This thread is created for those of you who had experience in writing thesis for Masters and PhD. How do you write the thesis quickly? What are some of the problems that occurred when you wrote the thesis?
Any help/ guidance from you guys are much appreciated

After reading numerous recent threads started by you, I am under the impression that this thread was created for yourself to find the express way to your PhD. Even so, there is nothing wrong in collecting your ideas and developing your writing process, or constructing your first draft and completing your final manuscript. More importantly, what is your purpose of studying for a doctorate?

On the whole, you are a noble student with the pride of a Doctor's daughter. And at the same time, you are on your lonely path when you see your lab mates in white coats under attack by the microbes. But to you, perhaps they are not lab mates at all. They may be mere strangers accidentally brought together in the same lab. Without any hesitation, you plunges into battle to obtain your doctorate.

The only reason I am doing a Doctorate is because I am very interested with research. I know there are people out there doing a doctorate because they want to be considered as smart or respected but that doesn't really apply to me. There are also people out there doing a Doctorate since they cannot find a job without a PhD but I've already collected my 1 year experience working in an industry and I like it a lot. That's why I decided to continue my PhD since it really CLICKS with me. However, I need guidance a lot in a journey to get PhD as I am like a baby in postgraduate studies. I also don't want to waster my time doing PhD for 5-6 years since there are a lot more things I want to do in my life. PhD is not the ONLY ONE I want. Besides, I enjoy writing and reading a lot.


Tell that to my mum since she's the one to earn that degree.

I also have 9 years of industry experience, but still interested to further my Phd soon

read tons of published papers about a topic...it ease up in writing thesis

Give a lot of commitment to the process. often times, students think that the battle is won before writing the thesis. i have seen several cases where the students have published quite a number of papers, and in one case, has even completed his 1st draft. unfortunately, getting a job/going back to work or staying away from the lab (and the research atmosphere?) during this time sort of takes the wind out of their sails, and they ultimately were unable to complete their postgrad studies.

You write it quickly but if your supervisor or examiners are slow in reading your work...guess what will happen?

But do they have time frame to read your thesis?

But do they have time frame to read your thesis?

How to write faster ah?

Read through the articles fast....pay attention on the important points and skim through the rest rather than reading every single page of an article.

Think fast.

Then write fast.

LOL....

Yes they are given a specific time frame to examine your work. But in practice, sometimes they just spend more time to complete examining your work. It happened to me and my friends have similar experience too.

Publish papers. The paper that was written can form part of your thesis indirectly and examiners will love you cause they don't have to scrutinise your already-peer-reviewed work.

Ask the seniors to help!!! it always work!!

Based on my experience, the fastest way of writing thesis is to focus on publishing papers 1st.
[phD students in UM are required to publish 2 ISI papers 1st before they can plan to submit their thesis]

After publishing that 2 papers (related to your field, that is), its more or less just copy and paste + a little bit of elaboration to finish up your thesis writing. I spent alot of my time instead in doing paperwork for thesis submission and also polishing (putting in figures, formatting etc.) the thesis

Good advice~
Its best to learn from other's mistake rather than to go through them yourself
But always be sure to be appreciative of your seniors' advice and guidance

1. having enough of references to support our write up
2. commitment commitment commitment
3. having the ability to write well? some people have problem in expressing their thought through writing
4. start writing from the beginning-never accumulate your work
5. have a good proposal so that prolly some part of it e.g. introduction and literature review can be used for thesis-writing
6. get hold on thesis of those having titles / scope / field as you

As an experienced postdoc in biological science, I'm sure you have lots of valuable advices to prevent some impending pitfalls. Since Madonna Britney has to learn to publish papers, her concern is probably back to square one, “How to publish research papers quickly?” Perhaps you can tell what needs to happen for publishing papers quickly.

Thanks for the input bro

Whether one can publish paper quickly depends on a lot of factors i.e. supervisor quality, facilities, helpfulness of lab members etc. and even luck! haha
Most of these factors are not really in our hands anyway, so what we can do is try to improve ourselves

Apart from dedication and hard work, a postgraduate student should read more articles related to his/her field, so that he/she will have a better idea on what to write and focus on for the paper. This is especially true for those with poorer command of English
And the other thing is to try to publish paper as soon as possible. I noticed that most of my colleagues tend to accumulate ALOT of data (even more than what's required for a paper) and have yet to start writing anything. This may be because of:
1. Supervisor being "greedy" or "pessimistic". 1st timers (us) wouldn't know how much is enough for publication anyways so we listen to our supervisors, who are not always correct .

