1. Academic Writing:
How to Write Your Thesis
A Seminar by NTUST-ISA, IMISA, ISACE
May 18, 2013
H. M. Citraningrum
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2. What is academic writing?
How and/or why is it different from
other types of writing?
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3. Let’s go to our beloved Wikipedia...
Writing in these forms or styles is usually
serious, intended for a critical and informed
audience, based on closely investigated
knowledge, and posits ideas or arguments. It
usually circulates within the academic world
('the academy'), but the academic writer may
also find an audience outside via journalism,
speeches, pamphlets, etc.
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4. and more….
Typically scholarly writing has an objective
stance, clearly states the significance of the
topic, and is organized with adequate detail so
that other scholars could try to replicate the
results. Strong papers are not overly general
and correctly utilize formal academic rhetoric.
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5. Or let me put it this way…..
• Academic writing is all about formal,
traditional, stiff style of writing.
• It is specific, it follows certain rules.
• While feature writing can be colloquial,
academic writing CAN NOT.
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6. Some guidelines
• Your point MUST be clear just by the words you
write (meaning: THINK more), because good
academic writing is supposed to be EASY to read
(but very DIFFICULT to write).
• How to convey the message: introduce, expand,
conclude.
• Write what you mean, mean what you write.
• Being direct is more important than looking
smart.
• Be considerate and diplomatic.
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7. 7
Some useful tips…

8. Do not use phrasal verbs
Colloquial Academic
Find out Discover
Get rid of Eliminate
Figure out Determine
Bring about
Come back
Leave out
Look over
Point out
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Produce
Return
Omit
Examine
Indicate

9. Avoid using the same word
……. for the same purpose.
• “The graph shows…”
• “The chart shows…”
• “The table shows…”
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Instead,
Use the “Synonyms” feature in MS Word.

10. 10

11. Also,
• Learn to describe graph/chart/table with
different ADVERBS.
• “Fall steadily”
• “Increase sharply”
• “Peak slightly”
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12. Try!
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Figure A. pH effect on TMAH uptake using WAC

13. Some Latin (Yaaaaay!)
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Latin English
Circa (ca.) About, approx.
Et alii, et aliae, et alia (et al.)
Et cetera (etc)
And the rest (and
others)
Exempli gratia (e.g.) For example
Id est (i.e.) That is

14. When and when NOT to use ‘the’
• I just trust my intuition.
• No, I am not kidding. I am so totally NOT
kidding.
• But for your reference, my English teacher said
that ‘the’ is used when something is unique or
specific (and some other rules that I am not
going to discuss here).
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15. For example….
• The book I read yesterday was awesome.
• Quaternary ammonium is the source of its
positive charge, hence the charge is
independent of solution pH (Dentel et al.,
1998).
• TMAH behaves differently compared to other
ammonium or amine compounds, since TMA+
is a permanently charged ion and thus a
strong ion exchange group.
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16. Okay, any questions here?
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17. 17
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18. Thesis: It is not about you, it is about
your data.
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19. Thesis outline
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Materials and methods (methodology)
• Results (and discussion, obviously)
• Conclusions
• References
• Supporting data (or Appendix)
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20. Introduction
• Background
• Objectives (NOT objection)
• Scope of research
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Save this part for the last one.

21. Literature review
• The most boring-like-no-body-will-ever-read-it
part?
• Literature review actually HELPS you a lot to
make your Chapter 4 alive.
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I mean it. Like, seriously.

22. While it is boring as it is….. Let’s do it the
easy way
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Gather (and/or sort) any relevant
references
Read them all (of course)
Write one or two sentences summary
of each paper, then put the reference
Group those summaries into specific
sections
Rearrange the sections

23. Example
• TMAH is a major ingredient of photoresist developer
widely used in thin-film transistor liquid crystal display
(TFT-LCD) and light emitting diode (LED) manufacturing
processes (Sugawara et al., 2002)
• A combination of electrodialysis and ion exchange
technology can remove and recover TMAH from
wastewater (Shibata et al., 2006; Sugawara et al., 2002)
• It has been found that by employing two different
types of resin, namely cation exchange and anion
exchange resin, TMAH can be recovered and reused in
the manufacturing process (Shibata et al., 2006)
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24. Example
• Adsorption process has been investigated for TMAH
removal (Kelleher et al., 2001; Prahas et al., 2012)
• TMAH is also used as an alkaline etchant and as a
cleaning solution in semiconductor manufacturing
(Thong et al., 1997)
• Other applications of TMAH include
thermochemolysis of materials, e.g. woods (Hardell
and Nilvebrant, 1999; McKinney et al., 1996;
McKinney and Hatcher, 1996)
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25. Let’s see when I rearranged them…
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Chapter 2

26. One small note:
Data is the plural form of datum; it is
research and there is no researches.
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27. Methodology
• Materials
• Methods
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You remember what you did, right?
Now just write them down.
In passive sentences.

28. Example
To obtain the value of electronic energy and zero point
vibrational energy, computational model was
employed based upon density functional theory (DFT)
using GaussView 5.0 software package. Molecular
structures of neutral and protonated amines were
optimized. The Becke gradient corrected exchange and
Lee-Yang-Parr correlation functional with the three
parameters (B3LYP) method with the 6-311G+ basis set
were selected which includes diffuse and polarization
functions on hydrogen and heavy atoms. Solvation was
set as water as all three amines were diluted in
deionized water.
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29. Example no. 2
3.3.3.4. Effect of interfering ions on TMA+ uptake
• Known amount of ammonium, sodium, magnesium,
potassium, ethylamine, diethylamine, and triethylamine
were added to TMAH solution with initial concentration of
400 mg/L in total volume of 50 mL.
• pH of the solution was adjusted by 1 N HCl so that desired
equilibrium pH could be obtained.
• 0.1 g (±1%) of activated carbon was added into each flask
and covered with aluminum foil and plastic.
• The flasks were shaken at 100 rpm shaking speed at 25ºC
until equilibrium was reached.
• After equilibrium was reached, the solution was filtered
and the filtrate was analyzed using IC.
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30. Results
• Present data that SPEAK, other than those,
shove them under Supporting Data section.
• How do we know which ones?
• Consider this question:
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What’s the scenario of your research?

