Think backwards to estimate Time to Write
Submission | Associated cover letters, OMs, Fee receipts | Printing | Proofreading | Formating | Plagiarism check | Corrections | Writing | Synopsis | Creating a thesis template | High quality figures | PDFs of all papers neatly renamed and grouped | Finishing any left off works | The bulb glows to write the thesis | Colloquium | Final DC | I want to finish PhD thought originates.
What’s not obvious (not at all or we know it deep down) is that the above process is broken up by writing blocks, rewrites that don’t work, reading but not writing, and blanking out. However, there is a slow but steady progress towards submission.
Pack your writing bags
From Monday on, you can’t start writing. Read your senior’s thesis. If the topic is similar enough to yours that it’s a good fit. Picture what the thesis is about in your mind. Choose a place to write your thesis that is calm, has a good monitor with internet connection, a keyboard that is easy on the hands, and a mouse that works well.
It’s harder to comprehend the difference between an introduction and a review of the literature. I had a hard time understanding what the abstract and end summary were supposed to do. Remember that even though you’ve known your thesis for years, the person evaluating it is reading it for the first time. Them having a good time, while going through this is important for us.
It’s likely that we won’t be the first ones to plan an adventure with similar goals. Check out open repositories for new open theses. Write down the references that are referenced the most. You may look up repos like this, this and this.
You may download all the important reference documents and put them in neat folders. You may do this with your Zotero folders as well. We will not have time to read the whole papers, so it’s helpful to make copies of the papers we’ve already read (years ago, for the Pre-PhD examination) and made notes/highlights on.
Useful resources
Automate list of abbreviations. Just copy paste the contents and copy the list of acronyms. Sort them using excel (in alphabetical order) and remove duplicates.
Learn to format in word from this playlist or similar. Don’t try a PhD in formatting, please do this at your dead unproductive times. Trust me, future you is going to fall on your feet for this kind act. In summary, you should know the below things:
Generate list of figures, tables and table of contents (with relevant page numbers which are also hyperlinked) automatically | Enter page numbers only on main pages and not on title pages without breaking the number sequence | How to have i,ii page numbers for initial pages and later 1,2,3 from the abstract page | How to have a custom header for each chapter | How to insert a blank page and add section breaks | Adding multiple headers with auto numbering
The examiner will find it easy to read the thesis if all of these things are done. If they click on Figure 34, it should take them to Figure 34. (For evaluation, some examiners use soft copies).
There were times when there were 12 copies of the same word file. We want to know what change we made four hours ago, around 3 AM. Or, our friends or guides forgot to use Track changes while making edits. Worry not, use Diff checker
Use any decent grammar and spell check tools. Make sure to stick to organise or organize. Not both. Make up your behaviour or behavior.
Most of the time, we see our results on a computer screen. This is one of the first times that those results will be looked at from above on a paper. What you had in mind and what comes printed can look way different. This is very important for some people because colour does matter and has an effect on the science (IHC images and lot more). Please read this piece to fully understand what I am attempting to say.
We sometimes use PowerPoint to make a figure from several pictures. Find out how to save ppt slides as high-quality (600 dpi) png files.
Learn different ways to express your thoughts. We proved, our results showed, our findings suggest, and we found. Lessen, decrease, or shrink. You get the idea.
Generic tips
Recheck all citations. Make sure, citations refer to what they are supposed to.
Note down colour pages and black n white pages numbers. The printer person is going to charge you flat, for every page (otherwise).
Get a friend to sort the pages in correct order before binding. We are going to save some money this way.
Hydrate yourself and make sure you breathe. You have come this far not just to come this far.
