Thesis Writing
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Free pamphlets to download
Our current range of free pamphlets can be downloaded.
Originality |
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Reviewing the literature |
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Presenting a poster |
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Supervision |
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Staying motivated |
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Managing Postgraduate Coursework |
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These pamphlets are also available in hard copy from ASU.
Useful links
This is an online 12-week course for students commencing a PhD by research, focusing on the common elements and features of postgraduate research and the required first-year tasks. As well as a wealth of information and advice on making a successful start to your PhD, the course includes videos, quizzes, checklists, animated literature searching tutorials and a range of discussion forums. An online course facilitator fosters development of an interactive peer-community, and the course experience provides a useful introduction to online communication and resources.
The online home of postgraduate coursework students.
A very practical site where you can learn about all the resources available to you as a postgrad undertaking a degree by coursework.Find out what all those acronyms mean, the expectations regarding academic writing style, how to approach working with supervisors, making connections and getting organized.
CourseWorks is a project of Melbourne Experience Support Programs in collaboration with the School of Graduate Studies.
A site from the UK Grad Program with exercises designed to help you assess your competency as a researcher. The site also vers personal and other skills you would expect to develop while undertaking a doctorate.
As well as being a good resource for writing a literature review, the University of Melbourne's library page also includes links to evaluating material found on the web and an extensive reference list.
An excellent step by step guide to producing a thesis from Monash University. It covers setting up and designing your project, developing your thinking, writing and oral communication skills anc actually writing the thesis.
Thesis proposals: a brief guide
This guide from the University of NSW is for students who are enrolled in a postgraduate research degree and who have been asked to submit a thesis proposal.
An excellent site from the University of South Australia on getting started with your research, refining your research topic, research design, an introduction to research ethics, and resources for superviors.
Coursework or cursework?: issues, strategies and tips for postgraduate coursework students
Dr Wendy Larcombe, Francesca Bussey, Anthony McCosker and Chi Baik from the Academic Skills Unit look at the challenges of PG coursework and offer strategies and tips for managing your time and study, undertaking a minor thesis and adapting to the academic culture of postgraduate coursework.
Written by Joe Wolfe from the Physics department at UNSW. This guide to thesis writing gives simple and practical advice on the problems of getting started, getting organized, dividing the huge task into less formidable pieces and working on those pieces. It was originally written for graduate students in physics, and most of the specific examples given are from that discipline. Nevertheless, it has been widely used and appreciated by graduate students in diverse fields in the sciences and humanities.
Writing a Dissertation :practical advice on starting, drafting, and completing your dissertation from the Writing Centre, the Uuniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Thesis-writing for perfectionists
Dr Wendy Larcombe, from the Academic Skills Unit, discusses the pitfalls of perfectionism and writer's block and suggests strategies to help you recover from thesis-writing blues. This document downloads in PDF format
PhD: first thoughts to finished writing
This site from the University of Queensland includes tips and answers to FAQs about conceptualising, organising and writing a PhD thesis. It also considers the major stages in the process of completing a PhD.
The UK grad program site is supported and funded by the UK Research Council and the Arts & Humanities Research Board. The site provides a wealth of support material and websites for postgraduate research students.
Australian digital theses program
The aim of the ADT project is to create a national collaborative distributed database of digitised theses produced at Australian Universities. The ADT database provides access to PhD and Masters by Research theses only.
Association for support of graduate students
ASGS is a service organization for graduate students and graduate-degree-granting institutions in the USA. The site features articles of interest tfrom their regular publication Thesis news
School of Graduate Research, The University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association (UMPA). UMPA's Postgraduate Toolkit can be accessed online in PDF format. It's a great starting point for both PhD and coursework postgrad students.