31. Research example
• Big theme: biofuel
• Specific topic: algae harvesting
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32. 32
Shortage in fuel
The need for renewable energy
Alternative: algae
Optimum method for harvesting
Parameters involved, efficiency, drawbacks
Developing the method for
upscale/improvement/further research

33. Let’s take a closer look
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Parameters involved, efficiency, drawbacks
Increasing
efficiency when X
was modified
Different harvesting
rate when Y was
changed
No change in algae
shape with
different Z addition
Two damn months
you spent to grow
the algae properly
Sixteen different
steps you did just to
get one graph.
Failed experiments:
52 before getting
the correct one

34. For example, this ONE figure…
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Amine concentration, mg/L
10 20 30 40 50
TMA
+
uptake,
%
0
20
40
60
80
100
EA
DEA
TEA
model - EA
model - DEA

35. …..which was constructed from…
• 3 calibration curves, 7 points each.
• 2 modeling curves, 7 points each.
• 50 samples to measure.
• 10 pairs of simultaneously solved equations.
• 2 weeks – 1 month to complete.
…….all performed in duplicates.
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Amine concentration, mg/L
10 20 30 40 50
TMA
+
uptake,
%
0
20
40
60
80
100
EA
DEA
TEA
model - EA
model - DEA

36. 36

37. YES. CAPITAL YES.
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Why?
Because it doesn’t help in explaining
your research.
So, get over it.
Move on.

38. 38
And again, it is not about you, it is
about your data.

39. Familiar with these?
• “Stay up late doing experiments”
• “Failed 526th set”
• “Two days running the simulation, and still not
finished”
• “Have just gone to bed at 6 AM…” (but what
time do you actually wake up?)
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40. Keep those in Facebook, Twitter,
whatever, but NOT in your Chapter 4.
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41. What about discussion?
• While Results part is how you PRESENT your
data, Discussion is how you INTERPRET your
data and STATE your hypothesis.
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So what should I write?

42. Discussion
• Highlight the main findings of your research,
either expected or unexpected.
• Justify and/or defend your findings with
references (this is what I meant). Make it
balance.
• Refer to results to further strengthen your
hypothesis.
• Is there any drawbacks? Explain. Provide
solution/recommendation.
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43. Conclusions
• List them in number.
• Keep them simple, if people want to know
more, they can read Chapter 4.
• Mention any further research needed.
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44. References
• Long list of papers/books you have read
• Make them uniform in style.
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(or…NOT).

45. Example
[1] H. Sugawara, Y. Tajima, T. Ohmi, “A study on reclaimed
photoresist developer using an electrodialysis method”,
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 1, vol. 41, pp. 2374-2379, 2002.
[2] J.T.L. Thong, W.K. Choi, C.W. Chong, “TMAH etching of
silicon and the interaction of etching parameters”,
Sens. Actuators, A, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 243-249, 1997.
[3] H. L. Hardell, N. O. Nilvebrant, “A rapid method to
discriminate between free and esterified fatty acids by
pyrolytic methylation using tetramethylammonium
acetate or hydroxide”, J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis, vol. 52,
no. 1, pp. 1-14, 1999.
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46. Example no. 2
Chen, Y., Pan, B., Li, H., Zhang, W., Lv, L. and Wu, J. (2010).
Selective Removal of Cu(II) Ions by Using Cation-
exchange Resin-Supported Polyethyleneimine (PEI)
Nanoclusters. Environmental Science and Technology,
44, 3508-3513.
Dentel, S. K., Jamrah, A. I. and Sparks, D. L. (1998).
Sorption and cosorption of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and
tannic acid by organo-clays. Water Research, 32, 3689-
3697.
Do, D. D. (1998). Adsorption Analysis: Equilibria And
Kinetics. Imperial College Press, London.
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47. Now let’s go back to Chapter 1
• Got the conclusions?
 write down the objectives of your research.
• You have put all of your puzzling results
together.
 write down the scope of your research.
• Your cake is ready, and the introduction is the
icing.
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48. Supporting data
Remember this?
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49. Supporting data
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• Here is the place for “silent” data, the place to
show all of your hard work.
• Calibration curves, preliminary experiments,
how many calculation you performed for each
graph, etc.
• Brag here as much as you want, but tone it
down, OK?

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51. Inspiration to write
• Your data, of course.
• Read papers, again and again, you might
finally get to understand them.
• Read scientific magazines.
• Put Google Alert for anything related to your
research.
• My blog? *JK*
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52. Motivate yourself
• You’ll be a master/doctor soon. How cool is
that? (Hello Dr. Citra)
• When it gets boring, do your work in 15-mins
segment.
• When it gets even more boring, go out and
bike. Drink something sweet. Eat ice cream.
Pat a cat. Watch Bones/Game of Thrones/The
Big Bang Theory. Read PhD comics.
• And don’t forget to go back to your thesis.
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53. Writing is difficult.
Accept that fact.
Reward yourself.
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54. This will happen….
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55. But eventually,
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56. Cheer up!
Carpe diem and good luck!
 Thank you 
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