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Chapter 28
How to Write a Thesis

The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another.
—J. Frank Dobie

Purpose of the thesis

A Ph.D. thesis in the sciences is supposed to present the candidate's original research. Its purpose is to prove that the
candidate is capable of doing and communicating original research. Therefore, a proper thesis should be like a
scientific paper, which has the same purpose. A thesis should exhibit the same form of disciplined writing that would
be required in a journal publication. Unlike the scientific paper, the thesis may describe more than one topic, and it
may present more than one approach to some topics. The thesis may present all or most of the data obtained in the
student's thesis-related research. Therefore, the thesis usually can be longer and more involved than a scientific paper.
But the concept that a thesis must be a bulky 200-page tome is wrong, dead wrong. Most 200-page theses I have seen
contain maybe 50 pages of good science. The other 150 pages comprise turgid descriptions of insignificant details.

I have seen a great many Ph.D. theses, and I have assisted with the writing and organization of a good number of
them. On the basis of this experience, I have concluded that there are almost no generally accepted rules for thesis
preparation. Most types of scientific writing are highly structured. Thesis writing is not. The "right" way to write a
thesis varies

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widely from institution to institution and even from professor to professor within the same department of the same
institution.

The dustiest part of most libraries is that area where the departmental theses are shelved. Without doubt, many nuggets
of useful knowledge are contained in theses, but who has the time or patience to sort through the hundreds of pages of
trivia to find the page or two of useful knowledge?

Reid (1978) is one of many who have suggested that the traditional thesis no longer serves a purpose. In Reid's words,
"Requirements that a candidate must produce an expansive traditional-style dissertation for a Ph.D. degree in the
sciences must be abandoned. . . . The expansive traditional dissertation fosters the false impression that a typed record
must be preserved of every table, graph, and successful or unsuccessful experimental procedure."

If a thesis serves any real purpose, that purpose might be to determine literacy. Perhaps universities have always
worried about what would happen to their image if it turned out that a Ph.D. degree had been awarded to an illiterate.
Hence, the thesis requirement. Stated more positively, the candidate has been through a process of maturation,
discipline, and scholarship. The "ticket out" is a satisfactory thesis.

It may be useful to mention that theses at European universities are taken much more seriously. They are designed to
show that the candidate has reached maturity and can both do science and write science. Such theses may be
submitted after some years of work and a number of primary publications, with the thesis itself being a "review
paper" that brings it all together.

Tips On Writing

There are few rules for writing a thesis, except those that may exist in your own institution. If you do not have rules to

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