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How I Wrote My Masters’ Thesis in One Week

How to write a lot in a tiny amount of time.

The Startup

‘They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I wasn’t on that particular job ‘ — Brian Clough

Have you ever read an article giving good, actionable advice on how to write beautiful written content? This article is the evil twin of that. The aim here is to help those unfortunate souls who have found themselves in the lovely position of having to deliver a solid chunk of writing before a deadline or face (insert bad consequences).

The final year of university was somewhat of a blur. There were two main hurdles for me to cross. The first being final year exams — which, while daunting, weren’t that much of a concern.The second was my dreaded master’s thesis.

Exams are easy to prepare for because there’s a clear deadline, but a thesis? Sure, they have those too but one of the sad facts of being a human being is our preparedness and foresight is inversely proportional to the square of how far the deadline is. This equation sums it up nicely:

So, I found myself in the unenviable position of having 8 days to write at least 30,000 words. Words that had to be somewhat intelligible and were able to convey a decent amount of information about the simulation of high-impact damage on composite materials. I kept putting the work off until the serious part of my brain gave me a reality check. Somehow 10 months of advanced warning wasn’t enough….

So, how did I manage to achieve this herculean feat? Here are the tactics I used:

Understand and Accept that You Will Have to Compromise on Quality

There’s no two ways about it. There is a general trend when it comes to human endeavours that have a dimension of quality and time to them: The faster you make something the worse it will be

It’s quite obvious, but it does become tempting while writing to make everything as perfect as it can be. The funny thing about quality is that it takes time, which is a luxury I didn’t have, so I focused on quantity instead.

The quality vs quantity dichotomy is mostly true, however they both aren’t mutually exclusive. Look at Netflix; when it come to binge-worthy shows they have both quality and quantity. But quality is subjective and when it comes to writing a technical thesis for a masters’ degree, the people grading my work weren’t expecting Hemingway. Having enough words to get my message across was good enough for me.

Read the Theses of Other People

If I didn’t do this, I would have failed at delivering my work at a decent enough level to get a grade I was happy with. How do you find a thesis? Simply do a Google search about the general gist of your thesis and you should be able to find handful of papers. Also, it is worth checking if your university has access to websites that host academic articles such Elsevier or ResearchGate because they store a wealth of information and even if they don’t have much about what you specifically are looking for, they’ll have content that is close enough to have some value.

The benefits of looking at a thesis done by someone else are huge:

Someone has already done the research

If there was one thing I loathed about academic life, its conducting literature reviews. The tedious process of sifting though hundreds of papers, sometimes looking for just a single sentence in the middle of a 60 page paper was a small taste of hell. However, I soon realised that I don’t need to go through all that pain.

It’s extremely likely that there’s someone out there who has already written on the topic of your thesis, or at the very least, there will a thesis out there with more than 60% overlap. This means that someone has already done a lot of the research related heavy-lifting for you.

Preferably find a paper that was written less than three years ago since a lot of the references in it will be relevant and can be used to lend your paper credibility.

You’ll get a good idea of how to structure your content

A thesis is useless if the information in it is not properly structured or doesn’t flow well. One of my main mental blocks that prevented me from even starting the work of writing my paper was that I had no idea what a thesis even looked like. When I saw other works by ex-students I gained an infinitely clearer picture about what mine should look and feel like.

I was an engineering student, and there is a generally accepted way of presenting a paper in that field. So reading one or two papers, even if irrelevant to your topic, will provide a lot of information regarding tone and flow.

You don’t need to pay to know what a paper says……sort of

If your university doesn’t have access to an academic content hosting website, you can still find out if a research paper contains data that you need. If you find a thesis closely related to what you’re doing, find a page that has some information which you can use for your paper, it will usually have a few references sprinkled around. Then use those to check the bibliography for the paper they refer to and now you have a way of finding the relevant research for your thesis without having to sift through a mind-numbing wall of search results.

This is a great way to gather information if you can’t afford to pay for access to some papers. It is a bit crude however and I only used this tactic if I was desperate and couldn’t find the data I needed anywhere else.

Just Start Writing

Even if I didn’t consider myself a writer, I had to become one in order to write a lot of content in a relatively short amount of time. So, how did I become a writer? I wrote. That’s all there is to it. Here are two ways that I managed to do it.

Write. Even when you have zero motivation

This applies especially to those who are in the situation I was in. Since the aim is to fill your content quota, write as much as you can and when you don’t feel like it, write some more. It does not matter if your writing is hurried and riddled with bad grammar, poor punctuation and spelling hiccups, you should take care of that during editing.

One way of looking at this process, which really helped me grind through it, was that it’s easier to take away than to add . This allowed me to not feel that internal sense of judgement whenever I added words just for the sake of increasing the word count because I can always come back later and remove words accordingly.

Write down every idea you have

Throughout the days, while I wrote, my brain threw up new talking points and even corrections that would, if added up, dramatically improve my paper. The only problem was that I was also sometimes ‘in the Zone’ and couldn’t afford to leave it.

I kept a single page of A4 next to me, and wrote down whatever useful nuggets of advice I thought up during writing. This meant I didn’t have to risk forgetting them by relying on memory, which is almost always terribly inefficient.

Then, during breaks or when I didn’t have enough energy to write but could still read and make small changes, I would refer to the list and work on them or flesh them out more. The brain tends to come up with new ways of doing whatever it is you’re doing if you stick with it long enough. Take advantage of this and use those new ideas to give your writing some character so that it doesn’t look too much like a first draft, which brings me onto my next tactic…

The first draft is the only draft

When you have a week to write something, time is not your friend. It’s more like an annoying movie villain, one who gets stronger the more you fight and is always reminding you that he exists.

