dorothy faulkner - finding your story
TRANSCRIPT
The thesis: finding your story
Dorothy Faulkner & Verina Waights
Good academic writing
• Demonstrates the quality of your thinking
• Requires depth of understanding• Requires discipline• Is a creative practice• Requires periods of ‘incubation’• Requires multiple drafts to achieve
clarity• Undergoes continuous
development• Benefits from peer review• TAKES TIME !
Characteristics of outstanding theses
Quality of thinking:• Original and significant, coherent, compelling, exciting, interesting,
insightful, persuasive, sophisticated, surprising, and thoughtful • Synthetic and interdisciplinary • Exhibit mature, independent and critical thinking • Ask new questions or addresses an important question or problem • Display a deep understanding of a massive amount of complicated
literature • Exhibit command and authority over the material • Arguments are focused, logical, rigorous, and sustained • Is theoretically sophisticated and shows a deep understanding of
theory • Is of interest to a larger community and changes the way people
think • Pushes the discipline's boundaries and opens new areas for
research
Characteristics of an outstanding thesis
Methodology• Has a brilliant research design • Uses or develops new tools, methods, approaches, or
new types of analyses • Is thoroughly researched • Data are rich and come from multiple sources • Analyses are comprehensive, complete, sophisticated,
and convincing • Results are significant• Pushes the discipline's boundaries and opens new areas
for research
Characteristics of an outstanding thesis
Writing style• Concise, creative, elegant, engaging,• Clearly states the problem and why it is important • Very well written and very well organized• Has clear sign-post and staging posts• Assumes a knowledgeable but not necessarily expert reader• Has a point of view and a strong, confident, independent, and
authoritative voice • Arguments and assumptions are clearly stated and explicit so that
the reader does not have to work hard• Components are connected in a seamless way • Conclusion ties the whole thing together • Has sections that would be publishable in top-tier/high impact
journals
Take home messages
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.“ (Attributed to Einstein)
• “Cutting a manuscript is not simply a way of reducing length; it is also a way of strengthening communication.” (Holmes, 1974/5)