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Linda Olson D.Phil. English and Related Literature PhD SucceSS How To Write a Doctoral Thesis Copyright All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means whether electronic or mechanical via photocopying or recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. 2015 2015 Linda Olson D.Phil. English and Related Literature PhD SucceSS How To Write a Doctoral Thesis v Preface .....................................................................................1 Notes On Basic Terminology.......................................................4 Part I Progressive Writing and the Essential Components of a Doctoral Thesis ..............................................7 Chapter 1 The Essential Components and Requirements of a Doctoral Thesis ............................................9 1.1 Preliminary Matter...............................................................10 1.1.1 Title ......................................................................10 1.1.2 Abstract................................................................10 1.1.3 Keywords..............................................................11 1.1.4 Dedication ...........................................................11 1.1.5 Table of Contents .................................................11 1.1.6 Acknowledgements..............................................12 1.1.7 List of Abbreviations.............................................12 1.1.8 List of Figures or Illustrations ...............................13 1.1.9 List of Tables ........................................................13 1.2 The Main Body of the Thesis ..............................................14 1.2.1 Introduction ..........................................................14 1.2.2 Literature Review .................................................15 1.2.3 Methodology Chapters.......................................16 1.2.4 Results Chapters ...............................................17 1.2.5 Discussion and Conclusion Chapters................18 1.2.6 In-Text References Footnotes andor Endnotes...................................................19 1.3 Tables and Figures..............................................................19 1.3.1 Tables...................................................................20 1.3.2 Figures .................................................................21 1.4 Final and Supplementary Matter.........................................21 1.4.1 Appendices ..........................................................21 1.4.2 Endnotes..............................................................22 1.4.3 List of References List of Works Cited or Bibliography............................................23 CONTENTS vi Chapter 2 Progressive Writing from the Start ........................25 2.1 Writing to Record Remember Think and Reuse................26 2.1.1 Jotting Down and Developing Ideas ....................26 2.1.2 Taking Accurate Critical and Reflective Notes while Reading Sources..............................28 2.1.3 Reviewing the Relevant Literature in a Preliminary Way ...................................................31 2.1.4 Recording the Results of Trials Experiments Surveys and Interviews..................34 2.2 Writing and Revising for Your Supervisor The First Pieces of Formal Text........................................35 Chapter 3 Writing and Revising the Proposal Chapters........41 3.1 Writing the Introduction for the Proposal.............................47 3.2 Writing the Literature Review for the Proposal....................55 3.3 Writing the Methodology Chapters for the Proposal...................................................................59 3.4 Using Footnotes or Endnotes for Supplementary Material ......................................................63 3.5 Constructing the Title Table of Contents Timeline and List of References..........................................68 3.5.1 The Title ...............................................................69 3.5.2 The Table of Contents..........................................71 3.5.3 The Timeline.........................................................73 3.5.4 The List of References.........................................74 3.6 Revising the Proposal Draft ................................................75 3.7 Writing the Proposal Presentation and Anticipating Questions ........................................................76 3.8 Taking Notes and Resolving Problems before Moving On ...............................................................79 Chapter 4 Drafting and Completing the Thesis......................81 4.1 Preparing an Outline or Thesis Plan The Working Table of Contents...........................................84 CONTENTS vii 4.2 Title Abstract and Keywords Setting the Stage.................86 4.3 Revising the Introduction Literature Review and Methodology Chapters .....................................................91 4.4 Writing the Data Analysis Chapters Results and Evidence .........................................................93 4.4.1 Designing Tables and Figures The Visual Presentation of Information..................................97 4.5 The Final Chapters Discussion Conclusion Limitations and Implications ..............................................111 4.6 Appendices References Acknowledgements and Other Final Things.............................................................118 4.6.1 Appendices.........................................................118 4.6.2 Other Final Things..............................................122 4.7 Revising Proofreading and Polishing the Thesis Draft How Many Times .......................................126 4.8 Writing and Revising before and after the Thesis Examination ......................................................................134 4.8.1 Preparing for and Surviving the Examination .......................................................136 4.8.2 Final Corrections and Revisions Minor or Major............................................................139 Part II Formal Scholarly Style Writing and Presentation....143 Chapter 5 Finding Your Scholarly Voice in Correct and Consistent Written English ................................145 5.1 British versus American Spelling.......................................146 5.2 The Perils of Hyphenation.................................................149 5.3 Specialised Terminology and Jargon ................................156 5.4 Word Use Syntax and Sentence Structure ......................162 5.4.1 Using Words in a Scholarly Fashion without Bias .......................................................162 5.4.2 The Precise and Appropriate Use of Pronouns............................................................164 CONTENTS 5.4.3 Nouns and Agreement .......................................169 5.4.4 Both Either Neither Nor and Only....................171 5.4.5 Beginning Sentences Correctly and Avoiding Dangling Participles.............................172 5.4.6 Adjectives Adverbs and Split Infinitives.............174 5.4.7 Verbs Tense Voice and Contractions ...............175 5.4.8 Consistency and Variation in Word Use.............178 5.5 Paragraphs and Lists Effective Separation and Transition ...................................................................180 5.5.1 Structured and Fully Developed Paragraphs .....180 5.5.2 Using Lists Effectively ........................................184 5.6 Punctuating Correctly and Consistently Errors and Preferences.....................................................192 5.6.1 Commas Semicolons and Colons.....................193 5.6.2 Stops Question Marks and Exclamation Marks ...............................................208 5.6.3 Apostrophes and Quotation Marks ....................212 5.6.4 En Rules and Em Rules.....................................222 5.6.5 Brackets and Slashes ........................................227 Chapter 6 Formatting Matters Presenting Your Writing Effectively and Consistently ......................................235 6.1 Titles Headings and Subheadings Not Just Fancy Words.......................................................236 6.1.1 Using Words Heading Styles and Constructing an Active Table of Contents ..........244 6.2 Capitalisation and Special Fonts Order or Chaos.........249 6.2.1 Capitalisation for Names Titles and Other Elements ..................................................250 6.2.2 Special Fonts for Emphasis Italic and Bold.......257 6.3 Understanding Abbreviations............................................264 6.3.1 Lowercase or Uppercase Letters in Abbreviations .....................................................267 6.3.2 Full Stops with Abbreviations .............................268 CONTENTS viii ix CONTENTS 6.3.3 Punctuation after Abbreviations .........................269 6.3.4 Using a or an before Abbreviations.................269 6.3.5 Spacing Associated with Abbreviations..............270 6.3.6 Plurals and Possessives of Abbreviations .........271 6.3.7 Adding Italic Font to Abbreviations.....................272 6.3.8 Abbreviations at the Beginning of a Sentence............................................................272 6.3.9 The Ampersand..................................................273 6.3.10 Common English Abbreviations Used in References............................................274 6.3.11 Latin Abbreviations.............................................277 6.4 Using and Formatting Numbers Appropriately ..................288 6.4.1 Words or Numerals ..........................................289 6.4.2 Arabic Numerals.................................................292 6.4.3 Roman Numerals ...............................................295 6.4.4 Dates Decades Centuries and Eras.................296 6.4.5 Time ...................................................................299 6.4.6 Currency.............................................................300 6.4.7 Number Ranges.................................................301 Part III References and Quotations Using and Documenting Sources .............................................................305 Chapter 7 References Using and Documenting Sources Effectively and Accurately........................................307 7.1 Why When and Where References Should Be Provided ..........................................................308 7.2 The Three Main Systems of In-Text Citation .....................311 7.2.1 AuthorDate and Other References Based on Author Surnames ...............................312 7.2.2 Numerical References........................................319 7.2.3 Footnote and Endnote References ....................322 7.3 The Basic Components of Complete Bibliographical References ...............................................328 7.3.1 Authors Name ...................................................329 7.3.2 Editors Name ...................................................330 7.3.3 Translators Name..............................................330 7.3.4 Title of the Source ..............................................331 7.3.5 Edition ................................................................332 7.3.6 Volume Number .................................................333 7.3.7 Book in Which the Source is Contained.............333 7.3.8 Journal in Which the Source is Contained .........334 7.3.9 Page Numbers ...................................................336 7.3.10 Date of Publication.............................................337 7.3.11 Publisher and Place of Publication ....................338 7.3.12 Type of Source...................................................339 7.3.13 Conference Paper..............................................339 7.3.14 Thesis or Dissertation ........................................340 7.3.15 Audiovisual Sources...........................................340 7.3.16 Web Site Web Page or Online Document.........341 Chapter 8 Direct Quotations Presentation Integration and Accuracy ........................................................343 8.1 Formatting and Acknowledging Quotations ......................344 8.2 Integrating Quotations Punctuation Sentence Structure and Argument....................................352 8.3 Accuracy and Alterations in Quoted Material....................360 8.4 Quoting and Translating Languages Other than English ............................................................370 References and Further Reading............................................379 CONTENTS x xi Please note that this book also includes a number of Proof-Reading- Service.com PRS Tips. These offer advice on a variety of matters associated with producing a successful doctoral thesis and appear in blue boxes. ACkNOWlEDgEMENTS I am most grateful to Judith Everard Rachel Quirk Allison Shardell and Ren Tetzner for reading an early draft of PhD Success and providing many valuable suggestions for improvements. Any remaining oversights and shortcomings perhaps inevitable in a book that attempts to cater to such diverse needs are of course entirely my own. CONTENTS 1 There was a time when the nitty-gritty of actually writing a doctoral thesis in the English language was rarely discussed even between doctoral candidates and their supervisors and more rarely still was the process written about in an instructive way by those who had themselves successfully completed and supervised doctoral theses. Some aspects of this mystique surrounding doctoral work still survive in certain universities and doctoral candidates are still required to figure out much of the writing process on their own but a good deal of the intellectual mistiness associated with acquiring a doctorate has drifted away in the richly textual knowledge culture of the early twenty-first century. Few academics and scientists would now think it inappropriate or beyond the call of duty to chat with their students about the difficulties of writing a thesis even if some candidates might not feel entirely comfortable revealing those difficulties to their supervisors. In addition there are at present a significant number of accessible and comprehensive guides to doctoral research and writing in print or available in electronic versions as even a quick online or university library search for titles containing the word thesis or dissertation will reveal a selection of particularly helpful publications of this kind is included in the reference list at the end of this book. This guide is not intended to replace such books which in many cases offer superb advice and a fair share of encouragement but it differs to some extent from many of the publications in that growing list by focussing primarily on the writing rather than the research process of a thesis. The book assumes that the doctoral candidate is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. It also acknowledges the fact that many doctoral theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English and who therefore may not be entirely familiar with the styles and conventions of formal English prose or the scholarly requirements PREFACE 2 PREFACE that must be met to produce a successful thesis in the English language. The book does not introduce and outline precise methodologies for research at the doctoral level save in how my comments on writing and thesis structure might affect that research given the wide range of approaches requirements and disciplines as well as the individual working habits of students supervisors and thesis committees such advice can prove somewhat reductive. Instead I assume that the student knows his or her research best very likely began planning it before registering as a doctoral candidate has discussed or intends to discuss it thoroughly with his or her supervisor and is probably already conducting it systematically according to the guidance of a thesis committee and the regulations of a university both of which should always take precedence over any external advice such as this book that might be sought and found. My purpose here then is to offer doctoral students sound practices and principles that can be applied to theses on a wide variety of topics using a broad range of approaches in different disciplines and fields of study since my own training is in the humanities scientists engineers and others may unfortunately feel a lack of material and examples geared specifically to their disciplines. My focus is the scholarly approaches and techniques used in the English language to report and format the methods results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear correct professional and persuasive. I certainly do not promise that after reading this book a student will be able to complete a thesis by writing for a set number of minutes each day by dedicating no more than a few months to its composition by maintaining an active social life amidst the trials of writing or by shutting himself or herself in a room with a computer every day all of which are claims from other thesis guides. In reality the approach to and pace of writing a thesis will vary markedly from student to student and thesis to thesis. I cannot even guarantee that this book will make a doctoral candidate a better writer for life or 3 improve his or her future career though it can certainly help. I can guarantee however that if the principles and practices outlined in this book are taken seriously used flexibly alongside any requirements or guidelines a university department or thesis committee may assign and applied consistently while reporting the research done for a doctoral thesis a students unique contribution to knowledge will be organised written presented and documented in keeping with correct and accepted English scholarly conventions. This is no small thing given that observing scholarly principles practices and conventions is an essential ingredient in the recipe for a thesis in the English language that will ultimately earn a doctoral degree. The rest however is very much up to the individual student with the help of his or her supervisor and thesis committee and as old school as this may sound that is as it should be. Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought intellectual rigour and creativity original research and sound methods whether established or innovative precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance and no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience however and even if it is not always so the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process. PREFACE 4 The terminology associated with doctoral research and writing differs among countries universities and departments so some of the basic terms used in this book are explained below Doctoral thesis refers to the long piece of written work presenting original research and a sustained argument that is a requirement of most doctoral degrees. The same piece of work is called a doctoral dissertation in some universities. Examination and more rarely defence are used when discussing the process used to evaluate a students research and the doctoral thesis reporting it. The students work is examined when he or she defends the thesis. Oral examination oral defence dissertation examination dissertation defence and viva or viva voce are other common terms for the same process. Proposal describes the part of a doctoral thesis that is drafted and submitted for review in a proposal meeting so that the student may continue with completion of the thesis and doctoral degree. Upgrading from M.Phil. to D.Phil. status for instance is another common name for the proposal process. This stage is not required at all universities but its possibility is accommodated in the structure of this book. Prospectus refers to the plan or outline for a doctoral thesis that a student either submits on application to a doctoral programme or constructs when first planning the thesis with supervisory help often both apply with the initial prospectus being refined once the student and supervisor begin working together. NOTES ON BASIC TERMINOlOgY 5 Supervisor is used to refer to the faculty member with the most responsibility for supervising and guiding a doctoral candidate and ensuring as much as this is possible the students success. This individual is often the head of the students thesis committee and in some universities is called the dissertation chair or the students mentor or thesis advisor. Thesis committee describes the group of faculty scholars researchers academics or scientists established to guide a doctoral student through the thesis process. In some universities supervisory committee or dissertation committee is used instead. NOTES ON BASIC TERMINOlOgY Part I Progressive Writing and the Essential Components of a Doctoral Thesis 9 Chapter 1 The Essential Components and Requirements of a Doctoral Thesis Writing a doctoral thesis is an intellectual adventure and one best undertaken with a sound understanding of exactly what the final document should and can be. Although the overall structure and individual parts of doctoral theses vary greatly according to the requirements of particular disciplines universities and topics as well as the preferences of individual thesis committees and students there is significant value in listing and briefly describing the basic components of a thesis. For one it is essential that all readers of this book understand exactly what is meant by the terminology I use for the different parts of a doctoral thesis. Secondly an argument or sustained theory is still central to a successful thesis regardless of its topic and discipline or disciplines in the case of interdisciplinary work and the following list will set the stage for constructing an argument that includes the basic elements deemed necessary when reporting analysing and discussing original research in most fields of study that is defining a problem exploring it through sound methods presenting what is discovered through that methodology and discussing those findings. Finally while this list and the order of its items will apply more or less precisely depending on the nature of the research you are conducting as a doctoral candidate in many cases it will provide an underlying structure introduction literature review methodology results discussion and conclusion to work with when arranging the chapters and sections of your thesis particularly if it is used in a flexible way. Remember however that any guidelines style guides thesis templates or requirements specified or provided by your university department andor thesis CHAPTER 1 10 committee regarding the format structure and content of your thesis should always be consulted and observed as priorities. 1.1 Preliminary Matter 1.1.1 Title All theses require a title which should appear at the beginning of the thesis usually on a title page along with the doctoral candidates name and any other information required the department and university concerned the names of supervisors and committee members the relevant date and the like. The title should ideally be descriptive elegant and succinct conveying both clearly and precisely the main topic and the nature of the thesis and often noting key elements of the research such as the methodology location themes subjects and variables involved. Depending on university requirements a short form of the title may need to appear along with page numbering and sometimes the candidates surname in a running header or footer throughout the thesis. For more information on the title see Sections 3.5.1 4.2 and 6.1 below. 1.1.2 Abstract Although there are a few exceptions in the humanities for instance virtually all theses require an abstract which normally precedes all other preliminary material except the title or title page. An abstract briefly and comprehensively summarises the contents of a thesis situating the research in both its physical and intellectual contexts informing the reader about the problems or concepts investigated and the essential features of the methodology and any participants and reporting the basic findings implications and conclusions of the study. Depending on university or department CHAPTER 1 11 requirements and guidelines an abstract is usually between 100 and 400 words long with 150 to 300 words very common and can be formatted as a single paragraph or divided into several short paragraphs bearing headings such as Background Methods Results and Conclusion. For more information on the abstract see Section 4.2 below and for advice on constructing headings see Section 6.1 below. 1.1.3 Keywords The keywords sometimes written as two words key words or key terms generally follow the abstract. In most cases between three and ten keywords are required university or department guidelines should be checked for the appropriate number and they are usually arranged alphabetically. The keywords should be terms that not only represent the central concepts in the thesis but also are likely to be used by readers seeking information of the kind contained in the thesis. For more information on the keywords see Section 4.2 below. 1.1.4 Dedication A personal dedication is optional but many candidates will want to include one in which case it normally follows the abstract and keywords and precedes the table of contents. 1.1.5 Table of Contents All theses require a table of contents which normally follows the abstract and keywords. The table of contents should be a structured list of all the main parts chapters and sections of a thesis and it CHAPTER 1 12 should also include page numbers for locating those parts chapters and sections. The headings their order and the relevant page numbers listed in the table of contents must accurately match those for the parts chapters and sections as they actually appear in the thesis. For more information on the table of contents see Sections 3.5.2 4.1 and 6.1 below. 1.1.6 Acknowledgements Most theses will require some kind of acknowledgements which can appear in either the preliminary or final matter of a thesis depending on university requirements and personal preferences. There are two main kinds of acknowledgements those recognizing the ideas assistance support or inspiration of those who have helped the author to create the work and those listing the copyright holders in material such as figures illustrations and quotations reproduced in the thesis Ritter 2005 Section 1.2.10. Sometimes there are separate sections acknowledging sources of financial assistance and listing permissions for reproducing material from earlier publications libraries museums and the like although such formal permissions usually are not required unless the thesis is published. If you are in doubt about whether acknowledgements are required or not consult your university or department guidelines ask your thesis supervisor and if necessary contact the individual company or institution who holds the rights to the material you are using. See also Section 4.6.2 below. 1.1.7 List of Abbreviations A list of abbreviations and their definitions is only necessary if you use a large number of abbreviations in the thesis especially ones that may not be familiar to your readers or if university or CHAPTER 1 13 department requirements call for such a list. The abbreviations should be listed alphabetically and both they and their definitions should match exactly the abbreviations and definitions used in the thesis. When included a list of abbreviations can appear in either the preliminary or final matter but it is most effective at the front of the thesis where the reader will encounter it immediately it may however precede or follow any acknowledgements or lists of figures and tables so university or department guidelines should be consulted for precise positioning. For more information on lists of abbreviations see Sections 4.6.2 and 6.3 below and for general advice on lists see Section 5.5.2 below. 1.1.8 List of Figures or Illustrations If a thesis includes figures of any kind such as charts graphs photographs drawings and other visual aids that are not tables a numerical list of them is generally required but do check university and department requirements on this. The list can appear in the final matter but it is usually placed among the preliminary material either before or after any list of abbreviations and acknowledgements that may be included. Figure captions especially long ones tend to be shortened in the list but figure numbers and the page numbers listed for them must match the figures themselves and both their order and positions in the thesis. For figures reproduced or adapted from other sources acknowledgements of those sources are sometimes included in the list. For further information on figures and lists of figures see Sections 1.3 4.4.1 and 4.6 below and for more general guidance on constructing lists see Section 5.5.2 below. 1.1.9 List of Tables Occasionally a numerical list of the tables included in a thesis is CHAPTER 1 14 required by a university as well and like the list of figures it can appear in the final matter but is most often located among the preliminary material either before or after the list of figures or illustrations. Table headings especially long ones can be shortened for the list but the table numbers and the page numbers listed for them must match the tables themselves and both their order and positions in the thesis. As with figures any sources from which tables are borrowed or adapted are sometimes acknowledged in the list. For further information on tables and lists of tables see Sections 1.3 4.4.1 and 4.6 below and for more general help with lists see Section 5.5.2 below. 1.2 The Main Body of the Thesis 1.2.1 Introduction As the first chapter or sometimes the first section in a thesis the introduction presents and explains the study to readers so all theses require some sort of introduction. Depending on university or department requirements and the nature of the thesis this part of the thesis might be entitled Introduction Background or something more specific to the particular study and in some cases the introduction may not bear a main title at all but contain a number of sections with topic headings. The content of the introduction will vary widely from thesis to thesis and may contain any number of subsections that organise the introductory material into sections such as Background of the Problem Research Objectives and the like but generally speaking the introduction will define the topic or problem on which the research focuses explain the significance of the topic and research indicate the context of the research both physically as in location and intellectually in terms of scholarship on the topic and outline the research aims andor objectives. It may also discuss the background of the researcher and any assumptions CHAPTER 1 15 that he or she brings to the thesis include any research questions andor hypotheses used in the study and briefly introduce the methodology adopted or devised for the thesis. Sometimes a literature review forms part of the introductory chapter instead of constituting a chapter on its own and the same is the case with a description of the methodology used in the research though this is less common. An introduction usually ends with a brief description of the rest of the thesis that specifies what each chapter contains. For more information on the introduction see Sections 3.1 and 4.3 below. 1.2.2 Literature Review Although not all theses feature a separate chapter dedicated to a review of the literature on the candidates topic many do and all theses require some engagement with previous scholarship in the area even if this is only a short section in the introduction or methodology chapter that briefly outlines what has already been done in an area and situates the students work as interesting and necessary within that context. A complete literature review which might also be called Previous Research or something similar should describe in more detail what has been done on a topic or in an area of study discuss the methodologies and theoretical perspectives used in the past indicate what is lacking or has been explored from a limited perspective and in most cases explain how the research conducted for the thesis will address the problem fill the gap or provide new ways of thinking. It may be helpful to divide the review into sections with headings such as Controversies and Current Perspectives and in some cases such a structured approach may be required so do check university and department guidelines. The literature review need not include every piece of scholarship written on your topic but if there is very little relevant scholarship or reviewing the literature is a central focus of your CHAPTER 1 16 thesis it could and probably should. In many cases however the review can be somewhat selective providing summaries only of those works that exemplify important trends and theories are particularly problematic or helpful andor present arguments that specifically support or contradict your own theories and line of argumentation. A summary of the review particularly a long review often closes the chapter. For more information on the literature review see Sections 2.1.3 3.2 and 4.3 below Chapter 7 on references may also prove helpful. 1.2.3 Methodology Chapters Like the literature review the discussion of the methodology used in a thesis usually fills a chapter although it can also appear as a shorter section within say the introduction or be blended with the literature review if reviewing the scholarship is a major part of the methodology. If on the other hand the methodology is particularly complicated or perhaps two different methods are being compared or combined two separate chapters may be required. The methodology chapter might be entitled Methodology Methods or something more specific to the particular thesis but its purpose remains the same a description of the approaches and techniques used to conduct the research for the thesis. Its content will therefore differ markedly from thesis to thesis but as a general rule it will address the overall research design qualitative quantitative or mixed methods for instance describe how information data will be collected and analysed explain how the approach adopted is different or innovative and why it is valid for the study including its strengths and weaknesses provide details of the research setting instruments participants trials surveys controls and the like often with figures to enhance the descriptions and report information on reliability validity as well as threats to it ethical issues and perhaps limitations although the last is usually included in the final chapter CHAPTER 1 17 of the thesis instead. The chapter might be divided into sections and subsections e.g. Instruments Participants and Reliability and as with the literature review a summary often appears at the end of the chapter especially if the description of the methodology is particularly long andor complicated. For more information on describing methodology see Sections 3.3 and 4.3 below and for advice on designing figures see Section 4.4.1 below. 1.2.4 Results Chapters A factual report of the analysed results or findings of the research is essential to any thesis though the data themselves and the means used to analyse them will be unique to each thesis. The results may appear in a single chapter or if they are long and complicated in more than one chapter. They might be subdivided into chapters andor sections focussing on the findings of different tests trials surveys reviews case studies and so on or on specific themes or patterns that emerge from the data or on the research questions andor hypotheses formulated in the thesis. The presentation of your findings might or might not use tables and figures to present information clearly or to enable the comparison of data on the part of readers. Since the methods of gathering and analysing data should already have been outlined in the methodology chapter these need only be touched upon when necessary to clarify and lend structure to the description of data. Reporting results generally involves an objective and factual approach and while you will no doubt want to emphasise the most important trends or findings further discussion of the meaning and implications of those findings is usually found in a separate discussion chapter. However in some theses the factual presentation and interpretive discussion of results are blended in a single chapter but this is usually only appropriate if it is suitable for the material in keeping with university or department guidelines and CHAPTER 1 18 approved by your supervisor and thesis committee. For more information on presenting results in tables and figures as well as in text see Section 4.4 below. 1.2.5 Discussion and Conclusion Chapters Discussing the results of your research is also necessary in a thesis as is concluding your study as a whole. This material is sometimes presented in two chapters usually with the discussion coming first and the conclusion following as a separate chapter if the discussion has been blended with the report of the results instead of presented separately the conclusion will certainly be separate and occasionally simply because there is so much ground to cover that two chapters are required to present the material. Concluding thoughts are often included in the same chapter as the discussion however normally as a final section. The discussion and conclusion chapter of a thesis generally provides a brief summary of the analysed results that highlights the most important trends and aspects of those findings and it should ideally return to the aims andor objectives of the thesis as well as its research questions andor hypotheses with descriptions and explanations of what has been achieved and resolved. This final part of the thesis weaves together the threads of the overall argument while focussing on the meaning and implications of the studys results so it is the place to emphasise the original contribution to knowledge a requirement of most doctoral theses made by the thesis and to engage in a little carefully worded interpretation and speculation. It is also the place for describing aspects of the methodology that may have affected the results discussing the limitations of the research and presenting recommendations for future studies. For more information on the discussion and conclusion see Section 4.5 below. CHAPTER 1 19 1.2.6 In-Text References Footnotes andor Endnotes References to the sources cited andor quoted in a thesis should appear throughout the thesis. Depending on the discipline university and department guidelines and the requirements of the individual thesis in-text citations may take the form of numerical references be based on the last names of authors usually along with publication dates or appear in footnotes or endnotes. Footnotes and endnotes can also be used to provide a wide variety of material beyond bibliographical references such as summaries of the scholarship on a topic suggestions for further reading alternative or contradictory editions and arguments and further details on anything discussed in the main text. Both kinds of notes are usually indicated by superscript Arabic numerals with the numbering often beginning again at the start of each chapter and the notes themselves are generally set in a slightly smaller font than that of the main text of a thesis. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the relevant pages but endnotes can appear either at the end of each chapter or in the final matter of the thesis. For more information on footnotes endnotes and in-text references see Sections 1.4 and 3.4 as well as Chapter 7 below. 1.3 Tables and Figures The tables and figures included in a thesis will often appear in the main body of the thesis with each one placed as close as possible to the discussion of it in the text or to the report or description it enhances or illustrates. This is not always the case however some universities departments thesis committees and doctoral candidates will want tables and figures placed at the end of the thesis or the tables and figures for each chapter placed at the end of that chapter which simplifies the layout of the text itself and is particularly appropriate for especially long tables or large figures. In CHAPTER 1 20 some cases certain tables and figures might be embedded in the main body of the thesis while others will be tacked on at the end. As a general rule each table or figure should be able to stand on its own which is to say that all the information necessary to understand the table or figure without recourse to other parts of the thesis should be provided in the context of the table or figure. For guidance on designing incorporating and listing tables and figures see Sections 1.1.8 and 1.1.9 above and Sections 4.4.1 and 4.6 below. 1.3.1 Tables Tables consist of columns and rows and are used to present data in a visually effective way that more readily allows for comprehension calculation andor comparison than describing the same data in text could. Tables should be numbered usually with Arabic numerals Roman numerals or letters are much rarer in the order in which they are first mentioned in the thesis see Section 4.6.1 below for advice on numbering tables that appear in appendices and each table should bear a title or main heading that indicates exactly what the table shows. Each table must be referred to in the text by its number along with some indication of what the reader will find in the table and the tables themselves should appear in their order of mention whether they are embedded in the text or placed at the end of a chapter or the end of the thesis as a whole. Headings on columns and rows within a table define the data presented and if necessary notes at the bottom explain aspects that might otherwise be unclear to readers such as abbreviations and probability values. There may be specific university or department guidelines for the use and layout of tables but generally speaking clarity accuracy and consistency are the keys to well- designed tables. CHAPTER 1 21 1.3.2 Figures Figures take many forms including charts graphs plots boxes photographs drawings and maps that illustrate or clarify aspects of the research and results presented in a thesis. Like tables figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals more rarely Roman numerals or letters in the order in which they are first mentioned in the thesis see Section 4.6.1 below for advice on numbering figures that appear in appendices and each figure should bear a caption describing exactly what the figure shows. Each figure should also be referred to in the text by its number along with some indication of what the reader will find in the figure and the figures themselves should appear in their order of mention whether they are embedded in the text or placed at the end of a chapter or the end of the thesis as a whole. Labelling within a figure identifies aspects of the illustration a key can be used to provide scales and define tints and explanatory notes for abbreviations and the like can be included in either the caption or a legend. University or department requirements should always be consulted for specific guidance on the use and format of figures but as a general rule an attractive appearance clearly incorporating all the information needed to enable the readers comprehension of its significance is central to the design of a successful figure. 1.4 Final and Supplementary Matter 1.4.1 Appendices Appendices occasionally called appendixes or annexes are not required in a thesis but they may certainly be used if necessary. Material that supports or is closely related to the information provided in the main body of a thesis but too long or detailed to be included there or in notes or material relevant to more than one CHAPTER 1 22 chapter or section of a thesis is usually placed in an appendix unless university or department requirements do not allow appendices. Appendices sometimes appear in a slightly smaller font than the main text of a thesis and are often labelled with uppercase letters A B C etc. rather than numbers but Arabic or Roman numerals are also acceptable. Each appendix should be referred to by its letter or number in the thesis along with some indication of what the reader will find in the appendix and the appendices themselves should be arranged according to the order of mention. Appendices always appear in the final matter and generally precede any endnotes as well as the reference list but in some fields the appendices will be the last items in a thesis. For more information on appendices see Sections 3.5.3 and 4.6.1 below. 1.4.2 Endnotes If endnotes are used instead of footnotes for references in the main text of a thesis for supplementary material or for a combination of both they appear at the end of the thesis before the list of references or at the end of each chapter. If they are placed at the end of each chapter the layout clearly indicates to which chapter the notes apply but if they appear at the end of the thesis headings within the endnotes should indicate to which chapter each group of notes apply. Endnotes often use a font slightly smaller than that of the main text of the thesis and are usually indicated by superscript Arabic numerals but if both footnotes and endnotes are necessary the first for supplementary material for instance and the second for textual notes different indicators should be used for the two kinds of notes superscript Arabic numerals for footnotes for example and bracketed Arabic numerals for endnotes. For more information on endnotes see Section 1.2.6 above and Sections 3.4 and 7.2.3 below. CHAPTER 1 23 1.4.3 List of References List of Works Cited or Bibliography Every thesis requires a list of the sources used while writing the thesis usually even if full bibliographical references are provided in footnotes or endnotes. A list of references or works cited normally contains only those sources actually cited in the thesis whereas a bibliography can also contain any additional sources consulted. The list is usually arranged either alphabetically by the last names of authors or numerically depending on the referencing system used although it can also be subdivided into sections with headings such as Primary Sources Secondary Literature and Randomised Controlled Trials. Disciplines and departments tend to prefer specific referencing systems and styles so do check any relevant guidelines and follow them carefully. Accuracy and thoroughness are paramount in reference lists and as much as possible the style and content of the references should remain consistent throughout the list. For more information on lists of references see Section 3.5.4 and Chapter 7 below. PRS Tip If you find that you are having difficulties designing an appropriate structure for your thesis your supervisor and perhaps other members of your thesis committee should be able to help you determine the topics chapters sections and more generally material that are required for your discipline and department. Your department may have guidelines or templates outlining the structure of doctoral theses that will prove helpful so do check into this and if not looking at successful theses that have recently been completed in your department to determine how they are organised can provide sound examples. You may also find it helpful however to send an early draft of your thesis or proposal chapters to PRS for proofreading. PRS not only uses professional proofreaders who specialise in a wide range of academic and CHAPTER 1 24 scientific areas but can also provide proofreaders who work primarily on doctoral theses. Such proofreaders are well versed in what theses in different disciplines should contain and how they should be arranged and they are also able to read your work within the broad context of the many doctoral theses they encounter each month. Their advice should not of course take precedence over that of your supervisor and committee members who are experts in your area of study and usually also examiners of your thesis but the objective perspective of a professional proofreader who is familiar with academic and scientific writing and alert to details of all kinds can be immensely helpful. You can also send along with your work any instructions you may have been given regarding the structure and organisation of your thesis so that your proofreader can help you tailor your thesis with precision. CHAPTER 1 25 Chapter 2 Progressive Writing from the Start When it comes to writing a doctoral thesis getting started is among the greatest hurdles. Procrastination is an issue with any large and challenging project of course especially when planning motivation and deadlines are for the most part your own responsibility as tends to be the case while working on a doctoral thesis. When a project is based on extensive research the guilt that can in other situations be so helpful in encouraging action is often absent there is after all always one more source to consult something you have just discovered perhaps or something a colleague has shared or something hot off the press and it can never be bad to read relevant sources right Well the answer is rather complicated. Sources directly related to your topic and research whether recent or not should definitely be considered regardless of when they come to your attention. In addition if you feel blocked while writing any particular part of the thesis it can be helpful to look back not only to your own earlier notes on the topic but also to relevant literature that you have read in the past and reading a new source can obviously provide fresh ideas and inspiration. However continuing to read or conduct primary research and worse yet seek out new sources and experiments when you have the material you need to begin are running short on time and really need to knuckle down to writing can be detrimental. Ideally reading or gathering data by other means such as questionnaires or trials analysing that information and reporting it in writing should be intimately intertwined during the process of producing a thesis but there should nonetheless come a time when gathering data becomes secondary and writing is the main priority. This is a crucial transition regardless of how you approach writing your thesis and one more easily discussed and written about than CHAPTER 2 26 achieved but if you treat writing as an essential part of the thesis process from the very start you will already have begun when you reach this stage and will have a good deal of material to work with as you face the transition. This chapter therefore focuses on basic aspects of writing early in the thesis process rather than on doctoral research but for helpful advice on conducting and using research more generally see the Research and Citation section of the Purdue Online Writing Lab 19952015. 2.1 Writing to Record Remember Think and Reuse 2.1.1 Jotting Down and Developing Ideas As a doctoral candidate you have no doubt already given your thesis considerable thought. You may have begun planning it in your undergraduate days or when taking postgraduate courses or while preparing for your comprehensive examinations or you may have developed your topic by writing a prospectus to gain funding for andor earn acceptance into a doctoral programme. Whatever the case may be you have ideas probably lots of them about what you want your thesis to be and some of those ideas may have already made their way into writing of some sort. If so a return to those early documents prospectus class essays and projects presentation notes or whatever they may be to glean the best of your ideas as you begin working on your thesis can be incredibly helpful. On the other hand if you have not yet written down the ideas churning through your mind whenever you think about your thesis there is no time like the present to begin doing so. Some of these ideas may seem too insignificant to treat so seriously but even the smallest ideas can develop into important parts of your argument and anything that helps you think through a problem may also help you work through that problem in formal writing later in the thesis process. It is therefore a good idea to jot your ideas down whenever and wherever they come to you before they slip away CHAPTER 2 27 unrecorded remembering that no one beyond yourself need ever see these notes. This will however mean keeping with you at all times some method of doing so a small journal with a pen a laptop computer or tablet a note-taking or voice memo app on your smart phone a bundle of multicoloured cards for organising notes into topics or categories paper serviettes in the university cafeteria or anything else that serves the purpose which may seem slightly neurotic but rest assured that you will be in the company of many serious authors. When you record your ideas in this informal way you should also try to develop them as far as possible while you jot them down. There is a marked difference between the multidirectional flow of ideas in the mind and the linear expression of them in writing so experimenting with developing your ideas with pen in hand as they come to you will not only generate new ideas it will also show you which ideas work well when woven into text and help you begin the process of communicating those ideas in a more concrete and formal way. There are a great many questions you can ask yourself to inspire this kind of spontaneous development of ideas via writing if you are not accustomed to it so a few examples may prove helpful Where did this idea come from What generated or inspired it Why did this idea arise from that one What is the link between them Can I connect this idea to other ideas I have about this topic or problem How What are the implications of this idea Are they important for my research How could I connect in text the ideas that seem connected in my thoughts Does this line of reasoning make sense Is it logical Is it persuasive What was it that seemed so very important as I was falling asleep last night CHAPTER 2 28 In the absence of much of your data analyses and results you can only take your ideas so far but you might be surprised by just how much you can accomplish with this approach I have developed the basic structure of entire chapters and books in short brainstorming sessions of this kind. Also the text you produce in this way does not necessarily arise from reading sources conducting interviews or chatting with your supervisor or fellow students though it certainly can so the ideas you generate are usually uniquely your own and thus the very sort of original ideas on which a successful doctoral thesis should be based. Finally since recording and developing your ideas in this kind of informal writing should ideally continue throughout the thesis process you can return to your first skeletal ideas to flesh them out and ultimately incorporate them into your thesis as your evidence and ideas grow. 2.1.2 Taking Accurate Critical and Reflective Notes while Reading Sources Taking notes can be an incredibly useful activity when reading sources as part of the research for your thesis whether those sources are primary or secondary print or digital. Taking notes while reading serves several purposes and should be somewhat more organised than the brainstorming you record when working through your own ideas though those ideas play a role here too. First and foremost you must make sure that you accurately and thoroughly record the bibliographical information for the source you are reading. Section 7.3 below outlines exactly what is needed such as author and editor names titles of books journals articles chapters and web sites as well as volume issue and page numbers and publication dates for complete references to different kinds of sources but when in doubt record everything that seems important. If you are dealing with a source to which you may not be able to return a manuscript or rare printed book in a distant library for CHAPTER 2 29 instance be very careful indeed that you record this information neatly and precisely and that you check your work. Be sure also that your notes are tidy and organised so that it is obvious to which source the material you record belongs and that the transition in your notes from one source to another is clear. It may seem when you are reading that you will remember such striking ideas and their authors and in some cases the sources you rely on most for instance you will but after a hundred articles on similar topics have run under your eyes they tend to blur so record your notes in a way that anticipates this eventuality and caters to your human memory. Secondly you should accurately record the information and ideas you find important and interesting in what you read. If you have continued access to the sources concerned because you own them for instance or they are readily available in your university library shorthand notes that highlight the main or most important ideas and can act as triggers to jog your memory and help you find the information again will often be sufficient. However if you may not be able to consult the source again photocopying or scanning the parts you will need is an excellent idea but do keep in mind that some libraries and collections will not allow this. If you are not able to make such copies your notes will need to be precise and record everything you think you may use. Direct quotation or transcription can be best though time-consuming in such situations and checking your work for accuracy and clarity is essential you need to be able to read and use the material at a later date with complete confidence. Whether you have continued access to a source or not the exact location within the source of the information you are recording should always be noted this is usually done by writing down a page or folio number but there may also be column numbers or the paragraphs may be numbered instead in an online document for example or section numbers may be more appropriate in an e- book without set page numbers for instance. Recording this information accurately and thoroughly makes it much easier both to CHAPTER 2 30 find the information again and to cite or quote it properly in your thesis. Thirdly your notes should be critical as well as iterative which is to say that they should provide some assessment of the source as well as simply recording what the source contains. Your thoughts about the reliability and validity of the studies you read are certainly worth recording an online blog for instance may provide information methods and arguments as valid and reliable as an article in a scholarly journal does but it often will not and even the best study can present limitations or problems in methodology and argumentation that render it less useful for certain purposes. It is worth considering and noting whether a source is a primary or secondary source for particular information remembering that it is always good practice to seek out the primary source for anything vital to your research and that some universities and departments will insist on the use of primary sources unless those sources simply cannot be obtained see Section 7.1 below for the distinction between primary and secondary sources. You may also want to do a search on the author of the source you are reading to see if he or she is a reputable and reliable researcher andor an expert in the subject and considering whether a work was peer reviewed or not articles and books produced by most academic and scientific journals and publishers will have been can also be helpful. If you are consulting an online source you should be still more cautious check for information on who created and maintains the web site and watch for issues that suggest a lack of reliability such as wild claims abusive language directed at other researchers for instance and errors of spelling punctuation and grammar and check also university or department regulations as there are sometimes restrictions regarding what kind of online sources can be used in a thesis. Your focus while engaged in taking critical notes of this kind CHAPTER 2 31 should be your own work so it is worth mentioning in your notes how you think a source might be used in the thesis you envision and exactly how your own ideas and methods are or might be connected to those presented in the source. Do the authors theories methodology results or conclusions agree or disagree with your own or those you anticipate for your study This sort of relationship between your sources and your own work may change somewhat during the process of researching and writing your thesis as your results accumulate and their meaning is considered but it is always a good idea to record the nature of that relationship as it stands while you are reading any given source. You may also find yourself developing your own ideas while taking notes from sources in a way similar to what you do when jotting those ideas down by themselves. These developments can be recorded separately of course but it can also be helpful to have them connected with the sources that inspired them and their growth so they too can be included in your source notes. It is essential however that both they and any critical thoughts about the sources you read be clearly distinguished from the ideas actually found in the sources you are reading. There are several ways of doing this using a different colour ink or brackets for your own ideas for instance or recording iterative notes on left- hand pages and your own ideas on right-hand pages so whatever method is effective and easy to use consistently will serve. The main concern is that you do not want to return to a source later in the thesis process only to discover that the ideas you expected to find there were actually your own worse yet if you are not able to return to the source you may misattribute your own ideas to its author when you cite or quote it in your thesis. 2.1.3 Reviewing the Relevant Literature in a Preliminary Way Although reviewing the sources you read for your thesis is closely related to taking notes while reading them it is a somewhat more CHAPTER 2 32 formal next stage in the same process. Almost every thesis requires some kind of literature review or summary of relevant scholarship even if it is only a short section within another chapter in order to position the research conducted in the thesis in relation to other research in the area. Some doctoral candidates will want to postpone writing their thoughts about the sources they consult until the literature review chapter is actually drafted usually for the proposal which is certainly a viable way of proceeding but it can be useful to do preliminary reviews of sources that you expect will definitely be central to both your literature review and your thesis as a whole. Since part of the purpose of writing a literature review is to grow familiar with the relevant literature it is never too early to begin and by actually reviewing the sources that seem most important early in the thesis process you can begin to identify the ideas and themes that will ultimately become the keys to organising your literature review chapter and in some cases other chapters of your thesis. You can also begin to see more clearly the problems limitations and gaps in current scholarship that your thesis will ideally address and fill and you will be able to identify any significant overlaps with your own intended research which may then require slight adjustments these too are good reasons for conducting a preliminary literature review. Reviewing a source involves summarising and interpreting it briefly as well as providing a critique of it and its research. What topicideaproblem is the author exploring What are the main points made by the author What are the key elements of the methodology Is the methodology sound What are its limitations Does the discussion accurately reflect the nature of the methodology and results Do the conclusions follow logically from those methods and results These are only a few of the many questions that you might ask yourself while preparing a review of an individual source and what you choose to include in the review has a great deal to do with the nature of your work and your own understanding of the CHAPTER 2 33 source because while objective judgements about a source can certainly be valid they are never perfectly objective and it is your perspective and your research that determine the usefulness and relevance of a source in relation to your thesis. You may want to write these preliminary reviews in a paragraph or two each or use a more informal format that records the key issues in a list for instance. There may be considerable overlap between your initial notes on a source and your first attempt to review it but whatever work you choose to do at this point will inevitably prove useful and save you work when you begin drafting the formal literature review for the proposal and thesis on which see Section 1.2.2 above and Sections 3.2 and 4.3 below. As a final thought about reading and assessing the literature you consult in the process of preparing your thesis I would like to emphasise that if you find in your textual travels a book article presentation report thesis dissertation or any other kind of source that appears to cover the same ground you intend to explore in your thesis do not panic. Instead read it very carefully indeed noting among other things exactly how it overlaps your own work and how it differs. Replication can be both important and necessary and individual scholars rarely treat the same material or deal with the same topic in the same ways but it may be that you will need to adjust your own plans somewhat to make your thesis sufficiently unique. If so this is a good time to begin making those adjustments. Scholarship so similar to your own may not be what you had hoped to find in your research but it can nonetheless help you refine and define your work with greater precision in a variety of ways and therefore be a blessing in disguise rather than a hindrance to your success. Covering well-trod ground in new and more effective ways can after all lead to the abandonment of established theories and the development of better ones which is a fitting goal for doctoral research. CHAPTER 2 34 2.1.4 Recording the Results of Trials Experiments Surveys and Interviews If the research for your thesis involves methods beyond reading and assessing literature such as the use of trials experiments surveys or interviews it is essential that you keep accurate records and well-organised data regarding the nature and results of these procedures. This may mean carefully filing and backing up data on your computer painstakingly recording answers in an interview or investing in a file box to organise completed questionnaires but it usually involves a great deal more organisational and analytical work. Interviews for instance may have been recorded via audiovisual devices or in shorthand notes and thus be in need of transcription or expansion respondents answers to individual items on a questionnaire may need to be compared and categorised the raw data from trials and experiments may need to be analysed in many cases via specialised software and the results recorded. In all such cases and others it is wise to do whatever needs to be done to the data you collect to make them useful for your thesis as soon as possible and for more than one reason. In the first place if anything in your procedures or findings is unclear or missing it is usually easier to ask questions and repeat procedures close to the time of the original research process when participants and resources may still be available. You might need to seek institutional approval a second time when repeating certain kinds of research even early in the thesis process and if this is the case it is best to make the necessary arrangements sooner rather than later. Secondly if the data you have gathered are insufficient this will often be clear only after they have been analysed and the results recorded in some way and leaving this analysis until there may be too little time to circulate another questionnaire for instance or conduct further interviews or trials will be detrimental to the progress of the thesis especially if you need to obtain further CHAPTER 2 35 approval. Finally the results of your research methods may reveal trends very different from those you envisioned and this could alter the thesis in fundamental ways that you will need to know about as you begin writing your thesis. It is therefore essential to the successful progress of a thesis to bring each aspect of the overall research process to an acceptable level of completion as soon as possible and to keep the results you achieved in mind as you conduct further research and work at drafting the thesis. Writing a brief report on each procedure once you have completed it allows you to record the nature of the data collected their sufficiency reliability etc. comment on the results of your preliminary analysis of the data and reflect on any findings that were particularly surprising unusual or revealing. Such reports need not be formal of course but they must be clear and precise enough that they make good sense to you when you need to return to them while drafting the results and discussion chapters of your thesis on which see Sections 4.4 and 4.5 below. 2.2 Writing and Revising for Your Supervisor The First Pieces of Formal Text There is no universal rule regarding when a doctoral candidate should or will submit the first piece of formal writing associated with a thesis to his or her supervisor or what that first piece of writing should be but this initial stage in the thesis process is almost universally crucial. If you have already taken an undergraduate or postgraduate course from your supervisor you are at an advantage because you have likely already written research papers for him or her who will therefore be familiar with your writing while you will be familiar with his or her expectations and since you are planning to work with this same person again you have presumably established a successful working relationship. In most cases this familiarity will not be there however and some supervisors will want to see some CHAPTER 2 36 of your writing immediately especially if your first language is not English to ensure that any problems that might hinder the successful completion of the thesis are identified and resolved at once and if there are significant problems with your written English you may have to seek additional help since most supervisors will not have the time and some will not have the skills or knowledge to help you see Chapter 5 below for advice on writing formal scholarly English. You may be able to share some of your earlier writing with your supervisor to satisfy this requirement but many supervisors will want to see a new piece of writing associated directly with the thesis you are planning. Although it is sometimes tempting to postpone writing for your supervisor until you feel you have truly worthwhile information and ideas to share such as a perfectly polished chapter writing something related to the thesis no matter how insignificant that something may seem initiates the process of progressive writing on a more formal basis and provides an opportunity for you as well as your supervisor to identify and ideally to address issues connected with both the thesis itself and your methods of written communication. Your supervisor may ask you to write up some of your initial ideas about what you would like your thesis to be and indeed a good way to start writing and even talking about your thesis is to review with your supervisor the prospectus of your research and thesis that you submitted when applying for your doctoral degree or for the thesis option or stage of your doctoral degree. If you have not prepared a prospectus up to this point early meetings with your supervisor provide a good opportunity to design at least a skeletal plan or intention for the thesis and if you already have an effective prospectus defining its structure or expanding its content may be in order. While discussing and designing your prospectus be sure that you consider any length requirements or limitations for the thesis set by your university or department as your thesis will need to be long enough to meet the minimum length or word count CHAPTER 2 37 required but not so long that it exceeds the maximum length or word count allowed. On the other hand your supervisor may want you to begin by expressing your thoughts about existing scholarship related to your topic that you have already read or will be reading in the near future or perhaps to share reports on any results you may have achieved in early trials or surveys. The preparatory writing I have suggested in Section 2.1 above will be especially useful when fulfilling such requests. Often a supervisor will want you to begin working on your proposal chapters see Chapter 3 below as soon as possible especially if your research is well under way so he or she may ask you to draft the introduction the literature review or the methodology chapter as the first piece of writing you have him or her read. This too is a good strategy because the commentary you receive will ideally help you not only with revising that chapter which you may have to do at once if your supervisor deems it necessary but also with composing the others. It is usually not wise to postpone the exchange of writing and feedback beyond this however to write all three proposal chapters for example before receiving comments from your supervisor because you want to make sure you are on the right track rather than wasting valuable time drafting work that makes use of practices which may not be useful or acceptable. In addition if it turns out that you and your supervisor simply do not see eye to eye regarding your intentions for your thesis and your ways of writing it that too you need to know sooner rather than later so that you can compromise or in extreme cases look into the possibility of a different supervisor. Apart from ensuring that the content and proficiency of your written English will meet the expectations of your supervisor the exchange of a first piece of writing also provides an excellent opportunity to decide on various aspects of style and format. Universities disciplines and departments differ in their requirements CHAPTER 2 38 so do check to see if a particular set of guidelines or a specific style guide is recommended as appropriate for your thesis and pay special attention to the method and style that should be used for references it is always best to begin formatting these correctly as you start to write because altering the format of references can be extremely time-consuming. Supervisors as well as other members of thesis committees sometimes have certain preferences even if a specific style guide is indicated so you may want to ask about this before you begin writing. On the other hand your supervisor may want you to sort out for yourself how best to format aspects of your proposal and thesis such as references tables and headings in which case it is a good idea to consult successful theses that have recently been completed in your department or discipline to see how their authors dealt with formatting in general and references in particular see also Chapters 68 below for advice on formatting various elements of a thesis. Whether you are following university instructions or guidelines using a specific style guide emulating effective models you have discovered or designing your own system of formatting it is essential to observe consistency throughout the writing you do for your thesis and share with your supervisor. Such consistency will not only make your writing clearer for readers but also make your job a much easier one when it comes time to put all that writing together into a complete thesis. If there are problems or inconsistencies with the way in which you follow required styles or formats or devise your own you may hear about it from your supervisor after he or she has read your first piece of writing but some supervisors will deem this secondary to the content of your writing so you may need to take the initiative and pointedly address the topics of style and format with your first piece of writing in front of both you and your supervisor in order to sort out exactly how you should proceed from that point. It is difficult to lay enough stress upon the importance of taking the initiative regarding content as well as style and format while CHAPTER 2 39 working with your supervisor and later with your thesis committee as a whole. A few supervisors will provide all the information you need without being asked but in most cases you will have to raise some matters yourself in order to learn what you need to know. Make sure that you set up a meeting with your supervisor after he or she has read your first piece of writing and you have had an opportunity to digest his or her commentary. Ask about any feedback that is not clear. Establish solutions to problems. Determine which issues are essential requiring immediate attention and which are optional necessitating further thought. Raise concerns that you have about the thesis or the directions your supervisor would like you to take. Test the waters so to speak in which the two of you will be swimming in close coordination for some time by trying to learn as much about your supervisor and his or her expectations as he or she is hoping to learn about you and your approach to your thesis. Remember that you are paying for the degree and the guidance you need and while being polite considerate and respectful towards your supervisor and his or her ideas is essential at all times you should nonetheless voice your opinions when you encounter opposition regarding an approach that you think is correct for your work. This may take some careful explanation and persuasion as well as confidence and diplomacy you may for example have to go away and think about the matter before addressing it in detail but this too is excellent preparation for writing and defending a persuasive thesis. By all means do not leave issues that trouble you unexpressed and unresolved confusion and uncertainty do not establish solid ground on which to move forward and neither serious problems nor significant differences of opinion are simply going to go away if you continue writing. This is your first formal opportunity to establish many aspects of your thesis and to improve them in response to constructive criticism so use it well. CHAPTER 2 40 PRS Tip Although few doctoral candidates would want a second set of eyes to examine their preliminary efforts at thinking through their ideas assessing the relevant literature and reporting the results of experiments and trials there are certainly some students who will appreciate the services of a professional proofreader when it comes time to share their more formal writing with their supervisor andor thesis committee. If this is the case for you please feel free to send any or all of your early chapters to PRS for careful proofreading. It may be a good idea to mention to your supervisor or committee members your intention to have a professional academic or scientific proofreader work on your writing because some committee members may not want you to do so but in most cases there will be no objection. If you are having particular problems with writing grammatically correct English or formatting aspects of your chapters and references your supervisor and committee members may even suggest that you seek such professional help because they rarely have the time or the inclination to provide guidance on such matters. The proofreaders at PRS on the other hand are experts in the composition and presentation of all aspects of scholarly English writing and will be able to correct errors and inconsistencies and provide objective advice aimed at improving your ability to communicate in ways that are appropriate and effective for doctoral level work and your particular discipline and topic. CHAPTER 2 41 Chapter 3 Writing and Revising the Proposal Chapters A doctoral proposal usually consists of early drafts of what will ultimately become the first chapters of the thesis. As a general rule three chapters are required for the proposal an introduction a review of relevant literature or previous scholarship and a chapter outlining the research methodology that will be used. This is the format I assume here but in some cases only one or two chapters are required. The literature review might be included in the introduction for instance or ultimately be spread throughout a thesis and the methodology might be blended with the introduction or the literature review particularly if methodology or a review of scholarship is the main topic of the research. A somewhat different structure might be required if the research methods are particularly innovative or the thesis is interdisciplinary but the basic purpose of the proposal to make it clear what is being investigated why it is significant and how the student intends to explore it remains the same. These chapters along with supporting text such as a list of references and table of contents are submitted for evaluation which is carried out in a proposal meeting involving the student his or her supervisor and the other members of the thesis committee. Approval of the students proposal is required for the student to continue the research outlined in the proposal and the writing of the thesis itself. Although this proposal process is not a required element of earning a doctoral degree in all universities and departments some kind of upgrading or approval procedures do take place in many doctoral programmes often in a form much like the proposal CHAPTER 3 42 process. For this reason I assume in this book that a doctoral student may have to submit a proposal and I therefore discuss in this chapter the first three main parts of a thesis the introduction literature review and description of methodology see Sections 3.1 3.3 below specifically in the context of the proposal process. In the following chapter I revisit these initial parts of the thesis briefly and discuss the remaining chapters results discussion and conclusions see Sections 4.4 and 4.5 below the overall structure and content of the thesis and the final examination. If you do not need to produce and submit a proposal for evaluation and are instead moving directly ahead with drafting your thesis Chapters 3 and 4 of this book can be used as a single unit by focussing on the sections that apply to your particular thesis. Much of the advice offered about preliminary and final matter for your proposal and the preparation required for a successful proposal meeting may also prove helpful when preparing the entire thesis for submission and examination. Without a doubt working effectively with all the members of your thesis committee as you draft your chapters is essential whether you are initially drafting them for a proposal or not. Yet the process of sharing your work and receiving feedback becomes more complicated once you begin writing for your thesis committee as a whole if for no other reason than because you need to please more than one person and each committee member will have his or her own ideas about your topic and project. The number of members required to make up a thesis committee can differ depending on the university the discipline the department and the thesis itself. As a bare minimum at least one permanent member beyond the supervisor is necessary a common scenario features two or three members beyond the supervisor and for some interdisciplinary theses that number may climb a little higher. Both small and large committees have their pros and cons. Small ones mean that you have very few people to write for so there is less opportunity for contradictory advice potentially more space for your own ideas and CHAPTER 3 43 practices to flourish and ideally a better chance of arranging for group meetings of overly busy professors but you also benefit from less and less diverse advice and if a member of your committee becomes unavailable the impact can be greater than it is with a larger committee. Large committees on the other hand mean that you need to please more people which can present many contradictions and in some cases become somewhat stifling as well as presenting significant challenges when trying to arrange meetings of the whole group but you will benefit from a broader range of readers and opinions. Whatever the constitution of your thesis committee may be however it was no doubt designed to meet your anticipated needs interdisciplinary theses sometimes require more experts to cover the fields of study concerned for instance and almost every thesis committee has the potential to guide you through a successful thesis. In most cases you will in practice be working with the members of your committee individually generally speaking only at the proposal meeting if this is required for your thesis and the thesis examination will the entire committee be present. This means that as you prepare the chapters for your proposal you can work with each additional member much as you do with your supervisor though as a second stage in the process. A traditional approach is to construct a basic proposal outline according to university or department guidelines if there are any and have your supervisor look over it and suggest changes for the better. In some cases you may need to have additional committee members look at the outline as well but in others this process may not be necessary unless you want their input. Then you would draft each chapter sharing it with your supervisor for written commentary and face-to-face discussion once it is ready for reading. Usually a chapter is passed along to other committee members for their feedback only after your supervisors suggestions have been incorporated as revisions. Your supervisor may want to check your revisions before each chapter CHAPTER 3 44 goes to other members of the committee or he or she may prefer that all three chapters be drafted discussed and revised before the other members read any of them. Some committee members beyond your supervisor may want to meet with you to discuss your chapters and some may wish to see the changes you make in response to their comments before the proposal meeting. Since all committee members are supposed to be available to you you can certainly request a meeting with or a second reading from any member to discuss feedback and check revisions if you think it would be helpful. The process can then take different forms but the essential point is that you and your committee work out procedures that enable the productive exchange of writing and commentary and therefore provide you with the practical guidance you need to begin and continue composing a successful proposal. With so much helpful advice from different individuals there cannot help but be contradiction and you will certainly encounter contradictions as you write your thesis contradiction among the sources you consult contradiction between your own work and those sources contradiction among your committee members in terms of their advice as readers and scholars and contradiction between your ideas and practices and those of your committee members. Occasionally you will even find contradiction in the feedback offered by a single committee member and while this can be frustrating it is important to remember that the scholars on your committee are in almost all cases incredibly busy and often unable or unwilling to prioritise reading your proposal or thesis chapters. It is not rare for instance for a doctoral candidates work to receive its marginal comments from an exhausted scholar while he or she is flying home from a weekend conference. This reality is an effective indication of the fact that no one knows your research and arguments as well as you do and no one not even your supervisor cares as much as you do about your thesis. The differences in the feedback you receive also serve as a reminder that contradiction CHAPTER 3 45 lies at the heart of academic and scientific writing and debate so encountering and effectively dealing with it while working on your thesis is simply part of the degree process and very likely of your future career as well. In fact one of the most useful aspects of the proposal process is that it reveals differences of opinion and provides the perfect opportunity to make the decisions and compromises that will find middle ground resolve problems and improve the thesis you ultimately write in a variety of ways. Almost certainly some refinement of both your research topic and your methodology will take place in the course of the proposal process and some adjustment to your literature review may be required as well refinement clarification and elaboration of your work are after all main objectives of the proposal process. This does not mean that you should completely change your plans for your thesis but that you should be flexible and recognise that your committee members while perhaps not as focussed on or as familiar with your topic as you are have more experience than you do and are providing expert critical advice that can help you sharpen your thinking improve your methodology and clarify your argument. Such advice can enable you to meet the requirements of scholarly writing at the doctoral level and the needs of anticipated readers beyond your thesis committee. You will find it necessary to be a critical reader yourself however by considering the comments and ideas provided by your committee members from as objective a perspective as possible and using their advice carefully to benefit fully from it while continuing undaunted on your own unique research path. If you find that a member of your committee disagrees with your approach or perhaps misunderstands your intentions it is best to give the matter some careful thought before discussing it with that individual and although it is ultimately your thesis and most of the decisions must be your own working diplomatically to reconcile as much as possible differences in CHAPTER 3 46 perspective and clarify your explanations and thus your writing will usually enable more efficient progress from that point on. If significant problems associated with conflicting advice from your various committee members arise as you work through preparing the proposal chapters it is a good idea to discuss them with your supervisor initially since he or she may have helpful advice and then with other committee members if necessary. You should clearly state your own ideas and concerns in such meetings point out contradictions in the advice you received specify what you do not understand or what you think will not work and if possible suggest compromises that may lead to solutions with which everyone can feel satisfied. Most issues can be resolved in this way as long as you aim for honest and straightforward communication maintain good manners show respect for the ideas of others demonstrate an open mind and combine it with a persistent focus on what you want your thesis to do and be. Whether your thesis committee enables or disables your progress is then determined by you as much as if not more than it is by the committee members and learning to work effectively with all members of your committee is an essential aspect of successfully completing a doctoral thesis. Please note that if you and your supervisor have not yet decided on the referencing editorial and formatting styles to follow in your thesis it is wise to make these decisions before you begin drafting your proposal chapters so do check for university and department guidelines consult successful theses as models and discuss these matters with your supervisor and perhaps other members of your thesis committee. It is impossible to emphasise how much time and effort is saved by recording references and presenting other elements of your writing in the correct styles and formats at once and you will also save yourself work down the road by knowing exactly what the length requirements for separate parts of your thesis and the thesis as a whole are and accommodating these requirements while drafting your initial chapters. CHAPTER 3 47 3.1 Writing the Introduction for the Proposal The introduction you write for your proposal is really a first attempt or second attempt if an earlier version of this