One way to maximise your time writing and minimise energy spent on editing is to live by the ‘One and only draft’ motto. This means being a bit more careful when writing. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t worry about the individual words I was putting down, but I did carefully go over the high-level aspects as I was writing in order to save me from the pain of reformatting my entire work in a hurry — much like solving a jigsaw puzzle with a gun to your head.

By high-level I mean the structure, format, style of presentation, placement of figures and other non-word content, reference style, etc. The specifics of these details can be quickly set (look to other similar written content for this if you are unsure) and are easy to refer to during the writing process.

It’s extremely important to set your format guidelines in stone before you start writing otherwise you could find yourself going back multiple times just to make sure theres consistency. It’s much better to get it right the first time than making yourself sift through the whole paper when you’re done since you could end up missing something.

If you’re one of those human office printer who can type out around 20,000 words a day, then you could get away with working through a couple drafts, but I definitely am not and most likely neither are you, so that means one draft is all we need.

This approach is surprisingly simple. Every time you are about to add something that is not the main text, ask yourself if it conforms to the format guidelines you set prior.

While you should minimise the number of drafts, it helps to ensure that your writing doesn’t feel like a first draft.

Use Drugs, Lots of Drugs

I mean coffee of course….

Quite self explanatory really, I knew I had to endure a couple all-nighters and so I had to keep myself caffeinated.

Make Time for Procrastination

Research shows that our willpower is finite , this means that you can’t expect yourself to chug along continuously past your fatigue limit. You have probably experienced this yourself. There are some days where you’re just blazing through work for hours on end, and then you hit a certain limit after which you can’t muster up the will to focus for longer than 5 minutes.

Similarly and all too frequently I came across this a lot. Initially I tried to force myself to maintain focus, but everyone has a limit and I realised soon that instead of fighting my nature I should be going with the flow of my mental state.

I forced myself to work for hour-long stretches, and at the end of each I allowed for 10 minutes of procrastination, this ensured two things: 1) I was not wasting mental energy trying to force my brain to do more & 2) I didn’t feel guilty when I browsed Youtube or Facebook mindlessly since I had designated a small amount of time specifically for that.

It takes a degree of honesty for you to know if you are actually mentally spent or if you are just looking for an excuse. However the more you practise this the better you’ll get.

Writing is a demanding pursuit, while there are some shortcuts to delivering meaningful words on paper nothing compares to writing that is well thought out and relaxed in its manner. I sure as hell hope I don’t need to write like a coked-up monkey ever again.

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Is it possible to write a masters thesis in 10 days? [closed]

Was it ever possible for anyone to finish writing a master thesis in 10 days? I've been struggling for a long time now to focus on my writing due to several personal problems and I'm running close to my deadline so I'm starting to freak out. I welcome any suggestions at this point.

• time-management

• 1 Can you push your deadline to next semester? –  HEITZ Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 22:43
• 4 I think that really depends on your field, how comprehensive the exact subject of your thesis is, how knowledgeable you are and how well skilled you are in academic writing. I wrote mine in a little over 25 hours in total, but this excludes reading literature and the time required for doing experiments. –  pbond Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 23:41
• 1 What @pbond said with the additional question of what the requirements of the actual thesis are. –  Raydot Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 0:44
• 1 I hope you are holed up somewhere working hard on your draft, instead of reading this comment. But if you are reading this comment, go get started! Promise yourself a little reward after a good day's work. After a few days, when you are really on a roll, THEN you may contact someone official to ask for an extension. –  aparente001 Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 2:18

4 Answers 4

If by "writing" you mean to do the research/experiments/studying and then write the thesis then no .

If by "writing" you mean transforming your well organized notes into one document, then yes , maybe if you have great discipline.

If by "writing" you mean to start to write-up from not-so well organized notes, then most probably not .

If you want to try to make it, stop hanging around on the internet and start working.

• 2 This made me laugh, which was much needed. –  NZKshatriya Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 1:28
• Concise yet precise. –  Ébe Isaac Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 4:05
• Great last sentence. –  Pere Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 19:51

It can be done, but I would be dubious of the quality. That said, I can't recall a Master's thesis that set the world on fire, so I suppose quality is a poor metric.

Here are some suggestions:

• Make sure you've got all the material you need to write because that's what you need to do -- write. Find a nest and keep all the distractions out.
• Set minimum targets for your writing. Then, meet and exceed it. I suggest setting targets that allow you to finish writing in eight days, not 10. This gives you some padding in case life gets in the way. To be clear, there are 192 hours in eight days. Allowing for a 12-hour work day, then you need to write 15,000 words in 96 hours or about 156 words an hour. Set a target of 400 words an hour.
• Make sure you have time to edit your work.

Good luck to you.

• 3 Just to nitpick: Shannon's masters thesis was actually quite groundbreaking, more so than his PhD. Apart from that, I agree with your advice. Start now. –  Captain Emacs Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 23:41
• I would love to read it. Do you have a link to the thesis or perhaps some papers that have been produced from it? –  user65587 Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 2:42
• I think it should be googleable, I do not know whether I can link it here. It is essentially how to use Boolean algebra to simplify circuits. Retrospectively obvious, it wasn't at its time. –  Captain Emacs Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 11:43
• @Captain Emacs: Although a bit old, there's the case of Luzin's Master's thesis: . . . he completed his thesis The integral and trigonometric series which he submitted in 1915. After his oral examination he was awarded a doctorate, despite having submitted his thesis for the Master's Degree. In fact, even for a Ph.D. thesis, Luzin's is one of the strongest ever written in mathematics --- probably in the top 10 to 20 of all-time for its influence on later developments. –  Dave L Renfro Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 14:48

Yes. You can write it in 10 days though the result won't be good. Make sure you write 1000 to 1500 words a day. So, rather than starting to freak out, you can start writing now

If it's an MFA thesis (average length: 2-3 pages) yes. If it's a science one where you're reporting on results and my impression is that the length isn't too terribly long, maybe. If it's a humanities one that's in the 100-150 page range, it's unlikely (I've written 10-15 pages in a day before, but I doubt I can keep that pace up for ten pages).

