Jun 25, · They have stoked the flames of an all-consuming desire to continue learning, and so winning the MacQuitty Prize is all the more significant because it offers both a promise and a pivotal turning point,” she said. “It is a promise to follow this passion. It holds the economic security to pursue a PhD unreservedly, without distraction The program of coursework, including the applicability of any transfer credits, is determined by the student, their advisor, and their blogger.com minimum required amount of coursework is 30 units. The advanced math (3 units required) and life science (3 units required) courses and up to one (1) independent study class may be used toward this requirement Jun 14, · Choosing the right research topic is quite often a daunting task, especially for PhD students. However, developing a good research question has a positive impact on students’ research careers. Thesis advisors offer help during this initial stage. Later on, PhD students are expected to choose their own research topic for subsequent studies
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The discussion chapter is the problem child of the thesis. The chapter most likely to provoke fear, uncertainty and doubt. The discussion section is scary because you have to make new knowledge claims of your own, phd thesis prize, not just agree or disagree with other people.
Knowledge claims are like dumplings in the thesis soup or chocolate chips in the PhD cookie. They will evaluate the quality, phd thesis prize, amount and — most importantly — the believability of your knowledge phd thesis prize. If you are too speculative you might tip over the believability cliff. Years ago I wrote a post on how to start the discussion chapter, phd thesis prize.
I gave a few suggestions for generating creative ideas, but not a detailed discussion of how to do any of them. The post was a useful starting point, but unfortunately not enough to actually help one of my students, Wendy, write her discussion chapters. Like many thesis writers, Wendy has had a long slog with this project and is having trouble seeing the wood for the trees. Wendy is in the creative arts, so her findings are not in the form of formulas and graphs.
The findings are really a series of observations which can be backed up with evidence. I think we made good progress with a whiteboard in the last meeting and I asked her if I could share what we did with the world, she generously agreed thanks Wendy!
How to write a Better Thesis suggests that you start the discussion by simply writing a huge list of everything you learned about your topic — these are your provisional conclusions, observations, interesting facts and statements, phd thesis prize. The book suggests that you write this list with the help of a sympathetic listener who knows the project, like a supervisor, phd thesis prize.
Wendy sat in a chair and just talked at me. I wrote what she said on the whiteboard, asking a question now and then to clarify or expand on phd thesis prize point. The whiteboard was an ideal medium for this task. We could both see it and it was easy to rub out stuff. Phd thesis prize mud map enabled us to start sorting and organising the phd thesis prize. Wendy still has one data collection round to run so some findings are more speculative than others.
I added a few arrows and brackets to connect obviously related statements. This phd thesis prize a creative process which involves reading over the mud map again and again, writing ideas for over arching themes under which the findings might fit.
After about another 45 minutes of fiddling and arguing about it, we had this provisional list of four themes:. We took a couple of photos of the board with my phone and then rubbed it all out. This is where we diverted from How to write a better thesis and brought in my favourite thinking tool, the spider diagram. We put the overall aim of the thesis in the middle of the bubble phd thesis prize put the emergent themes in the first layer of bubbles around it:.
The third layer of bubbles contained findings from our mud map recorded in the photos on my phone that we thought fell under these themes. As we wrote the findings into the bubbles we shifted the wording to find shorter ways of saying the same thing and started to blend some of the findings together.
This process enabled us to see how some findings from the mud map might fall under multiple themes, which suggested a satisfactory repetition was emerging. You know you have a thesis on your hands when you feel like you are saying the same thing over and over, but in a slightly different way every time. This is a stylistic choice — there is no right or wrong way to do it, but the diagram lets you imagine different results and discuss the phd thesis prize of the various choices.
We took several photos as this diagram evolved and changed to present different options. At this point I was happy. I know I can work from a spider diagram, but Wendy was still not comfortable. She is a phd thesis prize creative person than me and was worried that she would muck around and just find more and more connections — a fair point.
So I suggested we try using a matrix. While a spider diagram encourages you to see connections, a matrix forces phd thesis prize to think about hierarchy. The snowflake method is a technique used by novel writers. It involves making a simple outline, which becomes more and more complex as the writing develops. We started by drawing a table like this:. The last column is a list of subheads.
