How to Write a Better Minor Thesis

Paul Gruba, Justin Zobel

• Publisher: Melbourne University Press Digital
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780522866094
• eBook ISBN: 9780522866100
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is expected? What should the thesis consist of? How can the whole process be made a bit easier? How to achieve the best possible result? Working within strict time limits, and under pressure right from the start, what does the student need to do to ensure that the thesis is finished? In How to Write a Better Minor Thesis, experienced advisors Dr Paul Gruba and Professor Justin Zobel lay out step-by-step guidelines for writing a minor thesis. Based on decades of working with students undertaking their first piece of research, they take novice researchers through the process of completing a minor thesis from initial steps to final on-time submission. Written in a friendly manner, this concise book—a companion to their senior text on the challenges of research writing, How To Write A Better Thesis —will help you to successfully tackle this fresh challenge. How to Write a Better Minor Thesis contains sections of condensed material from How To Write A Better Thesis, complementing the entirely new material written for minor thesis students.

CHAPTER 1

TRANSITION TO A MINOR THESIS

Study at a college or university typically consists of a sequence of degrees: undergraduate, graduate, and research. The pattern of coursework study is familiar to every student. Across a sequence of subjects, where each one is somewhat independent of the rest, you learn the fundamentals through a series of constrained and discrete assessment tasks. In a research degree, in contrast, a student typically works with a supervisor (or advisor) to undertake an investigation over a period of years with little progressive assessment. To make the transition between coursework and research, students undertake a minor thesis.

I wrote this book to help you produce a minor thesis. In this first chapter, I situate the work that lies ahead by defining a minor thesis, setting out its purpose, sketching the roles of the student and the supervisor, considering the work that is reported in the thesis, and indicating how it is likely to be examined.

Defining a Minor Thesis

A minor thesis is an extended argument of 5000 to 20 000 words that reports on the outcomes of a supervised, individual research project, as part of a graduate degree such as Honours or a Masters by Coursework.

A thesis, minor or otherwise, is an extended argument. That is, a thesis consists of logical, structured, and defensible reasoning based on credible and verifiable evidence.

In undergraduate degrees, a key task is to show that you understand a particular concept or procedure through lab reports, tests, or essays. Much of the work is descriptive: you provide some background information, check for completeness, and then explain how you responded to the task at hand. For your undergraduate assignments, you were responding to specific questions and prompts; in your minor thesis, you are primarily in charge of the project. To be successful in a minor thesis, you need to argue, and continue to argue for thousands of words until you reach a conclusion. Throughout that argument, though, you will have a fair degree of freedom in your approach and style.

A minor thesis is much more than an extended essay or lab report. An essay is likely to be a descriptive exercise aimed at the learning of fundamentals, or of writing and reasoning skills; in contrast, a minor thesis is a proposition or claim that is defended through a high level of insight or creativity.

Just as a minor thesis is not an extended essay, it is also not a PhD thesis. A minor thesis is typically a tightly supervised one- or two-semester project; a PhD is the outcome of years of substantially independent research. A minor thesis reports on a single, straightforward investigation; a PhD could well encompass a series of studies, innovations, or types of analyses. While the two kinds of thesis have many elements in common, the skills needed to complete a minor thesis can be very different to those required for larger projects.

The Purpose of a Minor Thesis

A minor thesis provides an opportunity for high-achieving students to demonstrate their ability to conduct an open-ended investigation.

The academic community views the minor thesis as a signal of ability and preparation for undertaking a larger piece of work. Doing well on a minor thesis demonstrates that you are ready to pursue a higher degree such as a PhD. Some students, however, choose to do a minor thesis as a way of completing their study; for them, the thesis helps to synthesize their overall learning and demonstrates their maturity. Some students choose to do a minor thesis to see if they like research, to help them decide whether they are going to continue in an academic career or seek opportunities elsewhere. And some students have no choice—they are enrolled in programs in which a minor thesis is mandatory.

