Writing a doctoral
thesis—the culmination of years of research work—can be a daunting endeavor.
But learning from those who have already tackled this task can help you make
the process a little smoother. Science Careers asked recent graduates and
current students to reflect on their experiences and what did—and didn’t—work
for them.
How did you structure your thesis and approach writing it? How long did it take?
In my department,
theses must be no longer than 175 pages plus front matter and appendices. They
can be written in either the so-called “traditional thesis format,” which
largely consists of a general introduction, a literature review, an overall
description of the materials and methods, a presentation of all the results,
and a general discussion—or in “manuscript format,” where the main chapters are
written as standalone publishable articles between a general introduction and
discussion. For my thesis, which I started writing just a couple of months ago,
I have chosen the manuscript format.
- Leslie Holmes, Ph.D.
candidate in biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada
I wasn't given any
specific guidelines on the format or content. The most common advice at my
university back in Italy was to look at an older thesis and put together
something similar. I had published several papers, so I reorganized them into
one coherent and logical story—writing a general background introduction, a
chapter introducing my research topic more specifically, a description of the
common instrumentation and data analysis, several adapted chapters presenting
the original work of my research, and a general conclusion. Altogether, my
dissertation was approximately 150 pages. The actual writing took 2 months—the
time I had before the final submission deadline. I guess I managed to write it
because I had to, the alternative being to fail the Ph.D.
- Eleonora Troja,
associate research scientist in astrophysics at the University of Maryland in
College Park who works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland
In the Netherlands,
where I did my Ph.D., theses are commonly structured as an introduction, four
chapters of original research work, and a summarizing discussion. Work that is
already published or has been submitted does not need to be rewritten. I was
quite lucky to have published two research papers and a review of my field that
served as the introduction, and I was revising another manuscript that I had
submitted to a journal.
This meant that I only had to write one more research
chapter and the summarizing discussion, which made the total time and effort to
complete my thesis manageable. I started by making a very general outline with
all my chapter titles. After getting approval from my supervisor, I made a more
detailed outline for the two chapters I had left to write. This was especially
helpful for the research manuscript. At the time, my co-author (another Ph.D.
student) and I were still acquiring and analyzing the data. The outline helped
us with our figures, although some of them started as mock figures that were
completed later. Altogether my thesis was 135 pages, which is quite average for
a Ph.D. thesis at my institution, and it took me approximately 150 working
hours over a couple of months.
- Anoek Zomer,
postdoctoral fellow in cancer biology at the University of Lausanne in
Switzerland and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
My thesis had to be
written in publishable chapters. I had a hard time keeping the chapters short
enough for manuscript submissions, so at the time of defense my thesis—which
consisted of three chapters plus an overall abstract for introduction—was 125
pages, but it ended up being trimmed after that. I focused on producing several
manuscript-ready chapters rather than trying to include all the research work
that I did. I first organized my data and results into a storyboard by printing
all my graphs and laying them out on a giant table. This strategy helped me see
how the pieces fit together, which results would be in or out, the best way to
display the data, and where the chapter breaks should be. It also helped me
identify a few gaps that needed to be filled back in the lab. Altogether it
took about 1 year, including a couple months of maternity leave in the early
stages, to write the whole thing.
- Sarah Gravem,
postdoctoral scholar in marine ecology at Oregon State University in Corvallis
I decided to write my
entire dissertation from scratch. I was already working on two manuscripts for
journal submission, but both were collaborations, so it made more sense, and it
was also easier, to tell the story of my Ph.D. just by itself. I wrote up my
scientific results in four different chapters, with additional chapters for the
introduction, materials and methods, and conclusion. For each of the results
chapters, I went back to my original experiments and computational results to
verify the findings and regenerated the figures and tables as required.
I made
a lot of notes and flowcharts describing what should go into each chapter to
guide me during the writing, which later also helped me provide a quick
overview at the beginning of each chapter and crosscheck information at the end
of the writing process. As I completed the whole thing, I was quite surprised
at how much I had written. My thesis was nearly 300 pages, and I almost got
concerned about examiners having to read them all. But the “real thesis” was
only about 180 pages, with the remainder being appendices, including my two
manuscripts under review, references, and lists of figures and tables. I spent
about 6 months putting it all together, using the 4-year duration of my stipend
as a hard deadline to push myself to finish.
