This is not mine (but is important): PhD Thesis Writing

This is not mine but is really important for your thesis work:
Make it clear what is yours
Source: © 1996. Modified 2/11/06 Joe Wolfe / J.Wolfe@unsw.edu.au, phone 61- 2-9385 4954 (UT + 10, +11 Oct-Mar). School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

If you use a result, observation or generalisation that is not your own, you must usually state where in the scientific literature that result is reported. The only exceptions are cases where every researcher in the field already knows it: dynamics equations need not be followed by a citation of Newton, circuit analysis does not need a reference to Kirchoff. The importance of this practice in science is that it allows the reader to verify your starting position. Physics in particular is said to be a vertical science: results are built upon results which in turn are built upon results etc. Good referencing allows us to check the foundations of your additions to the structure of knowledge in the discipline, or at least to trace them back to a level which we judge to be reliable. Good referencing also tells the reader which parts of the thesis are descriptions of previous knowledge and which parts are your additions to that knowledge. In a thesis, written for the general reader who has little familiarity with the literature of the field, this should be especially clear. It may seem tempting to leave out a reference in the hope that a reader will think that a nice idea or an nice bit of analysis is yours. I advise against this gamble. The reader will probably think: "What a nice idea---I wonder if it's original?". The reader can probably find out via the net or the library.

If you are writing in the passive voice, you must be more careful about attribution than if you are writing in the active voice. "The sample was prepared by heating yttrium..." does not make it clear whether you did this or whether Acme Yttrium did it. "I prepared the sample..." is clear.

Finally, do not feel too lonely. To write a dissertation is so difficult that it may arrives to the "extreme" of Psychoterapy.

My favorite phrase:

"Procastination is part of the process. Your psyque needs to pause".

More here:
http://emmathereselewis.com/Papers/Writing%20MA%20dissertation.pdf

Address to Incoming Students, Across All Faculties

Things it would have been useful to have been told as a starting PhD student



If everyone likes your work, you can be certain that you haven’t done anything
important. Conflict goes with the territory -- that of changing how a profession
thinks and furthering what we know about our world. The pressures on PhD
students and young researchers are predominantly to conform, to fit it, to
accept fashionable ways of analyzing problems, and above all to please
senior professors and their own postgraduate peers. Unfortunately this is bad
for scientific progress. [This fact is perhaps the single most helpful thing I
have learned, and would pass on to any young researcher who wishes to
listen to advice, which I confess is very probably what I would not have done
when I happened to be in my twenties.]

The main difference between world-class researchers and sound researchers
is not intellect; it is energy, single-mindedness, more energy, and the ability to
withstand what will sometimes feel like never-ending disappointment,
tiredness and psychological pain. Tenacity is almost everything. [This is the
second key thing I have learned.]
Work on the assumption that your supervisor will contribute 1% of your PhD
and you will contribute 99%. Then you will probably only be slightly
disappointed.

Everyone is good at something, and poor at other things. Think that through a
bit about yourself. Try not to beat yourself up about the parts you are not so
great at. I know one ordinary, down-to-earth British man about my age who
initially was refused entry into university and became a lab technician
because could not pass French O level no matter how hard he tried. Things
turned out reasonably OK for him*. If necessary, you can team up eventually
in research with people with complementary skills.
Start writing journal articles, and submitting them to journals, as early as
possible. Do that while a PhD student.
Submit to the very best journals in the world, and accept the pain of rejection
letters. Keep on doing so.

Go to all the seminars you can, in all areas of your discipline. If you
concentrate narrowly at this age, after all, you have little chance of achieving
vision or a real education.

Aim for a balance between humility+open-mindnedness (80% perhaps) and
arrogance+sheer-self-belief (20%).

Try not to be dragged too much into whatever seems trendy this year. It
probably began 10 years ago in some research corridor on the other side of
the world and, at the absolute frontier, is already on its way out. The best
idea is to work on important, timeless, deep questions that most people have
not thought of or think are too hard. If people say to you “but nobody works
on Z”, then you may have a chance to be able to do something of lasting
value.

Listen to your supervisor, although not necessarily down to every decimal
point. But -- this only applies in rare cases -- try not to be exploited by your
supervisor.

Do not send long emails to your supervisor, especially ones where you are
subconsciously releasing your frustrations or looking for a bit of therapy. Go
and see him or her. Every email I get with more than 2 paragraphs, from
anyone, I basically don’t read.

You have extraordinary intellectual talent. Try never to forget that, even when
tempted. Work on what you believe in; it will help sustain you.

Best of luck. Andrew Oswald Professor of Economics
* a few years ago he got the Nobel Price in Medicine and Physiology

Thanks to Professor Andrew Oswald
Warwick University PhD Induction Day: Address to Incoming Students, Across
All Faculties in October 2009