You should use the minor thesis to acquire the learning that is of the most value to you. If the thesis will be the end of your academic study, then you may want to use it to develop your practical skills, or to deepen your understanding of a particular area. If the thesis is a stepping stone to a PhD, you may want to use it to understand the current research literature in a particular field, or to gain an appreciation of different experimental methodologies. You may find that you have a great deal of freedom in terms of the kind of work that is done as part of the minor thesis, and you can use this freedom to focus on the activities that give you the greatest benefit. It follows that it is helpful if you know why you are doing a minor thesis—a question that will affect the research area of the thesis, the kind of activities you undertake, and, perhaps, who you choose as a supervisor.

The Role of the Student

A minor-thesis student works with a supervisor to complete an independent research project, and develops self-discipline, maturity, critical thinking, and a strong awareness of the wider field.

As you work to complete a minor thesis, you are signalling that you would like to make an initial entry into a community of scholars. To be respected as a member of that community, you must make appropriate use of specialized vocabulary, have discipline-specific knowledge, demonstrate an understanding of major works and researchers in the field, and show that you can effectively apply accepted methods of investigation. A successful minor-thesis student demonstrates independence and maturity, and a sustained drive and resilience. Such attributes may seem like a lot to expect, but, by undertaking a minor thesis, you should appreciate you are both producing a relatively large piece of work and becoming socialized into a specific academic field.

Though you have prepared for the project in your previous studies, undertaking a minor thesis will accelerate your academic development. Perhaps for the first time, you must judge the value of contradictory research literature, gather materials that haven’t previously been assembled, build an apparatus without knowing whether it will work, and make sense of raw data. You may be working with other researchers who are themselves uncertain about the outcomes they are striving towards—and you must then explain their work and discoveries to others in an academically rigorous way.

In contrast to an assignment such as an essay or lab report, it is very important to know—now, and from this point forward—that a minor thesis cannot be left until the final days or weeks before submission. Self-direction, a sense of purpose, and discipline are essential. You need to start strongly and make sure you are mastering all of the elements of the thesis as early as possible. You also need to remember that you are doing the work in conjunction with your supervisor, not alone, and thus you need to respect your supervisor’s constraints; for example, it isn’t reasonable to take your time to complete your project, then dump a 20 000-word thesis draft on a busy supervisor and expect feedback in a few days’ time. To get feedback, you will need to have completed drafts some weeks before the thesis is due. Sadly, not all students produce a draft before submission, and such students rarely achieve a high grade.

Regular feedback on your minor thesis while it is in progress is critical to success. With an essay, you may have revised it once or twice and not shown it to anyone before you handed it in. As you complete a minor thesis, you will need feedback from your supervisor several times. Feedback on drafts of thesis chapters or an entire manuscript typically consists of questions (‘What did you mean to say here?’ ‘Can this be clarified?’), recommendations (‘Remove this, it seems unnecessary.’ ‘This would be a good place to discuss so-and-so’s results.’), and criticism. Many students, at first, are much too sensitive to criticism, and take it as a judgment on their intellect or ability; however, to be a good researcher, it is essential that you make the transition to seeing criticism as a necessary and productive aspect of the overall writing process. To help students, I remind them that the manuscript is what I’m criticizing, not them, and that I do respect their work. I also remind them that some of my published work has been heavily criticized, and that I have to revise much of my own writing in response to such comments from my colleagues. Critical review is part of the academic writing process.

The process of becoming socialized into the field demands that you better understand how academic researchers work. Earlier in your studies you probably saw your supervisor mostly as a lecturer. Away from the lecture theatre and in the office, your supervisor is likely to seem ‘more human’ and yet, at the same time, more demanding. Up close, you’ll better understand how academics produce research, and how they work across the global communities of their subject area.

Successful minor-thesis students are mature, comfortable, and respectful; they ask insightful questions, but understand the boundaries of the supervisor’s expertise; they show initiative, but seek their own answers once given a bit of guidance. My advice is to keep in mind that you are in transition from one form of learning to another (that is, from directed study to independent searching), that you recognize your abilities, and, most importantly, that you stay alert for opportunities to grow.

The Role of the Supervisor

The supervisor works with the student to identify a research area and research question, find research literature, define tasks and milestones, and organize the thesis.

Students who are commencing a minor thesis typically know very little about research. They may be inspired by research outcomes that they have encountered in their studies—or, perhaps, heard about in the media—or by the academics they have met. However, they usually haven’t yet grasped what ‘doing research’ involves.