2. Poor command of English/ Scared of writing. This appears to be true among my Chinese friends who seemed to have a harder time expressing their thoughts and ideas in papers. I've noticed that the Westerners can simply write ALOT out of something simple, whereas we write very little out of ALOT of data

My advice is to write early. Don't worry too much about language since you could always ask friends/supervisors or even pay for proofreading anyways. What's important is the data, which will undoubtedly "expire" if not published ASAP. Its a competitive world
As for how much data is actually required for a decent paper; it will be hard to "estimate" for the 1st paper (especially if the supervisor is not being helpful), but it can only get easier as one publishes more papers. My advice is to try consulting seniors or other supervisors who are more helpful, they will show you the way

Just my 2 cents~

Hi Tanji,

(1) How many postgraduate students (by research) in Malaysia? Suddenly, I've got an idea.

(2) I noticed that you have been consistently giving lots of practical and valuable advices to the research students. Not to mention that you are also Dr Notebook.

(3) If you write a 100~150-page self-help book in this topic and this book is priced under RM 20.00, most of them will benefit from your Midas touch in a lot of areas, i.e. academic, time management, communication skills, research skills, software & equipment, ethics, publications, working with RTM2, traveling, etc.

(4) Plant a tree, write a book, and have a child... that's what Jose Marti said when he was asked what every man ought to do before he dies. You worked on seaweeds (Kappaphycus and Eucheuma Sea Bird's Nests), didn't you? Because writing a thesis is not the same as writing a book, therefore, please consider the idea seriously.

(5) After publishing the book, you can get married to your girlfriend and have a child then.

Gotta agree with Critical_Fallacy! I'm supportive of this idea haha.

Dude you doing your postgrad? In which field?

Thanks for the praise man, much appreciated
You are here for a longer time man, you deserved much, much more credit ~~

1. I've no idea how many research-based postgraduate students in Malaysia But I'm sure there are ALOT

2. I'm merely giving some advises based on what I've been through haha... my concepts and ways may not always be right. But thanks again for the praise~

3. I'm not so sure about writing a book haha, can't really see much benefits from it since there are already a lot of books about this I think? Forums are much more interactive imho. Still, good idea.. I might add this into my blog when I start writing again lol T_____T

4. I'll probably just earn less than RM20 for the 1st copy. The rest will be photocopied by everyone. This is Malaysia haha . Still, me and my supervisor are working on publishing a small,simple and educative booklet on Kappaphycus and Eucheuma Sea Bird's Nests~

Thanks again bro XD

Yup.

Organisational Behaviour

This post has been edited by Blofeld: May 29 2013, 10:12 PM

Don't mention it, buddy! You really deserve better. Correct me if I'm wrong, you specialize in Molecular Systematics and Taxonomy or Aquaculture, don't you? I'm not sure if seaweed cultivation in Malaysia is in its infancy but I heard National Seaweed Research Institute is going to be set up in Tawau. When you complete your postdoc research in Institute of Biological Sciences, then what's your next meaningful plan?

By the way, is it safe to eat roasted seaweed (small pack) everyday?

Nice one! Masters or PhD?

PhD

Good. That's the best way to do research. Which uni?

USM.

U're in NUS, rite? Engineering field?

Prestigious uni, man! Not bad at all. Yup doing PhD in Mechanical Engineering in NUS and I met nearlee before he left.

Anyway what do you do in Organisational Behaviour ehh?? Is it one of the branches in Social Science?

Hahaha nearlee. So, he has graduated eh?

Organisational Behaviour is one of the common subjects in the Management field. And yes, it covers mostly social science/psychology topics.

Psychology students will learn the same thing under the subject - Organisational Psychology.

@Critical_Fallacy Love your posts, always so illustrated

I'm with the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and publishing papers are not required here for graduation. That said, of course your research group wants you to publish and all students tend to publish anyway, some in rather high impact journals!

