Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 1/

Topic: Research

Contents

Title
Abstract
Introduction
Methodology
Expected Results
References
Budget
Gantt chart

1. Title

Write your thesis title in about 13 words. Just remember Friday the 13th if you have triskaidekaphobia. Or perhaps October 13 if you are a devotee of Our Lady of Fatima. As a rule of thumb, do not go beyond two lines for your thesis title in a given thesis template.

Remember that your thesis title is the first thing that the reader sees if they pick up your thesis on the shelf or search for it in your library catalog and online search engines like Google. A good title should accurately reflect the contents of your thesis. This is truth in advertising, since your thesis title is already an ad for your buyers—your potential readers, which includes your thesis adviser and panel members. Will they buy your idea and read the rest of your proposal or your full thesis? Many marketing campaigns can succeed or fail with just a single sentence in a billboard ad or in Google Adsense, and millions of pesos can be gained or lost in the process. So invest time in writing a good thesis title. Otherwise, nobody will read your work or after reading it will feel that he or she has been duped by an online seller who cannot deliver on his promise.

A thesis title usually relates two or more phrases in a unique way. Here is one example:

Ershkov, S. and Rachinskaya, A., 2020. Semi-analytical solution for the trapped orbits of satellite near the planet in ER3BP. Archive of Applied Mechanics, pp.1-16.

This leads to the following phrase decomposition:

Phrase 1 = "semi-analytical solution"
Phrase 2 = "for the trapped orbits"
Phrase 3 = "of satellite"
Phrase 4 = "near the planet"
Phrase 5 = "in ER3BP"

2. Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of your proposed thesis. Limit your abstract to about 3 to 4 sentences. The abstract should contain a statement of your problem, your method, and your expected result.

Actually, writing an abstract is no different from a 30-second sales pitch, which you can hear in TV ads or read in magazines. Here is an example:

Problem: You have a scar in your face? You are young and pretty, but that scar makes you feel ugly?
Method: Try our product XYZ. Apply the cream lightly on the scar area everyday after your morning shower. Easy isn't it?
Expected Result: Your scar will be gone after 7 days. All that will be left is a youthful looking skin, making you feel really pretty.

Let's consider a particular example of an abstract in the physics literature to see if we can identify the abstract's component parts:

Semi-analytical solution for the trapped orbits of satellite near the planet in ER3BP

Sergey Ershkov, Alla Rachinskaya

In this paper, we present a new ansatz for solving equations of motion for the trapped orbits of the infinitesimal mass (satellite), which is locked in the space trap to be moving near the planet in case of the elliptic restricted problem of three bodies, ER3BP (with Keplerian elliptic trajectories of primaries Sun and planet around each other). A new type of the solving procedure is implemented here to obtain the coordinates of the infinitesimal mass (satellite) with its orbit located near the planet. The system of equations of motion was applied for obtaining of the semi-analytic and analytic solutions. It is obtained that two cartesian coordinates (in a plane of mutual rotation of primaries Sun and planet around each other) depend on the true anomaly and a function which determines the quasi periodic character of solution, while the third coordinate (perpendicular to the plane of rotation of primaries) is quasi-periodically varying with true anomaly.

Here is the anatomy of the abstract:

Problem = "In this paper, we present a new ansatz for solving equations of motion for the trapped orbits of the infinitesimal mass (satellite), which is locked in the space trap to be moving near the planet in case of the elliptic restricted problem of three bodies, ER3BP (with Keplerian elliptic trajectories of primaries Sun and planet around each other)."
Method = "A new type of the solving procedure is implemented here to obtain the coordinates of the infinitesimal mass (satellite) with its orbit located near the planet. The system of equations of motion was applied for obtaining of the semi-analytic and analytic solutions."
Results = "It is obtained that two cartesian coordinates (in a plane of mutual rotation of primaries Sun and planet around each other) depend on the true anomaly and a function which determines the quasi periodic character of solution, while the third coordinate (perpendicular to the plane of rotation of primaries) is quasi-periodically varying with true anomaly."

3. Introduction

The Introduction section of a thesis proposal should accomplish two things:

Define your terms
Show that your specific problem has not been studied before

These two aims can be woven together in the same paragraph.

Let us recall the phrase decomposition of the the article title of Eshkov and Rachinskaya (2020):

Phrase 1 = "semi-analytical solution"
Phrase 2 = "for the trapped orbits"
Phrase 3 = "of satellite"
Phrase 4 = "near the planet"
Phrase 5 = "in ER3BP"

The article has a very short introduction, because the article is catered to specialists in the field. But if you will write your thesis proposal, you will need to discuss the the terms and distinguish them from their contraries, in the same way as St. Paul defines love:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated...." (1 Cor 13:4)

Here is one possible outline for your Introduction:

Paragraph 1: Discuss ER3BP (Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem). Distinguish three-body from many-body, restricted from non-restricted, and elliptic from non-elliptic.
Paragraph 2: Discuss the literature about ER3BP of satellites near to and far from the planet. What are their methods of attacking the problem?
Paragraph 3: Distinguish analytical from semi-analytical solutions.
Paragraph 4: Distinguish trapped from non-trapped orbits.
Paragraph 5: Discuss the literature about semi-analytical solutions for trapped orbits. Were they also applied to satellites and planets?
Paragraph 6: Restate your thesis title as a problem or as an objective. (See the last paragraph of the Introduction of the authors.) Your review of related literature in the previous paragraphs have already shown that no one else is doing exactly what you wish to do.