chapter was your first piece of writing for your supervisor at writing the introduction that will ultimately open the thesis see Sections 1.2.1 and 2.2 above and Section 4.3 below. To state what is probably already obvious the introduction introduces your research project to your readers and just as every doctoral research project is unique so every introduction is unique. Different universities disciplines and thesis committees may require or expect introductions to accomplish different things include different information and feature different titles and sections. The whole chapter may be entitled Introduction for example and Background might form a section within the chapter or vice versa the introductory chapter may not bear a main title at all but include a number of separate sections with specific headings and sections within the introduction might contain subsections so a subheading such as Chemotherapy and Its Effects might follow the heading Background or the subheading Knowing Readers through Their Marginalia might follow the heading Introduction. However whether you are studying the effects of chemotherapy on the recovery time of cancer patients comparing the efficiency of emergency responses to various natural disasters determining whether domestic robots are appropriate for use in apartment buildings or characterising the readership of a medieval text via contemporary marginalia there are certain basic ingredients that either must or almost always appear in an introduction and others that might be included or not depending on the nature of the thesis. The following list presents the most common and necessary purposes of a thesis introduction To identify the topic problem or phenomenon on which the thesis will focus. This might be introduced at any time in the introduction though mentioning it briefly near the beginning and developing it CHAPTER 3 48 as you proceed into a more comprehensive statement often works well. You should aim for absolute clarity and a precise definition of the nature and parameters of your topic and be prepared to adjust your statements in response to the feedback of your supervisor and other committee members. It is essential to get this element of the proposal right during the proposal meeting if not before because it lies at the heart of the thesis and changing it once the thesis is drafted can involve a great deal of work. The research you do in the course of the thesis may well necessitate some later adjustments to the problem as initially stated but that is a very different matter. To establish a conceptual framework for the thesis. A conceptual framework is very much like a textual map of the territory that you intend to investigate a map that serves to define exactly what the territory covered by the thesis is. Like the topic problem or phenomenon explored by your thesis the conceptual framework you describe in your proposal introduction may well change somewhat as your research develops and it may also require some refinement in response to suggestions from your supervisor and thesis committee. It is essential to begin with a framework that allows you to include in meaningful ways everything you wish to investigate in your research. Tables and figures are sometimes used to visualise and clarify the conceptual framework of a thesis so you may want to design and include some in your introduction see Section 4.4.1 below for advice on designing tables and figures. To provide background for the topic problem or phenomenon you are exploring. This can take many forms including a survey of the history of the occurrence of the problem or phenomenon and a statement or brief review of previous research on the topic. Sometimes a longer review of the literature is included in the introduction but in most cases the complete review appears as a separate chapter see Section 1.2.2 above and Sections 3.2 and 4.3 below and only an overview is required in the introduction. CHAPTER 3 49 To explain the significance of the topic problem or phenomenon this is often achieved in the course of or immediately after describing its background. The significance of the topic problem or phenomenon can be indicated in a number of ways such as describing its impact its complexity or mysterious nature its occurrence and persistence and the number of people or regions affected. The significance of the topic of your research is intertwined with the nature and methodology of your research and your thesis committee may have suggestions for improvements and clarifications that are well worth consideration. To indicate gaps problems misconceptions and the like in the research that has already been done on your topic problem or phenomenon as well as demonstrating how your thesis aims to fill the gaps resolve the problems and correct the misconceptions by presenting new ways of perceiving and understanding the topic problem or phenomenon on which you are focussing. It is often the case that more experienced committee members will have knowledge about or immediately perceive problematic issues of which you are not yet aware so they may be able to offer advice that helps you refine your comprehension of the original contribution to knowledge that you intend to make. To introduce usually briefly the methods and approaches you plan to adopt or devise to explore the topic problem or phenomenon. Occasionally a good deal of detail about the methodology is presented in an introduction but in most cases detailed descriptions of methods appear in a separate chapter see Section 1.2.3 above and Sections 3.3 and 4.3 below. The members of your committee may have much or little to say about your methods but it is essential that those methods are appropriate for your research topic and its significance and viable for providing answers to the questions you need to ask. Your methodology need not be new but it should be the most effective you can find or devise for exploring the topic problem or phenomenon you have chosen and it is usually best if its specific CHAPTER 3 50 application to the problem is in some way innovative especially if there is already a considerable amount of scholarship on the subject. To describe the context of the research. The intellectual and theoretical context of your research might be covered in your discussion of the background or in your introduction to the scholarship and methodology if not it can certainly be described separately. The physical context of the research should also be clarified and justified by explaining where your research takes place in a university laboratory in cathedral libraries on the street in the homes of users or participants or in a foreign country who is involved trial participants survey respondents research assistants animal subjects or you alone and why the context you have chosen is appropriate for your research. The resources available at your university may be a limiting factor here so any potential difficulties should be discussed with your committee. To provide relevant information on the background of the researcher. This is not the place for an autobiographical record or a report of the educational journey that has led you to the thesis but if you think there are certain assumptions preconceptions ideals biases limitations and so on that might influence your research it is good to get them out in the open. Your committee members may have helpful suggestions about how to make good use of or if necessary compensate for or adjust your unique perspective. To outline the aims and objectives of the thesis. The aims and objectives of a research project are closely tied to the nature of the topic problem or phenomenon its significance the methods and approaches used to investigate it and your intentions regarding your research. In all cases your aims and objectives should be clearly stated displaying them in a list can be particularly effective and so can numbering them in order of importance and reasonable in relation to the nature of your CHAPTER 3 51 research. The members of your thesis committee are likely to pay careful attention to your aims and objectives so be prepared to discuss and refine them. To present research questions and hypotheses if these are useful for your work. Research questions are the questions you ask about the topic problem or phenomenon you are exploring in order to guide and shape your research while hypotheses are the tentative working answers you develop based on previous scholarship predominant theories natural laws and tendencies and your own assumptions and expectations. Determining exactly what your research questions and hypotheses are can be an excellent means of defining and understanding your research more clearly and including them in your introduction not only allows you to focus on the exact wording and content of those questions and hypotheses but also opens the door to commentary and assistance from your supervisor and other members of your committee. Your research questions and hypotheses will undoubtedly be closely related to the aims and objectives of your research and they too can be effectively included in your introduction by displaying them in a list andor numbering them in order of importance or in relation to your methodology. To explain any ethical considerations associated with your research and its methodology. Generally speaking ethical issues only arise in research that uses living subjects whether human beings animals or more rarely plants. Your university will almost certainly have regulations about how such subjects can ethically be used in research only with informed consent for instance and you may have to obtain official approval from the universitys ethics board or a similar body. Your supervisor and other committee members should be able to help you avoid problems and obtain the proper approval. To outline the contents of the proposal or thesis. An introduction usually closes with a brief summary of the chapters and other CHAPTER 3 52 sections that follow the introduction. In a proposal introduction this may cover only what you include in the proposal itself or it may anticipate what will ultimately appear in the completed thesis. Your supervisor will be able to tell you which approach is most appropriate for the proposal stage of a thesis in your discipline and department. Not all of these ingredients will necessarily be required in an introduction and those that are needed may be most effective if they are presented in separate sections which are always a good idea because they make your text more accessible and digestible for readers. You may be required to present these sections in a specific order determined by university or department guidelines or you may be able to arrange them in whatever order seems most appropriate for providing the introductory material your thesis requires. The members of your thesis committee should be able to indicate what might be effectively rearranged added deleted shortened clarified or expanded ideally before the proposal meeting. Clarity and precision of both thought and writing are essential in an introduction because everything that follows depends on it. You may find that the information you provide and perhaps your overall intentions are not completely understood by your committee members or that you receive too little or too much advice especially if the topic problem or phenomenon you are investigating is unusual or your approach to it is unconventional innovative or unique in which case your readers may well emphasise what they think you should be doing particularly if they do not thoroughly understand what you think you are doing. It is always a good idea to consider all criticism and advice as carefully and objectively as possible of course and you just might find that the members of your committee will arrive at solutions and approaches that you had not considered. However if your own plans seem in danger of becoming lost beneath the practical and theoretical concerns of your supervisor CHAPTER 3 53 and other committee members or if you are having difficulties as you attempt to define what you are only beginning to understand far from an easy task you might want to try this simple strategy in your introduction Start with the words In this thesis I would like to and continue with a basic description in plain rather than specialised or discipline-specific language of what you hope to achieve for example find out if the use of domestic robots is feasible in apartment buildings designed for elderly people. Then add I intend to do this by which might be finished with providing ten elderly apartment-dwelling individuals with access to two different domestic robots designed to perform simple household tasks. Additional sentences might read I plan to measure the success of the robots via a questionnaire completed by each of the participants and This questionnaire will include items that focus on the two main functions of the domestic robots taking out the trash and delivering groceries. Such a straightforward approach can continue until you have covered all of the introductory elements listed above and more. You probably will not use these sentences in their original form in the introduction you submit for your proposal or ultimately revise for your thesis and you will no doubt need to elaborate the information with further details ideas and references but you will provide yourself with a simple and concise report of what you need to write about. This report will be especially useful for clarifying your intentions and meaning when discussing your introductory material with your supervisor and other members of your thesis committee and it will probably also prove helpful when you are preparing your presentation for the proposal meeting see Section 3.7 below. CHAPTER 3 54 PRS Tip Although much of the advice provided in this book assumes that the thesis writer will be working in Microsoft Word hereafter simply Word or a similar word-processing program this may not be the case with all students and theses. The LaTeX document preparation system for instance is used to format and structure scientific and other technical articles in a variety of disciplines such as mathematics computer science physics political science and economics as well as documents featuring complex multilingual material including Chinese Sanskrit and Arabic. If you need or would like to prepare your thesis via LaTeX and are not already familiar with this system you may want to consult some of the guidance currently available. The LaTeX Companion by Mittelbach et al. 2004 the LaTeX Users Guide and Reference Manual by Lamport 1994 and the Guide to LaTeX by Kopka and Daly 2003 will no doubt prove especially useful and the learn by doing approach of Kottwitzs LaTeX Beginners Guide 2011 may be particularly helpful for those new to LaTeX. There are many other print and e-book resources on the topic however so a careful search on the internet or in the catalogue of a university library will probably prove well worth the time invested. A number of resources are available online as well including the LaTeX project site at httplatex-project.org and the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network CTAN at httpctan.org both of which provide information on obtaining LaTeX from CTAN as free software. Smaller web sites can also be useful for introductory information D.R. Wilkinss Getting Started with LaTeX for instance at httpwww.maths.tcd.iedwilkinsLaTeXPrimer as can some files available via the internet e.g. M.A. Porters A Hitchhikers Guide to LaTex at httpwww.chaosbook.orgFAQlala.pdf. CHAPTER 3 55 3.2 Writing the literature Review for the Proposal The literature review you write for your proposal should be a more formal document than the preliminary reviews you may have written as you first read your key sources see Section 2.1.3 above although you can certainly make use of those initial reviews as you draft the formal review. The literature review for your proposal will in most cases also be the first draft of the literature review that will serve as the second chapter of your completed thesis see Section 1.2.2 above and Section 4.3 below. The review can instead be combined with other parts of the thesis the introduction for instance or be presented more gradually throughout the thesis in association with relevant ideas methods and results as they arise. In some cases a students engagement with previous research can be established very briefly in a short section of the thesis that provides some background on what has already been done in an area and simply clarifies why the students topic and approach are valuable and interesting. If a separate chapter is required which will be the case for many theses the chapter should give readers an accurate and thorough idea of previous scholarship on the topic problem or phenomenon under investigation it should summarise and interpret the content of each relevant source it should evaluate each source critically with regard to the methods used results achieved and conclusions reached by its authors it should reveal what you believe to be the gaps misconceptions and limitations associated with the existing scholarship as a whole and it should indicate how your research will provide what is lacking establish new perspectives and move beyond the traditional limitations. Some of this may have been mentioned briefly in your proposal introduction but in the literature review you need to discuss these matters in greater detail make it absolutely clear where your work fits into the larger picture and set the stage for using key sources later in the thesis. CHAPTER 3 56 Even a chapter-length literature review for a doctoral thesis often does not need to be completely comprehensive including that is every piece of scholarship ever written on your topic unless your university department or thesis committee insists on this or one of the goals of your thesis is specifically to provide a complete review of all scholarship in the area. You should however be familiar with all the scholarship dealing with the topic problem or phenomenon you explore and if very little has previously been written on it you should no doubt include all the available scholarship in your review and perhaps even go beyond that to related areas that might enhance your research. Yet it is more likely that you will have to narrow your scope rather than broadening it since most effective literature reviews are at least somewhat selective. The criteria for selection vary from thesis to thesis because they are based not only on the specific research topic but on the aims and objectives of the thesis as well as on any research questions and hypotheses formulated and used in the thesis. So there will probably be one or more key themes that form the backbone of your discussion providing both structure and direction with each of the sources you review considered specifically and often exclusively in terms of those themes and your own thoughts about them. Without key ideas and a focus of this sort to guide your journey through numerous different sources a literature review can quickly become an excessively long and disorganised trail of summaries and critiques that are more or less relevant to your thesis. Although approaches to writing a literature review vary enormously depending on the thesis topic and methodology a practical way to start is with a brief explanation of the topic problem or phenomenon and a general statement about scholarship in the area abundant scarce outdated recent limited in origin and approach and so on before moving on to particular sources. The first source you review should be a key one whether it is the first piece written on the topic or simply the first one relevant to your CHAPTER 3 57 thesis and it should establish a position from which you can proceed. Let us say for instance that the thesis topic focuses on the ability of marginal commentary in medieval manuscripts to teach the researcher something about the readers of those manuscripts. The first source reviewed will likely and ideally should take a strong position on or establish a tradition of thought about the topic which in early scholarship on manuscripts would probably be to dismiss the importance of marginal annotations altogether the Victorians for instance simply trimmed them off to clean up medieval manuscripts when rebinding them. The sources reviewed after this initial source might trace a chronological path of the development of approaches to marginalia and their usefulness in research on readership and reception until arriving at works published in the twenty-first century that take the comments of medieval readers very seriously indeed and explore via those comments medieval conceptions of education self-knowledge heresy gender and many other fascinating topics. A chronological approach of the kind I have just described can often be effective in providing an extra layer of organisation or perhaps more accurately in tracing a meaningful route through complicated and sometimes slippery territory the distinction between primary and secondary sources might also prove useful on which see Section 7.1 below as might that between theoretical and experimental studies. In the sciences recent publications usually those published within the last decade or two are often prioritised and some thesis committees will want the literature review to focus on recent scholarship only. No source is too old to be considered if it is important to your research however and if you are tracing the history of an idea or approach one may for example want to go all the way back to medieval texts to see what they had to say about marginalia or if very early sources are central because they establish a long tradition of thought relevant to your topic they should definitely be included in your review. You need not treat every CHAPTER 3 58 source you review in the same detail some might require thorough summaries and a considerable amount of interpretation and discussion those that significantly overlap your own research should receive such treatment for instance whereas others can simply be mentioned in passing or in groups or by focussing only on a couple of key points. The members of your thesis committee your supervisor in particular will almost certainly be able to assist you in deciding which sources should or should not be included and which among them might or might not require detailed treatment as well as suggesting sources of which you may not be aware. How you might best deal with each source may also change however as the results of your research mount up and you discover that you need to emphasise slightly different ideas and approaches than you originally envisioned. Remember that the literature review for the proposal is a draft that can be revisited and revised as necessary which is not to say that it should be written or presented in an informal way. Like all parts of the proposal it should be written in correct scholarly English and make consistent use of the editorial guidelines or style guide your department recommends or you and your supervisor have agreed upon including complete and accurate references for more information on formal English formatting and style and references see Chapters 57 below. A literature review often closes with a brief summary especially if the review is a long one and a statement or restatement regarding how your thesis will contribute to the body of scholarship on the topic problem or phenomenon. Finally please note that neither the literatures nor the researches is an appropriate way of referring to the body of literature or scholarship dedicated to a particular topic problem or phenomenon articles studies conferences papers and books are all acceptable in the plural but when using the literature or the research to describe such a body of work the singular is the correct form. CHAPTER 3 59 3.3 Writing the Methodology Chapters for the Proposal The methodology used in a thesis is usually described in its own chapter see Section 1.2.3 above and Section 4.3 below though like the literature review it can be blended with the introductory material or the review of literature and description of methods can be combined especially if reviewing the scholarship on a topic problem or phenomenon is a main part of the methodology used. If two different types of methodology are used for comparative purposes or combined to produce more wide-ranging results a chapter might be dedicated to each approach but this is rare. Usually all methods are presented in a single chapter which might simply be entitled Methodology or feature a title more specific to the precise methods described. There are of course a great many different ways to pursue research of all kinds and they are always increasing with established methods undergoing alterations as scholars adjust and combine them and new methods being developed to enable research that might not have been imagined only a few decades ago. You may be planning to use quantitative methods focussing on prediction explanation and statistical analysis or you may be hoping to approach your research topic qualitatively focussing on description and exploration via textual analysis alternatively you may wish to combine these two approaches to supplement the results of each with results of a different nature. You may intend to use tests trials or experiments or perhaps interviews questionnaires and case studies on the other hand you may be planning to adopt a certain theoretical perspective cultural historicism for example or deconstructionism or hoping to rely on observation in person andor via audiovisual equipment and recordings or intending to exercise your ability to transcribe translate and interpret ancient languages and scripts. The possibilities are virtually endless and you may find it helpful as you design the methods you plan to use in your thesis to look CHAPTER 3 60 back at your work in any research methodology classes you may have taken for ideas and techniques. Whatever research methods you might be considering for your thesis the important point is that they will work effectively for investigating the topic problem or phenomenon on which your thesis focuses for answering any particular questions and testing any hypotheses you might have formulated regarding that topic and for meeting your aims and objectives. This is to say that your research methodology should arise from the topic problem or phenomenon not the other way around unless perhaps the topic you are exploring is methodology. The design of your research may well affect the precise nature and wording of that topic problem or phenomenon and what you can ask and discover about it and you may have given a great deal of thought to your methodology before deciding upon exactly what you will investigate but the methods you choose or devise should be determined by the requirements of researching the specific topic problem or phenomenon you have chosen for your focus. Once you have decided on the methods you will use you need to describe them as clearly and precisely as you can indicating the setting and subjects texts people animals etc. of your research specifying the variables you are considering and the instruments you are using and explaining in detail exactly how you plan to collect and analyse data at each stage of the research process which may well involve a return to any research questions and hypotheses you introduced in your first chapter and a description of precisely how your procedures will answer and test them. You should also explain why your methodology is appropriate indeed the best methodology possible and perhaps innovative for investigating the particular topic problem or phenomenon and this explanation will ideally involve a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of various aspects of your design the reliability and limitations of your instruments and procedures and the use of controls and other rigorous methods for checking and guaranteeing the validity of your results. If you are using unusual or complex equipment in your CHAPTER 3 61 research you may want to include figures to illustrate it and diagrams can be extremely effective for showing readers the procedural processes you will be following for information on designing figures see Section 4.4.1 below. Your supervisor and the other members of your thesis committee will no doubt prove particularly helpful when you are refining your methodology as more experienced researchers they have already conducted studies of the magnitude you are just beginning and will very likely have practical knowledge of at least some of the methods and instruments you are planning to use as well as an understanding of the vital differences that can arise between intentions processes and results. There will almost certainly be adjustments to your first ideas as you write your methodology chapter and receive feedback from your committee members and while this might seem distressing if you have already given your methods a lot of thought and feel rather attached to your approaches remember that the proposal process is itself designed to iron out potential problems clarify procedures and determine an effective working design. There may well be further adjustments down the road of course but it is absolutely essential that you design and refine your research methods to such a degree at this point that you are able to begin constructive research immediately after the proposal process. Data collection and analysis take a great deal of time which you do not want to waste so you need to be sure that you are moving in the right direction. You also want to be sure that your methodology does not raise any ethical issues that may hinder your progress or render your research unusable. Your thesis committee should be able to help you avoid or resolve problems of this kind so if you are in doubt and the topic does not arise do ask your supervisor and perhaps other committee members if they anticipate any problems and check relevant university regulations and guidelines as well to be sure that you will be able to obtain any approval you may require. CHAPTER 3 62 Unlike the literature review for which you will already have read a great deal your methods for the most part will not yet be tried as you describe them in your methodology chapter for the proposal so with the exception of any pilot studies or trials you may already have conducted you should discuss your methods as future events I will do this I plan to use I intend to investigate and so on. This approach may be appropriate for certain aspects of your introductory chapter as well particularly when you are referring to what you will ultimately do in the thesis as opposed to what you are doing in the proposal and may perhaps apply to parts of your literature review too you may for instance only review some of many publications on a subject at the proposal stage but be planning to add further reviews in the thesis itself. The careful use of verb tenses and other temporal indicators will make your writing your plans for the future and your reports of what you have already done much clearer for your readers see also Section 5.4.7 below. Let us say for instance that you have already conducted one of the trials that you describe in your methodology chapter and have obtained results that begin to support one or more of your key hypotheses. This is the sort of progress that you certainly want your committee members to know about so you need to describe it in a way that indicates that it has already been done I have completed I conducted I analysed and so on just as you need to describe procedures still in the future as not yet done. Since most doctoral supervisors and committee members do not have the time to help you with your written English if the careful use of tense or any other aspect of the language presents challenges for you it may be a good idea to seek additional help from a qualified English proofreader a friend or colleague whose English is more accomplished or the writing centre if there is one at your university. Finally like a literature review a chapter describing methodology usually closes with a brief summary especially if the description of the methods has been long and complicated. CHAPTER 3 63 Tables and figures are often not needed in thesis proposals but if you happen to make use of tables or figures while describing your methodology or in any other part of your proposal you will want to be sure that they are carefully designed and work effectively for your purposes which are generally speaking to clarify the material you provide in the text. For further information on constructing tables and figures see Section 1.3 above and Section 4.4.1 below. If you do use tables and figures you may also need to include in the proposal a list of each if so see Sections 1.1.8 and 1.1.9 above and Section 4.6.2 below for advice. Finally if you use a large number of nonstandard abbreviations in your proposal chapters you may need or choose to provide a list of abbreviations and their definitions in which case further information on abbreviations can be found in Section 6.3 below and lists of abbreviations are also discussed in Section 1.1.7 above and Section 4.6.2 below. For more general information on constructing lists see Section 5.5.2 below. 3.4 Using Footnotes or Endnotes for Supplementary Material Footnotes and endnotes can be used for a variety of purposes in a thesis though in all cases they should only be used when necessary. Whether and how you use them depends on the requirements and preferences of your university discipline department and thesis committee as well as on the nature and needs of your particular thesis. In some styles Chicago references via notes and bibliography for instance see the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 citations are provided in either footnotes or endnotes whereas in others authordate or numerical references for example footnotes andor endnotes are used predominantly for supplementary material. In the first case footnotes or endnotes can be included solely for the purpose of providing references but they can and often do contain supplementary material as well in the CHAPTER 3 64 second they cannot be used for references alone but the supplementary material provided in them can certainly contain references of the same kind as those used in the main text of the thesis. In this section I am focussing on the use of footnotes and endnotes for supplementary material so for more information on providing references in footnotes and endnotes see Section 7.2.3 below footnotes and endnotes are also discussed in Sections 1.2.6 and 1.4.2 above. The kind of supplementary material that might be included in footnotes or endnotes varies markedly from thesis to thesis but generally speaking information that is closely related to the discussion in the main text of your thesis but that might be excessively long or distracting if included in that main discussion should be placed in footnotes or endnotes. Such supplementary notes might contain further details of various kinds additional or conflicting evidence translations and variant readings alternative approaches theories interpretations and the like. The notes added to a thesis are therefore a useful site for comparing and contrasting theories evidence and results speculating on ideas and interpretations presented in the main text and creating a kind of secondary level of discussion which can enhance without confusing the central line of your argument. Footnotes appear at the bottom of pages throughout a thesis whereas endnotes appear either at the end of each chapter or at the end of the thesis in its final matter see also Section 7.2.3 below. Your university department andor thesis committee may specify whether footnotes or endnotes are preferable so do check before making a decision on this but as a general rule if your notes are going to be long they are usually better as endnotes because long footnotes can result in more notes than main text on individual pages of the thesis chapters which makes for an unattractive layout. It may be however that you will need to use both kinds of notes in your thesis one kind for supplementary material and the other for textual variants for CHAPTER 3 65 instance and if that is the case you will need to decide which kind will work best for each purpose. Notes of each kind footnotes or endnotes are numbered separately and appear in numerical order either in one consecutive series throughout a thesis or beginning with a new series for each chapter. The note numbers generally take the form of superscript Arabic numerals as the example at the end of this sentence does an example that shows the use of a footnote for supplementary material that includes an authordate reference.1 Only rarely are Roman numerals used they become very cumbersome if there are many notes but note numbers are sometimes placed in square brackets 1 or parentheses 1 and if you need to use both footnotes and endnotes you will need to use more than one kind of numerical indicator superscript Arabic numerals for footnotes for instance and Arabic numerals in parentheses for endnotes. In addition if you happen to be using a numerical system of references see Section 7.2.2 below you will need to distinguish those from the footnotes andor endnotes you use so numerical references could for example be placed in square brackets as the numerical reference in this supplementary footnote is.2 If university or department guidelines indicate that you have to use a certain format for any one of these elements superscript Arabic numerals for numerical references for example your system of distinction will have to accommodate those requirements. Footnotes and endnotes are generally placed where they are most relevant in the main text which usually means immediately 1 The problem has been explored many times with strikingly different results but particularly relevant to my work here is the fact that the same trend was revealed in the most recent study of the problem Brockle 2014. 2 The problem has been explored many times with strikingly different results but particularly relevant to my work here is the fact that the same trend was revealed in the most recent study of the problem.7 CHAPTER 3 66 after the material to which they pertain but as a general rule notes should not be attached to titles headings or either the preliminary or final matter of a thesis. Some styles and guidelines will call for notes to appear only at the end of sentences or in rare cases only at the end of paragraphs which means that all references and supplementary information relevant to a sentence or paragraph will need to be included in a single note. Note numbers usually follow full stops and commas Variously translated over the decades1 the passage has become increasingly provocative and precede colons and semicolons The passage has been translated in a variety of ways over the decades1 these translations have tended to make the meaning more rather than less provocative this too is style dependent however so do check any guidelines provided to be sure you are positioning the note numbers correctly. The font used in footnotes and endnotes should be the same as the font used in the main thesis although the automatic note function in word- processing programs such as Word will often use a different one so do watch for this and adjust the font if necessary. The text in notes can be a little smaller than the text in the main document a 10-point font when the main text uses a 12-point one for instance as long as the text in your notes remains clear and legible in relation to the size of the main text. This is a special concern if complex and detailed information such as equations or passages of text using special characters are included in the notes or if superscript numbers are used for numerical citations within them. With all aspects of formatting notes once you have decided on an effective system for your thesis it is essential that you adopt and use it consistently throughout the document. Although some authors treat footnotes and endnotes as a place where informal shorthand or point-form English is acceptable it is not. Notes for supplementary material whether that material includes references or not should always be written in complete and correct formal sentences and punctuated both effectively and CHAPTER 3 67 consistently see Chapter 5 below as the examples I use in this book are and even when notes exist for no other reason than to provide references they should observe a correct and consistent arrangement and punctuation style for those references see Section 7.2.3 below. The same is the case if you are using notes for variant readings translations or something of the sort though you may have to devise your own consistent system of punctuation and the like unless your discipline or department has conventional methods for presenting such material. The footnotes andor endnotes you use in your proposal chapters should be as complete and formal as those you will ultimately use in your thesis but you may want to use notes in your proposal for a slightly different reason as well to provide your readers the members of your thesis committee with any information that may help them to understand your proposal and your plans for your thesis. These notes too should be written in formal English and should not be used excessively as a substitute for explaining what ought to be explained in the main text but if there is something you are planning to do in a chapter not yet drafted for example that might help your readers see the larger picture it is worth mentioning it in a note that may become in the completed thesis a note informing the reader to look ahead to that chapter for further information. PRS Tip Many doctoral candidates will use Word to write their proposals and theses and the automatic footnote and endnote functions in this program are fabulous for organising both kinds of notes and laying footnotes out on the page but do be aware that Words automatic footnotes also have a nasty habit of suddenly disappearing in whole or more often in part as a complex document is edited and the program faces the challenge of rearranging notes and text on a rapidly changing page. In my experience the note numbers in the text are not altered but the notes themselves at the bottom of CHAPTER 3 68 pages can be cut short usually at the point where a footnote breaks to be continued on the following page so the note simply stops before it is finished and does not continue on that next page. In most cases the notes have not actually been deleted by the program and generally a little fiddling can bring them back adding a new footnote number to the main text a few words before the number of the missing or defective footnote usually nudges the program into remembering the lost footnote which will then reappear. At this point you can simply delete the unnecessary note number you added or use the Undo button and the restored note will remain. In some documents however this procedure may need to be repeated whenever the file is opened or major changes are made and there are rare situations in which footnotes will need to be replaced entirely so footnotes always require an especially careful visual check before work is submitted to your supervisor andor thesis committee. 3.5 Constructing the Title Table of Contents Timeline and list of References The elements most commonly required for a proposal beyond the chapters themselves are a title a table of contents a timeline and a list of references. The title table of contents and list of references you include with your proposal chapters should be specific to the proposal but they should also anticipate the completed thesis and certainly in the case of the table of contents and list of references will later be revised for inclusion in the thesis. The timeline on the other hand is a proposed schedule for completion of the thesis so it is needed only for the proposal but it will prove helpful in the future as you work at drafting the entire thesis. I deal with each of these elements separately in the following paragraphs. CHAPTER 69 3.5.1 The Title The title of your proposal should be a first version of the title your thesis will ultimately bear see also Section 1.1.1 above and Sections 4.2 and 6.1 below and if you need to register the title of your thesis with your university during or after the proposal process your proposal title will probably need to be exactly the same as your final thesis title. Very few elements of a piece of academic or scientific writing have to accomplish as much in as few words as the title does. The title is the first part of your proposal or thesis read by your committee members it is one of the primary elements by which those interested in your topic will ultimately be able to find your thesis in a library catalogue or online search and it is usually also the only part of your thesis that will appear on your rsum or C.V. curriculum vitae so it should be concise informative engaging and ideally elegant. According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association APA a title should summarize the main idea of the manuscript simply and if possible with style 2010 p.23. It should concisely inform your readers about the research you plan to do in your thesis mentioning the main topic and nature of the thesis perhaps the methodology location and subjects of your research the variables or theoretical issues you will investigate and the relationship between them and it can also hint at what you expect to discover. It should be worded in an interesting and eloquent way that allows the language you use to carry nuances and allusions perhaps even a little word play if this is allowed while providing the necessary details with precision. In the title Effect of Changing Weather Patterns on Home Insurance Policies Clients Left Out in the Cold the word Cold for example not only refers to the unpleasant physical reality of those who lose their homes due to natural disasters but also implies a certain lack of warmth on the part of insurance companies who do not provide support in such situations. The subtitle as a whole hints at the nature of the results anticipated with the question mark leaving the matter uncertain and CHAPTER 3 70 thus inspiring one hopes the interested reader to discover the answer by reading on. However titles are also best if they are as short as possible and some style manuals and university or department guidelines set strict word or character limits on titles. The Publication Manual of the APA 2010 p.23 for instance recommends limiting a title to twelve words or less which renders the example title I have provided in the preceding paragraph too long at fifteen words. There are then both practical and creative reasons for avoiding all unnecessary words in your title adverbs and adjectives are rarely needed and should be used sparingly and to maximum effect Changing in my example title above for instance alludes to changes in both the weather and the coverage provided by insurance policies while words such as study method and results are usually extraneous in that they tend to accomplish very little and can simply burden a title and render it more awkward Results Suggest that Clients Might Be Left Out in the Cold says basically the same thing as the subtitle I have above but it uses almost twice as many words and is not as catchy. Do check university and department guidelines however as identification of the type of study or the specific methodology used may be required in your thesis title usually as a subtitle along the lines of A Qualitative Study or A Randomised Trial. Furthermore the nature of scholarly titles differs among disciplines and some universities and departments will have very specific title requirements in terms of length style and content so be sure to construct the title for your proposal and final thesis in a way that conforms to all relevant guidelines. Notes whether footnotes or endnotes should normally not be attached to titles and it is best to avoid abbreviations of all kinds in a title simply because they are not as clear as full terms are though in the case of some terms the abbreviations are better known than the full versions IQ for instance as well as AIDS and CD and CHAPTER 3 71 are acceptable for titles few thesis committees would expect you to use intelligence quotient instead of IQ in your title. If you find that you absolutely have to use abbreviations in your title be sure that they are standard or at least relatively common and will be familiar to your readers for more information on abbreviations see Section 6.3 below. Indeed all terminology specialised or otherwise that you use in your title should be appropriate to the audience you anticipate for more information on specialised terminology see Section 5.3 below. Be sure to use capitalisation correctly and consistently whether you decide on or are required to use a minimal pattern of uppercase letters initial capitalisation on only the first word and proper nouns or initial capitalisation for all main words and to punctuate your title effectively with a colon for instance between the main title and subtitle for more information on capitalisation and punctuation in titles see Sections 5.6 6.1 and 6.2.1 below. If a running header or footer using a shortened form of the title is required you should choose the words for the shorter form carefully so that they retain and emphasise key aspects of the full title. Your title contains only a few of the many words you will write as you produce your thesis but it ultimately needs to represent that thesis perfectly professionally and attractively so consider carefully all suggestions on the part of your supervisor and other committee members and be prepared to alter and polish your title during the proposal process especially if you will not be able to make changes to it after this stage. 3.5.2 The Table of Contents The table of contents should be a list of everything that is contained in the proposal including the titles of all chapters and other main parts as well as the headings of any sections and subsections within each chapter or part. Paragraph headings on the other hand especially unnumbered ones often do not appear CHAPTER 3 72 in a table of contents but they may need to be included for some theses so do check university and department guidelines see also Section 1.1.5 above and Section 4.1 below and for information on headings see Section 6.1 below. You should ensure that all titles and headings in the table of contents appear in the correct order and match those in the thesis itself exactly in terms of content such as wording numbering if used punctuation and in most cases capitalisation. As the table of contents for this book does a table of contents should also list the page number on which each chapter part or section begins which means of course that the pages of your proposal and of the thesis that follows should be sequentially numbered with Arabic numerals. Since your text will shift in relation to the page numbers whenever you make changes even small ones it is wise to add the page numbers to your table of contents only when you feel the proposal chapters are basically complete and to check them to make absolutely sure the page numbers in the table of contents accurately represent the position of the individual chapters parts and sections immediately before formally submitting the document for the proposal meeting. On the other hand you may want or need to include an active table of contents in your thesis that is a table of contents that will automatically take readers to particular parts of your thesis when they click on the appropriate heading in the table of contents in your digital file. If so you can do this by using heading styles in Word and automatically inserting the table of contents see Section 6.1.1 below for details on how to proceed and in this case page numbers will usually automatically update as changes are made to the text but not always so a final check is still a good idea. Although it is not usually required you might also want to add in tentative titles for other chapters and parts that have not yet been written but that you are planning to include in the completed thesis this provides your committee members with a concise outline of the entire thesis as you envision it at the proposal stage but it may not be wanted so do ask and if you are including a timeline as well it is somewhat redundant. CHAPTER 3 73 3.5.3 The Timeline Appendices in the sense of material that is supplementary to the main text and too long or complicated to be included in notes are not usually required in a proposal and may not be required at all for some theses but if you do need to include one or more in your proposal you can in most cases do so see Section 1.4.1 above and Section 4.6.1 below for more information on appendices. There is one kind of appendix however that is almost always required in a proposal and that is a timeline which is a chronological schedule of your progress in the research and writing you do for your thesis. The timeline is usually arranged by weeks or by terms or semesters and may go all the way back to the beginning of a candidates postgraduate course work though it usually does not need to do so. It may include the schedule for the proposal process itself and it must contain a schedule for completion of the remaining stages in the thesis process. The timeline can take many different forms from a table with detailed information about your activities every week to a simple list of dates and the parts of your research and writing you plan to have completed by those dates. Whether long and complex or short and simple however it should contain information about the completion and examination of your thesis as well as any other major stages along the way the drafting and revision of individual chapters for instance.Your supervisor and perhaps other members of your thesis committee should be able to help you with the design of a timeline appropriate for your thesis and department and many universities and departments will have examples and templates for student use so do ask about this and consult whatever resources may be helpful. It is a very good idea by the way to indicate in a diplomatic way in your timeline any necessary consultation with and feedback from your committee members e.g. Week of 14 Jan. meeting with supervisor to discuss results chapter or Month of March revising CHAPTER 3 74 chapters in response to committee feedback. The timeline is an informal contract of sorts which tells your committee members that you will do your very best to meet the deadlines you have set for yourself so giving those busy scholars the information they need to know just how important it is to your schedule and ultimately your progress that they do their very best to meet those deadlines as well can be helpful. Also if for some reason problems arise perhaps one of your committee members will be away precisely when you will require feedback according to your timeline they can be addressed at once and compromises can be made to ensure that your progress on your thesis continues unhindered. Constructing a timeline can be time-consuming difficult and even painful particularly if you have a penchant for procrastination and you need to be both realistic and demanding in assessing your efficiency but it can be an effective tool for keeping you on track and enabling a successful working relationship with your thesis committee. 3.5.4 The List of References The final element of your proposal should be a list of the sources you have used in preparing the proposal depending on the referencing system you use this list will usually be entitled References Works Cited or Bibliography. You should of course use appropriate references throughout the proposal chapters as you write them and if the type of in-text references authordate numerical or in-note and the corresponding style for the reference list have still not been determined you should definitely work to resolve this by consulting with your supervisor and perhaps other members of your committee before you add citations to your text and construct the reference list because both short in-text references and full bibliographical references in notes andor in a list require a great deal of effort to change especially if you need to change numerical references to one of the other kinds or vice versa CHAPTER 3 75 for more information on referencing systems and styles see Section 7.2 below. I deal with references in detail in Chapter 7 below see also Sections 1.2.6 and 1.4.3 above but I want to emphasise here the need to include in your list of references every source you have cited in your proposal whether in the literature review or other chapters. It is usually also appropriate to include any sources that you think you will use in your thesis though you have not yet done so in your proposal but this may not be needed or wanted so do check university and department requirements or ask your supervisor. The type of references you are using will determine the shape of your list for numerical referencing for instance the sources in the list appear in numerical order and for authordate referencing a single alphabetical list moving from A to Z is the norm but you may want to divide your list into sections such as Primary Sources and Secondary Sources or Randomised Controlled Trials and Theoretical Studies. Such divisions tend to disrupt numerical and alphabetical arrangements however so again it is worth checking with your supervisor and department to be sure that dividing your list of references is permitted or appropriate. Generally speaking a list of references should accommodate any guidelines provided by your university department or thesis committee and present the sources you use in your thesis in a way that is well suited to those sources and the overall nature of your thesis and as accessible as possible for your readers. 3.6 Revising the Proposal Draft I have already outlined at the beginning of this chapter a procedure for submitting draft chapters of the proposal to your supervisor and other members of your thesis committee and then revising each of those chapters in response to the feedback you receive so I concentrate here on final revisions of the proposal as a whole. Once you have all the separately revised chapters for your CHAPTER 3 76 proposal in place and have added the extra parts discussed in Section 3.5 above you will want to proofread everything carefully and make any final corrections before passing the whole document along to your supervisor. It is unlikely that he or she will ask for any major revisions at this point though not impossible so do leave yourself some time before the proposal meeting just in case final changes prove to be more time-consuming than you anticipated. It is also unlikely that other members of your committee will want to read and comment on the proposal again prior to the meeting but again not impossible so do keep that in mind when scheduling the meeting. All members of your committee will however need to be provided with a clean and finished copy of your proposal well before the meeting two weeks is a standard amount of time to allow for reading and feedback on any piece of writing you submit to your committee members and is usually sufficient time for them to read your proposal before the meeting as well but do check university and department regulations in case a longer period is required and be sure to allow for it. It is also extremely important at this point that you have an opportunity to confirm with your department and supervisor exactly what is required of you at the proposal meeting and that you take the time between submitting your proposal and the meeting itself to prepare yourself both carefully and thoroughly. 3.7 Writing the Proposal Presentation and Anticipating Questions Although exactly what is required of a doctoral candidate at the proposal meeting differs depending on the university discipline department thesis committee and individual supervisor your supervisor for example may take the leading role in the meeting or he or she may want you to take the leading role the student is usually required to give a short presentation on the proposal and to be prepared to answer questions about both the proposal and the CHAPTER 3 77 thesis that will develop from it. The presentation is usually quite brief but it varies considerably among universities departments and disciplines so do look into what your presentation should contain and how formal and long it should be. Your supervisor may ask for instance that you give the presentation without reading from a written version or consulting notes and even if this is not required it is a good idea to keep the atmosphere somewhat informal by doing so. This does not mean however that you should not prepare your presentation very carefully either in a formal written version of what you plan to say or in clear and organised notes that you can resort to if necessary. In fact writing your presentation is an excellent way to work through your thoughts and plant them firmly in your memory. In most cases the presentation should essentially be a summary of your proposal so it need not contain anything beyond what you have already written more formally and thoroughly in the chapters and other material you have submitted prior to the meeting but it needs to cover the same ground in much less detail and space so it should focus on the main points. Depending on the precise content of your proposal your presentation should certainly describe the topic problem or phenomenon you are investigating outline your aims and objectives mention the most important of your research questions and hypotheses explain the most significant discoveries of the literature review indicate how your thesis will relate to existing scholarship describe the methodology you intend to use and both emphasise its strengths and mention its limitations. You may also want or need to say something preliminary about what you expect your results and discussion chapters or sections to be like and in a more general way to voice your opinion about the significance of your research as a whole. Commenting on your timeline and your plans for the completion of the thesis is also a good idea and can often lead to a discussion that resolves any potential problems with your schedule and clarifies any administrative procedures with which you may not be familiar. CHAPTER 3 78 Once you have given your presentation you should be prepared to answer questions on your research and both the proposal and the thesis you envision. Some of these will predictably arise from your presentation but it can also be useful to anticipate what your different committee members might ask. You have seen their responses to your writing by this point so focus on concepts areas methods and problems that they have already flagged and focus too on aspects of your work that trouble you. This can be rather difficult of course because it involves self-criticism and for that a little objectivity helps. Set your drafted presentation aside for a while a few days or a week if you can and then read both the proposal and the presentation again. Making notes on anything you find problematic confusing potentially illogical or ethically questionable as you critically read your own work will help you anticipate questions defend your choices and prepare you for a fresh beginning when you turn to writing the thesis itself once the proposal meeting is over. In my experience some questions can be anticipated some come from out of the blue these are tricky but usually incredibly helpful in the long run I hadnt thought of that but I am now is a good fallback response if you cannot find anything brilliant to say on the spot and some that are anticipated with trepidation never come at all fortunately these last tend to be the most difficult ones you imagined because as I have emphasised above you know your research better than anyone else does. You are likely to get practical questions as well which will help resolve key issues such as the competence of your written English the appropriate referencing style to be used if this still has not been determined or if there are problems with the system you have used and the feasibility of your timeline. Although it is more common in final examinations of theses than in proposal meetings you might be asked about typing and spelling errors so if you find a significant number of these as you reread your proposal before the meeting do prepare a list to present either in your presentation to forestall CHAPTER 3 79 the question or as a response when it comes. Be as accommodating as possible throughout the meeting and remember to show your appreciation and respect for the ideas of your committee members even when you do not agree with them and to explain your thinking clearly and calmly when you feel the need to defend your ideas and procedures. 3.8 Taking Notes and Resolving Problems before Moving On Although it can be difficult to attend to what everyone is saying in your proposal meeting sound intelligent yourself and take notes simultaneously you should try to record as much as you can about what is discussed especially any required changes for moving on to the next stage and any decisions about dates styles and methods. As soon as possible write up your notes and anything else important that you remember from the meeting emphasising what must be done at this point and share your report with your supervisor who will very likely remember additional details and have helpful comments about your performance in the meeting. This ensures that you and your supervisor are on the same page so to speak and also provides an opportunity to discuss the next stages in the thesis process both the research and the writing that lies ahead. Once you and your supervisor have agreed on what was covered in the meeting and its implications for your future progress revise your report and circulate it among all your committee members inviting commentary when you do. There are rarely any comments beyond looks good at this point but you should deal with anything that does arise at once and be sure that any revisions to the report are sent to all members again. The next part of the road to doctoral success is the longest and the roughest often presenting a variety of steep hills and tricky corners so you need to be sure that your guides know exactly where you are and where you are planning to go. CHAPTER 3 80 PRS Tip Maintaining your own voice and your own route for your thesis can be particularly difficult when dealing with the comments of several committee members. It is essential that all these comments be taken seriously and that you make the required revisions and adjustments to your writing but it is equally vital to keep your own plans and goals clearly in view and to continue working steadily towards them. Established scholars can at times mention rather casually the need to include concepts and traditions that have taken them years to understand and write about effectively and although all such advice should be followed when relevant and helpful there are instances in which half your research time could be consumed pursuing a single suggestion while using the concept without extensive research would sound inappropriate or nave. For this reason deciding what to pursue and what to set aside among the advice you receive as well as how to incorporate suggestions into your own writing can be challenging. Sometimes an outside perspective can be enormously helpful and while the proofreaders at PRS cannot claim to be experts in every field and topic they are accustomed to reading academic and scientific argumentation of all kinds in a professional critical and objective way. They can therefore let you know when logical transitions and intellectual connections are unclear and where your argument or your voice may seem inconsistent or ineffective. These details are after all essential aspects of writing clear and correct scholarly English which is among the specialties of PRS proofreaders who can also check your proposal materials with an eye to precision and consistency in your use of references headings punctuation special fonts and any number of other elements. Establishing sound practices that meet university requirements which can be sent to PRS along with your document for these aspects of your writing at the proposal stage will empower you to deal with them much more efficiently with far fewer revisions as you move on to the writing of the thesis itself. CHAPTER 3 81 Chapter 4 Drafting and Completing the Thesis Although some universities and departments offer doctoral programmes that no longer require the candidate to produce a lengthy written project based on original research writing a thesis is for most doctoral students the culmination and peak of the work done to earn a doctoral degree. A doctoral thesis should in every way indicate that you have achieved the intellectual and professional attainments and abilities required to be formally admitted into the scholarly community in your discipline and field. Your thesis therefore needs to reveal your understanding of scholarship in the area and how your own research fits into that scholarship it needs to use sound methods and present a sustained argument to make an original contribution to knowledge it needs to demonstrate logical analysis of the results you achieve and discuss them and their implications in reasonable and sophisticated ways it needs to provide accurate and thorough references to and in many cases quotations from the sources you consult and it needs to be written in clear and correct English sentences using effective and consistent styles and formats for more information on writing scholarly English formatting various elements of your thesis and providing references and quotations see Chapters 58 below. If you have prepared chapters and a list of references for a proposal stage in your thesis process you have already made a good start on the thesis itself and you have also had the opportunity to revise and refine your writing based on the feedback you received from your supervisor and committee members. In this chapter the writing of the thesis is treated as an extension of the writing you have done for your proposal and it is assumed that you will follow a similar procedure by submitting the separate chapters and other parts of your thesis CHAPTER 4 82 to your supervisor first and then very likely to other committee members as you work. By so doing you will be able to benefit from their expertise as you proceed and thus deal with any problems necessary revisions or required shifts in direction at once. It may be tempting of course to draft the whole thesis according to your own plan before sharing it with your committee and for a few doctoral candidates this approach might work well but in practical terms there usually is not enough time to rewrite the last years work if you discover that you have followed a path and drafted a thesis your supervisor and thesis committee are unable to approve so it is always best to keep them up to date with your written progress. Before discussing the individual parts of the thesis you will be writing however I would like to pause a minute to reflect on the task of writing itself not the content or style of writing but the physical act of actually sitting down and producing useful text. I have not said much about this up until this point because I assume that as a doctoral candidate you both want and plan to write your thesis that the rewards of so doing are significant enough to motivate action and that you know yourself and your most efficient ways of progressing better than anyone else can. Yet procrastination writers block poor working habits and unavoidable distractions can hamper even the best intentions and affect even the most disciplined writers so perhaps a few helpful words on getting the writing you need to do done are not out of order here. Although it may not suit all doctoral candidates it can be useful to establish a routine for yourself that includes a certain number of hours each day dedicated solely to writing and during those hours you need to be at your computer actually writing your thesis. You may also or instead want to set a daily target to determine how much you need to write each time you work on the thesis this might be a minimum word count a set number of paragraphs or sections or the discussion of a specific topic or problem depending on what works best for you and the structure of your thesis. It is important that distractions do not pull CHAPTER 4 83 you away during the opportunities you have to work so try to time and place your work when and where you will encounter the least number of distractions and if those distractions tend to come from your computer itself via games videos the internet email Facebook and other social media you will need to exert considerable self-discipline or choose to work at a computer that does not offer such distractions one not connected to the internet for instance. If you have trouble getting started when you first sit down to write reviewing your outline or table of contents can be helpful for resituating yourself and so too can revising the last couple of paragraphs you wrote the day before which tends to take an author seamlessly into the concepts and challenges of the new paragraphs that need to be written. Sometimes however despite the best intentions and the most rigid routine an author becomes completely blocked and unable to start writing. This frustrating state is often a symptom of the search for perfection the perfect words that is in the perfect order and overcoming it can be as simple as acknowledging the futility of that quest and getting on with the less glamorous reality of writing. Aiming for perfection in the first draft of a chapter may be an ideal but that perfection is rarely attainable particularly at an early stage in the thesis process and the hard fact is that your study needs to be transformed into text becoming carefully structured sections and chapters as well as a logical overall argument if you are to earn your degree. Writing some parts of your dissertation will inevitably be easier and quicker than writing other parts and some days your writing will be better and more thoughtful than it is on other days but you will be able to return to your text and make revisions indeed the feedback of your committee members will in most cases necessitate it so a strategy that acknowledges what is good enough for now and recognises perfection as relative can be extremely effective. Such an approach should not encourage you to ignore essential aspects of your work and its presentation but it can CHAPTER 4 84 allow you to move ahead as you draft your thesis rather than fretting and wasting time over each little detail at too early a stage. Remember that worrying about not writing will not solve the problem it is in fact as counterproductive as worrying about not sleeping when suffering from insomnia. The only true cure for writers block is writing and the very process of writing can generate both thought and argumentation and often achieve what seems impossible as you sit with fingers poised waiting for that perfect first sentence to march across the page. 4.1 Preparing an Outline or Thesis Plan The Working Table of Contents If you included a timeline and table of contents as part of your proposal submission you will already have a good basis for an outline or plan of your entire thesis. However by the time you sit down to plan and begin writing the thesis as a whole you will have survived the proposal process and presumably have conducted and analysed a good deal more of your research so you may very well have changed your mind about certain aspects of your thesis and therefore need to revise your ideas about the shape the final manuscript will assume. Perhaps you have decided based on the feedback you received from your supervisor and committee members during the proposal process that you ought to have two chapters describing your innovative methodology instead of one. Maybe the results of the research you have conducted since the proposal meeting have provided you with more or more kinds of relevant data than you expected and you will need to add an additional chapter to present or discuss those results or it could be that the nature of your results indicate that reporting and discussing those results should be combined into one chapter instead of divided into separate chapters as you originally intended. Whatever structure seems most appropriate for reporting your research at this CHAPTER 4 85 point should be developed regardless of what your plans for your thesis had been during the proposal process but since these changes can result in a somewhat different thesis they should be discussed with your supervisor and perhaps other committee members so be sure to provide your supervisor with a copy of your new outline and to set up a meeting to discuss the implications and acceptability of your plans. Keep in mind as well at this point and as you draft the chapters of your thesis the length requirements or limitations set for your thesis by your university or department. Structuring your thesis outline as a working table of contents can be an effective approach whether you are revising the table of contents you used in your proposal or starting afresh. Every main part chapter and section of the thesis you envision should be listed just as the table of contents for this book lists every part chapter and section of this book and a brief summary of the planned contents should be included immediately under each title or heading. Your university or department may have guidelines indicating that certain sections or parts are required so do ensure that you examine any such guidelines carefully and include all necessary sections and parts. The titles and headings you use should be early versions of those you anticipate for the finished thesis and should be formatted in effective and consistent ways that distinguish heading levels and clearly indicate the overall structure of the thesis for more information on constructing headings see Section 6.1 below. Paragraph headings often do not appear in a table of contents however and will probably not be needed for your outline even if they are for the final thesis but you can certainly include them if you are able to anticipate them at this point or if they are required. Such a detailed outline not only shares your plans with your thesis committee in an accessible and orderly fashion but also serves as an effective working template of the thesis that can help keep you on track as you draft the thesis. Your time will also be well spent because your outline can ultimately be transformed into the CHAPTER 4 86 table of contents you include in the final version of the thesis see Sections 1.1.5 and 3.5.2 above and Section 4.6.2 below. You will need to remove the summaries from each chapter part and section of course when you prepare the final table of contents for your thesis and you will probably have to make some other adjustments as well such as revising adding and deleting headings as your work on the thesis progresses but such changes are easily achieved. Please note that because a thesis outline structured as a working table of contents usually contains summaries of the planned content as well as the headings and subheadings for a thesis a table of contents that is automatically constructed in a program such as Word see Section 6.1.1 below is not usually appropriate in this context. 4.2 Title Abstract and keywords Setting the Stage The title abstract and keywords for a thesis are often written after the rest of the thesis has been drafted so you may not want to worry about them at this stage. I include them here however to preserve the correct order of the parts of a thesis see Section 1.1 above and because it can be extremely useful to write a first draft of these elements before you begin writing the thesis. A concise and informative title for instance can help you focus on the central themes of your thesis as you work and if you were required to submit a proposal you will already have designed a title that can be used for your thesis though it may need a little refinement to reflect any differences between the thesis you were planning at the proposal stage and the thesis you are now drafting see Section 3.5.1 above for more information on creating an effective title. The title may also change to some extent while you are actually writing the thesis so do not hesitate to make informal notes associated with your title when new ideas and more engaging wording come to mind or to change the title as appropriate especially once the entire thesis CHAPTER 4 87 is drafted and you know at last exactly what it contains. Remember that your title will be used by search engines and thus is extremely important for indicating to potential readers what they will find in your thesis it can for instance determine whether they actually consult and read your thesis andor use it in their own writing or not. However do be aware that in some cases changes to your title will not be allowed after the proposal stage because your thesis will at that point be registered with your university by its title and any changes would be an administrative matter that is best avoided so do look into this possibility before altering your title in any way. The abstract and keywords will not normally have formed part of the proposal submission so these will definitely need to be tackled for the first time. Again they can be left until the thesis is drafted but as an abstract necessarily summarises the thesis taking a first run at it can be helpful for focussing your thoughts on the key issues associated with your research. In addition since a good abstract usually undergoes several alterations and refinements it is best to start the process as soon as possible. As I mentioned in Section 1.1.2 above a carefully prepared abstract should briefly and comprehensively summarise the contents of the thesis it should situate your research in both its physical and intellectual contexts it should inform the reader about the problems or concepts investigated and the essential features of the methodology used and the participants involved and it should report the basic findings implications and conclusions of the study as well as mentioning any limitations and recommendations for future research. An abstract should report not evaluate what will be found in the thesis and it should not contain information that is not present in the thesis. Bibliographical references and abbreviations should not be used in an abstract unless absolutely necessary if references are required they will need to be complete bibliographical references and any nonstandard abbreviations will require definition and tables and figures should never be included. Like the title of the thesis the CHAPTER 4 88 abstract needs to be concise informative and as engaging as possible but it also needs to be densely packed with detailed information and since abstracts are generally very short between 100 and 400 words long with 150 to 300 words most common and any word limits for the abstract set by your university or department must be observed writing an effective abstract can be challenging. Depending on university requirements which should always be consulted a thesis abstract can be a single paragraph or it can be divided into separate short paragraphs. The latter is called a structured abstract and usually features headings for the individual paragraphs that are similar to the main chapters or sections of the thesis for more general information on headings see Section 6.1 below. The first paragraph might for instance be entitled Background the second Methods the third Results and the final paragraph Conclusions. These headings can appear immediately above the paragraphs or be formatted as paragraph headings that open the separate paragraphs either way they tend to use a special font bold or italic and if they are paragraph headings to be followed by a full stop or a colon that usually features the same special font e.g. Methods. The primary methodology used in this thesis was. If your university or department does not indicate a specific format for your abstract there are a number of ways in which to determine an effective format you could consult your supervisor for advice on the matter you could check the format of abstracts in journal articles within your discipline or subject area you could look up abstracts in theses already completed in your department or discipline or you could simply design your abstract according to the method that works best for your topic and thesis. Although the general contents of an abstract are standardised exactly which details you record is largely up to you but remember that they must accurately reflect the specific content of your thesis and provide readers searching for research on your topic with the information they need to decide whether your thesis is relevant for their interests and work. CHAPTER 4 89 Remember too that the abstract is usually the first piece of prose that readers of your thesis will encounter so it needs to be well written in clear grammatically correct properly punctuated and complete ideally elegant English sentences which is no easy task when packing so much detailed information into so few words. Every sentence should bear the maximum amount of information and meaning possible with minimal use of minor words and each main word should be chosen with great care primarily for its precise denotations of course but also for its potential connotations. Generally speaking the passive voice should be avoided in abstracts because it tends to be less precise than the active voice see Section 5.4.7 below and precision in as few words as possible is a necessity in abstracts. However in some fields the passive voice which tends to emphasise the object of research rather than its agent has become rather standard in abstracts so do check with your supervisor and department to see which voice is preferable for your abstract. The first sentence of an abstract is particularly vital for gaining both the interest and the confidence of your readers so it needs to be polished to perfection in both content and style on scholarly writing and sentence structure see Section 5.4 below. It may be helpful to think of the abstract as an appetiser that precedes the thesis the main course. You want potential readers to be tantalised by what the abstract says and how it says it to enjoy the texture and flavour of the words and sentences you use in your appetiser and thereby develop a hearty appetite for the thesis dinner that follows. You do not want them to feel glutted by too much nourishment that is too richly seasoned as is the case if too much information or specialised terminology is packed into the abstract or repulsed by a dull product of so low a quality that they leave the table before dinner arrives as may well be the case if the written style of an abstract is poor and its meaning is unclear. For these reasons the abstract will usually require more than one thorough revision and considerable polishing as you work on the thesis and receive feedback from your committee members. CHAPTER 4 90 It is also useful to start putting together a list of keywords or key terms see Section 1.1.3 above before you begin writing the thesis because as terms that potential readers will use to find your thesis they are a lot more important than they may seem. Between three and ten keywords are normally required with three to eight being most common and they are generally arranged alphabetically separated by commas semicolons or occasionally middots points raised above the line and sometimes capitalised usually with only their initial letters uppercase though block capitals are sometimes used so do check your university or department guidelines for the appropriate number and format. The keywords you choose should be terms that represent central concepts in your thesis and that will probably be entered in search engines by readers seeking information of the kind contained in your thesis. Abbreviations such as acronyms and initialisms should be avoided unless the abbreviation is more common than the full term as is the case with NASA AIDS CD and IQ and is therefore likely to be used instead of the full term in searches. Although specialised terminology should not be used unnecessarily if discipline-specific terms are likely to be entered as search words by potential readers it is appropriate to use those terms as keywords which should reflect the current terminology and language within your discipline. By creating your keywords early in the drafting process you can ensure that you use those terms frequently in your thesis and it is easy to add delete or replace a term during the writing process if necessary. PRS Tip Although the abstract for your thesis may seem too small a piece of writing to send off for professional proofreading it is a crucial part of your thesis and usually requires far more than a basic competence in writing formal scholarly English. Everything you include in your abstract in terms of content must be necessary precise and informative while the writing style you use must be CHAPTER 4 91correct consistent accomplished and in the best of worlds eloquent. The passive voice abbreviations and bibliographical references should be avoided if possible and while detailed information on your aims methods results and conclusions is required too many details and data will overburden your readers or potential readers and defeat the purpose of the abstract. With so many elements to juggle you may well wish to seek some objective critical advice so remember that PRS proofreaders are always available to help you. No piece of writing is too short to receive detailed attention so do feel free to send your abstract alone for proofreading or to send your abstract to PRS several times as you work at revising and polishing it. You could for instance send a new version with each chapter of your thesis as you draft them and your abstract could thereby benefit from the repeated attention of a single proofreader or the advice of several proofreaders. However you wish to engage the assistance of the PRS proofreaders your abstract and any other parts of your thesis will undoubtedly be improved through the careful attention of an expert in scholarly English writing. 4.3 Revising the Introduction literature Review and Methodology Chapters If you have not undergone a proposal process for your thesis you will be writing the introduction literature review and description of your methodology for the first time so please see Sections 3.13.3 above for detailed advice on drafting these chapters. If you have completed a proposal you will already have drafted these chapters received feedback on them from your supervisor and other committee members and in most cases revised them. This does not mean however that there will be nothing to do as you prepare them for inclusion in the thesis. Very few changes may be necessary CHAPTER 4 92 particularly in your introduction and literature review if your plans for the thesis have changed very little as you completed your research but if you have altered the overall structure of your thesis or the exact nature of the problem you are exploring for instance or if your aims research questions sources or methods have undergone important changes or if any alterations recommended by your committee members during the proposal process have not yet been completed significant revisions may be needed to bring your original versions of these chapters in line with your new thesis outline and the requirements of your committee. If you planned to include tables or figures to enhance the description of your methods or to clarify any aspect of your introduction or literature review but did not already do so for the proposal they should be added at this point on tables and figures see Section 1.3 above and Section 4.4.1 below. You will in any case need to expand the summary of the contents of the thesis that appears at the end of the introduction so that it covers the thesis as a whole. You will almost certainly need to adjust your verb tenses in a number of places especially in your methodology chapters because research experiments and trials that were anticipated in the proposal will now have been completed I will be circulating a questionnaire for example will need to be changed to I circulated a questionnaire and I plan to conduct a trial will need to be reworded as I conducted a trial. You may also have to rewrite sentences and paragraphs describing your methods their limitations and both their strengths and weaknesses more accurately than you could have before those methods were put into practice and if any problems arose while conducting your research that resulted in changes to your methodology those too should be introduced and discussed. Although it may be tempting to leave the revision of these chapters until the new chapters are drafted refining your earlier work before moving on to new material is a wiser approach. The distance you have already gained from your proposal while conducting your research will provide you with a more objective perspective with which to approach your work critically CHAPTER 4 93 and reviewing your earlier work will effectively return you to the many complexities of your writing. This is also a good time to ensure that styles formats and other details that must be considered throughout the thesis are used consistently throughout these chapters and thus established for future chapters see Chapters 68 below on formatting references and quotations. You may or may not have to share your revised chapters with your supervisor or thesis committee but it is always a good idea to keep your supervisor up to date with your progress and he or she may have helpful suggestions for effective revision techniques. 