short guide to writing fast

The short guide to writing a thesis fast | 3monththesis.com

The short guide to writing a thesis fast

This guide is intended to give you some basic principles you can apply tomake the thesis writing process easier and faster.

It will help you avoid the most common mistakes thesis writers make, and ifyou follow the advice, you should be able to write faster.

Visit 3monththesis.com for more tips on thesis writing and PhD life

If you have any questions, email me at [email protected]

I cannot give coaching by email, but if you have questions about any of theideas in this guide, feel free to drop me a message.

Also, if you have any suggestions for anything you would like to seeincluded in future versions, or if you spot any mistakes, please let me know.

This guide is distributed under a creative commons license. Feel free toshare it, copy it, print it, quote it, but don't modify the content or sell it!Please also credit me as the author, and a link back to my websitehttp://3monththesis.com would be nice.

James Hayton, August 11th 2013

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What is a PhD thesis?

A PhD is the entrance qualification for the world of professional academia,and it exists to test whether you are capable of conducting research to aprofessional level.

The thesis simply a means of presenting research for assessment.

Since professional academics are judged primarily on their output in peer-reviewed journals, your thesis is assessed to the same standards as worksubmitted for publication.

This is why most academic systems require the thesis to be reviewed by atleast one independent expert in the field; it is modelled on the system ofpeer-review.

I am often asked questions like, “how long should a thesis be?” or “howmany references should it include?” but these are not useful questions toask.

No examiner will ever say, “well this is good work, but it is 10 pages tooshort”. Nor will they say, “well the work isn't good, but they have lots ofreferences so they must have worked hard”.

Since the purpose of a thesis is to present research, by far the mostimportant factor is the quality of the research itself. If the research is poorlyexecuted, it doesn't matter how good your writing is.

In that sense, your writing is simply packaging for your research.

That said, since the thesis is the official record of your research, and theonly thing an examiner can see and base their judgement upon, it does needto be well structured in order to show them the quality of your work.

Good research is no use if your writing is so bad that the examiner doesn'tunderstand what you have done.

So a good thesis is a combination of quality research and quality writing,but one must precede the other.

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Research must precede writing

Many people say that you should start writing your thesis from day one, butI think this is terrible advice.

It is like designing the packaging for a product before you have designedand tested the product itself.

If you are writing a thesis, it is impossible to finish the writing until youhave finished everything else. If you are still doing analysis, you cannotfinish your discussion or conclusions. If you are still gathering data orsource material, you cannot finish anything.

So writing is always the last thing you can finish, but the standard advice isthat it is the first thing you should start. This seems a bit nuts.

This is why so many students end up with so many abandoned versions ofchapters... they haven't yet done the work necessary to have any confidencein what they want to say.

I have spoken to students who have written hundreds of pages, but haven'teven looked at their own data yet! So they end up in the nightmare scenario,a few months before submission, and they have no idea what their data says,nor how to do the analysis.

Research must precede writing, always.

Finish collecting your raw material. Do your analysis. Work out roughlywhat you want to say, and writing will be much, much easier.

In my own case, I didn't write a single word of my thesis until I had finisheddoing experiments. I had done at least preliminary analysis of all the data,and so I knew what I had to work with.

The only difficult chapter to write was one where I decided to do a coupleof extra experiments, and I started writing in anticipation that they wouldwork. They didn't, and so I had to throw the chapter away and start it again.

Yes, write down ideas. Keep a record of what you do. But don't start writingit up formally until you have done the work.

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Clarity of thought

You do not think in nicely structured sentences, paragraphs, sections andchapters. Everything you want to communicate in your thesis, all yourthoughts and knowledge related to your subject, is stored in your head in adisordered mess.

And it takes work to transform the disordered mess in your head intoordered writing on the page.

Writing is a process of clarifying and structuring your thoughts in a way thatsomeone else can follow.

And so sometimes you will find that you gain a better understanding of yoursubject by writing about it.

This is one of the reasons why some suggest writing from day one, so thatyour ideas become clearer over time, but I prefer to think of it a differentway.

If you have some clear ideas before you write, then writing is much easier.

If you spend time thinking and discussing ideas with other people, you willhave a solid basis of clear, confident ideas before you start setting wordsdown on the page.

While writing this document, I have written over 800 words in an hour, butthis is only possible because it is not the first time I have thought aboutthese concepts. I have spent 3 years refining and developing my thoughtsthrough my work on the blog and with individual students.

You don't have to have everything perfectly formed before you write, but atleast having some experience discussing and explaining most of the keyideas you want to cover is essential if you want to write fast.

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Give yourself uninterrupted time

Writing is difficult, but there is one thing you can give yourself that willmake the process much easier; uninterrupted time.

Writing fast does not mean typing fast. Even if you are an exceptionallyslow typist, you should still be able to write, say 10 words per minute. Thattranslates to 600 words per hour, or 4800 words in an 8-hour working day.

Typing speed is not the limiting factor. The limiting factor is thinking time.

