WRITING OF A SCIENTIFIC THESIS
Introduction
Writing of a scientific script of some type is unavoidable in the long career of almost every scientist. Many types of scripts differing greatly from one to another designed and are written according to the objective lying behind the script. Examples include writing of, a simple lab report, proposals for funds, job proposals, professional report (e.g., X-ray, lab, surgery, dental, etc.), periodical progress reports, thesis (under-graduate or post-graduate), etc.
The preceding examples are few of many types of text a scientific scholar might encounter during his/her professional (or educational) life. In this handout, the emphasis is directed towards writing of a scientific thesis. The guidelines discussed below are suitable for all levels of theses (i.e., under-graduate or post-graduate).
The essential parts of a thesis
The pre-text, text, and post-text are the 3 essential parts of a thesis. The pre-text is a section including information to guide the reader through the content of the thesis.
The text is the main section which is further divided to at least 5 crucial sections preferably known as “Chapters”. The post-text is a supplementary section where some information could be added plus the “bibliography”.
I- Pre-text
This important “guiding” information for the reader of the thesis starts from the
“Title page” and ends with last page before the “text” section. This section includes:
1- “Title Page”
2- “Declaration Statement”
3- “Dedication” (Optional)
4- “Acknowledgement” (Optional) 5- “Publications” (if present) 6- “Abbreviations”
7- “Summary” (also known as the ABSTRACT) 8- “Table of Contents”
9- “List of Figures”
10- “List of tables”
11- “Aim of the thesis”.
II- Text
This section starts after the last page in the “pre-text” section and ends in the last page before beginning of the Post-text section. Usually the two sections is separated by a page to announce the beginning of the text section titled “CHAPTER ONE”
and underneath it the word “INTRODUCTION”. Usually the two words are written “centered” using font of 26 or higher in “CAPITAL LETTERS”. This is the section where the actual thesis information including the practical and theoretical (literature review) parts are discussed in great details. All the scientific information acquired (whether collected from literature or obtained practically by the writer), the methods used in the project, the results obtained, the significance of the results, and finally the conclusion of the whole thesis, are discussed in this part
special point of interest in the text. The text section MUST consist of at least 5 essential parts (Chapters). These chapters are:
1- Introduction
2- Materials and Methods 3- Results
4- Discussion
5- Conclusion (sometimes Discussion & Conclusion could be merged together as one chapter).
III- Post-text
This section starts after the last page in the “Conclusion” chapter. It consists of Appendices, Extra tables or figures, and the most important of all, the
“Bibliography” (References collected for the thesis).
Pre –Text
1- Title Page
This page contains, the title of the thesis, the name of the writer, a statement verifying the purpose of the thesis usually written as follows:
“A thesis presented to the university of … (name of university awarding the degree) in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the … (type of degree to be awarded .e.g., Bachelor, Masters, or Doctor of Philosophy).
After the verification statement, this page also contains the name of the department awarding the degree, the date of awarding the degree, and finally the name of the supervisor of the thesis.
Note that the order of entries must be as specified above. See
example below.
The following is an example how the title page should appear
Place University logo here Place FAMS logo here
Title (could be more than one line) By
Name of author
A thesis presented to King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Bachelor degree in Medical
Lab Technology
Department of Medical Lab Technology Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences
King Abdulaziz University
Date (only Month and Year) King Abdul Aziz University
Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences
Department of Medical Laboratory Technology
ﺔﻌﻣﺎﺟ ﺰﻳﺰﻌﻟاﺪﺒﻋ ﻚﻠﻤﻟا ﺔﻴﻘﻴﺒﻄﺘﻟا ﺔﻴﺒﻄﻟا مﻮﻠﻌﻟا ﺔﻴﻠآ
ﺔﻴﺒﻄﻟﺍ ﺕﺍﱪﺘﺨﳌﺍ ﺔﻴﻨﻘﺗ ﻢﺴﻗ
2- Declaration Statement
This page contains a statement from the author (the student) verifying that all the work was done by the student him/herself. An example of such statement could be written as follows:
This work has not been previously accepted in substance for any degree and is not being currently submitted in candidature for any degree. Furthermore, this thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended.
