Working and proofreading the text of the thesis

Posted on 4th Apr 2016 14:54:12 in Translation, Proofreading

1. The daily routine

Proofreading and working on the text of the thesis, the author notes that his powers are waning fast. To kick-start with a few pages a day, gradually reducing the daily rate, and then did make a long break. One of the possible reasons for this decrease in performance - an unreasonable schedule. Dissertators like to declare themselves as "owls", which gives them the moral right not to start work on the text of the dissertation to late evening.

Military service has taught us that, if circumstances require, any owl pretty soon learns to sing the lark. Anyway, worth a try. Lie down in the 8-9 pm and get up no later than 4:00 am. A bucket of cold water on the head of a large cup of coffee, and you will wake up those creative powers, the existence of which you were unaware. But scientists - a stubborn people, and after a day of senseless running around our candidate for a degree, households wishing good night, sits at the kitchen table and tries to use the coffee and cigarettes to beat rolls on his stupor. Do not be stubborn, follow good advice, and you will save time, energy and health. If you - happy graduate student and are not obliged to go every day "in the presence" to the nine in the morning, try another option mode. One and a half hours of sleep (no more and no less) with about six or seven in the evening, lifting, bucket of water, a cup of coffee and "ah yes, Pushkin!". Four to five hours of hard work and again hung up. During the day you can reprint written at night and do anything, just do not miss the evening sleep.

Any of these options shifted mode reduces the number of your contact with people that also saves time and effort. A certain detachment from the bustle - a prerequisite of any creativity. Pliny complained that Rome is not possible to write: interfere with the secular responsibilities. But then it was not the chief evil - phone! For phone calls your loved ones will respond: "He (a) sleeping wake.?" - "Thank you, I'll call some other time." So which shifts the mode and live on their own planet.

There are two more sworn enemy of the author - alcohol and television. If the first evil most of the creative people somehow learned to cope, at least temporarily, the second enemy is becoming more insidious. Modern TV live on advertising revenue, the main requirement of the advertiser is: looking at the screen, the viewer does not find the strength to break away from him. Organize your life so that never even pass by operating the TV. "I'll see five minutes and come back to the table," - to do this, you need to have abnormal willpower. Of course, from your workplace you do not hear the TV. If you find it difficult to "put yourself at the table", follow the advice of Professor VI Runner: work in the same place, the water and at the same time and in the same clothes. All these little things will help you come to terms with the inevitable.

2. "One Spirit"

Professor Alexey Maksimenkov (1906-1968) in his excellent book "Lectures on the methodology of research" (1972) gives wise advice: take breaks between writing chapters of the thesis, but every single chapter to write in one breath, as the content is already written parts of fresh in mind. This is a great rule is interpreted broadly: the entire thesis (the first version of it) should be written as soon as possible. Of course, you will be required a large "power", but the total amount of effort will be reduced significantly. There are two reasons:

Man surprisingly quickly forgets even that he wrote, as a result there are repetitions and contradictions in the data and their interpretation.

Man instinctively seeks to escape from the intellectual and emotional stress associated with writing. Postponing work on a dissertation, you feel every day more and more the desire to forget about it forever. Bitter is better to swallow quickly.

The temporary rate is difficult to determine, but in two months you have to cope with the "first option" the master's thesis. There were times when it was done in two weeks or a month. So, eight weeks is probably a reasonable period, provided that the author is at this time is to go "in the presence of" no more than once a week and will not be burdened beyond measure household chores.

3. The problem of the presentation sequence

Here is a blank sheet of paper or a computer monitor, which you should fully and clearly set out some facts and explain their significance. This is for the writers - almost impossible task to proofread. According to the experience of its first publications, he already knows what "stress a clean slate." The main problem is for him not to find successful expression (although it is difficult), but in the presentation sequence. Incredibly difficult to say anything not to miss anything and never repeat ( "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"). Dissertator corresponds to the situation of one of the two possible reactions. The more common of them - the failure to start, a screeching halt. Another option - an abundance of words, throwing from one subject to another and gradually growing sense of chaos.

