The Table of Contents as a Working Hypothesis in the thesis

After you have conducted your bibliographical research, one of the first things you can do to begin writing your thesis is to compose the title, the introduction, and the table of con­tents—that is, exactly all those things that most authors do at the end. This advice seems paradoxical: why start from the end? For

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Index Cards and Notes in the thesis

1. Various Types of Index Cards and Their Purpose Begin to read the material as your bibliography grows. It is unrealistic to think that you will compile a complete bibli­ography before you actually begin to read. In practice, after putting together a preliminary list of titles, you can immerse yourself in these. Sometimes, before

The Audience of the thesis

To whom do you speak when you write your thesis? To your advisor? To all the students or scholars who will have the chance to consult the work in the future? To the general public of nonspecialists? Should you conceive the thesis as a book that will find its way into the hands of

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How to Write the thesis

Once we have decided to whom to write (to humanity, not to the advisor), we must decide how to write, and this is quite a difficult question. If there were exhaustive rules, we would all be great writers. I could at least recommend that you rewrite your thesis many times, or that you take

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Quotations in the thesis

1. When and How to Quote: 10 Rules Generally speaking, you will quote many texts by other authors in your thesis: the textual object of your work, or the primary source or sources; and the critical literature on your topic, or the secondary sources. Therefore, practically speaking, there are two kinds of quotes: (a)

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Footnotes in the thesis

1. The Purpose of Footnotes According to a fairly common opinion, a thesis or a book with copious notes exhibits erudite snobbism, and often represents an attempt to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes. Certainly we should not rule out the fact that many authors abound in notes to confer a tone of

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Instructions, Traps, and Conventions of the thesis

In many disciplines (and with increasing frequency) authors use a system that allows them to eliminate all reference notes, preserving only content notes and cross-references. This system presupposes that the final bibliography is orga­nized by authors’ names, and includes the date of publica­tion of the first edition of the book or article. Here is

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Academic Pride of the thesis

The tricks of academic work are innumerable, and innu­merable are the traps into which you can fall. Within the limits of this short treatment, we can only provide, in no particular order, a series of instructions to help you avoid such traps. Although these instructions may not help you navigate the Bermuda Triangle that

Formatting the Thesis

1. Margins and Spaces This chapter begins with its title, in full capitals, with left-hand justification (but it could also be centered on the page). The chap­ter bears a number, in this case an Arabic numeral (below we will see the available alter­natives). Then, after three or four blank lines, the title of the

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The Final Bibliography of the thesis

Had we not already discussed this topic at length at least twice, this would be a very long and detailed section. In section 3.2.3 we discussed how to record bibliographical infor­mation for books and articles, and in sections 5.4.2 and 5.4.3 we discussed both how to refer­ence a work in the text and in

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The Appendices in the thesis

In some cases, the appendix or appendices are indispensable. If you are writing a thesis in philology and discussing a rare text that you have found and transcribed, you can present this text in the appendix, and this may be the most original contribution of the entire work. In a thesis in history in

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The Table of Contents of the thesis

In the table of contents, you must record all the chapters, sections, and subsections of the text, and you must exactly match their numbering, pages, and wording. This may seem like obvious advice, but before handing in the thesis, you should carefully verify that you have met these requirements. The table of contents is

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