A Generic Thesis Skeleton
1. Introduction
This is a general introduction to what the thesis is all about -- it is
not just a description of the contents of each section. Briefly summarize
the question (you will be stating the question in detail later), some of
the reasons why it is a worthwhile question, and perhaps give an overview
of your main results. This is a birds-eye view of the answers to the main
questions answered in the thesis (see above).
2. Background Information (optional)
A brief section giving background information may be necessary, especially
if your work spans two or more traditional fields. That means that your
readers may not have any experience with some of the material needed to
follow your thesis, so you need to give it to them. A different title than
that given above is usually better; e.g., "A Brief Review of Frammis
Algebra."
3. Review of the State of the Art
Here you review the state of the art relevant to your thesis. Again, a
different title is probably appropriate; e.g., "State of the Art in Zylon
Algorithms." The idea is to present (critical analysis comes a little bit
later) the major ideas in the state of the art right up to, but not
including, your own personal brilliant ideas.
You organize this section by idea, and not by author or by publication.
For example if there have been three important main approaches to Zylon
Algorithms to date, you might organize subsections around these three
approaches, if necessary:
3.1 Iterative Approximation of Zylons
3.2 Statistical Weighting of Zylons
3.3 Graph-Theoretic Approaches to Zylon Manipulation
4. Research Question or Problem Statement
Engineering theses tend to refer to a "problem" to be solved where other
disciplines talk in terms of a "question" to be answered. In either case,
this section has three main parts:
1. a concise statement of the question that your thesis tackles
2. justification, by direct reference to section 3, that your question is
previously unanswered
3. discussion of why it is worthwhile to answer this question.
Item 2 above is where you analyze the information which you presented in
Section 3. For example, maybe your problem is to "develop a Zylon
algorithm capable of handling very large scale problems in reasonable
time" (you would further describe what you mean by "large scale" and
"reasonable time" in the problem statement). Now in your analysis of the
state of the art you would show how each class of current approaches fails
(i.e. can handle only small problems, or takes too much time). In the last
part of this section you would explain why having a large-scale fast Zylon
algorithm is useful; e.g., by describing applications where it can be
used.
Since this is one of the sections that the readers are definitely looking
for, highlight it by using the word "problem" or "question" in the title:
e.g. "Research Question" or "Problem Statement", or maybe something more
specific such as "The Large-Scale Zylon Algorithm Problem."
5. Describing How You Solved the Problem or Answered the Question
This part of the thesis is much more free-form. It may have one or several
sections and subsections. But it all has only one purpose: to convince the
examiners that you answered the question or solved the problem that you
set for yourself in Section 4. So show what you did that is relevant to
answering the question or solving the problem: if there were blind alleys
and dead ends, do not include these, unless specifically relevant to the
demonstration that you answered the thesis question.
6. Conclusions
You generally cover three things in the Conclusions section, and each of
these usually merits a separate subsection:
1. Conclusions
2. Summary of Contributions
3. Future Research
Conclusions are not a rambling summary of the thesis: they are short,
concise statements of the inferences that you have made because of your
work. It helps to organize these as short numbered paragraphs, ordered
from most to least important. All conclusions should be directly related
to the research question stated in Section 4. Examples:
1. The problem stated in Section 4 has been solved: as shown in Sections ?
to ??, an algorithm capable of handling large-scale Zylon problems in
reasonable time has been developed.
2. The principal mechanism needed in the improved Zylon algorithm is the
Grooty mechanism.
3. Etc.
The Summary of Contributions will be much sought and carefully read by the
examiners. Here you list the contributions of new knowledge that your
thesis makes. Of course, the thesis itself must substantiate any claims
made here. There is often some overlap with the Conclusions, but that's
okay. Concise numbered paragraphs are again best. Organize from most to
least important. Examples:
1. Developed a much quicker algorithm for large-scale Zylon problems.
2. Demonstrated the first use of the Grooty mechanism for Zylon
calculations.
3. Etc.
The Future Research subsection is included so that researchers picking up
this work in future have the benefit of the ideas that you generated while
you were working on the project. Again, concise numbered paragraphs are
usually best.
7. References
The list of references is closely tied to the review of the state of the
art given in section 3. Most examiners scan your list of references
looking for the important works in the field, so make sure they are listed
and referred to in section 3. Truth be known, most examiners also look for
their own publications if they are in the topic area of the thesis, so
list these too. Besides, reading your examiner's papers usually gives you
a clue as to the type of questions they are likely to ask.
All references given must be referred to in the main body of the thesis.
Note the difference from a Bibliography, which may include works that are
not directly referenced in the thesis. Organize the list of references
either alphabetically by author surname (preferred), or by order of
citation in the thesis.
8. Appendices
What goes in the appendices? Any material which impedes the smooth
development of your presentation, but which is important to justify the
results of a thesis. Generally it is material that is of too nitty-gritty
a level of detail for inclusion in the main body of the thesis, but which
should be available for perusal by the examiners to convince them
sufficiently. Examples include program listings, immense tables of data,
lengthy mathematical proofs or derivations, etc.
Comments on the Skeleton
Again, the thesis is a formal document designed to address the examiner's
two main questions. Sections 3 and 4 show that you have chosen a good
problem, and section 5 shows that you solved it. Sections 1 and 2 lead the
reader into the problem, and section 6 highlights the main knowledge
generated by the whole exercise.
Note also that everything that others did is carefully separated from
everything that you did. Knowing who did what is important to the
examiners. Section 4, the problem statement, is the obvious dividing line.
That's the main reason for putting it in the middle in this formal
document.
Now, on to the last two requirements for CS 199, which are:
(1) Final demo
(2) Final bound copies of the thesis report
You have to finish (1) before you submit (2), but you can e-mail to me
drafts so that I can review (2) before you print and bind the report.
For (1), each group is asked to e-mail me their preferred date to demo
their application. The possible dates are: March 15, 18, 22 and 25.
The demo will be done during CS 199 class hours.
What is involved in a demo? You have to give me, on a CD or thumb
drive, an installer for your applications, with installation
instructions (text file also on the CD) if necessary. I should be able
to install and run your application from scratch. Please prepare test
data if it's necessary for your application (sample video clip, sample
malware, etc).
For (2), you have to give two hard-bound copies of the thesis report
by Saturday, April 1. The report should also include a CD with an
installer of the applications, the source code with compilation
instructions, and a soft copy of the thesis report in PDF format.
The Latex template for (2) is in the Files section of our Yahoo groups.
Please take note of the deadlines, particularly graduating students
whose grades are due by April 3.
-spf
