It is a great feeling, the data is all in there and the analysis is completed. If you would look back into the past few years of your life, you would feel they have passed away in a blink. And now is the stage to submit your thesis and defend your viva and you would be finally done with your PhD. How would you face it if the examiner would tear apart your thesis at this stage, where you would feel that you have done your best in your work and effort of all these years?
You may find a whole lot of advice on the net about how to write your thesis, but there are a few things that the examiners wouldn’t really want to see in your thesis and they really irritate them. Let us discuss what those few things are they are pet peeves of the examiners:
- Poor Presentation of your thesis: Your examiners are given a hard copy of your thesis and small things in your thesis such as the font, spacing, margins, structuring and all are very important. Examiners are always happy with concise work and usually get put off by flowery and decorative language.
Ensure that the spelling errors, typing errors and grammatical goof ups are to the minimum.
- Bad Structuring your writing: A well-structured writing is the one that makes the reader follow the thinking of the writer. Use connecting sentences and give conclusions for all the arguments that you put up. It is also very important that all the headings and subheadings are clear and relevant to the content that is within them. Your appendix should be clear to locate by providing a clear table of contents and page numbers.
Make sure your writing is a smooth transition from one heading to another without losing consistency and grip
- Improper Chronology: You must not write things in a thesis in the order that they were performed. The location of a chapter or a section should be according to its suitability and not according to the sequence in which you performed the tasks.
Do not follow the real time of the work done by you when sequencing the thesis
- Unconnected Conclusion: It is important to bring up things together well and at the same time keep the conclusion as real as possible without trying to make claims that are baseless or not supported by evidence. They would get noticed and get caught.
You may leave a worthy sand believable message for the reader to take home