- Katharina F. Heil,
research associate in computational neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh
in the United Kingdom
My writing got squeezed
into a two-and-a-half-week gap between the end of a major research project and
my defense date, which had been chosen 6 months earlier. Luckily, my department
allows students to use published papers as dissertation chapters and I had
published regularly during my Ph.D., so all I really needed to write was my introduction.
I chose to put together a brief history of my field. This required tracking
down and reading a whole bunch of historical papers.
Then I jotted down every
thought I had on the subject, producing a bullet list of elements I wanted to
cover, logical connections between ideas, references, and even just catchy
phrases. Then I made a first attempt to compile all these thoughts into some
structured text, focusing on whether I had sufficient material to support my
points and how well they flowed. After that, I focused on honing the phrasing
itself, using online resources such as spell checkers and grammar books as
English is my second language, followed by a final overall polish. With all the
figures and numerous supplementary materials, my thesis—which I’ve just
successfully written, defended, and submitted—ended up being over 200 pages,
which is within the norm in our department.
- Anton Goloborodko,
postdoctoral fellow in theoretical biophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge
Who did you get help or
feedback from? How involved was your principal investigator (PI)?
When it comes to
theses, I find that no one is as helpful as former grad students from your
group. When I reached out to our lab's alumni for advice, they helped me understand
the overall process of thesis writing, estimate the time it would take to
complete different parts, and watch out for potential pitfalls. I also
downloaded and skimmed through their theses to get a feel for what the final
product was supposed to look like. My PI had been heavily involved in writing
each of the papers that went into my thesis, so the need for his input was less
critical. Nonetheless, before sitting down to write, I had a conversation with
him in which we figured out what the main theme of my thesis should be and
which papers to use. Then when the time came to polish my thesis, many of my
friends and colleagues, and my wife, who is also a biophysicist, provided
invaluable advice.
- Goloborodko
I sent each chapter's
methods and results to all my committee members so that we could make sure that
the science was complete before I dug into the key scientific messages. My PI
made sure we were in touch and made himself available for questions. He also
was an excellent and very thorough editor—having somebody who will rip your
writing apart and help you trim and organize is critical. Nearer the end, my
fellow graduate students also helped me cut a lot of words.
- Gravem
My PI got involved a
couple of times: At the beginning when I asked him for advice about how to put
a thesis together, and at the end for the final reading of the draft. But I
still felt totally lost. So when my best friend told me that he was going to
visit his adviser to discuss how to write his thesis, I did not hesitate to tag
along. His adviser clarified the expectations of the graduating commission,
gave us some useful suggestions, and reassured us that all would be OK. That
meeting helped me feel less overwhelmed and more confident. A senior colleague
of mine, who was an expert adviser for Ph.D. students at another university,
also offered his help, and he reviewed every single chapter of my thesis. I
would deal with the revisions while he was moving on to the next chapter, which
made it much more manageable and saved a lot of time. At that time, I badly
needed someone to tell me that I wasn't doing something totally wrong or
stupid.
- Troja
I sent my chapters to
my PI one by one as I finished writing them. At times, I would get some
feedback relatively straight away by email or through Skype; other times, I
would need to send one or two reminders. Setting deadlines for myself, and
letting my PI know about them, made me more accountable and helped me stick to
my schedule. When I needed concrete tips on specific aspects of the thesis and
my PI was really busy, I would just stop by his office. At times, all I needed
was a quick “Yes, you are moving in the right direction” to keep going. I also
sent individual chapters to people whom I knew had an interest in my research,
mainly for proofreading, and I tried to find native English speakers to help me
with grammar and spelling. I notified them all ahead of time so that they would
have some flexibility on when and how to give me feedback.
- Heil
I was lucky to have a
very caring supervisor who literally always had his door open. However, I tried
to only request his input when I felt that critical decisions had to be made,
for example when I had finished an outline or a chapter. He provided feedback
mainly through track changes added to my drafts, which I found very convenient.
