- Talk in past tense. Things will have been completed by the time someone reads the document.
- Remember to talk about facts, never opinion.
- Don’t use “I” or “we”. Abstract yourself away from the project. An example of this is “I created a simple tool” could be changed to “A simple tool was developed”.
- Never make statements without a reference.
General referencing
- One of the simple things to keep track of is whenever you have a table or a figure, make sure you mention it in Figure XX where the XX is pointing to the figure number.
- Always introduce a table or a figure to the reader before they see it. Word has automatic figure and table numbering to help with this process.
Abstract
- We generally write the abstract at the very end after the work is done. It is basically just an outline of what the project is about and what the final results are.
Abbreviations
- Have a list of abbreviations at the start of the thesis if they occur a number of times in the document.
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Research question
Have a look online what a research question looks like and add one here.
Aims and objectives
The aims section is what you planned to do and the objective section is the tangible things you did to make it happen.
One example of an aim is “Research the literature in the area related to XXXX” and the objective would be “Write a literature review of the area”
Contributions
Contributions section should be added. This is
What you did that was different from other things in the past, could be three or four
Outline in the first chapter what your “Key contributions” are from this research. E.g.,
“The key contributions of this research include”
- A literature review of the state of the art of XXX
- A live system that XXXX
- Implementation of a unique XXX
Thesis outline
Outline each chapter, and what each chapter covers. A brief description.
Summary
Outline what they just read and introduce the next chapter.
Chapter 2 – Background
Introduction
The background chapter, painting the picture for what you’re about to do. This is before the lit review. You are setting the stage for what you’re about to do. Think of what helped you make the decisions that influenced your project
Background
Outline what your doing and what information you gathered to describe the project and issues.
Summary
Chapter 3 – Literature Review
Intro
Review
Summary
Chapter 4 – Methodology
Introduction
- Overall design of the system
- How it was set up
- If diagrams are needed for the classes
- Wireframes
Summary
Introduce the next chapter
Chapter 5 – System Analysis and Design
Introduction
Summary
Outline what they just read and introduce the next chapter.
Chapter 6 – Implementation
Introduction
Describe how your system is put together. You can add snippets of code, but try to stay away from code screenshots.
Summary
Chapter 7- Testing
Formally describe the tests that you are performing. Provide each test with a unique ID. Then after the tests have been described, outline what the existing input is, what the test is, how the application performed and if the test was a pass or a fail.
Automated UI tests or Unit Testing
An example of this would be for the location services to be turned on for an app.
We will call this, test #1.
Test Number: 1
Input: Not required
State: Location service turned off
Test description: Application should not allow a user to proceed unless location is turned on.
Expected result: User should be prompted for location.
Testing result section later………..
Test: #1
Result: Pass
Result description:
User was prompted to turn location services on when it was turned off.
Chapter 8 – Conclusion
Introduction
Write a conclusion
Review the aims and objectives
Future Work
Outline what the future work would be if you had more time.
Summary
Outline what they just read and introduce the next chapter.