4.4 Writing the Data Analysis Chapters Results and Evidence Unlike the introduction literature review and methodology chapters your results chapters will need to be written for the first time as you draft your thesis even if you submitted a proposal though this part of your thesis will certainly build upon the preceding chapters. You should have carefully recorded and collected the data test results participant responses computer print outs observations transcriptions notes of various kinds etc. from your research as you conducted it so now is the time to review organise and analyse the data. If your study is quantitative in nature make sure that you know what all the numbers mean and that you consider them in direct relation to the topic problem or phenomenon you are investigating and especially in relation to your research questions and hypotheses. You may find that you require the services of a statistician to help make sense of the data in which case obtaining that help sooner rather than later is advisable because you need to understand your results thoroughly before you can write about them. If on the other hand your study is qualitative you will need to read through the data you have collected several times to become familiar with them both as a whole and in detail so that you can establish CHAPTER 4 94 important themes patterns and categories. Remember that qualitative analysis is a creative process and requires thoughtful judgments about what is significant and meaningful in the data Roberts 2010 p.174 see also Miles Huberman 1994 judgements that often need to be made before the findings can be effectively analysed and presented. If you are combining methodologies in your research you will also need to consider relationships between the results obtained from the different methods integrating all the data you have obtained and discovering how the results of one approach support or correlate with the results of another. Ideally you will have taken careful notes recording your initial thoughts and analyses about the sources you consulted and the results and evidence provided by particular methods and instruments as you put them into practice as suggested in Sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.4 above these will prove helpful while you consider how best to present your results in your thesis. Although the ways in which to present and organise the results of doctoral research differ markedly depending on the nature of the study and its findings as on author and committee preferences and university and department guidelines there are several basic principles that apply to virtually all theses. First and foremost is the need to present the results of your research both clearly and concisely and in as objective and factual a manner as possible. There will be time and space to elaborate and interpret your results and speculate on their significance and implications in the final discussion chapters of your thesis but generally speaking such reflection on the meaning of the results should be entirely separate from the factual report of your research findings. There are exceptions of course and some candidates supervisors and departments may prefer the factual presentation and interpretive discussion of results to be blended just as some thesis topics may demand such treatment but this is rare and best avoided unless there are persuasive reasons to avoid separating the facts from your CHAPTER 4 95 thoughts about them. If you do find that you need to blend facts and interpretation in reporting your results make sure that your language leaves no doubt about the line between the two words such as seems appears may might probably and the like will effectively distinguish analytical speculation from more factual reporting see also Section 4.5 below. You need not dedicate much space in this part of the thesis to the methods you used to arrive at your results because these have already been described in your methodology chapters but they can certainly be revisited briefly to clarify or lend structure to your report. Results are most often presented in a straightforward narrative form which is often supplemented by tables and perhaps by figures such as graphs charts and maps. An effective approach is to decide immediately which information would be best included in tables and figures and then to prepare those tables and figures before you begin writing the text for the chapter see Section 4.4.1 below on designing effective tables and figures. Arranging your data into the visually immediate formats provided by tables and figures can for one produce interesting surprises by enabling you to see trends and details that you may not have noticed previously and writing the report of your results will prove easier when you have the tables and figures to work with just as your readers ultimately will. In addition while the text of the results chapters should certainly highlight the most notable data included in tables and figures it is essential not to repeat information unnecessarily so writing with the tables and figures already constructed will help you keep repetition to a minimum. Finally writing about the tables and figures you create will help you test their clarity and effectiveness for your readers and you can make any necessary adjustments to the tables and figures as you work. Be sure to refer to each table and figure by number in your text and to make it absolutely clear what you want your readers to see or understand in the table or figure e.g. see Table 1 for the scores and Figure 2 shows this relationship. CHAPTER 4 96 Beyond combining textual narration with the data presented in tables and figures you will need to organise your report of the results in a manner best suited to the material. You may choose to arrange the presentation of your results chronologically or in a hierarchical order that represents their importance you might subdivide your results into sections or separate chapters if there is a great deal of information to accommodate focussing on the findings of different kinds of methodology quantitative versus qualitative for instance or of different tests trials surveys reviews case studies and so on or you may want to create sections or chapters focussing on specific themes patterns or categories or on your research questions andor hypotheses. The last approach allows you to cluster results that relate to a particular question or hypothesis into a single section and can be particularly useful because it provides cohesion for the thesis as a whole and forces you to focus closely on the issues central to the topic problem or phenomenon you are investigating. You will for instance be able to refer back to the questions and hypotheses presented in your introduction see Section 3.1 above to answer the questions and confirm or dismiss the hypotheses and to anticipate in relation to those questions and hypotheses the discussion and interpretation of your findings that will appear in the next part of the thesis see Section 4.5 below. Less effective is an approach that organises the presentation of results according to the items of a survey or questionnaire because these lend the structure of the instrument used to the results instead of connecting those results directly to the aims themes and argument of your thesis but such an organisation can certainly be an important early step in your analysis of the findings and might even be valid for the final thesis if for instance your work focuses on developing the instrument involved. The results generated by doctoral research are unique and this book cannot hope to outline all the possible approaches for presenting the data and analyses that constitute research results CHAPTER 4 97 but it is essential that you devote considerable thought and special care to the way in which you structure the report of your results Section 6.1 below on headings may prove helpful. Whatever structure you choose should accurately reflect the nature of your results and highlight their most important and interesting trends and it should also effectively allow you in the next part of the thesis to discuss and speculate upon your findings in ways that will test the premises of your study work well in the overall argument of your thesis and lead to significant implications for your research. Regardless of how you organise the main body of your results chapters however you should include a final paragraph or more than one paragraph if necessary that briefly summarises and explains the key results and also guides the reader on to the discussion and interpretation of those results in the following chapters. 4.4.1 Designing Tables and Figures The Visual Presentation of Information Tables and figures may of course appear in other parts of a thesis in a background or methodology chapter for instance but they commonly play an essential role in the chapters dedicated to reporting the results of doctoral research so I have chosen to discuss them here. As I mentioned in Section 1.3 above tables and figures can be embedded in appropriate places within the text or tacked on to the end of the relevant chapters or to the end of the thesis as a whole. The size and structure of tables and figures as well as committee preferences and university or department guidelines may influence placement decisions. Your university or department might even have specific guidelines regarding the preparation of tables and figures for doctoral theses or there may be standard canonical forms for tables and figures within your discipline so do discuss with your supervisor the inclusion and CHAPTER 4 98 design of any tables and figures you are planning. It is also a good idea to give some thought to the software you are using to construct your tables and figures if for instance you will be designing your tables and figures in the same program that you use to write the text of your thesis there should be no problems with embedding tables and figures in your text but if you are using a different program for creating tables and figures than you are for creating text or even two additional programs one for tables and the other for figures it is important to make sure that all the software you use is compatible and will therefore allow you to combine text tables and figures as necessary. As a general rule all tables and figures should be numbered usually with Arabic numerals Roman numerals or letters are much rarer in the order in which they are first mentioned in the thesis and each table or figure should be referred to in the thesis by its number e.g. Table 1 and Figure 2 along with some explanation of what the reader should look for in the table or figure. All tables or all figures may be numbered in a single sequence throughout the thesis or the numbering may begin again for each new chapter if the latter is the case the chapter numbers will also need to be provided before the table and figure numbers e.g. Table 3.1 for the first table in Chapter 3 and Figure 4.2 for the second figure in Chapter 4. The tables and figures themselves should also appear in their order of mention whether they are embedded in the text or placed at the end of the chapters or the thesis as a whole if you will be including tables and figures in appendices at the end of your thesis see Section 4.6.1 below for advice on numbering and labelling such tables and figures appropriately. If tables and figures are embedded they should be placed as close as possible to your discussion of or references to them in the main text. Neither tables nor figures should serve as substitutes for describing methodology for presenting results or more generally for scholarly argumentation but both should augment and clarify CHAPTER 4 99 your methods findings and argument. Each table or figure should ideally be designed so that it can stand alone which means that all of the information in it should be explained or defined in the context of the table or figure itself so that the material contained within it is entirely accessible to readers without recourse to other parts of the thesis. Tables. Although the line distinguishing tables from figures and even lists on which see Section 5.5.2 below can be somewhat blurry at times generally speaking tables show numerical andor textual information in neatly arranged rows and columns that render the material visually accessible and allow it to be more easily compared calculated and understood by readers than it could be were the same data simply described in text. The overall layout of a table all the elements contained within it and the heading and notes that appear above and below it must be clear concise informative and accurate. This means that a table must use fonts characters and symbols in sizes and styles that are highly legible and readily comprehensible for some excellent examples of table formats see the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 pp.129149 Tufte 2001 provides guidance on designing tables that may also prove helpful. You may want to take advantage of automatic table functions in the software you are using to construct your tables or you may prefer a more manual approach using tabs and spaces your department or supervisor may have advice on which method is preferable. Rules or lines can be helpful for separating and clarifying the information presented in tables and most tables are demarcated by head and tail top and bottom rules note that the table heading should appear above the head rule and the table footnotes beneath the tail rule but vertical rules are often frowned upon and even horizontal rules should be kept to a minimum. The length and position of any rules used should be appropriate so that they effectively separate and clarify the material presented. CHAPTER 4 100 Each table included in a thesis should bear at its top a title or main heading that identifies the table by number and indicates exactly what the table shows any repetition of the heading in the text of the thesis or in a list of tables if included see Section 1.1.9 above and Section 4.6.2 below should match that heading exactly. A table heading should be as short as possible but detailed enough to explain briefly what the table contains and shows. It should not furnish background information repeat the column heads or describe the results illustrated by the table. . . . Let the table give the facts commentary can be offered in the text Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.499. A full stop usually appears between the number and the heading Table 1. Demographic characteristics of study participants but occasionally a colon is used instead and no punctuation at all is quite common especially if the table bears a double number Table 2.1 Demographic characteristics of study participants in which case an extra space or two is sometimes added after the last numeral. Only the initial letter of the first word of the heading is usually capitalised as in the preceding sentence along with any proper nouns but alternatively all main words can bear capitals Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Study Participants.Abbreviations should be avoided in table headings as in all headings see Section 6.1 below and on abbreviations Section 6.3 below if at all possible but if any nonstandard abbreviations also used in the table must appear in its heading they can be defined parenthetically Table 1. Demographic characteristics of SPs study participants would be effective for instance though most nonstandard abbreviations in a table should be defined in the table footnotes see my discussion below regarding abbreviations and footnotes in tables. Units that are used throughout a table can also be defined or explained in its heading Reaction time of study participants in milliseconds and the logic governing the order in which material is presented in a table can also be briefly explained in the heading Spring wild flowers of the Fraser Valley arranged according to blooming times. No full stop is required at the end of CHAPTER 4 101 short table headings but if a table heading runs to more than one sentence a closing stop is appropriate and if this is the case for one or more table headings a full stop can be used to close all table headings so that consistency is maintained across all tables in the thesis. Each column and row of a table should bear a heading that indicates the kind of data contained in the column or row. Column and row or stub headings should be clear precise and legible with all of them ideally using similar phrasing or syntax when relevant and appearing in the same size font often a font slightly smaller than that used in the thesis. Since space is usually limited in a table these headings should also be as brief as possible should feature initial capitals on their first word and proper nouns only and should use no final punctuation. Units and percentages used in the column or row must be identified in the relevant heading unless they are common throughout the table and mentioned in the main table heading which is often done in parentheses Reaction time ms. Parentheses can also be used to present more than one kind of data for example a column with the heading No. of men might contain entries such as 1428 2448 and 3264 with the first numeral representing the number of men the second numeral in parentheses providing the percentage and both doing so clearly and concisely without the need to repeat the units. Units should not be repeated in every cell of a column or row unless the units differ in each case and providing a single unit for the whole column or row would be inaccurate. As the above examples show abbreviations and symbols can be used in column and row headings see my discussion of abbreviations in tables below but column and row headings are not normally numbered unless numbers are used in the text of the thesis in relation to the material presented in the columns and rows in which case the numbers can be helpful for readers using the table. CHAPTER 4 102 Numbers in tables should in almost all cases appear as numerals not words which allows for easy calculation and comparison as well as saving space. Any mathematical operators - etc. should be placed up against the numerals they apply to and special care should be taken to ensure that minus signs are distinguished from hyphens and dashes. Spans of numbers that appear in column or row headings should be accurate with neither gaps nor overlaps 1 10 1120 2130 and so on rather than 19 1119 2129 or 110 1020 2030. The numbers in each column of a table should also be aligned vertically in terms of decimal points commas and spaces if the rows contain similar units and especially if the column has a total. Consistency in the format of numbers is essential within a table and best across all tables in a thesis and accuracy in reporting numerical data is essential so make sure that all numbers in each table you include are correct and match exactly the same numerical information elsewhere in the thesis for more information on using and formatting numbers see Section 6.4 below. If tables are to be compared the same units should be used in all of them and wherever the same units are used the format of those units terms abbreviations etc. should be identical. Abbreviations and symbols save space so they are used extensively in tables but they are only effective if readers understand what is meant by them so common abbreviations and symbols for units of measurement e.g. C Hz g kg m and km and standard statistical abbreviations and symbols ANOVA ES N p RMSEA SEM etc. should be used whenever possible. These abbreviations usually do not require any definition though if there is any doubt about your readers familiarity with the statistical abbreviations in particular definitions should be provided either in the main table heading see above or more likely in the table footnotes see below abbreviations are usually not defined in column or row headings. When any nonstandard unusual or specialist abbreviations are used such as those for highly technical CHAPTER 4 103 or discipline-specific terms or those for group names and other aspects of a particular study they must be defined in the table even if they have already been defined in the thesis see Section 6.3 below for further information. If such an abbreviation appears in both the table heading and the table itself it can be defined in the heading but otherwise abbreviations of this kind are usually defined in the table footnotes see my discussion below. Whatever kinds of abbreviations are used they should be used in the same forms in all relevant tables as well as in other parts of the thesis so that consistency and clarity are maintained. Generally speaking there are four different kinds of footnotes that can appear as needed at the bottom of a table general notes source notes notes on specific parts of the table and probability notes. Table footnotes are often set at table width in a slightly smaller font size than that used in the table itself which when a table is embedded helps to distinguish them from the running text of the thesis beneath the table but a line or two of space should nonetheless appear beneath the table footnotes for a clear layout. Strictly speaking each note should begin on a new line and end with a full point but this is often impractical for reasons of space and layout so shorter notes of a single type can run on separated by semicolons ANOVA analysis of variance CI confidence interval ES effect size and longer notes that differ more greatly from each other but are still in the same category sometimes run on separated by full stops Data were collected from 1 May 2003 to 30 April 2004. ANOVA analysis of variance CI confidence interval and so on. There is no need to use any type of note unless that type of explanation or documentation is required but the types of notes should always be arranged within a single thesis in the same order under each table that uses more than one type. There is however no uniform agreement on what that order should be or exactly what should be contained in each type of note though probability notes are a little more straightforward than the others so do check CHAPTER 4 104 department guidelines for relevant advice or discuss the matter with your supervisor and if you find you need further help designing your table notes more details can be found in Butcher et al. 2006 p.226 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 pp.511513 the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 Section 5.16 and Ritter 2005 Section 15.2.5. Whatever order and content you decide on for the four categories consistency should be observed across all tables in a thesis and any information in the footnotes repeated elsewhere in the thesis should of course correspond with precision. I outline below the most common and accepted scholarly practices for constructing the four kinds of table footnotes general notes as their name suggests apply to the table generally or as a whole and usually appear first of the four types though sometimes source notes precede them or are included in the general notes. General notes usually begin with the word Note or Notes often in italic font as here although bold font or block capitals are also used which is followed by either a full stop or a colon font and punctuation should be consistent throughout the tables in a thesis. No indicator linking the general notes category or the individual notes within it to any part of the table is required. Definitions of abbreviations are often included in the general footnotes so Data were collected from 1 May 2003 to 30 April 2004. ANOVA analysis of variance CI confidence interval ES effect size would work as a general note. When abbreviations are included in a general note in this way they are usually recorded in alphabetical order just as they are in a list of abbreviations see Section 1.1.7 above and Section 4.6.2 below. Source notes often appear as a separate category rather than being included in the general notes which they can follow or precede. They usually open with the word Source or Sources normally set in italic font although here too bold font or block capitals are sometimes used which is followed by either a full stop or a colon the format should match that of the Note or Notes CHAPTER 4 105 preceding the general notes if there are any and remain consistent across all tables. Source notes provide references for any material the entire table its format the data within it etc. that has been borrowed from another work. Sources can be provided via whatever referencing system is used in the thesis as long as each source is included in the list of references or bibliography otherwise a full bibliographical reference should be provided with this format being particularly appropriate for manuscripts visual arts and other sources for which recording the library or museum and its location alongside the material is standard practice e.g. Based on Washington DC Folger Shakespeare Library MS V.a.354 fol.121v. Notes on specific parts of tables usually follow general and source notes and are like true footnotes in that they are keyed to specific words symbols and numbers within the table. To avoid confusion the system of indicators used in a table must be separate and different from that used for any footnotes or endnotes used in the main body of the thesis but the same system should be used wholly or partially as relevant in all tables requiring notes on specific parts. Arabic numerals can therefore be used if numbered notes are not used elsewhere in the thesis but if there are already numbered notes in the main text it is best if the table notes take another form such as superscript lowercase letters or a collection of specific characters it is essential that these cannot be confused with other characters and symbols in the tables however and the asterisk should definitely not be used if probability notes are also required. A table should be read across the rows from top left to bottom right when providing indicators within the table and arranging the specific notes at the bottom. Such notes can be attached to any element of a table requiring explanation except the main table heading footnotes are usually discouraged on all main headings and probability and significance levels. Probability notes follow all other categories. Like notes on CHAPTER 4 106 specific parts of a table they use a system of indicators but one that specifies p values via the number of asterisks attached to a numeral and is generally explained with a note of this kind p .05 p .01 p .001 the Publication Manual of the APA recommends that any value smaller than p .001 not be used 2010 p.139. Note that the p is usually lowercase and set in italic font zeroes are normally omitted before the decimal point and spaces generally appear around the 107 Photographs for instance must be clear and represent accurately the reality they are intended to depict. Any changes you need to make to photographs especially those purchased from libraries museums and the like should be acknowledged and the identities of any subjects that appear within them may need to be masked. Charts and graphs should be complete with lines bars and shading effectively showing what they should all scales and units defined and clearly indicated and the necessary axes marked. Maps should show the areas and locations discussed in the thesis and all place names should match the names for the same places used in the main text. Indeed all information contained in figures of any kind should be accurate in relation to the same information presented elsewhere in the thesis and figures should not contain extraneous material that might distract the reader from the primary purposes of the figures. Similar material presented in more than one chart graph map or any other kind of figure should as much as possible use consistent design elements graphic styles typography and terminology. Unlike tables figures do not have main headings instead captions andor legends are used. The terms caption and legend can be confusing however. Caption usually refers to what is basically the equivalent of a tables main heading a brief and often explanatory description of what the figure shows that also includes the word Figure or the abbreviation Fig. and the figure number. The caption can help guide the reader through understanding different parts or elements of the figure via instructions such as to the left at top right in the bottom image and so on or via letters a b c etc. or A B C etc. that label the different parts and are explained in the caption. A figure caption usually appears below or sometimes beside the figure it describes very rarely above it but figure captions can and usually should use the same style and format wording font capitalisation punctuation etc. as the table headings in a thesis do e.g. Figure 1. Letter forms in the three CHAPTER 4 108 British Library manuscripts which matches the format of Table 1. Demographic characteristics of study participants that I used as an example above. Legend is sometimes used interchangeably with caption but a legend tends to provide more detailed information or a more extensive explanation than a caption does. A legend can be an integral part of a figure see the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 p.159 usually appearing in the bottom part of the figure but not beneath it as the caption does and using the size and style of font used within the figure. With this meaning a legend overlaps with a key which also appears within the figure defines the symbols and abbreviations used in the figure and explains any other aspects of the figure that might be unclear without description. More than one of these caption legend and key that is can be used while constructing figures symbols and abbreviations can be defined in any one of them and sources credits and acknowledgements are usually provided at the end of the caption or legend. Whatever the exact formats and strategies you use for figures may be it is essential that consistency in their use be maintained as much as possible throughout all figures in your thesis. The labels in a figure are equivalent to the column and row headings in a table and should be equally clear as well as both concise and descriptive. All important elements of a figure should be accurately and effectively labelled with each label appearing as close as possible to the part of the figure it identifies using a leader line to connect the label to what is labelled if necessary and bearing an initial capital only on the first word and any proper nouns Top right and Bottom left but British Columbia. Although the same size and style of font can and often should be used for all labelling within a figure font sizes and styles can be altered to distinguish different categories. In a map for example countries could be labelled with block capitals CANADA while the labels of other elements use initial capitalisation only with regions or provinces marked in roman font Alberta cities in bold font Victoria and CHAPTER 4 109 rivers in italic font Thompson River. If font sizes vary the variation should not be extreme generally speaking there should not be more than a 20 difference in font size within a single figure and all fonts and individual labels must remain legible. Levels and axes should be labelled and scales and units of measure provided. Abbreviations and symbols can be used but as with those found in tables anything nonstandard or potentially unfamiliar to the intended audience should be defined see my next paragraph for further details. Excessive labelling can be avoided by using a long caption andor a detailed key which are often more legible and thus more successful tools for explaining a complex figure. As with the headings within tables the style format and content of labelling should as much as possible maintain consistency within each figure and across all relevant figures in a thesis and they should also be consistent with any information repeated in other parts of the thesis. Footnotes are not used in figures so definitions of abbreviations and symbols information on probability values explanations of specific aspects of a figure and documentation of sources along with any necessary credits and acknowledgements are provided in the caption legend or key with some elements in one and some in another if more than one of these is used. Definitions of symbols or colours for instance might be more appropriate in a short key while definitions of abbreviations would be better suited to a legend or caption. Guidelines differ on precisely how the different elements should be arranged so do check with your department or supervisor but general explanations tend to come first followed by definitions of abbreviations and probability notes using the same asterisk system as that used in tables and almost always finishing with sources and acknowledgements some good examples formatted as legends within figures can be found in the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 pp.152166. References can be provided via the system used elsewhere in the thesis as long as the sources are CHAPTER 4 110 included in the bibliography or reference list but full bibliographical information can instead be recorded in the caption or legend and this approach may be more appropriate for some material see this point in the discussion of tables above. Longer notes and explanations are usually structured as full sentences but shorter ones such as definitions of abbreviations or asterisks for p values can be presented as run-on lists with the items separated by semicolons on lists see Section 5.5.2 below. Abbreviations symbols definitions explanations and their styles should remain consistent across all figures in a thesis and in all places where the same material is repeated in other parts of the thesis. PRS Tip The findings of your research constitute an extremely important part of your thesis so it is essential to submit your results chapters and your tables and figures or even the initial sections of the results chapter and the first few tables and figures to your supervisor before you proceed further with writing your thesis. The commentary of your supervisor and any other committee members you may wish to involve at this point can save you a great deal of rewriting in later parts of the thesis by bringing to light any problems with the ways in which you have chosen to report your findings and thereby allowing you to resolve them at once by taking new directions if necessary. It is also a very good idea to have an objective and critical reader look over this material before you submit it to your supervisor and other committee members. Fellow postgraduate students make a good audience but a professional proofreader has a lot to offer as well. The educated proofreaders at PRS not only specialise in academic and scientific writing but some of them work particularly on theses and dissertations and most of these proofreaders have successfully completed their own theses andor dissertations. They can check and correct your spelling punctuation and CHAPTER 4 111grammar as well as ensuring that your written English is communicating clearly with your readers in an acceptable scholarly fashion. They can examine tables and figures and the references to them in your text to be sure they are clear consistent and effective for presenting the information they contain. They can check abbreviations numbers quotations headings fonts references and a host of other complicated details for accuracy and consistency. They can in short produce results with which you will be delighted so do send a section or chapter of your thesis to PRS today and discover the difference a professional proofreader can make. 4.5 The Final Chapters Discussion Conclusion limitations and Implications In some theses the discussion of the study its results and any concluding thoughts will fill more than one chapter there may be for instance a chapter dedicated to discussion and a shorter conclusion chapter or perhaps two chapters dedicated to discussing the results of different methodologies and a final chapter on relationships between those different results. In many theses however a single chapter will suffice for both discussion and conclusion. This final part of your thesis is a vital one it tends to synthesise and analyse all elements of the thesis in order to evaluate and explain the overall significance of the research and readers will often turn to the discussion or conclusion chapter first to obtain an overall picture of a study. The structure of this all-important final material varies considerably from thesis to thesis yet it is essential that it be designed in a way that allows you to move through a great deal of potentially complicated analytical and speculative information in an orderly fashion. Considerable reflection is therefore necessary before beginning to write and not only to get the structure CHAPTER 4 112 right. That structure depends of course on exactly what you intend to include in your discussion chapters and deciding on exactly what to say will take some deep reflective thought on your part. You may wish to address your plans for your discussion and conclusion chapters with your supervisor and other committee members and it is also a good idea to see if your department has any guidelines for this part of the thesis especially if you are feeling unsure about how to proceed and could use some practical advice. In the final analysis however you are better acquainted with your research and thus better able to make sense of it than anyone else can be so you are the only person truly qualified not only to write but also to design the discussion and conclusion for that research. Besides this final part of the thesis is your opportunity to express your own perspective and opinions on the significance of your doctoral research based firmly of course on the topic problem or phenomenon you investigated your aims and objectives the methods you used and the results you achieved. Unfortunately you may well feel rather exhausted by the experience of drafting your thesis by the time you arrive at your discussion chapters but detailed analysis intellectual vigour and creative connections are absolutely necessary for discussing and concluding your thesis and a little passion never hurts either. Doing less than your best at this point would compromise all the effort you have already invested so take a deep breath and dive into what can in fact be the most challenging and pleasurable part of writing a thesis. There is no simple or universal recipe for successfully discussing and concluding a doctoral thesis and its research but generally speaking an inversion of your opening chapters takes place in those chapters you moved your reader from the more general background and scholarship associated with the topic problem or phenomenon to focus on your particular perspective and approach in your final chapters you need to use the specific focus you adopted and the results you achieved to move your reader back CHAPTER 4 113 out to the more general interpretations and implications of your research. In order to achieve this there are a number of practical approaches and standard expectations that are worthy of serious consideration before forging your own unique path through the forest of possibilities. Discussing and concluding a thesis effectively might and generally should involve A brief introduction outlining the structure and content of the chapters. This can take the form of a single short paragraph but because the discussion section of a thesis tends to be creative and is always unique and it is essential that readers understand exactly what you intend an opening paragraph of this sort can be extremely helpful for clarifying your approach and raising appropriate expectations. A brief but informative summary of the study or thesis as a whole. This need only highlight the major issues and can be done efficiently by moving through the individual chapters as outlined in the following four points. A return to the introduction of the thesis to restate the most important material introduced there. The research topic problem or phenomenon should certainly be emphasised as should its significance your aims and objectives and any research questions and hypotheses you introduced and used as guiding factors in your research. You will need to analyse how your research and results answer resolve and contribute to knowledge in relation to these elements so any or all of them can effectively be used to structure the chapter especially if you have used them to organise your report of the results. You may also want to return to the essential aspects of the background and context of your research as discussed in the introduction chapter but this tends to be necessary only if that background and context is immediately relevant to your discussion and concluding thoughts. A return to the literature review to highlight the most important aspects of previous research on your topic and any key theories CHAPTER 4 114 related to your work in the thesis. Any gaps misconceptions and limitations that you identified in the scholarship in your earlier literature review should be restated with the goal being to explain exactly how your research and its results have provided what was lacking established new ways of looking at the problems and thus moved beyond the traditional views and limitations. Your thesis should make an original contribution to knowledge and discussing it in relation to previous scholarship in the area is one of the most effective ways to identify emphasise and explain that contribution. A return to the description of your methodology. This need not be long or detailed but it sometimes is and reviewing your main methods and approaches with an eye to evaluating their reliability limitations and overall effectiveness is an important part of assessing your research. Your understanding of the appropriateness of your methodology may have changed since you first designed your study particularly as you analysed and reported your results. Your methods may have exceeded or failed to live up to your expectations or they may have presented limitations or complications you had not envisioned. You may have made errors while putting your methods into practice. Whatever the reality of your methodology proved to be should be explained accurately and objectively so this is a place for complete if sometimes painful honesty. A return to the report of your results to summarise and highlight the key points. There is no need to go through your results in detail the chapters immediately preceding your discussion has already done that but since you will need to use the results to discuss the implications and limitations of your research mentioning the main trends is essential. You should focus particularly on the aspects of your results that you intend to discuss but try not to leave out any significant or meaningful findings including surprises whether they support your research hypotheses or not. Focus and brevity can be achieved by making CHAPTER 4 115 general statements about the nature of the results and following each statement with the most important examples and details to support it. An analysis and interpretation of your research as a whole and its results. This can be included in a step-by-step manner along with the summaries mentioned in the last four points above or it can be tackled separately after the relevant information from previous chapters has been highlighted. Your approach like your ideas for this part of your thesis will require a great deal of reflection and you may find that you have to begin more than once before finding the right direction. The essential question is What does it all mean and the answer can be notoriously difficult to identify and explain both thoughtfully and accurately. It is likely that your research and results will have many meanings but this is your chance to express your own views and opinions. These should not be whimsical erratic biassed or overly subjective however but should be solidly and logically based upon your findings. Your interpretations and conclusions should be plausible insightful and comprehensive and whenever your ideas are tentative or speculative as they will necessarily be at times when discussing matters such as causality your language should clearly indicate that with phrasing such as it seems that these results appear to suggest it is probable that and the likely explanation is. It is also important to explain how your research and results have resolved the problem you explored answered your research questions tested your hypotheses filled gaps in the scholarship on the topic revealed the limitations of earlier theories proved the validity of your methodology and achieved your aims and objectives. If you have not met with success in any of these areas that too should be indicated. An identification and analysis of the limitations of your study and its methodology. You may want to write this part along with the review of your main methods but it can also work as a separate section of the chapter because limitations often extend beyond CHAPTER 4 116 your methodology to your findings for instance. Identifying the limitations of your research and its results is a vital part of your thesis. You may prefer of course that there were no or very few limitations but they are an inevitable aspect of any research so recognising and discussing them not only demonstrates your intellectual maturity and critical skills but also makes your research much more useful for future researchers in your area including yourself. Limitations often stem from the nature of the research design and the exact qualities of the population or sample used both of which might be called normal limitations that affect the generalisability of your research but mistakes in controlling the relevant variables defects in the instruments used or inadequate approaches to recording or analysing data will result in limitations and perhaps unreliability of a different kind. If any such limitations proved so significant that it was necessary to adjust your methods andor repeat any of your research a discussion of that process the improvements you made and the ways in which the new results differed can be included as well though you may want to consult your supervisor about this as it might be more appropriate to discuss such changes in your methodology chapters instead. A discussion of the implications of your research and its results. This will tie into your comments about the significance of your research project as expressed in your introduction to the thesis but your understanding of that significance may well have changed since you began writing and you can provide further details as well as more certain conclusions in this chapter based on the results you have presented. Implications whether for practical action or intellectual reflection should obviously be directly related to the topic problem or phenomenon you explored it can be helpful to imagine what you would tell an audience affected by the problem or phenomenon if you had only enough time to emphasise a few major points and good use can be made of your research questions and hypotheses as well as your aims and objectives as you construct your discussion. The CHAPTER 4 117 implications you identify should be considered in relation to the background and context of your research as well as previous scholarship in the area including both trials and studies of a more theoretical nature ask yourself how your results build on the literature you reviewed and how your study integrates with or overturns current theories. You may also want to comment on the implications of your methodology especially if it has been innovative problematic or extraordinarily successful. You will have a great deal of freedom in expressing your thoughts about your work the factual reporter of your results chapter has been left behind for the authoritative thinker of your discussion but be sure that the implications you identify and explain are based firmly and logically upon your research and its results and when you are theorising generalising and speculating ensure that your language accurately reflects those tentative modes. One or more recommendations for future research in your area or discipline. Your recommendations for future research will be based to a large extent on the implications and limitations of your own research. It may be that some idealistic researchers start projects with the notion that their work will resolve all associated questions and problems but this rarely if ever happens in reality and often the answers that are derived from careful and extensive research complicate matters and open more doors on further research needs and possibilities. Your recommendations may involve repeating the kind of research you have done but with changes that would eliminate the limitations you have identified by adding controls for instance or choosing or developing different instruments participants or means of analysis or they may involve taking very different directions by conducting entirely different kinds of research using entirely different methods perhaps or focussing from a different perspective on the most unexpected or surprising trends of your results. Remember that your recommendations for future research can transform aspects of your work that may have proved disappointing into positive possibilities. CHAPTER 4 118 A brief conclusion. Since conclusions about your study are a major part of this chapter a conclusion to it may seem somewhat redundant but it is important to end on a bright clear note. Sometimes an academic or scientific author will dedicate pages of text to describing interpreting and speculating upon all the sound and revealing results he or she obtained only to turn at the end of the final chapter to the limitations of the study which can have the effect of dumping all the wind out of the sails he or she has so carefully and convincingly filled. It may be that the guidelines provided by your university or department call for limitations to be reported at the end of the thesis and as an essential aspect of valuable research limitations need not be negative especially if they are combined with or if possible followed by recommendations for future research. However after discussing the limitations of your study it can be useful to return to the unquestionably positive results and conclusions of your research. You might choose for instance three main concepts or conclusions that you would like to highlight as you close your text and these can certainly be qualified with hints of limitations and recommendations while still emphasising the significant contributions of your research. Keep in mind that a doctoral thesis should make a significant and original contribution to knowledge so highlighting the main ways in which it does so in your final thoughts is not out of place. If there was ever a time to blow your own horn a little this is it. 4.6 Appendices References Acknowledgements and Other Final Things 4.6.1 Appendices As I mentioned in Sections 1.4.1 and 3.5.3 above appendices are not required in a thesis but they are often included. If you are CHAPTER 4 119 considering appendices for your thesis check your university or department guidelines or discuss the idea with your supervisor to be certain that they will be received positively. It is also a good idea to revisit at this point any length or word count requirements or limitations set for doctoral theses by your university or department because if you have already reached the upper limit including appendices may require cutting other material and in such situations appendices should only be considered if they are absolutely necessary. However appendices are often preferable to extensive or overly long footnotes or endnotes or too much supplementary information in the main text of a thesis both of which can distract readers from your main argument. For this reason an effective strategy may be to move such material from the main text or notes into an appendix since this sort of revision will not significantly alter the overall length or word count of your thesis. If on the other hand your thesis is a little shy of the minimum length requirement you may want to add an appendix or two for supplementary information that you originally cut out of the thesis but that could usefully be included this can help you increase the word count to meet requirements. Your decision regarding the inclusion of appendices may also be simplified by the following information and advice. As a general rule appendices present subsidiary or supplementary material that is directly related to the material in the thesis itself and potentially helpful to readers but which might prove distracting or inappropriate or simply too long were it included in the main body of the thesis or in notes long footnotes in particular can make the layout of pages unattractive and should be avoided. An appendix is also a good format for material that is mentioned or discussed in more than one chapter part or section of a thesis because it helps the author avoid repetition while rendering the information readily available to readers. Appendices can contain a wide variety of material such as texts discussed in the thesis translations chronologies genealogies CHAPTER 4 120 examples of principles and procedures descriptions of complex pieces of equipment survey questionnaires participant responses detailed demographics for a population or sample lists particularly long ones tables and figures explanations or elaborations of any aspect of a study and any other supplementary information relevant to a thesis. This material should not be included in an appendix simply because it is interesting and you happen to have it however instead appendices should be included only if they help readers to understand evaluate or replicate the study or theoretical argument being made Publication Manual of the APA 2010 p.40. An appendix should not be a repository for odds and ends that the author could not work into the text Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.27. Ideally each appendix should have a specific theme focus or function and gather materials of a particular type or relating to a particular topic and it should bear a main heading that describes its content e.g. Appendix Questionnaire 3 in Spanish and English. If more than one theme or topic requires this sort of treatment additional appendices should be preferred to subdividing a single long appendix although appendices can certainly make use of internal headings and subheadings if necessary on headings see Section 6.1 below. It is also best if appendices like tables and figures are able to stand on their own so all abbreviations symbols and specialised or technical terminology should be briefly defined or explained within each appendix enabling the reader to understand the material without recourse to definitions and explanations in the rest of the thesis. All information in appendices that overlaps material in the main body of a thesis should match that material precisely in both content and format. Appendices can be set in the font size used in the main body of a thesis or a slightly smaller font to save space and they normally appear in the final matter before the endnotes if there are any or before the reference list or bibliography although in some cases the appendices will be the last items in a thesis so do check guidelines to determine if a specific position is required. The CHAPTER 4 121 first appendix in a thesis usually begins on a new page and subsequent appendices sometimes do the same though they can run on instead with a little extra spacing between the end of one appendix and the beginning of the next. If there is only one appendix in a thesis it will not need to be identified by a particular number or letter but if you intend to include two or more appendices they will need to be labelled with uppercase letters or with Arabic or Roman numerals according to the order in which the appendices are mentioned in the main text of the thesis which should match the order of their appearance in the final matter Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C etc. or Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 etc.. Appendices should always be referred to by these labels when they are discussed in the thesis and each appendix should be referred to at least briefly in the main text of the thesis. If a single table or figure makes up the whole of an appendix the appendix label and heading are sufficient for the table or figure as well but if an appendix contains more than a single table or figure each table and figure will need to be numbered and given a heading or caption and this numbering should be separate from the tables and figures associated with the chapters of the thesis. If there is only one appendix a capital A for Appendix should be used before each table or figure number Table A.1 and Figure A.2 but if more than one appendix is included the specific letter or number of the appendix should be used as well as the table or figure number Table C.3 Figure B.2 Table II.4 and Figure IV.2. Please note that if you have more than one appendix in your thesis and any of those appendices contain more than one table or figure the appendices should be labelled with letters or Roman numerals if such appendices use Arabic numerals it will be difficult to distinguish between tables and figures in chapters and those in the appendices e.g. Table 3.3 could be the third table in Chapter 3 or the third table in Appendix 3 whereas Table C.3 is clearly the third table in Appendix C. Tables and figures may be embedded in appendices CHAPTER 4 122 that also include text or they may appear at the end of each appendix but if the university or department guidelines you are following indicate that tables and figures in general should be placed at the end of the thesis those associated with appendices may need to appear there as well. For further information on tables and figures see Sections 1.3 and 4.4.1 above. 4.6.2 Other Final Things If you have not yet added or revised and expanded since your proposal any footnotes or endnotes that you intend to use for supplementary information in the thesis now is the time to add them see Section 3.4 above. It can be helpful to construct or review the supplementary notes and any appendices you plan to include at the same time so that you can decide which format is most appropriate for different kinds of material. If any ancillary lists are required a list of abbreviations for instance or lists of tables and figures these should be added at this point as well either in the preliminary or final matter depending on university or department guidelines andor personal preferences see Sections 1.1.71.1.9 above. A list of abbreviations is usually arranged alphabetically by the abbreviations rather than the full versions with a colon between each abbreviation and its definition see also Section 6.3 below ANOVA Analysis of variance CI Confidence interval ES Effect size Lists of tables and figures on which see also Sections 1.1.8 and 1.1.9 above on the other hand are arranged numerically according to the table or figure numbers and usually include the page number each table or figure appears on CHAPTER 4 123 Table 1 Items in Questionnaire 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Table 2 Items in Questionnaire 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Table 3 Items in Questionnaire 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Tables are usually listed separately from figures and shortened forms of table headings and figure captions are often used in these lists especially if the headings and captions are long consisting of more than a single sentence for instance but the table and figure numbers must match exactly the labels that appear on the tables and figures themselves and the order in which the tables and figures appear in the thesis. When tables and figures are reproduced or adapted from other sources acknowledgements of those sources are sometimes included in such lists. For general advice on constructing lists see Section 5.5.2 below. Acknowledgements of any assistance you received in writing the thesis and in some cases of any materials you used from previous publications should be added to the thesis as well see Section 1.1.6 above. Acknowledgements generally appear in the front matter of a thesis but they can instead be added to the final matter so you will need to determine which location is most appropriate for your thesis. Credits and permissions if necessary for material such as images tables and long quotations borrowed from sources sometimes appear along with the borrowed material itself instead of or in addition to appearing in the acknowledgements see Section 4.4.1 above for instance. Acknowledgements in theses tend to be rather informal and sometimes intensely personal when compared with the formal scholarly text used in the rest of a thesis. As a general rule this is fine you have after all had a great deal of help in achieving the monumental goal of writing your thesis and it is only natural to want to thank with enthusiasm those who assisted you. Do beware however of letting your prose style slip beneath the required standard. The acknowledgements may not be part of the scholarship in your thesis but they are there for all to read and a thesis is a CHAPTER 4 124 professional document so it is wise to maintain a professional perspective. Try to avoid arbitrary shifts between the first- second- and third-person voices e.g. I would like to thank my friend and colleague Vicky for reading each and every chapter with such painstaking care I wouldnt have survived this thesis without you and informal usage contractions for instance such as wouldnt in my example the second part of which would be better as I would not have survived this thesis without her. Keep in mind as well that some supervisors and committee members will feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when reading overly effusive expressions of gratitude aimed at themselves yes they have been wonderful but supervising your work is their job after all so maintaining the dignity and comfort of everyone involved including yourself while expressing sincere and even enthusiastic gratitude is the best approach. Focussing precisely on exactly what each individual has done that specifically assisted you in completing your thesis will help you keep your acknowledgements relevant and professional. Any dedication you wish to include in the thesis should be added to the front matter at this point as well. More importantly if you have not yet written your abstract and chosen your keywords they will need to be tackled and if you have already worked on these earlier revising them right after you have finished drafting the entire thesis is a good strategy see Sections 1.1.2 1.1.3 and 4.2 above. Finally you will need to add or complete all the necessary citations quotations and references in your thesis and compile the list of references list of works cited or bibliography that should appear at the end of the thesis or expand the one you submitted with your proposal see Sections 1.2.6 1.4.3 2.1.2 and 3.5.4 above. It is very late in the game indeed to be deciding upon referencing methods and styles at this point but if that is not yet a settled matter a consistent and effective system must be adopted and applied throughout the thesis before it is considered a complete draft and it is always wise to check your references carefully to be sure you CHAPTER 4 125 have met the requirements set by your university department and thesis committee. In Chapter 7 below I discuss in detail the main methods and styles of in-text referencing as well as reference lists and bibliographies so please refer to that chapter for specific advice on bringing your references into line with scholarly standards especially if you do not have specific guidelines to follow. If you use direct quotations in your thesis see also Chapter 8 where I outline the ways in which direct quotations should be presented and integrated in academic and scientific prose. Finally once you have the entire thesis drafted your table of contents will need to be completed by adding page numbers for the parts chapters and sections of the thesis and removing the summaries you used for your thesis outline if you have not already done so see Section 4.1 above or updated and checked if you are making use of a tool such as Words automatic table of contents function see Section 6.1.1 below for advice on creating an active table of contents. Make sure that all page numbers in the table of contents accurately indicate the pages on which those parts chapters and sections actually appear in the thesis and check the table of contents carefully to ensure that all titles and headings that appear in it match the corresponding headings in the thesis exactly in terms of order wording numbering if used punctuation and usually capitalisation as well see Section 6.1 below for further information on headings. Even something as simple as line spacing is important in this final stage. Although you may have single spaced your writing while sharing it with your supervisor and the other members of your committee without earning any complaints double spacing is usual in the main body or running text of a thesis and it also tends to make your work more legible and easier on the eyes of your readers than single spacing does. Many universities will require double spacing so do check for that in the guidelines and perhaps pay your readers who are also your examiners the courtesy of using it even if it is not required. CHAPTER 4 126 4.7 Revising Proofreading and Polishing the Thesis Draft How Many Times You are probably breathing an enormous sigh of relief at this point and rightly so. You should also give yourself a hearty pat on the back and perhaps go out and celebrate with your family or friends. You have after all drafted the whole of the beast that has no doubt been hounding your waking and sleeping hours for months and quite possibly years so do give yourself a little time to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. The time you allow yourself will also be helpful for the work you will need to do to proofread revise and polish your thesis it will put a little distance between you and your writing and distance is always helpful when you need an objective and critical perspective. Although you may be tempted to submit your thesis to your supervisor for reading and commentary right away while you are gaining that distance it is wisest to read through the entire draft yourself at this point before sharing it with any other reader. I certainly do not mean to undermine your well-earned sense of accomplishment but what you have at this point is what a student of mine once called a drafty draft a lovely little phrase for a text that has been fully drafted but still contains many imperfections holes or gaps as it were through which the wind of criticism can easily enter. This will be the case even if you have diligently shared each and every chapter as you completed it with your supervisor and other committee members and responded to their feedback with careful revisions. The thesis as a whole is an altogether different entity than its individual chapters so while keeping your committee up to date with what you write and revising according to their advice as you proceed will mean a lot fewer changes in the thesis draft it will not eliminate the need to read and polish the entire thesis before submitting it for commentary. Once you have given yourself enough space from your writing to gain as close to an objective perspective as possible and time CHAPTER 4 127 constraints may limit the space you have you should read through the thesis with a critical eye from beginning to end in a single sitting. Depending on the length of the thesis and your schedule this may take you more than a day and hence a single sitting but the point is that you should if at all possible perform this careful reading without any major especially intellectual interruptions so that you can gain a clear view of how the thesis progresses. There are so many matters both major and minor to watch for as you read that it can be difficult to do everything simultaneously so you may want to read through the text more than once or decide upon certain aspects to deal with separately in-text references and the reference list as well as quotations can for instance be productively checked for accuracy and consistency on their own and tables and figures can as well though the information they contain should also be compared with that in other parts of the thesis. Most of the work will need to be tackled in the context of the entire thesis however so you will have to apply the skills of a proofreader to your own work attending to each and every detail while also observing the larger picture. This is an excellent time to make connections and correct inconsistencies of all kinds across chapters and throughout the thesis as a whole. Absolutely central to the success of a thesis is its argument so you will need to pay special attention to the overall intellectual progression of your writing as well as to transitions of all kinds between chapters topics sources theories ideas methods instruments results subjects participants variables conditions comparisons paragraphs sentences and so on. Ask yourself as a critical reader whether your text communicates clearly what you intended it to communicate at every turn and ask yourself too if it does as far as you understand it what a doctoral thesis ought to do in your department and discipline. Ensure that there is an obvious line of thought your argument to the progression of which all aspects of the thesis contribute in a reasonable and orderly fashion CHAPTER 4 128 and add clarification explanation and elaboration if necessary. Your argument should be closely related to the structure of your thesis and its division into chapters sections subsections and other parts so spend some time considering the ways in which you arranged material and the headings you used to describe each chapter and section. The arrangement should be logical include all elements required by university or department guidelines and help make the information accessible and digestible for your readers while your headings should be clear and concise and accurately describe the material that appears beneath them. If you have used numbered headings a consistent format font capitalisation placement punctuation etc. is usually used across all headings and you should also ensure that the numbering is accurate and effectively distinguishes different levels of heading. If your headings are unnumbered all headings of the same level all chapter headings for instance or all first-level headings should observe a consistent format but headings of different levels should normally be differentiated by changes in formatting the format of first-level headings should differ from that of second-level headings for instance. Such details are more important to a readers comprehension of an argument than they may seem so do take a look at Section 6.1 below for suggestions on how to use headings effectively. A delicate balance of accuracy consistency and differentiation in the right places and situations is essential to many aspects of a thesis so you will need to apply that critical eye to many other formatting matters. Numbers for instance whether recorded as words or numerals must be accurate and their formats consistent but there are also specific conventions for using numbers that are rather complex and tend to vary from discipline to discipline so considerable attention should be paid to the numbers you include in your thesis see Section 6.4 below for details. Capitalisation and special fonts should be used in logical and effective ways for highlighting and CHAPTER 4 129 emphasising the words that feature them and their use must also conform to acceptable scholarly practices perhaps even to university or department guidelines or to a particular style guide see Section 6.2 below. All nonstandard abbreviations must be defined or explained when first used in a thesis in some cases in each new chapter defined separately when they appear in the abstract or in any tables figures and appendices and then used consistently from that point on. Each term must be abbreviated in exactly the same way in all instances and if a list of abbreviations is required every nonstandard abbreviation used must be included in the list with its form and definition exactly as they appear in the main body and other parts of the thesis see Section 6.3 below. Formatting issues of this kind may seem small and insignificant when compared with the argument and content of your thesis but they are not. The concepts that have become so familiar to you are not necessarily familiar to your readers so inconsistent or incorrect usage can create true confusion and using such features accurately and precisely is expected in formal scholarly prose at the doctoral level. Three other elements of a thesis should be given a careful final check as well Tables and figures require special attention as you read through your work because a lot of information often of a detailed and complex nature tends to be included in each table or figure so accuracy clarity and consistency are paramount see Sections 1.3 and 4.4.1 above for further advice. You should also ensure that each table or figure is referred to by number in the thesis and in a way that clearly indicates what the table or figure is meant to show the reader. In fact all cross references to sections chapters appendices etc. used in your thesis should be checked for accuracy and consistency. Citations of sources always require more than a passing glance. In-text references or the note numbers for them need to be CHAPTER 4 130 appropriately placed to reflect exactly what material has been borrowed. Information about sources included in parenthetical citations and notes must match the same information in the reference list or bibliography. The details provided for references as well as the order and punctuation of those details must be consistent for all references in the text and similarly for all references in the list. Any text directly quoted from sources must be transcribed with the utmost accuracy integrated into your text effectively and provided with page numbers or similar means for readers to locate the quoted text. Finally all sources cited in the text must be included in the list of references for more information on references and quotations see Chapters 7 and 8 below. Particular attention should also be dedicated to the abstract see Sections 1.1.2 and 4.2 above. You may have already revised it as you finished your first draft of the entire thesis and perhaps again when you began proofreading your draft but it can be incredibly helpful to read and revise the abstract immediately after you have read the entire thesis with a critical eye because with the thesis contents still fresh in your mind you will be able to determine more effectively whether the abstract accurately summarises the study as a whole and highlights its most important points. This is also a good time to ensure that the abstract and the entire thesis still meet length requirements as further revisions of one or both might be necessary if they do not. Finally you will need to attend to your writing style and use of language in the thesis. Academic and scientific writing should always be clear and correct and it should also maintain scholarly formality. Sentences and paragraphs should be carefully constructed using effective syntax and sound logic. Each word should be used accurately with discipline-specific terminology and especially jargon kept to a minimum any usage that may prove confusing to readers should be defined or explained. Grammar and spelling should be CHAPTER 4 131 correct at all times and the spelling vocabulary and phrasing of either British or American English should be adopted and maintained so be sure to find out which version of the language is appropriate for your university and department and then conform to it consistently. Punctuation should be correct and its patterns consistent to clarify the meaning of your sentences and accurately present lists and quoted material. Your text as a whole should come across as a professional document that communicates facts and ideas clearly and smoothly and if your research focuses on language it is ideal to aspire to some level of elegance and eloquence in your own writing. Writing such accomplished English while attempting to share the complex and detailed material generally included in a doctoral thesis can be a significant challenge even for those fluent in the English language and endowed with excellent writing skills for those whose first language is not English or who struggle to express their thoughts in writing it can at times seem an insurmountable barrier. Chapter 5 of this book provides specific advice on dealing with aspects of the English language that tend to be particularly problematic for academic and scientific writers of all kinds but be sure to use it along with any relevant university or department guidelines regarding the style of English required for a thesis in your discipline. Once you have proofread and polished your thesis draft as much as possible ensuring that you have eliminated to the best of your ability all problems with formatting and language so that your committee members will be able to focus instead on the intellectual content and overall argument and structure of your thesis you will need to submit it for reading and commentary. The usual process is to share it with your supervisor first deal with any revisions that he or she requests or suggests and then submit the revised draft to your other committee members as well. In an ideal world you would be able to revise one last time in response to their feedback and then submit the thesis for the formal examination but in the real CHAPTER 4 132 world the process can be far longer and more complicated. You may for instance have to resubmit the thesis to your supervisor and other committee members at least one more time so that the changes you have made can be checked and approved and if there were many changes or the problems were significant further alterations and submissions may still be necessary. You must treat each and every concern raised with respect and serious consideration doing your best to accommodate all perspectives and clearly explaining your reasoning whenever you find that you are unable to make requested changes. It is therefore impossible to predict how many times you will need to revise reread discuss and resubmit your thesis before you your supervisor and your other committee members consider it ready for examination. The process will involve a large number of niggling details do not forget for instance to update your acknowledgements to include any assistance you receive during this process and to adjust the page numbers in your table of contents if revisions have made this necessary and your progress may be complicated or occasionally hindered by the schedules of committee members and the amount of time they are able to dedicate to your thesis. Rest assured however that the process will end successfully if you work hard remain positive and stay focussed on your ultimate goal the completion of your thesis and the achievement of your doctorate. PRS Tip A professional proofreader can be particularly beneficial at this crucial stage in the writing process. You might want to have your thesis read by such a proofreader immediately after you polish the entire draft for the initial submission to your supervisor or you may want to wait until you have received feedback from all committee members and revised the thesis in response to their commentary. Either way a qualified English proofreader can offer a great deal he or she can check all stylistic and formatting CHAPTER 4 133details for accuracy and consistency ensure that your spelling punctuation grammar and syntax are correct and effective highlight instances in which terminology headings tables and figures might benefit from clarification make sure that your references are accurate complete and consistent and focus on any particular aspect of your writing that presents special challenges for you. The intellectual content of your thesis is your own of course and you are the only one who can shape and reshape it appropriately but a professional proofreader can worry about everything else so that you have more time to focus on that content. Very few working scholars such as those on your committee will have the time or the inclination to help you with the language and formatting of your thesis and once you have read and revised your own text repeatedly over a short period of time you will almost certainly find it more and more difficult to see clearly where the problems may lie especially if small details of style and formatting need attention. A PRS proofreader will be able to bring an objective and critical perspective to your thesis and if you have already used a PRS proofreader to check one or more of your individual chapters you can request that same proofreader to work on the thesis as a whole alternatively if you would like a fresh perspective you can request a different proofreader. Engaging the services of such a proofreader will increase your confidence for the final examination and it is also an excellent idea once that examination is over all revisions are completed and you have the final version of the thesis ready to submit for your degree it is a reliable way to ensure a professional polish on what is after all not only a major piece of written work but the beginning of what will ideally be a rewarding career. In addition if you are planning to publish your thesis or need to do so as part of your degree requirements having it professionally proofread is an excellent start. CHAPTER 4 134 4.8 Writing and Revising before and after the Thesis Examination University regulations regarding the submission of a doctoral thesis both before and after the formal examination vary so regardless of the method print or electronic you have been using to share work and feedback with your supervisor and committee members you will need to make sure that your thesis is submitted in the format and files required for the formal submission prior to the examination and again once the examination is over and final revisions are completed. Many universities in the twenty-first century require theses to be submitted electronically in a file created by a word-processing program such as Word but some will still want a print copy and others will request both especially for the final submission after the examination when even the paper a thesis is printed on has to be of a certain type for some universities if so the paper will usually be available for purchase via your department or university bookstore. Although you should have checked and conformed to any stylistic and formatting requirements much earlier in the thesis process because changing such details at this point may cause significant delays do recheck any guidelines pertaining to these matters and be sure that you are following them thoroughly and precisely. Ensure also that you meet any temporal deadlines set by your university department andor committee. The examination copies of the thesis required for your supervisor other committee members and the external examiner will usually be printed out or otherwise reproduced and circulated by your department but if you need to produce and circulate these copies yourself make sure that you do so according to university or department guidelines. Your department should also arrange the examination at a time when you your committee members and your external examiner will be available but you will want to discuss this scheduling with your supervisor in advance so that the examination can take place as soon as possible after you have finished revising and submitting the thesis especially if time is short at this point. CHAPTER 4 135 You and your supervisor should also discuss the matter of your external examiner long before you submit the finished version of the thesis for the examination. The external examiner for a thesis should be an expert in your field and familiar with the scholarship used in the thesis and he or she will ideally know a great deal about the specific topic problem or phenomenon you have investigated. Both you and your supervisor will have ideas about who might be appropriate and will probably have been considering possible examiners since early in the writing process. As you finish up the thesis your supervisor may choose to contact informally the person you decide upon which can be immensely helpful because you will then have a good idea of whether he or she will be able to fill the role before your department makes the formal request. This can save a lot of time and administrative work as the examination is planned and although it may be disappointing if you learn that you are not able to recruit the academic or scientist who would be your first choice it is better to know sooner rather than later. You should be familiar with the work and publications of your external examiner in order to understand the perspective from which he or she will be approaching your thesis and while you will probably already know his or her work through your familiarity with the scholarship in the area you should definitely read any of the examiners new or unfamiliar publications and refresh your memory even about publications you already do know. Your university may pay for your external examiner to be present at your examination in person but often in the twenty-first century an external examiner attends a thesis examination via a video link so do be prepared for that possibility it may not be as pleasant as meeting your examiner in person and having the opportunity to have lunch with him or her after the examination but it works. CHAPTER 4 136 4.8.1 Preparing for and Surviving the Examination The best way to prepare for defending your doctoral thesis in the final examination is to be intimately and thoroughly familiar with your own work and to anticipate as much as this is possible the questions and concerns of your examiners. A careful and critical read through the thesis shortly before the examination taking notes as new ideas and potential problems come to mind will cover the first and the feedback you have received on the many parts and drafts of your thesis will provide much of what you need to know about the concerns of your supervisor and other committee members but ensuring that you are familiar with their work and publications as you probably already are can also be helpful. From the perspective of your examiners you are quite literally changing from student to colleague in the course of your thesis examination and your examiners are likely to begin treating you as a colleague or professional equal. This is a compliment of course but it means that you may see a different aspect of their personalities one less nurturing and potentially more combative so do be prepared for this change which can sometimes come as an unsettling surprise to doctoral candidates. Your external examiner will almost certainly adopt this professional stance since you are not his or her student and the job of the external examiner is to ensure from beyond your university the intellectual quality of the thesis. Your supervisor will likely remain supportive but even this is not certain some supervisors feel the need to take a step back and use a tougher approach in an examination particularly at the doctoral level so you may find yourself rather alone in defending your research and the thesis that has grown from it. This is not a cause for panic however and I warn you of the possibility only to ensure that you are prepared for it emotionally. Conducting the research for your doctorate and writing and revising your thesis have certainly prepared you intellectually to defend your work and its significance with wisdom and diplomacy. CHAPTER 4 137 If you are required to give a presentation on your thesis as part of the examination you will want to plan and prepare this as you read through the thesis taking notes specifically designed to write the presentation. Such a presentation will almost certainly be very similar to the presentation you offered in your proposal meeting see Section 3.7 above for details so if such a meeting was part of your degree requirements you will already have some experience of this process. Remember however that if you have given a proposal presentation your supervisor and other committee members will likely remember it at least to some degree so a little creativity and originality is in order to avoid reusing material in the exact same form yet you also do not want to eliminate the basics because your external examiner is hearing your voice for the first time. Since your research and thesis are now complete you will need to introduce and discuss your project as a whole and reflect on the overall significance of the study. Remember that your presentation should not be too long talking for an hour or more will almost certainly prove too much and you will need to highlight the most interesting significant or surprising aspects of your research and its implications as well as acknowledging its major limitations perhaps along with what you would change or recommend to avoid them so try to be as concise as possible. Your audience has after all read your thesis and you are simply providing an informative summary that demonstrates your understanding of its contents and significance. You may also want to comment on the experience of researching and writing a thesis discuss how your research has developed and changed since your proposal meeting or say something about your future plans but do check with your supervisor to be sure that such commentary would be appropriate. The questions you encounter may be of all kinds both the expected and the unexpected. You might find yourself considering a problem or issue that never arose during all the exchanges of CHAPTER 4 138 material between you and your committee members this is particularly the case with questions from an external examiner whose new perspective provides opportunities for you to refine both your thinking and your thesis at this late stage. On the other hand you may find yourself answering questions on matters that have arisen repeatedly during the proposal and writing processes. Such questions are likely to be directed by the committee members familiar with your work and may well focus on issues that you have had to defend in the past. Your committee may be using these questions to inspire a better answer than you provided earlier or to hear again or more accurately have your external examiner hear the brilliant response you offered to explain a potential problem when the matter first arose. It is often very difficult to determine however exactly what the intentions of your committee members may be and it is ethically inappropriate for them to inform you about such aspects of the examination in advance so the best policy is to listen carefully to each and every question and provide the best answer you can on the basis of the research you have done the thesis you have written and your own perspective. If you feel truly unable to answer a question with specific details it is better to admit that you had not yet thought of the problem but certainly will than to waffle in an attempt to find words and ideas that will very likely prove unconvincing to your knowledgeable listeners. You may be asked about your overall thesis experience andor your future research and publication plans especially if you have not included anything on these in your presentation. Questions of the latter kind are a very good sign indicating that the people asking them envision an academic or scientific future for you so they should be answered optimistically not with Well if I pass this thesis exam assume instead that you are going to pass. CHAPTER 4 139 4.8.2 Final Corrections and Revisions Minor or Major If your thesis contains many small errors andor inconsistencies in typing spelling punctuation capitalisation and the like you will certainly hear about it from your examiners. They may consider it a minor matter or a major one punctuation that obscures or confuses the meaning of your text for instance is always major no matter how small the errors may seem. Occasionally a generous-spirited committee member will actually prepare a list of such errors particularly typing and spelling errors as he or she reads the thesis and then present the list to you at the examination. Your gratitude for this should be immediate and sincere he or she may have noticed things you did not so the list will be helpful after the examination as you polish the thesis for final submission. It is also a good idea however to make a list of such errors yourself as you read the thesis before the examination because you can share such a list with your examiners as you give your presentation for example or if one of the examiners raises the matter. This demonstrates your awareness of the problem and your ability to fix it. If however you were not aware of such errors until your examiners pointed them out you should explain why. English may not be your first language for instance so you may have been struggling with writing in it throughout the thesis process. If this is the case explain the situation your external examiner may not already know this emphasise the efforts you have made and the improvements you have achieved and make it clear that you will do everything you can to correct all errors in preparing the thesis for final submission after the examination. It may also be a good idea to voice your intention of having a professional academic or scientific proofreader check the thesis before you submit the final version for the degree. Sloppiness laziness or even a lack of time is never an acceptable reason for errors in a doctoral thesis however so if you are unwilling to proofread for such errors or simply do not have the proclivity or time to do so you should definitely engage the services CHAPTER 4 140 of a qualified proofreader before submitting the thesis for examination. You will certainly have to do so after you defend your thesis if you have not done so before and you will also have to use some careful language during the examination to explain your negligence. Minor errors are rarely a reason for denying a doctoral candidate his or her degree though it is usually assumed that such errors will be corrected and you can certainly be asked to ensure that they are fixed and have your supervisor and perhaps your other committee members check your work before the degree is granted. Major problems on the other hand with your methodology results conclusions or argument can prevent you from obtaining your degree. It is highly unlikely that your supervisor and committee would allow you to advance to the final examination if they detected any such problems with your thesis but it is not impossible that such problems could arise for the first time in the examination. Often your external examiner is the only other person involved who will be as much an expert in your field as your supervisor is other committee members for example might specialise in related but different topics or disciplines at your university and that examiner might have views and experiences very different from those of your supervisor. It is most likely therefore that any major problems at this point will be observed by the external examiner. On a more positive note however your external examiner may consider entirely valid certain aspects of your thesis that you have had to defend vigorously in response to the comments of your committee so there can be pleasant as well as unpleasant rewards associated with a new reader. Major problems can result in your degree being denied or granted only if the problems are resolved within a set period of time if your revised thesis is reread and approved by your supervisor and other committee members and in extreme situations if the thesis is formally submitted for a second this time successful examination. The last scenario is rare and rarer still is a situation in CHAPTER 4 141 which the degree is simply denied and you are not given any sort of second chance to bring your work up to the required standard. If this does happen however do not despair. Unless you have completely and consistently refused to accommodate the feedback of your supervisor and other committee members and if so you would not have advanced to the final examination at all such an unfortunate state of affairs stems as much from them as from you and many departments and universities will compromise by granting you a lesser degree an M.A. M.Sc. or M.Phil. for example so your time will not have been entirely wasted. Leaving that possibility behind as an extraordinary rarity and focussing instead on the idea that you have now successfully defended your thesis and know what you need to do to polish it before final submission for your degree I have to emphasise that this is no time to relax your vigilance no matter how relieved you may feel. Whatever revisions either you or your examiners have identified and specified as necessary or desirable should be attended to as soon as possible and any deadlines set for having your work checked and formally submitted for the degree must be met. Major changes will take significantly more time to complete than minor ones will and may even involve additional research you will generally be given more time to complete such changes than you would be for minor changes alone but you may nonetheless find that there is a great deal of work to do in very little time. It is essential that you remain positive and focus on what needs to be achieved you have expended a lot of effort to get to where you are and one final burst of enthusiasm energy and brilliance will complete the task. Remember to make final adjustments to or automatically update the table of contents altering page numbers and headings if these have changed as you revised and do not forget any final additions to the acknowledgements if you have received help from anyone such as your external examiner not previously acknowledged. The abstract can always use a final polish as well CHAPTER 4 142 and may need to be revised to reflect changes in the thesis andor to correct any problems your examiners may have identified in the abstract itself. You will probably want to leave enough time for a final read through the revised text and if you feel the need for a second pair of objective and critical eyes to assist you in perfecting your work at this point you will also want to leave enough time to share your final version of the thesis with a colleague or send it to a professional proofreader. There may be administrative forms procedures and technicalities to attend to when you submit the final version of the thesis for your degree so along with ensuring that all parts of the thesis are submitted in the correct formats to the right people and offices make sure that you do not neglect any necessary bureaucratic details and thereby delay the awarding of your degree. Once it is all done however and the thesis has officially left your hands do not forget to revel in your achievement. Some doctoral graduates feel a sense of deflation or even disorientation at this point which is not surprising given the intense focus over an extended period of time required by a doctoral thesis but if you have the luxury to feel so rest assured that new demands will soon be made on your time and new projects will preoccupy your thoughts. Whatever your situation may be as you surface from your thesis you have achieved an enormous goal that has required intelligence creativity confidence self-discipline persistence and patience and you have no doubt improved your writing skills learned a great deal about scholarly argumentation and grown in a variety of both intellectual and personal ways during the process. You are well on your way to what I hope will be a long and prosperous career CHAPTER 4 Part II Formal Scholarly Style Writing and Presentation 145 Chapter 5 Finding Your Scholarly Voice in Correct and Consistent Written English Most students who have advanced to the level of doctoral research will have a good idea of what scholarly prose should be you may already for instance have published articles in reputable scholarly journals before beginning your doctoral research. However a doctoral thesis places new demands on an author the thesis is for one almost certainly the longest piece of writing you have ever attempted so you will need to sustain an argument over several chapters and bring it to an appropriate conclusion. This involves introducing many factual details and threads of thought and tying them together in a variety of intellectually productive ways and it also requires deep logical and creative thinking. It will necessitate variations in your writing style to avoid prose that is repetitious and potentially dull to readers but must nonetheless remain professional clear and correct as well as maintaining consistency across numerous details. Whether English is your first language and you consider yourself an aficionado of formal writing or not this chapter will prove helpful by providing you with advice on a number of matters that academic and scientific writers of English prose tend to find particularly challenging. It relies upon the best style guides and the general expectations associated with academic and scientific writing at the doctoral level and beyond. For further assistance with various aspects of scholarly writing the open-access Purdue Online Writing Lab 19952015 may prove particularly helpful. Depending on your English language skills and your confidence in them you may want to use the information in this chapter as a CHAPTER 5 146 guide to correct style while you write your thesis or you may wish to consult it only after your thesis is drafted to ensure that you have not incorporated incorrect inconsistent or otherwise problematic elements in your writing. Whatever the case may be this and the following three chapters should be used in conjunction with the first part of this book on the requirements and progressive writing of a thesis with the principles outlined here applied to the writing-up process as necessary. These chapters3 are not intended to replace any university or department guidelines you are required to observe or any style guides recommended by those guidelines andor your thesis committee but they may well provide details and present options for resolving problematic matters not covered by such guidance. Accuracy is certainly the central key to much of what I have to say in these chapters but if anything could be called an appropriate mantra to keep in mind as you write it is consistency consistency consistency. 