How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

When to write the thesis
How to write a thesis
Other topics in scientific communication

You would be wise to begin writing your thesis long before it is due. In fact, when a particular set of experiments or some major facet of your work has been completed, you should write it up while it is still fresh in your mind. If you save everything until the end, you may find that you have forgotten important details. Worse, you may find that you lack time to do a proper writing job. If you have not done much writing before, you might be amazed at how time-consuming it can be. You are likely to need a total of at least three months to write the thesis, on a relatively full-time basis. You will not have full time, however, nor can you count on the ready availability of your thesis advisor. Allow at least 6 months.

(“Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham. www.phdcomics.com)

As implied in the preceding paragraph, a thesis need not be written from beginning to end. Work on the literature review section generally should start early because your research should be based on previous research. Regardless of whether you do laboratory research or other investigation (such as field research or social-science surveys), you should draft descriptions of methods soon after methods are used, while memory is still complete. Often, the introduction is best drafted after the sections presenting and discussing the results, so the introduction can effectively prepare readers for what will follow.

Of course, ideas for any part of your thesis may occur to you at any time. Early in your research, consider establishing a physical or electronic file for each part of your thesis. Whenever ideas for the thesis occur to you, put the ideas in the appropriate file. Similarly, if you come across readings that might be relevant to a given section, include or mention them in the file. Such files help keep you from losing ideas and materials that could contribute to your thesis. They also give you content to consider using as you begin drafting each section.

Perhaps you noticed that we said “drafting,” not “writing.” Much to the surprise of some graduate students, a good thesis is likely to require multiple drafts. Some graduate students think that once the last word leaves the keyboard, the thesis is ready to turn in. However, as with journal articles, considerable revision commonly is needed for the thesis to achieve its potential. Indeed, using feedback from one’s graduate committee to strengthen the content, organization, and wording of one’s thesis can be an important part of one’s graduate education. Be prepared to need more time than expected to put your thesis in final form. Both in terms of the quality of the product and in terms of learning obtained that can aid in your future writing, the time is likely to be well spent.