11. Thesis Completion

The thesis write-up is considered a major part of the thesis project. The report should include a clear statement of the problem and why it is of interest or importance, a description of the history and background literature on the subject, a statement of the author's work and observations, a discussion of the author's findings in relation to those of predecessors, the author's conclusions and suggestions for further work. Extensive data, code, or mathematical derivations should be in appendices rather than in the body of the report. Specific bibliographic citations should be included whenever reference is made to documents or other communications. It must be well written, clearly organized, and contain no stylistic or grammatical errors. Supervisors are encouraged to require early drafts, to provide criticism of the writing as well as the technical content, to require re-writes, and to insist that the final document conform to accepted standards of technical writing. The final grade should be based in part on the writing quality of the thesis.