Writing your thesis or dissertation in English? Please do take a look at this series of talks I held for doctoral students at the WWU/University of Münster – yet applicable to any other kind of academic writing as well (and referred to by the London Metropolitan University on their site “studying at university; writing: becoming a confident writer”):
Get yourself to write!
Why write (now)? How get yourself to write?
Structure and outline
So this is about how to build up your thesis properly – and to do that, you need to cut up your topic or theme and organise any sub-topics according to their proportions and relations […]
Writing as a means to un-block your thinking
Why do you feel like that at all? The answer is easy, isn’t it: because you don’t know enough, because you’re not fit to write a thesis… Really? No, not at all. And realising what’s behind a situation like that is probably the most important step out of it! There are three main reasons for feeling stuck while writing a thesis, and none of them should discourage you […]
Editing your thesis
Editing is all about the shape you will want your thesis to be in:
- well-structured
- readable
- academically convincing (methods used in your field of research; no logical flaws; good reasoning; data to support your arguments – or rather, arguments that are supported by your data; references to prove that you have taken into account what has been going on in your field)
- nothing to distract, confuse or irritate your readers (spelling & grammar, typography)
For language issues furthermore check out the advice by the University of Toronto on writing academic papers in English as a second language.
The Longman Student Grammar of spoken and written English is still a grammar book, so probably not your preferred night-time reading, but it’s based on a large corpus of real English, contains authentic examples including those taken from academic prose, and generally is much more helpful than your school-day grammar books.
This Finnish site offers self-study material (information as well as exercises) on cohesion, grammar, punctuation and style.
Writing your thesis or dissertation in English? Please do take a look at this series of talks I held for doctoral students at the WWU/University of Münster – yet applicable to any other kind of academic writing as well:
Get yourself to write!
Structure and outline
Writing as a means to un-block your thinking
Editing your thesis
For language issues furthermore check out the advice by the University of Toronto on writing academic papers in English as a second language.
The Longman Student Grammar of spoken and written English is still a grammar book, so probably not your preferred night-time reading, but it’s based on a large corpus of real English, contains authentic examples including those taken from academic prose, and generally is much more helpful than your school-day grammar books.
This Finnish site offers self-study material (information as well as exercises) on cohesion, grammar, punctuation and style.