Writing can be frustrating because there will be half-formed ideas, whichyou don't quite know how to express clearly. It's like the ideas is floating inyour mind, but it's not solid yet and you can't grab hold of it.

In situations like this, it takes a bit of time for the thought to solidify. But ifyou are interrupted during this process, it can disappear forever.

The most important resource for any writer is uninterrupted time, so you cansit and think about what you want to say.

But interruptions don't just come from other people. It is quite possible tointerrupt yourself.

It is so easy, when you have been sitting doing nothing for a minute or two,to find yourself online, first checking email, then Facebook, then 45 minuteslater you are watching videos of cats on YouTube.

If you want to get your thesis done, work offline. Remove the option of theinternet, either by cancelling your broadband contract (which is what I did)or installing an internet blocker such as Freedom (http://macfreedom.com).

Finding uninterrupted time is not easy, but you must create it for yourself ifyou are serious about getting your thesis done.

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http://macfreedom.com/


One idea at a time

Just write about one idea at a time.

Often, people feel the need to show how much they know or how much theyhave read, and so cram as many ideas into every paragraph as possible. Butthis makes the thesis impossible to read and just comes across as lacking inconfidence.

When you write, always have a clear idea of the point you are trying tocommunicate to the reader, and take your time to express that one pointclearly.

I often read samples of students writing where every sentence in aparagraph contains a completely different idea. It leaps from one concept toanother, trying to cover everything, but succeeding in covering nothing.

Give each of your ideas space to breathe. If an idea or argument isimportant, give it a paragraph of its own rather than suffocating bysquashing it in with 20 other big ideas.

While you write, you will have 1000 ideas all bursting to get out at the sametime, but the trick is to hold back 999 of them and gently extract the one youwant.

Imagine a crowd of people trying to fight their way through a narrowdoorway. If they all try to get through at the same time, they will get stuck,but if they form a queue and walk through one by one, it will be much fasterand easier.

Slowing down and calmly bringing out one idea at a time, then giving eachone the thought and attention it deserves will not only make your writingclearer, but it will also be less stressful for you, AND it will be faster.

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Finish what you start

Whatever you start working on, stay with it until it is finished.

The pace of your writing will vary naturally. Sometimes you will write fast,other times you will need to slow down, either to think or to do somebackground work (such as checking data or references) before you cancontinue writing.

In order to keep getting words on the page, the temptation is to switch towriting about something else and leave those difficult details for later.

This works, but only in the short-term.

Eventually you will run out of easy things to say, and you will have a thesiswhere everything is 70% complete, but the final 30 % is all the crucialdifficult stuff you have avoided earlier.

You will have 10s of thousands of words, but nothing will be finished, and itwill be a nightmare to try to edit it all together later.

But if you take the time and care to complete whatever section you areworking on, including all the references and finer details, then you canmove on to the next section with confidence, knowing that you are one stepcloser to completion.

The more you have complete, the easier it will get as you approach the finalsubmission date, rather than facing a blind panic in the last few weekstrying to work through all the difficult details in a very short space of time.

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Stick to what you know

If you have been doing research for a few years, there will be some thingsyou know really, really well.

There will be other things, perhaps related to your research, that you don'tknow so well, maybe because you haven't used that technique or idea duringyour project.

Obviously, it is easier to write well about things you know. But often thereis the temptation to try to appear knowledgeable about everything, andpeople spend a huge amount of time filling in the gaps in their knowledge.

When I was writing my thesis, I decided to focus only on the areas in whichI felt confident and I did not include anything I wouldn't have beencomfortable talking about in my thesis defence.

Any extra reading I did to strengthen my knowledge, I did to strengthen theconcepts I was already good at, either because of practical experience, orbecause I had discussed the ideas many times during the course of my PhD.

I did this partly because I figured it would be easier and faster and moreenjoyable, but also because I knew I couldn't bullshit the examiners bypretending to understand something I didn't.

The end result was that my thesis was very strong, I enjoyed writing it, andthe examiners enjoyed reading it. I passed with zero corrections not bybeing a brilliant physicist, but by focusing on my strengths and makingthem even stronger.

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References

Most people try to include as many references as possible in their thesis.But this approach is obviously flawed, because if more is better then there isno end to how many references you could include.

I took the opposite approach. I decided I would only allow a reference intomy thesis if I thought it was good enough to be included.

I searched for the absolute highest quality papers to serve a specificpurpose. For example;

• To back up an argument or show precedence for an idea• To show whose work I had used as a basis for my own• To refer the reader elsewhere for more information on a topic I didn't

cover in depth• As a source of data• To provide context or comparison for my work• As an example of the best work (or the variety of work) done in a

particular area/ using a specific technique or idea

I never cited anything just because it existed. I never cited anything I hadn'tread, and I never cited anything I didn't understand.

It is essential to take a critical view of the literature, and not just blindly citeevery source you find. By setting a high standard for your references, youshow that you can distinguish good work from bad, and you ensure thatyour bibliography is of high quality, rather than quantity.

There were a few unintended side effects of setting a high standard for myreferences.

First, high quality papers are usually easier to read and to write about.