The role of the supervisor is to guide students through the task of doing a thesis. Students bring experience and skills in a range of areas, such as technical ability in the laboratory or familiarity with analysis of written materials, and all students have extensive experience of writing smaller documents, such as essays. However, students do not have the depth of experience that lets them judge whether a research question is suitable for a minor thesis, or that lets them assess how to balance the effort of the many tasks that must be completed to yield a finished thesis. They are unlikely to even have a clear idea of what those tasks are! The supervisor should help shape the research question, introduce the student to the different activities that comprise a minor thesis, and regularly meet with the student to give feedback and guidance.

In other words, a supervisor is, in effect, explaining to the student how to do research. This is a challenging task. In a very limited time—as little as one semester—the supervisor must explain several kinds of activity that may be entirely new to the student, while constraining and directing the project so that it can be completed on time and with a strong outcome.

Another aspect of minor thesis supervision is that the student must be guided to think, and act, like someone in the field. By using appropriate style guidelines, or using an accepted methodology, or approaching problems from a certain perspective, you indicate that you would like to be accepted in the field. In some ways, you are like a new member who is learning the tacit rules and cultural practices of an established club.

The Student–Supervisor Relationship

Supervisors of minor theses have to strike a balance, between hands-on management of the project and encouragement of independence, for students working under the constraints of a tightly defined project with pressing deadlines.

Supervisors are likely to work with you in three main ways. First, of course, a supervisor ‘supervises’ you in your project. In this part of the role, a supervisor will cover the technical aspects of your project such as guidance on methodology, the significance of a research question, and the ways in which research is presented and described in your discipline. In this way, the role of a supervisor may also include management of the project, development of deadlines, and assistance with tools or techniques.

The second aspect of supervision is the provision of advice. Your supervisor should help you to develop the ability to produce independent research. As a supervisor, I can assess, for example, where a student’s project is going and what literature has been covered to date, but I may challenge the student to go further, or to take bigger risks or a more daring approach—thus stretching essential skills, such as critical thinking. At times, I may advise students to work harder and be more disciplined; or alternatively to stop working too hard and enjoy life a bit more. This is a rewarding part of being a supervisor, and happens as I get to know my students in the later stages of their projects.

A third aspect of supervision is to be a preliminary examiner. In addition to reading each part of the thesis as it is completed—the literature review, methodology and experimental design, description of data sources, and so on—a supervisor should read a complete draft and give considered feedback. When I do this, I detach myself from the experience of supervision and treat the document as a stand-alone piece of research. I find it valuable to ask students to self-assess their own work, and then meet with me to compare notes and consider questions such as how well the draft meets the examination criteria. Further, I consider inconsistencies in structure: for example, was what was promised in the first chapter actually delivered in the final chapter? After our discussion, students revise their work before final submission.

It bears thinking about what a supervisor does not do for minor-thesis students. A supervisor can give advice, but on some occasions I have had to tell my students, ‘it is your decision’, when they run into difficult choices—ultimately, the thesis is their work, not mine. Students need to learn to ‘own the project’ and be proud of their eventual achievements, and should not regard themselves as an assembly-line worker in an industrial knowledge factory. The content must be primarily their own, and the writing even more so.

A supervisor cannot step in and rescue students who have found that they are unable to complete the work themselves. A supervisor can advise and assist, but cannot take the project over—when I see a project getting into difficulties, particularly in the late stages, after the student has had ample advice and support, there may not be much more that I can do. Such situations are not a pleasant experience, but they reflect the fact that the student is probably not ready for extended research projects such as a PhD thesis.

As a supervisor, I am limited in the ways that I can be a timekeeper, disciplinarian, or friend. Some ...

Table of contents

• How to Write a Better Minor Thesis
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER 1 TRANSITION TO A MINOR THESIS
• CHAPTER 2 GETTING ORGANIZED
• CHAPTER 3 THE STRUCTURE OF A MINOR THESIS
• CHAPTER 4 A STRONG BEGINNING
• CHAPTER 5 SITUATING THE STUDY
• CHAPTER 6 EXPLAINING THE INVESTIGATION
• CHAPTER 7 PRESENTING THE OUTCOME
• CHAPTER 8 WRAPPING IT UP
• CHAPTER 9 BEFORE YOU SUBMIT*
• AFTERWORD
• INDEX