A guide to thesis dissertation editing

1. A GUIDE TO
THESIS/DISSERTATION
EDITING AND EVALUATION:
FOCUS ON ADDED-VALUES
By: Jocelyn M Gallegos

2. The challenges of
evaluating a
thesis/dissertation paper
MODULE 1

3. Understanding of the
evaluation process

4. In-depth knowledge of the
research cycle: I was interest
in……..
Interest in idea awoken
So I read a
Recommendations for the future bit about
and this agreed / disagreed it….
with what I read
Deeper level of interest
Gaps identified related to original theme
and the answer was… I realized
Results reflected upon there were
some gaps..
To find out I did…
Methodologies identified Major themes identified
So I decided to find
out if…..
Distillation & refinement of research
question
(Courtesy of Heather Hill, De Montfort University)

5. • How to recognize the potential
application of research findings, use
the current literature, and
appreciate its application to actual
practice.
– Has the paper been thoroughly and
properly researched?

6. MORNING WORKSHOP
Difficulties in evaluation

7. MODULE 2
• DIFFICULTIES IN EVALUATION

8. Difficulties in evaluation
• Finding, accessing, and managing
information to validate the paper.
• Insufficiency of library materials at
the local library.
• Access to internet resources.
• Determining standard format, if any.
• Richness or limitation in experience
of thesis adviser.

9. EVALUATING FORMAT
MODULE 3

10. Evaluating Format
• Writing an APA Style Research Paper
– An APA –style paper includes the ff:
• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• And references

11. It may also include:
• One or more tables
• A figure caption page
• One or more figures

12. • No page breaks in between
introduction, methodology, results,
and discussion sections.
• The title page, abstract, references,
table/s, figure caption page, and
figure/s should be on their own
pages.
• The entire paper should be written in
the past tense, in a 12-font

13. TITLE PAGE (APA Format)
• Title should be between 10-12 words
and should reflect content of paper.
• Title, name, and college/university
are all centered and double-spaced
(no extra spaces)

14. • Running head: THE RUNNING HEAD
SHOULD BE IN ALL CAPITAL
LETTERS.
• The running head is a short title
that appears at the top of the pages
of published articles.
• It is typed flush left and should not
exceed 50 characters, including
punctuation and spacing.

15. • Page header and page # go to the top
right-hand side of page (this should
appear on all pages except the figure
page.
• Create a header using the “view
header” function in Microsoft word).
• The page header is the first three
words of your title, its purpose is to
serve identify manuscript pages in
case they get separate.

16. ABSTRACT
• No more than 120 words, one paragraph,
block format (i.e. don’t indent), double-
spaced.
• State topic, preferably in one sentence.
• Provide overview of method, results, and
discussion.
• Introduction (title of paper goes at the top
of the page; do not label as “introduction”).

17. • The introduction of an APA-style paper is the
most difficult to write.
• A good introduction will summarize, integrate,
and critically evaluate the empirical
knowledge in the relevant area(s) in a way
that sets the stage for the study and why it
was conducted.
• The introduction part starts out broad (but
not too broad) and gets focused toward the
end.

18. Guidelines for constructing
a good introduction
• Start with a topic sentence that is
interesting and catchy.
• It maybe an example or anecdote
illustrative of the study.
• State the purpose of the study
briefly to give an overview of the
information that will follow later.

19. • The introduction should show a
logical flow of ideas that leads up to
the hypothesis.
• Organize intro in terms of ideas
rather than who did what and when.
• Brainstorm all the ideas, then
prioritize.
• Think about how to present
transition between ideas.

20. • When an idea is complex, use a real-
life example to clarify it to the
reader.
• The intro will end with a brief
overview of the study and finally the
specific hypothesis.
• The hypothesis should flow logically
out of everything that has been
presented.

21. • When incorporating references into
the intro, do not necessarily describe
every single study in complete detail,
particularly if different studies use
similar methodologies.
• Be careful in citing sources.
• There must be a one-to-one
correspondence between articles
cited in the intro and the articles
listed in the reference section.

22. METHODOLOGY
• Use straight-forward methodology.
• Be precise.
• Describe details of the study, so
another researcher could duplicate
methods exactly.

23. • The methodology section includes:
– Participants
– Materials/apparatus
– Procedure.
– If the procedure is complicated include a
separate “Design and Procedure” section.
– Participants
•Total number of participants (demographic
profile).
•Sampling method.

24. • Write for broad audience.
• Avoid choppy sentences. Combine information
into a coherent long sentence.