You should look into extending into next semester, even if it's just shooting off a quick email while continuing to work. If you have had a large number of personal problems that have negatively affected your ability to complete your school work (and are in the US, not sure how it would apply elsewhere), you should (a) speak with the counseling center on campus and (b) consider a withdrawal under extenuating circumstances (typically called a medical withdrawal, but at least at my school they are allowed for other reasons). If there's no penalty at all for extending into next semester, (b) might not even be necessary — it's super common for both master's and PhD students to miss their expected graduation date by a semester or two because of the thesis/dissertation.

But if you're running up against a hard time limit, the withdrawal would gain you an extra semester. If withdrawal isn't an option, at many schools you can also (c) petition the university to waive the time limit given your circumstances. I don't think I've ever really heard of those petitions being denied if the reason is even halfway reasonable.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged thesis masters writing time-management deadlines .

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How do I write the discussion section?

Some time ago, on the advice of my good friend and efficiency guru Jason Downs , I read The 80/20 principle: how to achieve more by doing less by Richard Koch.

To be fair, Jason did tell me, in the spirit of efficiency, that I didn’t really need to read  the book. The main message, he said, was in the title – and he was right. Koch claims that 80% of value comes from 20% of the work effort. The trick to an efficient work life, Richard Koch contends, is to identify ‘high value’ work and just do that as much as possible. High value work for me is writing and talking to people; low value work is email. As with most self help books, I finished it and did nothing different.

Then, late last year, my friend Jonathon, one half of the fantastic Research Whisperer team , sent me a spreadsheet analysis of all their blog search terms. His analysis  showed lots of people were looking for  how to make a simple Gantt Chart. Jonathan’s excellent analysis left me wondering: what do readers think is ‘high value work Thesis Whisperer work’ based on their search behaviour?

I immediately dropped everything to repeat the method on Thesis Whisperer, using 10 years of search data from well over 9 million visits. Here’s what I found out:

• Thesis Whisperer has great brand recognition: around 50% of people find their way here through typing variations of the name of the blog (far less people come here by typing in my actual name, Inger Mewburn).
• As I expected, the next most popular search type was writing problems, in various manifestations.
• Third most common search term was ‘How to look clever’, which is both funny and sad. I’m guessing this leads people to this old post  here,  which is a personal favourite

I drilled down a bit to try and find out: what exactly is troubling people about writing? I thought I would find concerns about productivity, feedback, literature reviews, style and voice, perhaps grammar, but it wasn’t: 75% of the thousands of writing related searches were questions and anxieties about the discussion section.  I’ve only written about the discussion section twice in 10 years. That’s not 20% of the effort producing 80% of the reward – It’s more like 0.003% of the effort!

I’ve been teaching writing for over 15 years and reviewed lots of development programs at other universities. I see very few workshops that focus on the discussion section as a separate piece of writing. I guess we assume that supervisors are helping out, but my search data suggests maybe not. I get the anxiety, I really do. The discussion section of the thesis is the heart of the creative endeavour: it’s where you have to be MOST original. Even if you don’t have a section in your thesis called ‘discussion’ (I didn’t) there will still be places in your thesis where you must explicitly make new knowledge in relation to the data you have collected and your analysis.

I reviewed the two posts to see what else I might have to say.  In How do I start my discussion section I offer a description of what the discussion section should contain, how to decide if you need one or not and a grab bag of tactics to go about getting started – each one of which should probably have its own blog post. In The difficult discussion section I describe the section as the ‘problem child’ of the thesis. In that post, I try to walk people through a step by step process for making sense of the mess of writing, findings and analysis that you can end up with towards the end of your degree.

But what should actually go in the discussion section and how should you write it?

I’m indebted to my colleague Josta Heylingers for pointing me at the literature on functional linguistics. Josta uses this literature to teach people how to write discussion chapters at Auckland University of Technology. To do this, she uses the work of  John Swales , and his method of ‘move step analysis’. I touched on this method in my own PhD, and of my PhD students is using move step analysis in her work, so I’ve had to become passingly familiar with the method.

Swales starts by assuming that  texts are social things : every reader has been ‘trained’ on what to expect from different kinds of texts. Job applications ‘sound’ different from grant applications, which sound different than a journal article. So readers are familiar with the linguistic ‘moves’ to expect. These linguistic moves are sort of like dance steps that build together to make a socially recognisable text.

Swales’ move step analysis is a way of breaking down the text dance so you can understand which bits go where and how to put them together in an accomplished performance. Think of any  dance craze  you can name. When I was a teenager, in the 1980s (!) it was ‘ The Nutbush ‘; by the 1990s it was The Macarena . In case you weren’t there, or don’t remember, here’s a helpful video. It’s worth watching, because it’s delightful, and a good way to understand what move step analysis is:

In the video, Jean Eu broke down the Macerana series of steps with the hands, arms and hips, that are put together to form moves. The moves must appear in the right order or sequence to become a dance. If you start with your hands down to your hips instead of out in front of you, you ARE dancing, but it’s NOT the Macarena. People watching you, expecting to see the Macarena, will be confused. If you do the right moves, but not in time with the music, it’s still the Macarena, but anyone watching you will think that you are a bad dancer.

So it is with the Macarena as it is with writing the discussion section of your thesis: use the right steps, build them into a move and do the moves in the right sequence and you will write a ‘socially correct’ text. If you do a socially correct text, the knowledge you are putting forward for consideration can be easily assessed by the reader, because they are not distracted by the bad performance. The steps also give you a formula you can use to give your thoughts about your research findings a shape and form.

