Some tips and guidelines for bachelor and master thesis work
The report
- Write in Swedish or English. However, we recommend to write the report in english.
- Include Title and Abstract in both Swedish and English. For example if you write in english, you can have one page with swedish title on the top and abstract (sammanfattning) below.
- I recommend the following short guide to mathematical writing by Kevin Lee A Guide to Writing Mathematics.
- Generally write in the present tense.
- Avoid esoteric words. Explain in a way that is easy to understand also
for non-experts. Use acronyms sparingly.
(Esoteric: adjective intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of
people with a specialized knowledge or interest.)
- Equations and reference belong to sentences. Therefore an equation
ends with a period if it concludes the sentence. Do not start a sentence
with an equation or a variable. Write sentences that puts the equations
in a context. For good and bad examples A Guide to Writing Mathematics.
- Use captions for figures and labels to refer to equations.
- Define all variables when they are used for the first time.
- Do not define the concepts that you do not use. Do not write out proofs
of known theorems.
- Follow a standard for citations, see, e.g., IEEE citation style. Avoid relying on web pages in citations.
- No matlab code in the report.
The process
- Make a time plan for your thesis work. Write down a timeline with the
different parts of the thesis.
- In the beginning it is important to focus on the mathematical model
and the tools. Always start with as simple model as possible but that
is still relevant to the question at hand. Understand this case in detail.
If you don't understand the easy cases you will not understand the
more advanced cases.
- When reading papers, write down (short) summaries of the papers. Write
down the details that you think are useful for the report right away. In
a month or two you will have a hard time recollecting the details.
- Make sure to set aside enough time for the writing. It takes a lot of
time and focus (dedicate at least 1-2 months for this).
- Remember that you are in charge of the project.
- Send a mail two days before each meeting with the current version
of the report. Describe in short what you want to discuss during the
meeting (from meeting three and on). Otherwise it can be difficult to
give good feedback.
- You should be an opponent and give feedback to a fellow student (Use this Form).
The final presentation
Focus on the mathematical part. Make sure to include:
- Problem formulation
- Describe the mathematical model in detail and explain how it
is used to model the problem (Model, parameters, variables,
objective function, etc.).
- Describe the data and how it was used to determine the model and
parameters of the model.
- Show, explain, and interpret the results (do not tell the audience to
look in the report to see the results).
- Discuss model shortcomings and weaknesses. What assumptions do
not match with reality.