5.1 British versus American Spelling There are two main forms of formal English British and American. A thesis written in English should use one of these forms consistently and university or department guidelines or the style guides they recommend may indicate which form of English is most acceptable. However many doctoral candidates whose first language is not English and even some whose first language is may not be aware of the nature and extent of the variations between the two forms. Setting the default language to either British or American in a word-processing program such as Word can be helpful for 3 Please note that some information and examples in Parts II and III of this book on writing formal scholarly English formatting and presenting academic and scientific prose in appropriate ways producing consistent and complete bibliographical references and using effective techniques for integrating direct quotations have been borrowed and adapted from Olson 2014a and especially Olson 2014b. CHAPTER 5 147 catching and correcting many words but this is far from foolproof. Most good English dictionaries will note spelling variations but some dictionaries do not indicate in all cases whether the spelling variants provided are determined by the differences between British and American English. I therefore present the following list based primarily on Butcher et al. 2006 and Ritter 2005 as a guide to the most common variants. CHAPTER 5 British English American English our colour honour favour labour tumour neighbour harbour behaviour or color honor favor labor tumor neighbor harbor behavior re centre theatre sceptre ochre litre fibre sombre sabre metre but parameter perimeter sober letter tender er center theater scepter ocher liter fiber somber saber meter parameter perimeter sober letter tender ise organise spiritualise systemise recognise organize spiritualize systemize recognize also acceptable promise revise comprise concise advertise guise ize organize spiritualize systemize recognize but promise revise comprise concise advertise guise s analyse paralyse catalyse cosy z analyze paralyze catalyze cozy ae encyclopaedia aesthetics anaemia mediaeval or medieval archaeology e encyclopedia esthetics anemia medieval archeology but also archaeology oe manoeuvre foetal amoeba e maneuver fetal but usually amoeba ou mould smoulder moult o mold smolder molt ogue catalogue analogue dialogue monologue epilogue og catalog analog dialog or dialogue but monologue epilogue 148 The list above is by no means exhaustive or conclusive and as its examples demonstrate there can be considerable overlap in usage with each form of English using the spellings more common to the other at times. However if this list is consulted in conjunction with a good British or American dictionary that notes the variants CHAPTER 5 dge acknowledgement abridgement judgement but judgment in legal contexts dg acknowledgment abridgment judgment ce and se practice noun practise verb licence noun license verb defence pretence ce and se practice noun and verb license noun and verb defense pretense eable saleable sizeable knowledgeable bridgeable but amicable navigable able salable sizable amicable navigable but knowledgeable bridgeable gramme gramme programme but computer program diagram anagram telegram gram gram program diagram anagram telegram ph sulphur sulphide sulphate f sulfur sulfide sulfate que cheque chequer chequing chequered ck check checker checking checkered sc sceptic mollusc sk skeptic mollusk l appal fulfil distil enrol instalment skilful wilful but install ll appall fulfill distill enroll installment skillful willful install double consonants focussed biassed traveller grovelled modelling tunneller controllable enrolling single consonants focused biased traveler groveled modeling tunneler but controllable enrolling ough plough ow plow two words per cent one word percent 149 common in the other form of English most uncertainties can be resolved. If you find that certain words you need to use in your thesis prove especially problematic simply because it is impossible to decide which spelling is British and which is American even after consulting dictionaries and whatever additional online help might be available there is a good chance that the spelling variants are not specifically linked to either form of English and so can be used in both. In such cases the goal is to adopt and use one form of each word consistently throughout the thesis. Beyond the spelling variants listed above there are a number of usages that vary between British and American English. Examples include different from versus different than got versus gotten hire versus rent petrol versus gasoline mobile versus cell phone first-year student versus freshman and aeroplane versus airplane with the British form first in each case. For some of these terms an additional concern is whether or not the intended audience will understand them. Most academic and scientific work is written in the twenty-first century with at least the possibility of international readers in mind so it can be helpful to use a term that will be universally understood mobile phone for instance instead of mobile or cell or to provide a brief explanation on first use that petrol in Britain for example is the fuel known as gas or gasoline in the United States. 5.2 The Perils of Hyphenation Hyphens may seem too small an element of writing to warrant the term perils but a consistent system of hyphenation can be incredibly tricky to establish because the use of hyphens often depends upon the context of a word or phrase namely its specific role and its position in a sentence. Some disciplines will have conventional patterns of usage so you may be provided with guidelines that indicate how and when hyphens should be used but this is rare and it is more common for style guides simply to CHAPTER 5 150 recommend that hyphenation be kept to a minimum. This is good advice because although some hyphenated terms are traditional hyphens tend to be used to clarify an authors meaning and excessive hyphenation can defeat this purpose as well as looking fussy and dated Ritter 2005 Section 3.3.3. In addition correct hyphenation patterns in English can vary from term to term and there is a tendency for hyphenated compounds to become closed with frequent use over time the change from on line to on-line to online is a good example though as a general rule hyphens are used more extensively in British than in American English so a good dictionary that provides some advice on hyphenation in one or both forms of the language is essential for looking up individual words and compounds. Beyond focussing on accepted patterns and clarity of meaning when using hyphens you should ensure that each hyphenated element remains consistent throughout your thesis and that similar words and phrases used in similar ways feature similar hyphenation as much as this is possible and sensible but do keep in mind that some compound terms will need to be hyphenated while other similar ones may not. The following points outline effective uses of hyphens in formal English prose Hyphens are used when compound numbers are written out as words thirty-six and seventy-four. Although they are often used between the numerals in number ranges especially for page numbers pp.34-37 and numerical references 13-68-11 this is not strictly correct and en rules are a better choice pp.3437 and 136 811 see Section 5.6.4 below on en rules. However university guidelines or the style guides recommended by them may indicate that page ranges should use hyphens instead of dashes many guidelines do if this is the case you should use them consistently. Hyphens should always be used instead of en rules to separate noninclusive numbers such as telephone numbers 1-888-755-3691 for more information on formatting numbers see Section 6.4 below. CHAPTER 5 151 Hyphens are used to separate letters when words are spelled out e.g. the last name is Fergusson thats F-e-r-g-u-s-s-o-n and they can also be used to indicate stammering or a pause in speech Im so f-f-frightened. A hyphen is used to indicate the omission of a common element when two or more similar compound terms appear close together in which case the hyphen before the omitted element is followed by a space as in left- and right-handed or upper- and lowercase. If the compounds are unclear or potentially ambiguous however each word should be written out in full and the principle should definitely not be applied to the last in a sequence of such terms that is uppercase and lower- is incorrect. The principle also does not apply when it is the first part of the compound terms that is shared so overindulged and -paid is incorrect and should be worded overindulged and overpaid see also my comments on prefixes below. A hyphen is used in the double-barrelled name of a single individual the scholars last name is Kerby-Fulton but for compound nouns and adjectives derived from two names an en rule is appropriate the MannWhitney test. In adjectives of this sort a hyphen can be and often is used instead of the en rule Marxist-Leninist and a hyphen should always be used when the first element cannot stand alone as in Sino-Japanese. When a compound is formed from names that are already double however it is essential that the distinct uses of the hyphen and the en rule be maintained for example OlsonKerby-Fulton refers to two people with the first named Olson and the second named Kerby-Fulton but if a hyphen were used instead of the en rule as in Olson-Kerby-Fulton or an en rule instead of the hyphen as in OlsonKerbyFulton confusion would result see also Section 5.6.4 below. Hyphenation is used for compass points in British English north- west and south-east but the same terms are closed in American English northwest and southeast though when an additional CHAPTER 5 152 element is added it is followed by a hyphen in both north-north- west in British English and south-southeast in American. Hyphens are not used in the names of winds based on compass points which generally appear as closed single words a northwesterly and they are also not used in capitalised compounds based on compass points South East Asia with the compound adjective open is the form most often used in British English for example and Southeast Asia the dominant form in American English. A hyphen can be used when a prefix is added to a word pre-test but the compound term can instead be closed pretest. This can differ depending on whether British or American English is used with American English using closed forms more often than British English. If the compound term does not appear in dictionaries hyphenating it is the safest approach if both forms appear in dictionaries then either can generally be used as long as no confusion is created by the compound re-create for instance does not mean the same thing as recreate. Problematic collisions of vowels without hyphenation should be avoided in re-establish and anti-intellectual for example a hyphen should always appear but there are exceptions cooperate and coordinate for instance are usually closed. When a prefix is repeated a hyphen should be used after the first instance sub- subsection and a hyphen should always be used when adding a prefix before a capitalised word or a date a non-English speaker and post-1990s. A hyphen should also appear after a prefix added to a term that is already a hyphenated compound non- self-indulging but when the compound is an open one an en rule is used instead of a hyphen in American English preVietnam War. When a prefix appears alone a hyphen must be used to represent the missing word over- and undermagnified and when ex is used to indicate a previous state it is usually followed by a hyphen ex-husband. Mid is a special case because it stands alone as an independent adjective in some contexts mid CHAPTER 5 153 sixteenth century so while it too can form a closed compound it is often followed by a hyphen even when other prefixes are not as in a mid-range property.A helpful list of prefixes and the terms formed with them along with hyphenation notes can be found in the Chicago Manual of Styles guide to hyphenation 2003 pp.306308 and see also the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 p.99. Hyphens are not generally used when suffixes are added to words so the resulting term is almost always closed ladylike lifeless waterproof and landscape. However if the word the suffix is added to already ends with two ls a hyphen is needed before -less and -like e.g. fall-like. A hyphen is also needed when a suffix appears after a name or in rare combinations or newly coined terms Toronto-like and vulture-like. Sometimes a term that usually functions as a complete word rather than a suffix such as as style or ready appears as a suffix to form an adjective in which case a hyphen is generally used computer- style graphics or a camera-ready copy and note that user- friendly follows this pattern. Hyphens are sometimes used in compound nouns but compound nouns can be open hyphenated or closed with some having predominant forms and others appearing correctly in all three forms Ritter 2005 Section 3.3.3 uses the example of airstream air-stream and air stream asserting that all forms are found in use and none is incorrect. There is however a tendency in English to avoid hyphens in noun compounds with the preference being one word in American English airstream and two words in British English air stream. Generally speaking then noun compounds do not require hyphens but if the text is unclear or could be potentially misleading a hyphen should certainly be used decision making for instance would normally not use a hyphen but when an adjective such as quick appears before it the intended meaning may be enhanced by an added hyphen quick decision-making. CHAPTER 5 154 Hyphenation is more common when compounds act as modifiers or adjectives particularly when the modifying compound precedes the noun it modifies. With the exception of proper names such as Great Britain and compounds formed from an adverb ending in -ly and a following adjective carefully engineered hyphenation is never strictly incorrect but it is not always required. There is a difference for instance between modifying compounds that contain an adjective mass produced and low level and compounds that contain nouns only student nurse and master mason. Both types of compound modifiers can be hyphenated when they appear before nouns a low-level executive and a student-nurse position but while the first type should always be hyphenated the second type does not strictly require a hyphen e.g. master mason John and a student nurse position. As a general rule neither type of modifying compound requires hyphenation when it appears after the noun it modifies the book is well known for instance and John is a master mason. Modifying phrases use the same general pattern of hyphenation when preceding a noun and an open structure when following the noun up-to-date research but the research was up to date although in some cases the most familiar phrases are hyphenated even when they appear after the noun her approach was matter-of-fact. Hyphens are never used in certain compounds whether they appear before or after a noun. These include capitalised compounds British Library manuscripts compound scientific terms sodium chloride solution and adjectival compounds in which the first word is an adverb ending in -ly an environmentally sound policy. However a hyphen is used in adjectival compounds when the second word is an adverb ending in -ly particularly when the compound appears before the noun it modifies a user-friendly web site. As a general rule hyphens should not be used in foreign phrases an ad hominem argument or a post hoc trial unless the CHAPTER 5 155 hyphens appear in the original language a tte--tte conversation. This policy is sometimes used for italicised foreign phrases only in which case naturalised phrases appear in normal roman font and are treated like English phrases see Section 6.2.2 below on the use of special fonts. Hyphens are generally used in verbs formed from two-word noun compounds so to cross-reference is the verb derived from a cross reference. Conversely a noun formed from a phrasal verb is either hyphenated or one word the verb to back up thus becomes the noun back-up or backup. Hyphens often appear in universal resource locators URLs as in the URL for the PRS web site httpwww.proof-reading- service.com where it is essential that they not be confused with underlining _ or the tilde grapheme . The lack of a general rule regarding hyphenation and the abundance of variant approaches leave hyphens and the conscientious scholarly author a little up in the air. In addition the principles of hyphenation like other elements of language are fluid so they tend to change. When capitalising hyphenated compounds in titles and headings for example it was once the case that only the first element bore an initial capital Low-level Executive unless the second element was a proper noun or otherwise required capitalisation but the trend in the early twenty-first century is to capitalise both elements Low-Level Executive in titles and headings particularly if full capitalisation is used for those titles and headings. A capital on the first element only still tends to be used at the beginning of sentences however or in titles and headings using minimal capitalisation as in Low-level executive for more information on capitalisation see Section 6.2.1 below. Soft or floating hyphens present different challenges. Whereas the hard hyphens I have discussed above are deliberately and permanently positioned to join words or parts of words or other CHAPTER 5 156 elements such as numbers in the formation of compounds soft hyphens are used to divide words at the end of the lines in a text to create a more balanced or attractive layout on the page. Soft hyphens are not necessary in a thesis and since they are generally added to a document through automatic hyphenation functions such as that in Word which tend to introduce inappropriate and misleading divisions of words that are always unacceptable in formal prose they are best avoided exact-ing and re-appear are acceptable divisions for exacting and reappear for instance but ex-acting and reap-pear are not for a detailed discussion of the principles of word division see Ritter 2005 Section 3.4. Whether automatic hyphenation is used or not however words appearing in the columns of tables will sometimes become divided in nonsensical and distracting ways because the columns are too narrow to accommodate them for example percentage incorrectly divided over three lines to read perc-enta-ge. In tables designed to report data in an immediately discernible visual form this is unacceptable and unattractive so do watch for it if you are including tables in your thesis. If necessary use abbreviations make the columns in the tables concerned a little wider to allow the words enough space or restructure the tables with plenty of room for the headings to appear in a legible fashion. 5.3 Specialised Terminology and Jargon Specialised or discipline-specific terminology is often necessary in a thesis because it can communicate with a precision that other words simply cannot manage and doctoral candidates are expected to use the current terminology associated with their fields and disciplines. It is essential however to understand such language fully to use it in clear and accurate ways and to use it only when it is necessary and effective not simply because you can. Remember that discipline-specific terminology can be incredibly exclusive and CHAPTER 5 157 while it can come across as learned and sophisticated when used well if used incorrectly it creates a very different effect so it should always be used thoughtfully and with great care. Your supervisor committee members and external examiner will most likely be familiar with the specialised terminology associated with your discipline and topic but not always and not with all terms and your thesis may ultimately reach readers who will not understand all the specialised terminology associated with your discipline. As a sound and common scholarly practice then any technical or specialised terms used in a thesis should be presented clearly and defined at least briefly on first use. It can also be helpful to explain the ideas behind any specialised terminology with precision and as thoroughly as necessary to allow readers to understand the significance of that terminology in relation to the methodology of your study and the argument of your thesis. The title and abstract in particular should be as accessible as possible even to general readers because these parts of a thesis will ultimately be available in search engines see Sections 1.1.1 1.1.2 3.5.1 and 4.2 above and see also Section 6.1 below. Any abbreviations of specialised terminology should be used with the same precision as the original terms see Section 6.3 below and if a list or table is used to define terms or outline categories of any kind special care should be taken to ensure that those terms and categories appear in exactly the same forms elsewhere in the thesis readers will tend to return to such lists and tables for help if anything does prove confusing so it is essential that the information in lists and tables provides clarity and resolution in relation to the terms and categories used in the thesis see Section 4.4.1 above and Section 5.5.2 below. It is imperative that you do not use specialised terminology of any kind technical or theoretical terms for example as a substitute for explaining ideas clearly and developing a logical argument. No matter how specialised or descriptive the terminology will not do the work on its own so in the harshest definition such an approach is CHAPTER 5 158 simply unsound scholarship and it is certainly unacceptable in scholarly writing. Some students may think that all the obscure terminology they have acquired will appear learned and lend that appearance to their theses but more often such use of terminology will lead to an assumption among readers that an author does not know how to construct a true argument and also does not fully understand the language he or she is using. Every thesis must present and develop an argument no matter how simple or complex and the best scholarly writing demonstrates not just a proficiency in using specialised terminology to communicate rather than obfuscate but also a deep understanding of the ideas behind the terminology and an ability to explain those ideas effectively for readers while taking them both ideas and readers in new directions. It can be difficult however to determine when and where your terminology is supporting or conversely undermining your writing especially if you are working in a discipline in which a large number of specialised terms symbols abbreviations and the like are absolutely necessary. Your supervisor and other committee members should be able to help you strike the right balance with discipline-specific language and if you are unsure of your usage and find that you receive no commentary on it it is always better to ask and ensure you are on the right track than assume that all is well. Fellow students in your area andor a professional academic or scientific proofreader might also prove helpful in this regard. Closely related to specialised terminology is the jargon peculiar to a profession field of study or context. Such jargon often includes specialised vocabulary but also tends to use convoluted syntax or awkward word order and can prove to be unintelligible or very nearly so to readers. For instance a low young voter turnout election is simply poor English and not nearly as effective for communicating the authors meaning as an election with a low turnout of young voters. Jargon-rich language often arises when authors are so immersed in their respective fields of study as is the CHAPTER 5 159 case when working on a thesis that they are unaware of their failure to communicate clearly in plain English even to many in their own fields so do keep your eyes attuned to this possibility as you proofread your chapters. Occasionally jargon appears to be used deliberately to create an impression of learnedness or mystique. If you find yourself tempted to use jargon in this way it is worth reflecting on the fact that the word jargon is often defined in dictionaries as meaningless writing vague language or gibberish and a doctoral candidate should have none of these forms of language in his or her thesis. If readers do not understand what they are reading any impression of the authors learning that might be achieved through the use of jargon and it seems doubtful to me that jargon could have this effect in any case becomes frustrating instead of impressive and while mystique certainly has its proper place it is not in a carefully written doctoral thesis. It is therefore essential to avoid jargon or keep it to a bare minimum and if some jargon does prove necessary to ensure that it is presented in as accessible a manner as possible with the meaning defined or explained on first use. Another kind of jargon is that used for social networking and other informal online communication such abbreviated and often incorrect language is never appropriate for a thesis so unless you are directly quoting and discussing such material it should be strictly avoided. Although words and phrases from foreign languages are not exactly specialised terminology they do tend to be used in discipline-specific ways in biological nomenclature for example and textual studies and should be treated in special ways. For one unless the words and phrases are already naturalised in the English language or are directly quoted and thus enclosed in quotation marks they should appear in italic font. Like specialised terminology words and phrases in foreign languages should be defined if not obvious so that readers will be able to follow the argument effectively and this means translating them into English. CHAPTER 5 160 Translations can vary significantly from the most literal to the most creative depending on exactly what you want your readers to understand when the word or phrase is used and variant translations along with discussions of their significance may also be included in a thesis. The formatting used to provide words and phrases in foreign languages along with English translations should be both effective and consistent. When the foreign word or phrase appears in italics for instance the translation can be set either in quotation marks or parentheses and when the original word or phrase appears in quotation marks italics or parentheses might be used for the translation. The following four examples demonstrate these different techniques and notice that the translation in parentheses in the final example can be included inside or outside the quotation marks sed noli modo meaning but not now sed noli modo but not now sed noli modo meaning but not now sed noli modo but not now or sed noli modo but not now Whatever method you adopt for presenting foreign terms and their translations it is essential to maintain consistency throughout your thesis. For further advice on using and formatting foreign languages in English writing see Sections 6.2 7.3.4 and 8.4 below for more detailed information see Butcher et al. 2006 Section 6.6 pp.246 247 and Appendices 5 7 9 and 10 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 10 and Ritter 2005 Chapter 12. CHAPTER 5 161PRS Tip Attending to the numerous details involved in using British or American spelling effective hyphenation and specialised terminology correctly and consistently while simultaneously presenting complex content accurately and maintaining a sophisticated argument can be more than a handful even for experienced scholars who have mastered the writing of scholarly English. For doctoral candidates who are composing their first lengthy piece of academic or scientific work it can be overwhelming. Fortunately PRS uses professional proofreaders trained in a wide variety of disciplines and well versed in all the technicalities of scholarly writing. They can check correct and generally improve these elements of your proposal and thesis chapters ensuring that your spelling adheres to British or American English and is simply correct throughout your work that your use of hyphens expresses your meaning and reflects acceptable usage more generally and that your use of discipline-specific terminology indeed of all terminology enhances your meaning and communicates clearly and effectively with an educated reader. It is always wise to resolve any problems associated with such elements of your prose early in the thesis process so that you can practise correct usage patterns when drafting later chapters and save yourself extensive revisions and a great deal of time and effort further down the road. Perhaps you have drafted an early chapter that is causing you particular worry because you are just not sure whether you are using discipline-specific terminology effectively or conforming to British or American English consistently. If so do not hesitate to send your chapter to PRS along with any guidelines you are following there is no time like the present to benefit from the expert advice of a professional scholarly proofreader. CHAPTER 5 162 5.4 Word Use Syntax and Sentence Structure Although the advice on writing formal scholarly prose provided in this section will prove especially helpful for those who are just developing their scholarly voice as is the case with many doctoral candidates andor those whose first language is not English even students who consider their English writing skills excellent may well find some of the information useful. Please note that while the focus here is on words and their order in English sentences a sentence must also be properly punctuated to function effectively so Section 5.6 below on various marks of punctuation and their use should be consulted in conjunction with this section. Some matters of punctuation can be determined by author preferences or university or department guidelines because there is more than one correct approach using a serial comma or not for instance see Section 5.6.1 below in such cases one acceptable method should be chosen and used consistently. With other aspects of punctuation however there are right and wrong ways of proceeding a comma splice should always be avoided for example again see Section 5.6.1 below and in those cases the correct punctuation should be used in all relevant instances. In all cases punctuation should enhance and clarify the structure language and meaning of your sentences whether they are short and simple or long and extremely complex. 5.4.1 Using Words in a Scholarly Fashion without Bias Word use is not only an enormous and wide-ranging topic but like punctuation the use of individual words can be not only correct or incorrect but also a matter of authorial choice which means that the writer of a thesis must choose his or her words with care. Dehumanising language for instance should always be avoided when writing about human beings and words that assert the CHAPTER 5 163 presence or role of human beings in a study should not be omitted. There is a tendency however for study participants to be reduced through a kind of shorthand to the condition they represent in a study diabetes and nondiabetes might be used for instance instead of the more humanising participants with and without diabetes or participants with and without a diagnosis of diabetes. While such shorthand language is sometimes necessary to convey results efficiently especially in tabular form it should be avoided as much as possible and certainly not used when first introducing the people involved in a study. Some departments or thesis committees may even frown upon the use of subjects instead of individuals or people because it is too impersonal and most will want the age of participants and other people to be referred to accurately young men and women for instance should not be called boys and girls which as a general rule should be used only of children 12 years of age and under. It can therefore be helpful to discuss such language with your supervisor and check university or department guidelines for any restrictions of this kind and it is also important to keep the particular context in mind and use common sense while considering each term. For example while referring to a 25-year- old man as a boy is inappropriate in most cases referring to a 40- year-old prostitute as a working girl may not be if that is what the prostitute calls herself and you use the term in quotations andor with appropriate explanation. Appropriate word use of this kind is a matter of achieving precision and avoiding bias. If for instance an author refers to a 30-year-old man as a man but refers to a woman of the same age as a girl or uses the masculine pronoun he when writing of doctors and the feminine pronoun she when writing of nurses without specifying a context and details that justify this treatment it may not be a deliberate distinction but it will come across as both inaccurate and biassed. Bias can occur in terms of race nationality sexgender class education age and so on and can involve arbitrarily CHAPTER 5 164 prioritising one group of people over another or stereotyping any particular group of people see the advice on avoiding bias of various kinds in the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 pp.73 77. Some readers might extend this to historical times and their people the idea for example that any one time is better than another or the common notion that people now are more intelligent or more imaginative than people were in the past as well as to animals and other creatures with the prioritisation of people over animals or the environment for instance smacking of anthropocentrism. Avoiding gender bias is particularly important in western including English-speaking societies of the twenty-first century so be sure to reflect on any instances in which you mention men or women alone if women are the only subjects of the study or if women alone are relevant for a particular statement only women can actually bear children for instance using women alone is appropriate but if both men and women are involved both men and women can be parents for example both should be mentioned or an alternative that implies both such as parents people or participants should be used. 5.4.2 The Precise and Appropriate Use of Pronouns Although uncomplicated in many instances the gender-specific pronouns he and she must always be used with care. Their use is straightforward when speaking of a male or female person but when a person singular is used more generally or hypothetically problems can arise because he once used in most situations of this sort e.g. When a person is learning to write scholarly prose he requires sound examples is no longer acceptable as a neutral pronoun and although she is now used as neutral by some authors it really just inverts rather than solves the problem. A better choice is the singular pronoun one which is suitably neutral but can sound artificial to some writers and readers or he or she or she which CHAPTER 5 165 covers the necessary ground but can come across as awkward especially if used frequently. Some writers uncomfortable with using one he or she or she as well as him or her his or her himself or herself and himherself would argue that they along with them their and themselves is an acceptable non-gender-specific substitute for the singular forms When a person is learning to write scholarly prose they require sound examples. However they them their and themselves are all plural so they are not really appropriate or correct as pronouns referring to singular nouns and using them as though they are can quickly become extremely confusing. So if you use a person an individual or similar phrasing you need a singular pronoun and both he and she are required to render the language inclusive When a person is learning to write scholarly prose he or she requires sound examples. Only if the noun is plural is the plural pronoun appropriate When students are learning to write scholarly prose they require sound examples. Careful proofreading of your own writing will catch most problems associated with gender-specific language but for more information on sexist and nonsexist language see Miller and Swift 1995. Pronouns can be problematic in a number of other ways as well. On the topic of referring to people appropriately for instance a person participant student woman father teenager or child is never an it which as a neuter pronoun should be used of inanimate objects e.g. When the questionnaire is finished it will be circulated online and is appropriate when referring to countries which like ships are generally not referred to with feminine pronouns as they once were Canada should reconsider its treatment of immigrants. It should not be used when referring to people however When the student wrote the exam he was feeling ill. Relative pronouns should be used similarly with who whom and whose not that representing people the student who wrote the exam or the woman who felt depressed not the student that wrote the exam or the woman that felt depressed although conversely the CHAPTER 5 166 possessive form whose can be used of inanimate objects as well as of people the house whose door was purple which is often preferred to the house of which the door was purple. The essential point is that pronouns it who he she and others should be used with the utmost accuracy so that the relationship between each pronoun and its antecedent is clearly established leaving no doubt about the meaning of the pronoun. For example in The boy thought his sister was lost. She was actually at a friends house She can only refer to the sister so there is no risk of confusion. However in The girl lost her cat Tigress. She was actually at a friends house the antecedent of She is not clear. Since the girl is the subject of the first sentence the reader might expect She in the second sentence to refer to the girl as well but it could also refer to the female cat named Tigress so confusion is created about what is actually being said and thus about the implications of the text. Is the cat safe at a friends house or did the girl lose the cat at a friends house and thus in a less familiar and potentially more dangerous landscape Is there continuing cause for worry or not The ambiguity possible even in so simple a sentence hints at the kind of confusion that can result if a long and complex sentence reporting and discussing detailed results and conclusions opens with It and contains two more instances of that pronoun as well as a they and a them. Such a sentence may fail to communicate your meaning clearly to your intended audience especially if you are also dealing with the challenge of writing in a language not your own and perhaps use one it when referring to a plural antecedent and them for a singular one by mistake. In most cases five pronouns are too many for a sentence in any case but whether you use many pronouns or only one in a sentence it is vital that the antecedent for each can be identified readily and with certainty. Sometimes the grammar-checking function in Word will catch an incorrectly or oddly used pronoun but much like the spell-checking function this is far from reliable. If you detect the potential for ambiguity in your use of CHAPTER 5 167 pronouns your meaning would definitely be clearer were you to use nouns or noun phrases instead. Beware in particular of using pronouns to refer to large or abstract ideas which are difficult to define or explain such concepts are far clearer and more effective in scholarly writing if they are referred to via precise terminology and carefully explained difficult though that may be so such an approach will not only improve your writing style but also your argument in major as well as minor ways. As a general rule the pronoun you as well as your and yourself should be avoided altogether in academic and scientific prose. In quotations such as those from the direct speech of interviews or the informal answers on questionnaires you is fine because it is not expressed in the authors own voice but the reader should not be addressed directly in this way in scholarly prose in most contexts using you simply establishes too personal a voice for formal academic or scientific writing. This is rarely a problem for authors but since I use the second-person voice frequently and informally in this book to adopt a casual tone and facilitate concise expression of the advice I am offering I thought I best mention the discrepancy definitely an instance of do as I say rather than do as I do. I as well as me my or mine and myself in the other cases can usually be used however when referring specifically to yourself as the author of the thesis e.g. I circulated the questionnaire I detected in the results and I discovered a striking difference. In fact when used specifically and with discretion I is often preferable to potentially awkward third-person circumlocutions such as the present author and the present investigator. Do check with your supervisor or department before using the first-person voice however as its use varies among disciplines and deliberately avoiding this voice perhaps to create an impression of objectivity is still considered standard for scholarly writing in certain fields. If you do decide to use the first-person voice at times remember that I should never be considered interchangeable with we a thesis CHAPTER 5 168 has only one author and we is never appropriate when referring to yourself. If you had assistance in conducting certain parts of your research we might be appropriate when you are describing what was done but you must also make it clear who exactly you are referring to when you use we. We can also be used successfully though with care when referring to researchers or practitioners as a group such as we geologists or we as manuscript specialists especially if the thesis relates to methodology the accumulated knowledge of a discipline andor the self-awareness or education of the group concerned. We used in a general or fictional sense that implicitly includes the reader or even the whole of humanity is best avoided in scholarly writing however. Phrases such as we can observe that we see here we now know that and we human beings do not in which the author implies or assumes that the reader and others are part of that we may be acceptable for writing in some areas and media but they are not generally speaking a feature of academic and scientific theses and avoiding them is one of the characteristics of a professional scholarly voice. The use of the fictional we can be particularly problematic when it is used to include the reader in assumptions that have not yet been proved with convincing results or established via analysis and an effective argument and using the we now know stance as a substitute for true scholarly argumentation is simply unacceptable and can weaken both your writing and your thesis. It is therefore a good idea to do a search by using the Find and Replace box in Words Home menu for instance for all occurrences of we and perhaps I once you have your thesis drafted and to consider each instance carefully to be sure that you are using these pronouns accurately effectively and professionally. CHAPTER 5 169 5.4.3 Nouns and Agreement The use of most English nouns is relatively straightforward but spelling and word choice can sometimes be an issue if English is not your native language. It is usually quite easy to deal with such problems through careful and critical proofreading especially with the assistance of the spell-checking function of your word- processing program which in most cases will highlight obvious errors though it should not be trusted to discover them all. If a word is underlined or otherwise highlighted by the program check the spelling and correct it if necessary if spelling is not the problem it is likely that you have chosen the wrong or an inappropriate word perhaps you used content for context for example implementation for intervention and so on in which case you will need to use a dictionary or perhaps a thesaurus to find the correct or a more appropriate word. Watch for nouns that are too vague to express your exact meaning to all readers in this context in our area and in local universities are classic examples of instances in which you and your thesis committee will know what you are talking about but other readers especially those from other contexts and areas cannot unless the context or area you are working in or the location of those universities is specified wherever necessary for absolute clarity specific language is also best for dates see Section 6.4.4 below. Conversely your language should not be so specific to one country or region that its meaning will not be fully understood by international readers currency and educational systems are good examples of topics for which you should provide not only specific information relevant to the original locality but also careful enough explanations of the specifics to make them clear to readers who are not familiar with that locality and its culture. Agreement should always be maintained between nouns and the verbs used with them which in most cases is easily established singular nouns should be used with the singular forms of verbs the CHAPTER 5 170 doctoral candidate investigates the brush untangles and the child plays and plural nouns with the plural forms of verbs the doctoral candidates investigate the brushes untangle and the children play. If you want your language to suggest the possibility of both singular and plural situations simultaneously for most nouns you can enclose the s or es of the plural form in parentheses the methodology chapters in which case the verb form should be governed by the singular noun because the plural is technically parenthetical for example the methodology chapters describes the research methods used in the thesis. Another and often preferable solution is to word the text in such a way that the verb works for both the singular and plural forms of the noun the methodology chapters should describe the research methods used in the thesis. With plural nouns formed through the addition of endings other that s or es the same strategy can be used the children will be going to a party this afternoon but with nouns that change their stems to form the plural such as man that becomes men and woman that becomes women effective constructions can be complicated and confusing for readers and are generally best avoided. There are certain nouns in the English language that present special challenges when it comes to agreement. Plural nouns that seem like singular nouns data media criteria etc. for instance should take a plural verb the criteria required were not the criteria required was although data can alternatively be used as a singular noun the data were or the data was. This is to say that data can be treated as a collective or group noun instead of as a normal plural noun in which case the important point is to ensure that the noun is treated as a singular whenever it is used in a document. With collective nouns in general it is essential that each noun is consistently treated as either a singular or a plural ideally throughout a thesis and certainly within a single sentence but this can be rather tricky because such nouns tend to be used as both CHAPTER 5 171 singular and plural in casual conversation so there is a tendency to be inconsistent for example in The society was founded in 1995 since then they have grown rapidly they have in the second part of the sentence should actually be it has to agree with the singular society and its verb was in the first part. Also complicated is the fact that the decision to use a singular or plural verb with a collective noun can depend on whether the noun refers to the group as a unit singular or to its members as individuals plural and also on whether British or American English is used in American English when the group is considered as a unit a singular verb is usually used our hockey team is playing very poorly this year but in British English collective nouns tend to use plural verbs our hockey team are playing very poorly this year. The collective nouns couple and pair are usually used as plurals when they refer to people The couple ride their bicycles to work but collective nouns of quantity such as number percentage and proportion tend to take a singular verb when a definite article precedes the noun and a plural verb when an indefinite article precedes the noun The proportion of customers with home phones is decreasing but A large proportion of customers are giving up their home phones in favour of mobile phones. 5.4.4 Both Either Neither Nor and Only Certain other words phrases and constructions can cause particular problems when constructing sentences especially for authors whose native language is not English. Both takes a plural verb e.g. both a pool and a water slide were added to the playground whereas either and neither take a singular verb either a pool or a water slide is being added to the playground and so does a neither . . . nor construction neither a pool nor a waterslide was added to the playground. Please note that or should not be used instead of nor in a neither . . . nor construction. CHAPTER 5 172 Neither either and both should be correctly positioned in a sentence to achieve balance and avoid repetition so the phrasing should be that affect neither him nor her not that neither affect him nor her and that affect both him and her not that both affect him and her. Only can be placed where it sounds best in a sentence unless there is a possibility of ambiguity or confusion in which case it should be carefully positioned to clarify the meaning for example vegetable gardens only watered on Sundays could mean only vegetable gardens are watered on Sundays or vegetable gardens are watered on Sundays only or vegetable gardens are watered but not weeded on Sundays examples adapted from Butcher et al. 2006 p.164. It is therefore wise to consider all the placement and semantic options as you are writing such sentences and choose the one that most effectively expresses your intentions. Only can also be problematic when used not to mean exclusively but to refer to a small number or percentage just 39 or as small as 39 is more accurate than and preferable to only 39. 5.4.5 Beginning Sentences Correctly and Avoiding Dangling Participles The wording at the beginning of sentences should be both precise and complete in formal scholarly prose and certain elements should not be used in that position. Numerals for instance should be avoided so any number at the beginning of a sentence should be written out in words unless writing it out would be cumbersome e.g. 237482 would be very unwieldy if written as words in which case the sentence should be reworded to avoid using the number at its beginning for information on formatting numbers see Section 6.4 below. Certain abbreviations should also be avoided at the beginning of sentences although acronyms and initialisms are usually acceptable see Section 6.3.8 below. As a general rule sentences should not begin with conjunctions such as and or but CHAPTER 5 173 and so although the occasional lapse in this regard even in formal writing is tolerated in most cases as long as the sentence does not begin a paragraph the meaning is clear and the rhythm of the prose is effective. A sentence and especially a paragraph should not normally start with a pronoun such as this that or they even if the antecedent is clear from what has gone before but particularly if the antecedent is at all ambiguous. Instead the subject should be clearly stated as a noun or noun phrase to avoid confusion but the pronoun I as well as we in texts with more than one author is acceptable at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph because there can be no doubt if the pronoun is used only when it should be about the meaning. Keep in mind that when a descriptive phrase is used at the beginning of a sentence it applies to everything that follows until the subject changes or is restated in the sentence In 1879 he painted his first watercolour and began to work with oils in 1886 for instance the date 1879 applies incorrectly to began as well as correctly to painted so rewording is necessary either He painted his first watercolour in 1879 and began to work with oils in 1886 or In 1879 he painted his first watercolour and in 1886 he began to work with oils would work. Dangling participles are often problematic at the beginning of sentences though they can turn up anywhere in a sentence. A dangling participle occurs when a participle or participial phrase is followed by a word other than the subject it modifies as it is in Plunging to enormous depths we marvelled at the canyon and Having found the right food at last the diabetic dog was fed. It is clear to a thinking reader familiar with English that the canyon plunges to enormous depths and the person feeding the dog is the one who found the right food but the sentences do not actually say these things they say that we plunge to enormous depths and the diabetic dog was the one who found the right food because those are the subjects that appear immediately after the participial phrases. Such sentences should be reworded so that their syntax CHAPTER 5 174 reflects the realities reported We marvelled at the canyon that plunged to enormous depths and Having found the right food at last he fed the diabetic dog. Other kinds of dependent clauses that frequently appear at the beginning of sentences can present problems as well particularly when they are mistakenly used as independent clauses or full sentences. Although a dependent clause contains a subject and a verb as the opening clause of this sentence does it does not express a complete thought instead it often begins with a dependent marker word such as after when if because and although that leaves the reader waiting for the rest of the thought After he had drafted his thesis and Because she is afraid of fireworks are good examples. For this reason a dependent clause cannot be a complete sentence but should be either followed by a comma and an independent clause that does complete the thought or preceded by an independent clause and if necessary a comma After he had drafted his thesis he had it checked by a professional proofreader or We left our dog at home because she is afraid of fireworks. 5.4.6 Adjectives Adverbs and Split Infinitives Adjectives and adverbs are often overused when authors are attempting to be precise with long strings of adjectives particularly common in some theses so do check for this while proofreading your draft and pay special attention to instances in which you may have used a large number of adjectival nouns. In almost all cases it is best to use as few adjectives as possible and such a policy can lead to the use of more precise or expressive adjectives which is always preferable. When you decide that several adjectives are definitely required be sure to punctuate them effectively and in a consistent manner throughout your thesis see Section 5.6.1 below. Adverbs are especially problematic when they split the infinitive forms of English verbs. In most languages the infinitive of a verb is CHAPTER 5 175 a single word the infinitive forms of the famous Latin phrase veni vidi vici I came I saw I conquered for instance are venire videre and vincere. In English however the infinitives of verbs are formed through the addition of to to come to see to conquer and the two elements of the infinitive to and conquer should no sooner be separated from each other in formal writing than should the -ire or -ere ending be separated from the stem of one of the Latin infinitives. Infinitives are usually split by an adverb inserted between the two parts of the verb as in Star Treks famous to boldly go and such split infinitives sometimes sound entirely natural because they tend to be used daily in casual speech and informal written communications. In the twenty-first century split infinitives are even tolerated in scholarly prose though not by all university departments and thesis committees so if you find that you simply cannot do without an adverb and yet it proves impossible to word the sentence effectively without splitting the infinitive the adverb can in some cases be retained within the infinitive of the verb. Some readers still consider split infinitives incorrect grammar however so do check with your supervisor keep such usage to a minimum in your thesis and remember that the safest policy is to reword split infinitives whenever possible replacing to successfully write a thesis for instance with to write a thesis successfully. Rewording sentences containing split infinitives will no doubt prove challenging at times and in certain instances a sentence may have to be thoroughly rewritten to accommodate a necessary adverb or adverbial phrase more effectively but do make your best effort before deciding to retain a split infinitive. 5.4.7 Verbs Tense Voice and Contractions The correct use of verb tenses present perfect pluperfect etc. can be tricky and thus problematic at times. The nuances of the various tenses communicate different temporal messages and the CHAPTER 5 176 temporal message of each verb should accurately reflect the reality reported be consistent with other verbs expressing similar temporal messages and change according to the nature of the content. The problem is complicated in scholarly prose because referring accurately and effectively to the ideas and results found in sources can be challenging. As a general rule much of what is said in previous scholarship can be referred to in the present tense for example Taylor 1996 argues that and according to Fergusson 2013 the argument is. However when studies done at different times are compared or contrasted the tense will need to be varied Taylor 1996 argued perfect that the problem could not be overcome but Fergusson 2013 sheds present new light on the situation. Often using a compound form with has or have is more effective than a simple past or perfect tense when speaking of scholarly trends or developments for instance several studies of the problem have been published since the 1980s. However studies that are already published were in fact conducted in the past so the perfect tense too can be correctly used when referring to sources and their authors for example Fergusson 2013 explored the problem by following the recommendations of Taylor 1996. Sensitivity to the expression of temporal reality through appropriate verb tenses should be applied not just to the discussion of sources but to the whole of your thesis. The use of the passive rather than the active voice can also present problems in formal scholarly prose. In the active voice a subject is clearly stated and the verb is active I investigated the use of domestic robots among elderly residents of the Sunset Manor. In the passive voice on the other hand the object becomes the subject and the verb is passive The use of domestic robots among elderly residents of the Sunset Manor was investigated. Both sentences are correct English but because the passive voice does not name the person or people doing the investigating it can fail to convey with precision who did the research the author of the present thesis CHAPTER 5 177 as part of the current study for instance or a third party or parties working at some other time who ought to be cited Some doctoral candidates will deliberately use the passive voice in an abstract perhaps due to a misconception that the passive voice is scholarly but a scholarly voice is never vague as the passive voice can be and some guidelines will ask that the passive voice be avoided especially in abstracts where precision expressed via as few words as possible is particularly important. However the passive voice can be used effectively and often is in the sciences when the point is to emphasise the object of research rather than the agent doing the research so do check university and department guidelines andor ask your supervisor about the use of the passive voice. When proofreading your thesis draft pay careful attention to what sentences using the passive voice actually say and do not say and whenever you think that such sentences might prove imprecise ineffective or confusing for your readers reword them using the active voice. Contractions of verbs which are frequently used in casual speech often slip into formal prose especially when an author is writing quickly as he or she thinks through problems. Examples include didnt for did not shouldnt for should not wont for will not cant for cannot and wouldnt for would not in which a verb is combined with the word not as well as verbs combined with pronouns such as Ill for I will hes for he is or he has its for it is or it has and theyre for they are. Such contractions are not considered scholarly and should only be used in your thesis when you are accurately quoting direct speech and similar informal text from sources that use contractions I use them in some of my examples for instance. In your own prose however all such contractions should be expanded so do watch for these as you proofread your chapter drafts. For more information on contractions including those that are acceptable in scholarly prose see Section 5.6.3 below. CHAPTER 5 178 5.4.8 Consistency and Variation in Word Use It is important to strike a balance between consistency and variation in the vocabulary used in a thesis. While variety can contribute to an interesting writing style and is important for retaining the readers interest precision and consistency are absolutely essential to reporting results and presenting an argument effectively so it is always better to tip the scales in favour of clear communication. Many minor words in a sentence can easily be changed or eliminated to create variety and avoid repetition without altering the meaning of your text but if you vary or eliminate terms that define important aspects and elements of your research methodology and argument or that report the precise results of tests and trials ambiguity and misinterpretation can result. In the case of comparison for instance the exact details of each side of a comparison or contrast should be clearly outlined and a sentence such as I compared the scores the executives earned in the third trial with the employees is confusing and simply wrong the scores earned by the executives were no doubt compared with the scores earned by the employees not the employees themselves and the employees scores were probably obtained in a numbered trial as well so the reader needs more precise information. A statement such as purple hats were given to half of the executives but yellow to employees is also problematic. The reader can easily supply the verb were given missing from the second half of the sentence and it is also fairly clear that yellow stands for yellow hats but he or she may be wondering to how many employees Does the author mean that hats were given to half of the employees or to all employees included in the study Clearly further explanation is needed here as well and the use of specific numbers and percentages would probably be far more effective. Finally the terms and definitions used for specific concepts and categories should remain consistent throughout a thesis especially when those concepts and categories are central to the study or argument for CHAPTER 5 179 CHAPTER 5 example if the study groups have been introduced as smokers group nonsmokers group and control group that terminology should not change part way through the thesis or be different in tables and figures that accompany the thesis and if questionnaires are labelled A B and C they should not be referred to without the letters or via numbers instead because such references can increase the possibility of unnecessary confusion. PRS Tip The well-educated proofreaders at PRS are specialists in a variety of disciplines and experts in the English language. They know how scholarly writing in English should read because they are scholars and some of them have published their own academic or scientific writing. So there is a great deal they can do to help you make your scholarly voice just what it should be but it is essential that you do everything you can to ensure that your vocabulary grammar and syntax are as correct and clear as possible before you send your thesis or proposal chapters for proofreading. Remember that if a seasoned professional proofreader familiar with academic and scientific prose your specific discipline and the errors commonly encountered when working across languages is not able to make sense of what you are trying to say it is very difficult for him or her to provide assistance. When PRS proofreaders read documents for clients they generally strike up a dialogue in marginal comments and clients are welcome to initiate a dialogue with their proofreaders as well. If you are having trouble with a particular construction or a specific section in your thesis you should therefore feel free to explain the problem as well as you can in a marginal comment within your Word document or in the instructions you include with the document. This sort of proactive approach will enable your proofreader to direct attention where it is most needed and help you maximise the effect of the money you spend on professional proofreading. 180 5.5 Paragraphs and lists Effective Separation and Transition 5.5.1 Structured and Fully Developed Paragraphs Paragraphs are units of thought reflecting the development of the authors argument and no absolute rules control their length Ritter 2005 Section 1.3.6. Paragraph writing is therefore far from an exact science but generally speaking the first sentence should introduce the main idea or unit of thought that will be discussed in the paragraph the following sentences should develop that idea in a variety of ways and the last sentence should bring the paragraph and its main idea to an effective close ideally in a manner that guides the reader on to the next paragraph and thus to the next main idea. You will very likely not be able to obtain much advice from either university guidelines or your supervisor about writing paragraphs that effectively separate and develop your thoughts but you will no doubt find that you are nonetheless expected to write your thesis in well-structured and fully developed paragraphs because paragraphing has a powerful effect on the logic and movement of an argument. There seems to be an unspoken assumption that a student who has advanced to the doctoral level will already know how to write perfect paragraphs yet this is not always the case and even seasoned and well-published academic and scientific authors struggle at times with separating their material into paragraphs and creating smooth transitions between them that clarify the movement of their thoughts. For those composing their first long piece of text andor working in a language not their own writing effective paragraphs that include clear and accurate transitions can be a significant challenge. Although there are no absolute rules regarding the minimum length of a paragraph strictly speaking a single sentence does not make a paragraph. This does not mean that a single sentence CHAPTER 5 181 cannot stand alone in a thesis chapter but that it should only do so if the context and information justify such special treatment. You may for instance have written a number of sentences each of which outlines the findings you obtained through the use of a specific instrument or method of analysis and formatted each of these sentences as a separate paragraph. This is not incorrect and occasionally a thesis committee or department will even ask that results and related data be presented in this way most likely because such a structure separates and therefore clarifies the information so do look into whether this format is acceptable for your thesis or not. In addition short paragraphs like short sentences can be a great deal more effective than overly long ones but since a paragraph should focus on developing an idea gathering a string of single-sentence paragraphs that report the findings of different methods into one longer paragraph or perhaps two paragraphs clustering similar results in each can in many cases be a more effective means of discussing the results of the trials experiments surveys and so on used in a doctoral study. Just as the paragraphs in a thesis can be too short to be entirely effective they can also be too long. The maximum length of a paragraph is indefinite as well but as a general rule a paragraph that extends to two pages in length is too long though line spacing and the layout of pages will make a difference here. Long paragraphs are often associated with complex thought and closely connected ideas which is exactly the sort of content wanted in a thesis but paragraphs that are too long can lose the readers attention because they tend to merge and develop a number of ideas instead of separating them for clarity and such paragraphs can therefore lack the appearance of logical interconnection or coherence. Although even a very long paragraph can be effective if intellectually appropriate and very carefully written the same material broken into shorter paragraphs each of which addresses one aspect of the larger idea originally explored in the longer paragraph can create a more defined structure CHAPTER 5 182 for complex ideas and thus enhance the progression of your overall argument. By breaking long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs you also make your text more accessible to your readers you provide them with visual and intellectual breaks that offer them the chance to assimilate the ideas you have just discussed before they move on to the next paragraph and you also make it easier for them to find material again when necessary. Organising your thesis chapters into paragraphs of suitable lengths for the material you discuss will only be successful however if you write effective transitions between your paragraphs. When you turn to a different topic adopt a different perspective or focus on a different idea as you begin a new paragraph the transition needs to be smooth logical and explained with precision. Specific discourse markers are highly effective for indicating a change of topic a comparison or contrast or a shift in focus but there are many ways to make alterations and progressions of thought apparent to readers so once again there are no definite rules. To avoid transitions that may seem abrupt awkward contradictory illogical or unclear to readers be sure to repeat or introduce the words and concepts necessary at the beginning of a new paragraph to connect it logically to the paragraph before it see for instance the first sentence of this paragraph in which I mention the length of paragraphs discussed in the preceding paragraph before introducing transitions between paragraphs. As I mentioned in Section 5.4.2 above pronouns such as this that and they should be avoided at the beginning of a new paragraph even if the antecedent seems obvious even for example if that antecedent appears in the heading immediately above the paragraph. When the antecedent is not obvious and it may not be as obvious to your readers as it seems to you the result is not only poor style but also confusion for readers exactly when clarity is most necessary to advance your argument so it is always best to use a noun or noun phrase at the beginning of a paragraph or a sentence for that matter. CHAPTER 5 183 A number of formatting issues should also be considered while laying out paragraphs on the page. Paragraphs should for one be clearly separated so that the reader can tell where one ends and the next begins. This can be done by indenting the first line of each paragraph or by providing a line space between paragraphs I use an unusual combination of the two in this book to ensure that it is clear to readers whether a new paragraph begins or not even after examples and quotations surrounded by line spacing. Guidelines provided by your university department or committee members may indicate a preference for one of these methods so do ask your supervisor which method would be most appropriate and then use it consistently throughout your thesis. In some style guides the beginning of the first paragraph immediately after a title or heading is not indented but all other paragraphs are so you should also check any guidelines you are using for detailed instructions of this kind. Sometimes paragraphs are numbered either because the author is enumerating long points in an argument in which case a numbered list format using simple Arabic numerals is appropriate for the paragraphs concerned see Section 5.5.2 below for further information on formatting lists or because they are numbered as part of the overall structure of a thesis in which case the sections and subsections of chapters are usually numbered as well see Section 6.1 below and the paragraphs tend to serve as the lowest section level and use multiple numbers 1.2.1.1 1.2.1.2 1.2.1.3 etc.. Such a numbered system is particularly effective for extremely detailed information or for material in which a great deal of cross- referencing is done see for instance the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 in which each paragraph bears a double number referring to the chapter and the specific paragraph so it is appropriate for many theses and some university or department guidelines may require it. CHAPTER 5 184 5.5.2 Using Lists Effectively Lists separate items in a structured form to highlight and often to arrange them in a hierarchy while emphasising each one and can be especially effective for presenting complex detailed andor multilayered material so you may well want or need to use lists in your thesis. Lists are only as effective as they are clear however so they must be formatted and written in appropriate ways. There are two basic kinds of lists embedded lists that are run into the main text and displayed lists that are set vertically down the page. Embedded lists follow the rules governing normal sentence structure and are well suited to brief lists in which the items are not excessively complex. In its simplest form a list in running text that correctly completes a sentence requires no special punctuation and no numbers or letters to mark individual items for example She brought books articles and paper and My thesis focuses on medieval manuscripts marginalia and readership. A serial comma can be used as in the second example or not as in the first before the conjunction that precedes the final item depending on the usage in other sentences in the thesis for more information on using commas see Section 5.6.1 below. If no serial comma is normally used one may still be needed to avoid ambiguity when a compound item joined by a conjunction appears before the main conjunction in a list in They brought root beer vanilla and chocolate ice cream and cookies for instance the serial comma is necessary before the final and to avoid the implication that the cookies too were vanilla and chocolate. Only items that share a valid syntactical relationship with the introductory part of a sentence should be linked with commas and a final conjunction in this way for example The thesis must be well written thoroughly proofread and use the serial comma consistently is poorer style than The thesis must be well written and thoroughly proofread and use the serial comma consistently because the third item use the serial comma consistently does not correctly follow grammatically speaking the introductory phrase the thesis must be. CHAPTER 5 185 When the opening or introductory part of a sentence containing a list does not lead naturally into the list with a verb or preposition for instance but forms an independent clause a colon is normally used to introduce the list part of the sentence as in the following example. The potluck was a great success Allan made lasagne Mary brought fresh vegetables from her garden and Shea bought the wine for more information on using colons see Section 5.6.1 below. When introducing a list follow as follows or the following often appears before the colon The following topics are discussed manuscripts marginalia and readership or The topics discussed are as follows manuscripts marginalia and readership. If an embedded list is brief andor informal a dash en rule or em rule on which see Section 5.6.4 below can be used instead of the colon Three topics were discussed manuscripts marginalia and readership but since a dash tends to imply an aside or afterthought rather than a main idea a colon is the better choice in most cases and the two should not be used together to introduce a list. If more definitive or clearer separation is required in an embedded list numerals Arabic not Roman which tend to be too cumbersome for embedded lists or letters usually lowercase enclosed in parentheses and sometimes set in italic more rarely bold font can be used Adam made three important contributions to the picnic 1 beer and soft drinks 2 lasagne and garlic bread and 3 cookies and pies or Adam made three important contributions to the picnic a beer and soft drinks b lasagne and garlic bread and c cookies and pies. In some cases one or more of the items in an embedded list is especially long and complex andor contains internal commas. If any of the embedded lists you include in your thesis contain such items you should use semicolons instead of commas to separate the individual items and a semicolon should appear before the conjunction that precedes the final item even if you do not normally use a serial comma in your thesis Several people brought CHAPTER 5 186 homemade products Shea made two types of wine red and white and her husband brought his home-brewed beer Mary made a salad with the fresh vegetables from her garden baked a pie with the apples from her tree and picked flowers for the table and Adam not only made lasagne and garlic bread but also baked cookies see also the discussion of semicolons in Section 5.6.1 below. Numbers or letters can easily be added to such a list for clearer division or to define a hierarchy of order or importance. In all cases the items in embedded lists should be as consistent as possible in phrasing and structure so that the list like any other well-formed English sentence is syntactically balanced grammatically correct and complete. For example if the first item begins with a noun followed by a verb and a past participle e.g. marginalia is abbreviated it is best not to word the second item with a present participle followed by a noun e.g. abbreviating marginalia instead design and adjust your wording so that every item in your list uses a similar structure. The grammatical balance required in an embedded list should also be observed in a displayed list whether the list forms a single sentence or comprises many sentences. In most cases single- sentence lists should be embedded instead of displayed but since the purpose of displayed lists is to separate and emphasise material so that it can be easily found consulted and understood if such emphasis is required for a single-sentence list a displayed format is appropriate. When a displayed list forms a single sentence each item should open with a lowercase letter the individual items should be separated by commas or semicolons depending on the length and complexity of each item and the sentence should close with a full stop after the final item but the conjunction that normally precedes the final item in embedded lists is omitted in displayed lists as in the following example. Adams contributions to the picnic included CHAPTER 5 187 beer and soft drinks lasagne and garlic bread cookies and pies. The bullets are not