Better Dissertation
Writing in English
Thesis Structure
- We tend to think of a paper or a thesis as a
collection of sentences. But that view is simplistic. How the sentences
are put together is the real key to good writing. In persuasive writing
like academic papers and theses, you need to plan carefully how the
sentences support each other logically.
- A Taiwanese student may be able to write
articles in English with near-perfect grammar. Every sentence is flawless.
But how the sentences are put together often reveals a structural flaw
that is best described as lack of logic. Ask yourself constantly, Does the paragraph have a topic? Is this sentence
relevant to that topic? Does it support that topic? If not, then the
sentence does not belong here.
- It is best to structure your thesis as a tree.
At the root of the tree is the main topic of your thesis. Each branch from
the tree represents a sub-thesis that supports that main topic. These sub-theses
may form separate chapters. From each sub-thesis follow more branches.
These branches in turn support the sub-thesis they descend from. And so on
down to individual paragraphs and their sentences. Don’t be afraid
to break a paragraph into two if it covers more than one topic. Don’t
hesitate to delete a paragraph if it is irrelevant to your support
structure.
Grammar
- Grammatical errors ruin many theses’
quality and turn off their readers. Pick up any good book on grammar if
you are not comfortable with your level of proficiency.
- British and American grammatical rules differ
somewhat. For example, whereas Britons may write, “none of the larger insurers is, as far as it
knows, in danger of breaching its solvency limits” (The
Economist, January 28, 2003), Americans prefer “none of the
larger insurers are, as far as they know, in danger of breaching their
solvency limits.” Remember that languages are practical tools;
therefore, they are bound to change over time and space. Here is another
example, from Time
(February 10, 2003): “No NASA manager was fired; no safety
systems were added to the solid rocket boosters whose explosion destroyed
Challenger.”
- It is not necessary to be perfect in grammars,
however. Grammars, like languages, evolve, and sometimes ideas can be
communicated perfectly well with less than perfect grammar. Well, Mark
Twain’s masterpiece Huckleberry Finn was banned from the
Concord public library in 1885 partially because of “a systematic
use of bad grammar.” No joking. My point is simply that you need to
spend that much time to write with grammar at a respectable level, but
perhaps not more.
- On the other hand, it must be admitted that a
work written with good grammar and punctuation impresses the reader with
your diligence and attention to detail; the reader feels respected. Some people actually associate bad
grammar with stupidity (see Stanley Bing’s
“The Element’s of Style” in the August 20, 2007, issue
of Fortune magazine).
- Taiwanese students make a few common grammatical
errors.
- Articles (the, a, an) are not used properly.
- Subjects and verbs do not agree.
- “To” can be a preposition as in “a
key to solving the problem,” “Buttonwood admits to
never having heard of this company before” (The Economist,
October 24, 2003) or “most people in Taiwan are opposed to
reunifying with the mainland” (New York Times, January
26, 2003). But this usage is often confused with its being an infinitive
(as in “a key to solve the problem”). Of course,
sometimes both make sense. Here is another example: “[This] can
take a claim to having been the most important work of the twentieth
century in the philosophy of science” (Wittgenstein’s
Poker, 2001).
Style (See Also The Economist’s Style Guide)
- Writing with style is something I do not demand
of my students; not having a style is no sin. You should strive to be
clear about the main theses, however. A dissertation is, after all,
neither a novel nor a piece of metaphysics. You should avoid
sensationalism at all costs, lest your thesis get mistaken for a work
written by a reporter from a tabloid magazine or newspaper. Most, if not
all, newspapers in Taiwan should be considered tabloids and hence not good
role models for your thesis.
For example, do not write
Financial options took Taiwan’s capital
market by storm in mid-1997. Investors were so wild about them that sacred
finance theories taught by professors were trashed.
Instead, write
When financial options appeared on Taiwan’s
exchange in mid-1997, their prices initially ran counter to what orthodox
finance theories would predict perhaps because of temporary market
overreactions.
Need I mention that you should never poke fun at
professors? If you have time, try to rewrite the following paragraph from the New York Times (January 12, 2003) to suit
a thesis.