So, what does the discussion section dance look like? Let’s start with the big picture. In ‘ The textural organisation of the discussion sections of accounting research articles’, Amnuai says:

“The discussion section is where authors place their ideas about their research findings and consolidate, generalize, and interpret their research outcomes for the benefit of those in their field or for other communities”

Each discipline is different. It’s important to base your moves on what is socially acceptable for your community,  but here is a simple list of basic moves that every discussion section needs to have:

• Restate Results (don’t repeat them!)
• Comment on the results
• Evaluate the Results
• Make suggestions based on the results

The helpful Manchester Academic Phrase Bank ‘discussing the findings’ section , gives you some sentences that you can use as the ‘steps’ for each move. Try some of these sentence starters to get you going:

Restate Results: “The current study found that …” “The results of this study show/indicate that …” “The results of this study did not show that …/did not show any significant increase in …”

Comment on the results: “These results further support the idea of … “These results confirm the association between … “These findings are consistent with  …” “These match/don’t match those observed in earlier studies…” “These results are in line with those of previous studies…” “These findings are in agreement with those obtained by …”

Evaluate the Results: “There are several possible explanations for this result…” “It seems possible that these results are due to …” “The reason for this is not clear but it may have something to do with…” “These data must be interpreted with caution because …” “The present results are significant in at least two major respects.”

Suggestions “There are still many unanswered questions about …” “There is abundant room for further progress in determining.” “Despite these promising results, questions remain.”

Don’t just confine yourself to these sentences though, go and visit the Manchester Academic Phrase Bank where there are hundreds of sentence starters for all parts of the thesis.

Another way to get started is to take a leaf out of Pat Thomson and Barbara Kamler’s book ‘Helping doctoral students write’ by ‘stripping down’ a paragraph from a writer you admire and using it, almost like a garden trellis, to ‘train’ your own text in the right direction. Here’s the first paragraph from a paper in my library by Wajcman  and Rose (2011) Constant Connectivity: Rethinking Interruptions at Work.  This paragraph is clearly part of the ‘summarising the results’ move:

The picture that emerges from the analysis above is one of work practices being reshaped as employees negotiate the constant connectivity intrinsic to contemporary knowledge work. We have established a link between mediated communication and short, fragmented work episodes. What is striking is that the predominant mode of communication during the workday is now tech- nologically mediated rather than face-to-face. However, each communication episode tends to be of a short duration – on average a period of five minutes or less.

Kamler and Thomson suggest you strip out the content. I like using the ‘strike through’ setting on my word processor, like so:

The picture that emerges from the analysis above is one of work practices being reshaped as employees negotiate the constant connectivity intrinsic to contemporary knowledge work . We have established a link between mediated communication and short, fragmented work episodes . What is striking is that the predominant mode of communication during the workday is now tech- nologically mediated rather than face-to-face . However, each communication episode tends to be of a short duration – on average a period of five minutes or less.

You can now insert your own findings in to this cleared out structure. This technique works best if you treat the original framework roughly, so that you produce something almost entirely new. Here’s the reworked paragraph using some concepts I am playing with in my latest work (although I haven’t actually proved any of this, so don’t quote me!):

The picture that emerges from the analysis above is one of many missed opportunities, which seems  intrinsic to the post PhD job search. We have established a link between previous experience of specific work environments and success in job seeking. What is striking is that the strength of this connection is how little the graduates paid attention to the need to articulate their previous industry experience. Each Graduate  tends to be living in a state of what Lovitts calls ‘pluralistic ignorance’.

You might be wondering: is this plagiarism? No because you are not using the original knowledge or ideas, just the structure. You can write a whole discussion section like this if you like, but you would need to find a study with very similar findings. My hunch is that you could have to hijack paragraphs from different texts and stitch them together like a patchwork quilt.

Once you get your head around the idea that there are the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ kind of textural moves in every kind of academic writing, you have an amazingly powerful writing device that you can deploy on any section of your thesis.

There is so much more to say about the discussion section – I’ll try to get to it again this year. Your question will help me decide what to focus on, so please feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m also interested in your feelings about the discussion section and how you’ve approached constructing them in the past – do you have any suggestions for others?

Related posts

How do I start my discussion section

The difficult discussion section

The textural organisation of the discussion sections of accounting research articles 

Analysis of moves, rhetorical patterns and linguistic features in New Scientist articles

Constant Connectivity: Rethinking Interruptions at Work.

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A complete guide to writing a master’s thesis

Speak right now to our live team of english staff.

If you’re reading this because you have been accepted onto a master’s programme that requires you to write a thesis – congratulations! This is a very exciting time in your life.

Hopefully what we’re about to tell you doesn’t come as too much of a surprise – as part of your master’s course you are going to be spending a considerable amount of time working on a single written submission. In fact, your master’s thesis may be the longest and most detailed piece of writing that you have ever been asked to complete.

With that in mind, getting some guidance before you begin is an important first step.

As you progress through your degree, you may have questions on exactly how to write a master’s thesis and are thus looking to obtain some thesis writing tips to help you on your way.

This post is designed to provide you with a comprehensive guide to writing a master’s thesis in the UK context. It will help you not just now, but will also be something you can refer back to throughout the duration of your master’s studies. If you haven’t already, we strongly recommend bookmarking this post so can you find it easily when you inevitably have questions during the thesis writing process.

In this post, we’ll clue you in to some strategies best suited to master’s students trying to complete a thesis. We’ll focus on what to expect at each stage, including creating a working plan, doing your reading, undertaking research, writing your master’s thesis, editing it, and leaving time to finish and proofread.

Hopefully, by the time you have finished reading, you will have the confidence and motivation to get going on a path that will lead to ultimate success in your thesis writing.

Start with a plan (and stick to it)

OK, we realise we may be teaching your grandma how to suck eggs here – starting with a plan is the obvious first step in any piece of academic writing.

