality

DEFENDING YOUR THESIS

� Enjoy it

� You have got experts in the room with you and they want to talk about your work. How often will that happen in the future?

� If you want, have a practiceIf you want, have a practice� Get your supervisor to set up a “dummy” examiner

� Prepare your opening statement and presentation.

� Get yourself able to answer the most important question in several way, i.e., “What is your major contribution?”

� Most important, don’t ever start your answer of

any question by “NO”!

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 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 analyzed?

� Are the results presented clearly?

Are patterns identified and summarized?� 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?

AFTER PASSED EXAMINATION, WHAT NEXT?

�You’ve finished writing & defending your

thesis

�What do you do next?

� Turn it into a bookTurn it into a book

� Publish some journal articles around it

� Make copies for your family and friends.

� Upload to several online storage, including

yahoo, gmail and hotmaiol.

� No bother to check for minor error, i.e., typo

error, grammar. Because minor errors will

never be ended.

AFTER PASSED EXAMINATION, WHAT NEXT?

� Just think, you’ll never have to do it again, right? What do you do next?

GOOD LUCK