“I’ve spent all my life around
chickens, and I’ve seen no instance of anything I’d call
intelligence,” said Edwin Jemison, who sells chemicals for the
Jones-Hamilton Company to chicken producers. “All a chicken wants is to
be the same every day, to eat his fill and be comfortable. I think that’s
a sign of low intelligence.” Mr. Jemison did admit that the domestic
turkey is probably the gold standard for stupidity. While chickens can survive
a rainstorm outside, turkeys will look skyward and drown as their throats fill
with water.
- Avoid phrases with ethnic or sexist
connotations. If you pride yourself on knowing such idioms as “go dutch,” think again. Such phrases are usually
derogatory and can be offensive to some readers. In the age of the World
Wide Web, who knows who your readers are.
Although the standard of taste evolves, it is wise to avoid controversies
not relevant to your thesis.
- Many theses read like a computer manual. They
are plain, linear, and boring. It is O.K. to add a little drama to the
thesis. And do not shy away from putting your own contributions at the
very beginning of the thesis and hammering your competitors’ works
with some force.
- Do not write the whole dissertation first in
Chinese before translating it into English. Doing so makes your
dissertation inherit some Chinese-like grammar and structures.
Take the following sentence as an example:
A barrier option is known to have the property
of being less expensive than a plain vanilla option with the same parameters.
Isn’t it much cleaner to write simply
A barrier option is less expensive than an
otherwise identical plain vanilla option.
- Be precise. The Chinese languages are imprecise
and unstructured compared with English. It is good practice to always ask yourself such questions as: What does this “it”
refer to? What does this “that” denote? Many theses I had read
contain pronouns whose references are either nonexistent or ambiguous.
- Many students omit things that they assume are self-evident
(to themselves) but are actually not so to the reader. It is better to make
explicit your assumptions and arguments than to confuse your reader with disconnected
sentences.
- Refrain from using Latin, French, German, or
Italian in your thesis unless you know what you are doing.
- Taiwanese students tend to abruptly move to an
unrelated topic within a paragraph. This practice destroys the logic and
flow of the paragraph. Remember that a paragraph should talk about one
topic only. Start a new paragraph if a new topic is to be addressed.
- Read good English books and essays. Try The
Economist, Encounter, Atlantic, or Time for journalistic
style. Both Scientific American and National Geographic
teach semi-technical writing for the masses. And don’t forget to
pick up a copy of the classic The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., E.B. White, and Roger Angell.
- You must practice writing often and with a
critical eye. It works for coding, and it will work for writing, too.
- You should have something interesting to write
about. Few things are more frustrating than reading a vacuous piece of
work. In fact, it is a crime to waste a reader’s time.
Punctuation
- Add space between text and citation.
For example, do not write
It has been amply documented that improper
diet can cause heart disease[1].
Instead, write
It has been amply documented that improper diet
can cause heart disease [1].
- Most punctuation marks follow the text without
space.
For example, do not write
There are three kinds of lies
:lies ,damn lies ,and statistics .
Instead, write
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn
lies, and statistics.
- It is the American style to put (most)
punctuation marks before the closing quotation mark.
For example, do not write
Adam Smith's immortal words for the price
mechanism are “invisible hand”.
Instead, write
Adam Smith's immortal words for the price mechanism
are “invisible hand.”
- Abbreviations with an ending period absorb any
period that follows it.
For example, do not write
This result is due to Erdos,
et al..
Instead, write
This result is due to Erdos,
et al.
- Footnotes should follow the period, in fact, any
punctuation except a dash, and not the other way around.
For example, do not write
Mahler composed Das Lied as his swan song3.
Instead, write
Mahler composed Das Lied as his swan song.3
Bibliography
- There exist many bibliographical styles for
theses. They often differ from fields to fields, however.
- Adopt a consistent style.
Example:
Heath, David, Robert
Jarrow, and Andrew Morton. “Contingent Claim Valuation with a Random Evolution of
Interest Rates.” The Review of Financial
Studies, 9, No. 1 (1990), 54--78.
Useful Links
Updated © Copyright 2004 by Yuh-Dauh Lyuu