Each of these subheads will have words — a page of text. To further develop the snowflake, Wendy will write at least four points under each subhead, to make paragraph headings. With a little manipulation these paragraph headings become topic sentences for each paragraph. From a huge mess of ideas the writing task now looks much simpler — just a matter of picking off the paragraph you want to tackle and writing — words.
Of course, in practice writing is not that easy, but this process does help you see the wood instead of the trees. How about you? Got any tips on the discussion chapter? Have you used any methods like the ones outlined here? What works well for you? How do I start my discussion chapter? Love the Thesis whisperer and want it to continue?
I must say… the dumplings hooked me in first Din Tai Fung for a PhD meeting anyone? Thanks so much for a descriptive and insightful post ��. I think grounded theory is one of the most mis-used terms in research, ever, phd thesis prize.
The practical tools you describe are great, however the theoretical aspects could use a bit more attention. The processes of coding and classifying concepts using grounded theory is a whole world in itself and would be worthy of an phd thesis prize post at some point. I was lost in my discussion chapter for a long time before digging myself out of the hole — this would have been a godsend.
I shall keep it in mind for future supervisions, phd thesis prize. Thanks for this, Inger. I found myself quite stuck for some time on the discussion chapter, and then it took many iterations before I was making confident knowledge claims.
O What a beautiful thing. I enjoy reading your articles you guys create very nice content I am also a content writer but you are the best in a millions thank you from. Your explanation is great but the images would help me gain a better insight. Thank you so much Inger! Thanks for your patience. Just about to write my Discussion Chapter — this post has provided some wonderful hints on approach to ordering my thoughts and then constructing my chapter, phd thesis prize.
I am wondering why I could not see the pics from the screen shots. I am using my laptop to read this blog. Thank you for the tips and strategy for developing my discussion chapter.
I hope to have them all restored eventually, phd thesis prize. Cheers ��. April 20, September 24, After about another 45 minutes of fiddling and arguing about it, we had this provisional list of four phd thesis prize We took a couple of photos of the board with my phone and phd thesis prize rubbed it all out.
Step four: use a spider diagram to make connections explicit This is where we diverted from How to write a better thesis and brought in my favourite thinking tool, the spider diagram. We put the overall aim of the thesis in the middle of the bubble and put the emergent themes in the first layer of bubbles around it: The third layer of bubbles contained findings from our mud map recorded in the photos on my phone that we thought fell under these themes.
Step Five: Make a snowflake At this point I was happy. Related posts How do I start my discussion chapter? The Zombie Thesis Theory Anxiety Love the Thesis whisperer and want it to continue? Share this: Print More Email Facebook Twitter Pocket Reddit LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram WhatsApp. Like this: Like Loading Publishing during your part time PhD.
PhD to… start up? Thanks so much for a descriptive and insightful post �� Loading Timely and awesome. Nuff said. A very timely and helpful post — thanks Inger! point taken Tori Loading Deb Loading thanks that great Loading I really needed this right now. Thanks Loading this was timely and helpful. Thank you for sharing! Pingback: Best Industry Transition Articles Of The Week For PhDs May 8th, Cheeky Scientist® Industry Training For Intelligent People. I love the way you have guided your student through this.
Thanks Wendy for sharing phd thesis prize. Pingback: Better than Donald — how to argue like a pro The Thesis Whisperer.
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, time: 37:26The difficult discussion chapter – The Thesis Whisperer
Program Category: PhD Programs Chair: Miguel Urquiola Director of Graduate Studies: Navin Kartik Website: blogger.com Email Address: econ-phd [at] blogger.com Degree Programs: Full-Time: MA/MPhil/PhD The Department of Economics offers a graduate program leading to the PhD in Economics; students earn the MA and the MPhil in the course of earning the PhD degree Medicine PhD student named among Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholars June 3, , PM; OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY: MEET KARLA VALENZUELA May 31, , PM; OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY: MEET SALMA ALMUKHAINI May 17, , PM The program of coursework, including the applicability of any transfer credits, is determined by the student, their advisor, and their blogger.com minimum required amount of coursework is 30 units. The advanced math (3 units required) and life science (3 units required) courses and up to one (1) independent study class may be used toward this requirement
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