I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to out side organizations.
Signature
Date
3- Dedication
(Optional)This page contains a dedication from the author to whomever he/she wishes.
Usually to members of the family, members of the educational staff (e.g., supervisor), the faculty, the university, etc.
4- Acknowledgement
(Optional)This is the page designed for giving the author’s gratitude, thanks, and appreciation to whomever she/he would like to thank. For example, one can start by giving great thanks to Allah his mighty for helping finishing the work, then the advisor, family members, friends, other staff who helped in the work, the department, the college, the university, etc.
5- Publications
This page should contain all previous publications done by the author. If there is not any, then the page is not included.
6- Abbreviations
This page contains all the abbreviations used in the text with an explanation of what the abbreviation stands for. Note that the abbreviations are listed alphabetically and single spaced.
7- Summary (or Abstract)
This page explains the whole thesis briefly, giving an idea of the main idea of the project, stating some of the important and significant results, and finally providing
8- Table of Contents
This page contains a detailed listing of each entry in the thesis by its page number.
The decimal point system is used to highlight each entry. For example:
1.0 Chapter One (Introduction) ……… 1
1.1 Hemoglobin ……… 2
1.1.1 Heme ……….. 10
1.1.1.1 Protoporphyrin IX ……… 15
1.1.1.2 Iron ………. 17
1.1.2 Globin ………. 20
1.1.2.1 Alpha Chains ………. 25
1.1.2.2 Beta Chains ………. 29
1.1.2.3 Delta Chains ……… 32
1.1.2.4 Gamma Chains ……… .. 35
. . . And so forth until chapter two (Material and Methods) 2.0 Chapter Two (Material and Methods) ……… 40
2.1 Sample Collection ………. 41
2.1.1 Sample handling ……… 43
2.1.2 Sample processing ………. 44
2.1.3 Sample treatment ………..………...………. 45
2.2 RBC count ……….. 46
2.2.1 Manual count ………. 46
2.2.2 Automated count ……… 47
. . And so forth until chapter three (Results) . 3.0 Chapter three (Results) ………. 59
3.1 . And so forth until chapter four (Discussion) . 4.0 Chapter four (Discussion) ………. 88 4.1
.
. And so forth until chapter five (Conclusion) 5.0 Chapter five (Conclusion)
5.1 .
9- List of Figures
All figures in the thesis must be listed here by their page number
10- List of tables
All figures in the thesis must be listed here by their page number
11- Aim of Thesis
Here, in a paragraph or more the author should give a brief idea about the project’s main idea and what he/she is aiming to achieve.
IMPORTANT RULES
All the pages in the Pre-text section MUST be given ROMAN numbers starting with number I (or i) for the first page (the Title Page) followed by number II (or ii) for the second page, and number III (or iii) for the third page, and so forth. Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) should start from the first page of the text section (i.e., from the Introduction Chapter) until the last page in the Post-Text section (i.e., last page of “Bibliography”).
*The font to be used for "Headings" (Titles) is Bold size 14 while the rest of the text in the entire thesis must be "regular' (not bold) size 12. "Times New Roman" might be the most preferred and widely used font style and therefore it is highly recommended.
1.1 Hemoglobin structure
(The correct way to write, i.e., font 14 bold, no follow stop at the end of title)1.1 Hemoglobin structure
(Not the correct way to write, i.e., underlined)1.1 Hemoglobin structure.
(Not the correct way to write, i.e., follow stopped)1.1 Hemoglobin structure
(Not the correct way to write, i.e., Italicized)*** Italic can be used (even in titles) only when referring to a species name. For example:
1.6 Effect of E. Coli on hemoglobin
