On 6 Sep 2013, at 17:17, Ray Packham wrote:
yes .. its masters level.
then I will deploy the pedants' card and say it's a dissertation (thesis
is PhD).
It's the opposite in the US, helpfully;)
So possibly if they mention thesis, they are standardising to that. And
spelling sulphur as sulfur…
The number of students I have taught at M level…here's the speech
about your dissertation. Try to write a one sentence version first *even
if you are unsure of your conclusion*. Then explain a bit more by
turning that into a paragraph. That paragraph should hopefully break
down into something that can become an outline. Then you start adding
sections, and because it's an outline it should become clear what you
need as you expand it. Try to expand it fairly evenly. When the outline
becomes unwieldy, you are ready to start actually filling in the bits to
make it prose and because you already have a plan, it's relatively
simple. Turning an outline into RTF or similar is easy with
Multimarkdown Composer though I don't like actually typing in it. It
opens opml (outliner format) files and then lets you export as rtf, and
the outline headers become headings, and the notes become normal text.
Get the plan right before you start writing and you will usually go up a
grade.
And *always* write down references as you go along, you will *not*
remember where you read everything*. Thus Sente's quote function is
handy.
*I rarely remember where *I* wrote something, never mind someone else…
Practice using Outliner on something you already understand, to see how
it works. You don't want to troubleshoot it while trying to think.
Organising your thoughts becomes so much easier when you work out where
to put each bit.
Finally: never ever try to write the final prose version and think at
the same time. Write in notes. Very very few people can think and type
at the same time. I touch type 60 wpm (i.e. without thinking) and even I
can definitely *not* think and type at the same time when I'm writing
something serious.
Good luck;)
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