And yet, as good as everyone’s intentions may be when students start writing a master’s thesis, circumstances (nearly) always arise that make sticking to the plan much more challenging.

So, first tip: when writing your thesis, make sure that your plan is flexible , and allows time for dealing with unexpected circumstances.

Next, reconsider your research proposal. It is likely you had to write one before you were accepted onto your master’s programme. If this was your first time producing a research proposal, you may read it back now and find it’s a little over-ambitious in its claims about what you planned to do. It’s a common trap to fall into, so don’t despair! Book some time with your research supervisor to determine whether your research proposal is actually realistic for your master’s thesis. If you claimed that you were going to do qualitative interviews of 200 participants across the UK, and you only have a year to complete your master’s, you might want to rethink your project and scale it to something that is achievable and not setting you up for failure.

Another tip on supervisors: make sure that you ask them questions about their expectations throughout the thesis writing process. Will they want to see drafts of your chapters as they’re written? If the answer is yes, finding out these dates will help you to develop a plan to achieve this without scrambling at the last minute.

Another tip for planning how to write your master’s thesis is to set yourself a goal of doing a little bit each day. Framing your thesis in your mind as a long-term project with a deadline very far away in the future will only encourage you to put off writing it. Then ‘far away in the future’ will all of a sudden be ‘next month’ and major panic will set in, and the lack of time at your disposal will make for rushed, compromised writing.

Set yourself milestones: a realistic plan for writing certain chapters by certain dates. Then within these milestones, commit to writing an amount of words per day, or per week. Then be disciplined and stick to your plan. Avoiding procrastination isn’t easy, but will very much work in your favour in the long run.

A final tip when devising your plan: it is easy to go back and delete words that you do not need during the editing process. Conversely, having to add thousands of words at the last minute will be stressful and sometimes impossible. Plan to start writing early, and budget for, say, 1000-2000 words every day. Not only will you then reach the full word count of your master’s thesis quickly, but you’ll leave yourself plenty of time to edit it, remove sections that aren’t working, and add more words that strengthen the overall assignment, all long before the deadline arrives.

Do your reading

The trick here is to find a balance between reading enough and not spending too much time doing so. There is so much reading to do and it can be easy to drift off topic.

Doing your reading and producing the final literature review are important components of a master’s thesis, but if you spend too much time reading there won’t be ample time for the data collection process and the writing up phase.

Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your reading process is both effective and efficient.

Step 1 – Understand your research questions

The first step in the reading phase of your master’s thesis is knowing what research questions you are trying to answer. Hopefully you have identified these questions with your supervisor before you started to work on your thesis. If you do not have a clear research question, your reading strategies will be severely hindered.

There are certain databases that are going to be more relevant to your area of study. Getting research from these databases is going to streamline the writing process for you to ensure that your project is focused within the context that it needs to be. A research librarian can likely help you focus this search, making the process significantly easier.

Step 2 – Make reading easier

There are several challenges associated with reading. First, it is easy to get distracted, especially if your reading material is lengthy and complex. So you want to keep your reading blocks short and sweet. ‘Chunk’ your reading. Spend 20 to 25 minutes reading without distraction (it hurts we know, but putting your phone on flight mode and leaving it in another room will ultimately help) and then take a 5 to 10 minute break (on your phone, if you must!) before starting up again.

Furthermore, whilst there is a lot of reading to do, it is unrealistic to spend your whole day doing it. Earmark just a portion of the day for reading, then make sure that you have other things that you can do with the rest of your time (like completing your ethics forms, or starting to create your research instruments). By dividing up your time, you are going to be able to keep your focus for longer, making you more productive and efficient overall.

Step 3 – Take good notes

It’s always worth remembering the forgetting curve – ah that’s a paradox if we ever saw one. The forgetting curve is the amount of information you will forget as time passes. It can be quite steep, and after a month passes you likely won’t remember much about what you have previously read. This could lead to disaster when writing up your literature review, so make sure that you take good, thorough notes throughout the reading process.

A good idea is to build out an excel spreadsheet or other list that documents your reading in a detailed and organised manner. You can keep track of key information, such as:

• Location of research
• Sample size
• Research methods
• Main findings

Not only will this help slow the curve of your inevitable forgetfulness, but crucially, it will also make referring back to your reading much easier when you move on to writing your overall literature review.

A note to remember: not everything that you read will end up in your literature review. The purpose of reading is to make sure that you, as a researcher, understand how your project is positioned within your area of study. The literature review explains this to the reader but in much simpler terms. So to reiterate, the reading process is for your own benefit, not solely to find studies to include in your literature review.

Do your research

Even if you did research as part of your undergraduate work, research for a master’s thesis is a whole different story. As an undergraduate, your project was likely quite small or it was significantly guided by a faculty member; as a master’s student, this is typically your first opportunity to do research on a topic that you have chosen to pursue. While this is an exciting step, it also means that you are accountable for your actions.

Your research type and tools

The first step in the research process is deciding on what type of research you will do. Is it going to be qualitative or quantitative? Maybe it will be a combination of the two. You have likely documented this in your research proposal, but your answer to this question will have implications about how you will organise and analyse your data once it is collected.

Regardless of what route you choose, you will need software to help you manage your data. Many universities have free data management software tools available, and if that is the case for your institution then use them –tools available otherwise can rack up quite a hefty bill.

The most common tools are SPSS, which deals primarily with quantitative data, or NVivo which focuses more on qualitative measures. There are numerous other software packages available, and your supervisor may have suggestions about which management tool is most suitable for your project.

Planning ahead for better outcomes

The second step in the process is to think about timing and distribution. If you are planning a qualitative study, perhaps using interviews, remember that you will need to transcribe all of the words that are contained in the interview. While some programmes allow speech-to-text translation, it is not always accurate. The process of transcription takes considerable time, and therefore, as a researcher, you should consider how many participants you are looking to have in your project.