strictly necessary the three items could appear flush left and numerals or less often letters could be used instead of the bullets to emphasise a hierarchy among the items. In a displayed list where there is more room and clarity than in an embedded list Roman instead of Arabic numerals can be used but Arabic numerals are still the most common and acceptable choice. Sometimes such lists are slightly indented if you have used numbers or bullets for instance Word will add indentation automatically and occasionally displayed lists appear in a slightly smaller font than the main text of the thesis though there is no need for this beyond saving a little space and I have not used that format here. Displayed lists tend to be introduced by an independent clause or complete sentence followed by a colon or less frequently a full stop as the next example shows. Adam made three important contributions to the picnic beer and soft drinks1 lasagne and garlic bread2 cookies and pies3 When the items are short single words phrases or sentence fragments as they are in the example above each can begin with a lowercase letter. If numbers are used a full stop usually follows each number and the first letter of each item is sometimes capitalised. Commas or semicolons separating the items and a final full stop are not required when a list is introduced by an independent clause or a complete sentence though they are also not strictly incorrect if the list with its introductory independent clause forms a CHAPTER 5 188 single complete sentence so in the example above a comma could follow each of the first two items and a final stop could follow the third item. For lists of items that are longer and more complex with each of them forming one or more complete sentences a displayed rather than an embedded format should be used and whether numbers bullets or no such markers are included each item should begin with a capital and close with a full stop as in the following example. The picnic was a culinary success with several people bringing homemade products Adam contributed more than one course by bringing beer and soft drinks making lasagne and garlic bread and baking both cookies and pies. Shea made two types of wine red and white and her husband brought his home-brewed beer. Mary made a salad with the fresh vegetables from her garden baked a pie with the apples from her tree and picked flowers for the table. Allan not only made sandwiches of various kinds but also built a picnic table for the occasion. With the automatic indentation provided for bulleted and numbered lists in Word it is clear where one item ends and the next begins but if no indentation is used lines that run over within a single item can be indented slightly using hanging indentation to clarify the separation or a little extra space can be added between the items. In some instances lists must be displayed vertically because the items are very long but no special typographical prominence is necessary so a simple paragraph format can be used after the list is introduced with each paragraph numbered but otherwise like other paragraphs in the thesis whether that means indentation of CHAPTER 5 189 the first line of each paragraph or spacing between the paragraphs. Occasionally however lists are far more complex than any of the examples I have provided so far featuring several levels or subdivisions. Indentation increasing slightly with each level can be used to distinguish the levels in such lists and if the list is not too complicated indentation of this kind is sometimes enough to make the level in which each item belongs clear to the reader but complex subdivided lists are usually marked by a system of numerals both Roman and Arabic if necessary letters both uppercase and lowercase if needed parentheses and perhaps square brackets and italics occasionally bold as well if a third font is required to provide each level with distinctive qualities. There are no set rules for the order of such elements so the method of labelling tends to vary from author to author consistency for similar lists within a thesis is ideal but different lists may require different treatment so some flexibility is often necessary. Possible orders might include 1. i a 1. a. i a I. A. 1. a. i a or any other combination that is logical consistent and effective see the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.275 for an example of a list with seven levels of differentiation. Lists of all kinds provide an extremely effective means of presenting information whether straightforward or complex in an immediately accessible format but the lists you use in your thesis can only do what they are intended to do if they are introduced in ways that explain both their function and content and create smooth and logical transitions between your normal prose and the lists. If for instance you are exploring the effectiveness of domestic robots as assistants for elderly people who live in apartments an appropriate introduction to a list of the tasks considered might be In this study I explore the effectiveness of three different domestic robots in performing for elderly apartment dwellers the following five household tasks 1 grocery shopping 2 preparing meals 3 taking out the trash 4 vacuuming and 5 dusting. The argument should continue equally smoothly in the following sentence with a discussion or elaboration of CHAPTER 5 190 the five tasks or perhaps by listing and discussing the three different robots or providing details about the elderly participants in the first case the paragraph above the list could simply continue but in the second or third a new paragraph would probably be more appropriate. Because lists are more visually accessible than many other parts of a thesis readers tend to return to lists when necessary to check definitions categories explanations and any other information included there so it is essential that all terminology abbreviations data and other material in a list are accurate and use the exact same styles and forms as are used in the main discussion and other parts of the thesis. You want a confused reader to find clarity and resolution in your lists not further confusion. There are certain kinds of lists that have become so conventional in academic and scientific writing that no prose introduction to them is necessary. The footnotes that appear at the bottom of tables to list abbreviations and their definitions or probability values are good examples see Section 4.4.1 above and so are parenthetical authordate references see Section 7.2.1 below. In both cases semicolons are used to separate the individual items for example ANOVA analysis of variance CI confidence interval ES effect size is an effective table footnote and Adams 2009 Brentwood 2006 Jones 2009 Putter 2005 is a standard cluster of parenthetical authordate references. In many lists of this kind an alphabetical arrangement such as that I have just used in the two examples I provided is traditional or required and the same is the case when displayed lists such as abbreviation lists and reference lists or bibliographies feature a heading or title Abbreviations ANOVA Analysis of variance CI Confidence interval ES Effect size CHAPTER 5 191 Notice that the first letter of each definition in this example is capitalised and any additional main words may be as well e.g. Analysis of Variance and that the sign often used between an abbreviation and its definition in a table footnote is better as a colon in a displayed list though colons can also be used for in-note lists. Alternate arrangements include chronological instead of alphabetical order for parenthetical authordate references numerical order for lists of tables or figures and reference lists that accompany numerical in-text references and order of importance for lists of contributing authors and possible reviewers. PRS Tip The proofreaders at PRS read a lot of academic and scientific writing in a wide variety of disciplines and fields so they have encountered and helped improve a wide variety of approaches to constructing paragraphs and lists. As readers who need to understand the texts before them both quickly and thoroughly they can attest to just how vital the logical development of thoughtful paragraphs the clear explanation of transitions and the effective presentation of lists are to your readers understanding of your research and argument. Noticing when aspects of scholarly writing are not presenting material clearly or are in fact preventing readers from understanding your meaning is precisely what PRS proofreaders do so they can offer suggestions and corrections to help you produce logically developed paragraphs and effectively presented lists that not only look good on the page but also feature smooth transitions and communicate your specific intentions and overall argument successfully to your readers. CHAPTER 5 192 5.6 Punctuating Correctly and Consistently Errors and Preferences Punctuation may seem a tiny matter but even the tiniest mark of punctuation can have a striking effect on the meaning of a sentence and the ultimate goal of punctuation should always be clarity of communication and ease of reading. There is no one single system of correct punctuation in the English language however so there is considerable room for author preferences and individual styles yet the punctuation used in a sentence or an entire thesis must function effectively. I therefore deal here with situations in which punctuation tends to be problematic for many academic and scientific authors or in which punctuation can be treated in more than one way. In some cases the focus is on correct usage and the patterns that are required in formal English prose while in others the options are considered and the importance of adopting a particular approach or style throughout a thesis is emphasised. Please note that this section focuses on punctuation in the normal running text of a doctoral thesis so for advice on punctuating references and quotations see Chapters 7 and 8 below. It also focuses on general contexts but certain disciplines topics and material will require special punctuation procedures an exclamation mark for example has specific meanings in mathematics where it is a factorial sign and computing where it is a delimiter symbol. You are probably already aware of any specialised uses in your own discipline but as a good starting place for further advice see Chapters 13 and 14 of Butcher et al. 2006 Chapter 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 and Chapters 13 and 14 of Ritter 2005. For more information on the general rules of punctuation in English see for instance the Penguin Guide to Punctuation Trask 1997. CHAPTER 5 193 5.6.1 Commas Semicolons and Colons Commas. Although commas indicate the shortest pause and smallest break possible in a sentences structure their appropriate use also tends to present significant difficulties for authors particularly I suspect because commas are used in so many different situations and are often governed by author and style preferences rather than by strict rules of correct usage. Some functions of the comma are more straightforward than others but generally speaking variations are possible in many instances where a comma might be used depending on the precise meaning context and sentence structure. A comma almost always appears after yes or no for instance Yes I agree or No I dont think so and a comma usually follows a name in a direct address e.g. Sarah will you please pass the pepper or in a salutation in correspondence Dear Sarah. In formal business letters in American English however a colon is often used instead of the comma Dear Sarah and there is a tendency in both British and American English for punctuation to be omitted from letters if it is not a comma should also precede the final signature Yours sincerely. A comma follows an exclamatory oh or ah as well but only if a pause is intended Oh what a lovely day but Oh no and a comma should not be included after either of them in a vocative construction Oh cruel master. A comma is also used after other introductory parts of sentences such as an initial adverb However my findings did not confirm this or Accordingly I conducted the trial a second time but a comma does not follow the adverb if it modifies an adjective or another adverb e.g. However hard she tries she will not finish her thesis this month although in such cases a comma generally does follow the entire opening clause after tries here. Introductory adverbial clauses and indeed all initial dependent or subordinate clauses clauses that is that are dependent upon the main clause CHAPTER 5 194 that follows see Section 5.4.5 above are generally followed by a comma After writing all night I was exhausted or If he had been digging all day he would be exhausted. The comma is not necessary however if the introductory phrase is short particularly if it indicates time or location On Sunday she goes to church or if the dependent clause immediately precedes the verb it modifies Out of the forest walked the woman they were seeking. The comma is also not required if the dependent clause follows the main clause and is restrictive or defining which is to say that it cannot be removed without significantly altering the sentences meaning He was exhausted after digging all day but if the dependent clause that follows is nonrestrictive or nondefining which means that it adds supplementary information that is not strictly essential to the sentences meaning a comma should be used He was exhausted if you ask me. This pattern of usage also applies to other restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses such as relative or parenthetical clauses if the clause is necessary to the meaning of a sentence restrictive no comma is needed before it and no comma is needed after it either if it appears in the middle of the sentence The people who live there enjoy mild weather every day but if the clause is supplementary a comma should precede the relative or parenthetical clause and follow it as well if the clause appears in the middle of the sentence The people who speak the southern dialect enjoy mild weather every day. In restrictive relative clauses either which or that is acceptable She focussed on her topic with an intensity which I thought extraordinary or She focussed on her topic with an intensity that I thought extraordinary but in nonrestrictive clauses that should not be used and which is the correct choice The thesis which was very well written was submitted to the committee. In American English there is a tendency to use that instead of which for restrictive relative clauses so if you are following the conventions of American English it is a good idea to use that for all such CHAPTER 5 195 clauses. Finally if the meaning is clear the word that is not strictly necessary the book I wrote is as correct as the book that I wrote and sometimes such wording can be smoother and less cumbersome. The same general principles of comma use apply to words phrases clauses or abbreviations in apposition no commas are required around the appositive part of the sentence if it is restrictive and therefore essential to the sentence. In the case of a name for example this means that the appositive part specifies which one of more than one person or thing is intended The medieval poet Langland wrote Piers Plowman. If however the name and the medieval poet are transposed in the sentence the medieval poet becomes nonrestrictive providing supplementary information about the named poet and should therefore be enclosed in commas Langland the medieval poet wrote Piers Plowman. In such constructions a pair of en rules or em rules see Section 5.6.4 below or a pair of parentheses see Section 5.6.5 below can instead surround the nonrestrictive material but they indicate a relationship between that material and the surrounding text that is not as close as that implied by commas Langland the medieval poet wrote Piers Plowman. Parenthetical adverbs or interjections that appear mid-sentence are similarly enclosed in commas The questionnaires therefore were recirculated It is uncertain however whether all the participants could be located and That indeed was the last thing we expected but if the adverb is essential to the meaning of the clause or sentence no commas should be used The participants were found and the questionnaires were therefore recirculated and The lecture was indeed too long. Commas should not be used for an appositive or parenthetical phrase that is part of a name so Bob the carpenter from the shop built the house is correct with commas but Bob the carpenter built the house is correct without them. CHAPTER 5 196 When presenting a series or list of three or more items words phrases or clauses in which the final item is preceded by a conjunction and or or commas are used after the items that are not followed by a conjunction but whether or not a comma known as a serial comma should appear before the conjunction is in most cases a matter of choice on lists see also Section 5.5.2 above. No comma is required for correct English usage She bought milk juice and coffee and Dave cooked the steaks Samantha prepared the vegetables and Adam poured the wine even if the last item is a compound joined by a conjunction She bought milk juice and tea and coffee. It is equally correct however to use a serial comma She bought milk juice and coffee Dave cooked the steaks Samantha prepared the vegetables and Adam poured the wine and She bought milk juice and tea and coffee. The serial comma is used particularly in American English and by US publishers but it is also used by Oxford University Press hence its alternative name Oxford comma and some other UK publishers so the use of British or American English does not necessarily decide the issue though you may want to use this distinction if your department or university guidelines call for a particular form of English but give no advice on the use of the serial comma. On the other hand if you want to keep punctuation to a minimum you may choose not to use serial commas but if you tend to use a lot of compounds joined by conjunctions in series using serial commas may well be the best choice to ensure clarity of communication. Whether you choose to use the serial comma or not your usage should remain consistent throughout your thesis although if the serial comma is not normally used it can still be used occasionally to avoid ambiguity and confusion. When a compound item joined by a conjunction appears before the main conjunction in a list for example using a comma before that main conjunction can help clarify the authors meaning in They brought root beer vanilla and chocolate ice cream and cookies for instance the serial comma is necessary before the final and to avoid the implication that the cookies too were vanilla and chocolate. CHAPTER 5 197 When one or more of the items in a series or list is long and complex or uses additional punctuation semicolons instead of commas should be used between the items see below in which case a final semicolon should appear where the serial comma normally would even if serial commas are not generally used in the thesis. If on the other hand conjunctions are used between all items in a list or series you can have juice or wine or beer no commas are needed but they can be used if the items are particularly long or complex and the commas will help clarify the meaning. As I mentioned in my discussion of lists in Section 5.5.2 above it is important to ensure that only items that share a valid syntactical relationship with the introductory part of the sentence be linked with commas and a final conjunction for example The thesis must be well written thoroughly proofread and use a serial comma consistently is poorer style than The thesis must be well written and thoroughly proofread and use a serial comma consistently because the third item use a serial comma consistently does not work grammatically with the introductory The thesis must be. When an ampersand is used instead of and in a series a usage that is generally only acceptable in parenthetical and supplementary materials the use of a serial comma before it can be determined by usage elsewhere in the thesis She bought milk juice coffee or She bought milk juice coffee. Finally although the abbreviation etc. should also be avoided in the running text of formal prose when it is used to end a series in parenthetical material or tables it should be preceded by a comma if a serial comma is used elsewhere in the thesis She bought milk juice coffee etc. but not if a serial comma is not usually used in the thesis She bought milk juice coffee etc.. If the sentence continues after the series etc. is often but not necessarily followed by a comma She bought milk juice coffee etc. although she didnt need to buy anything. When an English equivalent of etc. and so forth and so on or and the like is used in the main text instead of etc. it too should be preceded by a comma or not according to the use of CHAPTER 5 198 serial commas elsewhere in the thesis She bought milk juice coffee and the like or She bought milk juice coffee and so on. For more information on using the ampersand and etc. see Section 6.3 below. Unlike the serial comma the use of which is dependent on preferences and meaning a comma splice is an error and must be avoided. A comma splice occurs when two main clauses whether they share a subject or have different subjects are joined together into one sentence via a comma alone as in I love buying old books I go to the used bookshop almost every weekend or We were delighted one of the younger members even shouted out with glee. A semicolon can be used instead of the comma e.g. I love buying old books I go to the used bookshop almost every weekend to fix the problem or a full stop and capital can be added to divide the incorrect sentence into two We were delighted. One of the younger members even shouted out with glee. Alternatively the comma can be retained and a conjunction and or but etc. added between the two clauses We were delighted and one of the younger members even shouted out with glee but if a conjunction is used and the independent clauses are short and closely connected the comma may not be necessary He bought coffee and she brought cream. Similarly the comma may not be necessary if the sentences clauses form a compound predicate two or more verbs with the same subject instead of independent clauses but the conjunction is required in such cases I love buying old books and I go to the used bookshop almost every weekend. If there is any potential for confusion however a comma should be used for example if the comma were not included in Spike did not recognise the woman who walked through the door and barked the sentence would imply that the woman walking through the door rather than the dog named Spike was doing the barking. A comma splice also occurs when two main clauses are linked only by an adverb or adverbial phrase She was afraid nevertheless she stood her ground or The instructor CHAPTER 5 199 intimidated him as a result he dropped the course. The best solution to this problem is to use a semicolon instead of the comma and often a comma after the adverb or adverbial phrase is appropriate as well She was afraid nevertheless she stood her ground or The instructor intimidated him as a result he dropped the course. Commas can also be used between two or more adjectives preceding a noun but rules and conventions for this usage vary considerably. The Chicago Manual of Style 2003 for instance explains that if the adjectives could without affecting the meaning be joined by and the adjectives are normally separated by commas but if the noun and the adjective immediately preceding it are conceived as a unit . . . no comma should be used p.250. Following this method faithful sincere friend bears a comma but many young friends does not. New Harts Rules Ritter 2005 Section 4.3.4 on the other hand suggests an approach based on the type of adjective used with adjectives such as big tiny happy and sad being gradable or qualitative adjectives while adjectives such as white black English and treacherous are classifying adjectives. According to this system Ritter 2005 Section 4.3.4 a comma is needed to separate two or more qualitative adjectives such as a short thick tree but no comma is needed to separate adjectives of different types a big black cat or to separate classifying adjectives that relate to different classifying systems annual environmental damage or English Renaissance love poets. Whichever system is used when an adjective is repeated before a noun many many tourists visit the Grand Canyon a comma is usually inserted between the two instances. Exceptions can be made to these rules however so do check to see if your department or university has preferences with regard to the use of commas between adjectives in technical writing for example commas are often kept to a bare minimum and if there are no guidelines to follow it is often better to use fewer commas than more CHAPTER 5 200 some authors will use none at all between adjectives much as it is better to use one or two adjectives perfect for the context rather than a long string of them. Commas are often used around interjected phrases beginning with not or not only e.g. The student himself not his supervisor led the meeting but they are not as necessary when the clauses are short simple and closely related The dog was not white but black. The principle is similar with the more . . . the more the more . . . the less and similar statements. A comma should be used between longer clauses but not between short phrases for example the more I learn about the thesis process the less intimidated I feel but the more the merrier. Commas are often used to introduce brief quoted material as well as direct speech According to Taylor the results could be reproduced and Tiffany replied Not today but if a conjunction such as that or whether is used before the quotation no comma is required Taylor argued that the results could be reproduced and if the quotation is longer or the context more formal a colon should be used instead of a comma see the discussion of colons below and for more information on punctuating quotations see Chapter 8 below. Maxims and proverbs are usually treated much as quotations and appositives are making use of commas when necessary to clarify the sense Samanthas personal motto early to bed early to rise is not mine but The motto early to bed early to rise is one I should observe more often.A comma is also used to introduce a question in running text He asked her how will the changes affect the thesis and although no initial capital is required to begin the question if the question is long or contains internal punctuation an initial capital can be helpful He asked her If I follow these guidelines how will the changes affect the thesis Notice that quotation marks are not required around the question though they can be used to indicate direct speech and when the question is indirect neither the comma nor the question mark is needed either He is wondering how the changes will affect the thesis. CHAPTER 5 201 Commas are frequently used to indicate the omission of a word or words but the missing elements must be obvious from the context and the words that are provided in the sentence for example in the evergreens there are four nests of robins in the deciduous trees five of sparrows in the marsh snags six of chickadees in which the words there are . . . nests are represented by each of the commas. The commas may be omitted however if the meaning is clear without them the robins returned in March the chickadees in April and the sparrows in May. This sort of elliptical structure can be difficult to perfect and tends to be either underused or overused by authors so do check any usage of this kind in your thesis carefully to be sure that it is as concise as it can be without omitting essential information. You should also ensure that you have used commas properly in numerals to mark the thousands for instance in numbers such as 272098 11354209 and 2524307099 dates after the day in March 17 2011 in American English for example for more information on punctuation in both numbers and dates see Section 6.4 below and addresses and place names in running text for instance commas are used to separate addresses and place names 750 Richmond Road Victoria British Columbia. References also make use of commas commas appear between the dates of sources written by the same author in parenthetical authordate references Pearsall 1987 1996 2001 2006 and usually without spaces between the numerals used for numerical in-text references 89121618. They also appear in various places depending on the referencing system and style used in full bibliographical references whether those references are provided in notes or in a list see Chapter 7 below for more information on punctuating references. Many of the instances in which commas are used may seem simple or obvious but errors and inconsistencies associated with the use of commas arise with surprising frequency in scholarly writing so it is important to remain alert to the small details of comma use as well as to the larger patterns as you draft proofread and revise your thesis chapters. CHAPTER 5 202 Semicolons. Although the semicolon is used in more limited and straightforward ways than the comma is the semicolon is frequently misused by authors of all kinds. The pause it indicates is stronger or longer than the pause specified by a comma but weaker than that indicated by a full stop for the latter see Section 5.6.2 below and its effect is somewhat different from that of the colon but the semicolon nonetheless tends to be used incorrectly in situations when one of those three types of punctuation would be more appropriate much as a comma stop or colon is sometimes used when a semicolon would be better. In most situations a semicolon resembles a full stop in function its most common use is to provide punctuation between two independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction and could were they separated by a full stop instead form two sentences. However the semicolon generally implies a closer relationship between the two clauses than a full stop might Sally wanted to rake the leaves Sunday morning an unexpected snowfall Saturday night prevented her from doing so. A colon should not be used instead of a semicolon between such clauses unless the second clause specifically explains illustrates or provides examples of what is asserted in the first clause see the discussion of colons below. A semicolon can also be used instead of a comma between two main clauses whether they feature different subjects or share the same subject that are joined by a conjunction and already make use of internal commas in which case the semicolon indicates a stronger division than the commas and clarifies the sentence structure Richard was planning to buy a new computer television and mobile phone at the electronics shop and then stop at the grocery store where he intended to fill the gas tank as well but the electronics shop was sold out of all the products he wanted and the line for gas was very long so he arrived home with groceries only. A semicolon is also required when two main clauses are linked not by a conjunction but by an adverb such as indeed however CHAPTER 5 203 therefore or nevertheless or by an adverbial phrase. In these situations the semicolon should appear before the adverb or adverbial phrase for example Sally wanted to rake the leaves Sunday morning however an unexpected snowfall Saturday night prevented her from doing so and The instructor intimidated him as a result he dropped the course. Semicolons are also used to intensify the divisions and clarify the relationships between the items in a series or list in which the individual items are complex and already contain commas andor other punctuation She explained in support of her husband that he had been experiencing recent difficulties including crashing their only car that he had lost his job and had not been able to find a new one although he had been searching every day that he had never behaved in this way before at least as far as she knew and finally that he had already removed the snow from his neighbours car offering a sincere apology after he finished. Semicolons are often used when listing the copyright holders of material used in a thesis I am grateful for permission to reproduce images of manuscripts from the collections belonging to the Bodleian Library Oxford the British Library London and the Worcester Cathedral Library. Semicolons are also used to separate individual in-text references in an authordate system of referencing when two or more references are gathered in a single set of parentheses Brentwood 2010 Chang 2006 Kovak 1990 Olsen 2013 and they can be used in a similar way in a note system of referencing when more than one reference whether complete or shortened is included in a single note as they are in this footnote.4 In the full bibliographical references that appear in reference lists or notes a semicolon is used in some styles between the name of the publisher and the date of publication and occasionally in other positions as well for more information on using punctuation in references see Chapter 7 below. 4 Hilmo Power of Images 158 Kerby-Fulton Professional Readers 223 Olson Romancing the Book 102. CHAPTER 5 204 When trying to avoid a numeral or symbol that would be awkward at the beginning of a sentence you can use a semicolon instead of a full stop before the numeral or symbol for example Although I approached an equal number of instructors and students more students than instructors responded positively. 137 students agreed to take part in the study but only 56 instructors wished to participate requires rewording to avoid 137 at the opening of the second sentence but writing the numeral out in words to correct the problem would be somewhat awkward especially since 56 would be best written out as well on using and formatting numbers see Section 6.4 below. By using a semicolon instead of the full stop the problem is resolved Although I approached an equal number of instructors and students more students than instructors responded positively 137 students agreed to take part in the study but only 56 instructors wished to participate. Because the information after the semicolon in this example provides explanatory details about what has come before it a colon would be a viable alternative to the semicolon see below. Colons. The functions of the colon are like those of the semicolon well defined and straightforward yet it too is often misused even by scholarly authors. As a general rule a colon should not be used as a substitute for a semicolon comma or full stop because its significance is different. As New Harts Rules puts it using a colon in the process a colon points forward from a premise to a conclusion from a cause to an effect from an introduction to a main point from a general statement to an example Ritter 2005 Section 4.5. Functioning much as the words for instance for example namely because that is and others do a colon introduces an explanation example description elaboration or illustration of what has appeared before it. There was so much food that three of the dishes brought to the potluck were not even touched the bean salad the largest pan of lasagne and the lemon cake uses a colon correctly and like the quotation from New Harts CHAPTER 5 205 Rules I have used above also demonstrates how the text following a colon need not contain a verb or be able to stand on its own as a sentence or independent clause. A colon can be used instead of a semicolon however between two independent or main clauses but only when the second clause specifically explains illustrates or otherwise elaborates on what has been said in the first for example We were delighted but especially those who had worked so hard to achieve this goal one of the younger members even shouted out with glee and Although I approached an equal number of instructors and students more students than instructors responded positively 137 students agreed to take part in the study but only 56 instructors wished to participate. One of the primary functions of the colon is to introduce a list or series of items Three of the dishes brought to the potluck were not even touched the bean salad the largest pan of lasagne and the lemon cake and is frequently used for this purpose after the words as follows or the following The following dishes were not eaten the bean salad the largest pan of lasagne and the lemon cake see Section 5.5.2 above for more information on using colons with lists. A colon should not be used however before a list or statement that is introduced by a verb or a preposition in such a way that the list or statement correctly completes the sentence begun by the introductory words without the need to use a colon The dishes that were not eaten included the bean salad the largest pan of lasagne and the lemon cake. A colon is sometimes used instead of a full stop before a series of related sentences that illustrate or provide examples of what has been mentioned in the preceding sentence as in the following example. A number of problems arise when a doctoral student does not prepare carefully for the thesis examination For one his or her presentation may be inadequate or disorganised and give a bad impression. Second the thesis may be riddled with errors that could easily have CHAPTER 5 206 been corrected through careful proofreading. Third the candidate may not be able to answer in intelligent ways the questions posed by the examiners. Finally if the problems are drawn to the students attention he or she may become flustered or angry and make matters worse. I have used an initial capital immediately after the colon in this example primarily to demonstrate how a full sentence follows a colon but this would be an appropriate format for American English in which a colon is followed by a capital if it introduces a grammatically complete sentence. In running text in British English however the word following a colon is usually not capitalised unless it is a proper noun so For one in the above example would probably be for one in British English everything else would remain the same. When introducing direct speech a colon can be used as it often is between the name or term identifying a speaker and the transcription of his or her words when recording the dialogue from interviews INTERVIEWER Did you find the items on the questionnaire difficult to understand PARTICIPANT A No most of them seemed clear to me. INTERVIEWER Can you remember which ones did not Here the words following the colons should bear an initial capital to mark the beginning of the direct speech regardless of whether British or American English is used. A capital letter can also follow a colon that is used to introduce a quotation or extract J.R.R. Tolkiens Hobbit begins with a line that the author apparently scribbled on a student paper he was grading In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit with the capital being most likely if the quotation begins with a full sentence or continues for more than one sentence for more information on quotations and the punctuation associated with CHAPTER 5 207 them see Chapter 8 below. It is essential to ensure that whatever format is chosen for capitalisation in such cases is used consistently for identical or similar situations throughout a thesis. Particularly in American English a colon is used at the beginning of a formal speech letter or other communication immediately after the mention of those addressed as in Ladies and Gentlemen or Dear Editor but a comma is usually used for the same purpose in British English. Colons often appear in titles as well primarily between a main title and a subtitle to introduce the latter as the colon does in the title of this book PhD Success How To Write a Doctoral Thesis. If a proper noun follows the colon in such titles it should bear an initial capital otherwise the colon can be followed by either an uppercase or lowercase letter depending on the guidelines you are following and your usual practice regarding the format of titles and headings with consistency being a primary goal for more information on headings and capitalisation see Sections 6.1 and 6.2.1 below. Paragraph headings particularly in abstracts are sometimes followed by a colon that functions in an introductory way and if the heading is in a special font the colon often is as well Objectives The two primary objectives of this research were. A colon can also be used with or without spaces around it in ratios e.g. a ratio of 21 and without spaces in chapter and verse references to the Bible Genesis 24 and in URLs the PRS web site at httpwww.proof-reading-service.com. Finally colons are used to punctuate full bibliographical references in reference lists depending on the style and system of referencing a colon can appear between the place of publication and the publisher after in or In when referring to a chapter in a book and before issue and page numbers when citing journal articles see Chapter 7 below for further information on punctuation in references. A dash en rule or em rule can be used instead of a colon in some situations such as when introducing a brief explanation or example CHAPTER 5 208 of what has gone before or a brief list or quotation for example Three of the dishes remained untouched the bean salad the largest lasagne and the lemon cake. However a dash is more informal than a colon and tends to imply an aside or afterthought rather than a main idea see Section 5.6.4 below so it is not really interchangeable with a colon and a colon should be used in most cases. Whether a colon or a dash is employed only one of them should be used not both. It was once common practice to use a colon followed by a dash to introduce a list or other displayed material such as a block quotation but this is no longer the case so only if you are quoting an earlier source should this construction be retained. 5.6.2 Stops Question Marks and Exclamation Marks Full stops. Also called full points or periods the latter particularly in American English full stops are primarily used to mark the end of complete declarative and imperative sentences. A full stop also appears at the end of complete bibliographical references in most referencing styles see Chapter 7 below though in many cases the stop is omitted if the reference ends with a URL or digital object identifier DOI. In informal writing a full stop is often used at the end of sentences that are technically incomplete but such incomplete sentences should not be a feature of a thesis except to represent quoted speech interviews and the like accurately. A single full stop is all the punctuation needed to close a sentence so if an abbreviation ending with a stop see Section 6.3.2 below on the use of full stops in abbreviations or any other expression that takes a full stop on its own appears at the end of a sentence no additional stop is necessary School starts at 8 a.m. is correct not School starts at 8 a.m.. A stop is generally not used at the end of displayed lines of text such as titles headings subheadings running headings and short captions but paragraph CHAPTER 5 209 or run-in headings such as the one in bold font at the beginning of this paragraph do take a full stop or in some cases a colon see Section 5.6.1 above and Section 6.1 below and if the paragraph heading is set in a special font the stop often appears in the same font as the heading. Sometimes a full stop appears at the end of table headings and figure captions particularly if they are long or consist of more than one sentence in the latter case the full stop is usually necessary and if the stop is required for one or more table headings or figure captions in a thesis it is often used on all of them to maintain consistency. A single space not two should follow a full stop except when the stop appears in a URL or email address in which case no space should follow the stop. When an entire sentence is enclosed either in parentheses or square brackets the full stop should be placed within the parentheses or brackets as it is in the final sentence of this paragraph otherwise the full stop should follow any parentheses or brackets that appear within a sentence. For the placement of full stops in relation to quotations and quotation marks and for the use of triple stops or ellipsis points see Chapter 8 below. Question marks. Question marks have two main functions in formal prose to mark questions queries or interrogative speech and to suggest uncertainty or disbelief. A question mark appears in the position of a full stop at the end of a direct question whether or not the question actually forms a complete sentence Does she always visit the library at ten oclock and Why are both valid questions though Why did he write that or something of the sort is preferable in scholarly writing to the single-word form. Additional closing punctuation such as a full stop is not necessary and double question marks to express confusion should not be used in formal prose. Generally a question mark is followed by a capital letter and a new sentence but if a question is embedded in a sentence the sentence can continue with a lowercase letter after the question mark He asked her how will the changes affect the CHAPTER 5 210 thesis but she did not answer please note that Word will want to change the lowercase b in but into a capital indeed it will want to change any letter after a question mark or other terminal punctuation into a capital so do watch for that and correct it if necessary. If the question represents direct speech and in some styles direct thought as well it should appear in quotation marks single or double and usually begins with a capital What happened she cried and What happened she wondered on quotations and quotation marks see Chapter 8 below. Indirect questions on the other hand are simply blended into sentences and no question marks are needed He asked why no one had made the sandwiches and She wanted to know what had happened. A question mark is also not used in most phrases that are worded as questions through courtesy but are in fact not quite real questions Could I ask you to open the window and Will everyone please rise. Both of these would normally close with a full stop though as New Harts Rules notes Ritter 2005 Section 4.8.1 a question mark can seem more polite than a full point a good thing to remember when making written requests of your supervisor or other committee members. When a question mark is used in conjunction with quotation marks parentheses or square brackets see Section 5.6.5 and Chapter 8 below it should appear inside the quotation marks parentheses or brackets only if it is actually part of the quoted or parenthetical material for example It may be November but it was as warm as summer yesterday can you believe it but What did he mean when he said Without patients the hospital would run much more efficiently A question mark is often used in scholarly writing immediately before or after a word phrase date or other element of a sentence list or table to express uncertainty or doubt A massive storm hit the region in the fall of 1479 and appears to have resulted in extensive flooding. If the question mark in such situations would interfere with CHAPTER 5 211 or confuse the punctuation of the sentence it should be enclosed in parentheses in the fall of 1479. In both cases no space should appear between the question mark and the material you are uncertain about and the same is the case if a question mark is used in this way to express sarcasm or produce a humorous effect My friends didnt bother to find me before they left so I had to take a cab home from the nightclub. There are more complex ways of using spacing with question marks to indicate exactly which elements of a sentence date or claim are in doubt Ritter 2005 Section 4.8.2 discusses these but they are often difficult for readers to decipher so a far better policy when writing a thesis is to explain exactly what the uncertainty is andor why it exists A massive storm hit the region in the fall records suggest that it was 1479 and appears to have resulted in extensive flooding. When question marks are used with dates much as when an abbreviation for circa is used with dates they should be carefully placed and your meaning will be clearest if the dates are not elided for example in 15351547 the first date is clearly in doubt in 15351547 it is probably the second date that is in doubt in 15351547 both dates are in doubt but exactly what is meant by 153547 is unclear. Remember too that a question mark used with a date tends to indicate that the date suggested is probable so its meaning is slightly different from that of circa on which see Section 6.3.11 below. Exclamation marks. Exclamation marks also known as exclamation points predominantly in American English are used as closing punctuation after emphatic statements direct commands emotional interjections or outcries and ironic comments examples include Oh no I forgot to turn off the lights and Look out Like a question mark an exclamation mark performs the function of a full stop so no additional punctuation is necessary to close a sentence and using multiple exclamation marks to intensify a statement is not advisable in formal scholarly prose. An exclamation mark may have CHAPTER 5 212 a place in parentheses within a thesis to emphasise or comment in a small way on surprising or striking results or behaviours in which case it should appear up against the relevant information just as a parenthetical question mark expressing uncertainty does The mens and womens scores were average but the childrens scores all exceeded 35 the highest score ever achieved before this trial. Such use indeed all use of exclamation marks should be sparing however because overuse will diminish the effect and produce an unprofessional appearance. An exclamation mark should never be added even in square brackets to a quotation to express editorial protest or amusement because this can come across as condescending and contemptuous Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.260. When a question is so emphatic that it is more exclamation than question an exclamation mark is generally used instead of a question mark Will he never learn is a good example. As is the case with a question mark an exclamation mark used in conjunction with quotation marks parentheses or square brackets see Section 5.6.5 and Chapter 8 below should appear inside the quotation marks parentheses or brackets only if it is actually part of the quoted or parenthetical material I discovered much to my chagrin that I was being paid half of what other nurses were earning but I worked for days to polish my thesis and my external examiner actually had the audacity to say It doesnt look like you proofread this at all 5.6.3 Apostrophes and Quotation Marks Apostrophes. Apostrophes are used primarily in formal scholarly prose to indicate possession. A standard singular possessive or genitive is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s s to the end of a word but in some cases and especially for plural forms an apostrophe alone is added more rarely an s alone is added and most rarely se is added. Because the correct format for the genitive CHAPTER 5 213 of any particular word is somewhat unpredictable and is in many cases based on pronunciation or euphony it can at times be difficult to decide what the correct format should be especially for doctoral candidates who are not native speakers of English. To help with your decisions in this regard the list below outlines situations in which each possessive form should be used. If you are uncomfortable with these rules and exceptions you may want to opt for an alternative method mentioned in the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 pp.283 284 of using an apostrophe and an s in most cases but omitting the additional s whenever a word already ends with an s. However as this much simpler approach does not take pronunciation into consideration many scholars will not find it acceptable so do seek approval from your department or thesis committee before deciding upon this compromise. Add an apostrophe and an s to Singular nouns the mans suit and the glasss contents. Singular proper nounsnames referring to people places and businesses Samanthas house Jamess book Marxs theory Canadas provinces and a Levis outlet. Indefinite or impersonal pronouns such as one anyone and everything one must follow ones instincts or it could be anyones apartment. Singular acronyms and initialisms WHOs policies with WHO standing for World Health Organization or the MLAs style with MLA standing for the Modern Language Association on abbreviations see Section 6.3 below. Singular dates 2013s warmest day and 2001s memorable disaster. Plural nouns that do not end with an s womens clothing and the childrens playground. CHAPTER 5 214 Add an apostrophe alone to Plural nouns that end with an s the cats collars and the participants scores. Plural proper nounsnames that end with an s the Taylors house and the Fergussons business. Plural acronyms and initialisms that end with an s KIs key informants were used in the study and the KIs responses were recorded see Section 6.3.6 below. Plural dates that end with an s the 1960s biggest concert and the 1970s polyester styles. Singular nouns that end with an s sound if the extra s would make pronunciation difficult the oasis trees. Singular proper nounsnames that end with an s sound if the additional s would make pronunciation difficult and particularly if the name is long and not accented on one of the last two syllables Nicholas thesis. Singular proper nounsnames of two or more syllables in which the last syllable is pronounced iz or eez Bridges study and the Ganges bank. Singular nouns and names in French ending with a silent s to avoid an awkward or misleading appearance Descartes words and the marquis inheritance. Classical names ending with s or es Socrates words and Dionysus rituals. For short classical names the additional s can be used however Zeuss influence and when classical names are used in scientific contexts the extra s is usually included Marss canals. Singular nouns and names ending with an s sound and used along with sake for goodness sake and for Jesus sake. In for old times sake the word times is plural so only the apostrophe is added there as well. Names of places or organisations that take a plural form or whose last element takes a plural form ending with an s even CHAPTER 5 215 though the place or organisation is singular the United States president and the Centre for Medieval Studies programmes. Add an s alone to The personal pronouns our your her and their. Although these are already possessive forms our home your thesis etc. an s can be added for a somewhat different use of the possessive the house is ours the thesis is yours the cat is hers and the car is theirs. The pronoun it the azalea lost its flowers in the storm. Please note that when both an apostrophe and an s are added to it the result is not a possessive but a contraction meaning either it is or it has. Names of wars known by their length the Hundred Years War not the Hundred Years War or the Hundred Year War. Names of some businesses and institutions whether singular or plural that were originally possessive but are now generally written without an apostrophe a Woolworths store and the Citizens Advice Bureau. Add se to The relative pronoun who the woman whose husband died. Whose can also serve as the possessive of which the tree whose branches broke in the storm. When forming the possessive of compound nouns or of phrases the possessive indicator should be added after the last noun using both an apostrophe and an s if that noun is singular my daughter- in-laws party and the Queen of Englands doctor but an apostrophe alone if it is plural Medieval Studies programmes and the president of the United States speech. For a set of linked nouns the apostrophe and s should be added only after the last CHAPTER 5 216 noun if the nouns are acting together in terms of meaning as is the case with the joint authors of a single piece of writing or the joint owners of property Smith Jones and Taylors book Beaumont and Fletchers comedy and my sister and brother-in-laws business. If however linked nouns are acting separately the apostrophe and s should be added to the end of each of the nouns Smiths and Dobsons different studies on the subject Sidneys and Shakespeares sonnets and my sisters and brother-in-laws perspectives differ. To indicate a residence or place of business without actually mentioning the residence or business a possessive name or noun can be used for a singular an apostrophe and s is used she is driving to the doctors and I am going to dinner at Marys and for a plural an apostrophe alone is used she went to a barbeque at the Masons. Possessives can also indicate the length of a period of time in both the singular and the plural a moments notice and in six days time. This possessive is not used however in similar adjectival constructions she is six months pregnant. A possessive form can also be used along with of in a kind of double possessive when one of several things of the same kind is intended a speech of Harpers and a book of Sarahs and in some cases this construction can significantly alter the meaning note the difference for example between a photo of Fred and a photo of Freds. This type of possessive tends to be used only with personal names or nouns relating to living people and it does not generally occur with standard nouns or when referring to an organisation or institution for example a window of the building and a friend of Hereford Cathedral are correct. The nouns or pronouns that precede gerunds present particularly thorny problems when it comes to deciding upon whether a possessive should be used or not. In some cases the possessive definitely should not be used in Students applying for library cards CHAPTER 5 217 should line up at the front desk the Students are the subjects but an apostrophe on that word would imply that applying was the subject and would therefore be incorrect. In other cases a possessive is clearly necessary in Richards driving saved them from the pile up for instance it is Richards driving that is the subject of the sentence so his name acts as an adjective and should take the possessive form which happens in this case to sound natural. In The mother worried about her daughters going to the nightclub alone however the plural possessive daughters might seem awkward or even pedantic to some authors and readers and the apostrophe will therefore often be omitted. Both forms are acceptable however the possessive emphasises the going as the object of the mothers worry while daughters without the apostrophe emphasises the daughters as the objects of worry. Imagining a sentence with the noun in question replaced by the relevant pronoun can be helpful in my first two examples above for instance Their instead of Students and He instead of Richards make nonsense of the sentences confirming that a possessive is not needed in the first case but is in the second. In the third example however their going for daughters going and them going for daughters going both sound as correct as the nouns themselves. In such hazy cases it is best to use whatever form sounds most natural to you and to maintain consistent usage in similar instances throughout your thesis. To make a word phrase or title set in italic or bold font possessive an apostrophe and an s or an apostrophe alone should be added as appropriate but the addition should remain in regular roman font Gone with the Winds memorable characters for instance Anne of Green Gables popularity Emma Woodhouses matchmaking and the second and third domains parameters see also Section 6.2.2 on the use of special fonts. A word phrase or title of an article chapter or poem for instance enclosed in quotation marks single or double should not be made CHAPTER 5 218 into a possessive however since this would produce confusion with the quotation marks so of should be used instead the imagery of the Ode to Autumn. The awkward use of possessives in parenthetical phrases should also be avoided It was Sally his sisters book or It was Sally his sisters book is far better as It was his sister Sallys book or The book belonged to Sally his sister. Possessives especially in their plural form should not be overused or used in a string one right after the other the participants fathers occupations for instance is clearer and smoother as the occupations of the participants fathers and for that matter the second and third domains parameters which I use as an example above is better as the parameters of the second and third domains. Finally apostrophes are not used to form the plurals of nouns of any kind words names compounds phrases abbreviations or numbers so correct plural forms are boys not boys the Wilsons not the Wilsons sisters-in-law not sisters-in-law NGOs for nongovernmental organizations not NGOs and the 1990s not the 1990s. Only to increase clarity when letters particularly lowercase numerals or other symbols are discussed as objects can an apostrophe be used the three Rs as an alternative to the three Rs four 9s instead of four 9s and especially cross the ts and dot the is which is much clearer than cross the ts and dot the is. If the apostrophes are not used in this last example and similar constructions the letters but not the s after each should be set in either italic font cross the ts and dot the is or quotation marks cross the ts and dot the is to distinguish them from the surrounding text on this and some other uses of quotation marks see below. Apostrophes are also used to form contractions in which certain letters are omitted and represented instead by an apostrophe but many of these should not be used in the running text of formal scholarly prose see also Section 5.4.7 above. Its for it is or it CHAPTER 5 219 has as I mentioned above its without an apostrophe is the possessive pronoun shes for she is or she has Ill for I will dont for do not and wouldnt for would not are good examples of informal contractions that are best avoided in a thesis. The same principle applies to those of a similar nature that are formed irregularly such as wont for will not and aint for am not or that are so altered from their original form that no apostrophe could be appropriately placed gonna for going to for instance and wanna for want to. Such contractions can be used when quoting direct speech or informal texts in your thesis of course and others that are basically archaic such as th evry oer tis and learnd set in italics here to show the forms clearly can still be used when quoting early sources or poetry. There are some contractions that are acceptable for wider use however rock n roll for instance dos and donts bosun and maam.As the examples in this paragraph demonstrate the spacing around apostrophes used to form contractions matches the spacing that would have been used around the letters that have been replaced no spaces appear around the apostrophe if the letter is omitted mid-word but a space should appear before the apostrophe if an initial letter is omitted They say tis him and after the apostrophe if a final letter is omitted th ancient one. Apostrophes indicating an initial omitted letter can be tricky to key because Word automatically changes an intended apostrophe at the beginning of a word into an opening single quotation mark which curls in the opposite direction so do watch for that if you are using such contractions. If the program refuses to produce the correct mark type two apostrophes in a row and the second will be the right shape simply retain it and delete the first one. Finally no apostrophe is necessary to indicate the missing letters in contractions now accepted as words in their own right such as phone for telephone flu for influenza and nineties for nineteen nineties. CHAPTER 5 220 Quotation marks. Quotation marks can be single or double and the decision to use one form rather than the other is normally based on the guidelines followed and the specific needs and preferences of individual authors so do consider which will work best for your thesis and if you are unsure check with your university department or committee to see which would be most acceptable. The primary function of quotation marks is to enclose text that is directly quoted from a source that use of quotation marks is covered in Chapter 8 below. Here I focus instead on the use of quotation marks for other purposes. They are used for instance to enclose the titles of articles poems if they are brief songs short stories chapters individual episodes of television and radio shows and other short works e.g. the poem Ode to a Nightingale and the short story Dandy Lion Chains when those titles appear in the main running text of a thesis in full bibliographical references in a bibliography reference list or notes the format of such titles including quotation marks is determined by the referencing style or guidelines followed see Chapter 7 below. Quotation marks are also used to enclose exact representations of test items and questions as well as instructions for participants and the responses obtained through questionnaires and surveys which is logical since the words cited are in fact quotations in such cases though they may be English translations from another language. Quotation marks can also be used to enclose definitions and other explanations of a foreign word or phrase sed noli modo meaning but not now and to mark an unusual or newly coined word or phrase or a word or phrase used in a particular or technical way although technical or key terms in a thesis can instead be introduced in italic or more rarely bold font see Section 6.2.2 below on quoting and translating foreign languages see Section 8.4 below. As a general rule only the first appearance of such words or phrases in a thesis or chapter should be enclosed in quotation marks subsequent mentions and uses do not require special marking though in certain discipline- CHAPTER 5 221 specific cases such as cultivar names in botany or key quoted terms in textual studies the quotation marks are retained. Finally quotation marks are used for so-called scare or sneer quotes which tend to distance an author from the word or phrase enclosed and imply something of an apology or qualification for terminology that is informal or colloquial that would not have been the authors own choice or that is used in odd inappropriate or ironic ways. Such words and phrases can be subtle and various but a few simple examples might be helpful The childrens scores were compared to those of normal children Oh he is indeed organised I just rearranged all his files and Of course modern students are much more intelligent than their medieval counterparts were. As a general rule quotation marks are not used for simple emphasis italic font is preferable for that but they can be used effectively for that purpose. Some style guides recommend that the two different types of quotation marks single and double not be used for different tasks beyond double marks within single ones when quoting single marks within double and so on see the discussion of this pattern for direct quotations in Section 8.1 below warning of a result more confusing than helpful Butcher et al. 2006 p.271. It is important however for an author who uses a considerable amount of direct quotation as well as a number of terms that require definition introduction or emphasis to distinguish between the quotation marks used for direct quotation and those used for other purposes. If no distinction is used it can be unclear to your readers which parts of your text are actually quoted so the best policy is to reduce your use of quotation marks beyond direct quotation to a minimum but if after so doing you find that you still need to use quotation marks for several purposes you may want to adopt one kind double marks for instance to enclose direct quotations and use the other kind single marks around definitions and unfamiliar or technical words or phrases. CHAPTER 5 222 5.6.4 En Rules and Em Rules En rules. An en rule sometimes called an en dash is longer than a hyphen see Section 5.2 above and shorter than an em rule see below it can be used closed up without any spaces around it or with spaces on either side depending on its function. Although it has very specific uses it often presents difficulties for authors particularly because of confusion regarding whether an en rule or a hyphen should be used in a particular situation and occasionally whether an en rule or em rule should be used. Some of the uses of en rules are noted in my discussions of numbers in Section 6.4 below and hyphenation in Section 5.2 above but the list I provide here is more comprehensive. An en rule is used without spaces around it with the meaning to or and in the following situations Between numerals that form a range such as page numbers dates and times pp.2254 19952014 and 9.3010.45 but it should not be used in combination with between or from that is 19952014 from 1995 to 2014 and between 1995 and 2014 are all correct but from 19952014 and between 19952014 are not. When words are used instead of numerals it is usually best to use a word instead of the en rule between the numbers as well. Between words that indicate a range such as months and days of the week JanuaryApril or MondaySaturday or locations on a route the LondonYork railway line or the Tsawwassen Swartz Bay ferry crossing. Here too the en rule should not be combined with from and between. Sometimes a slash or solidus will be used between such elements if either or both of them consist of more than one word the TsawwassenSwartz Bay ferry crossing on the slash see Section 5.6.5 below. Between elements of the date system used by the International Organization for Standardization for example 20141104 for 4 November 2014. CHAPTER 5 223 Between the elements of a ratio instead of the word to the flourwater ratio for dough for instance or the chemotherapy nonchemotherapy ratio of patients. A colon is sometimes used instead of the en rule in these cases with or without a space on each side the flourwater ratio. Between words or names to indicate a meeting place such as the CanadaUnited States border or a competition or match such as the IceCapsMarlies hockey game. Sometimes a slash is used instead of the en rule in such cases especially if one or both of the elements consist of more than one word the CanadaUnited States border. Between words to define a close relationship the authoreditor relationship or redgreen colour blind. A slash is sometimes used instead of the en rule in these situations redgreen colour blind especially if one or both of the elements consist of more than one word. Between words to indicate an alternative as in an onoff switch though a slash is usually used in such situations an onoff switch. Between the names of the coauthors of a theory or test as in the MannWhitney test or the TaylorJohnson theory and in compound words or adjectives derived from two names such as MarxismLeninism noun and MarxistLeninist adjective. Between the names of people or nationalities to indicate a connection of some sort such as the CanadianAmerican negotiations or a ChineseJapanese heritage but if the first part of the compound is a word that cannot stand on its own a prefix for instance a hyphen should be used instead Sino-Japanese heritage. After a prefix instead of a hyphen when the prefix is added to an open unhyphenated compound such as preVietnam War but this is more common in American than British English. CHAPTER 5 224 In many of the above situations hyphens are often used instead of en rules and some guidelines will even specify via instructions or examples that hyphens can or should be used in page number ranges for instance so do check university or department guidelines to determine which is appropriate for your thesis. Keep in mind however that hyphens can cause confusion in some situations see also Section 5.2 above. Red-green with a hyphen for instance means a colour that is reddish green not red and green as in redgreen colour blind and author-editor with a hyphen means one person who is both an author and an editor whereas with an en rule authoreditor the term refers to two people an author and an editor. Similarly Taylor-Jones with a hyphen indicates one person with a double name whereas TaylorJones with an en rule indicates two people and the en rule retains this meaning even if one of the names is double barrelled for example OlsonKerby-Fulton refers to two people with the first named Olson and the second Kerby-Fulton were a hyphen used instead of the en rule as in Olson-Kerby-Fulton the result would be confusing. An en rule in this case with a space before it can be used to indicate that speech breaks off abruptly Well I never and en rules with spaces on both sides can also represent individual missing letters Oh s t. The most common function of spaced en rules however is to mark parenthetical clauses in which case they indicate a more pronounced break in the sentence than commas would and highlight the parenthetical clause more than parentheses would em rules can also be used for this purpose as noted below on commas and parentheses see Section 5.6.1 above and Section 5.6.5 below. If the clause appears in the middle of a sentence en rules should be used to surround the clause I just saw a squirrel a big grey one jumping from tree to tree across the canal. When the clause appears at the end of a sentence the opening en rule functions rather like a colon on which see Section 5.6.1 above though it is somewhat less formal and often expresses an aside or afterthought and a closing CHAPTER 5 225 en rule is not used I just saw a squirrel a big grey one No punctuation should precede an opening parenthetical en rule and while the closing en rule of a parenthetical clause can be preceded by a question or exclamation mark as I have in the example above it should not be preceded by a comma semicolon colon or full stop. Although the use of en rules for parenthetical clauses is acceptable in formal prose excessive use of en rules for parenthetical material in every sentence for instance is poor style and as a general rule no more than one parenthetical clause marked by en rules should be used in a single sentence. Em rules. An em rule also referred to as an em dash is twice the length of an en rule but has some similar functions. It is used for instance exactly as an en rule is to mark parenthetical clauses both within and at the end of sentences especially in American English but when it is used in this way no spaces appear around it I just saw a squirrela big grey onejumping from tree to tree across the canal and I just saw a squirrela big grey one An em rule without a space before it can be used instead of an en rule to indicate that speech breaks off abruptly Well I never also without a space before it an em rule indicates that part of a word is missing They met secretly with Prince H and with spaces on both sides it indicates that a whole word is missing She claimed that ran out the back door. Em rules are also used in bibliographies or reference lists to represent the name of an author or the names of the authors for second and subsequent items written by the same authors but this method should only be used if approved by your department andor supervisor generally speaking author names should be repeated in full for each source or entry included in a list of references and author names should always be given in full whenever the authorship changes in any way. Although an index is not usually required in a thesis em rules can also be used to indicate repeated entry headings in an index. CHAPTER 5 226 PRS Tip En rules and em rules are special characters in Word and often problems and inconsistencies associated with the use of both kinds of dashes are caused because authors are unsure of how to produce these rules. Two methods are available by clicking on the Insert tab in the main menu of Word and then clicking on the Symbol button at the far right and on More symbols at the bottom of the box that comes up. You can then select Special Characters at the top and either Em dash or En dash at the very top of the list and click on the Insert button which will insert the selected dash wherever you have left the cursor in the text so do be sure to position the cursor correctly before using this method. You will also find the shortcut keys for both kinds of rules by following this path. Word will automatically create en rules and em rules for you however if you key in the right information in the right order. For an en rule type the word that should precede the en rule add a space after it type a hyphen or two see below another space the word that should follow the en rule and then a space after it. When this last space is added the program will change the spaced hyphen into a spaced en rule but it will not do this if there are no spaces around the hyphen or in some cases when the program detects what it considers something odd about the sentence structure or punctuation so if you do not want spaces around the en rule or the program is not cooperating you will need to use the Insert function as above or the appropriate shortcut key. For an em rule type the word that will precede the em rule then type two hyphens in a row without any spaces followed by the word that should follow the em rule and a final space. Again when the last space is added the double hyphens will be transformed into an em rule unless the program decides that something about the sentence is odd in which case you will need to use the Insert function or the appropriate shortcut key. You will also need to CHAPTER 5 227use one of these methods if you want a spaced em rule because if you add spaces on either side of the double hyphens Word will turn the hyphens into an en rule instead of an em rule. 5.6.5 Brackets and Slashes Four main kinds of brackets are used in formal English prose are called parentheses or sometimes parens and more casually round brackets are referred to as square brackets in British English but in most cases simply as brackets in American English are formally called braces but informally known as curly brackets and are referred to as angle brackets. Each type of bracket has particular though occasionally overlapping functions in academic and scientific prose with some of those functions highly specialised in certain disciplines. Braces and angle brackets for instance have particular meanings and uses in mathematics computing music economics prosody etymology textual editing and typesetting. In this section I focus on the uses of brackets that tend to apply to writing in more general scholarly contexts and thus on the two types of brackets most commonly used in running prose parentheses and square brackets. For detailed advice on the specialised use of these and other brackets in particular disciplines see for example the chapters on science mathematics computing law music and other subjects in New Harts Rules Ritter 2005 Chapters 13 and 14 Butchers Copy-Editing Butcher et al. 2006 Chapter 13 and Sections 14.2 and 14.3 and the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 14. Parentheses. Round brackets or parentheses the singular is parenthesis tend to be used more frequently than other brackets in most formal writing. In the running text of scholarly prose they are used to enclose parenthetical material specifically information CHAPTER 5 228 that is less closely related to the rest of the sentence than is parenthetical material set off by commas en rules or em rules I discovered much to my chagrin that I was being paid half of what other nurses were earning and The original version of the novel written almost two decades earlier did not contain this passage. Glosses and translations can be enclosed within them joie de vivre joy of living joy of living joie de vivre and his words were sed noli modo but not now see also Section 8.4 below. When titles are translated in this way any special font used on the title should be used for the translation as well De Libero Arbitrio On Free Will and notice that according to the principles for using italic font see Section 6.2.2 below the parentheses could appear in either italics or roman font as long as both parentheses in a set use the same font and similar situations are treated in the same way throughout a thesis. Sometimes square brackets are used instead of parentheses to enclose title translations particularly in the full bibliographical references for some referencing styles De Libero Arbitrio On Free Will. Parentheses are also used around other aspects of full bibliographical references dates publication information and issue numbers for instance in both reference lists and notes and they are used in running text to enclose in-text references in authordate systems of referencing Bennett 2006 Vanhoof 2010. Notice that when separating references and other main components of information statistical data for example in parentheses semicolons are generally used for the men the best time was 67 ms and the worst 89 ms for the women the best time was 65 ms and the worst 92 ms though commas are acceptable for separating items that are short and do not contain internal punctuation such as the dates of different publications by the same author in authordate in-text references Vanhoof 1989 1997 2002 2010. See Section 5.6.1 above on commas and semicolons and for more information on the use of parentheses in references see Chapter 7 below. CHAPTER 5 229 Parentheses are also used when introducing and defining nonstandard abbreviations of all kinds participants who completed Questionnaire 2 Group Q2 Times Literary Supplement TLS and American Medical Association AMA. Generally as in these examples the full term comes first but the order can be reversed AMA American Medical Association which is handy for referencing because the abbreviation can be cited in the main text and then precede the full version in the reference list which makes finding an abbreviated source straightforward for your reader see Sections 6.3 and 7.2.1 below. Variants explanations alternative spellings and other supplementary information are often enclosed in parentheses for example the correct form is programme in British English but program for computer software and much of the Findern Manuscript late fifteenth century appears to have been written by female scribes who may also have authored some of the poems. In lists parentheses often surround item numbers particularly if the list is presented in running text Four conditions were created for the test 1 darkness inside 2 darkness outside 3 artificial lighting inside and 4 daylight outside. In such a list a pair of parentheses enclosing each number is clearer than and preferable to a single closing parenthesis after each number. Lists tables and figures can contain a variety of information in parentheses which are particularly effective for separating different measurements and kinds of data such as number and percentage even within the narrow column of a table 3450 in one row 1725 in the next and 1725 in another. Most parenthetical material needs to correspond with what has immediately preceded it in terms of both content and grammar so 34 participants and 50 of the sample are equivalent in the example above and such equivalence should exist between what comes before the parentheses and what is presented within them in other cases as well for instance the examples above parenthetical clauses translations abbreviations etc. is correct but the examples above the one for translation CHAPTER 5 230 is not and in that year 1996 is appropriate but in that year 19961999 is not. In British English parentheses can be used within parentheses in normal running prose when necessary 34 men 50 and 34 women 50. In American English however square brackets are generally used within parentheses 34 men 50 and 34 women 50 and if necessary parentheses are then used within those interior square brackets square brackets within those and so on. Whichever form of English you are using it is usually best to keep double bracketing to a minimum especially in the main text of a thesis where rewording or rearranging parenthetical material to avoid double bracketing is often a preferable option. Similarly it is best if parentheses do not appear back to back and if they must that this be kept to a minimum a principle that applies to all brackets in general contexts but some specialised uses may require this format just as they may require a specific order for brackets see for instance Butcher et al. 2006 pp.319320 and Ritter 2005 Section 14.6.5 for the order of brackets in mathematics and see also Ritter 2005 Chapter 13 on the conventions for using parentheses and square brackets in legal contexts. Punctuation in relation to parentheses is relatively straightforward. Parentheses can be used within dashes en rules and em rules and dashes within parentheses three kinds of birds returned in the spring robins chickadees the smallest and sparrows and left again in the fall or three kinds of birds returned in the spring robins chickadees the smallest and sparrows and left again in the fall. A comma or semicolon should precede an opening parenthesis only in the enumeration of a list Four conditions were created for the test 1 darkness inside 2 darkness outside 3 artificial lighting inside and 4 daylight outside and neither should ever precede a closing parenthesis. After crawling through the window on the third floor she unlocked the door demonstrates the correct way to CHAPTER 5 231 punctuate if a sentence requires a comma at the end of a set of parentheses After crawling through the window on the third floor she unlocked the door is incorrect and notice that After crawling through the window on the third floor she unlocked the door bears a different meaning. In such a construction the comma properly belongs to the surrounding sentence not to the parenthetical material so should appear after the closing parenthesis. Full stops as well as question and exclamation marks see Section 5.6.2 above behave in the same way following the closing parenthesis if they belong to the sentence as a whole and preceding the closing parenthesis only if they belong particularly or solely to the parenthetical material for example I worked for days to polish my thesis yet my external examiner had the audacity to say something truly insulting It doesnt look like you proofread this at all but It may be November but it was as warm as summer yesterday can you believe it. In the case of a full stop belonging to the parenthetical material means that the parenthetical material forms a complete sentence and the parenthetical construction as a whole is separate from other sentences as the final sentence of this paragraph is. For this reason one or more full sentences within parentheses should never be embedded in another sentence. Square brackets. As mentioned above square brackets are used in American English for parenthetical material that is already enclosed in parentheses but their more common use in both British and American English is to enclose material that an author adds to a quotation whether to make the quotation work in his or her own prose or to correct comment on translate or otherwise explain aspects of the quotation the book has been called a library in parvo in small because its contents are both numerous and diverse further examples and discussion can be found in Sections 8.3 and 8.4 below. Square brackets are usually not used around ellipsis points that are added to indicate omissions from quotations but in rare cases strict guidelines or the material quoted will require the CHAPTER 5 232 use of brackets Whan that Aprill . . . hath perced instead of the more usual Whan that Aprill . . . hath perced Kolve Olson 1989 General Prologue 12 see Section 8.3 below. Punctuation rules in relation to square brackets in running text are exactly as they are for parentheses see above. Square brackets can be used to enclose numerical in-text references and occasionally to enclose parenthetical authordate references and in the full bibliographical references found in lists they can be used to surround translated titles and to enclose information author names dates etc. that does not actually appear in the source itself but is known from elsewhere see Chapter 7 below. The forward slash. The slash also known as a solidus slant stroke virgule oblique diagonal shilling mark or forward slash to distinguish it from a backward or back slash has a number of specific uses in formal prose. These include Expressing alternatives in which the slash basically means or andor hisher she onoff and the like. In most instances no spaces appear around the slash in such situations but if one or both of the alternatives is a compound particularly an unhyphenated compound spaces may be helpful World War I First World War but mother-in-lawfather-in-law. Sometimes an en rule takes the place of a slash an eitheror situation on the en rule see Section 5.6.4 above. Representing the word and as in a JekyllHyde personality but this is rare and as a general rule such cases are better with the word and instead of the slash a Jekyll and Hyde personality. No spaces are used around the slash. Separating the locations on a route with the meaning to or defining a meeting place or close relationship with the meaning and especially if either or both of the elements concerned consist of more than one word as in the TsawwassenSwartz Bay ferry crossing the CanadaUnited States border and CHAPTER 5 233 redgreen colour blind but an en rule is the more common choice in all these instances see Section 5.6.4 above. No spaces are used around the slash. Specifying a year that extends over more than one calendar year 201112 sometimes in combination with an en rule in a range of years 201112 201415. No spaces are used around the slash. Punctuating all-numeral dates 130959 although this format for dates should be avoided if possible because it can be confusing see the discussion of dates in Section 6.4.4 below. The shorthand 911 is frequently used to refer to the attack on the World Trade Center Towers in New York on 11 September 2001 but it is good to use the full date at least on first mention. No spaces are used around the slash. Punctuating certain abbreviations such as the commonly used na meaning not applicable co meaning care of and 247 meaning 24 hours a day 7 days a week. No spaces are used around the slash. Indicating ratios with the meaning of the slash being per 125day mileshour and precipitationyear. Here too there should be no spaces around the slash. Representing a fraction bar meaning divided by for example 35 and 78. No spaces appear around the slash. Indicating the original line breaks when quoted poetry runs on in a single line in prose Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote Kolve Olson 1989 General Prologue 12. In some styles a vertical line is used for this purpose instead. Whichever is used a space should appear on either side of it. Separating elements in URLs where both single and double slashes are used without spaces as they are in the URL for the PRS web site httpwww.proof-reading-service.com. Both forward and backward slashes are also used in other aspects of computing. CHAPTER 5 234 PRS Tip Although you may proofread your thesis several times with both your mind and your eyes focussed on details of various kinds there are always numerous elements to consider in a thesis and many of them can slip past unnoticed as you hasten through large chunks of complex text. The smaller the elements you are checking the greater the chances of their being passed over and problems with punctuation are certainly among the smallest and therefore most easily overlooked aspects of scholarly writing. A full stop is tiny after all as is a comma and a semicolon looks much like a colon just as an en rule looks much like an em rule when there is no time to do more than glance at these bits of your text as you read for larger concerns such as the argument and the accuracy of data. Missing such details is not at all unusual and definitely not a sign of deficiency on your part in fact it is normal for academic and scientific writing to undergo many revisions and a myriad of small corrections before it is finished and sadly even for errors to remain in the final published versions of scholarly books and articles. In addition you simply may not have the time the patience or the inclination to devote exacting attention to each and every piece of punctuation in your writing but all aspects of the punctuation in a doctoral thesis need to be correct clear and effective in order to maintain a scholarly voice and communicate your meaning to your readers and examiners. Fortunately the professional proofreaders at PRS do have the time patience and inclination to check every bit of your punctuation for accuracy consistency and suitability in the context and they can do the same for many other elements both small and large of your writing. Once you have honed your thesis into a form you find satisfactory send it on to PRS for a final polishing you may well be surprised by the significant improvements a proofreader who specialises in scholarly English writing can make. CHAPTER 5 235 Chapter 6 Formatting Matters Presenting Your Writing Effectively and Consistently Although the way in which you format the many elements of your thesis might not seem as important as the intellectual content the research results and argument that goes into the thesis or the accuracy and clarity of the language in which you express that content formatting nonetheless matters a great deal. Your university or department may present you with specific guidelines that include instructions for formatting a variety of elements in your thesis if so these guidelines must be followed with precision to meet the requirements of your doctoral degree. Formatting tends to be a highly visible aspect of scholarly writing so it will stand out for your readers especially if it is ineffective and inconsistent in which case the result will be both sloppy and confusing. Effective and consistent methods of formatting on the other hand can significantly increase the clarity of what you are attempting to communicate in your thesis. In addition a thesis that is carefully formatted in a thoughtful and orderly fashion often indicates and still more often is understood as indicating carefully ordered patterns of thought. The assumption that there is a correlation between the quality of scholarship in a thesis and the quality of its presentation is not always correct sound scholarship can be hidden in poorly prepared theses and beautifully presented work can contain poor scholarship but there is nonetheless truth in the idea that a candidate who can accurately and consistently follow instructions and format his or her thesis according to guidelines and good sense is also an academic or scientist who reads and refers to sources and reports methods and results in accurate and meaningful ways. Exactitude and precision CHAPTER 6 236 are after all not just requirements of effective formatting but also elements of quality scholarship so they should be applied to the formatting and presentation of all doctoral theses whether there are guidelines to follow or not. In the following sections I describe sound scholarly approaches for formatting and presenting various elements of a thesis but they should be used in conjunction with any guidelines provided by your university andor department which should always take precedence. 