Thanks again
Yeah, my work is on Molecular Systematics and a bit of in vitro Aquaculture work.
Seaweed cultivation was started in Sabah at around the 1980s and has been around since then, again mostly on Sea Bird Nest only. The seaweed industry is pretty important to the economy of the country, which is why the development of the seaweed industry has been given due emphasis by the government in the recent Budgets. There is still a lot of room for improvements to the seaweed industry to be honest, especially in terms of management and logistics.
I think setting up a Resaarch Institute at Tawau is a great idea in the long run although at 1st there will surely be logistic problems since chemicals and equipments will have a hard time being delivered to that place
But good also la, we can just work there instead of the constant flying from KL to Sabah all the time.

I will become a lecturer 1st,then aim for promotion and get married?

Oh, that is Nori (Porphyra sp.). Yeah, its good to eat them everyday. My supervisor always steam them along with rice

Oh I see. Thanks for the explanation pal! Since you are in the Social Science area, I am not sure if you have heard somebody by the name of Dr Teh Yik Koon. She is quite a prominent person in Criminology.

I heard there was a chemistry lecturer in UKM who is also working on seaweed. For energy, for chemical extraction etc.

I don't like seaweed like that.. but seaweed with sushi is fine..
Sigh.. now making me miss good sushi.

Anyone else here like me? Experimental biologist turned wannabe computational biologist? : )

Imagine 10 years ago when internet is not that prevalent yet. How do you think those PHD student write their thesis? Through a lot of hard work and advise from their professor. That's what university professors are for. To guide you.

If you have so many things in life then you don't have time for your thesis, who is it to blame? Most people doesn't take up phd because they don't have time for it. They need to make a living to support themselves. You are lucky you have the chance to go for phd. So appreciate what you have and put more effort into it. The professor marking your paper will look at your thesis and see how much effort you put into it. They can easily know if you are using shortcuts or did not put enough effort into it.

hmmm...
I don't think I know Dr Teh.

Publish or perish

1. Do a literature review on the topic you are researching.

2. Set aims and hypothesis.

3. Do the experiment and publish the findings.

4. Submit you master/PhD thesis by publication

Whether someone agrees with us or not, the very first thing most of them do in response to other people is usually the very last thing we care about: They defend themselves like Dr. Jekyll and Hyde. What's the best reaction to Dr. Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome? Could you share some kind of riposte responses you learned from OB, please?

MANAGER: “This issue wouldn’t have become a problem if you had paid attention to it.”

COLLEAGUE: “The problem is that we are understaffed here!”

By anyway, are you teaching any specific course as an assistant professor in University of Malaya?

TJ is an assc professor? Gulp.. so young.. I'm older and just started my Phd..

So is that how you think the Assistant Professor is same as Associate Professor?

It really isn't about age; it is about an invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men... Not everyone can swim across the lake.

Haha, I think I read too fast.. i saw ass...and my brain processed that as associate professor..

But from the way you puji2 him in this thread, I wouldn't be too surprised.

Haha, yeah I know. But a bit shy also ler.. All around me most of the ppl here, majority Europeans mostly around 25. But then that's cos I took a longer masters for research work, attachments at overseas and publishing. I think hard to get into here if I just did my masters in 1 1/2 years in Malaysia without paper.

This post has been edited by jonoave: Jun 1 2013, 12:43 AM

Maybe you can tell us a little bit about your doctorate life at Europe as a computational biologist, the ongoing project you are focusing, as well as the girl you are dating?

Speaking bout associate professors, I just recalled an incident. One of my professors had a symposium with invited researchers from Japan. So i was listening to one of them and noticed this young japanese guy sitting behind working on his mac laptop. He was dressed really casually, plaid shirt, hipster glasses and uncombed hair. I thought he was a student or assistant to the current japanese professor giving talk in front. I was fully shocked when the next speaker was announced as an assc professor working on blahblahblah and he walked up to the front!

Anyway I started quite recently, around October last year at one of the Max-Planck Institutes in Germany. Since I'm not a computer scientist by training, I had to brush up my computer skills and programming. Currently I'm trying to develop a pipeline to predict unique evolutionary events through comparative genomics. Can't give too much details on my project yet.. maybe after it works out and i have a paper.

Why is it assumed there is a girl I'm dating? I came here foreveralone (lol pick up too much kopitiam speak). Most of the people here are attached. Some have gf/bf in their home countries, some of them managed to coordinate their spouses (they apply here in Germany following their partner elsewhere in Germany or vice versa). The rest moved their family here, which I'm quite amazed that their husband/wife/kid sanggup to move and follow him/her all the way to do PhD in a foreign country. Got two Indian persons in my lab, both recently married in India before bringing their spouse here.