While a quantitative project may not have the same level of detail in the data input process, there are likely to be more participants and a wider range of outcomes. As a researcher, you must recruit these participants and ensure that they meet the criteria for inclusion. Finding people who are willing to participate in this type of project (often volunteering their time for free) can be challenging, and so as a researcher, it can be useful to have a minimum number of participants that you believe (based on past research) will give you findings that can be reliable and valid within your context.

It is also worth mentioning that you will likely end up with a lot of data, much more than can actually be presented in your master’s thesis.

One of the challenging pieces of the research process is deciding which findings make the cut for your thesis and which get saved for a later date. While your data are probably very interesting to you, it is important that you do not overwhelm the reader or deviate from the research questions that you set out to answer.

To sum up, the process of actually carrying out research and distilling it for the writing part of your thesis takes time. You need to carefully plan your research steps to ensure not only that you cover everything you intend to, but that you also do it in good time, leaving yourself ample space in your schedule to write up your thesis.

Write your Master’s thesis: the right structure

It’s helpful to start here by going over the structure of a master’s thesis. The precise way that different master’s theses are structured is largely going to depend on the discipline area. But most of the time, empirical dissertations follow a format including:

• Table of contents
• List of tables/figures
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Before you start writing

Before you start to write, draft an outline of your approach to each section including the word count you expect to have (total word counts also vary by discipline).

Within each section you should also include all the major subheadings that you plan to include in the final version.

Before writing any of the sections, meet with your supervisor to ensure that your outline generally conforms to their expectations. Supervisors are the experts in the field and have likely seen many master’s theses, so they will be able to tell you if you are on the right track.

Beginning to write

It’s worth noting here that the order in which you write all the sections of your master’s thesis can vary depending on your process and preferences.

Once you have a detailed outline, there is no rule that says you have to start with the introduction and end with the conclusion. While the reader will inevitably read your thesis this way, you are free to write the ‘easy’ sections first and then move on to ones that you find more challenging.

For many students, beginning with the methodology chapter makes the most sense, as this allows the project to be framed around the steps that you, as a researcher, will take. The methodology usually includes:

• The research question(s).
• Any hypotheses that you might have.
• Your theoretical framework, and the methods that you will use to collect your data.
• Often, but not always, it includes ethical considerations, especially if you are working with human participants.

For many writers, the methodology chapter is written prior to the collection of data, whereas other chapters may be written after the data have been collected and analysed.

The same can be said for writing the literature review . For some writers, the literature review begins to take shape early in the project, but others choose to leave the writing until after data collection has occurred.

Both strategies have value. Writing the literature review early can give a researcher a clear indication of what data already exists and how this could relate to the potential project. The downside is that if the findings from the current project do not match the historical findings from the literature, the whole chapter may need to be revised to better align with the current findings.

Leaving the literature review until after the data collection means a bigger gap between when the reading was actually done for the project and the writing up period, meaning that the sources may need to be consulted repeatedly. In addition, leaving all the writing to the end of the project may seem tedious for some writers.

Another element that you will need to consider is how to present your findings . For some researchers, combining the findings and discussion sections makes logical sense, whereas for others, this presentation makes the chapter unwieldy and difficult to read.

Staying on track

There is no universal approach to writing a master’s thesis, but there are a lot of people out there who are willing to help you along the way. You will put yourself in a really good place if you seek advice at multiple stages in the process and from multiple different sources.

Your university library is going to be a useful source for research and reference, whereas your supervisor can give more discipline-specific advice on writing. Your university will likely have a writing centre too that can offer suggestions on how to improve your writing and make sure that you are staying on track. Making appointments at your writing centre can also help with accountability, as you will have to actually complete parts of your writing in order to discuss them with others.

Finishing and proofreading

When you write those last few words of your conclusion and you have made it to the end of your thesis (hopefully in one piece – you, not the thesis), there may be a sense of finality. It’s a huge feat you’ve just overcome and for that, you deserve a pat on the back.

But finishing writing your master’s thesis is a little like reaching Camp 4 on an Everest summit trek. Without wanting to sound too ominous, there is still a considerable amount of work to do – chiefly, putting the finishing touches on your thesis through editing and proofreading .

Hopefully, during the process of writing your thesis, you sent drafts to your supervisor for review. These drafts may have included individual chapters or various sections within the data set that required clarification. Your supervisor would have provided feedback on these drafts either through written or verbal comments. It is essential that you keep track of these comments, as they will become crucial for the final stages prior to submission.

There are two ways that you can approach the editing of your master’s thesis. Both have value and it depends on how you view the process of writing. These are:

• Individually edit sections as they are returned from the supervisor.
• Edit at the very end, so that the editing can be consistent across sections.

With the first strategy, the editing process is broken up into manageable chunks, but at the end you will have to go back and re-edit sections to improve the clarity and flow.

With the second strategy, you may be able to achieve better flow, but the number of edits at the end may seem overwhelming and take up considerable time.

These challenges bring us back to the importance of a timeline. Leaving several weeks for the editing process is necessary because editing can take longer than you think . Also, once you have made these necessary edits, you will need to go through and proofread your document to make sure that the fine details are consistent across chapters. This includes things like making sure acronyms are clearly defined, tables are appropriately numbered/titled, that punctuation and syntax are accurate, and that formatting and alignment is consistent.

Something you may find challenging during the finishing process is knowing when to stop. With writing there are always changes that can be made – ideas or sentences that can be written just a little bit better or slightly more clearly. You could spend years (really!) refining your work – writing and rewriting sections to make them exactly how you want them – but the simple fact is: you do not have time for that.

Use the time that you do have for editing your thesis to the best of your ability, but also be willing to say “this is good enough” and submit your work.