Do you feel intuitively that there is a presentation system that will allow you to intelligently and just talk about the subject. You manage to find some of its elements, but the whole system is slipping from your mind's eye.

The synthetic method. The first way to get out of this situation is as follows. After much agonizing attempts to determine the optimal order of presentation of the author, driven by the timing of delivery of the dissertation, it leaves these efforts and presents the material fragments, starting with the fact that it is easier to describe. Fragments of the best in print, he lays out a broad flat surface (in other words, on the floor) and browsing the contents of each eye, it provides a brief title (in one or two words). Then he runs through the eye to these working titles and soon notices that there is some closeness between the contents of two or three pieces and places them side by side. ., Then in the same way there is a first ideological proofreading. The second, third, etc. Later, unable to find a logical connection between these groups and combine them into a second-order group, those - in the third-order group. Generally, this procedure ends systematization. Fragments have one after the other and by means of short connecting proposal to create the text. Note that to do this on the monitor (without printing drafts) New hard the author, but rather - it is impossible. "Depth" of the material in more than two steps creates too great a burden on the memory of dissertation. The procedure is to systematize the fragments you will spend faster if from the very beginning decide for themselves the question of what exactly is a system-forming factor in your field of science, that is, on what basis should be classified material. Correctly defining a system-forming factor, you think through the best sequence of data presentation.

The analytical method. In the center of a large sheet of heavy paper with a pencil draw a circle and write it in the title of the dissertation, for example: "The Impact of Factor X to object Y in the Z conditions." Names of major parts of the future of the text put to the smaller circles, arranged around the core, such as: introduction, literature review, research methods, and so on up to the conclusions and list of literature... We make one more crushing operation. For example, research methods will be divided into:

object of study - patients of a certain category, healthy testers, laboratory animals or cell culture;

ways of influencing the object - methods for the treatment administered to an organism or cell culture is a biologically active substance, altered environmental conditions, etc .;.

registered biological object parameters - the physiological, biochemical, and other indicators.

If you doubt the need for any circuit element, then tagging it the way you want, for example, instead of a smooth circle draw a wavy line. When you write text, the question "is needed - not necessary" will be solved by itself, and to the point to have a good stock ideas. Since the boundaries of the future head (or the head of a major section), its elements and relations between them are almost finalized before the first word of the text will be on the paper. An even greater concentration of thought is achieved by using symbols and pictograms. The author covers one eye is many times more material than if it had been expressed in words. Manipulation of ideas "pure", without attempts at verbal expression leads to the structure of the future presentation of the most logical and clear. Random repeat of semantic units almost eliminated: When strict logical sequence of elements to be determined, you will only comment on it in a few words. This will be the text of your work ..

Compilation. The similarity of the two ways of structuring the material obviously just the opposite course of action - consolidation in the first case and the second crushing. Enlarge the material, the author, as a rule, does not use a symbolic record of facts and ideas, and fragments of texts. There semantic unity easily can be replaced by word similarity and synthesis will become a simple compilation. The attentive reader will definitely feel it. So the choice of the method - for you. If you have chosen a synthetic method to make the most brief and headlines for all parts of the text (you can use abbreviations, symbols and icons) and to work with them, not paying attention to the suitability of the last sentence of one fragment to the first sentence of another. Changes in them you will have time to make while editing.

The disadvantage of "analytical" method is that it requires some training, but the time required to quickly pay off the presentation quality. However, it sometimes happens that the abundance of material or theme abstraction works break all the attempts of the author, already has some experience in the scientific and literary work, use this writing text metod.Pri thesis is very important to always remember that you write it not for themselves, but for the reader . Therefore, the structure of the dissertation should reflect the nature of the subject of your research, not your sequence of experiments and observations, that is the very truth (as far as possible, of course), not your throwing in an attempt to find her.

