• To ensure that draft is accessible to readers
• To clarify and sharpen argument and focus
• To boost and develop ideas

Editing versus revision

Revising your written work is more than fixing errors; and it is editing. Revision gets done before editing. In general, revising your essay involves seeing it from the eyes of your target readers who cannot read the writer’s mind. Moreover, not resting until you ensure you are as thorough and precise as possible. To revise, you need to think big and extrapolate. In the evidence that your reader points out an issue in, say, paragraph five, then consider checking closely paragraphs four and six to ensure that the issues pointed out in paragraph five are not there too.

Strategies for revising

• Inquire yourself about your weakest point and your strengths when it comes to writing your academic papers. Remember to be honest and truthful to yourself and purpose to improve, especially on your weaknesses.
• Develop a draft outline for your academic writing work. It means you are making a draft outline once you have finished writing your academic paper. It will assist you in viewing the structure and the flow of your paper.
• Highlight your thesis statement, then read each paragraph consecutively as you write down the sticking points from each paragraph on the side margin of each paragraph.
• Once you have your draft outline, check to see if the structure is flowing logically as you had planned. Check to see if your ideas are flowing logically. If your idea does not flow logically, consider rearranging them accordingly.
• Check to see if your paragraphs relate to your thesis statement in some way. If not, then consider incorporating necessary information that will connect your paragraphs to your thesis arguments. In case you get a paragraph that does not fit into your overall paper, consider revising the paragraph, or if it does not work, then you can delete it altogether.
• If you spot gaps in your paper’s logic, then consider adding more information by doing further research.

Highlighter strategy

Make use of highlighters or highlighter on the draft paper since it can help you visualize the location of specific information in your outline and how new information works in the writing process. To achieve this, ensure that you use highlighters with different colors to isolate different content in your paper. For example, you can decide to highlight all evidence found in the paper.

You can consider highlighting one subject using a particular color and highlighting the different subject or contrary subject with another color for comparison papers. For papers that handle multiple points, you can consider different colors to highlight each sub-points and visualize how they work together in your draft outline.

Move and rearrange using a pair of scissors: you can decide to cut your paper as per the paragraph. This way allows each paragraph to become its paper. When you do it this way, you can visualize and even physically rearrange your outline.

Rearrange the paragraphs so that you can view the best way for your organization and the construction of argument and ideas. You will be able to view how the counterarguments fit and even the flow of the academic paper.

Based on your assignment guidelines or prompt, consider coming up with a checklist for your particular literary work.

Paragraphs-based revisions

come out with practical and well-organized paragraphs, comb through each paragraph one by one and examine the following components: Length, transition, progression and logic, focus, and topic sentence. Ensure that the paragraph has a topic sentence that guides the reader on the paragraph’s main or key contents and where the paragraph is heading.

Ensure that the paragraph addresses the topic’s key concerns and does not meander to a new idea or topic. Also, make sure that your ideas and sentences progress logically. Use appropriate transition phrases or words between sentences and do not write sentences for their own sake.

For long paragraphs, consider decomposing them into small and manageable ones so that your readers can understand them.

Get your reader’s response

Allow someone else to see your work and provide you some feedback to improve your work.

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Organizing the project

At the planning stage, you need to need to be expensive in your thinking. Attempt to be creative, and this means that you should be:

• Creatively explore mind map, dream, and play around with the ideas of what you intend to do with your thesis. It has the potential to be exciting and fun.  
• Once you begin to narrow down to a topic, consider the thesis project’s scope, feasibility, and interest level. Again, ponder on your key research question.
• Think about the type of research that will answer your research questions, such as lab work, historical, quantitative, or qualitative.
• Examine available literature to ensure that the thesis project contributes to the body of knowledge.
• Conduct a preliminary study to ascertain the feasibility of your thesis project.

Preparing your thesis proposal

A thesis proposal project is a contract between your committee and yourself to have a defendable and feasible project to finish within a reasonable period. The following is a general checklist for choosing a defensible thesis project: Familiarity with the field of study, the stages of conducting research, ability, willingness to navigate all the stages, and the motivation to stick to the project. Though conventions might be different from program to program; however, a thesis proposal should include the following:

• A title
• Review of the literature
• Statement of the problem
• Research questions
• Background study
• Research methods
• Table of contents
• Work schedule

Writing a thesis proposal

1. Consult your fellow students in the department or school for the possibility of sharing their thesis proposals. You will have the opportunity to sample the best propels in your field of research or study. If possible, peruse through the thesis proposals of fellow students who have had an opportunity to work with your committee members or supervisor.
2. Have candid discussions with your supervisor. Supervisors have a particular style or format most of the time that they anticipate their students to follow. Some might be willing to see drafts and even give valuable feedback.

Formatting your thesis 

1. You can access online the McMaster University guidelines for formatting a thesis project.
2. There exist specific requirements for dissertation format, and starting with a well-formatted document can go a long way in the final stages of your project.

The process of writing a thesis

However, currently, some departments do offer non-traditional thesis designs and formats. But, in general, you can write a sandwich thesis or a traditional thesis.

• Monograph Thesis

Standard thesis resamples a book and is like a monograph that has linked chapters such as general introduction, literature review, research methods, research findings, and conclusions. It usually identifies your contribution to the body of knowledge. In general, a master’s thesis is approximately 150 pages, while a doctoral one is approximately 300 pages long.

• Sandwich thesis: by publication

A dissertation by publication is a set of related papers submitted or accepted for publication in reputable research journals. Such papers get connected by practical or theoretical linkages that structure the research. Such a thesis will require several papers in the range of 3 to 7 papers. The traditional thesis consists of the following components.

1. The title
2. Abstract
3. Review of literature
4. Research questions or problems
5. Research methods
6. Research outcomes
7. Supporting arguments in support of the research findings
8. The conclusions and recommendations for further research

MacSphere is an internal repository; digital space for McMaster University for organizing and offering access to ongoing research in the University. MacSphere is a valuable tool for dissertation authors since they can access successful students in your study program. When you keenly follow others’ work, it can help you write specific sections and even chapters, formatting, and access some supervisors or school/department untold expectations.

Those who are writing a sandwich thesis can check in the MacSphere how such projects look like in their respective departments or schools. MacSphere comforts you that other students did succeed in the type of research they were doing.

The length of a thesis paper project

In general, doctoral students write their dissertations to a maximum of approximately 300 pages long, while a Master’s dissertation should not exceed 200 pages.