Handing something in that you have worked diligently on for a long time is a truly satisfying feeling, so try to cherish that moment when it comes.

Also, it goes without saying but is always worth the reminder: the expert editors we have on board here at Oxbridge Editing can not only relieve a phenomenal amount of effort in this final hurdle of your assignment, but, thanks to their experience and skill, they will also ensure your thesis is flawless and truly ready for submission. You can find out more about thesis editing here .

Final words

Hopefully, by reading this post you have identified some tips for writing your master’s thesis that you can apply in your own context.

While the finished product will vary by discipline, the strategies listed above can apply across a wide range of contexts.

Above all else: start early and stick to the plan.

There are many examples of master’s dissertations that you can refer to for guidance so that you can identify the appropriate thesis structure for your project. By doing a little bit each day and by keeping track of your reading, you can ensure that you remain organised and efficient with your work.

Remember that writing your master’s thesis is your first opportunity to demonstrate to the academic community that you are a proficient scholar in your field. A UK master’s dissertation is no easy task, but there are lots of people and resources available to help you. Take guidance from your supervisor and use the facilities that exist on your university campus, including the writing centre and the library.

Best of luck!

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•       Resources       Choosing Between a Thesis or Non-thesis Master's Degree

As of 2015, approximately 25.4 million Americans held advanced degrees , with more citizens joining these ranks each year. As studies continue to show the career advancement and salary benefits of completing a master's degree, more and more students elect to pursue advanced educations. When considering their options, many question whether to enroll in a master's requiring a thesis or not. The following guide examines some of the reasons degree seekers may want to write a thesis while also highlighting why they might not. Students on the fence about this important decision can find expert advice, actionable tips, and relevant guidance to help them make an informed choice in the guide that follows.

Understanding the Master's Thesis

What is the difference between a thesis & non-thesis master's program, the decision not to do a thesis.

As students research various master's programs in their chosen discipline, it's common to find that many degrees require a thesis – especially if they want to enter a research-heavy field. While this word gets thrown around a lot in academia, some learners may want more information regarding what it entails in order to make an informed decision.

What is a Master's Thesis?

The master's thesis is an original piece of scholarship allowing the student to dig into a topic and produce an expanded document that demonstrates how their knowledge has grown throughout the degree program. These documents require significant independent research of primary and secondary sources and, depending on the subject, may require interviews and/or surveys to support the overarching argument.

Individual schools and departments dictate the length of these documents, but they typically range between 60 and 100 pages – or approximately 20,000 to 40,000 words. While tackling a document of such heft may seem overwhelming at first, learners need not fret. Each master's candidate receives a faculty advisor early in their tenure to provide support, feedback, and guidance throughout the process. Because the final thesis is expected to be of a publishable quality, learners seeking the highest marks typically send their supervisor excerpts of the document as they write to ensure they are on the right track.

When picking a thesis topic, no magical formula exists. Students should consider their interests and read extensively on that topic to get a better sense of existing scholarship. They should also speak to other academics working in that sphere to familiarize themselves with ongoing projects. Only after they feel reasonably well-read should they begin looking for uncovered angles or interesting ways of using emerging methodologies to bring new light to the topic.

When considering formatting, degree seekers should check with their specific schools and departments, as they may have unique requirements. To get a general understanding of what to expect, learners can review Simon Fraser University's guidelines on thesis formatting. After completing the thesis, some programs require an oral defense before a committee while others read the document and provide a grade. Check with your prospective schools to get a better sense of procedure.

Format & Components of a Master's Thesis

While this guide attempts to provide helpful and actionable information about the process of deciding whether to follow a thesis or non-thesis track in a master's program, readers should remember that specific components and requirements of a thesis vary according to discipline, university, and department. That being said, some commonalities exist across all these – especially when it comes to what students must include in their final drafts.

As the first section a reader encounters after moving through the table of contents and other anterior text, the introductory allows the writer to firmly establish what they want to accomplish. Sometimes also called the "research question" section, the introductory must clearly state the goals of the paper and the overarching hypothesis guiding the argument. This should be written in a professional yet accessible tone that allows individuals without specializations in the field to understand the text.

This section allows learners to demonstrate their deep knowledge of the field by providing context to existing texts within their chosen discipline Learners review the main bodies of work, highlighting any issues they find within each. Constructive criticism often centers around shortcomings, blind spots, or outdated hypotheses.

Students use this section to explain how they went about their work. While scientists may point to a specific method used to reach conclusions, historians may reference the use of an emerging framework for understanding history to bring new light to a topic. The point of this section is to demonstrate the thought processes that led to your findings.

This section allows for learners to show what they learned during the research process in a non-biased way. Students should simply state what information they gathered by utilizing a specific framework or methodology and arrange those findings, without interpretation, in an easy-to-read fashion.

After providing readers with all the necessary information, the discussion section exists for candidates to interpret the raw data and demonstrate how their research led to a new understanding or contributed a unique perspective to the field. This section should directly connect to the introduction by reinforcing the hypothesis and showing how you answered the questions posed.

Even though the previous sections give prospective degree seekers a better sense of what to expect if they decide to write a thesis during their master's program, they don't necessarily help learners decide whether to pursue a thesis or non-thesis track. The following section highlights some of the reasons students frequently choose to complete a thesis or bypass the process altogether by providing a pros and cons list.

Why a Thesis Program

• Especially when entering a research-heavy discipline, completing a thesis shows prospective schools and employers that you possess the skills needed for researching and writing long-form reports.
• Students hoping to pursue a Ph.D. stand in better stead with admissions panels if they wrote a thesis during a master's program.
• Individuals hoping to enter a field that values syntax and grammar often better their writing skills by completing a thesis.
• Students who write a thesis can submit the final product to various academic journals, increasing their chances of getting published.
• Theses expand students' understanding of what they're capable of, deepen their ability to carry out an argument, and develop their skills in making connections between ideas.