6.1 Titles Headings and Subheadings Not Just Fancy Words Titles headings and subheadings are among the most immediately visible aspects of a thesis or indeed any piece of academic or scientific writing so they are certainly what one may call fancy words. However these fancy words should also outline the overall structure and content of a thesis and indicate the specific contents of any given chapter section or subsection so it is essential that they achieve these goals both effectively and accurately. Since I have already discussed the main title of the thesis in Sections 3.5.1 and 4.2 above I focus here on the headings and subheadings within a thesis but the principles I outline for lower- level headings can apply also to the main title which often uses a slightly larger font than other headings in a thesis do and perhaps a different pattern of capitalisation as well block capitals for instance when other headings use capitals only on the initial letters of words. The advice I offer here should not replace any guidelines or templates for headings and structure provided by your university department or thesis committee but it can certainly be used along with or in the absence of such guidance to ensure a clear attractive and orderly layout for your thesis. The discussion of capitalisation and special fonts in Section 6.2 below may also prove helpful. CHAPTER 6 237 University or department guidelines for doctoral theses often indicate standard topics and therefore standard headings for the chapters of a thesis at least in general terms. Such guidelines will usually require chapter titles that begin with or include words such as Introduction Background Literature Review Methodology Results Discussion and Conclusions. This standard pattern is assumed in the list of basic thesis components in Chapter 1 of this book and also in the advice offered on drafting the chapters of a proposal and thesis in Chapters 3 and 4 in the absence of guidelines specifying the order and content of individual chapters for your thesis chapter headings that focus on these basic concepts are usually appropriate. Whether you are following guidelines or not in using such headings for your chapters however there is almost always room for additional information that points more specifically to the precise content of your thesis. A colon and subtitle can for instance be added to any one of these words to individualise the heading for a chapter an introductory chapter might be called Background Previous Trials and Literature or a chapter on methods might be entitled Methodology Participants and Questionnaires. Such subtitles can then become elements of section headings within the chapters and these headings can also contain further information that specifies the exact content of each section Participants Who Received Chemotherapy for instance and Participants Who Did Not Receive Chemotherapy. The chapters of a thesis are always numbered usually with Arabic numerals but the sections and subsections within chapters need not be unless your university or department requires numbered sections. Numbering the sections and subsections within thesis chapters can be very effective for some material and topics however and extremely useful if you happen to use a large number of cross references in your thesis. When sections and subsections are numbered generally using Arabic numerals because Roman numerals can quickly become unwieldy if there are many sections the numbering itself distinguishes the different levels of headings and sections. For instance each main CHAPTER 6 238 section in a chapter should bear a first-level heading using two numbers indicating the chapter and section number as in 1.3 for the third section of the first chapter and 2.4 for the fourth section of the second chapter each subsection within a main section should bear a second-level heading using three numbers with the third number indicating the subsection number as in 1.3.1 for the first subsection within the third section in the first chapter each secondary subsection within a subsection should bear a third-level heading using four numbers with the fourth number indicating the secondary subsection number as in 2.4.3.3 for the third secondary subsection within the third subsection in the fourth section of the second chapter and each tertiary subsection within a secondary subsection should bear a fourth- level heading using five numbers with the fifth number indicating the tertiary subsection number as in 1.3.4.3.1 for the first tertiary subsection within the third secondary subsection in the fourth subsection of the third section of the first chapter. The pattern of numbering required might be clarified by examining the table of contents for this book or the example below which outlines the structure of a hypothetical chapter on Romantic English literature Chapter 3 Expect the Unexpected The Results of Rereading Romantic Literature 3.1 The Literature 3.1.1 Poetry 3.1.2 Prose 3.1.2.1 Novels and Short Stories 3.1.2.2 Other Prose Genres 3.2 The Literary History 3.2.1 Publication Who What When and How Often 3.2.1.1 The Most Respected Authors and Texts 3.2.1.2 The Most Popular Authors and Texts 3.2.1.3 Comparing the Publication of Men and Women 3.2.2 Reception and Influence Who Was Reading Whom CHAPTER 6 239 3.2.2.1 The Most Quoted and Copied Authors and Texts 3.2.2.2 The Most Criticised Authors and Texts 3.2.2.2.1 An Example from Nature Smith and Darwin 3.2.2.3 Comparing the Reception of Men and Women All headings in a numbered system generally appear in the same position on the page flush to the left margin in most cases which will be adjusted to a slight indentation if you use Words automatic numbering system see the PRS Tip below but centred headings though less common in numbered than in unnumbered systems would work as an alternative. In the example headings I provide above I have indented each level slightly more than the one above it but only to highlight the different levels for readers. A numbered system of headings works well for any number of levels down to numbered paragraphs if required though they may not be included in the table of contents as other sections are see Sections 3.5.2 4.1 and 5.5.1 above but keep in mind that heading levels bearing numbers consisting of more than five digits are unusual and are also discouraged in some style guides. Numbered headings can use different patterns of capitalisation as well as different sizes and styles of font to indicate different heading levels but they do not need to do so because each heading already bears a unique number and the numbering system alone does all the work of differentiating levels. For this reason the capitalisation and size and style of font used for the numbered headings in thesis chapters tend to remain consistent across levels do be sure to check university or department guidelines for advice on the use of these elements however. The numerical distinction of levels allows an author to use the same or very similar headings for different sections in a thesis the rather general headings Poetry and Prose in my example above for instance could be used again in a different chapter to return to the same texts from a different angle if necessary because the headings would use different numbers in that context and therefore be unique in each case. CHAPTER 6 240 PRS Tip Authors will often make use of Words automatic numbering function when constructing numbered headings simply because Word imposes this system if something like 3. or 3.1 followed by a space and a heading or title is typed on a new line. If you are using this automatic function in your thesis you should pay special attention to the numbering to ensure that no errors have been introduced by the program. In many cases especially for chapters with a simple structure five sections for instance without subsections the automatic numbering will prove successful and not introduce any problems. However Words automatic numbering can miss sections if material is typed in differently resulting in all subsequent sections being misnumbered. This can create considerable disorder if the chapter has several sections and subsections of various levels and the problem will be magnified if you include cross references to misnumbered sections and subsections. Numbering all sections and subsections in your thesis manually can therefore be a wise practice. To do this type a space against the left margin on the relevant line type the heading immediately after the space and then return to the beginning of the line to add the correct number before the space. Since it is when you add a space or hit the return key after typing a number that Words automatic numbering kicks in it will not apply if you enter the information in this way and the same practice can be used to avoid automatic numbering in numbered lists on which see Section 5.5.2 above. If you have used automatic numbering for sections and subsections and something has gone awry simply delete the incorrect numbering and the automatic indentation Word adds with the number for each affected heading add the space before the heading and then return to the beginning of the line to add the correct number in some instances you may have to retype the heading as a whole but this is rare. CHAPTER 6 241 You may however not wish to use numbered sections in your chapters or your university or department may request that heading levels in theses be differentiated in ways other than through the use of numbers. In an unnumbered system of headings the position capitalisation and font style sometimes the font size as well of the headings distinguish one level from another so such a system should only be used if the guidelines you are following allow such variations in the headings of your thesis. APA style which is used extensively in the social sciences and other fields of study provides a clear example of this method see the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 pp.6263. To conform to APA requirements first-level headings are centred on the page and set in bold font with the initial letter of the first and all other main words capitalised The literary History Second-level headings in this system use the same bold font and capitalisation but appear flush against the left margin Reception and Influence Who Was Reading Whom Third-level APA headings are paragraph headings. They appear at the beginning of paragraphs which are indented in APA style and they too use bold font on the full stop that appears at the end of each heading as well but only the initial letter of the first word and any proper nouns is uppercase The most criticised authors and texts. Fourth-level headings are also paragraph headings in APA style and use only an initial capital but the font for the heading and the following stop should be both bold and italic An example from nature Smith and Darwin. Fifth-level APA headings appear at the beginning of paragraphs as well with the CHAPTER 6 242 same pattern of capitalisation as the third- and fourth-level headings but the font should be italic without bold for both words and the final stop The nature poetry of Charlotte Smith. This system of headings is as effective as a numbered system for differentiating section levels but at this point the author is forced to alternate between bold italics and italics so the potential for further levels of heading is somewhat limited. The APA system is suitable for most theses however which generally do not use more than five heading levels within a single chapter department guidelines will sometimes indicate exactly how many levels should be used so do be careful not to exceed the limit and it can of course be adjusted to work more effectively for additional levels or you can devise your own similar system for differentiating headings. Using different font sizes could for instance enable you to add further levels and so could using different font colours and different spacing patterns around headings but remember that all elements used to distinguish headings capitalisation position spacing and font style size and colour should always enhance rather than hinder or confuse a system of headings and thus the overall structure of a thesis. Keep in mind that an ineffective system of sections and headings can force the reader to conjecture about the structure of a chapter and a thesis and can even promote misinterpretation of your writing and argument especially if the material is complex as the information reported in theses often is. Therefore whatever methods you choose to use to structure and divide your thesis chapters be sure that they create uniformity within a single heading level and clear distinction between different levels and once you have established the formats for your system be consistent and stick to them precisely. CHAPTER 6 243 Several other important details also require careful attention when designing titles headings and subheadings. Generally speaking for instance abbreviations should be avoided in titles and headings with the exception of those used more frequently and better known than their full versions such as CD IQ and AIDS. Abbreviations should therefore be introduced and defined in the main text rather than in headings and the full versions of terms should be used in headings even if they have already been defined in the thesis or chapter or are about to be defined in one of the sentences appearing beneath the relevant heading for more information on abbreviations see Section 6.3 below. The phrasing of titles and headings should be not only correct concise and informative but also and especially in the case of the main title of your thesis engaging and not overly burdened with technical information or language while also observing any word limits on titles and headings set by your university or department guidelines. Punctuation should be as consistent as possible within each level of heading and as appropriate throughout the headings in a chapter or thesis and although headings generally do not feature closing punctuation unless they are paragraph headings which can use a full stop or a colon a question mark or exclamation mark can usually be added at the end of any heading if required e.g. Publication Who What When and How Often. Full stops are used to separate the individual numerals in numbered headings as in 3.2.1.3 Comparing the Publication of Men and Women but a full stop normally does not appear after the final number if you wish an extra space can be added after the full number to separate it from the rest of the heading. It is of course essential that the heading for each section and subsection of a thesis accurately reflects the material that appears beneath it so the wording of headings should always be given careful thought in relation to the sections they label. Finally it is also essential that all sections and subsections as well as all chapters in a thesis CHAPTER 6 244 are accurately listed in the table of contents see Sections 1.1.5 3.5.2 and 4.1 above. If you used a system of headings within your chapters that distinguishes different section levels by numbers alone both the numbers and the other content of all headings including punctuation and usually capitalisation should appear in the table of contents exactly as they do in the thesis chapters. Retaining in the table of contents the capitalisation used in each heading in the thesis itself is especially important if capitalisation is used as one of the ways in which heading levels are differentiated but if you used other methods of distinction for your headings font sizes styles and colours for instance either instead of or along with numbering and capitalisation you may or may not want to retain those elements of distinction in your table of contents. In the table of contents for this book for instance the larger coloured font used for part and chapter headings in the book itself is not retained these major headings simply appear in bold font in the table of contents. Stylistic details of this kind should be determined by the need to represent the structure of the thesis accurately in the table of contents while also achieving an attractive appearance for the table of contents itself which can begin to look disorganised or cluttered if too many different font sizes styles and colours are used for formatting automatic tables of contents see also Section 6.1.1 below. However you choose to lay out your thesis and table of contents however the content including numbers punctuation and usually capitalisation and order of your titles and headings should in all cases be exactly the same in both the body of the thesis and its table of contents. 6.1.1 Using Words Heading Styles and Constructing an Active Table of Contents Although I recommend constructing headings and the table of contents manually whenever possible to retain control over the structure of your thesis you may wish or be required to include an CHAPTER 6 245 active table of contents which means that readers using the electronic or digital version of your thesis will be able to click on any heading within the table of contents and immediately be taken to that part of your thesis. If so and you are working in Word you can use Words styles to set up your headings and automatically insert an active table of contents. There are two different ways of proceeding both of which produce the same result. If you have already established the format of the headings in your thesis you need only identify the format of each heading level as a heading style in Word. Let us say for instance that you have three levels of heading in your thesis with chapter headings in a 14-point bold font section headings in a 12-point bold font and subsection headings in a 12-point italic font. Select the heading for Chapter 1 Introduction right click on the Heading 1 box above the word Styles in Words Home menu and left click on Update Heading 1 to Match Selection. This will set Words Heading 1 in your thesis document to the format you have established for chapter headings. Then you need to go through your document and individually select each heading that should appear in the Heading 1 style and left click on the Heading 1 box in each case. Any differences remaining between the formatting of the headings you select and the first one you established as Heading 1 will be changed to match that first heading. The procedure is exactly the same for lower heading levels so to set the style for section headings within chapters select the first section heading in your thesis Background for example right click on the Heading 2 box above the word Styles and left click on Update Heading 2 to Match Selection to set the format for subsection headings select the first subsection heading in the thesis Theoretical Studies for instance right click on the Heading 3 box and left click on Update Heading 3 to Match Selection. You will then need to go through your document and set the style for all section and subsection headings just as you did for the chapter headings select each section heading and left click on the Heading 2 box then select each subsection heading and left click on the Heading 3 box. CHAPTER 6 246 If on the other hand you have not established the formats for the heading levels in your thesis or are setting the heading styles as you write the thesis you may want to modify the format and style of your headings within the heading boxes. To do this type in the first chapter heading in whatever style and size of font you are using in the main body of the thesis e.g. Chapter 1 Introduction then select the heading and left click on the Heading 1 box. Your heading will take on whatever formats are currently set for Heading 1 in your Word document so unless you want to keep that format right click on the Heading 1 box with the chapter heading still selected then left click on Modify. A box will come up in which you can set the specific formats font size style colour etc. you want to use for your chapter headings once you are done simply click OK at the bottom to apply those formats to your first heading. You can then select all other headings that should be formatted in the Heading 1 style and left click on the Heading 1 box in each case. The same procedures should be used to set and modify the formats for section and subsection headings using the Heading 2 box for the first and the Heading 3 box for the second and ensuring that you then select and assign the appropriate heading style to each heading in the thesis. Word will continue to produce a new Heading box Heading 4 Heading 5 etc. each time you assign a new heading style so you can format many levels of heading using this technique. Modifying your headings once they are all typed in and formatted is easy as well simply select any heading of a certain style right click on the appropriate heading box left click on Modify and make the required changes which will then show up in all headings of that style. With the format of all your headings set as specific heading styles in Word you can automatically construct an active table of contents for your thesis. To do so left click where you want your table of contents to appear in your document type Contents or Table of Contents the first is usually preferable and hit the return or enter key. You then need to choose the References menu click on the CHAPTER 6 247 Table of Contents box to the far left at the top of the screen and choose Insert Table of Contents near the bottom of the box that comes up. This will bring up another box in which you can make choices about how your table of contents will appear. You may want to play around with these a little to see which of the format choices offered by the program works best for your thesis but do be sure to set the number in the Show Levels box to the correct value for the number of heading levels you have in your document for example if you have five levels of heading it will need to be set to 5 if you want all levels of headings included in the table of contents but if you only want the table of contents to show three or four of those levels set the value to 3 or 4 accordingly. Once you are done click OK and your new table of contents will appear in your document. Check through it carefully to ensure that all headings and subheadings appear as they should if you have missed selecting and assigning heading styles to some of your headings they will not appear so you will need to locate each one in your thesis select it and left click on the appropriate heading box. Once you have done this for all missed headings you can update your table of contents by left clicking anywhere in the tables field it will turn grey and pressing the F9 key. In many cases the table of contents will simply update but a box may come up asking whether you want to Update page numbers only or Update entire table. In this case you will want to update the entire table so that the headings you originally missed will be added and you can use the same process to update the table of contents whenever you add delete or change any headings in your thesis. Page numbers tend to update by themselves as a document is written or edited but to be sure they do you can choose the Update page numbers only option so that any changes in the position of headings in the document are reflected in the table of contents. After making changes to an automatic table of contents always check the headings and page numbers in the table for accuracy against the headings and their positions in the text of the thesis before submitting or sharing it with readers and if it is CHAPTER 6 248 essential that your table of contents be active you will need to check that as well. This is easily done by holding down the control key and left clicking on one of the headings in the table of contents. This should take you to that same heading in the body of your thesis and you can check any or all of the headings in your table of contents in this way. PRS Tip An effective way to improve your use of headings in your thesis is to pay careful attention to how headings are used in the many books theses and papers you read as you research your topic. Notice how different authors have constructed and formatted headings to deal with the challenges presented by the contents of their texts and ask yourself in every case what works and what does not. Each scholarly document is unique of course and requires its own system of titles headings and subheadings to outline both argument and content effectively but much can be learned borrowed and adapted from successful layouts that you encounter in your research particularly those in theses recently completed within your discipline or department. To enable topics to be located in this book for instance there are four main levels of heading under the title of the book with each level numbered differently for precise cross-referencing in the book itself as opposed to the table of contents in which the font sizes and styles are a little different part headings appear in a large blue font and are numbered with Roman numerals I chapter titles use a large blue font as well but are numbered with single Arabic numerals 1 chapter sections appear in the same font size and colour as the main text but with bold added and they are numbered with double Arabic numerals 1.1 and chapter subsections use the exact same font as the main text and are numbered with triple Arabic numerals 1.1.1. In some sections and subsections there are also unnumbered paragraph headings in bold font these CHAPTER 6 249headings are designed to make certain topics more accessible but they do not appear in the table of contents. If after examining titles and headings wherever you can find them you are still experiencing difficulties with designing an effective system of headings for your thesis chapters please do not hesitate to send your work to PRS for proofreading. As critical readers who encounter a great deal of new scholarly writing on a daily basis the PRS proofreaders can determine whether titles and headings are clarifying or confusing the structure of chapters and a thesis as a whole. They can make and suggest changes to improve the consistency and differentiation achieved by a system of headings. They can compare all the chapters parts and sections of a thesis with its table of contents to ensure accuracy and consistency as well as a logical and attractive representation of the structure of the thesis in its table of contents. In addition they can devote the same exacting and objective attention to every other aspect of your thesis from your use of commas to your inclusion of full bibliographical references. They can in short help you improve your thesis and achieve the peace of mind you need to submit and defend that thesis with confidence. 6.2 Capitalisation and Special Fonts Order or Chaos It may seem incredible that something as simple as the use of capital letters and special fonts can so easily become complex and problematic when the primary purpose of both these features in academic and scientific writing tends to be clarification. The fact is however that capitalisation and special fonts can potentially cause as much confusion as they attempt to resolve especially if they are used both extensively and inconsistently. Different disciplines and fields tend to employ capitalisation and special fonts in particular ways some of them using these features far more than others so CHAPTER 6 250 do check university and department guidelines to see if any advice is offered regarding the use of capitalisation and special fonts in your thesis. Whatever guidelines you are following however it is essential to keep in mind that the overuse or unnecessary use of capitals and special fonts in any thesis can create an impression of clutter become distracting for the reader and defeat the purpose of using these elements in the first place and this is the case even when they are used consistently when they are used inconsistently chaos can be the most pronounced result. Generally speaking keeping the use of capitalisation and special fonts to a minimum is good practice then as is using these features in a logical and organised fashion and with enough consistency to allow them to emphasise and distinguish precisely what they should. 6.2.1 Capitalisation for Names Titles and Other Elements The use of an initial capital letter on the first word of a sentence to indicate the beginning of the sentence is straightforward and rarely presents problems for authors. An initial capital is sometimes used after a colon as well although strictly speaking a colon does not end a sentence or indicate a new one so in British English a lowercase letter generally follows a colon but in American English a capital can be used in this position if the colon introduces what can be read as a complete sentence. When a colon introduces a list a quotation or similar material a capital often follows in both kinds of English the use of capitalisation in such situations tends to depend on the nature of the material and the preferences of the author on punctuation in relation to lists see Section 5.5.2 above and in relation to quotations Chapter 8 below. University and department guidelines rarely provide much detailed advice on the use of capitals but when they do they will usually focus on two categories of titles the titles and headings for the thesis itself and the titles of any books journals essays chapters web sites poems CHAPTER 6 251 plays and so on that are mentioned in the thesis. The first will usually be associated with the structure of a thesis while the second will generally be treated in conjunction with the referencing style required. Sometimes one system of capitalisation will apply to both categories and all titles but such uniform treatment is not the case as often as might be expected so special care should always be taken to notice any different requirements for different types and locations of titles and headings. With regard to the titles and headings of the thesis itself capitals may be required for instance only for the initial letter of the thesis title and any proper nouns in the title A case study of Charlotte Smith poet and novelist or initial capitals may be needed on all main words in the title A Case Study of Charlotte Smith Poet and Novelist.A capital may have to appear at the beginning of a subtitle following a colon en dash or em dash A case study of Charlotte Smith Poet and novelist or the subtitle may not use capitals at all although the first part of the title uses them on all main words A Case Study of Charlotte Smith poet and novelist. Occasionally block capitals with no lowercase letters at all are used for the main title. The pattern of capitalisation used for the title of the thesis may also apply to some or all of the chapter titles and even to the headings and subheadings used to structure and divide the chapters. If a numbered system of headings is used the same pattern of capitalisation is often used on all heading levels but using different patterns of capitalisation for different heading levels is an effective way of distinguishing the levels of unnumbered headings as long as all headings of a single level use the exact same pattern of capitalisation and each levels pattern is distinct from that of others see also Section 6.1 above. The patterns of capitalisation you choose for the titles and headings in your thesis should meet all university and department requirements and help clarify the structure of your thesis and its sections. CHAPTER 6 252 As I mentioned above the pattern of capitalisation used for the title of a thesis can also apply to the titles of any sources cited in the thesis or a different pattern may be required for recording those sources. The capitalisation of book titles can vary from that of journal titles and the capitalisation of article and chapter titles within the same style are often different again initial capitalisation of all main words in a title is more common on journal and book titles for instance than on article and chapter titles which often use an initial capital only on the first word and proper nouns. The pattern should always be consistent for each type of title which means that the different patterns of capitalisation actually used in titles as they appear in the sources themselves should not be retained. Retaining the capitalisation of titles found in sources will result in variations in the capitalisation patterns of similar titles recorded in a thesis and although this may be a sign of scrupulous attention to the originals it will connect and distinguish titles inappropriately and come across as inconsistent to readers it will in short undermine part of the reason for using distinct and consistent patterns of capitalisation in the first place. An exception is presented by titles in foreign languages while they can observe the capitalisation patterns used for English titles in a thesis different rules often apply for more information on using foreign languages see Butcher et al. 2006 Section 6.6 pp.246247 and Appendices 5 7 9 and 10 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 10 Ritter 2005 Chapter 12. Whatever patterns of capitalisation you use for the titles of the sources you cite they should effectively mark titles as titles be consistent within each category books articles etc. and when necessary consistently distinct between them. Capitals are also used to distinguish and emphasise proper nouns or names which can be straightforward but such capitalisation often depends on a words role and position in a sentence so the use of capitals can vary on that basis. It is usually simple to determine when to use initial capitals on personal names CHAPTER 6 253 Tom Jones and Sally Smith for instance should definitely bear initial capitals. However certain proper nouns can present greater challenges because capitals are often used on them to distinguish the specific uses of such nouns from their more general uses and the capitalisation of other words associated with proper nouns varies accordingly. It is therefore imperative that initial capitals be used appropriately and consistently which can prove somewhat complicated at times. Personal titles and ranks should be capitalised if they accompany a name for example and especially when they appear immediately before the name so the king in King George should bear a capital but not the king in the king of England and the same principle applies in the following cases Prime Minister Trudeau but the prime minister Professor Taylor but a professor of mathematics Earl Henry of Huntingdon but the earl of Huntington and Pope Francis but the pope. When a rank or title is used alone as a name it usually bears an initial capital Hello Father and Dear Pope and initial capitals should also be used when referring to an honour degree or award the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Bachelor of Arts though for degrees abbreviations consisting of all capitals BA or a combination of capitals and lowercase letters PhD with or without full stops B.A. and Ph.D. are also acceptable are often used see Section 6.3 below. Religious names and terminology are often capitalised but not always and you may choose for your own reasons if your university department and thesis committee allow it to use lowercase letters for religious terms that are usually capitalised in English. Conventionally speaking however all references to a monotheistic deity should appear with an initial capital God Allah the Trinity and the Lord. Although pronouns used for the deity can be capitalised God in His wisdom and in complex theological discussions this distinction can be helpful this practice is not necessary and in most cases the text is much tidier without it. For CHAPTER 6 254 the gods and goddesses of polytheistic religions only proper names should be capitalised the god of love and Isis protector of the dead. Capitalisation of sacred or religious rites is not uniform so compline is fine but so is Matins and the same is the case with a mass and the Mass consistency in usage within your thesis is the goal in such instances. Catholic Protestant Muslim and the like are normally capitalised and so are church and cathedral when they refer to a specific church or church building the Catholic Church and Worcester Cathedral but not on their own the church and the cathedral except in specific historical contexts the Church meaning the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages for instance. Similarly the Bible and the Koran use capitals but biblical does not and the word prophet bears an initial capital when it refers to Muhammad the Prophet but not when it is used more generally e.g. a biblical prophet. Political terms such as Democrat and Republican or Left and Right have rather specific meanings when capitalised while Commons House and similar political words require capitalisation to avoid ambiguity but there is no need to capitalise parliament because there is very little potential for confusion. The names of other institutions and organisations should also bear initial capitals the World Health Organization the British Library and the Ford Motor Company as should trademark or proprietary names such as Camaro Hoover and Xerox with which special care should be taken as generic terms are often more appropriate muscle car for instance vacuum cleaner and photocopier. If a trade name is used as a verb it should not be capitalised I hoovered the carpet. Finally the names of schools colleges universities and movements should use initial capitals St Michaels University School York University the Group of Seven and Romanticism with Romantic referring to a movement in art and literature and thus conveying a meaning very different from that of romantic. CHAPTER 6 255 Geographical locations if specific should bear initial capitals as should any generic terms that are actually part of the name Canada New York City but the city of St Johns and Lake Huron and Lake Erie but the lakes Huron and Erie. The capitalisation of compass directions varies but these elements usually only bear capitals if they indicate a recognised entity whether cultural or political Northern Ireland and the Middle East but usually the northern United States and southern Canada. For postal codes including letters capitals are used A6J 3H8. The names for astronomical entities are a little different with the Milky Way using capitals but not sun and moon except especially in specifically astronomical contexts to distinguish the Sun and Moon of the earths solar system from other suns and moons. The names of days months festivals holidays and historical and geological periods are generally capitalised Thursday November the Chinese New Year Thanksgiving Ramadan the Renaissance the Stone Age and the Middle Ages but not always e.g. the medieval period. For eras such as AD Anno Domini and BC Before Christ capitals are used as they are for similar abbreviations see Section 6.3 below but the names of modern periods such as the age of steam or the space age often do not use capitals and the same is the case with the names of seasons winter and spring unless they are personified e.g. the north wind is the breath of Winter. When personified many other words Liberty is a good example that would normally appear entirely in lowercase letters are also given an initial capital. The names of major historical events catastrophes exhibitions wars treaties councils etc. should use initial capitals the Great Famine the First World War the Gunpowder Plot the Council of Nicaea the Reformation and the Crucifixion with the initial capitals distinguishing the last two as instructive examples from the common and more generic terms reformation and crucifixion. The names of people and languages and the adjectives derived from CHAPTER 6 256 them are similarly capitalised in English Canadians a Torontonian Aboriginal and Irish but with considerably inconsistency Americanise is the standard form for instance but so is anglicise and Roman is capitalised when referring to numerals but not when referring to roman font the capital in such cases sometimes indicates a closer relationship with the originating nationality but not always as Roman versus roman in my last example demonstrates. The same is the case with words derived from personal names such as Chaucerian Shakespearean or Platonic with capitalisation used frequently but not always and generally varying the meaning when it is the adjective in a Platonic dialogue means something very different from that in platonic love. Scientific units derived from names do not use initial capitals a watt and a joule but compound terms for scientific laws tests and names generally retain the initial capitals on the personal name part the MannWhitney test Murphys law and Halleys comet. In biological nomenclature the Latin names of genera bear an initial capital but species names do not as in Thymus vulgaris thyme. Specific building names are capitalised the Eiffel Tower and the Dominion Building but not generic ones the tower and a skyscraper. Similarly the ship and an airplane do not use capitals but the names of ships and planes should appear with initial capitals the Spirit of St Louis a Cessna Skyhawk and the Golden Hinde as these examples show the individual names of ships and planes use italic font as well on which see Section 6.2.2 below. Names including a number also tend to be capitalised e.g. Scene 2 Flight 423 and Route 66 and cross references can be as well as those in this document are with an initial capital on Chapter and Section or they can appear in block capitals as in CHAPTER 3. Block capitals of this sort can be used for a number of other purposes as well to emphasise words or short phrases though this should be done very selectively to avoid overuse to highlight one or more words at the beginning of chapters and more rarely sections to CHAPTER 6 257 transcribe material that is itself entirely in capitals from Roman inscriptions or coins for instance to record manuscript sigla London British Library MS Royal 6.C.XIV and other information including Roman numerals and to indicate character names in passages quoted from a play or author surnames in a bibliography or reference list in which case authordate parenthetical references are occasionally set in block capitals to match the format of the list. A useful approach for avoiding the overuse of capitalisation and thus allowing it to achieve its purpose effectively is to use a lowercase initial letter instead when referring back to a compound proper name that was introduced in initial capitals the University of Toronto for instance might be referred to in the next sentence as the university the Second World War in the next paragraph as the war and the Great Famine as the famine in subsequent mentions. As long as there is no potential for ambiguity and this approach does not conflict with any guidelines you need to follow it can work well but if for instance two wars or two famines are discussed it is best to use the full name in each instance for clarity or to devise a system of abbreviation that distinguishes the two see Section 6.3 below. Generally speaking any system of capitalisation devised for such purposes that is not cumbersome and serves to emphasise the words and concepts requiring emphasis is acceptable as long as it is used both logically and consistently throughout a thesis. 6.2.2 Special Fonts for Emphasis Italic and Bold Italic font. Like capitalisation italic font is frequently used on titles of various kinds and when capitalisation is kept to a minimum with only a single capital at the beginning of a title for instance italicisation is essential for indicating which words make up a title. Depending on the referencing style required italics can be used to mark the titles of books and other monographs such as conference CHAPTER 6 258 proceedings and reports in the full bibliographical references recorded in reference lists footnotes and endnotes as well as the titles of journals and in certain cases theses dissertations and web sites see Sections 7.2 and 7.3 below for further details. Regardless of which referencing style is adopted however italic font should be used to mark titles in the main text and other parts of a thesis beyond the references themselves but only certain titles should appear in italics The titles of books and other published monographs PhD Success How To Write a Doctoral Thesis but the titles of chapters essays and other parts of such publications are not italicised instead they are enclosed in quotation marks see Section 5.6.3 above and the Bible and the Koran do not appear in italics or quotation marks. The titles of journals Speculum and other periodicals such as newspapers and magazines Times Colonist but not the titles of articles and other parts within such periodicals which are usually enclosed in quotation marks. The titles of plays Shakespeares Othello and films Fried Green Tomatoes but not of the acts and scenes within them. The titles of major musical works such as symphonies and operas Mozarts Don Giovanni but not when they are referred to more casually Beethovens Ninth. The titles of radio shows CBCs Definitely Not the Opera and television programmes Republic of Doyle but not the titles of the single episodes of either which are generally marked with quotation marks. The titles of albums and CDs Pink Floyds Wish You Were Here but not the titles of the individual songs on them which are usually set within quotation marks. The titles of long poems that are virtually books in themselves andor contain many sections Langlands Piers Plowman and Chaucers Canterbury Tales but not the titles of separate CHAPTER 6 259 sections within them which can be enclosed in quotation marks The Wife of Baths Tale or not Passus XIII also the titles of collections of poems Heaneys Death of a Naturalist but not the titles of the individual poems within them which are usually enclosed in quotation marks. The titles of paintings da Vincis Mona Lisa and sculptures Michelangelos David but if italics are used for the name of a cycle of paintings the individual paintings within the cycle might be distinguished differently simply by capitalisation for instance or with quotation marks. The titles of theses dissertations and web sites are often but not always italicised. Although italicisation like capitalisation should be kept to a minimum italic font is used for several other purposes as well. The names of planes and ships the Spirit of St Louis and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald are usually italicised but not the SS part whether it stands for Sailing Ship or Steam Ship or alternatively the HMS part which abbreviates HisHer Majestys Ship. The names of parties when citing legal cases are usually italicised as well but not when simply discussing the cases e.g. In Smith v. Jones the plaintiff Mr Smith claimed against Mrs Jones. Mathematical variables often appear in italics and so can the numbers or letters used for marking items in a list The following colours were considered 1 blue 2 red 3 green and 4 purple. Sometimes italic font is also used on journal volume numbers in reference lists. Stage directions in passages quoted from plays generally appear in italics and occasionally cross references and other instructions to readers such as see above do as well. In such cases the italic font serves to emphasise the directions or instructions which is just one of the types of emphasis for which italics can be used. Italics are frequently added for instance to the headings of sections and tables and the captions of figures in a thesis to distinguish them from other headings Participants and CHAPTER 6 260 Questionnaires or to emphasise part of a heading Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Study Participants and in such cases the italics might appear on any other mentions of these headings in the text of the thesis as well. Italics can also be used to emphasise terms poetics and chemotherapy categories Group B and the third domain phrases artificial lighting inside and darkness outside literary characters Emma Woodhouse and Anne Shirley and letters or special characters f and that are being introduced andor discussed see also bold font below and Section 5.6.3 above. Such emphasis can be extremely effective for clarifying a complex discussion but only if it is used consistently for equivalent concepts appropriately for the discipline and sparingly in general. While every letter in a discussion may need to be italicised for clarity whether it has already been introduced or not using italic font only on the first mention or in association with the initial explanation of terms categories phrases and characters effectively clarifies the discussion without cluttering the text. More general use of italics to emphasise words should be avoided as much as possible in most cases emphasis via effective vocabulary and sentence structure is much more effective. A common use of italic font in English scholarly writing is to mark words and phrases of foreign languages that have not yet been naturalised into English. A good dictionary will usually indicate whether a word or phrase should be italicised or not generally by using italics on the term or not but they do vary in their recommendations. Many foreign words and phrases do not need to be italicised including post hoc a priori versus pass pt avant-garde and the Latin abbreviations used in parenthetical and reference material et al. i.e. e.g. vs. and the like. If a word or phrase does not appear in English dictionaries or if there is potential for confusing a foreign word with an English one German Land is a good example italics should be used and they should always be used for both genera and species in biological nomenclature CHAPTER 6 261 Thymus vulgaris. Italic emphasis of this kind should be applied with care ensuring for instance that foreign words and phrases set in italics within English sentences appear in their nominative form for example cor the Latin word for heart not cordis its genitive form. Such emphasis should also be used predominantly for short pieces of foreign text longer passages in foreign languages should appear as quotations in which case the text should be given precisely as it appears in the source and italics are not used for more information on using foreign languages see Section 8.4 below and see also Butcher et al. 2006 Section 6.6 pp.246247 and Appendices 5 7 9 and 10 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 10 Ritter 2005 Chapter 12. Italic font should not be used for marking quotations quotation marks do that job so italics should not appear on a quotation whether it is in English or a foreign language unless italics are used in the original source or if you want to add your own emphasis to the quotation if the latter is the case the italics should be acknowledged as your own by including something like italics my own with the citation for more information on italics in quotations see Sections 8.3 and 8.4 below. Bold font. Bold font tends to be used much less frequently than italic font in scholarly writing but it can be used for some of the same purposes as italics are. It is frequently used for the title and other headings of a thesis for instance Participants and Questionnaires and for the headings and captions of tables and figures though sometimes only on the initial part Table 1. Demographic characteristics of study participants in such cases the corresponding references to the sections tables and figures in the thesis itself are sometimes bold as well. Other cross references can also appear in bold font though that is rarer. In some referencing systems bold font is used in the reference list for article and chapter titles but not usually for book or journal titles as well as for journal volume numbers. Bold font can also be used much as italic font is to highlight the numbers or letters of items in lists The CHAPTER 6 262 following colours were considered 1 blue 2 red 3 green and 4 purple and to emphasise terms poetics and chemotherapy categories group B and the third domain phrases artificial lighting inside and darkness outside literary characters Emma Woodhouse and Anne Shirley and letters or special characters f and . Bold font is extremely effective for representing coloured decorated or large letters when transcribing text from manuscripts. Emphasis via bold font is often used in textbooks guidebooks and other educational material but in most academic and scientific contexts it tends to appear far less frequently than italic font does no doubt because its admirable ability to make text immediately visible also causes it to clutter a page more quickly than either capitals or italic font so it should always be used very selectively. Both bold and italic fonts are used in specialised ways in some disciplines however so do check with your department andor supervisor if you are unsure of how they should be used in your thesis for the marking of italic and bold in mathematics and the sciences for instance see Butcher et al. 2006 Sections 13.2.1 and 13.2.2 and for the use of italic font in chemistry see Ritter 2005 Section 14.4.2. Punctuation within italic and bold fonts. When either bold or italic font is used the font style of any punctuation associated with it should be considered carefully. As a general rule any punctuation within the passage in the special font should also appear in that special font and any punctuation outside of it should be in a regular roman font. For example when a comma or full stop follows a word or phrase in italic or bold font it usually appears in regular roman font Particularly interesting is his use of the word cor though it appears rarely in his text. When a possessive is formed from an italicised noun the apostrophe and s or the apostrophe alone if it is a plural should appear in roman font Othellos memorable plot and Anne of Green Gables unforgettable heroine. However in some instances the special font may extend a little when it comes CHAPTER 6 263 to punctuation. When for instance italic or bold font is used on a title or volume number in a reference list the full stop colon or other punctuation following the part in italics or bold may also need to appear in that font see Sections 7.2 and 7.3 below and when a heading in bold or italics is followed immediately by punctuation as for instance paragraph headings are often followed by a full stop or colon the full stop or colon often appears in the same special font as it does at the beginning of this paragraph see also Section 6.1 above. Keep in mind that special fonts often continue in word- processing programs beyond where you may want them and since it can be very difficult to determine at a glance in which font small marks of punctuation are set special care must be taken when using italic and bold fonts to ensure that all punctuation is consistently in the appropriate font. Italic or bold font within italic or bold font. If you need to use italic or bold font on a certain word or words within a larger passage that is already in italic or bold font the format varies depending on the circumstances For bold font within italics the bold is simply added Austen herself claimed that the character Emma would not be much liked by readers. For italics within italics the usual practice is to revert to roman font Austen herself claimed that the character Emma would not be much liked by readers. For italics within the italic font of a title however the italics are simply retained Chaucers Canterbury Tales The Manuscripts. Occasionally such a title within a title is indicated by quotation marks Chaucers Canterbury Tales The Manuscripts. For italics within bold font the italics are simply added in running text headings and titles alike Austen herself claimed that the main character of Emma would not be much liked by readers and Chaucers Canterbury Tales The Manuscripts. CHAPTER 6 264 Although extremely rare bold font within bold font would logically revert to roman font Austen herself claimed that the character Emma would not be much liked by readers. 6.3 Understanding Abbreviations Abbreviations are required to some degree in almost all doctoral theses but most style guides and guidelines will recommend that authors keep their use of abbreviations to a bare minimum or use only standard abbreviations such as SI units for weights and measures. Some guidelines will suggest that abbreviations be used predominantly in parenthetical material footnotes and endnotes bibliographies and reference lists and tables figures and appendices but in the fields of science and technology abbreviations tend to be used quite extensively and many theses use abbreviations of some kind in the running text as well as in ancillary material. Virtually all scholarly guidelines will ask that any but the most common abbreviations again SI units are a good example and those used more frequently and better known than the corresponding full terms CD AIDS etc. be defined or written out in full on first use in the main text as well as the abstract and other ancillary material to ensure that readers will understand both the abbreviations and what the author is saying about the abbreviated terms and concepts. Guidelines also tend to suggest that abbreviations only be used if practical or necessary that they be employed only for terms and names that are used several times in a chapter or thesis five times or more according to the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.558 and that a list of abbreviations and their definitions be provided if many nonstandard abbreviations are used in a document. If you use nonstandard abbreviations in your thesis you should therefore check university and department guidelines and follow any specific advice provided. In the absence of such advice the best policy is to define or explain any CHAPTER 6 265 nonstandard abbreviations briefly but accurately which can usually be done quite simply by using the full term followed by the abbreviation in parentheses as in American Psychological Association APA style is used in many theses in the social sciences. Each abbreviation should then be used with precision and consistency throughout the thesis. If a list of abbreviations is required for your thesis the list should observe alphabetical order according to the abbreviations rather than the full terms so that readers can easily find specific abbreviations see also Sections 4.6.2 and 5.5.2 above. The following for example might be the opening items in a list of abbreviations ANOVA Analysis of variance CG Control group CI Confidence interval ES Effect size G1 Group 1 G2 Group 2 All abbreviated and full versions of terms in the list should correspond exactly to those used in the chapters and other parts of the thesis. The same forms should be used in your abstract if you include and are allowed to include abbreviations there see Section 4.2 above and keep in mind that abbreviations used in your abstract should be defined there as well even if they are also used and defined in the main text of the thesis. In some cases abbreviations will need to be defined or redefined on first use in each chapter which can be useful because it renders your meaning clear even if a reader consults only a single chapter of your thesis. Abbreviations used in other parts of your thesis such as tables figures and appendices should also be defined in those parts once again using the same forms and terms as elsewhere in the thesis CHAPTER 6 266 so that the tables figures and appendices can be understood without the reader referring to other parts of the thesis for definitions see Sections 4.4.1 and 4.6.1 above. The abbreviations used in bibliographies and reference lists tend to be standardised and thus usually do not require definition but any that are not standard abbreviated names of corporate authors for instance such as MLA or WHO should be defined and any referencing abbreviations that are also used in other parts of the thesis et al. for example should take the exact same form in all places with or without italic font for instance in the case of et al.. As a general rule abbreviations other than those used more frequently and better known than their full versions AIDS and DVD are good examples should be avoided in titles and headings see Section 6.1 above although abbreviations are sometimes allowed in this context do check your guidelines the full terms are clearer and should be preferred unless they are unwieldy. The abbreviations can instead be introduced and defined or simply used if already defined in the sentences following a heading. There are several different kinds of abbreviations and not all of them are true abbreviations though they are commonly grouped under that one term in guidelines and style guides. A true abbreviation is formed when the end of a word is omitted the full stop that tends to close this sort of abbreviation represents the missing letters assoc. ref. Wed. Nov. etc. but the full stop does not always appear. Frequently referred to as an abbreviation is a contraction in which the middle of the word is missing because the final letter of the word is included a full stop is not necessary and often does not appear attn Mr Jr St etc. but there are exceptions. An acronym strictly speaking is formed from the initial letters of the words that make up a term or name and can be read as a single word as NASA and UNICEF can be. When in common use acronyms are sometimes written as a normal word bearing only a single initial capital e.g. Nasa and Aids. Also CHAPTER 6 267 generally referred to as an acronym but not a true acronym is an initialism which is also formed from the initial letters of the words that make up the term or name but initialisms are pronounced as single letters as BBC and IQ are not as words. The use of acronyms in sentences differs slightly from that of initialisms so the distinction between the two is important. As special typographical characters or letters of the alphabet symbols or signs such as and are more abstract representations than the other kinds of abbreviations and they can take a myriad of forms both generally and in different fields of study but they too represent a word or concept in a shortened form. 6.3.1 Lowercase or Uppercase Letters in Abbreviations Abbreviations of all kinds can be formed with lowercase or uppercase letters or a combination of the two NASA UNICEF IQ BBC assoc. a.m. kph attn Mr Dr and Ph.D. As these examples show acronyms and initialisms tend to use all capitals while true abbreviations and contractions tend to use all lowercase letters or an initial capital followed by lowercase letters but there are exceptions Unicef can be written with only an initial capital for instance kph is technically an initialism and a.m. and p.m. often appear in capitals in American English A.M. and P.M. sometimes without the full stops AM and PM though the stops should definitely be used if there is any chance of confusion with AM meaning Anno Mundi see the list of Latin abbreviations in Section 6.3.11 below. The Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.559 helpfully points out that noun forms are usually uppercase HIV VP adverbial forms lowercase rpm mpg. Single letters used as symbols can be uppercase e.g. R meaning multiple correlation or U the MannWhitney test statistic or lowercase d for Cohens measure of sample effect size or z for a standardised score. CHAPTER 6 268 6.3.2 Full Stops with Abbreviations True abbreviations as I noted above generally take one or more full stops Nov. Thurs. and Ph.D. with the last lying somewhere between a true abbreviation and an initialism whereas contractions do not Mr Mrs and St. This is not necessarily predictable however and Ph.D. along with other degree titles can be written without the stops PhD MA and MSc as well as with them while St without a stop usually means Saint and St. with a stop means Street. Acronyms and initialisms usually do not use full stops UNICEF and REM though a single capital letter abbreviating a word is generally followed by a stop in personal names for instance S. Taylor and S.J.T. Smith but not in all referencing systems so do check the guidelines you are following this is not the case with compass points N S E and W however or when an entire name is abbreviated JFK for John Fitzgerald Kennedy or when the letter is actually a symbol e.g. R or U in statistics. Acronyms and initialisms are more likely to use full stops if they are written in lowercase letters m.p.h. but these too are often written without stops mph if full stops are used they should be used after all letters in an acronym or initialism not just the last one m.p.h. not mph.. Standard abbreviated forms for weights and measures generally do not take stops m cm kg kph ms etc.. As a general rule full stops are used less frequently in scientific contexts but American English tends to use full stops more often than British English does including in contractions Mrs. Mr. and Jr. and initialisms U.S.A. and R.E.M.. When true abbreviations such as vol. and ch. are used as plurals with an s at the end they technically become contractions because they include the last letter so strictly speaking they do not require a full stop but one is generally used in any case for consistency with the singular forms vols. and chs.. In an unusual abbreviation such as co for care of the slash takes the place of the first full stop and the second stop is omitted see also Section 5.6.5 above. CHAPTER 6 269 6.3.3 Punctuation after Abbreviations When an abbreviated form using a final full stop appears at the end of a sentence no additional stop is necessary since the single stop also closes the sentence so School starts at 8 a.m. is correct not School starts at 8 a.m.. if the abbreviation appears within parentheses however a final full stop should also follow the closing parenthesis as it does at the end of this sentence School starts at 8 a.m.. If a question or exclamation mark closes the sentence it should appear immediately after the abbreviations final stop Does school start at 8 a.m. If the sentence continues after an abbreviation using stops any necessary punctuation comma semicolon colon or dash should appear immediately after the final stop of the abbreviation School starts at 8 a.m. but she arrived at 8.30. Some abbreviations such as e.g. meaning for example i.e. meaning that is and viz. meaning namely are followed by a comma in most instances due to their meanings and functions i.e. a comma follows the full stop but this is not always the case some styles will discourage the use of the comma in order to avoid double punctuation a full stop and a comma side by side. 6.3.4 Using a or an before Abbreviations The pronunciation of an abbreviation when read aloud determines whether a or an is used before the abbreviation when an indefinite article is needed. Therefore a should be used before abbreviations beginning with a consonant sound including a vowel pronounced as a w or y a D.Phil. thesis and a UNESCO member state. When an abbreviation begins with a vowel sound however an should be used an MLA style of referencing and an IQ test. Acronyms read as words tend not to use articles at all except when they are used adjectivally the patient was diagnosed with AIDS but an AIDS patient whereas initialisms sounded as individual CHAPTER 6 270 letters tend to use an article definite or indefinite a Ph.D. an NGO and the UK. 6.3.5 Spacing Associated with Abbreviations In most cases spaces do not appear within abbreviations whether full stops are included or not as the above examples demonstrate. There are exceptions however ad lib et al. and per cent all feature a space though the last is a single word in American English percent but since the first element of these forms is not really an abbreviation the space is logical fl. oz. op. cit. and loc. cit. are less logical because both elements are abbreviated but a space appears nonetheless. Between the initials of personal names spaces are often used M. K. R. Taylor but not in all referencing systems and some styles will want the spaces eliminated in running text as well to avoid the separation of the initials at line breaks M.K.R. Taylor. When numerals are used along with standard abbreviations for weights and measures a space usually appears between the numeral and the abbreviation 38 kg 50 m 17 cm etc. but in computing the space is often omitted 512kB 66MB 5GB etc.. Different spacing can sometimes convey different meanings when the degree symbol is used for temperature for instance a space usually appears between the numeral and the degree symbol which is close up against the scale abbreviation 20 C and 75 F but when expressing degrees of inclination or angle or degrees of latitude and longitude the degree symbol normally appears close up to the numeral an angle of 360 and 55 N 21 W. The symbol for percentage also appears up against the numeral 28 although a space appears between the numeral and the longer abbreviation for percentage 28 per cent and other abbreviations and symbols are similarly used with numerals but without spaces 69.99 for instance 4.6.1 for Section 4.6.1 and 55ff. which is generally used of page numbers though spaces CHAPTER 6 271 should appear around ff. if it is used in conjunction with other lowercase letters fol.67r ff.. 6.3.6 Plurals and Possessives of Abbreviations There are some plural terms that are abbreviated in a way that does not show the plural nature of the full version the initialism UN for United Nations for example but generally speaking if both the singular and plural forms of a term or name are abbreviated a separate plural form must be established. To form the plural of most abbreviations an s is added to the end NGOs and DVDs and if the abbreviation contains more than one full stop the s should be added after the last stop the English Department produced seven Ph.D.s last year. Aspects of the sentence relating to the abbreviation such as verbs should reflect the plural nature of the abbreviation just as they would reflect the plural nature of the full term the NGOs are working to improve the situation and the DVDs are useful for amusing the children on rainy days. The plurals of some abbreviations are formed unusually by doubling a letter with f. for following becoming ff. and p. for page becoming pp. An apostrophe should not be added along with the s to form a plural though in plural forms of a single letter an apostrophe is sometimes used for clarity dot the is and cross the ts instead of mind your Ps and Qs in the examination in which the apostrophes are not necessary. Usually an apostrophe and s are reserved for possessive forms however the NGOs efforts were appreciated and in the plural the NGOs efforts were appreciated. Standard abbreviations for weights and measures tend to take the same form in both the singular and plural 1 kg and 10 kg not 10 kgs and 1 m and 3 m not 3 ms which means three milliseconds not 3 metres but an s is sometimes added to yr yrs and the plural hours can be represented by h especially in scientific contexts hr or hrs. Consistent usage throughout a thesis is essential. CHAPTER 6 272 6.3.7 Adding Italic Font to Abbreviations When abbreviating a full term or name set in italic font the abbreviation should usually appear in italics as well. This applies to initialisms of the titles of books and journals OED for the Oxford English Dictionary and PP for Pride and Prejudice as well as abbreviated titles such as J Adv Nurs for the Journal of Advanced Nursing and shortened titles created for the purpose of referencing MLA Style Manual for the Modern Language Association Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. It does not apply to all abbreviations however MS in roman font for instance stands for the Latin manuscriptum see Section 6.3.11 below. Any shortened forms of italicised foreign terms used in a thesis should use the same italic font He possessed a certain joie de vivre this joie allowed him to maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversities. Although common Latin abbreviations tend to appear in roman font cf. e.g. etc. i.e. viz. and vs. some that are used in references can be set in either roman or italic font et al. ibid. loc. cit. and op. cit. can alternatively appear in italics et al. ibid. loc. cit. and op. cit. and others should almost always appear in italic font such as those used in dates c. for circa and fl. for floruit. See the list of individual Latin abbreviations in Section 6.3.11 below. 6.3.8 Abbreviations at the Beginning of a Sentence Acronyms and initialisms consisting of uppercase letters only can be used at the beginning of a sentence but in the running text of a thesis other kinds of abbreviations lowercase and lowercase and uppercase blended should not appear at the beginning of a sentence and neither should symbols. In such cases the word or words represented by the abbreviation or symbol should be written out in full or the sentence should be adjusted to avoid placing the abbreviation at the beginning 1 was much less than I planned to CHAPTER 6 273 spend could become for instance One dollar was much less than I planned to spend. Abbreviated social titles are acceptable at the beginning of a sentence however Mrs Jones sold her house and Dr Cumberland is taking patients. In notes on the other hand abbreviations that are normally lowercase can be capitalised for use at the beginning of a sentence Ch. 7 deals with this in detail and Nos. 8 to 13 show this trend but writing these out as Chapter 7 and Numbers 8 to 13 is still a good stylistic choice unless space is limited. A few lowercase abbreviations tend to be acceptable in their usual lowercase form at the beginning of footnotes or endnotes c. e.g. i.e. l. ll. p. and pp. are often treated in this way and cf. is occasionally as well see Sections 6.3.10 and 6.3.11 below and for information on footnotes and endnotes see Section 3.4 above and Section 7.2.3 below. If there are no pressing space constraints however such uncapitalised forms can be avoided at the beginning of notes as well by using Circa for c. for instance That is for i.e. and Lines for ll. 6.3.9 The Ampersand The ampersand symbol meaning and should not as a general rule be used in the running prose of a thesis. The ampersand is acceptable however in the titles of works and the names of companies and institutions if the ampersand is in fact used consistently by the work company or institution itself as it is in the Journal of Elder Abuse Neglect Mills Boon and MMs. Sometimes ampersands are used in abbreviated compounds such as R B for rhythm and blues R D research and development and B B bed and breakfast which can also appear in lowercase letters r b with full stops R. D. or without spaces BB so be sure to use one form consistently throughout your thesis. The ampersand is frequently used in parenthetical authordate in-text references between the names of the last two CHAPTER 6 274 authors of a publication Taylor Smith 2006 Kerby-Fulton Hilmo Olson 2012 but when the author names appear in the main body of the text and should be used instead Kerby-Fulton Hilmo and Olson 2012 provide transcriptions. The ampersand can be used in other parenthetical material as well such as cross references see Sections 1 4 6 where a comma should precede the ampersand if a serial comma is normally used in the thesis see Sections 1 4 6 but is not necessary as in the first example here if the serial comma does not usually appear in series of three or more items see Section 5.6.1 above. The ampersand can also be used in tables figures notes and other ancillary material and is frequently used in bibliographies and reference lists in the names of publishing companies and corporate authors in the titles of works and between the names of the last two authors of a work Kerby-Fulton K. Hilmo M. Olson L. see also Sections 7.2 and 7.3 below as well as the reference list at the end of this book. 6.3.10 Common English Abbreviations Used in References The following standard abbreviations including alternate forms in some cases are commonly used in source references within the main text of a thesis as well as in notes reference lists and bibliographies and in cross references though some of them can be used elsewhere in a thesis. As standard abbreviations they usually do not require definition but since some can take different forms it is essential to use the same form for each abbreviation every time you use it in your thesis. App. app. add an s to form the plural appendix. Bk bk Bk. bk. add an s to form the plural book. Ch. ch. Chap. chap. add an s to form the plural chapter see also c. cap. in Section 6.3.11 below. CHAPTER 6 275 Co. add an s to form the plural Company. Col. col. add an s to form the plural column. Country abbreviations are sometimes added after cities of publication in complete bibliographical references especially if a particular city is not large or well known. These tend to take a simple two-letter form without stops or spaces CA for Canada FR for France and UK for the United Kingdom but the country names can be written out as words instead. State abbreviations are used along with cities in the United States see below. Ed. ed. add an s to form the plural editor or edition. The capitalised form is sometimes used for one meaning while the lowercase form is used for the other alternatively the following abbreviation can be used for edition. Edn edn Edn. edn. add an s to form the plural edition. esp. especially. f. f the plural form is ff. or ff and following. This abbreviation refers to the page or section following a specified page or section number. A single f. is acceptable in some styles and ff. referring to two or more pages or sections that follow a specified page or section is more common but providing the second number for a specific range of pages or sections is always preferable i.e. pp.2627 is far better than pp.26f. and pp.2631 is better than pp.26ff.. Although f. was originally and still is technically an abbreviation of the Latin folio meaning on the next leafpage it is now usually defined and used as an English abbreviation. Fig. fig. add an s to form the plural figure. Fol. fol. Fo. fo. add an s to form the plural folio. Although also an abbreviation of the Latin word folium meaning leaf or page andor its ablative form folio fol. is usually defined with the English word folio and the plural fols. represents the plural form of the English term folios. Inc. Incorporated. Initials of authors first names often feature full stops and spaces M. J. B. Campbell but in many cases the spaces are omitted CHAPTER 6 276 except after the last initial of a name M.J.B. Campbell and in some referencing styles the full stops are omitted whether the spaces are retained M J B Campbell or not MJB Campbell. In full bibliographical references author names particularly for the first author of each source are often inverted so the initials come after the surname with or without a preceding comma Campbell M.J.B. or Campbell MJB. l. the plural form is ll. line. This abbreviation can be used in lowercase at the beginning of a note but since it can easily become confused with both Arabic and Roman numerals 1 11 I and II it must be used carefully and is best avoided if possible. Ltd Ltd. Limited. N.d. n.d. no date. n. n the plural form is nn. or nn note. N.p. n.p. no publisher no place of publication or no page. p. p the plural form is pp. or pp page. This abbreviation can be used in lowercase at the beginning of a note. Para. para. add an s to the abbreviation or double the symbol to form the plural paragraph. Pt pt Pt. pt. add an s to form the plural part. S. S Suppl. suppl. supplement. sc. add an s to form the plural scene. Sec. sec. add an s to the abbreviation or an extra symbol to form the plural section. Ser. ser. series. Sometimes an s. alone is used for series when combined with another letterword as in o.s. occasionally OS for old series n.s. occasionally NS for new series and s.s. occasionally SS for second series. State abbreviations for the United States are often included after American cities of publication in complete bibliographical references especially if a city is not large or well known. These generally take a simple two-letter form with both letters uppercase CA for California MI for Michigan and OR for Oregon CHAPTER 6 277 though in some styles the abbreviation can be longer and only the first letter is uppercase Calif. Mich. and Ore.. See Appendix 3 in Butcher et al. 2006 for more information on state abbreviations. Tr. tr. Trans. trans. translator or translation. One form can be used for the first meaning and the other for the second. v. the plural form is vv. verse. The abbreviation v. is also used in references to legal cases to represent the Latin word versus but since verse tends to be used in literary studies there is rarely overlap with legal matter if there is confusion it is best to write verse out instead. Vol. vol. add an s to form the plural volume. 