Thesis Checklist

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Thesis Checklist

This page contains a checklist of what we expect to be in a thesis. It has tips on what to include in the thesis, for the form in which the thesis should be, and what to write—and what not to write—in a thesis.

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General Introduction

A thesis is much more than a manual page of what you have implemented: it documents your scientific accomplishments. Since it is a message (in the communication theoretic sense of the word), it has an intended receiver (ditto), who needs to be able to understand your thesis with a minimal amount of effort.

Your audience will in general be the people who grade the thesis. Sometimes, you will have a broader audience, such as when the work you have done is of wider interest and you have published a paper on your work and are basing your thesis on that paper.

When you write the thesis, you need to accomodate your audience: you must make it easy for the reader to follow you. To facilitate this, you must:

Organize your work to follow the reader's expectations or to guide him along your line of thought
Formulate your points so that the reader can understand what you mean effortlessly and without ambiguity.
Adorn your thesis with graphics and illustrations to make your points even more comprehensible.