Why a Non-thesis Program

• Because they don't require a significant written product, non-thesis master's tend to take less time to complete.
• Often mirrors a bachelor's program in terms of structure, allowing learners to complete classes and take exams without a great deal of research or writing.
• Students who excel in project-based assignments can continue building skills in this arena rather than focusing on skills they don't plan to use (e.g. research)
• Provides learners the opportunity to work more closely and more frequently with faculty on real-world projects since they don't spend hundreds of hours researching/writing.
• Allows learners to take more classes and gain hands-on skills to fill the time they would have spent researching and writing a thesis.

How to Choose a Master's Program: FAQs

Within some academic disciplines and professional fields, research and writing plays a key role in work done on a daily basis. Because of this, master's programs in these fields require learners to complete theses to compete against peers and be seen as competent in their work. Other disciplines, conversely, rely on other tools to accomplish work and progress ideas – making theses less important.

Yes. Master's programs focused more on application than research typically don't require a thesis – although they may still give students the option. Examples of common non-thesis master's programs include nursing, business, and education.

Even though non-thesis students won't be writing a 100-page paper, that doesn't mean they avoid completing a significant project. In place of a thesis, most applied master's programs require students to take part in at least one internship or complete a culminating project. These projects typically ask learners to take what they learned throughout coursework and create an expansive final project – examples include case studies, creative works, or portfolios.

While students who followed a non-thesis path routinely receive acceptance to Ph.D. programs, those with theses often find the process easier. Even if a learner pursues a Ph.D. in a discipline that isn't research-heavy, admissions panels still want to get a sense of your academic interests and ability to engage in independent, nuanced thought. Students with theses can provide solid proof of these skills, while those without may struggle to demonstrate preparedness as thoroughly.

The answer to this question depends on many factors, but typically it is okay not to do a thesis if you plan to enter a field that doesn't depend heavily on research or writing, or if you don't plan to complete a Ph.D.

Students wanting to work in academic, research, or writing should always opt for the thesis track. They should also follow this path if they have any doctoral degree aspirations.

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to complete a thesis rests with the individual student. Figuring out how to proceed on this front requires lots of careful consideration, and learners should ensure they consider various aspects before coming to a final decision. The following section helps students consider how they should and should not come to a conclusion.

Dos and Don'ts of Choosing a Thesis or Non-thesis Program

• Consider the longevity of your decision: will you feel the same in 5-10 years or are you making a decision based on current desires?
• Talk to others who with experience in this area. Ask them questions about their decision-making process and if they regret their choice.
• Research potential thesis topics before starting a program. Going in with a game plan can help you feel more confident and settled about the process than if you're scrambling for a topic while in school.
• Reach out to prospective schools to speak with faculty and/or current students following both tracks. This will provide knowledge specific to the school while also expanding your network if you choose to attend there.
• Research Ph.D. entrance requirements to ascertain if the majority expect learners to possess a thesis when applying. This will give you a sense of whether you may experience issues later on if you do not complete one.
• Decide not to complete a thesis simply because you have never taken on such a task and feel overwhelmed or fearful that you will fail.
• Complete a thesis simply because you think it will look good on your resume. Theses require intense devotion over an extended amount of time; learners who complete them without conviction often find the process miserable.
• Forget to research alternatives to writing a thesis. Just because you don't complete a research paper doesn't mean a non-thesis track lacks rigor or challenging coursework.
• Forget to read examples of theses by previous students. If you feel overwhelmed by the task, reading work other people have done can often make the task at hand feel less scary.
• Let yourself off easy by taking the non-thesis path. If you find you have extra time in the program, talk to your advisor about taking more classes, develop meaningful projects for yourself, or see about presenting at an academic conference.

From the Expert

Sudiksha Joshi, Ph.D. is a learning advocate. Her mission is to empower our youth to think bigger, bolder thoughts and forge a career path that will change the world. She taps into her natural curiosity and ability to identify strengths to help students and those in transition find their path from feeling lost in the traditional ways of achieving success to charting their own path. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Medium and LinkedIn.

Why might a student decide to follow a thesis track? Why might they follow a non-thesis track?

A student might decide to take a thesis track if she/he wants to pursue a Ph.D. Also, if the students want to focus on careers where research and writing have a strong focus, the students opt for the thesis option. Research assistantships at the graduate level are also more often available to students who opt for the thesis option.

A student who might feel that writing is not one of their strengths might choose to go the non-thesis track. Likewise, a student who has other work commitments may find a non-thesis option more convenient.

Do you have any tips for deciding on a program?

I chose a thesis option because being able to conduct independent research was a big reason to go to graduate school. Also, showing the ability that I could do research was what afforded me research assistantships which meant that my tuition was paid for and I got a stipend that paid for expenses while I was in graduate school. This also allowed me the opportunity to work closely with the faculty mentor that provided me with the support and the accountability I wanted.

I would not recommend taking a non-thesis option if all the degree requires is for you to take courses. You have little to show in terms of your learning other than your grades unless you are already working on something on the side that does that for you and all you need is a certificate.

Opt for a non-thesis option if you can still work closely with a professor or on a project and if you'd rather be involved in multiple projects rather than focus on a single project. If you already have a good (informed) reason for choosing one over the other, go for it.

What's the most important thing to consider when choosing a program?

The most important thing to consider when choosing a program is getting excited about the projects that at least one of the faculty members are involved in. Do some research and see why you are excited about a particular work that at least one of the faculty members have been involved in.

Who should students talk to when considering options?

Students should talk to other students and also reach out directly to the graduate coordinator and even individual faculty members. This means that students should have done prior homework and have some good questions ready. Asking good questions will get you at least halfway through to make the right decision.