Comments on DSV Guide
for Writing Master's Theses

Introduction

The official DSV guide för writing master's theses has the title Master Thesis Information and can be found in PDF format In Brash 2005.

While this official guide is in many ways good, there are some differences between the guide and how I handle those students for whom I am the tutor. These differences are explained below.

Add New Knowledge?

Brash 2005 section 1.3 says: The purpose of the thesis is to add to the accumulated knowledge in the domain of choice.

Comment: Note that the purpose can also be to confirm or refute existing belief which has not been fully proven.

Suitable Thesis Size

Brash 2005 section 1.4.2 says: At the same time, a general recommendation of 60-100 pages is given excluding title page, table of contents, references and appendices. It is however, as mentioned earlier, up to the supervisor to determine the required scope of the thesis.

Comment: I would recommend a size of a thesis as about 20-60 pages. If the thesis becomes much longer than 20 or 30 pages, it is advisable that the main text is 20-30 pages (with about 500 words/page) and additional text is moved to appendices. The reason for this is that you can seldom expect the audience of your thesis to spend more effort than reading 20-30 pages. Long theses will not be read! Note also that scientific papers in scientific journals and at scientific conferences are usually restricted in size.

Do not Repeat General Knowledge

Brash 2005 section 2.1.3.1 says: You may have for example claimed that Internet usage is widespread. This needs to be specified (country, population, time period, definition of Internet usage) and argued for or shown.

Comments: Facts such as that Internet usage is widespread should not play any major part of your thesis, since such facts are generally known. The same for general discussion of research methodology or about the history of the Internet. Your thesis should concentrate on what is of particular interest for your thesis only. An overview of related and previous research should of course be included, but that overview should be directed at research of particular interest to your thesis, not at very wide and generally know knowledge of interest to very many different theses.

Other Research Need be Confirmed or Refuted

Brash 2005 section 2.1.3.1 says: At the same time there are some claims of correct descriptions that are so well known and accepted that little argumentation is needed.

Comment: But confirmation or refutal of known knowledge can be very important.

Asking People and Noting Their Answers

Brash 2005 section 2.1.4 says: On the other hand, if you study for example how certain people react to certain responses from a particular computer under predetermined circumstances, then this can be considered to be subjective truth. A typical approach would involve asking people for their reactions, that is, an interview. It is subjective in that in the research you are choosing the questions and deciding how to analyze the textual response. This subjectivity is NOT considered to lead to knowledge that is less true or less valuable than the knowledge said to be obtained by an “objective” approach.

Comment: I do not agree! In general, asking people will only give valuable information if you ask them for something they know. Asking people for, for example, their opinions on issues which they have not a considered opinion on beforehand, often gives low reliability and validity. The summary or overview of what several people have said may, however, be stated even if each statement alone is subjective. What a single person has said can be stated as an example, but usually not as a proven truth.

International Audience

Brash 2005 section 3.2 says: The audience is international.

Comment: Strictly interpreted, this would mean that theses cannot be written in Swedish. It is however, allowed to write a thesis in Swedish. But if you can write in English, I do recommend that you write your thesis in English.

Names of People

Brash 2005 section 3.2 says: This includes the names of people. You cannot mention specific people, firstly because names are irrelevant and also because nobody knows who they are besides perhaps a tiny percentage of the population in the world. Hence, your supervisor’s name is completely irrelevant.

Comment: Names of sources should be included, unless you need to protect the anonymity of your sources. Names of people should only be included if they are relevant to your thesis.

Half Thesis

Brash 2005 section 4.2 says: Half thesis done (data collected).

Comment: Data collection need not be included in the first half of the thesis work. A good overview and methods chapter is enough.

Stage One

Brash 2005 section 4.2.1 says: ...and how it will be carried out.

Comment: How it will be carried out should mainly be described in the "Methods" chapter, not in the introduction.

Originality

Brash 2005 says:

Note: Confirmation of Research done by Other People is also important.

Only One Question

Brash 2005 section 4.2.1 says: The thesis should have only one goal/question/problem.

Comment: There should be a single goal/question/problem, or goals/questions/problems which are naturally related to each other.

Abstract

Brash 2005 section 4.2.3 says: The abstract is the advertisement for the thesis.

Comment: No! The abstract should describe your results in such detail that a person can read only the abstract and get a good idea of what you have found, even without reading the whole thesis. The abstract should not be a sales text, even though many existing papers have such abstracts.

Final Seminar

Brash 2005 section 4.3.1 says: The seminar is public.

Comment: In very special cases, such as research done in a company containing confidential company information, a non-public seminar may be allowed.

Brash 2005 says: The presentation should take about 45 minutes.

Comment: The presentation can take between 20 and 45 minutes.

Screen Dumps

Brash 2005 section 5.3 says: Screen dumps should only be used very sparsely and only in exceptional situations.

Comment: If you make particular claims about a user interface, examples to show the correctness of your claims should be included. In most cases, this should not be general screen dumps, but dumps of only part of the screen illustrating some special user interfacde artifact. And you should explain the example, how it works, how it should or should not work.

References

• Brash 2005: The official DSV guide on writing master's theses
• Palme 2004-2006: Additional instructions for theses tutored by Jacob Palme