Authoring a PhD Thesis How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation by Patrick Dunleavy

200 ◆AUTHORING A PHD

first draft signals that from here on the elements of your thesis
are pretty fixed.
The best organization and presentation of these elements is
not fixed, however. Instead there will normally be a period of
three to six months after getting a complete first draft during
which you must reorganize the elements you have so as to pro-
duce a much stronger and more integrated final text. Drawing
out the intellectual themes of your work is a key focus of your
effort at this stage. You need consistent themes that run all the
way through the thesis, synthesizing your arguments, setting
up and framing your research conclusions, and putting the
thesis value-added into sharp focus. Figure 8.1 shows that this
is not a matter of mechanical reiteration or repetition, but
rather of flexibly creating and enhancing linkages across five
key elements: the thesis title; the abstract; the first chapter
(plus any other lead-in chapter); the conclusion sections of the
middle chapters; and the final chapter.

The thesis title

Your title should introduce the central analytic concepts used
or the major argument themes developed. Normally thesis titles
have a colon in the middle, which authors use to separate out
thematic, analytic or theoretical ambitions on the one hand,
and empirical references or limiting features on the other.

TITLE, ABSTRACT, CONTENTS PAGE

2

Chapter 1 ThemeA

Chapter 8

ThemeB Theme C Theme D

A reprise B reprise Creprise D reprise

3 4

5 6 7

Chapter conclusions

OPENING OUT, FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Middle

chapters

Figure 8.1 Integrating themes