Such theses can often seem to be structured by no clear internal
or intellectual pattern of organization.
Analytic explanations
It is not difficult to break up and reorganize a complex description
into more analytic headings. The key step is to use organizing cat-
egories conjured out of your own brain rather than a sequence of
ideas given to you externally. For instance, an analytic approach
to describing my home study is shown in Figure 3.5(b), where
I might structure my account around the following headings:
◆the physical size, shape and features of the room (basically
rectangular, with a little add-on bay window);
◆the services in the room (the windows, ventilation, lights,
central heating, plug points, etc.);
◆the hard or fixed furnishings (shelves, bookcases,
immovable heavy filing cabinets, etc.); and
◆the soft or variable furnishings (curtains, carpets, movable
furniture, PCs and electronic gear, books, CDs, etc.).
These different categories do not sit out there in the ‘real world’
for me to pick up ready-to-use: instead they are mental cate-
gories of my own choosing. But on the other hand they are not
rocket science and they did not take ages to devise. I hope that
these distinctions would not need a lot of explanation to be
accepted as useful and reasonably familiar by most readers. But
if I now run over what there is to see in my home study using
these headings, I am pretty sure that most people will see this
account as much clearer, as much better organized than the
descriptive approach’s almost random sequencing. As well as
providing key principles for explaining why sets of things are
treated together, the headings also capture clearly my value-
added contribution and thus help to personalize the account.
Three main types of analytic structures are used in humani-
ties and social sciences theses:
◆Periodized historical or narrative accounts break away from
a beginning-to-end chronology, and instead chunk up the
68 ◆AUTHORING A PHD