FW: Thesis
Lance T. Yonkos
I have only made a cursory glance so can’t say much yet about the thesis. I can say that there is still very much to do so everyone should plan to make time this weekend and especially Sunday.
For now, here are a few things to start on while I get further into the document.
I think the order of sections in the thesis should change. Unless Gemstone has a required format I suggest:
Title page
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion (your lit review belongs in the discussion)
References
Appendices if appropriate
I suggest you divide up responsibilities so that you can start getting these things done in an equitable and efficient manner.
References will take a long time so someone needs to get on this quick. Formatting is important. The references need to be consistent. If Gemstone doesn’t prescribe a format, than you should select what you prefer. Someone who doesn’t have other specific responsibilities for content should take this on. Everyone who is working on particular sections should provide the references for their content so the designated reference person can re-work them to the proper format. If you keep them alphabetical (last name of author) it simplifies additions as they come in.
Create a title page. Angela was well on the way with this. Be sure to include all necessary info.
Acknowledgements. Angela was on this as well
Create an abstract. This should be a ~200 word summation of why, how, and what was done. Abstracts submitted previously for presentations are a good start but should be edited to reflect actual content of thesis.
All figures and tables need to be able to stand alone. That is, captions, axis labels, etc must be clear and accurate without having to refer back to the text to know what is being illustrated.
Pictures. The thesis needs pictures. Obviously we need shots of our testicular oocytes. How about of fish? How about of the exposure set up. How about of team members dissecting fish or working on the lab bench. Hopefully we have these.
The document needs page numbers. Old-school people (like all of your discussants) will want to print this out to edit.
Appendices should include:
· Summary tables of data from each exposure (this will include water quality data, sample IDs and measurements, comments, ect.
· Detailed analytical protocols (BLYES, VTG)
I would suggest creating a page labeled “Appendices” that lists and describes what WILL be there, but not spending time actually creating the appendices for the draft. We will get them in to the final version.
That’s it for now. I’ll send more specific edits later tonight. Please remember, the end of this process is nearing and then you can take a break. Meanwhile, everyone needs to do their part. If necessary there can be pizza and coffee on Sunday night.
From: Renuka Tripu [mailto:rtr...@terpmail.umd.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2015 2:36 PM
To: Lance T. Yonkos
Subject: Thesis
Hi Dr. Yonkos!
Here is the rest of our thesis…there are definitely some formatting issues and consistency issues that we will fix, but the meat of it is pretty much done. We are also fixing our figure legends. Of the things to look over, our biggest concern is the methods/results/formattingdiscussion section content. We hope we are on the right track with the content of it. I included both the google doc and a word doc version of the file. Sorry it's a little rough around the edges formatting wise!
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Thank you,
Renuka Tripu
B.S. Candidate, Neurobiology & Physiology
University of Maryland, College Park
Gemstone Honors Research Program