When I received his input, I tried to deal with the revisions immediately, leaving
the comments that required more work for later. By tackling the quick revisions
first, I felt that I was making progress, which helped me stay motivated.
- Zomer
How did you make time and mental space to work on your thesis?
To focus on my writing,
I had to stop most of my research, though I still performed some minor tasks
that did not require significant time and concentration, such as launching
computer calculations. Regarding work-life balance, my wife and I have an
informal pact that we try not to work after dinner and on weekends. Without
proper rest, productivity just drops and you end up feeling miserable. I can't
say that this pact was enforced during the thesis writing period, but even in
the most intense times, we did get out of town at least once a week for a walk
in nearby parks and nature reserves to decompress.
- Goloborodko
During the entire
writing period, I kept some other work-related activities going. Especially at
the beginning, I remained active as a teaching assistant. Working with students
was a nice distraction from my thesis, and it was motivating to see that my
work was useful and appreciated by others, especially during unrewarding
writing times. I also worked on other research projects in parallel and went to
several international conferences and a summer school on citizen science. These
activities not only offered a welcome break from the thesis, but also reminded
me of how important and interesting my research was. I also made sure to stay
active to keep up my positive energy. Going to the gym always brought me back
to writing with a clear mind and a healthier feeling. Sometimes I would try to
arrange coffee breaks with friends to reward myself with a piece of cake and
good company. Other times, planning to visit a museum or try a new restaurant
helped me keep going by giving me a nice event to look forward to.
- Heil
I stopped doing most of
my fieldwork about a year and a half before my thesis was due, which was about
the same time my son was born. After my maternity leave, I spent 6 to 8 hours a
day writing from home, with my baby on my lap or sleeping next to me. Once he
was in day care at 7 months old, I went to coffee shops nearby so that I could
pop over and nurse him at lunchtime. Several times a day, I practiced the
Pomodoro Technique where I'd set the timer for 45 minutes and not do anything
but write—no emails, no social media, no other tasks. If I thought of something
I needed to do, I wrote it down for later. In addition to combining writing
with motherhood, other aspects of work-life balance were also extremely
important to me. I didn't work most weekends, and I made sure I got outside and
exercised or had some fun every day. Letting go of guilt about not working was
key. Feeling bad doesn't get you anywhere, and it just makes the experience
unenjoyable for you and the people you love or live with.
- Gravem
Early on, it really
helped to take a few days away from the lab and just write. I took advantage of
the fact that my parents were on holiday and spent a week in their house. I set
realistic daily deadlines, and if I met those I treated myself with a little
reward, like a short run through the forest or an evening picnic with an old
friend. That week proved very productive, and I came back motivated to get the rest
of my writing and experiments done. After I returned, I made sure to continue
doing some fun activities without necessarily having to achieve something
first, as I realized that I should not be too hard on myself. Going for a run
between writing spells, for example, allowed me to get some distance from my
thesis and helped me to maintain perspective and generate new ideas. But these
activities tended to be spontaneous—I didn’t want to put too much on my
schedule so that I could continue writing when I was in the flow.
- Zomer
Emotionally, what was the thesis writing process like?
It was really hard, but
I did enjoy it. Writing can feel like a very long, lonely tunnel, but the more
you practice, the easier it gets.
- Gravem
Starting with the easy
task of reformatting my published articles allowed me to make a large amount of
progress quickly and feel in control of the writing process while reducing the
stress of the approaching deadline. I had a harder time with my thesis
introduction, though I really enjoyed digging through the history of my field.
I was even happy that I had to do it—this way, I could prioritize it over other
tasks. But the extensive reading made writing much more challenging than I
expected, and the tight deadline made it less enjoyable. Almost until the very
end, I felt like the task was overly ambitious. To reduce stress at that stage,
I kept reminding myself that it was a unique chance to focus on the history of
research instead of the research itself.
- Goloborodko
Writing my thesis was
for sure an experience that I enjoyed. This was the moment when I was finally
putting together all my work of the last 5 years, and I was proud of it.
