The Grim Squeaker wrote:1. Do you know anyone whose done an MsC thesis, on the basis of previously published articles?
(I'm trying to argue use of my own material from my articles). (Currently I can't simply cut & paste)
You cannot copy/paste anything of yours already published, that's self-plagiarism and a big no-no. You can typically use materials that weren't published (i.e. internal work materials, parts of published materials that were cut from the final paper before publishing, proposals that didn't succeed, etc.) and you can summarily paraphrase and reference the work if relevant and, depending on context, re-use certain figures/diagram/etc. (again, with reference). But, the thesis is a new work so it cannot seem that you are simply directly rewriting your previously published work. Unfortunately, at the MSc level there is nothing like a Scandinavian-model PhD thesis so you have to write a new work, referencing your previous work where relevant (the guidelines for self-citation are more relaxed typically in a thesis as it is supposed to be a summary of the work you did during your studies so referencing your previous relevant work is considered welcome). As with a lot of things in academia, at the end of the day, a lot depends on the framework your adviser/mentor imposes based on your university and national regulations.
2. Any tips on constructing it? Notably at the technical level?
(I'm using Word for now, with a template for headers I found on the net. I don't know LaTeX, and don't have time or reason to learn it). I'm a plain-text sort pf person, and i'm worried about formatting messyness (I haven't used headers or captions in an organized way on an important, multipart, segmented 40+ page document much before).
I have no time or need to learn LaTex or Lyx. Markdown is an option, but I don't see it as being worth the effort, given that I have very few equations, and have big time constraints (and my mentor doesn't use it, or GitHub, so messing around with plain text version control + pandoc + GitHub really isn't of use to me).
3. Seriously, Tips?
(I have plenty of articles that I wrote to use, but I'm at a loss in terms of mindmapping, layout, organizing, inserting material, building it in word, formatting, etc'. Also, it's scary :0 ).
Thanks
(Sidenote: Introductions, summaries and inventing titles sucks
)
Make sure to use a template provided by the university if available. If there are only guidelines and not a full template, create your own (edit the styles) to prepare it according to the guidelines. Never, ever, directly apply formatting to text - that is what styles are for.
Know in advance the guidelines on how to structure your tables, diagrams and so on not to have to refactor them later.
For structure, follow the guidelines. They will typically be very similar to a scientific article (i.e. something like introduction, background, methods/theoretical model, practical implementation description, results & discussion, conclusion) only you will write a lot more and include more details that you would typically only mention and include a reference for in an article. MSc is still a professional-level work, not scientific; you will typically include a lot more lower-quality references (i.e. manufacturers' web-pages, professional reports, etc.) that you might not in a conference/journal article to again allow for more detail.
Use a good reference manager (such as Mendelay) and always use the export citation option or similar on scientific article databases and Google Scholar and import that into your ref. manager in order to get a proper reference for a work that will be automatically adjusted to the citation style your university department uses. Use the Word plug-in to manage the references to do just that - it makes it painless and gives you the correct, consistent style throughout (last student I assisted in making her MSc thesis needed to switch from APA to IEEE half-way through as there was a new guideline passed by the department as she was writing her thesis - with Mendelay it was as simple as changing a drop-down box; manually it would have been probably hours of work).
If you have a PhD student as a direct adviser, check with him if he is OK with looking at and reviewing what you are producing more often incrementally (1-2 times a week, more often as you get close to the deadline) as that will increase the quality of your thesis a lot, pace you (as you'll have more mini-deadlines) and your professor will typically defer to the PhD student and is not likely to ask for last-minute major rewrites. If such support is not available, see if you can get anyone who you consider competent and who has academic writing experience to be such support; a lot of the issues with MSc thesis are general and have more to do with academic writing inexperience then directly with the subject. Use track changes for this; generic, non-specific feedback is much less useful.
If you are not writing your thesis in English be prepared to do a lot of translation. Again, consult the guidelines on how to manage translations (glossary at the end? (engl. XXXX) brackets after each first mention of a translated term?). Identify your translation resources (i.e. is there an official dictionary for your language and field, who is the translation nazi at your university but who is also open for questions about suggestions for translation, etc.). Use translations consistently in the work even if the English phrase is what you use colloquially in professional discussions.
And again, listen to and do what your adviser/mentor tells you to do. MSc is still considered to not be that independent and on the other hand your adviser/mentor's option carries the most weight in the grading/passing - follow what they tell you to do.