Remember that not all readers are specialists in your field—even your professors—so they need to be briefed on the meanings of your words and the story behind them. Or as Gandalf would say:

'Indeed, I know them all and all their history, and despite your scorn, foul Mouth of Sauron, you cannot say as much.'—Gandalf to the Mouth of Sauron

4. Methodology

Methodology has two parts, though they need not be explicitly stated nor clearly demarcated:

Materials
Procedure

Materials refer to the basic building blocks to build your thesis. Procedure is the architectural design on how to lay these blocks to form a pyramid, a house, or any other structure as done in Minecraft.

Materials and procedures can mean different things to different researchers. Here is an example from Physics:

Theoretical Physicists: The materials are the laws of physics and known theorems of mathematics; the procedure is an outline of how to use these laws and theorems to arrive at a new result.
Computational Physicists: The materials are the laws of physics and the algorithms for solving differential equations; the procedure is an outline of how to use these laws and algorithms to solve a particular physics problem.
Experimental Physicists: The materials are the equipment and substances used; the procedure is an outline of how to use these materials to generate data that would describe a new physical phenomenon.

Remember that your methodology is only a proposal at this point. You are not yet sure if you will get your expected result or if one step is not doable. This is where your adviser and panel members can come in: they have read many thesis papers and journal articles, and they have developed a nose for finding a safe way out. Indeed, your adviser may share to you the words of Gandalf to Frodo and his companions:

'I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of the left-hand way: there is foul air down there, or I am no guide. I shall take the right-hand passage. It is time we began to climb up again.'—Gandalf at the Mines of Moria

5. Expected Results

The Expected Results of your thesis can be on a new theoretical equation for a spinning black hole, a simulation of air past an airplane's wing, or description of the night-time clouds. This expected result should be aligned with your thesis title or problem.

In amazon.com, when their marketers pitch a new product, Jeff Bezos would require them to write a future press release describing the product: what it looks and feels like, what it can do, etc. And so must you, too, in the Expected Results of your thesis. The clearer you can see what you wish to accomplish, the better. For the paper of Eshkov and Rachinskaya (2020), the expected results may be found in the Conclusions section:

Expected Results: 1) equation for coordinate x is given via coordinate y, true anomaly \(f\), and the additional function \(\alpha\), which determines the quasi-periodic (a Riccati-type) character of solution for coordinate \(z\), 2) expression for coordinate \(y\) is given via coordinate \(x\), true anomaly \(f\), and the aforementioned parameter \(\alpha\), 3) coordinate \(z\) is to be quasi-periodically varying with respect to the true anomaly \(f\).

6. References

The References section can be ordered in two ways: numerical or alphabetical.

In the numerical method, the numbers are according to their order of appearance in your thesis proposal. Here is an example from Eshkov and Rachinskaya (2020), which shows the reference citation in the text and the corresponding item in the reference list:

In-Text Citation: The small mass \(m\) (satellite) is supposed to be moving as first approximation inside of restricted region of space near the planet of mass m planet or inside of so-called Hill sphere [1] radius.
Reference List Item: [1] Cabral, F. and Gil, P. (2011). On the Stability of Quasi-Satellite Orbits in the Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem. Master Thesis at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

On the other hand, in the alphabetical method, the author-date system is used in the in-text citation, and the references are ordered in alphabetical order according to the name of the first authors of the papers. Here is an example from Gargani (2011):

In-Text Citation: The nature of large landslide dynamics along the slide path is still under debate because the mobility of these landslides is often larger than expected (Legros, 2002; Lucas and Mangeney, 2007; Iverson et al., 2015).
Reference List Item: Legros F., 2002. The mobility of long-runout landslides. Engineering Geology 63, 301-331.

7. Budget

The Research Whisperer has written an excellent summary of the things that you need to prepare a simple research budget. Here is a quick summary:

List the activities that can be found in your thesis proposal Methodology.
Read the funding rules of your institution. Some budget items are allowed and some are not, so you may need to source funding elsewhere for some of your activities.
Cost each item in your list of activities, e.g. travel allowance, equipment rental, research assistant, etc.
Put the activities and costs in a spreadsheet like MS Excel or Google Sheets, The column headers are budget items, number of items, cost per item, total cash cost, in-kind cost, and notes.

8. Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart is essentially a list of tasks in one column and the succeeding columns are dates. For a thesis proposal, these dates can just be months. About 12 months may be sufficient for a undergraduate thesis and 24 months for a graduate thesis. If a particular task is to be done at a set of months of a year, the corresponding spreadsheet cells are colored resulting to a horizontal colored box. If one task depends on a previous task you may draw a line connecting the two colored boxes with the arrow tip pointing to the dependent task. The resulting picture may look like a waterfall, which is the basis for the waterfall model of project management.

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Quirino Sugon Jr, PhD

How to write a thesis proposal