- Zomer
I guess a good
work-life balance would have been important; too bad I did not maintain it. All
I could feel was panic. For 2 months, I basically did nothing besides writing
my thesis and applying for jobs. When I needed a break from the thesis, I
switched to my job applications. This was one of the most miserable times of my
academic career. Luckily, at the end I got the postdoc I wanted, which made me
forget all the stress and frustration.
- Troja
My Ph.D., including the
writing period, was an emotional roller coaster. It wasn't always easy, but
remembering that every little effort brings you closer to your final goal is
crucial to just keep going and survive emotionally. And while writing was
daunting at times, I also found it motivating to see just how much research I
had done.
- Heil
I'm only at the
beginning stages of my writing, but it has been enjoyable so far. This is
probably because I will finally have something tangible out of my Ph.D., which
is immensely encouraging!
- Holmes
Do you have any further
advice about how to make thesis writing as smooth as possible?
My general
recommendation is don’t start at the last minute and don’t underestimate the
time it will take. A thesis is not only about the science, but also about how
to present it. Even though I had published papers containing a lot of material
ready to be included in the thesis, I still had to put a lot of effort and time
into reformatting the text, and I even had to improve or update some figures.
If I could go back in time, I would start writing my thesis in my first year
rather than leaving all the work for the last year. The introductory chapters
explaining your subject matter can be written before having any data, and in
retrospect, I had all the scientific results to write two-thirds of my thesis
before the beginning of my last year.
- Troja
When I was studying for
orals in my second year, I was very organized about writing my notes and
archiving relevant papers, which proved super helpful when writing my thesis.
It was also very helpful that in the first few years of my Ph.D. I had written
dozens of grant proposals, which gave me an early opportunity to think about
how to present the big picture, as well as some text that I could use as a
starting point.
- Gravem
The acknowledgments
section, and the time it takes, shouldn’t be overlooked. I saw it as my best
chance to sum up the nonscientific part of my Ph.D. and express my gratitude to
everyone who helped me along the way, and finding the right words took me
several days. I chose to leave it until after my defense, when I could write at
a much more relaxed pace during the few weeks I had to edit my thesis.
Beware of
perfectionism. A doctoral thesis concludes a major part of one's life and there
is a tendency to want to make it flawless. In my case, a non-negotiable
deadline provided an effective remedy. Other projects or life events may also
impose deadlines. If you’re not facing looming deadlines, self-imposed time
limits for individual chapters would probably work.
Regarding technical
aspects, my department provides a LaTeX template, which was very helpful. It
enforces structured writing and deals with all the formatting so that you can
focus on content. For example, it handles numbering, so you don't have to
update figure numbers every time you insert or delete a figure. And because
LaTeX is based on plain text format, I don't have to worry about not being able
to open my thesis file a decade from now. LaTeX requires a certain amount of
technical expertise, but this can be overcome with a little effort and
Googling.
I am also a big fan of
cloud services. I used an online LaTeX editor called Overleaf that allowed me
to easily share drafts with my supervisor. I started with a free account, and
once I reached the storage limits I paid a tiny fee for 1 month of a “Pro”
account. I was also happy to discover that Mendeley, the cloud-based literature
management software I have been using for the last decade, integrated easily
with Overleaf—although Mendeley did break the night before submission,
extending my workday to 6 a.m.
- Goloborodko
Try to figure out when
your most productive times of the day are. Also, something that I unfortunately
learned the hard way is to leave yourself a roadmap before walking away from
your writing, especially if it’s going to be for more than a day. Write
yourself a note about thoughts and ideas or the findings and questions that you
were pondering in your last work session so that you can immediately pick up
where you left off. As for the writing itself, I attended some writing boot
camps that helped me get started. I also read some books on writing. One that
I’d recommend in particular is The Scientist’s Guide to Writing.
- Holmes
Printing out
substantial parts of my writing and leaving a bit of time before reading them
allowed me to efficiently proofread and adjust things. And when the writing was
not going as well as expected, I switched to the figures or formatting. That
way, I could still feel that I was moving forward. Even though you may often
feel as though progress is very, very slow, focus on just trying to add a
little bit of improvement to your thesis every hour and every day.
- Heil
source:
http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/04/how-write-your-phd-thesis
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