6.3.11 Latin Abbreviations Standard Latin abbreviations do not normally require definition when they are used in formal scholarly prose but some of them are misused with surprising frequency presumably because their precise meanings are not fully understood by authors or are not considered carefully enough in relation to the context. The format of many of these abbreviations can vary in terms of capitalisation font roman or italic and punctuation depending on the guidelines followed and the version of English British or American used. In a few cases the abbreviations can be confusing for the reader and tend to be used a great deal less in the early twenty-first century than they were in the past in others the abbreviations are best avoided in the running text of a thesis but can be freely used in notes parenthetical material and other ancillary matter. The list below provides acceptable forms and variants of a number of the most common Latin abbreviations along with definitions and some brief notes on their use. While drafting and proofreading your thesis you should ensure that each Latin abbreviation you use is formatted in an acceptable way that the abbreviation chosen for each term is CHAPTER 6 278 distinct from other abbreviations in your thesis from similar English abbreviations for example that each abbreviation takes a consistent form throughout the thesis and that the punctuation and other elements associated with each abbreviation are consistent as well. Academic degree abbreviations sometimes represent Latin terms instead of English ones. This is the case with M.D. for Medicinae Doctor Doctor of Medicine for instance and Ph.D. for Philosophiae Doctor Doctor of Philosophy see Section 15.21 of the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 for further examples. These abbreviations can use full stops or not MD or M.D. and PhD or Ph.D. and are enclosed in commas when they follow a personal name Sarah Jones Ph.D. is the first applicant. Roman rather than italic font is used for all degree abbreviations which can be used in the main running text of a thesis. art. cit. art. cit. articulo citato in the cited article. This abbreviation is used in references after an authors name to refer to the title of an already cited article but it is used infrequently now and some guidelines will ask that it be avoided. When used it can appear in either roman or italic font but using a shortened version of the article title is preferable. c. ca ca. circa approximately or about. This abbreviation is almost always set in italic font and although the single- or double- letter form the latter with or without a full stop is sometimes preferred either is acceptable as long as it is maintained throughout a thesis. The abbreviation often appears before uncertain dates and numerals in which case there is no space between the abbreviation and the number c.1325 but a space should appear if the abbreviation precedes a letter or word c. AD 1325. If both dates given for a span of dates are approximate the abbreviation should appear with each date c.1325c.1350 but dates using a circa abbreviation should not be elided. Although the abbreviation can be used in this way with dates and CHAPTER 6 279 other numerals in the running text of a thesis in many instances it will be preferable to use an English word instead. At the beginning of a note this abbreviation can remain lowercase. c. cap. capitulum chapter. An alternative to the English abbreviations for chapter see Section 6.3.10 above this abbreviation tends to be used in citations and references and generally appears in roman font which prevents confusion with c. for circa. cf. confer compare. Frequently misused to mean see instead of compare so do consider its meaning carefully in context when you use it this abbreviation almost always appears in roman font and is generally only used in parentheses or ancillary material such as footnotes or endnotes. In the running text of a thesis the English compare or similar wording should be used instead. The abbreviation can be used in lowercase at the beginning of a note. C.V. CV curriculum vitae course of life. This abbreviation is used in roman font and refers to a biographical rsum of a persons training and career such as that used when applying for a job or providing credentials. It can generally be used in the main running text of a thesis. dram. pers. dram. pers. dramatis personae characters of the play. Usually appearing in roman font this abbreviation is appropriate for parenthetical or ancillary material such as notes and tables in running text the full Latin in italics or equivalent English phrasing should be used instead. e.g. exempli gratia for example. This abbreviation almost always appears in roman font and is used with great frequency sometimes excessive frequency in academic and scientific writing where it is at times confused with i.e. that is see below. As a general rule it should be used only in parentheses or ancillary material such as notes in the running text of a thesis equivalent English words for example for instance etc. are preferable. The abbreviation should be preceded by a comma semicolon or colon or an opening parenthesis if it is provided in CHAPTER 6 280 parentheses and is usually followed by a comma as well. It can remain lowercase at the beginning of a note. Era abbreviations sometimes represent Latin instead of English terms such as AD for Anno Domini In the Year of the Lord Christian AH for Anno Hegirae In the Year of the Hegira Muslim and AM for Anno Mundi In the Year of the World Jewish for further examples and explanations see the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Section 15.41 and Ritter 2005 Section 11.6.3. A Latin abbreviation for a chronological era should appear in roman font and precede the year AD 1325 whereas an English abbreviation of an era follows the year 316 BC. Although these Latin era abbreviations can feature full stops A.D. A.H. and A.M they usually do not which in the last example conveniently avoids confusion with the capitalised A.M. abbreviation for ante meridiem see time of day abbreviations below. et al. et al et al. et al et alii masculine et aliae feminine et alia neuter meaning and others. Predominantly used for references this abbreviation can nonetheless appear in the main running text of a thesis. A full stop should never appear after et because it is the complete word for and so is not abbreviated. A full stop does usually appear after the abbreviated al however but not in all styles and italics are sometimes used and sometimes not. There is also considerable variation regarding when et al. should be used for three or more authors for four or more or for six or more depending on the guidelines and whether it is used in the main text or in the reference listbibliography for more information on the use of et al. see Sections 7.2.1 and 7.3.1 below. Guidelines also differ with regard to whether or not a comma should be used before andor after et al. etc. et cetera and the rest and so forth or and other things. This frequently used abbreviation almost always appears in roman font and should be used only in parentheses or ancillary CHAPTER 6 281 material such as notes in the main running text of a thesis equivalent English words and so on and so forth or and the like are preferable. When used in lists as it often is the abbreviation should follow at least two some advice suggests three items to provide the reader with enough information to conjecture how the list might continue peaches pears apples etc. not peaches etc.. If the serial comma is normally used in a thesis a comma should precede etc. but the comma is not necessary if a serial comma is not generally used. While etc. can be used when listing types of people and others or the abbreviation et al. is better when listing individual people. The abbreviation should not be used at the end of a list that begins with such as e.g. for example or including because these indicate that the list will be incomplete and etc. should not be written with an ampersand c except when an older source is being duplicated or transcribed. et seq. et seq. plural et seqq. et seqq. et sequens with the plural et sequentes and the following. This abbreviation is generally but not always set in italic font and in its singular and plural forms it serves as an alternative to f. and ff. see Section 6.3.10 above. It is used after a page number to refer to the following pages pp.26 et seq. and pp.26 et seqq. but unless guidelines indicate otherwise f. or ff. is usually preferable and a specific page range is preferable to both pp.2627 and pp.2631. When it is used a full stop should not appear after et which is not abbreviated but a stop should appear after the abbreviated seq. or seqq. fl. fl. floruit flourished. This abbreviation is used generally parenthetically along with a date or dates to indicate the approximate active or productive period of a historical individual when birth and death dates are uncertain. It usually but not always appears in italic font before the relevant date or dates with a space between the abbreviation and the first date William Langland fl. 13501390. In the main running text of a thesis CHAPTER 6 282 equivalent English words are usually preferable William Langland was active in the second half of the fourteenth century. ibid. ibid. occasionally ib. or ib. ibidem in the same place or in that very place. Appearing in roman or occasionally italic font ibid. is used particularly in references but not as often as it once was it now tends to be used primarily for footnote and endnote references in the humanities especially when guidelines call for it. It is used instead of repeating bibliographical information when a source is cited again immediately without any intervening references after it has been cited in the preceding note or sentence within a note. Because it means in that very place it must be used with great care only if everything about the second citation is exactly the same as the first can it be used alone and any information that differs must be provided along with ibid. e.g. ibid. p.13 for the same author and title but a different page. Ibid. should only be used if the reference and other information intended are absolutely clear otherwise it should be avoided. A comma sometimes but not always appears between ibid. and a following page number or other indicator of location. id. id. ead. ead. eid. eid. eaed. eaed. idem masculine eadem feminine eidem masculine plural eaedem feminine plural meaning the same person or for the plural the same people. Although it is more common to use the full versions of these Latin words the abbreviations are occasionally used in references in either roman or italic font. Their use is much rarer than it once was but either the full or abbreviated forms can be used as substitutes for author names when works by the same authors are cited consecutively. A comma should normally follow the abbreviation or Latin word just as it would an authors name. Either form abbreviated or full must be used appropriately in terms of gender and number so the name of a single male author should be replaced with id. or idem the name of a single female author with ead. or eadem the names of joint male authors or a mixture of male and female authors with eid. or eidem and the CHAPTER 6 283 names of joint female authors with eaed. or eaedem. If there is any doubt about the author or authors intended or any doubt about the gender of the author or authors the use of both the abbreviations and the full versions should be avoided. i.e. id est that is. This abbreviation almost always appears in roman font and is frequently used in academic and scientific writing where it is sometimes confused with e.g. for example see above. As a general rule it should be used only in parentheses or ancillary material such as notes in the running text of a thesis equivalent English words that is or even namely in some cases are preferable. The abbreviation should be preceded by a comma semicolon or colon or an opening parenthesis if it is provided in parentheses and is usually followed by a comma as well. It can remain lowercase at the beginning of a note. inf. inf. infra below. Appearing in either roman or italic font this abbreviation is used primarily for parenthetical cross references as is the full word in some instances but it is usually best to replace both with the English word below. loc. cit. loc. cit. loco citato in the cited place. Used for referencing in either roman or italic font this abbreviation represents a specific location within a work so its function is extremely limited it is also often misunderstood and used in inappropriate ways. Although it can prevent the repetition of long and complex location references this abbreviation must be used with absolute precision to be effective and since repeating the information usually takes very little more space than the abbreviation and is always clearer the abbreviation is best avoided. MS plural MSS manuscriptum with the plural manuscripta manuscript or manuscripts. Set in roman font this abbreviation is often read as abbreviating the English word manuscript but is technically a Latin abbreviation. It is normally not used in the running prose of a thesis except when providing CHAPTER 6 284 the name and number of a particular manuscript Cambridge University Library MS Ff.1.6 but it can be used more freely in parenthetical and ancillary material such as notes and tables. n. n. natus born. This abbreviation can be used in either roman or italic font before the birth date of an individual without any intervening space between the abbreviation and the date n.1945 but only in parenthetical or ancillary material and often the English abbreviation b. for born used in exactly the same way but always in roman font is preferred. no. add an s for the plural numero number. Although often understood as abbreviating the English word number this abbreviation is actually a contraction of the Latin numero but one that almost always uses a full stop which conveniently distinguishes it from the word no in English. Set in roman font this abbreviation tends to be used in references and in ancillary material such as tables and figures. It can be used along with numerals in running text but otherwise it is usually best to write out the word number instead. ob. ob. obiit died. This abbreviation can be used in either roman or italic font before the death date of an individual without any intervening space between the abbreviation and the date ob.2011 but only in parenthetical or ancillary material and often the English abbreviation d. for died used in exactly the same way but always in roman font is preferred. op. cit. op. cit. opere citato in the cited work. Used in references after an authors name to refer to the title of an already cited work this abbreviation is now little used and some guidelines will ask that it be avoided. When used it can appear in either roman or italic font but using a shortened version of the title is preferable. per cent percent per centum by the hundred. Although this abbreviation and symbol is essentially naturalised in English it remains an abbreviation of a pure Latin term and often appears in scholarly writing. Some guidelines will recommend that the CHAPTER 6 285 symbol not be used in running text but both that and the longer form of the abbreviation are often used in the main body of a thesis with the two-word abbreviation predominant in British English and the one-word abbreviation in American English. It always appears in roman font features no full stop and is usually especially as accompanied by a number in the form of a numeral rather than a word when the amount is not exact the number can appear as a word with per cent or percent. r recto on the right. Almost always set in roman font this abbreviation is used to refer to the front or first page of a folio which appears on the right side when a book lies open before the reader. In theses it is used primarily in references to manuscripts and early printed books immediately after the folio number without intervening space fol.86r sometimes in a superscript font fol.86r and it is acceptable in both parenthetical material and running text. The recto abbreviation is sometimes omitted however as unnecessary with fol.86 referring to the recto of the folio and fol.86v referring to the verso the back or second page of the folio see the abbreviation v below. When recto andor verso references are used folio numbers should not be elided. s. ss. for the plural saeculum with the plural saecula an age or a century or in the plural ages or centuries. Almost always set in roman font this abbreviation is used along with usually lowercase Roman numerals to indicate centuries with s. xiii referring to the thirteenth century particularly when dating medieval manuscripts. It is most acceptable in parenthetical material but is often used in figure captions and legends as well. sup. sup. supra above. Appearing in either roman or italic font this abbreviation is used primarily for cross references as is the full word in some instances but it is often best to replace both with the English word above. The same is the case with ut sup.ut sup. abbreviating ut supra as above is clearer for English readers. Time of day in relation to noon is indicated by the Latin CHAPTER 6 286 abbreviations a.m. or A.M. for ante meridiem before noon p.m. or P.M. for post meridiem after noon and far more rarely m. or M. for meridies noon. Although these abbreviations sometimes appear particularly in American English without full stops when capitalised AM PM and M this can produce confusion with the abbreviation AM for Anno Mundi see era abbreviations above so including the full stops is the best policy. Morning afternoon evening night and oclock should not be used along with a.m. or p.m. either 10.30 a.m. or ten thirty in the morning is correct and similarly either 7.00 p.m. or seven oclock in the evening is correct. As these examples show the abbreviation should follow the time indicated and a space should be used between the numeral and the abbreviation. It is acceptable to use this abbreviation in the main running text of a thesis. v verso on the turned. Almost always set in roman font this abbreviation is derived from in verso folio on the turned leaf and used to refer to the back or second page of a folio. In theses it is used primarily in references to manuscripts and early printed books immediately after the folio number without intervening space fol.86v sometimes in a superscript font fol.86v and is acceptable in both parenthetical material and running text. Unlike recto references verso references are always required. When recto andor verso references are used folio numbers should not be elided. viz. videlicet namely. Almost always set in roman font this abbreviation has a function similar to that of i.e. but is used more rarely. Like i.e. it should only be used in parentheses or ancillary material such as notes in the running text of a thesis equivalent English words namely or even that is in some cases are preferable. The abbreviation is usually preceded by a comma semicolon or colon or an opening parenthesis if it is provided in parentheses and tends to be followed by a comma as well but it is often either replaced with i.e. or written out in English. vs. v. versus versus. This abbreviation almost always appears CHAPTER 6 287 in roman font and the vs. form is the most common v. is used between the names of parties in legal cases but notice that it can also mean verse see Section 6.3.10 above. As a general rule vs. is used in parenthetical or ancillary material and should not be used in the running text of a thesis where the word versus should be used instead. PRS Tip Confusion is all too possible if the abbreviations you use in your thesis are not completely accurate and recorded with absolute precision and consistency. I have already mentioned the distinction a full stop between the abbreviations for Saint and Street but a couple more examples will illustrate the potential for ambiguity and the importance of attending to each and every detail associated with abbreviations and their use no matter how small or insignificant those details may seem. The first is the symbol referred to as the number pound or hash sign which is often used in American English to indicate number. Given the potential and desire for an international readership for most theses this symbol should be avoided as a general rule because it does not usually mean number in Britain for instance and has other meanings depending on the context it is used for example as a symbol in linguistics music and proof correction on telephone keyboards the pound key and more recently in hashtags for social networking and the like. Therefore the standard Latin abbreviation no. plural nos. is a much better choice. The abbreviation MS also has more than one meaning so the meaning intended in any particular situation needs to be specified via the format of the abbreviation and the way in which it is used in a sentence. MS as an initialism means multiple sclerosis and is read as individual letters so it should be used with an when an indefinite article is required an MS patient. MS in exactly the same form also means manuscript technically the CHAPTER 6 288 Latin manuscriptum however and while the plural MSS clearly indicates this meaning identifying what is represented by the singular form depends upon context and the fact that it is pronounced as the word manuscriptummanuscript so is preceded by a when an indefinite article is needed a MS. To complicate matters further MS can also be used to abbreviate Master of Science though in this case alternate forms can be used to specify that meaning M.S. MSc and M.Sc. In addition when the same abbreviation uses an initial capital only Ms or Ms. it is a social title preferred by many women because it does not determine marital status as Mrs or Miss does. Finally ms using all lowercase letters abbreviates millisecond. With the last three forms there is much less potential for confusion of course but in all cases clarity is determined by extremely careful usage so this abbreviation is a good reminder of the fact that abbreviations are only as effective as their use is accurate consistent and precise. If you are having difficulties formatting and integrating abbreviations into your prose or are simply unsure that your own use of abbreviations achieves the precision it should do send your thesis chapters to PRS where professional academic and scientific proofreaders can ensure that your use of abbreviations and other elements in your writing is just what it should be. 6.4 Using and Formatting Numbers Appropriately Every academic or scientific author who must include many numbers while reporting his or her research is faced with the challenge of using and formatting those numbers in an accurate consistent and appropriate manner. Your department andor discipline may very well have specific conventions and guidelines regarding the use of numbers that must be observed and these may CHAPTER 6 289 be quite specific or you may have been provided with no guidelines at all for using numbers in a scholarly manner. Unfortunately there is considerable inconsistency in the advice style guides offer regarding numbers and even the way in which numbers are referred to while talking about their formatting can be contentious with some guidance insisting that numbers as numerals rather than words should be called figures while others use numerals instead in this book I use numerals to avoid confusion with figures which I use when referring to graphs illustrations and the like. Style guides tend to assign a number of the variant practices associated with numbers to the conventions of either British or American English and in some cases the link to one style or the other is clear but there seems little consensus on some of these matters and different style guides based in one country can vary in their advice as much as guides claiming to present the two different forms of English. Fortunately there are also several patterns of usage that are maintained across guidelines and a healthy share of common sense in using these as you aim for accuracy consistency and clear communication across all parts of your thesis that include numbers will produce an effective result. 6.4.1 Words or Numerals One of the main concerns when using numbers in scholarly writing is whether they should be expressed as words or numerals. In most cases a threshold value is set below this value words are used to express numbers whereas above it numerals are used. Unfortunately there is no single threshold value that applies to every discipline and every thesis and for very practical reasons. In the humanities and other nontechnical contexts for instance the value is often set at 100 whereas in more technical or scientific contexts where numbers tend to be used more extensively the value is usually 10 for books on music the value is often 12 and for online CHAPTER 6 290 writing numerals are used much more frequently than words so all numbers may appear as numerals. In addition such threshold values are only general rules and there are exceptions that apply regardless of the precise value used as the following points make clear Large round numbers are usually expressed as words four hundred and three million or as a combination of words or abbreviations and numerals 3 million or 3m. even if they are over the threshold value although this is rarer in the sciences. Approximations as opposed to exact numbers are generally written as words even if they are over the threshold value I saw about fifty of them. For a series of quantities numerals are usually used regardless of whether the numbers are above or below the set value 4 6 8 28 42 53 79 98 109 and 127. When a sentence or in some cases a paragraph contains one or more numbers that are over the threshold value as well as numbers that are under it it is best for both consistency and legibility to use numerals for all the numbers from 83 to 137 instead of from eighty-three to 137 and between 6 and 13 instead of between six and 13. If two sets or categories of numbers are used together in a sentence clarity and legibility are often improved by using words for one set or category and numerals for the other the Oxford manuscript consists of forty-four folios with 31 lines on each page the Worcester manuscript of forty-one folios with 34 lines to a page and the York manuscript of only thirty-nine folios with 36 lines on each page. All numbers that appear at the beginning of a sentence should be written out as words Fourteen is the age of consent not 14 is the age of consent. Alternatively the sentence can be rephrased or rearranged to avoid placing the number at the beginning The age of consent is 14 and if the number opening CHAPTER 6 291 a sentence would be particularly cumbersome when spelled out e.g. 412724 this should definitely be done. Numbers used for certain purposes tend to be expressed as numerals regardless of whether they are over the threshold value or not including page numbers section and chapter numbers volume numbers of books and journals issue numbers of journals numbers of items in a list Bible chapter and verse numbers Genesis 24 appendix table and figure numbers numbers within tables and figures numbers in an abstract though this is not always the case by any means act and scene numbers line and column numbers reference and cross- reference numbers legal document numbers numbers that are exact measures numbers that appear before abbreviations 17 cm numbers indicating percentages 50 but if not exact they occasionally appear as words with per cent or percent never with numbers recording the scores of tests and games the numbers of points in scales a 5-point scale house hotel apartment and building numbers road and highway numbers numbers indicating years 1960 2014 etc. although they can be written out if necessary at the beginning of a sentence for instance and days of the month and union and lodge numbers. When a number is part of an already hyphenated compound a numeral should be used to avoid excessive hyphenation a 35- year-old man not a thirty-five-year-old man. While fractions like whole numbers can be written as either words or numerals when whole numbers and fractions are combined it is better to use numerals she walked 5 miles not she walked five and three-quarters miles. Ordinal numbers generally follow the same pattern as cardinal numbers appearing as words when they are below the threshold value second fifth eighth etc. and as numerals with the appropriate suffix when they are above it 74th 82nd and 143rd. However some styles will recommend that ordinal numbers be CHAPTER 6 292 written out in situations where cardinal numbers would not be or that they be written out on all occasions except in notes references and quotations in the last the format used in the source should be observed. When compound numbers are written as words they are hyphenated thirty-two eighty-seventh etc. and the same is true of fractions one-quarter and two-thirds although fractions are often left open and sometimes this is done to indicate a focus on the number or individual parts of a quantity he gave one third of his inheritance to his sister and another third to his brother rather than on the proportion or single quantity he gave two-thirds of his inheritance away. When written out as words numbers are pluralised in the same way as other words eights and nines seventies etc. although dozen hundred thousand million billion and trillion tend to remain singular two thousand seven million etc. unless they express indefinite quantities dozens of rabbits and thousands of black flies. Numbers above one can take plural or singular verbs depending on the precise meaning there were only fourteen participants but fourteen participants is a small sample though the latter could also be worded to reflect both the plural and the singular nature of the concept fourteen participants constitute a small sample. 6.4.2 Arabic Numerals When numbers are expressed as Arabic numerals the plurals are formed simply by adding an s no apostrophe is needed 1970s and low temperatures in the 20s not 1970s and low temperatures in the 20s only if the numbers are discussed as entities in themselves might apostrophes be appropriate for clarity we chose 8s and 10s. When numerals appear with abbreviated measures 94 mm 7 kg and 30 C there should usually be a space between the numeral and the abbreviation and the abbreviation should not be pluralised see Sections 6.3.5 and 6.3.6 above. When numerals CHAPTER 6 293 appear with other letters however there is generally no space between the numerals and the letters pp.47ff and Item 7a. In nontechnical writing numerals of four 5698 or five 89703 digits generally contain a comma after the third digit counting from the right but in some instances the comma is not used in four-digit numerals 5698 if this is the case the comma should nonetheless be used in four-digit numerals that appear in any figures or tables and especially in any columns of tables that also contain numerals with five or more digits so that alignment is preserved. Often in technical and scientific writing the commas are not used but spaces are used instead 5 698 and 89 703 though the four-digit numeral can appear without the space if so and four-digit numerals appear in figures or tables again especially in the columns of tables along with numerals of five digits or more the space will need to be added to preserve alignment for more information on tables and figures see Section 4.4.1 above. The same principle applies to digits after the decimal point after three digits counted from the left a space is often used 1.479 6 and 7.798 99 but not always if there are only four digits after the decimal point 1.4796 and alignment should be preserved in tables and figures by adding the space to such four-digit numerals if numerals of five or more digits also appear. In some styles andor disciplines the number of digits that appear after the decimal point should be consistent across all numerals used in a particular context or table if four digits is the maximum number of post-decimal digits in any numeral all numerals should bear four digits after the decimal and zeroes can be added to achieve this when necessary. This is by no means a uniform practice however so you may only want to apply it in your thesis if it is required by the guidelines you are following or conventional in your discipline. Finally the decimal point not the European decimal comma is used in Arabic numerals in scholarly English prose 4.75 for four point seven five not 475. Generally speaking decimal fractions should feature a zero CHAPTER 6 294 before the decimal 0.683 especially if they are discussed in relation to quantities of 1.00 and more if however the quantity never reaches 1.00 as in probabilities and correlation coefficients the initial zero can be omitted and the same is the case in ballistics a .22-calibre rifle. Technical writing in a number of the sciences can present other formatting challenges and issues which I do not have time or space to cover here but detailed advice can be found in a number of places. Chapter 13 of Butchers Copy-Editing Butcher et al. 2006 deals with Science and Mathematics Books for instance and features several sections focussing on numbers Section 13.1.4 on equations Section 13.2.5 on miscellaneous items and Section 13.3 on units as well as separate discussions of astronomy biology chemistry computing geology and medicine the chapter also includes an excellent list of references pp.347349 for further help while working in these disciplines. Chapter 14 of New Harts Rules Ritter 2005 focuses on Science Mathematics and Computing with Section 14.1.3 for example covering numerals and Section 14.1.4 dealing with units while other sections provide advice on degrees temperatures and so on here too there are separate discussions of certain disciplines including biology medicine chemistry computing mathematics and astronomy with helpful discussions of the complex formats and punctuation of numerals in these disciplines. Punctuation in the form of commas or spaces is not required at all however for numerals used for certain purposes such as page column and line numbers house and hotel room numbers and reference and library call or shelf numbers. The numerals used for years and eras generally do not feature punctuation either except BP Before Present and long BC dates for more information on the formats of dates see Section 6.4.4 below. CHAPTER 6 295 6.4.3 Roman Numerals In some situations Roman numerals can be or commonly are used instead of Arabic numerals When numbering and referring to the preliminary pages of books theses or journals lowercase Roman numerals are conventional p.viii. Roman numerals can also be used for the volume part chapter section andor appendix numbers of books theses or journals for the section numbers of long poems for the act and scene numbers of plays and for the numbers of legal documents. Depending on the circumstances uppercase or lowercase letters may be used but one format should be used for the same purpose throughout a thesis Appendix V and Appendix VII not Appendix V and Appendix vii. In some styles the capitalisation of the numerals might depend on the capitalisation of the words that precede them Chapter V but chapter v. Using capitals for one level in a hierarchy and lowercase letters for another can add clarity in references and cross references for example V.iv might be a reference to the fourth part of Appendix V in a thesis or the fourth scene of Act V in a play depending on the topic under discussion. Uppercase Roman numerals are often used to number movie sequels Shrek II and they are the normal format for numbers in the names of boats Pachena II whereas spacecraft for instance tend to use Arabic numerals. Uppercase Roman numerals are also the norm in the name of an individual named after a grandparent Edward Buckingham II were he named after his father Jr or Jr. would follow the name instead and in the names of monarchs emperors popes and prelates for example King Henry V and Pope John Paul II though these can also be written out in running text Henry the Fifth. CHAPTER 6 296 A Roman numeral usually lowercase can be used to indicate the month in dates and in foreign languages Roman numerals are often used to indicate centuries see the discussion of dates and centuries in Section 6.4.4 below. Roman numerals are often used when transcribing material from early texts such as classical works and medieval manuscripts. In such texts a j is sometimes used at the end of a string of is in a Roman numeral xiij this is usually retained in a literal transcription but changed to an i in a modernised rendition. Roman numerals are sometimes used to number the items in lists but they can become cumbersome in such situations so Arabic numerals are best when there are many items in a list see Section 5.5.2 above. Roman numerals are occasionally used for numerical references or footnote or endnote numbers but here too they can quickly become cumbersome so Arabic numerals are preferable see Section 7.2.2 below. If you need to use Roman numerals in your thesis and are unsure of how they are formed and used see the opening comments in Section 11.4 of Ritter 2005 as well as Section 9.69 and the list of Roman and Arabic numerals p.398 in the Chicago Manual of Style 2003. Keep in mind that although Roman numerals can be effective in a variety of situations they tend to be both awkward and unclear when they are elided so elision is best avoided when using them for more information on eliding numbers see Section 6.4.7 below. 6.4.4 Dates Decades Centuries and Eras There are various ways in which to express dates of different kinds in the English language. For full dates Arabic numerals should be used for the day of the month and the year while the month is usually written out as a word. In British English the common format CHAPTER 6 297 is 5 November 2014 and in American English November 5 2014 in both no comma appears between the month and year if no day is given November 2014.Abbreviations can be used for the names of months Feb. Oct. and Nov. but the full name should always be written out when the month is used alone February October and November. Ordinal numbers are generally only used when the day appears alone theyre coming on the 10th although the 10th of November does replace 10 November in some instances generally speaking one form or the other should be used consistently throughout a thesis. If the name of the day appears before the full date it is followed by a comma Monday 10 November 2014 for British English and Monday November 10 2014 for American English. All-numeral dates are best avoided because of the potential for confusion 101114 is 10 November 2014 in British English and October 11 2014 in American English so if you wish to use such dates in your thesis the format should be explained and used with the utmost consistency in British English the slashes can be replaced with full stops 10.11.14. Sometimes a Roman numeral is used for the month in this format which eliminates potential confusion 10.xi.14. The International Organization for Standardization uses the order year-month-day for all-numeral dates with hyphens or en rules separating the elements 2014-11-10 this format is often seen in technical contexts. For precise dates in astronomy days d hours h minutes m and seconds s can be used 2013 April 5d 7h 14m 7.6s as can fractions of days 2013 April 4.315. An exception to conventional date formats is presented by 911 which is now internationally known as a reference to the attack on the World Trade Center Towers in New York on 11 September 2001 but it is good practice to use the full date at least on first mention. Decades should be written as the 1970s or the seventies rather than the 1970s or the 70s and the ages of individuals indicated in decades can be handled similarly he is in his seventies or he CHAPTER 6 298 is in his 70s. Sometimes using a word instead of a numeral for a decade implies more than simply a span of time it can convey a greater sense of the cultural political social intellectual and artistic characteristics of the decade as in the twenties sometimes capitalised as the Twenties instead of the 1920s. Vague references such as lately in recent years or even in the last ten years that can become unclear or misleading as time passes should be avoided and more precise descriptions used instead in the 2010s for instance or from 1975 to 1984. In formal running prose centuries are usually written out as words the thirteenth century or the fifth century BC but in notes tables references and the like abbreviations can be used the 13th cent. for example. Uppercase and sometimes lowercase Roman numerals are often used in other languages to indicate centuries as in le XVIe sicle for the sixteenth century but it is best to translate these into appropriate English forms. When dating medieval manuscripts s. for saeculum Latin for an age see Section 6.3.11 above along with a Roman numeral generally lowercase is often used as in s. xiii for thirteenth century. The words expressing centuries require hyphenation when used as adjectives a twenty-first-century problem or a fourteenth-century manuscript sometimes a hyphen is added after early mid or late as well in both the noun and adjective forms the mid-thirteenth century and an early-thirteenth- century manuscript but these are technically better without the additional hyphen the mid thirteenth century and an early thirteenth-century manuscript. AD for Anno Domini or In the Year of the Lord and BC for Before Christ are the most commonly used era abbreviations in English writing. To indicate BC dates the abbreviation should follow the numerals 465 BC or 14000 BC and notice that whereas four-digit numerals for specific years do not use commas BC dates of five or more digits do as do BP Before Present dates of five or more digits. AD on the other hand should appear before the CHAPTER 6 299 numerals in a date AD 1367 or AD 1997 except when the date is written out the thirteenth century AD. Neither BC nor AD but especially the latter is strictly required with dates unless there could be confusion between them or with other dating systems but they should certainly be used to avoid potential ambiguity or to indicate a span of time that extends across both BC and AD dates 93 BC to AD 123. To avoid Christian implications in dates BCE Before Common Era and CE Common Era are often used both abbreviations should follow the numerical dates 189 BCE and 1256 CE and so should the BP abbreviation for Before Present dates with the present fixed at AD 1950 which tend to be used by palaeontologists and geologists for times more than 10000 years ago although they can be used like BCE and CE dates more generally to avoid Christian references. For information on the use of other abbreviations for eras such as AH for Anno Hegirae used for Islamic dates AM for Anno Mundi for Jewish dating AS for Anno Seleuci used in the Far East and others see Ritter 2005 Section 11.6.3. For radiocarbon dates that have not been recalibrated a lowercase bp bc or ad is used. To learn more about the different calendars in English Old Style vs. New Style modern style vs. Lady Day style regnal years etc. and other traditions Chinese Greek French Japanese Jewish and IslamicMuslim see for instance Cheney 2000 Sections 11.7 and 11.8 in Ritter 2005 and Appendix 11 in Butcher et al. 2006 for a wider exploration of calendar customs see Blackburn and Holford-Strevens 1999. 6.4.5 Time Although not as numerous as the various ways of expressing dates methods for recording time in English vary and different forms should be used depending on the situation CHAPTER 6 300 As a general rule words are used for periods of time such as the trial lasted three weeks and it took five months to repeat the experiment but numerals are used for more exact measures the trial lasted 17 minutes. Words also tend to be used for whole hours or fractions of an hour in which no hyphens are needed for example three oclock half past four and a quarter to eight. When using a.m. ante meridiem for the time before noon and p.m. post meridiem for the time after noon oclock should not be used 7 a.m. or seven oclock in the morning is correct but seven oclock a.m. is not. Instead of a.m. and p.m. capitals can be used A.M. and P.M. which are more frequent in American English. Noon and midnight tend to be more accurate than 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. which can be confusing if numbers are wanted 12 noon or 12 midnight can be used. The 24-hour clock avoids potential confusion as well as the use of a.m. and p.m. because 12.00 is noon while 24.00 is midnight and 10.00 is 10 a.m. while 22.00 is 10 p.m. When the 24-hour clock is used a full stop should be included in the number to avoid confusion with a year made up of the same numerals the year 1130 but the time is 22.30 and the same is the case with the 12-hour clock when minutes are included 11.30 a.m. or 8.17 p.m. a colon is sometimes used in North America for instance instead of a full stop 1130 or 817. When referring to the length of time something takes both hyphenated and possessive forms are acceptable a 45-minute drive or a 45 minutes drive or the information can be phrased using of a drive of 45 minutes. 6.4.6 Currency Currency can be expressed in words alone or using a combination CHAPTER 6 301 of a word and a numeral particularly when the amount is a round number below the wordnumeral threshold used in a thesis four dollars six pounds eight euro 4 cents and 7 pence. However it is more common especially for larger numbers to record currency in numerals using the appropriate symbol before the numeral for 45 25 or 35 and after it for 25 and 50p without any space between the symbol and the numeral in each case. If fractional amounts appear along with whole numbers the form should be the same for all amounts 25.00 14.99 and 0.85 not 25 14.99 and 85 and the cent or pence abbreviation should not be used along with the dollar or pound symbol 14.99 and 13.69p are never right. For large amounts such as millions and billions words numerals and symbols can be combined 5 million or 6 billion. The dollar symbol is usually interpreted as the American dollar so if a different currency is intended it should be specified C for the Canadian dollar for instance or A for the Australian dollar and if there is any chance of confusion the American dollar can be specified as well US. For predecimal British currency before February 1971 pounds shillings and pence are used with for pounds s for shillings and d for pence 8 2s 5d. The last two abbreviations in particular were traditionally italicised and followed by full stops 2s. 5d. but this format is rarely used anymore. If you need to use historical terms for money in your thesis guinea for instance or groat be sure to explain these for your readers as you would any other specialised terminology. For a helpful list of currencies of the world see Appendix IX in Peters 2004. 6.4.7 Number Ranges To record a range of numbers words can be used along with the numerals from 1100 to 1300 or between 1100 and 1300 with the latter slightly less precise. Alternatively an en dash can be used CHAPTER 6 302 without spaces between the relevant numerals 11001300 but the two systems should not be combined in a single range from 1100 1300 and between 11001300 are incorrect. Technically using a hyphen instead of an en dash in such ranges is incorrect as well but a hyphen is often recommended in guidelines and is therefore acceptable in such contexts do be sure that either the en rule or the hyphen in used consistently in all number ranges throughout your thesis however for more information on the use of hyphens and en rules see Sections 5.2 and 5.6.4 above. Spans of numbers such as continuous page numbers are often elided to the fewest digits possible for example 345 15667 1781845 and 17812 but numbers beginning with a multiple of ten are sometimes not elided 4049 and 500507 and in American English page numbers are often uniformly elided to the last two digits unless more are required 3435 15657 and 149699. When eliding inclusive numbers containing commas all numbers to the right of the comma are usually retained 9854867. To refer to events that occurred between two years a multiplication symbol is often used 1567 x 1573 and to indicate a year that stretches over more than one calendar year a slash is used 201415 with an en dash linking a span of years using this format on one or both sides 201213 201415. It is acceptable however to preserve all digits in number ranges some universities departments or thesis committees will even prefer this and in certain contexts it is essential that elision not be used. Roman numerals should not be elided for instance and neither should Arabic numerals used in titles and usually in headings the vital dates of people date ranges that cross a century boundary 11971203 or BC dates because of the potential for misunderstanding 13425 BC might be either 134 BC to 125 BC or 134 BC to 25 BC numerals combined with letters such as folio numbers using recto and verso abbreviations folios 115r117v or dates with circa abbreviations c.1575c.1600 and the numerals CHAPTER 6 303 10 to 19 whether they constitute the entire numbers or merely the final digits 1315 11619 and 391518. It is also best to avoid eliding numerals associated with measures because both ascending and descending scales can be used so 228 could mean either 22 to 28 or 22 to 8. Great care should be taken whenever numbers are elided because it is all too easy to produce incorrect or misleading elisions for example 1300 means 1 to 300 not 100 to 300 which should be 100300 and 239 November which could potentially be read as either 23 to 29 November or 23 October to 9 November in such cases the full numbers are always better 2329 November. Words should be used instead of en rules when the numbers are themselves written as words between five and eight years of age and they are often better because less awkward than en rules in number ranges featuring other elements such as the words in 28 November to 6 December preferable to 28 November6 December or in compounds that already use hyphens such as 5- to 8-year-olds instead of 58-year-olds although in this case rephrasing to use words only might be better children between five and eight years of age. As always clarity and consistency should be your goals. PRS Tip A professional proofreader may not be able to determine whether all of the numerical data in your thesis is correct you as the researcher must do that because you are the only one who has access to and a complete understanding of your data but a proofreader can check correct and provide advice on various important issues associated with numbers. He or she can ensure for instance that any numerical information appearing in more than one place in your thesis is always the same that numbers are in all instances formatted in appropriate ways in words or numerals for instance with commas or spaces and so on that your use of numbers is clearly communicating your meaning and CHAPTER 6 304 that those tiny errors that all too often tend to slip into numerical data are brought to your attention or corrected. If your thesis contains many instances of numerical data you will certainly need to check all the data with the utmost care but it will also be wise to have a second set of careful and critical eyes look over your work and the same is the case with other aspects of formatting in your thesis. PRS proofreaders are specialists in the use of effective headings capitalisation special fonts and abbreviations as well as numbers and will be delighted to help you polish and perfect these elements of your thesis. CHAPTER 6 Part III References and Quotations Using and Documenting Sources 306 307 Chapter 7 References Using and Documenting Sources Effectively and Accurately Providing references for a piece of academic or scientific writing is a process often dreaded by scholars and many advanced academics and scientists will pass the task of recording references on to their postgraduate students and other research assistants. While this can provide a little extra and generally much-needed funding for doctoral candidates those candidates rarely have the opportunity to recruit similar assistance while recording the references in their own theses. This is probably a good thing because it is absolutely essential that scholarly authors thoroughly understand the principles of referencing know when and how to provide references and recognise the importance of complete accuracy in individual references and of consistency across all references of similar kinds. It is your responsibility as an academic or scientific author to acknowledge the sources you use with absolute integrity and precision and getting your references right is well worth the effort not only because sound referencing is a quality of sound scholarship but also because the consequences can be unpleasant if the bibliographical details in your thesis are incorrect and worse yet if your intellectual use of sources is unacknowledged or misrepresented. If you are planning on enjoying an academic or scientific career and the fact that you are pursuing a doctoral degree certainly suggests that you may be you will be using and acknowledging sources throughout your working life so you need to know how to do so well even if at some point you cease to construct references yourself and your knowledge serves only to enable you to direct check and correct the efforts of your own CHAPTER 7 308 postgraduate students and research assistants. This chapter lays out the basics of providing complete accurate and consistent references for the sources used in your thesis thereby establishing the groundwork for effective referencing practices in your future scholarly writing and publications but do be sure to check prioritise and follow to the letter any guidelines on and examples of references provided by your university department or thesis committee. 7.1 Why When and Where References Should Be Provided Whenever you borrow from or refer to the work or ideas of others in your own writing you need to provide a reference to the source you used. You may adopt the methods of another researcher summarise the results gained in a trial conducted by another scholar or quote the words of another author you may refer your readers to a particular study review the information you found in an article or argue against the conclusions reported in another thesis. However you choose to refer in your own writing to the work of another academic scientist or author you must provide an appropriate reference to the source you have used regardless of the age and nature of the source fresh off the press or a thousand years old and textual oral audio visual printed digital electronic online etc.. This is more than a courtesy though it is certainly that as well it is a necessity of sound scholarship and not acknowledging your sources appropriately can result in charges of plagiarism which can in the worst of scenarios put a stop to your doctoral pursuits. Your department or university library may well provide detailed information on plagiarism including the necessity of avoiding it and effective techniques for doing so it is therefore necessary to consult whatever resources and listen carefully to any advice that might be available to you especially if you are unsure of exactly what constitutes plagiarism you may also find the information on CHAPTER 7 309 plagiarism presented by several pages in the Purdue Online Writing Lab 19952015 useful. Generally speaking taking very careful notes when conducting your research and accurately recording the bibliographical information for all sources you consult see Sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 above will help you avoid plagiarism when it comes time to draft your thesis and provide references but properly acknowledging sources is also a matter of personal integrity and sensitivity to the needs of your readers who will in many cases want to consult those sources themselves. If you are certain or suspect that the ideas of others have influenced your thinking and research you should acknowledge that influence in a manner that makes it absolutely clear to your readers exactly what information has been borrowed exactly what the original source is and often exactly where in that source the relevant information can be found. The last is especially important when quoting directly from a source in which case a page number or other precise indicator of the location of the quoted passage is generally provided and quotation marks or other formatting details should mark the borrowed material precisely on quoting sources directly see Section 7.2 and Chapter 8 below. It remains important however to place the reference close to usually immediately after the quotation and if material is not quoted directly the placement of a reference is the key to indicating what information has been borrowed. If for instance you are discussing an authors work or using his or her ideas throughout a sentence the end of the sentence is usually the best place for the reference The results of the first study were positive Taylor 1985. If only part of a sentence makes use of a particular source however the reference to that source should come immediately after the relevant material so that it is clear which part of your sentence is dependent on the source The results of the first study were positive Taylor 1985 but findings since then have varied. If part of the sentence makes use of one source and the next part borrows from another source you CHAPTER 7 310 should provide two citations with the appropriate source cited after the relevant information in each case The results of the first study were positive Taylor 1985 but the second study produced very different findings Brockle 1988. You could also provide these two citations or more if necessary together at the end of the sentence although this is most appropriate if the sentence as a whole makes use of both sources some guidelines call for all citations in a sentence or paragraph to be clustered at the end of the sentence or paragraph in which case your readers may need to do a little more work to determine what information comes from which source but you should observe this practice if it is required by the guidelines you have been given. If there are no such guidelines and you make use of a source throughout a whole paragraph it is best to provide the reference in the first sentence influenced by that source rather than waiting until the end of the paragraph but it is also good to include a further reference to the source whenever you feel it might be appropriate to acknowledge the author again. If you are referring to more than one source by the same author you should provide a reference to each source wherever relevant just as you would were the sources by different authors The results of the first study were positive Taylor 1985 but a different approach produced very different findings Taylor 1990. Keep in mind when you are choosing and citing sources that primary sources are in almost all cases preferable to secondary sources on a topic and some universities or departments will insist on the use of primary sources whenever possible in doctoral theses only allowing secondary sources to be used in a primary way if comparable primary sources are lost unavailable or inaccessible. The difference between a primary source and a secondary one is relatively straightforward an original text from a period in history that you are studying is a primary source for instance while an interpretation or discussion of that text is a secondary source. Translations of original texts are slightly more complicated because CHAPTER 7 311 they are both primary and secondary primary in that they present the original texts in different languages and secondary in that they provide interpretations of those texts in introductions notes and even the ways in which the original texts are construed in translation. This does not mean that you should not make use of translations and other secondary sources but that you should always return to the primary source of information while citing and quoting a document in your thesis. You may for instance read a medieval Latin text in translation but quote the original Latin in your thesis and you can also include the relevant passage from the translation to be sure that your readers will understand the text see Section 8.4 below. On the other hand if in consultation with your supervisor or thesis committee you decide that either the original or the translation alone will suffice you can include a reference to the other so that your readers will be able to find it as well. Secondary sources can of course be used alongside primary sources in a thesis to enhance your own analyses and interpretations of primary sources and they will certainly play a role in a literature review and in setting the stage for new research that grows from earlier work but it is best not to use them as substitutes for primary sources unless absolutely necessary. 7.2 The Three Main Systems of In-Text Citation Although the details of referencing vary considerably among disciplines style guides and department guidelines see Lipson 2011 for information on a wide range of citation styles generally speaking there are three basic methods or systems of referring to sources in the running text of an academic or scientific document authordate and other references based on the last names of authors such references are often used in the physical natural and social sciences numerical citations frequently the referencing choice for writing in the medical and biological sciences and CHAPTER 7 312 citations provided in either footnotes or endnotes a method preferred by many scholars working in the humanities. These three methods of in-text citation along with the kind of complete references each requires are discussed separately in the following three sections of this book. More general information on the basic requirements of complete bibliographical references can be found in Section 7.3 below. 7.2.1 AuthorDate and Other References Based on Author Surnames In-text references based on author surnames are used in a wide range of disciplines I use authordate references in this book for example so you may want or be required to use in your thesis a system of referencing based on author names. The most common in-text references of this kind are authordate citations for which the basic components are the surname of the author or surnames of the authors if a source has more than one author and the publication date of the source. This information is often provided entirely in parentheses or occasionally square brackets although they should only be used if guidelines call for them A recent investigation of the problem Brockle 2014 revealed this trend. Alternatively the authors name or authors names can be mentioned in the main text and the date included in parentheses Brockles investigation of the problem 2014 revealed this trend or both the date and the authors name or authors names can be mentioned in the main text Brockle investigated this problem in 2014. One method can be used in one sentence and another in the next. If parentheses are used the parenthetical reference should be appropriately positioned in relation to the punctuation of your sentence generally before any punctuation marks for example According to Taylor 1990 the results were not predictable and A more recent investigation of the problem revealed this trend CHAPTER 7 313 Brockle 2014. There are various differences between the individual styles of authordate references. Some use a comma between the authors name and the date when both appear in parentheses Taylor 1990 and some do not Taylor 1990. Some parenthetical references use an ampersand while others use and between the last two author names for sources with more than one author and this tends to be maintained in the reference list but as a general rule and should be used in the main text The results of Taylor and Jones 2001 do not confirm this even if an ampersand is used parenthetically Taylor Jones 2001. When two or more references to works by the same author are provided within a single set of parentheses the dates should be arranged chronologically and separated by commas either Taylor 1985 1990 2006 2008 or more rarely the other way around as in Taylor 2008 2006 1990 1985 but not the disorganised Taylor 2006 1990 1985 2008 and the order used in the in-text citations should match that used for the same sources in the reference list. If references to different authors and works are provided within a single set of parentheses the individual references are normally separated by semicolons and in most cases arranged alphabetically according to the authors surnames Brockle 2014 Jacobson 2013 McNabb 2003 McNabb Jones 1998 Taylor 1985 1990 with the order matching their order in the alphabetical list of references. More rarely such clustered references are arranged chronologically by publication date usually from the earliest to the most recent publication Taylor 1985 1990 McNabb Jones 1998 McNabb 2003 Jacobson 2013 Brockle 2014 although the order can be inverted with the most recent publication first. A different order may be required for particular situations and specific reasons because for instance the source actually quoted in a sentence is cited first though alphabetically or chronologically it would not come first but otherwise the order chosen should be used consistently throughout a thesis. CHAPTER 7 314 The use of et al. meaning and others and referring to additional authors of a source who have not been named varies from style to style in parenthetical in-text citations in Chicago and Harvard referencing for instance et al. should be used after the first authors surname if the source has four or more authors although Harvard style also allows the use of et al. when a source has only three authors. Chicago style uses a full stop after et al. but no comma Brockle et al. 2008 whereas Harvard referencing uses no full stop but does use the comma Brockle et al 2008. Some guidelines will indicate that et al. should appear in italic font but otherwise roman font is the norm. In the much-used APA style et al. is followed by a full stop and a comma and italics are not required but when to use et al. is a little more complicated. If a source has three to five authors all authors should be listed for the first citation in a thesis or chapter Taylor Jones Brockle Bennett 2007 but all subsequent in-text references should use only the first authors name followed by et al. Taylor et al. 2007. This means that special care needs to be taken to ensure that each citation appears in the correct format. For six or more authors on the other hand APA style uses et al. after the first authors name in all references to the source including the first one for more information on et al. see Section 6.3.11 above. If two or more sources with the same date and by the same author or by the same authors listed in the same order in the source itself are cited they need to be distinguished and this is generally done by adding a lowercase letter to each date regardless of which authordate referencing style you are using Olson 2014a 2014b. These same letters should appear along with the dates of the same sources in the reference list as they do in the reference list at the end of this book for the two sources used as an example in the preceding sentence so that the in-text references successfully match and thus lead readers to the correct sources in the list. Also necessary to allow readers to find the full bibliographical information CHAPTER 7 315 on each source in an authordate system is the appearance of the publication date immediately after the authors name in the corresponding reference in the list Brockle S. 2014. Everything about the author and date information provided by the in-text citations within a thesis must correspond exactly with the same information in the accompanying list so author surnames and publication dates should be carefully compared between the in-text citations and the list of references to ensure absolute accuracy and consistency. When a source is quoted directly in authordate referencing a page number or page numbers is required in the in-text citation. The use of p. for page or pp. for pages see Section 6.3.10 above and the punctuation associated with citing page numbers commas colons full stops hyphens and en rules vary according to the referencing style andor guidelines followed as does the spacing between the elements of page citations. In APA style for example Brockle 2014 p. 98 is appropriate and for multiple pages Brockle 2014 pp. 96-98 is correct but in Chicago style it would be Brockle 2014 98 and for multiple pages Brockle 2014 9698 whereas Harvard style uses Brockle 2014p.98 and for multiple pages Brockle 2014pp.96-98. MLA style often used in the humanities differs still further although it uses author names for in-text citations whether parenthetically or in the running prose of the sentence it does not use a date but cites a page number along with the authors name even when there is no direct quotation Brockle 98 and for multiple pages Brockle 96-98 and a short form of the sources title can be added if necessary to distinguish different works by the same author. Page numbers can be elided in most styles as long as the guidelines or examples provided allow elision Brockle 2014 pp. 968 just as they are often elided in full bibliographical references in the list see Section 6.4.7 above and Section 7.3.9 below. If the source quoted does not have page numbers as is the case with many online sources other indicators CHAPTER 7 316 of the precise location of a quoted passage can be provided to enable the reader to find the passage Bennett 2009 Results section para. 3 is a good APA example although providing paragraph numbers may only be appropriate if the paragraphs are actually numbered in the source. In a referencing system based on author surnames the complete bibliographical references for the sources used in a thesis appear in a list which is usually given the heading References or Works Cited and placed at the end of the thesis. The precise structure and format of the full bibliographical references vary but the authors surname or authors surnames when a source has more than one author comes first in each reference. The first authors name is always inverted Brockle S. and any other names are usually but not always treated in the same way. In the following examples a reference to a chapter in an edited book is presented in four different referencing styles all of them based on author names the first three are authordate and the last is authorpage number. As I mentioned above author names should be followed immediately by the date of publication in an authordate system as this enables the reader to locate the full reference with ease based on the authordate citations within the main text the first three examples demonstrate this format. Notice however that the MLA format does not place the date immediately after the authors name because MLA in-text citations use author surnames along with page numbers rather than publication dates such positioning is unnecessary. APA authordate Hardman P. 2003. Presenting the text Pictorial tradition in fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In W. K. Finley J. Rosenblum Eds. Chaucer illustrated Five hundred years of the Canterbury Tales in pictures pp. 37-72. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press. Chicago Manual of Style authordate CHAPTER 7 317 Hardman Phillipa. 2003. Presenting the Text Pictorial Tradition in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer Illustrated Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures edited by William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum 3772. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press. Harvard authordate Hardman P. 2003 Presenting the text Pictorial tradition in fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In Finley W. K. Rosenblum J. eds. Chaucer Illustrated Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press pp.37-72. MLA authorpage number or authorshort titlepage number if necessary Hardman Phillipa. Presenting the Text Pictorial Tradition in Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer Illustrated Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures. Ed. William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press 2003. 37-72. Print. Alphabetical order according to author surnames must be observed in authordate reference lists as it usually is in clustered parenthetical authordate references within the chapters of a thesis and although many aspects of an alphabetical arrangement are straightforward basing the order primarily on the surname of the first author for each source for instance others require consideration of the minute details of references. Generally speaking works by the same author or same authors appearing in the same order in each case should be arranged chronologically. Either ascending order Taylor M. 2006 before Taylor M. 2008 or descending order Taylor M. 2008 before Taylor M. 2006 can be used but the same pattern must be applied consistently to all relevant sources throughout the list and the pattern should also match the order used when more than one of these sources is cited within a single set of parentheses in the main text of the thesis. If an CHAPTER 7 318 author is the single author of works as well as the first author of works with more than one author the single-authored works should be listed before the coauthored ones McNabb G. before McNabb G. Jones N. and if works with more than one author feature the same first author but different coauthors alphabetise them according to the additional surnames Taylor M. Jones N. Brockle S. Bennett R. before Taylor M. Stanley P. Brockle S. Jones N. When there is no individual author for a source a corporate author or title should appear instead of an author name in the initial position within the reference in the list and necessarily therefore in any in- text references to that source and alphabetical order should be observed excluding any opening articles for instance The Chicago Manual of Style should appear under C not T. If an abbreviation or shortened form of a corporate authors name or a title is used for in-text citations it can be provided first in the reference list to allow for easy identification by readers but it should then be followed by a full version in parentheses WHO World Health Organization in an order opposite to that generally used when defining abbreviations in running text see Section 6.3 above on abbreviations. If your list of references is divided into separate sections Primary Sources and Secondary Sources for instance alphabetical order should be observed within each section but do keep in mind that a subdivided list of this kind is not the best format for authordate references which are more accessible to readers in a single alphabetical series . For a more detailed discussion of alphabetical order see for example Section 6.25 of the Publication Manual of the APA 2010 and Section 19.3 of New Harts Rules Ritter 2005. CHAPTER 7 319 7.2.2 Numerical References Numerical references such as those required for a Vancouver style of referencing and recommended by guidelines that call for variations on the Vancouver system are commonly used in the medical and biological sciences so if you are working in these areas numerical references might be the right system to use. While such references can be extremely easy to produce in running text it is important to remember that they can also quickly become problematic if even one source is missed when the references are numbered and added to the reference list. This is because numerical references are arranged in numerical order using Arabic numerals very rarely Roman numerals which are overly cumbersome if many references are provided according to when they are cited in a thesis so the first source cited becomes reference 1 the second reference 2 the third reference 3 and so on. Each number is assigned to one source only and each source has only one number which it retains throughout the thesis. Therefore if the third source cited in your thesis is missed for instance while you number your references and add them to the list not only will that source need to be numbered 3 but all sources cited after it will also need to be renumbered both in the main text and in the list because what was reference 3 will need to be reference 4 what was reference 4 will need to be reference 5 and so on. The method for numbering any references that appear in tables figures and other supplementary parts of a thesis differs among guidelines some would have such references numbered after all those in the main text while others recommend that references in a table or figure be numbered according to where the table or figure is mentioned andor placed in the main text. The numerals used for references are often enclosed in parentheses or provided in a superscript font A recent study1 confirmed this result or A recent study1 confirmed this result. CHAPTER 7 320 Occasionally square brackets are used instead A recent study1 confirmed this result but generally speaking they should only be used if guidelines call for them. Groups of citations can be gathered together in numerical referencing much as they are in an author date system simply by listing the numbers of all relevant sources separated by commas 235812. If three or more consecutive numbers need to be listed an en rule or hyphen with the first preferable in theory but the second used far more frequently in Vancouver-style referencing should be used between the first and last numbers 25811 or 2-58-11. In Vancouver referencing no spaces appear between the numbers but spaces are occasionally used in some of the variations on Vancouver referencing especially if the numbers appear within parentheses or square brackets if the numbers are superscript it is best to avoid spaces so that the reference numbers do not become separated at line breaks. As with authordate citations numerical references should be positioned to indicate with accuracy the use of sources in the text but standard placement in relation to punctuation calls for the reference numbers to follow full stops and commas According to a recent study1 three groups are required and precede colons and semicolons The following settings were considered in a recent study1 internal with artificial white light internal with blue light internal with red light and external with natural daylight. Slightly different placement is usually acceptable however placing the reference numbers before instead of after commas and full stops for example as long as the same pattern is maintained throughout a thesis. When you directly quote sources page numbers are required in the in-text numerical citations just as they are when quoting while using authordate referencing. If the reference numbers appear in parentheses or square brackets the format is In this study the results were disappointing1 p98 and for multiple pages In this study the results were disappointing and inconsistent1 pp96-98 CHAPTER 7 321 if the reference numbers are superscript In this study the results were disappointing1p98 and for multiple pages In this study the results were disappointing and inconsistent1pp96-98 would be appropriate. Using a numerical system of referencing does not mean that the author names and date of publication associated with a source cannot be mentioned in the text if you wish to include this information but it does mean that they do not need to be included and that the number assigned to the source must always appear whether additional information is provided or not. As recently as 2014 Brockle revisited this problem is therefore not acceptable because it provides only an authordate reference but As recently as 2014 Brockle7 revisited this problem is appropriate because it includes the number of the reference as well. Any additional information provided along with a reference number must match exactly the same information for the source in the reference list just as the reference number provided for the source must match the reference number for it in the list. In a numerical system of in-text referencing the full bibliographical references for the sources used in a thesis should like those in a system based on author surnames appear in a list usually called References that is located at the end of the thesis. In this case however the references must appear in correct numerical order beginning with reference 1 the first source cited in a thesis and continuing through to the final source cited in the thesis. Alphabetical order should not be used which makes the arrangement a little more straightforward but special care must be taken to ensure that references appear in exactly the same order as they are introduced in the thesis itself particularly whenever changes are made to the references within the thesis chapters. There is also no need in a numerical list to ensure that author surnames and publication dates appear at the beginning of each reference author surnames still do appear first in such a system but dates rarely follow them as they do in authordate references. The following examples present the CHAPTER 7 322 full bibliographical reference for a single source a chapter in an edited book according to three different styles of numerical referencing with the third borrowed from the guidelines of a well- known medical journal. Vancouver numerical 1. Hardman P. Presenting the text pictorial tradition in fifteenth- century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In Finley WK Rosenblum J editors. Chaucer illustrated Five hundred years of the Canterbury Tales in pictures. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press 2003. Pp. 37-72. AMA numerical 1. Hardman P. Presenting the text pictorial tradition in fifteenth- century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In Finley WK Rosenblum J eds. Chaucer Illustrated Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures. New Castle De Oak Knoll Press 200337-72. BMC Public Health numerical 1. Hardman P Presenting the text pictorial tradition in fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer Illustrated Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures. Edited by Finley WK Rosenblum J. New Castle DE Oak Knoll Press 200337-72. 7.2.3 Footnote and Endnote References Providing references via footnotes at the bottom of the pages of a thesis or endnotes at the end of each chapter or in the final matter of the thesis is a very different style of referencing than the authordate and numerical systems. It is now almost exclusively restricted to the humanities where its capacity for accommodating a wide variety of sources is particularly appropriate. Footnote or endnote numbers appear in the main text in numerical order usually CHAPTER 7 323 in the form of superscript Arabic numerals although the more cumbersome Roman numerals are occasionally used they are not effective if a thesis contains many references. The note numbers can run in a single series through the whole of a thesis in which case endnotes will appear in a single group at the end of the thesis. However note numbers often begin again at the start of each chapter drafting each chapter as a separate file will facilitate this in which case the endnotes for each chapter can appear at the end of the chapter if they instead appear at the end of the thesis headings indicating to which chapters they apply should be included. Sometimes note numbers are enclosed in square brackets or parentheses 1 or 1 instead of being set in superscript font which is also acceptable but one format should be maintained throughout a thesis. The note numbers should be placed where appropriate in the text to reflect your use of sources but like numerical references they usually follow full stops and commas According to a recent study1 three groups are required and precede colons and semicolons The following settings were considered in a recent study1 internal with artificial white light internal with blue light internal with red light and external with natural daylight. However some guidelines will insist that all footnotes appear either at the end of sentences or at the end of paragraphs and in such cases several references will often need to be gathered into a single note. As a general rule notes should not be attached to titles headings or either the preliminary or final matter of a thesis. Although numerical references and note references would not both be used in a single thesis if notes are used for supplementary information in a thesis that uses numerical references it is essential that the numerals used for notes are clearly distinguished from those used for references one type might appear in superscript font and the other in parentheses or if there are very few notes a system of symbols could be used for note indicators. When references are provided in footnotes or endnotes the notes CHAPTER 7 324 generally include complete bibliographical information when the sources are first cited and shorter versions of the references usually author surnames and shortened titles for all subsequent citations of the same sources. Using the Chicago style of referencing within notes as an example the citation for a first and therefore full reference to a chapter within a book including a page number for direct quotation would appear as it does in this footnote.5 Subsequent footnoteendnote references for the same source and page number would be recorded as the reference in this footnote is.6 If more than one reference appears in a single footnote the individual references are usually arranged in alphabetical order according to author surnames although different arrangements are possible in order to place a quoted source first for instance or prioritise a certain source and they are normally separated by semicolons as the short references are in this footnote7 full references can be arranged and separated in the same way. With this style of referencing a list of references is not strictly necessary because virtually all of the bibliographical information required to find sources has already been provided in the notes with the single exception of full page ranges for chapters or articles. This missing element is therefore sometimes added at the end of the complete first reference followed by the particular page on which the quotation is found as is the case in this footnote.8 5 Linda Olson Romancing the Book Manuscripts for Euerich Inglische in Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts Literary and Visual Approaches Kathryn Kerby- Fulton Maidie Hilmo and Linda Olson Ithaca NY Cornell University Press 2012 102. 6 Olson Romancing the Book 102. 7 Hilmo Power of Images 158 Kerby-Fulton Professional Readers 223 Olson Romancing the Book 102. 8 Linda Olson Romancing the Book Manuscripts for Euerich Inglische in Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts Literary and Visual Approaches Kathryn Kerby- Fulton Maidie Hilmo and Linda Olson Ithaca NY Cornell University Press 2012 95151 at 102. CHAPTER 7 325 However a list of complete bibliographical references is usually required in any thesis regardless of the referencing system used so one should be included and usually called Bibliography when providing references in notes in which case the full page ranges for chapters and articles will appear in the bibliography so there is no need to include them in the notes. Complete references in the bibliography differ slightly from those in the notes in other ways as well so the reference to the same chapter in the bibliography for a Chicago in-note method would take this form Olson Linda. Romancing the Book Manuscripts for Euerich Inglische. In Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts Literary and Visual Approaches Kathryn Kerby-Fulton Maidie Hilmo and Linda Olson 95151. Ithaca NY Cornell University Press 2012. As with the list of references that accompanies authordate in-text citations the bibliography provided with an in-note referencing system should be arranged alphabetically by the surnames of authors and it is more common to subdivide into Primary Sources and Secondary Sources for example a bibliography accompanying footnote or endnote references than it is to subdivide a list of references for authordate citations see Section 7.2.1 above. When you are using an in-note style of referencing the primary function of footnotes or endnotes is to provide citations and bibliographical information on sources but additional material of all kinds can also be included in the notes making them a useful site for introducing comparing and contrasting a wide variety of supplementary information see Section 3.4 above. On the other hand when you are using an authordate or numerical referencing system any footnotes or endnotes you use should be restricted to additional information and not be used for referencing alone. This does not mean however that citations cannot be provided in such notes. On the contrary notes should be treated like any other part of CHAPTER 7 326 the thesis and provided with the same kind of in-text references so a note in an authordate system might read as this footnote does.9 In a numerical system of referencing the same note would read as this footnote does.10 When notes are included in a thesis using either an authordate or numerical system of referencing however they have to do more than simply provide references they have to add information such as details explanatory notes alternative approaches additional evidence and the like to the main discussion. Whether footnotes or endnotes are used for references supplementary information or a combination of the two the font style used in the notes should be the same as the font style used in the main body of the thesis but the text in notes can be a little smaller than the text in the chapters of the thesis a 10-point font for instance if a 12-point font is used in the main text. Remember however that the text must remain clear and legible in relation to the size of the main text which is a particular concern when complex equations special characters and superscript elements are included in the notes. With the exception of in-note references proper which should observe the required format of the relevant referencing style whether they are full bibliographical references or shortened versions both footnotes and endnotes should be written in complete grammatically correct and properly punctuated English sentences. Although notes are sometimes treated by authors as though they are appropriate places for point-form information or English that is informal or shorthand this is not a scholarly approach and should be avoided. For further information on these and other aspects of constructing footnotes and endnotes see Section 3.4 above. 9 The problem has been explored many times with strikingly different results but particularly relevant to my work here is the fact that the same trend was revealed in the most recent study of the problem Brockle 2014. 10 The problem has been explored many times with strikingly different results but particularly relevant to my work here is the fact that the same trend was revealed in the most recent study of the problem.7 CHAPTER 7 327PRS Tip Even when all relevant guidelines are followed and the utmost care is taken to cite sources accurately and construct a thorough reference list or bibliography errors and inconsistencies will inevitably creep in and correcting them is especially time- consuming because each and every detail needs to be checked against the sources and usually against the style guide or guidelines you are using. A professional proofreader familiar with academic and scientific referencing systems and styles can be of enormous assistance in checking the accuracy and consistency of all the niggling details associated with both in-text references and reference lists but a proofreader cannot provide citations or construct a reference list for you. Remember that you are the only one who can truly judge when a reference to a source is appropriate and in most cases you are also the only one among your first readers including proofreaders who has access to the complete bibliographical information for the sources you have used. So the key to making a proofreaders work serve you and your references well is to do your very best to provide appropriate citations in your thesis chapters and complete bibliographical information in your list in a consistent manner that conforms as closely as you can manage to the style with which you are working. Then send your thesis and your reference list along with information about any style or guidelines you are following to PRS for a final check and polishing. If you are using your own format for your references be especially careful to be as consistent as possible throughout your text and list because only if you set the pattern clearly can a proofreader determine what that pattern is and help you conform to it as he or she ensures that all your references are complete and adhere to good academic or scientific practice. CHAPTER 7 328 7.3 The Basic Components of Complete Bibliographical References Regardless of which system and style of referencing you use in your thesis the same basic components are needed in almost all cases in order to produce complete bibliographical references the kind of references that is that should appear in a list of references or works cited both of which contain only the sources actually cited in a thesis in a bibliography which can contain sources beyond those cited in the thesis or in rare cases be selective and contain only some of the cited sources in a list of further reading which need not include any sources cited in the thesis itself or in footnotes or endnotes if they are used to provide full references. These essential components are listed in the sections below along with some of their most important characteristics. Exactly which components need to be recorded differs depending on the type of source with some sources requiring more documentation than others a chapter or essay within a book requires more information than the whole book for instance so whether or not a component should be included in a particular reference depends on whether it is relevant to the source being recorded. The order and format in which the components appear in full references vary as well but in this case depending on the system and style of references required so do check any available university or department guidelines for instructions on producing complete bibliographical references for your thesis. You will need to do your best to provide for each source all the information necessary in the correct order and format and then check the entire list carefully for accuracy and consistency across all references with regard to the spelling capitalisation punctuation fonts abbreviations positioning and so on used for similar or the same elements. Ideally this check will be performed more than once and engaging a second critical reader to look through your list with fresh eyes is a good idea as well. CHAPTER 7 329 7.3.1 Authors Name This is the name of the author of the work article book web site or any other kind of source cited. It appears as the first item in the reference unless there is no author acknowledged in the source in which case the title of the source often appears first instead. As an alternative to a name Anon. for anonymous can be used or if the authors name is not supplied in the source but known from other sources that name can be placed in square brackets Brockle S.. The name of an organisation or corporation such as the American Psychological Association instead of an individual author can be provided if relevant. If more than one author is responsible for the work more than one author should be named which can be done in three different ways depending on the requirements of the guidelines or style guide used by listing all author names by listing one or more usually three or four of the names followed by et al. or by listing a set number of names using an ellipsis to replace intervening names and ending with the name of the last author of the source. Whichever pattern is appropriate for your thesis should be maintained for all relevant sources you list. Author names are usually inverted in reference lists with the surname appearing first as I have Brockle S. above and given names andor initials following although in some cases only the first authors name is inverted and subsequent author names appear in the usual order. Depending on the referencing style used given names might be included exactly as they are recorded in the source or provided as initials only and the entire names might contain internal punctuation Tolkien J.R.R. or not Tolkien JRR but commas should always appear between the names of separate authors Brockle S Taylor M and in some cases an ampersand or and should appear instead of or along with a comma between the names of the last two authors of a source see also Sections 6.3.9 and 7.2.1 above. CHAPTER 7 330 7.3.2 Editors Name This should appear instead of the authors name if the reference is to an edited book the whole book that is rather than part of it. If more than one editor is responsible for the work more than one editor should be named in one of the three ways indicated for listing multiple authors in Section 7.3.1 above depending as with the author names on the requirements of the guidelines or style guide used and maintaining consistency throughout the list. The format of editor names inverted or not beyond the first authors name initials or full given names the use of and or an ampersand internal punctuation etc. should be the same as that used for author names in the list. Some conference proceedings and other group publications may not have named editors in which case no editor name is required and the reference is likely to appear under the name of the author who wrote the part of the collection that is actually cited in the thesis or under the title of the book if the whole book is intended. An editors name should be accompanied by Ed. or ed. for editor with the plural forms usually being Eds. and eds. on these and other abbreviations commonly used in references see Section 6.3.10 above. 7.3.3 Translators Name If a source is a translation the translators name should appear as well as the names of the original authors. If more than one translator is responsible for the work more than one translator should be named again using one of the three ways for listing multiple author names indicated in Section 7.3.1 above depending as with the author and editor names on the requirements of the guidelines or style guide used and maintaining consistency throughout the list. Translators should be identified by tr. or trans. one of which should be used consistently in all CHAPTER 7 331 relevant references but in some cases translator or translated by is used instead. Translator names should use initials or full given names and or an ampersand and internal punctuation or not depending on guidelines and the format used in the list for author and editor names but translator names usually appear after the title of the source rather than before it and names often are not inverted in this position The Confessions trans. W. Watts though they can be see Section 7.3.7 below for the similar treatment of the names of editors when recording a book in which a source is contained. If the original authors name is included in the title of a translated book the translators name can appear in the initial position usually occupied by the name of the author Watts W. trans. Augustine Confessions in which case the translators name is inverted or if there is more than one translator all names or only the first may be inverted depending on the pattern used for author and editor names. 