4. Not more than one manuscript draft

If you are still writing the first draft by hand, follow a rule: no more than one hand-written draft, that is written and immediately reprint. The reasons for the Board are as follows:

human nature less critical attitude to his own work than for the others. The author begins the text written by him seems clear and does not require elaboration. Print form generates at least a small "alienation effect" and therefore to such a text is easier to take a critical and editing will be more successful.

printing plate can cover just look great piece of text, which also makes it easier to edit.

dissertation volume measured by the amount of text typed pages (remember, the only one page can hold approximately 1800 characters, counting with spaces).

5. Control the volume of written

It is desirable to have the early stages of work on the text to be guided in how much you have done and, most importantly, not too much wrote. Approximate amount of chapters and sections of the master's thesis is as follows: Introduction - about five pages, proofreading, review of the literature - 20-25, Methods - 15 Results and discussion - about a hundred pages. These approximate figures apply only to the text in the strict sense, excluding tables and figures, the amount of which is nothing but common sense is not limited.

Edit the text to the author and the supervisor is more convenient if the first version of the thesis is printed with a wide brim. This allows the insertion of an extensive, numerous illustrations and sketches of working marks. The latter is necessary when reading finds it necessary to move a large piece of text from one section to another thesis, eliminate duplication of, or in addition to check the facts. Expand the field while working on a computer is not difficult.

6. Avoid duplication of text

Each time, sitting at the computer, to change something in the text, start with the fact that remove from the text file copy, and work only with it, and the original file (the previous version of the text) to submit to a specially created folder called "Archives". It is also desirable in the name of the file to include the date of its creation or change, such as "head Rezultaty_100922", which means that you last worked with the file September 22, 2010. If you change the date included in the file name, you can keep in the working directory 2-3 last version, built in chronological order.

If you are working on the text alternately at home and at work, it is necessary to immediately train yourself at the end of work is required to rewrite a new version of the file on a USB flash drive and mark it "100922_domoy" or "100922_na service." Almost every author happened breed computer version of his text, and then the same edit to make several times. And this problem can be solved purely "machine" by: has text comparison program allocation changes, and so forth, but the vast majority of authors in your computer to the development of such delights do not reach and simply "write in Word'e"...

7. References

Sometimes the author feels the need to speak about the same subject in two or more sections (sections of chapters). In this case, he should choose the chapter or that section, the content of which corresponds to the piece of text to the greatest degree, and in the other place the reference. If the heads of sections numbered references are short and do not disturb the course of the narrative, such as "the question of the (That's) we considered in Section 3.2" or "discussion of these results, see section 5.3.".

It may happen that the fragment will equally match the content of the two chapters. Place it anywhere. In the process of editing your dissertation change much, and then, if you see fit, you change places and sending fragment.

8. The sequence of writing the chapters and sections of text

Beginners Author difficult to decide in what order to prepare the dissertation chapters. Most often it begins with a review of literature, because he feels the urgent need to bring together all that he had learned from books and magazines on the subject of his research. During the review of the following methods - the author is easier to talk about something specific. Then he presented the results, analyze them in the discussion (or write some "complex" Heads RESULTS AND DISCUSSION - acceptable either of these two options, as discussed in detail in the relevant chapters of this book) and formulate conclusions. It would seem, is supplemented by some optional accessories thesis - the introduction, bibliography, table of contents, etc. -.. and the first version of the text can be represented by the supervisor. It was then, and it turns out that the findings do not meet any standards adopted for the thesis or plan manager.

In general, the conclusions you radically alter, and it turns out that you need to make significant changes in the results (unnecessary to confirm the findings of a new version - remove the missing - add). Discussion will change even more. A description of some research techniques will be unnecessary, while others require a more detailed presentation.

Even if all this does not happen (which is very unlikely), so litobzor necessarily be inconsistent with its purpose. This - the rule without exceptions. The author, who passed on the century more than fifty different exams, can not abandon the entrenched habits and instead of proof of the need for this particular study prepares a lengthy summary of all he knows on the selected theme. It turns out that litobzor need to write again (this again, any processing of the old text does not give the desired result). So what is left of the text? Many fragments of 10-12 lines and a sense of their own inadequacy. Flour creativity strengthen the spirit of the author and give him valuable experience, but leads to a loss of time and effort.