- •Lecture 1. Grammatical Features
- •1.1 Grammatical Peculiarities
- •1.2 Tense
- •1.3 Voice
- •Lecture 2. The Sentence Structure
- •2.1 Word Order
- •2.2 The Subject
- •2.3 The Predicate
- •2.4 The Object
- •2.5 Modifiers
- •A) Adverbial Modifier of Place: Flyback transformers can be found in any equipment with a Cathode Ray Tube.
- •2.6 Danglers in Scientific Prose
- •2.7 Antecedents
- •2.8 Clauses
- •Lecture 3. Punctuation
- •3.1 Is Punctuation Really Important?
- •3.2 Periods
- •A period is used after numbers or letters in an enumerated list.
- •Periods with Other Punctuation Marks
- •3.3 Commas
- •Improved
- •4. Coordinate Modifiers
- •6. Parenthetic Elements
- •7. Elliptical Constructions
- •In the United States there are ninety-two scanners; in Europe, eighty-five; in all of Africa, six. [The commas indicate the omission of the words there are.]
- •8. Specialized Uses of Commas
- •Specialized Scientific Notation
- •Some interesting counterexamples appear in !Kung syntax.
- •3.8 Apostrophes
- •3.9 Quotation Marks
- •Rimmer notes that Bohr "scolded his distinguished colleague finally in Einstein's own terms 'God does not throw dice. Nor is it our business to prescribe to God how he should run the world.'"
- •3.10 Parentheses
- •3.11 Brackets
- •3.12 Hyphens
- •To Link Certain Prefixes, Suffixes, Letters, and Numbers with Nouns
- •To Link Compound Nouns
- •To Link Compound Modifiers
- •To Link Spelled-Out Numbers
- •To Stand for to or through Between Letters and Numbers
- •Specialized Uses
- •Suspended Hyphens
- •3.13 Dashes
- •Lecture 4. Types of Writing: Compositional Peculiarities
- •4.1 Scientific Articles
- •4.2 Research Papers
- •Introduction
- •4.3 Theses
- •4.4 Summary and Abstract
- •4.5 Instructions and Procedures
- •4.6 Specifications
- •References
4.3 Theses
The thesis or dissertation is an extended research report on a theoretical, experimental, or design project. The thesis seeks to make some original contribution to the writer's field of specialization. Written by college seniors, and by master's and Ph.D. candidates, theses are long, sometimes immense – from 30 to 250 pages and more – a once-in-a-career effort. Although the immediate audiences are mainly thesis committees, prospective employers also read theses. Thesis work is good evidence of how you work on problems. The quality of a thesis indicates the quality of an individual's thinking, organization, and powers of expression. Thesis work at the master's and Ph.D. levels may be cited by other researchers, and some thesis work is condensed and published in journal articles and reports.
In form, the thesis is a lengthy experimental, design, or theoretical report, with a problem-method-results-discussion structure. This recurrent hypothetico-deductive pattern of developing a thesis to solve a problem and then constructing a methodology and testing for results is common in research writing.
The front matter frames the thesis work. It includes these elements:
- Title page. The title should be informative, contain keywords, and reveal the topic of the thesis. The title page includes the title, author, thesis supervisor, place, and date.
- Abstract. Abstract briefly states the (1) research problem, (2) methodology, (3) key results, and (4) conclusion. Generally, abstracts are between 100 and 150 words – roughly 5-10 sentences.
- Table of contents. Table of contents lists the key subject headings and subheadings of your thesis with their page numbers. It is also necessary to list acknowledgments, appendixes, and bibliography.
- List of figures. List of figures includes the figure numbers, figure titles, and page numbers.
- List of tables. List of tables includes the table numbers, table titles, and page numbers.
- Nomenclature (optional). There are unfamiliar terms, symbols, acronyms and their meanings listed in this section of the thesis.
The thesis body provides the introduction, narrative, and analysis of the work. The body includes these elements:
- Introduction. It states (a) the purpose of the investigation, (b) the problem being investigated, (c) the background (context and importance) of the problem (citing previous work by others), (d) the author’s thesis and general approach, and (e) the criteria for the study's success.
- Theory. It states the theoretical basis for the research, design or experimental work.
- Materials, apparatus, and procedures. It lists and describes key materials and apparatus. Then the procedure is described in enough detail so that others cannot duplicate it. Often the illustrations are included.
- Results. The results are presented, usually with accompanying tables and graphs. The patterns and quality of the results are characterized and their accuracy and precision are estimated. Detailed data go to an appendix.
- Discussion. The meaning of the results is discussed, stating clearly what their significance is. The results are compared with theoretical expectations and the account is given for anything unexpected.
- Conclusions. This section presents the review of the results in relation to the original problem statement. The success of the study is assessed in light of the criteria of success the author gave in the introduction.
- Recommendations. If applicable, directions for future work are recommended.
The end matter is mainly referential material, too detailed to fit well in the main narrative of work done. It includes these elements:
- Acknowledgments. These are the acknowledgements of assistance from advisors, sponsors, funding agencies, colleagues, technicians, and so on.
- Appendixes. It provides detailed calculations, procedures, data in separate appendixes. Each appendix is given a title, a letter (Appendix A, B, C), and often, an introductory paragraph.
- Bibliography. It lists alphabetically any works referred to in the study.