Eat the Frog First

8 Productivity Hacks for Writing Your Thesis

File under: Thesis Writing By

Often considered the domain of tech entrepreneurs and lifestyle gurus, a few well-chosen productivity ‘hacks’ and habits can really boost your thesis and help you maintain momentum during your PhD. Eat Breakfast What do athletes, entrepreneurs, nutritionists and your mum all agree on? That eating breakfast is the best way to start your day. And they’re right. You might feel like you should roll out of bed and into your desk chair, but you should start off with a big glass of water and a decent breakfast. Your body and mind will be primed for the day. Set the Scene A huge part of productivity is your work environment. You might think you don’t have time to declutter your desk, …

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7 Apps to Help You Write Your Thesis

File under: Thesis Writing By

The world of academia can be a little behind the world of technology, but by using just a few of these apps, you can help your thesis along immeasurably. Don’t install them all at once—it can get a bit overwhelming—but test out a couple and see what sticks. All apps listed are free to use. We’ve created 5 Awesome IFTTT Applets that you can steal. Just click the button below to Download. The Research Phase Instapaper This tool is great for the research and reading phase of your thesis process, particularly if you’re reading a lot of online sources. You can save web pages to your Instapaper account, where they will be turned into an easy-to-read format that you can read at …

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Positive Redundancy: How to Use Repetition Effectively in Thesis Writing

File under: Thesis Writing By

No matter your field of research, completing a thesis is a lengthy and challenging undertaking. Once you begin actually writing your thesis, you might feel as though you’re endlessly repeating yourself as you reiterate your key findings and draw them back to your central argument. How do you know if that repetition is helping or hindering your work? This post is all about knowing the difference between lazy repetition and necessary repetition, otherwise known as ‘positive redundancy’. The first thing to remember is that repetition is an important and necessary part of thesis writing. When you work on a thesis, you’re contributing new ideas and findings to your field, and it’s important not to undersell your work; after all, you’ve spent years on …

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How to Stay Healthy, Fit and Happy While Writing your Thesis

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It’s very easy to stress out, hide in a cave, see no-one, eat instant noodles and hunch over your computer for three or four years while writing your thesis. However, it’s important for PhD candidates to take care of themselves while under pressure. This helps you to withstand that pressure, improves the quality of your work and allows you to emerge at the other end with your relationships, mind and body intact. Remember: a PhD is a marathon, not a sprint. Posture If you, along with the majority of students these days, are working hunched over your laptop, a lasting legacy of your PhD could be a bad back. It’s essential to remember that because of the way laptops are …

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Ten Ways to Improve Your Grades

File under: Essay Writing Studying and Exams Thesis Writing By

  It is possible to improve your grades by self-editing your essay or assignment before you hand it in. Many students fail to look over their work once they have completed it, or they do not know what to look for. This means that students are handing in work that contains spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, unclear or clumsy writing, and referencing and formatting errors. Some students have even greater problems with issues such as the clarity and consistency of their argument or their essay organisation. These types of mistakes are costing you grades! You might be very surprised how much your grades can be improved through editing your own work before you hand it in. This article will explain ten ways you …

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50 linking words to use in academic writing

File under: Essay Writing For ESLs Thesis Writing By

It’s very common for students to use long words they don’t understand very well in their essays and theses because they have a certain idea of what academic writing should be. Many students believe that academic writing is wordy and convoluted, and uses a lot of jargon. This leads many students to fall into a trap of imagining that the longer the word, the more impressive and intelligent their writing will seem. We often see long sentences and multisyllabic words where shorter sentences and simpler words would do. Some students even use Microsoft Word’s thesaurus function to replace a common word with a more complicated word. This is a risky move, because unless you’re very careful, the new word may …

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