How to write your thesis?

I share my personal experience about academic writing in the group meeting of iAgents Lab, NTU.

Transcript

1. 2020.05.06 How to write your thesis? Janet Yi-Ching Huang 1
2. https://www.facebook.com/womaninthestriped/ 3
3. Uncertainty A Concrete Solution Writing as “Iterative” Creative Process 4
4. Prewriting Writing Rewriting Feedback Key Components in the Writing Process Ideation Outlining Creation Revision Publishing Writing Process Make slides Create a detailed outline Get diverse feedback through the entire process 1 2 3 5
5. Feedback Facilitates High Quality Results Evaluate the writing Improve the writing Feedback Work Iterative process J. Hattie and H. Timperley. The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1):81–112, March 2007. 6
6. Good Examples Learning by (Golden Standard) Examples Practice Extract expert patterns from good examples ? Annotate 7
7. 1. What is the problem? 2. Why is it important? 3. What is the state of the art? 4. What is your big idea? 5. How are you going to work on it? 6. What do you expect to happen? what are the results? If you can write one sentence for each question, that will be an abstract. If you can write one paragraph for each question, that will be a proposal. If you can write one page for each question, that will be a paper. If you can write one chapter for each question, that will be a thesis. Basic Structure of Research (6 Core Questions) by Henry Lieberman 8
8. Topic Sentence Supporting Sentence Concluding Sentence Introduction Body Conclusion Essay Structure Paragraph Structure paragraph paragraph paragraph Key point Supporting Sentence Supporting Sentence Basic Structure for Academic Writing Introduction IMRD Structure Discussion Methods Results Literature Review Conclusion 9
9. Old -> New A paragraph is a group of sentences organized around a central topic. Four Key Elements of Great Writing #1: Unity #2: Order #3: Coherence #4: Completeness All sentences in a paragraph should speak about one single idea or one main subject. Order refers to the way you organize your supporting sentences. Sentences within a paragraph need to connect to each other and work together as a whole. Completeness means a paragraph is well-developed. Holly L. Jacobs, Stephen A. Zinkgraf, Deanna R. Wormuth, V. Faye Hartfiel, and Jane B. Hughey. Testing ESL Composition: A Practical Approach. Newbury House, 1981. Transition signal One idea per paragraph!! 10
10. Organizational Pattern Purpose Signal Words Chronological/ Process Order Describes the sequence in which events occur in time. first, second, later, before, next, as soon as, after, then, finally, meanwhile, following, last, during, in, on, until Cause and Effect Describes how one or more things cause or are related to another. Causes: because, because of, for, since, stems from, one cause is, one reason is, leads to, causes, creates, yields, produces, due to, breeds, for this reason Effects: consequently, results in, one result is, therefore, thus, as a result, hence Comparison and Contrast Discusses similarities and/or differences among ideas, theories, concepts, objects, or persons. Similarities: both, also, similarly, like, likewise, too, as well as, resembles, correspondingly, in the same way, to compare, in comparison, share 
 Differences: unlike, differs from, in contrast, on the other hand, instead, despite, nevertheless, however, in spite of, whereas, as opposed to Summary Indicates that a condensed review of an idea or piece of writing is to follow. in summary, in conclusion, in brief, to summarize, to sum up, in short, on the whole Generalization and Example Provides examples that clarify a broad, general statement. for example, for instance, that is, to illustrate, thus Addition Indicates that additional information will follow. furthermore, additionally, also, besides, further, in addition, moreover, again Transitional Signals Adapted from McWhorter, Kathleen T. Reading Across the Disciplines. 2nd Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005 11
11. Genre Analysis: The CARS Model Swales (1990, 2004) proposes the CARS (Create-A-Research-Space) model to analyze move and step of Introductions to research articles. Move 1: Establishing a Territory Move 2: Establishing a Niche Move 3: Occupying the Niche Step 1: Claiming centrality Step 2: Making topic generalization Step 3: Reviewing previous research Making a counter-claim Indicating a gap Raising questions Extending previous research Outlining purposes Announcing present research Announcing principal findings Indicating the paper’s structure Gap Topic Ideas 12
12. Thank You Q&A