Second, I wanted to justify why the kind of research I was doing wasimportant. By first justifying why the top papers in the field were important,my own research was justified simply by association- “here are the toppapers, they are important because of X, Y, and Z, but there is a gap, whichmy research happens to fill...”

The third side effect, was that it lent to the feeling of quality in the thesis,which is vitally important when trying to make a good first impression.

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Structure

Structuring your thesis is much easier when you have a rough idea of whatyou want to say.

However, some of the structure will emerge and evolve as you write. Sothere is a balance to be struck between planning and flexibility.

It helps to have a rough outline of what every chapter will include beforeyou start to write, then narrow your focus to work exclusively on onechapter at a time.

A trick I use is to type a few bullet points for the section I am working on, inthe rough order I think I will write about them.

These serve as a kind of roadmap so I know where I want to go with thenarrative. As I type, I can change the bullets, editing, adding, removing orre-ordering them as I see fit.

The best-selling author Scott Berkun uses this trick too (and his writingprocess is uncannily similar to mine). I highly recommend watching thisshort video where he explains how he does it: http://youtu.be/D85NqSrpzew

I always try to make sure there is a continuous flow from one idea toanother. I start at the beginning of the chapter, and keep writing until I reachthe end.

Although I will often go back and insert something earlier in the chapterwhen I realise I need to, I will never, ever jump forward leaving a gap tofill in later.

If I think of something to go later in the chapter, I simply make a note oradd a bullet point to the list, and carry on working on whatever idea I amworking on.

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http://youtu.be/D85NqSrpzew


Consistency, routine, and achievable targets

Routine and consistency are important. It is the things you do consistentlythat add up over time to success or failure in your PhD.

It is better to write 300 words per day for 10 days in a row than to write1500 words one day, then another 1500 10 days later. Even though theoutput is the same in terms of average words per day, writing every daymeans that you are engaging often with the ideas you want to write about.

It also helps to create a habit, and avoids that building feeling of guilt if youdo nothing for several days in a row.

I worked with a minimum daily target of 500 words. I knew that I couldwrite much more than that in a single day, but I wanted a target I couldexceed, allowing me to feel good about my productivity every day.

If I had a great day, and wrote 2000 words, then I would feel fantastic aboutsmashing my target. If I had a bad day and had to fight my way through to500 words, then I would feel good because I had overcome difficulty andstill reached my target.

No matter how much I wrote on one day, the next day my target was 500.And because that was my minimum, my average per day was higher.

Different writers have different routines, but I used the following principles;

1. Try to achieve something (even a really small thing) early.2. Step away from the computer when taking a break (this is easier

when you have no internet connection)3. Stop writing while you still have some energy in reserve4. At the end of the day, leave yourself something easy to start the next

day5. Back to 1, repeat until finished!

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Editing

I tend to edit as I write. I find it much easier to edit a sentence or aparagraph while the ideas are still fresh in my head, rather than writingthousands of words and editing later.

Some people misunderstand when I say this, and think it is perfectionism,but really it's just taking a bit of time and care to think about what I want tosay, and to try to express it clearly.

The basic principles I follow are;

1. Have I accurately and clearly expressed the idea I want tocommunicate?

2. Does it follow from the last thing I wrote?3. Is it nicely phrased?

I will edit again later, and during my thesis my supervisor was reading andmaking suggestions, but the later editing was made much easier because Idid some of the editing as I wrote.

This is the opposite of the commonly held attitude that, “the first draft ofanything is shit”. I take the view that I have something valuable to say, andI'm going to take some care over it.

There is a balance to be struck. If you spend hours and hours over a singlesentence, that is clearly excessive, and sometimes you can worry too muchabout getting it just right. I'd rather get it OK, at the very least, on the firstdraft. This is of course easier having completed the research before writingand sticking to topics I knew about.

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Confidence

You have to have confidence in what you want to say.

It is difficult to write, knowing that an expert is going to read it and make apass-or-fail judgement, and this can often make your writing hesitant.

It can lead to procrastination and indecisiveness (which people mistake forperfectionism), but you have to become comfortable with the idea thatsomeone is going to make a judgement, and you cannot know what they willthink.

All you can do is give it your best shot, and don't worry what anyone elsethinks.

I decided that I didn't care what the examiners thought, and told myself thatif I failed then I would just deal with it. That attitude helped me relax andjust focus on doing the work for the hell of it.

I always say that confidence is not knowing exactly how things will workout, nor is it certainty that you will succeed. Confidence is accepting theunknown, accepting that it may go horribly wrong, but doing it anyway.

Not worrying about the end result is not apathy. I was determined to get thethesis finished, and if I was going to fail, then it wouldn't be because I hadn'tsubmitted.

Have the confidence to say what you think. Have the confidence to make aclear, bold statement. Have the confidence to make your own decisionsabout what you include in your thesis. Have the confidence to say less,when necessary. Have confidence in your expertise, and don't worry aboutgaps in your knowledge because everybody has them.

Have the confidence to submit to the examiners judgement. And have theconfidence to defend your work with pride.

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short guide to writing fast

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