to envision clearly, but the idea is that it could be more man-
ageable if divided into three parts of five chapters each. This use
of parts, simply to manage an inflation of the number of chap-
ters, should always be avoided. Your organizing problems will
not go away, anyway, because the individual chapters will still
become too small and fragmented. Conspicuously brief chap-
ters will seem bitty and short-weight to readers whether they
are linked together into parts or not.
A two-tier structure of parts sitting on top of chapters can
also seem attractive as a way of signalling to readers that there
are important continuities between chapters. For instance, it
might be that chapters 1 to 4 deal with different aspects of one
meta-topic, and chapters 5 to 8 are about a second, so that a
two-part division will highlight this ‘meta-structure’ for readers.
Similarly, different parts may use different methodologies, or be
focused on different levels or aspects (for instance, national
processes versus local processes). A part structure is more legiti-
mate here, and may have something to recommend it in some
circumstances. But a two-tier structure still requires careful
management. For new authors it is a complication that is often
mishandled, and so it is best avoided if possible. For instance,
you can often indicate continuities between groups of chapters
more simply by referring to the links between them in their
titles. Ideally then you should pursue a clean and uncompli-
cated 810K structure for your main text, without any other
organizing devices above the chapter level.
So much then for the organization of the whole. But this sec-
tion is also about the coreof your thesis – which may be simply
defined as all those sections with high research value-added.
The core contributes to originality either by ‘the discovery of
new facts’ or by ‘the exercise of independent critical power’.
This set of chapters contains all the most substantively new or
different sections of your research, the ones that determine if
you get a doctorate or not. In a ‘big book’ thesis not all of your
doctorate can or should fall into the core. There will also be a
certain irreducible amount of non-core materials, composed of:
◆Lead-in material, which introduces and sets up core material
for readers so that it is understandable and accessible.
Sometimes dismissively labelled as ‘throat-clearing’ stuff,
PLANNING AN INTEGRATED THESIS◆ 49