Can get a bit lonely here at times. Here got strict rules on torrent, so cannot download any stuff. All movies/tv/radio/tv in german, occasionally got original undubbed movies in English but the screening times very rare. And of course I always miss the food in Malaysia terribly.. :S

But all in all, quite ok ler. Hope I didn't derail the thread too much.

That moment when you see the brighter side of the LYN forum. I'm still doing my degree, but your posts are good morale boosts. Just a praise from a stranger, to a group of higher educated strangers

Hi Tanji,

Will red tide toxin in Sabah make seaweed unsafe to eat?

You will notice alot of the brightest students/people are actually spending a lot of time spamming and causing havoc in Kopitiam just for fun
All the best in your degree

Wah, you are pretty knowledgeable in this kind of stuffs yo
Good to see you are constantly updating yourself with info ~

Red tides or algal blooms are caused by dinoflagellates at places with high nutrient contents (be it natural or man-made ones). The biggest effect of algal blooms is that they will destroy the entire habitat i.e. coral reefs and any other seaweeds and organisms in that specific area.
I've never heard of red tides growing at the same areas as where seaweeds are farmed, probably because all the nutrients are already absorbed by the seaweeds , leaving no chance for dinoflagellates to grow, so its not going to be a problem near farms. But its a different story when we're talking about wild populations of seaweeds, corals, etc.

Food safety-wise, they are alright to eat, no worries haha

My supervisor said the same - Publish Papers! The thing is when my papers get rejection, I will procrastinate for awhile before start writing again. After my frustration's gone, only then I write better and speed up LOL. BTW, it's true that when you already have published paper, the panel whom examines your progress will take note about you/your speech and your thoughts.


Now, I will quit whining when it comes to writing. #Repent. Now belajar must start with hati yang ikhlas...... Just a self-reminder.

All the best man~
I have to admit some reviewers can be pretty demoralizing

They have high expectation T____T
Luckily my supervisor helps me in writings too. She would mold my sentences into fantastic words. LOL.
I'm still a newbie in academic writing. Always seeking .

Thank god, I'm surrounded by warm academicians

Yeah, it will be much easier if our command of English is better
Still, one of the most important things about a scientific writing is to be as conservative as possible. Most reviewers (being one myself) hates to see people who exaggerates too much

Well if you want to write your thesis quickly NEVER USE WORD !
instead use LATEX ! it greatly simplifies your life when writing your thesis ! i mean im serious ! hahahah...

learn LATEX seriously, learning curve is about 1 months. but i promise its worth it. Its also simpler to write journal papers and reports with LATEX.

Not so simple when some journals specifically asks for Word doc. Converting from LaTeX to Word frustrates me to no end XD

Oh, hahaha... thats why i tend to ignore as much as possible journals that do not have LATEX template ... But i've been using LATEX for my thesis and journals. Makes my writing of these things simpler. If the journal does not use LATEX i usually don't submit to them (mcm sgt benci dgn Word ) hahah

There is some really good advise here, but the most critical factor here is your supervisor and how much time he/she is willing to commit to you. Remember your supervisor will have his own research to worry about plus you don't want to be extra burden on him.

During my postgraduate, I started to write my thesis as soon as my research project was launched and I had already completed my literature review. Materials & Methods, Results and Discussion came on later stages, but that thing did helped me a lot. I was lucky to have an amazing supervisor who agreed to help me through the loops. Although the universities guidelines did gave us a timeframe for submission of final thesis after the completion of the research project. It varies from course to course and university to university, mine was a British so might not be applicable here.

If you are currently working in the industry than develop a habit of publishing papers, it will help you a lot. Not only will it keep you up to date but will also help you to get into the rhythm.

As some one pointed out if your able to publish papers from your research it does help you tremendously, also now its a requirement for your Ph.D if your doing it from UM.

But in the end dont be in a hurry, it takes time and dedication to finish up postgraduates not to mention you dont want to mess up your thesis just because you wanted to finish it quickly.

Ive paid for this course before
http://postgraduateworkshop.com/tulistesispantasmalaysia/

by Dr Othman Talib. It really helped me a lot. The most beneficial thing for me is about utilising MS Word document mapping and Mandeley for reference management system. It really helped me a lot