7.3.4 Title of the Source This is the title of the work article chapter book web site or any other kind of source cited. It was once conventional to set book titles in italic font or underscore them and article and chapter titles in quotation marks single or double and some styles still retain both these marks of distinction especially in the humanities but many do not. Italics on book titles are used more widely in the early twenty-first century than quotation marks are on article and chapter titles and occasionally article and chapter titles appear in bold or more rarely in italic font but in some cases both kinds of titles appear in normal roman font and capitalisation alone is used to distinguish them see also Section 6.2 above. Patterns of capitalisation can vary widely with a title bearing initial capitals only on its first word and proper nouns for instance or also on the first word of the subtitle or on all main words and the capitalisation of CHAPTER 7 332 book titles can vary from that of article and chapter titles within the same style but the pattern should be consistent for each type of title the same for example for all book titles in the list see also Section 6.1 above. Exceptions are often made for titles in foreign languages as the capitalisation rules of the relevant language tend to apply for more information on using foreign languages see Butcher et al. 2006 Section 6.6 pp.246247 and Appendices 5 7 9 and 10 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 10 Ritter 2005 Chapter 12. If an English translation of a foreign title is provided it should appear in parentheses or square brackets immediately after the original title generally in the same font as that title and all such translations in the list should be enclosed in the same type of brackets. 7.3.5 Edition If the source is a book the edition may be relevant but only for second and subsequent editions e.g. 2nd Ed. 3rd ed. 4th Edn or 5th edn there is no need to specify the first edition of a book. When an edition number appears in a reference it generally appears in conjunction with the title of the book usually immediately after it The Chicago Manual of Style 15th edn and should appear in the same position in all references that include an edition number. All mentions of editions should also use the same abbreviation whether Ed. ed. Edn or edn but if you use either Ed. or ed. to indicate editions it is a good idea to use the alternative format for identifying editors an editor might be indicated by ed. for instance and an edition by Ed.. Many books are published by different publishing houses at different times so be sure to provide the correct information for the edition you actually use in your thesis. CHAPTER 7 333 7.3.6 Volume Number Like edition numbers volume numbers usually appear immediately after the title of a book and use a standard abbreviation along with an Arabic numeral Vol. 1 or vol. 2 although Roman numerals are sometimes used instead Vol. I or vol. II the format of both the numbers and the abbreviation should be the same in all instances. Unlike edition numbers however volume numbers are required for first volumes as well as any subsequent ones although you may refer to only one volume of a set of books or to all volumes in the set. In the latter case the number of volumes rather than the volume numbers should be recorded using an Arabic numeral after the main title 3 Vols. or 5 vols. The volume numbers of conference proceedings are sometimes recorded in the same way as they are for books and sometimes via the method used for journal volume numbers see Section 7.3.8 below. 7.3.7 Book in Which the Source is Contained If the main reference is to a chapter or essay within a book including conference proceedings the title and editors of the book as well as the page numbers on which the chapter or essay can be found must be included in the reference as well. These often appear in one cluster separated by commas. The book title generally appears immediately after the chapter or essay title and uses the same format capitalisation italics or not etc. as the titles of books cited as main rather than containing sources elsewhere in the references. Editor names usually follow the book title although they occasionally come before the title instead. Editor names often but not always appear with the surname last in this situation CHAPTER 7 334 even if the names of authors and editors are normally inverted when at the beginning of references see the examples of a full bibliographical reference in different styles in Section 7.2.1 above otherwise they tend to use the same format initials only and or an ampersand internal punctuation or not etc. as the author and editor names associated with main sources. Ed. or ed. for editor Eds. and eds. in the plural should accompany the name depending on which form is used for editors in other references in the list although sometimes the full word editor or editors or the phrase edited by is used instead for the editors of books containing the main source cited see the examples in Sections 7.2.1 and 7.2.2 above. Any volume or edition numbers relevant to the book should be included as well and page numbers for the essay or chapter should follow although page numbers are often placed at the end of the reference after the publisher and place of publication see the examples in Sections 7.2.1 and 7.2.2 above. Page number formats vary but pp. or pp for pages is often used along with the page numbers of books pp.1947 that is instead of simply 1947 with a few exceptions while the pages abbreviation is almost never used with the page numbers of journals see Section 7.3.8 below. Otherwise the format of page ranges for books should be the same as that for journals. 7.3.8 Journal in Which the Source is Contained If the main reference is to an article in a journal the title of the journal the relevant volume number sometimes the issue number and either the pages on which the article is found or another kind of identifier for locating the article online are required as well. The journal title is always necessary generally features initial capitals on all main words and most often appears in italic font CHAPTER 7 335 though roman or more rarely bold font is used in some styles. Standard abbreviations for journal titles can be used following for instance the National Library of Medicine NLM Catalog of Journals Referenced in the National Center for Biotechnology Information NCBI Databases and guidelines will often indicate whether these are acceptable and which system should be followed. As with all elements of the reference list the use of journal abbreviations should be as consistent as possible throughout the list. The title of the journal should precede the volume issue and page numbers. The volume number is also standard and follows the journal title. Punctuation can appear between the title and volume number a comma for instance or a full stop after an abbreviated title but it generally does not. Usually the volume number is recorded in Arabic numerals but Roman numerals are specified in some guidelines and roman font is the norm but some styles and guidelines call for volume numbers in italic or bold font. If the journal uses continuous page numbering for each volume an issue number is not required though it can be used if you like but if the page numbering begins afresh in each issue of a volume the issue number is necessary for readers to find the relevant article. The issue number for a source usually appears in parentheses immediately after the volume number without an intervening space BMC Public Health 2467 though it can appear in the same position after other punctuation such as a colon e.g. BMC Public Health 2467. Sometimes there is a supplement number as well which can replace the issue number or appear in addition to it a simple S. or better yet Suppl. is generally used to distinguish a supplement number. Page numbers or their equivalent are always required and in almost all cases pp. or pp for pages is not included when recording the page ranges for journal articles. The page range follows the volume number or issue number if one is included usually separated from the preceding number by a colon with or CHAPTER 7 336 without a following space BMC Public Health 2467 6288 though a comma or semicolon is sometimes used instead. The format of page ranges varies depending on the guidelines or style followed but with the exception of not using the abbreviation for pages it should be the same as that used for any page ranges in books included in the list see also the additional information on page numbers in Section 7.3.9 below. For articles published online a single page number or some other form of unique number that identifies the article is sometimes used instead of a page range. When an online version of an article is used as a source a DOI or URL is often recorded instead of page numbers and sometimes instead of volume and issue numbers as well when electronic publication precedes print publication. DOIs and URLs should be consistent in format throughout the list and correct so that they reliably lead the reader to the right sources. When a URL is used information on access or availability is often needed just as it is for other web-based sources with the format varying according to the style guide or guidelines followed for example Accessed 6 November 2014 or Available at httpwww.proof- reading-service.com. 7.3.9 Page Numbers Page numbers are required when the reference is to a chapter or article within a larger book journal or collection of conference papers in which case the pages on which the chapter or article is found should be provided. For page numbers in books pp for pages with or without a following stop and space is generally used along with the numbers pp.1947 or pp 1947 for example but not always. For journals the practice is just the opposite page numbers generally appear without any form of pp. though that abbreviation is used in rare cases. Between the numbers CHAPTER 7 337 themselves an en dash as I have in the examples above is the correct choice but a hyphen pp.17-47 is often used as long as the guidelines are followed and your usage is consistent throughout your reference list either is fine. The page range can be recorded with all digits retained 383388 but in many cases the numbers are elided to as few digits as possible 3838 for further information on eliding page ranges see Section 6.4.7 above. The commas or in some instances spaces normally found in numerals of 1000 and above are not used in page numbers. The formats of page numbers should be consistent throughout a reference list but the position can change depending on the type of source for a journal article for instance page numbers appear at the end of the reference but for a chapter or article in a book they can appear either at the end or in conjunction with the book title and editors. Sometimes other identifying numbers are used instead of page numbers especially for articles published online and if there are no page numbers for a source within a book or journal chapter section and even paragraph numbers can be used instead although as a general rule such numbers should only be used if they actually appear in the source i.e. if the chapters sections and paragraphs are numbered in the source itself. 7.3.10 Date of Publication All references should if at all possible contain a date of publication which should be the date of the edition or version you actually used in your thesis. If the source does not bear a date n.d. for no date can be used or if the date is known from other sources it can be provided in square brackets 1995. The date can appear in a variety of different places within a reference from immediately after the authors name a necessity in authordate referencing see Section 7.2.1 above to after the publication information at the very end of the reference. If the date does not CHAPTER 7 338 appear after the authors name in journal references it generally appears in conjunction with the journal title and volume number. Punctuation around dates varies widely but publication dates are often enclosed in parentheses 1995. Sources such as works published in several volumes over more than one year should be recorded as a date range 19861995 which can be elided 1986 95 most correctly an en rule is used between the dates as in the preceding examples but a hyphen is often used instead 1986-95. Whatever formats are chosen should be used consistently throughout the list. For newspaper articles and for journal articles published online prior to print publication full dates rather than the year alone tend to be used and these dates can take different forms 7 November 2014 in British English for example and November 7 2014 in American English. The dates recorded for web sites can vary date of first publication date of most recent update or date of your most recent access to the site for instance as can the format and more than one date may be provided. 7.3.11 Publisher and Place of Publication For references to books both the publishers name and the city of publication should be provided in most cases but either one of these may suffice depending on the guidelines or style guide followed. Usually the place of publication precedes the publishers name with the two separated by a colon but this is not always the case the publishers name can precede the place of publication and a semicolon or comma can be used to separate the publishers name from the place of publication. Both elements tend to appear at the end of a reference and are often enclosed in parentheses sometimes along with the publication date Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2010. Modern English forms of city names should be used if possible and if the city of publication is not a well-known centre an abbreviation or occasionally a full name indicating the CHAPTER 7 339 country state province or the like usually follows and this should especially be used if there is a potential for confusion regarding the city intended e.g. Cambridge MA to avoid confusion with the Cambridge in England. Generally speaking only the name of the first city noted on the title or copyright page of a book is required. Sometimes presses with names based on their location can be provided in an abbreviated form CUP instead of Cambridge University Press but only if the place of publication is provided as well. The information recorded and formats adopted should be maintained consistently across all relevant references in your list. 7.3.12 Type of Source Occasionally the type of source is indicated in a reference through the use of a word such as Print Web Television CD DVD Videocassette and Slide. The relevant word usually appears at or very near the end of the reference as it does in the MLA example in Section 7.2.1 above. 7.3.13 Conference Paper If it is published in a conference collection or proceedings a conference paper is usually recorded in the same way as a chapter or essay in a book is or occasionally just as an article in a journal would be citing page numbers in either case and sometimes including details about the conference itself the date and location of the conference for example as well. When unpublished conference papers are cited however the authors name and the title of the paper should be accompanied by the conference name location date and any other relevant information about the conference. CHAPTER 7 340 7.3.14 Thesis or Dissertation Although treated in most cases much like books are the titles of theses and dissertations can use the format of either book or article titles using italic font or quotation marks full or partial capitalisation etc. or a format that differs slightly from both. Instead of the publication information provided for books place of publication publisher and publication date the type of degree the university and sometimes the department that granted the degree as well as the date the thesis or dissertation was completed should be supplied. Commas are usually used between these elements D.Phil. University of York Department of English and Related Literature 1998 but semicolons can be used instead and a colon can appear before the date. 7.3.15 Audiovisual Sources When constructing references for CDs DVDs works of art slides and other audiovisual sources a range of relevant information can be provided the names of artists directors and producers the titles of songs CDs paintings and television programmes and the publishers and places and dates of publication. The names of those responsible for creating the source should be treated as author and editor names are in other sources. Titles should use the formats used for other references with the title of an individual song or episode of a television programme for instance using the format capitalisation quotation marks etc. used for chapter or article titles while the title of the CD or the television programme uses the format adopted for the titles of books. Similarly the publication information publisher place of publication and publication date for such sources should be recorded in the same format and order as the publication information for books in the list. CHAPTER 7 341 7.3.16 Web Site Web Page or Online Document As a fairly recent addition to bibliographical lists references to web sites web pages and online documents tend to vary more than other references and the myriad forms of web sources increase this variation. Author names both individual and corporate should be included if available as should the titles of web sites web pages and individual documents often in combination with each other depending on which elements may be relevant to the information you used andor required by the guidelines or style guide you are following. Publisher version and update information can be provided and at least one date in some cases more than one should be included whether it is the date of publication the most recent update of the web site or the latest date on which you accessed the source. These dates tend to be given in full 7 November 2013 British or November 7 2013 American rather than as years only and in the case of access dates they often include some defining information such as Accessed 7 November 2013. Either a URL or in the case of some independent web documents a DOI must be provided in almost all instances and for URLs guidelines frequently require something like Available at httpwww.proof-reading-service.com as well. URLs are often underlined Word tends to do this automatically changing the text to a hyperlink when it recognises a web address which makes them one of the very few elements of formal writing that still use underscoring. As a general rule the information provided for web sites and the like should be as thorough and specific as required to document the source accurately and successfully lead the reader to it and because web-based resources often undergo frequent changes all such sources should be checked immediately before you submit the final version of your thesis to be sure that the information you recorded is still valid. CHAPTER 7 342 PRS Tip You may want to use a program such as EndNote to format and enter complete bibliographical references in your list automatically and a tool of this kind can certainly save time and help with consistency but if you choose to use such a program do take special care when checking and proofreading any references created via automatic referencing. Never assume that the program has got it right because this is all too rarely the case. Although a style very close to what is required will usually be achieved often one particular detail will consistently be formatted incorrectly or unusual or complicated references will be formatted in inappropriate ways. It is therefore essential to check every word every number and every bit of punctuation to pay attention to font styles and sizes as well as patterns of capitalisation and to correct and adjust manually anything that is inconsistent incorrect or inappropriate. Automatic referencing can create other editing challenges as well in-text citations created in this way can sometimes prove difficult to change and therefore correct and the block format of reference lists constructed via automatic referencing prevents any proofreader whose services you may engage from making marginal comments within Word on individual features of the references because when any part or element of the list no matter how small is selected for a comment the entire list is highlighted and the comment is attached to the whole list not to the individual element. This can result in a less precise means of communication between you and your proofreader so if you are planning to have a professional proofreader check your references which is always a good idea you may want to avoid automatic referencing techniques. CHAPTER 7 343 Chapter 8 Direct Quotations Presentation Integration and Accuracy Not all doctoral candidates will make use of direct quotation in their theses but many theses will include one or a few quoted passages while others will feature a wide variety of quoted text andor speech. The idea behind using the exact words of another person or of other people in the case of sources with more than one author is that those words contribute to your argument they may support or contradict your methods results or conclusions they may be selected from a text or texts that your thesis analyses in detail they may be exemplary pithy or perfect expressions of ideas you introduce and discuss. Whatever your reasons for quoting the words of others in your own writing may be you need to quote them accurately remembering that a direct quotation presents the exact words spoken on a particular occasion or written in a particular place Ritter 2005 Section 9.1. It is also essential that you observe with precision the appropriate scholarly techniques for quoting sources and that you make it absolutely clear to your readers how you are using direct quotations by introducing them effectively and discussing their significance in relation to your argument. In most cases it is not enough simply to quote a passage and assume that your readers and examiners will know why you have quoted it you need to let them know what you expect them to read or understand in the borrowed words. Any quotations you use should be integrated correctly into the syntax of your own prose as well and all direct quotations must be acknowledged with precise references to the sources from which they have been taken. If your university or department has provided you with guidelines they may offer CHAPTER 8 344 instructions on the quotation practices appropriate for your thesis in which case those instructions should be prioritised and used in conjunction with the more general advice provided in this chapter. The sections that follow focus on the scholarly practices and formats associated with quoting sources in acceptable ways in formal English prose beginning with the most practical aspects of presenting quoted material namely laying it out on the page and providing the necessary references to the sources quoted. 8.1 Formatting and Acknowledging Quotations There are two main ways to present quoted material in scholarly prose it can be formatted as run-on or run-in quotations that are embedded in the main text or it can be laid out as displayed or block quotations that are set off from the text. Short prose quotations particularly those of less than a single sentence are generally embedded which means that they become a part of your own sentences and paragraphs. They therefore appear in the same font size as the surrounding text and are enclosed in quotation marks The results of my investigation did not show the negative effect of poor lighting Bennett 2007 p.197 revealed in an earlier study of the problem. Single quotation marks as I use in this book or double quotation marks can be used but the same type must be used to mark all quotations in a thesis. Traditionally single quotation marks tended to be used in British English and double quotation marks in American English but this distinction is no longer as consistent or widespread as it once was. If the university or department guidelines you are using give any indication of the kind of quotation marks desired you should follow that advice otherwise you may want to prefer one type of mark over the other based on whether British or American English is required or used or you may want to follow your own preferences. CHAPTER 8 345 Whichever type of quotation mark is adopted for embedded quotations the opposite type will be needed to enclose any quotations that appear within those quotations as double quotation marks are used to enclose the word novelty a quote within a quote in the following sentence The results of my investigation did not show the negative effect of poor lighting that surprised Bennett due to its novelty in trials of this kind 2007 p.197. Were the main quotation enclosed in double quotation marks instead the word novelty would be marked by single quotation marks. In both cases the pattern of alternation continues if there is by chance a quote within a quote within a quote single marks for the main quote with double marks enclosing the quote within it and a return to single marks to enclose the quote within that or double marks for the main quote with single marks enclosing the quote within it and a return to double marks to enclose the quote within that. The two types could theoretically alternate indefinitely to provide many layers of quotation but it is rare that more than three layers are used. Since errors often creep into the layered use of quotation marks quotations featuring them require especially careful checking to ensure that each opening quotation mark has a matching and appropriately placed closing mark. Longer prose quotations are usually displayed or set off as block quotations but exactly what length quotations should be to justify such treatment varies considerably from style to style quotations of forty words or more are displayed as block quotations in some styles while in others a quotation should be longer 100 words or more in some cases to receive such treatment. There is then no firm rule based on the length of the passage though if university or department guidelines indicate that quotations over a particular word count should be displayed do observe them. Alternate criteria can be used however to determine the format of quotations in the absence of such instructions. You might for example choose to display a short quotation that is central to your argument or to embed a long quotation CHAPTER 8 346 in order to comment on parts of it in more detail you might decide to display a series of quotations of varying length in order to highlight them and facilitate comparison or to embed the same series of quotations to make the text more readable or you might embed quotations that are central to the argument of your thesis but display those cited as examples or illustrations. It is therefore essential to determine exactly what criteria you will use to make this distinction before formatting quotations and then to stick to those criteria as consistently as possible making exceptions only when they serve your argument or your reasons for quoting in the first place. When quotations are displayed they are not enclosed in quotation marks but they should start on a new line and they often feature a slightly smaller font size than that used in the main text of a document as they do in this book for instance. The line spacing around and within a block quotation may also differ from that used in the main text of a thesis and the same may be the case with indentation and justification with all of these differences enabling the quotations to stand out effectively from your own prose. If your university or department provides specific instructions for laying out block quotations they should be followed but in most cases indentation left or both left and right and a smaller font size will suffice for marking displayed quotations. The following passage shows a simple but effective layout for prose quotations His manuscript project underwent various changes as it proceeded however and among these developments was the transformation of this meditation designed for readers into twin meditational dramas that enact that reflective experience and could well have been performed in the authors priory perhaps or the hall of a local gentleman or the streets of a nearby Yorkshire community. Olson 2012 p.338 CHAPTER 8 347 Since quotation marks are not required around the entire quotation single quotation marks are used for quotations within the quotation which results in a different alternation pattern than that for embedded quotations single marks for quotations within the block quotation double marks for quotations within those quotations and so on with the reverse the case if double quotation marks are the predominant marks used in the thesis double marks for quotations within block quotations single marks for quotations within those quotations and so on. When quoting more than a single line of poetry or any text whether long or short for which retaining the exact format of the original is important such as lists letters interviews and passages from plays and when quoting prose passages of more than a single paragraph displaying the quotation is in almost all cases a much better choice than embedding it. Here for instance is a passage of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman B-Text formatted as a block quotation For if heuene be on is ere and ese to any soule It is in cloistre or in scole by manye skiles I fynde. For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne. Kane Donaldson 1975 X.305308 Notice that the indentation at the left is set so that the longest line is more or less centred on the page although each line starts in the same position not centre justified and the passage is formatted to represent as faithfully as possible the layout of the poem in the source text. If the poems indentation varies in the source this should be represented by extra indentation in the format of the block quotation. If any line is too long to fit on a single line in the block quotation and thus runs over onto the next line the runover line should be indented a space or two beyond the usual indentation to CHAPTER 8 348 distinguish it from new lines. If any quotations appear within the quoted lines they should be enclosed in quotation marks exactly as they are in prose block quotations. Finally if the quotation begins part way through a line a space representing the length of the omitted material should be inserted before the quotation come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne. Kane Donaldson 1975 X.307308 The layout of a letter or list the dialogue of a play including speaker tags and stage directions the exchange during an interview and the breaks between paragraphs in a long prose quotation can be reproduced in similar ways in the formatting of a block quotation as is the case in this example INTERVIEWER Were you able to move easily when connected to the equipment RESPONDENT 1 Yes most of the time but a few of the exercises were more difficult. INTERVIEWER Do you remember which ones presented movement problems If two or more block quotations appear one after the other make sure that the spacing between them leaves no ambiguity about where one quotation ends and the next begins. It should also be made clear whether the paragraph that precedes a block quotation continues after the quotation or not so if a new paragraph begins immediately after displayed material indentation andor spacing should indicate that this is the case. Although embedding such specifically formatted quotations should be avoided if at all possible there are instances in which more than one line of poetry more than one paragraph of prose or the parts of CHAPTER 8 349 a letter list or play will need to be presented as run-on quotations within your own sentences and paragraphs. In such cases the original formatting should be represented as accurately as possible while maintaining effective sentence and paragraph structure and a tidy page layout. For lines of poetry for instance the font should be the same size as the main text capitalisation should be retained and line breaks should be marked by either a forward slash or a vertical line see Section 5.6.5 above with a space on either side as in the following example For if heuene be on is ere and ese to any soule It is in cloistre or in scole by manye skiles I fynde. For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne Kane Donaldson 1975 X.305308. When a quotation of more than one paragraph is embedded quotation marks should appear at the beginning of the quotation and at the beginning of each new paragraph but only at the end of the final paragraph or the end of the quotation if the final paragraph is not quoted in its entirety. The same approach should be used when quoting dialogue in which a single speakers words extend over more than one paragraph. Representing lists the dialogue in plays along with stage directions and the questions and answers in interviews as embedded quotations will be a little more challenging and it is always best to format them as block quotations if possible but short passages of this kind can be successful if not ideal when careful and creative formatting is used INTERVIEWER Were you able to move easily when connected to the equipment RESPONDENT 1 Yes most of the time but a few of the exercises were more difficult. INTERVIEWER Do you remember which ones presented movement problems I have not used quotation marks around the actual speech of the two parties in this example which is an acceptable approach for such dialogue when quoting a play as well whether it is embedded or displayed but the additional quotation marks can certainly be added around those bits of direct speech to CHAPTER 8 350 avoid confusion when using an embedded format WILL Where did she go ROB looking from side to side She was just here. WILL looking up and pointing Shes there. Embedding quotations of this kind may be particularly necessary in footnotes and endnotes because the font used in notes is usually smaller than that in the main text which means that block quotations become smaller still so even long quotations with complicated formatting are often embedded in notes. Whether you embed or display material that you directly quote in your thesis you will need to provide a reference for each quotation that leads readers not only to the source from which you have quoted the passage but also to the precise place in that source where the quoted passage can be found unless the quotation is from an interview you conducted during your research or an instrument such as a questionnaire that you designed and used in which case you need to explain the situation for your readers. This means that a reference in whatever style is used elsewhere in the thesis authordate numerical or in-note see Section 7.2 above must be provided along with an accurate page number andor another type of locator if relevant such as line stanza canto passus column book and volume numbers. For the block quotation from Olson above for example a page number is provided along with the authors name and the publication date whereas passus and line numbers are recorded along with the editor names and date of publication for the quotations from Piers Plowman. When the quotation is embedded in the main text this information can be set in parentheses before to the left of the closing punctuation of the sentence as authordate citations usually are this is the position of the reference for the embedded quotation from Piers Plowman above. If information about the source is provided in a note or via numerical referencing however the number is normally not always set outside to the right of the full stop as it is in this example For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse CHAPTER 8 351 ere and bokes to rede and to lerne.1 To avoid creating a large number of notes containing only short page or line references when many quotations are used an explanation of your referencing practice can be offered along with information on the source in the first relevant note with wording such as this All quotations from Piers Plowman are from this edition and are referred to hereafter by passus and line numbers only.As long as it remains clear which text is quoted all subsequent references to the poem can be provided parenthetically in the text avoiding excessive notes as well as long parenthetical references as is the case here For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne X.307308. When the quotation is displayed the same source information is required but the parenthetical reference is positioned a little differently after the closing punctuation of a block quotation for instance and usually oriented to the right on the line directly below the quotation as it appears in the block quotations from Olson and Piers Plowman that I provided above. If there is room for the reference on the final line of the quotation that is usually an acceptable position as well and certainly it is on that line immediately after the closing punctuation of the block quotation that a note number or numerical reference would appear instead if that is the system you are using For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne.1 As with embedded quotations an explanation of your referencing practices can be offered in the first relevant note to facilitate shorter references and avoid numerous notes if the same text is quoted frequently and as a general rule regardless of which quotation format or system of referencing you use subsequent references to the same text can be shortened to provide only the information CHAPTER 8 352 absolutely necessary for the reader to locate the quotation accurately. If for example you are discussing Langland for several paragraphs in which you quote repeatedly from his poem it is not necessary to identify the author poem editors and publication date with each quotation unless it is unclear which text is being cited only if a different author or text or perhaps a different edition or version of the poem is quoted in the midst of the discussion would a full reference be required to reorient the reader. Shortening references to a bare minimum is noted as desirable in most style guides but do be sure that you provide enough information in each instance for your readers to identify and locate your quotations remembering that offering too much information is preferable to offering too little. 8.2 Integrating Quotations Punctuation Sentence Structure and Argument Although it may be clear to you exactly how a passage you have chosen to quote relates to your research it is not acceptable simply to quote it and expect readers to understand its relevance to your thesis a good deal more goes into quoting sources effectively in order to illustrate support and develop an argument. Using quotations well in terms of both the logic of a scholarly argument and the syntax of its sentences is no easy task however but one that poses serious challenges even for those who are completely familiar with the scholarship methods and terminology associated with their discipline and are highly accomplished writers of English prose. For those who are already struggling with the construction of English sentences and perhaps also struggling with translating their source texts into English see Section 8.4 below as for those just becoming acquainted with the intricate details of previous scholarship and their own research it can be something of a nightmare complete with brick walls and pitfalls. Quotations used in a thesis must work within the surrounding text both syntactically and CHAPTER 8 353 logically yet as an aspect of written style integrating quotations is highly subjective and the problems associated with it extremely various so it is impossible to address all situations a doctoral candidate may encounter and no book can entirely replace experience. In the following paragraphs and examples I have therefore focussed on certain matters that tend with considerable frequency to present particular challenges for academic and scientific authors. It is essential that the normal and correct punctuation of your sentences be maintained as quotations are used and some form of punctuation is often required immediately after a quotation. A sentence that finishes with a quotation must like any other sentence be closed with final punctuation and a sentence that continues after the quotation it contains may require a comma or other punctuation mark immediately after the quotation. A full stop or comma that follows a quotation is usually placed inside the closing quotation mark in American English and in most fiction and journalism whether American or British but in British English it is sometimes placed inside and sometimes outside the closing quotation mark depending on the nature of the quotation in relation to the structure of the entire sentence see for instance Butcher et al. 2006 Section 11.1.2 and Ritter 2005 Section 9.2.3 for details. If the guidelines provided by your university or department happen to indicate which of these two methods should be used for final punctuation associated with a quotation follow them precisely and consistently so that the patterns you use are maintained throughout your thesis. Do recall from Section 8.1 above however that parenthetical references for embedded quotations generally precede full stops and commas. Colons semicolons dashes and parentheses on the other hand normally appear outside closing quotation marks unless they are actually present in the source you have quoted in which case they can be included within the quotation marks. The same principle applies to question and exclamation CHAPTER 8 354 marks and with these bits of punctuation placement can significantly alter the meaning of a quotation and the sentence containing it notice for instance the difference between He actually meant it when he said So without patients the hospital would run much more smoothly and He actually meant it when he said So without patients the hospital would run much more smoothly For further information on punctuating English prose see Section 5.6 above. The punctuation preceding a quotation can be even more crucial than that following it because such introductory punctuation helps define the way in which readers approach and read a quotation. Often no punctuation is necessary immediately before a quotation which is the case when the quotation is embedded in a sentence and no punctuation would be required were the entire sentence your own work as in this example Langland optimistically claimed that no man entered monastic life to carpe ne to fite Kane Donaldson 1975 X.307 despite the bickering within cloister walls that other parts of his poem so brilliantly dramatise. The same principle applies to displayed quotations so no punctuation is needed when writing for instance Langland seems to consider the cloister something of a large and friendly library where no one wishes to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne. Kane Donaldson 1975 X.307308 In other cases nothing more than the full stop closing the preceding sentence is required before a quotation embedded or block if the logic of the quotation naturally follows that of the preceding sentence and can start or already is a sentence of its own. The following two sentences provide an example William Langlands view of the cloistered life as buxomnesse . . . and bokes to rede and to lerne Kane Donaldson 1975 X.308 may well be a good deal more CHAPTER 8 355 idealised than he himself believed possible. Yet for the most part monasteries must indeed have been among the finest of places to rede and to lerne in late medieval England and for precisely the reasons Langland prioritizes books in numbers and of a variety modern readers might find surprising and for the most part the intellectual peace to savor them. Olson 2012 p.291 Many quotations require preceding punctuation of a particular kind however and in a large number of cases a comma or a colon serves the purpose. A comma is used with a variety of phrases that effectively introduce and define quotations from both written texts and direct speech as the following examples demonstrate According to Olson 2012 p.291 monasteries must indeed have been among the finest of places to rede and to lerne in late medieval England and for precisely the reasons Langland prioritizes books in numbers and of a variety modern readers might find surprising and for the most part the intellectual peace to savor them. In an early study of the effects of chemotherapy women were shown to recover much more quickly and with fewer negative side effects when they did not receive chemotherapy as part of their treatment Tabatha 1968 p.1698. Participants were asked in Question 3 of the survey Was the domestic robot a good size for use in your apartment Whan that Aprill Chaucer wrote with his shoures sote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote Kolve Olson 1989 General Prologue 12. The first interviewee an experienced researcher and interviewer helped me refine my techniques before I conducted further interviews. Are you sure he repeated you really want to wear that tonight Well I thought I was she replied. CHAPTER 8 356 Although the examples I have used here do not specifically show it a comma is suitable for introducing displayed quotations as well for instance since the first bulleted quotation is quite long it could effectively be formatted as a block quotation after the parenthetical reference and comma or the parenthetical reference could be moved to the end of the block quotation. In many cases however and especially in formal English a colon is more appropriate than a comma. A colon is often used to introduce scholarly quotations and formal speech it is a good choice when more than one sentence or passage is quoted or when emphasis is required and it also tends to clarify sentence structure and the line between your own text and quoted passages and therefore to improve the clarity and legibility of a complex text. The following examples show colons used to introduce quotations Langlands view of the cloister smacks of idealism but it also contains precious allusions to fourteenth-century monastic book collections For in cloistre come no man to carpe ne to fite But al is buxomnesse ere and bokes to rede and to lerne X.307308. The following is a transcription of my first interview INTERVIEWER Were you able to move easily when connected to the equipment RESPONDENT 1 Yes most of the time but a few of the exercises were more difficult. INTERVIEWER Do you remember which ones presented movement problems Taking her cue from Piers Plowman Olson describes cloister libraries in this way for the most part monasteries must indeed have been among the finest of places to rede and to lerne in late medieval England and for precisely the reasons Langland prioritizes books in numbers and of a variety modern readers might find surprising and for the most part the intellectual peace to savor them 2012 p.291. In Question 3 of the survey participants were asked Was the CHAPTER 8 357 domestic robot a good size for use in your apartment Question 4 attempted to refine my understanding of any limitations perceived Was there any task the domestic robot was not able to accomplish due to its size The results obtained in an early study of the effects of chemotherapy are of interest women were shown to recover much more quickly and with fewer negative side effects when they did not receive chemotherapy as part of their treatment Tabatha 1968 p.1698. Bennett 2007 p.23 describes the four conditions as follows 1 darkness inside 2 darkness outside 3 artificial lighting inside and 4 daylight outside. Her tone revealed her anger and her friend responded in kind Well if youre going to be that way about it I wont come with you at all As with the comma the colon is appropriate for introducing block quotations as well and is in fact used more often than a comma for this purpose in the above examples for instance a displayed format would be especially appropriate for the first three bulleted quotations and notice that a colon appears before each of the block quotations included in Section 8.1 above. In all of the example quotations I provide above the quotations have been integrated into the structure of a sentence or a paragraph using correct syntax and grammar and effective punctuation is only part of this process. You will probably have your own ways of working quotations into the structure and logic of your thesis but if any guidelines you need to follow comment on quotation practices those comments should play a part as well. Occasionally for instance guidelines will request that quotations be presented in as intact a form as possible and introduced very simply block quotations introduced with colons are a good choice for meeting such requirements while others will allow authors more freedom in CHAPTER 8 358 breaking quotations up into separate words and phrases in order to incorporate these fragments borrowed from sources virtually seamlessly into their own sentences. The second method produces more variety and enables an author to use quotations very selectively and precisely in developing his or her own argument but since it also mingles the authors text with the borrowed text special care must be taken to ensure that all aspects of the language used in such sentences function effectively with the language quoted. Of particular concern are pronouns and verb tenses which as discussed in Sections 5.4.2 and 5.4.7 above often prove problematic even without the complication of quoting passages that may use verb tenses and pronouns that do not agree with your voice and other elements of your sentence. For example let us say that you want to quote Langlands passage about monastic cloisters and their libraries but you also want to use the past tense instead of Langlands present and to avoid the first-person pronoun I which will not make sense coming from your pen. To achieve this you will need to select the words you quote very carefully structuring the sentence to express your own intentions while retaining Langlands original wording and meaning. Depending on exactly what you wish to convey one of the following sentences or another similar construction might prove effective If there was any sort of heaven on earth in the fourteenth century it was according to Langland found in cloistre or in scole no man he argued entered a monastery chock full of bokes and learning opportunities simply to carpe or fite Kane Donaldson 1975 X.306308. Langland described monastic life in the fourteenth century in idealistic terms claiming that no man came to the cloister to carpe or fite and insisting despite other passages of Piers Plowman to the contrary that the monastery was a place of buxomnesse . . . and bokes where a persons desire to rede and to lerne could be fulfilled Kane Donaldson 1975 X.306308. CHAPTER 8 359 Via his many skiles his own schooling and what must have been frequent visits to monastic book collections while writing Piers Plowman Langland enjoyed a positive perspective of the cloistre as a setting not only free from conflict but also blessed with buxomnesse . . . and bokes and ample opportunities to rede and to lerne Kane Donaldson 1975 X.306308. Always take the extra time when you use such quotation-rich sentences to ensure that you maintain agreement of nouns and pronouns nouns and verbs etc. see also Sections 5.4.2 and 5.4.3 above between the elements of your own prose and those of the integrated quotations adjusting your wording wherever necessary to establish an effective overall sentence structure. PRS Tip Few aspects of scholarly writing are more frustrating than discovering the perfect passage in the work of a renowned scholar quoting it in your own text and then realising that your readers in this case your supervisor and other members of your thesis committee simply do not understand its significance in relation to your methods results or overall argument. In most cases the fault lies with neither the quotation nor your argument but with the manner in which you have connected the two. The trick to resolving this problem is to be utterly pedantic in thinking about and explaining the connection you envision. Start by writing something like The results I achieved are supported by the study of Jones 2013 p.768 who reports a similar trend or My understanding of the poem is shared by Pearsall 1997 p.43 who explains the authors meaning in this way. Such an introduction sets the stage for the quotation which can then follow immediately with an intervening colon in each of these examples. In many cases you will also want to discuss the quotation and its significance further highlighting in the following CHAPTER 8 360 sentences the points most important for your work itemising shared ideas or conclusions and explaining how your own thinking and results differ from what you have quoted. Once you have surrounded the quotation with clear explanations and meaningful elaborations you can go back and work at making your sentences more stylistically pleasing and eloquent if you wish but remember that the key aim is for your readers to understand why you have used the quotation and how it contributes to your argument. Keep in mind as well that the professional proofreaders at PRS are extremely familiar with scholarly practices for quoting sources and as readers of a great deal of academic and scientific prose they have encountered many different ways of effectively integrating quotations in formal English writing. A PRS proofreader may therefore be able to suggest techniques for introducing quotations and clarifying their significance that you have not encountered or imagined and he or she will certainly be able to ensure that the sentences you write around any given quotation are grammatically correct and clearly communicate your intended meaning to your readers. 8.3 Accuracy and Alterations in Quoted Material It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of meticulous accuracy in quoting from the works of others Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.445. When you surround a passage with quotation marks or set it in a block quotation format and provide a reference you are claiming that the words within the quotation marks or block quotation represent exactly the words normally along with their punctuation capitalisation and the like that can be found in the precise place indicated the first sentence of this paragraph for instance on p.445 of the 2003 edition of the Chicago Manual of Style listed in the reference list at the end of this book. If your CHAPTER 8 361 transcription of the quotation is inaccurate you are falsely attributing words and thoughts to another author and neither you nor the author you are quoting wants that to happen. The problem is however that errors slip into transcriptions with frightening ease even when an author is careful for example I first typed overestimate instead of overemphasize in the quotation that opens this paragraph and then I typed overemphasise an automatic reflex because I am using British spelling in this book and had to change the s to a z to transcribe the word correctly. When an author does not transcribe with care quotations can become something of a disaster zone that undermines an argument via the very material that should shore it up. It is therefore absolutely essential that you check all quotations against their sources word by word and punctuation point by punctuation point to be certain that you have quoted with complete accuracy. The need for accuracy when quoting material from sources does not mean that alterations cannot be made to the passages you quote in your thesis but any changes that are necessary or desirable should be kept to an absolute minimum and although certain minor alterations can be made without any special marking or indication most changes to quoted material must be acknowledged and in very particular ways. While an author might avoid minor but obvious errors in a source text by paraphrasing instead of quoting it it is also permissible for instance for the author to correct silently without acknowledging the change that is minor errors such as spelling unclosed quotation marks or parentheses and a missing full stop. Alternatively the Latin word sic meaning thus so or in this manner can be used in square brackets which are discussed below immediately after an error or oddity within a quotation though this is usually only done if the error might mislead readers as the wrong date in this example might The author must have begun writing her text in the 1250s sic immediately after discussing her visionary experiences with her spiritual advisor.Another option is to CHAPTER 8 362 add either recte Latin for properly or correctly or rectius more properly or more correctly or the English equivalent of either in square brackets immediately after the error and include a correct alternative The author must have begun writing her text in the 1250s recte 1350s immediately after discussing her visionary experiences with her spiritual advisor. Other changes can be made within a quotation not to correct errors in the source but to allow the quoted material to fit syntactically typographically and logically into the surrounding text. Alterations to some elements can be made without providing an indication of the change in the quotation. A list of these elements follows Quotation marks single quotation marks can be changed to double marks and double marks to single marks in order to correspond with the type of quotation marks used in a thesis and to represent the layers of quotation accurately. Foreign forms of quotation marks such as and in a source should also be changed to match the forms used elsewhere in your thesis. Other punctuation a full stop or comma at the end of a quotation can be changed to a comma or full stop as required by the surrounding syntax. Foreign forms of punctuation such as inverted exclamation and question marks and as well as other punctuation such as dashes en and em rules and hyphens used differently than they are in your thesis can be adjusted to match the forms used in the surrounding text. Symbols and abbreviations orthographic signs such as the ampersand and abbreviations can be retained in a quotation if they are defined or clear to your readers but alternatively they can be expanded for clarity or consistency with the surrounding text. Initial letters a capital at the beginning of a quotation can be changed to a lowercase letter and a lowercase letter in the same CHAPTER 8 363 position can be changed to a capital in order to integrate the quotation into the surrounding text of your thesis though in some styles this change should be made within square brackets see below. If a quotation is embedded in the syntax of a sentence it should normally begin with a lowercase letter if it is formatted as a block quotation it can begin with a lowercase or uppercase letter depending on whether it is a continuation of the sentence introducing it or begins a new sentence but the first line of a verse quotation should always begin with a capital if that is what appears in the original poem. In British English a lowercase letter tends to be used after a colon introducing a quotation whereas in American English an uppercase letter is used in this position if the quotation forms a complete sentence. Notes both notes and note indicators in the source may be omitted in a quotation if the notes they are attached to are unnecessary to the sense if they are required the quotation will be best as a block quotation with the relevant notes included below the main quotation and it is best if the note indicators in the quotation are distinct from the note indicators you use in the main text of your thesis. You may also add your own notes to a quotation in which case they should be part of the normal series of notes in your chapter or thesis. Archaic and idiosyncratic spelling and letter forms the archaic spelling as well as the special characters used in early English texts should be retained in most quotations as they are in the example quotations from Piers Plowman in Sections 8.1 and 8.2 above. The letters used in Old and Middle English that are no longer used in modern English are the ash or which can be retained as a ligature or written as two letters ae or Ae the eth or the thorn or the wynn or and the yogh or . The use of i and j as well as u and v in early texts also differs at times from that in modern English texts and although these letters can be retained as well they are often modernised and so is vv by changing it to w and long by CHAPTER 8 364 changing it to a short s. These changes are often made silently within a quotation but such modernisation of sources should always be explained somewhere in the thesis in a note for instance attached to the first quotation in which you have modernised the language andor spelling. A number of other changes can be made to quotations to facilitate their use by the author but these alterations must be acknowledged in the quotation itself with interpolations enclosed in square brackets not parentheses which are not as a general rule appropriate for interpolated material and omissions marked by ellipsis points. Interpolations within square brackets might include The word sic to indicate an error in a text or something like recte 1350s which I used in square brackets above to provide the correct information. Glosses and definitions of foreign difficult or potentially misleading words as in Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote showers sweet The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote root Kolve Olson 1989 General Prologue 12 and A middle-class family might have owned only one book but that book would often resemble an entire library in parvo in small with its contents both extensive and extremely varied. Modern equivalents or translations of this sort differ from other interpolations in that they can be placed in parentheses instead of square brackets see Section 8.4 below. Variants found in other editions versions or manuscripts as in Many Cambridge MS Fell fawcouns and faire Hawkis of nobill ayere Casson 1949 Lincoln MS lines 4546. Explanations qualification and other comments as in among these developments was the transformation of this meditation designed for readers into twin meditational dramas that enact that reflective experience and could well have been performed though there is no evidence that they were in the authors priory CHAPTER 8 365 perhaps or the hall of a local gentleman or the streets of a nearby Yorkshire community Olson 2012 p.338. Grammatical changes or added words that enable better integration of the quotation and its meaning into the surrounding text and discussion as in the following example where the plural forms were and their are replaced with the singular forms was and his and the word less is added Roger Newton very likely the first of the books scribes whose similar script and language suggest shared training was paid less for his work Olson 2012 p.305. Although this sort of change can be used when necessary it is best if it is kept to a bare minimum in most cases your text should be worded to work with the unadjusted quotation. Changes that replace an initial capital with a lowercase letter and vice versa should in some styles see for instance the rigorous method in the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 pp.462463 and disciplines and particularly in legal and textual studies be enclosed in square brackets as the A an a in the source is in the following sentence Among these developments was the transformation of this meditation designed for readers into twin meditational dramas that enact that reflective experience and could well have been performed in the authors priory perhaps or the hall of a local gentleman or the streets of a nearby Yorkshire community Olson 2012 p.338. For more details on initial capitalisation in quotations see above. Comments about the addition of italics to a quotation should be enclosed in square brackets if they appear in the midst of a quotation as they do here for instance A middle-class family might have owned only one book italics mine but that book would often resemble an entire library in parvo in small with its contents both extensive and extremely varied. This indicates that only the italics on one book were added by the author quoting the passage not the italics on in parvo. When on the other hand you add all the italics that appear in a quotation the acknowledgement of the italics should come at the end of the CHAPTER 8 366 quotation along with the reference Taylor 2009 p.98 italics mine. The acknowledgement can use different wording italic font my own my emphasis etc. but the same form should be used in all instances in a thesis. Alternatively if all the italic font in all the quotations used in the thesis or one of its chapters is your own this can be explained in a single comment usually in a note attached to the first quotation that features such italic font for example italics here as in other quotations in this thesis or chapter are my own or more briefly all italic font in quotations is my own. While italics can be added to certain words and sections in a quotation in order to emphasise them or perhaps to make the presentation of foreign words consistent with the format you use elsewhere in your thesis quotations should not be placed entirely in italics which are not needed or correct for marking quotations in English. Question marks when added as queries to express doubt about the information provided in a quotation should be enclosed in square brackets immediately after the doubtful information and some explanation might be added as well A massive storm hit the region in the fall of 1479 or perhaps 1480 and appears to have resulted in extensive flooding. Please note that an exclamation mark enclosed in square brackets is neither an effective nor a professional way in which to comment on a quotation and should be avoided. Like additions to quotations omissions from quotations may be made for a number of reasons such as eliminating errors removing words and punctuation that do not work syntactically with the surrounding text and avoiding words or technical details that are not necessary to the argument and might actually distract the reader from the main points you want to make via the quotation. In all such cases the omission should be indicated by three stops known as ellipsis points with the stops either separated by spaces . . . which is the format I have employed in this book or closed up without CHAPTER 8 367 spaces but other punctuation sometimes appears along with the ellipsis points and sometimes not. The practices for using ellipsis points are in fact surprisingly various and complicated as the Chicago Manual of Styles detailed description of three different methods the three-dot method the three-or-four-dot method and the rigorous method makes clear 2003 p.459. The first is the simplest the second a refinement of the first and the third a refinement of both and elements from each can be combined to suit the needs of a particular work or the preference of an author as long as a consistent pattern is maintained throughout the work Chicago Manual of Style 2003 p.459. Other style guides tend to do just that use combinations of the three methods that is so instead of outlining here the three methods see instead the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 pp.459463 where they are discussed in detail I have summarised the common acceptable practices and noted the most important variations and exceptions If the omission represented by ellipsis points occurs within a single sentence the three points usually appear without any other punctuation for the most part monasteries must indeed have been among the finest of places . . . in late medieval England Olson 2012 p.291. Any unneeded punctuation is generally omitted along with the missing words but a comma colon or semicolon can be retained from the source if it is needed for syntax or readability it should appear either before or after the three ellipsis points depending on its placement in the original passage. When an omission extends across or involves more than one sentence in a strict three-dot method only the ellipsis points are necessary but a question mark or exclamation mark should be retained again either before or after the ellipsis points depending on its original position if it is necessary to the sense. It is also common used in the three-or-four-dot method for instance to include a full stop if the sentence preceding the omission ends in CHAPTER 8 368 a full stop or if the ellipsis points mark the omission of one or more sentences the full stop should appear up against the preceding sentence just as a normal full stop would with the ellipsis points following for a total of four stops. The material both before and after the omission should read as full sentences even if words have been omitted from them and the sentence following the ellipsis points should begin with a capital There were a number of exercises I wasnt able to do. . . . Perhaps I could try them again during the next session. In the rigorous method however if the last part of the sentence before the ellipsis points is omitted the ellipsis points preceded by a space should appear before the full stop There were a number of exercises I wasnt able to do . . . . Perhaps I could try them again during the next session. No ellipsis points should normally appear at the beginning or end of a quotation because it is understood that the quotation is an extract and that text precedes and follows the quoted material in the source. Ellipsis points can appear at the end of a quotation however if a sentence has deliberately been left unfinished and its unfinished nature should be emphasised to communicate your meaning effectively Please complete the following sentence My primary reason for reading is . . . . Ellipsis points can also appear at either the beginning or the end of a quotation in certain contexts such as legal texts and textual commentary in which the rigorous method is used and when you want to make it clear that the whole regulation perhaps or the whole poetic line has not been cited. Since ellipsis points are sometimes also used to indicate missing or illegible text in a quoted source if that text is missing at the beginning or end of the quotation ellipsis points will need to be used in that position . . . and the fire burned until Michaelmas. If you happen to use ellipsis points to indicate both missing or illegible passages in a source and your own omissions from the quoted text a distinction should be made between the two uses ideally by adding a bracketed comment after the ellipsis points used to indicate missing or illegible text in the original . . CHAPTER 8 369 . illegible and the fire burned until Michaelmas. As a general rule double usage of this kind should be explained for readers a note attached to the first quotation using ellipsis points in both ways could serve this purpose or the distinction could be clarified in the main discussion as the first quotation of this kind is introduced. Ellipsis points should not normally be enclosed in square brackets since ellipsis points represent an omission there is usually no need to mark them as an addition or interpolation as well. However if the text quoted already contains ellipsis points and you also need to use them to indicate your own omissions the ellipsis points that you add should be enclosed in square brackets and if there is any doubt as to why the difference can be explained in a note perhaps or in the main text in association with the first relevant quotation. In addition if you are using ellipsis points to indicate missing or illegible text in the source quoted enclosing the ellipsis points used to mark your own omissions in square brackets can be an effective mode of distinction. When poetry is quoted as embedded text omissions can be marked in the same way as they are in prose quotations. Similarly ellipsis points should be used when part of a line of displayed poetry is omitted For if heuene be on is ere . . . It is in cloistre or in scole by manye skiles I fynde. Kane Donaldson 1975 X.305306 When the beginning of the first line of poetry quoted is omitted however no ellipsis points are used the omission is instead indicated by the position of the first word of the quotation see the second block quotation from Piers Plowman in Section 8.1 above. When one or more whole lines of poetry are omitted from a block quotation a full line of spaced dots without any text can be used to mark the omission. CHAPTER 8 370 When a displayed quotation contains more than one paragraph and you need to mark the omission of intervening paragraphs ellipsis points should be added to the end of the paragraph preceding the omission. If you need to omit the first part of a paragraph in a block quotation you should place the ellipsis points immediately before the beginning of the retained text but after any paragraph indentation. As you are working at choosing integrating and altering quotations for your thesis always keep in mind that correct English sentence structure and syntax must be observed at all times and that quotations should always be logically integrated into surrounding text despite any changes or omissions. It is also essential that the changes or omissions you make to a quotation do not completely alter or otherwise misrepresent or distort the meaning of the original the omission from the Olson quotation in the first of the bulleted items immediately above is questionable for instance compare its meaning with that of the complete sentence in the second of the block quotations in Section 8.2 above. 8.4 Quoting and Translating languages Other than English Many doctoral candidates will need to quote material from languages other than modern English in their theses so some advice on quoting and translating such material may prove useful. Generally speaking the rules principles and practices used when quoting passages in English should be applied when quoting foreign languages as well so all that I have said about quotations in the earlier sections of this chapter applies here as well. There may however be special characters diacritics and particular conventions to follow for certain languages for more information on the use of foreign languages in English texts see Butcher et al. 2006 Section CHAPTER 8 371 6.6 and Appendices 5 7 9 and 10 the Chicago Manual of Style 2003 Chapter 10 and Ritter 2005 Chapter 12 all of which contain lists of the alphabets and special characters used in particular languages. The assumption behind quoting material in languages other than English is that the quotations will be understood by the intended audience which means that those readers will need to be fluent or specialists in the language quoted andor the topic discussed in a literary study of a German author for instance it can usually be assumed that interested readers will understand the original language and in a thesis aimed at classicists it is most likely that passages in Greek and Latin will be accessible to those readers. You should therefore have a good idea of who your intended readers are and what languages they are likely to read if you think English translations will help your readers understand the quotations you use and thus your argument and thesis as a whole it is wise to provide such translations. In many cases providing an English translation of a passage originally in a foreign language is more appropriate than quoting the original language. You should however inform readers that they are reading a translation which is usually done by quoting from a reliable published English translation and providing an appropriate reference. As a general rule only if an available translation is unsuitable for your purposes should the passages you wish to quote be newly translated. If you do use your own translations in your thesis you should include some indication that the translation is your own. This can be achieved most easily immediately after a translated quotation by adding in parentheses along with the reference or in a note my translation or translation mine. If you have yourself translated all of the quotations from non-English texts or from any one non-English text that you use in your thesis an explanation in conjunction with the first instance whether with the parenthetical reference or in a note can explain the situation All translations of passages quoted from foreign languages are my own CHAPTER 8 372 would work or perhaps Unless otherwise noted all translations from Les Misrables are my own. Remember that while previously published English translations and your own new English translations of foreign texts are acceptable for quotation in scholarly writing retranslations are not for example if a book was originally published in English but you have used it in a German translation any quotations from that book should nonetheless be taken from the original English not translated back into English from the German translation the German translation might be included along with the original source in your reference list however. If language is a focus in your thesis or quotations are discussed in detail you may want to provide both the original language and a translation of any quotations. There are various different ways of supplying this combination the foreign language or the translation might precede the other the original might be provided in full with only partial translations or the translation might be complete with only occasional words from the original the original and the translation might both be embedded or set as block quotations or one might appear in the text in one of these forms while the other is relegated to a note translations of poetry might take the form of verse or prose and for quotations from Middle or Old English texts a more modern version of difficult words might be provided as glosses. The following are common formats and practices for providing foreign-language and translated quotations Original and translation of an entire quotation whether the original language or the translated version is provided first in the text the other should normally follow and be enclosed in either parentheses or square brackets. University or department guidelines will rarely indicate a preference for square brackets or parentheses in such situations but style guides seem to recommend parentheses more often than square brackets as in the following example In Watts 1912 p.462 the line reads CHAPTER 8 373 Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei I was saying these things and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart. When square brackets are used they tend to be used more often in displayed quotations while parentheses are the usual choice for the second version in embedded quotations. Occasionally a slash with spaces on both sides is used between the original and translated versions of a quotation in which case no brackets are necessary Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei I was saying these things and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart but this is rare compared with the use of brackets and parentheses. If the second version in a block quotation is the original language it can be set in italics instead of brackets and while this may be acceptable for distinguishing the original language in such situations quotations in any language should not usually be set in italic font. If the second version of a quotation either in the original language or a translation is presented in a note instead of in the main text no brackets are used in the note instead the passage in the note should be placed in quotation marks. Original translation and reference if a second version of a quotation whether it is the original or a translation is needed as well as a parenthetical reference there are four possibilities. The second version of the quotation can be provided in square brackets and the reference in parentheses both can be provided in the same set of parentheses with a semicolon separating the two each can be provided in a separate set of parentheses with the closing parenthesis of the first backing onto the opening one of the second or either the second version or the reference can be provided in a note instead. The first and last of these methods are probably the best in terms of both clarity and style with the first taking this form Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei I was saying these things and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart Watts 1912 p.462. CHAPTER 8 374 Entire original or translation with partial translation or original when either the original language or the translation of an entire quotation is provided along with only certain words of the translation or the original parentheses or square brackets are used inside the main quotation to enclose the words provided from the other version. This method is also the preferred method for providing modern equivalents of Old and Middle English words. The added words often appear in italic font especially if they represent the foreign language in which case italics allow you to use the nominative form of a word from an inflected language see Section 6.2.2 above but roman font andor quotation marks can be used instead particularly for translated words. Parentheses seem to be the most common choice for such interpolated words whether they are in the original language or translations I was saying these things haec and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart cor and parentheses in such situations have the advantage of distinguishing the foreign or translated words from other interpolations or comments that you may need to add in square brackets. Though used less frequently than parentheses for adding original or translated words square brackets are nonetheless appropriate for this purpose because the words from the second version are interpolated into the quotation and such brackets are especially appropriate if you wish to offer any comments along with the words from the second version. If however either parentheses or square brackets are used for other purposes in the quoted passage parentheses for parenthetical information provided by the original author for example or square brackets for variant readings that you include it will be clearest not to use that type of bracket for words from the original text or a translation as well. Quotation marks when quoting and translating foreign languages in the form of block quotations in the main text of a thesis no quotation marks are necessary around either the original or the CHAPTER 8 375 translation. If however original and translated versions are embedded in your text or presented in a note quotation marks should be placed around both. Often the quotation marks enclose the whole structure with the opening quotation mark placed at the beginning of the first version quoted and the closing quotation mark placed after the closing parenthesis or bracket surrounding the second version as in this example In Watts 1912 p.462 the line reads Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei I was saying these things and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart. This is certainly the format that should be adopted if square brackets are used to enclose the second version and it is also the best approach when partial translations or occasional original words are interpolated either in parentheses or square brackets in an embedded quotation see my example using the same Latin passage in the preceding bulleted paragraph. When however an original version or translation follows the other and is enclosed in parentheses two sets of quotation marks are sometimes used with the first surrounding the first version and the second appearing within the parentheses and enclosing the second version Dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei I was saying these things and weeping in the bitterest contrition of my heart. Although it may be appropriate in a single thesis to use one format for quoting a foreign language in one situation and a different one in another or to provide more of the original or more of the translation in one case than in another in order to communicate whatever might be necessary to enable readers to understand the quotations you use consistency of style and practice should be observed as much as possible throughout a thesis. The consistent use of brackets parentheses or square for the same purposes in all quotations presented in a thesis is particularly important for ensuring that the source is accurately represented and the reader is able to determine what is intended in each case so their use needs to be carefully CHAPTER 8 376 planned to accommodate all the situations presented by the quoted passages and any remaining anomalies should be clearly explained. Finally your own translations of any quotations should represent the original as faithfully as possible achieve a scholarly standard of correct English with allowances for informal speech or writing if that is what you happen to be quoting and present the material in the way that best serves your particular purposes and supports or advances your overall argument. PRS Tip If your thesis contains your own translations of quotations or even a selection of words or phrases borrowed from a language other than English and you are planning to engage the services of a professional proofreader it is always a good idea to let the proofreader know that the translations are your own. An acknowledgement of the kind I have recommended above indicating that the translations are your own will communicate this fact to your proofreader as it does to other readers but you may want to make your translating activities more explicit in any instructions you provide for your proofreader so that he or she feels free to check and correct if necessary the English of your translations. This is especially important if your first language is not English because it is often difficult to express in a language with which you are less familiar the subtleties or profundity of the quotations that you have deemed worthy of use. If you also quote a passage in its original language your proofreader may be able to judge how accurately you have conveyed the original authors meaning many of the proofreaders used by PRS for instance read and work in other languages as well as English but even if the original is not available to your proofreader he or she will be able to determine whether your translation is clear and grammatically correct and also whether it expresses what other aspects of your text suggest the quotation should express. You CHAPTER 8 377can then compare your proofreaders suggestions with the original text and make whatever adjustments might be necessary. Dealing with translated material is only one among many reasons to treat yourself to the proofreading services offered by PRS which are quick affordable and completely confidential. The PRS drop box at httpswww.hightail.comuCEDS offers a safe and efficient way to submit your writing for proofreading and the PRS team is more than happy to answer questions and provide any help you may need 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday. Please visit the PRS web site at httpwww.proof-reading-service.com for further information. CHAPTER 8 379 American Medical Association Manual of Style Online A Guide for Authors and Editors 10th edn. 2014. The American Medical Association. Available at httpwww.amamanualofstyle.com. Blackburn B. Holford-Strevens L. 1999. The Oxford Companion to the Year An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning. Oxford Oxford University Press. Butcher J. Drake C. Leach M. 2006. Butchers Copy-Editing The Cambridge Handbook for Editors Copy-Editors and Proofreaders 4th edn. E-book version. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Cheney C.R. 2000. A Handbook of Dates for Students of British History revised by M. Jones. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. The Chicago Manual of Style 15th edn. 2003. Chicago IL University of Chicago Press. Dunleavy P. 2003. Authoring a PhD How To Plan Draft Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation. Kindle version. Hound Mills Basingstoke Hampshire Palgrave Macmillan. Joyner R.L. Rouse W.A. Glatthorn A.A. 2013. Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation A Step-by-Step Guide. Thousand Oaks CA Corwin. Kopka H. Daly P.W. 2003. Guide to LaTeX 4th edn. Boston MA Addison- Wesley Publishing. Kottwitz S. 2011. LaTeX Beginners Guide. Birmingham Packt Publishing. Lamport L. 1994. Latex Users Guide and Reference Manual 2nd edn. Boston MA Addison-Wesley Publishing. Lipson C. 2011. Cite Right A Quick Guide to Citation Styles MLA APA Chicago the Sciences Professions and More. Kindle version. Chicago IL University of Chicago Press. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINg 380 Miles M.B. Huberman A.M. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis An Expanded Sourcebook. Thousand Oaks CA Sage Publications. Miller C. Swift K. 1995. The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing for Writers Editors and Speakers 3rd edn. London Womens Press. Mittelbach F. Goossens M. Braams J Carlisle D. Rowley C. 2004. The LaTeX Companion 2nd edn. Boston MA Addison-Wesley Publishing. Modern Language Association Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing 3rd edn. 2008. New York NY Modern Language Association. Monmonier M. 1993. Mapping It Out Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Chicago IL University of Chicago Press. Murray R. 2011. How To Write a Thesis 3rd edn. Maidenhead Berkshire Open University Press. Oliver P. 2014. Writing Your Thesis 3rd edn. Kindle version. London Sage Publications. Olson L. 2014a. Guide to Academic and Scientific Publication How To Get Your Writing Published in Scholarly Journals. Letchworth Garden City Hertfordshire eacademia. Olson L. 2014b. On-Screen Proofreading A Handbook for Editors of Academic and Scientific Articles. E-book version. Letchworth Garden City Hertfordshire eacademia. Paltridge B. Starfield S. 2007. Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language A Handbook for Supervisors. New York NY Routledge. Peters P. 2004. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINg 381 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6th edn. 2010. Washington DC American Psychological Association. The Purdue Online Writing Lab. 19952015. Purdue University Writing Lab. Available at httpsowl.english.purdue.eduowl. Ritter R.M. 2005. New Harts Rules The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors. E-book version. Oxford Oxford University Press. Roberts C.M. 2010. The Dissertation Journey A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning Writing and Defending Your Dissertation. Thousand Oaks CA Corwin. Rudestam K.E. Newton R.R. 2007. Surviving Your Dissertation A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks CA Sage Publications. Stahl D. Kerchelich K. 2001. Abbreviations Dictionary 10th edn. Originated by Ralph De Sola. Boca Raton FL CRC Press. Trask R.L. 1997. Penguin Guide to Punctuation. Harmondsworth London Penguin. Tufte E.R. 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire CT Graphics Press. Turabian K.L. Booth W.C. Colomb G.G. Williams J.M. the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 2013. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers Theses and Dissertations Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. Kindle version. Chicago IL University of Chicago Press. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINg 2015 ABOUTTHISBOOk PhD Success is designed to assist doctoral students who are writing theses in the English language. Suitable for use in a wide range of academic and scientific disciplines and subject areas it focuses on the writing process of a thesis with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear correct professional and persuasive. Individual chapters address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefitting from commentary and criticism drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English citing quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations. The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English so it carefully explains the scholarly styles conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.