25. Materials/Instruments
• Carefully describe any stimuli,
questionnaire, and so forth.
• Questionnaire should be described
to include:
– how many items,
– the response format (e.g. a 5-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree),
– How many items are reverse-scored,

26. • Whether the measure has subscales
and so forth.
• Prepare rubrics for interpretation
• Provide a sample item or two.
• Author constructed instrument
should be attached in Appendix.
• Apparatus – if specialized equipment
were used; describe in detail.

27. Procedure
• What did participants do, and in what
order?
• When you list a control variable,
explain WHY.
• Procedure must be brief and concise
as possible.
• Avoid redundancy.

28. RESULTS
• Describe how data was analyzed and
result.
• Complex data analyses must be broken
down into section, labeled as sub-sections,
perhaps one section for each hypothesis.
• List the type of analysis or test conducted
to test hypothesis.
• Use correct format.

29. • Following the presentation of all the
statistics and numbers, state
whether nature of the finding(s) in
words and whether or not they
support the hypothesis.
• Include relevant means and standard
deviations.

30. • It may be useful to include a table or
figure to visually represent results.
• Refer to these in the paper (e.g. “As
illustrated in Figure…..).
• Present a set of findings either as a
table or as a figure, but not as both.
• Text should not be redundant with
tables/figures.

31. • If table of means and standard deviations
are presented, no need to report these in
the text.
• However, if figure represent results, means
and standard deviations may be reported in
the text, as these may not be precisely
ascertained by examining the figure.
• Describe trends in the figures.
• Do not spend time explaining results.
• Save that for the discussion section.

32. DISCUSSION
• The goal of discussion is to interpret
findings and place them in the
broader context of the literature
area.
• Discussion section is like reverse of
the introduction.
• Begin with the specifics and work
toward the more general .

33. Pointers:
• Begin with brief statement of the
findings (using words not numbers).
– Did they support the hypothesis or
problem or not?
– If not, why not?
– Were there any surprising or interesting
findings?

34. • How do the findings tie into the
existing literature on the topic, or
extend previous research?
– What do the results say about the
broader behavior under investigation?
– Bring back some literature discussed in
the introduction.
– Show how results fit in (or don’t fit in,
as the case may be).

35. • If there are surprising findings, discuss other theories
that can help to explain the findings.
• Begin with assumption that results are valid and explain
why they might differ from others in the literature.
• What are the limitations of the study?
–If findings differ from other researchers, or if results
differ statistically with other researches, don’t waste too
many explanations.
–Provide one or two suggestions, instead that could be
incorporated in future research.

36. • What additional questions were
generated from the study?
– What further research should be
conducted on the topic?
– What gaps are there in the current
body of research?
– Whenever an idea is presented for
future research study, explain why that
particular study should be conducted,
based on the researcher’s perception.

37. – What new knowledge could be gained
from it?
– What are the theoretical and/or
practical implications of the findings?
– How do these results relate to larger
issues of human thoughts, feelings, and
behavior?
– Give readers “the big picture.”
– Try not to answer the question, “So
what?”

38. • Final paragraph:
– Sum up the paper with a final concluding
statement.
– Don’t trail off with an idea for a future
study.
– End with a positive note, reminding the
reader of the importance of the study,
and what it added to the literature.

39. REFERENCES
• Provide an alphabetical listing of the
references.
– Alphabetize by last name of the first
author.
– Double-spaced all, with no extra spaces
between references.
– The second line of each reference
should be indented (hanging indent).
– Format references correctly –journals,
books, etc.

40. • Journal:
– Only the first letter of the word of the article
is capitalized; the journal name and volume are
italized.
– If journal names had multiple words, each of
the major words would be capitalized.
– Book Chapter:
•Only the first letter of the first word of both
the chapter title and book title are capitalized.

41. • Table
– There are various formats for tables,
depending upon the information to be
included.
• Figure Caption
– This page gets titled :Figure…..; no
quotation marks and includes a brief
title.
– The figure caption typically includes the
IVs/predictor variables and the DVs.

42. • Figure
– This is the only page that do not include
a running head or page number.
– If there are more than one figure, each
one gets its own page.
– Label the x and y axes clearly, and note
units of measurement of the DV.

43. • In-text citations
– When citing sources in paper, include
the authors’ names and publication date.
– When including the citation as part of
the sentence, use AND: “According to
Jones and Smith (2003), the…..”
– When the citation appears in
parenthesis, use “&”.
– If quoting directly (try to avoid) include
the page number.

44. • For sources with three or more
authors, once the authors’ name have
been listed, write “et al” on
subsequent mentions.
• For sources with two authors, both
authors must be included every time
the source is cited.
• For sources of six or more authors,
the first author’s last name and “et
al” are used every time the source is
cited.

45. FORMAT: APA Style for
references

46. THANK YOU!