How To Write Your PhD Thesis

Make the process as enjoyable, or at least as tolerable, as possible

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The advice given below is based on my own experience of writing my PhD thesis. The caveats are that: 1. I love writing anyway. However, getting nearly 50 000 words and accruing many, many representative images of my data was still daunting for me. And; 2. This is written from the perspective of the biological sciences. I however believe it is adaptable for other fields.

Before you start writing

• Think about whether you’re going to start writing during your PhD, or after data collection. While the latter isn’t ideal, it isn’t the end of the world. It’s also what I experienced (and many other PhD’s I’ve spoken to, too). That being said, I’d advise you not to put off writing and start as soon as you can.
• Yes, you have (or will have) ‘enough’ for your thesis. A PhD project is supposed to be a novel piece of work, but is not, in and of itself, a closed book. It is absolutely OK to write even when going through feelings of self-doubt. Don’t wait for those feelings to fade before starting to write.
• Have a look at theses in your subject area. There are many available online and you can probably access many more through your university library. Just browsing through these…