purdue online writing lab thesis

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How to Write as a Graduate Student

The OWL Provides some helpful tips on writing as a graduate student. Here are some topics covered. The links below will take you to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website .

• Introduction to Graduate Writing
• Graduate Writing Topics
• Graduate Writing Genres
• Writing a Thesis/Dissertation

Creating an Annotated Bibliography

The OWL also provides guidance on creating an annotated bibliography, a common tool and assignment for graduate students.  Below are a few topics covered by the OWL.

• Annotated Bibliographies - Definitions & Format
• Annotated Bibliography Breakdown
• Annotated Bibliography Samples
• Writing a Literature Review

Just about every major research project involves a literature review, often these can be placed at the beginning of a paper or can be publishable in their own right. The OWL provides guidance for literature review writing.

Job Search Writing

Writing while on the job search takes various forms. The OWL provides useful tips for writing in this context.

• Preparing an Application
• Job Search Letters
• Resumes and CVs
• Skilled Labor Job Search Resources
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• Next: APA Style Guide >>
• Last Edited: Apr 5, 2024 9:55 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/Education_GraduateStudents

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Thesis and Directed Project Resources

This page includes information and linked resources for completing your research and development for your thesis or directed project. There are several deadlines students must meet in order to graduate, please check the Graduate School's Calendar for important dates. 

Thesis and Directed Project Format Checklist -- this is a link to a compilation of formatting requirements for a thesis or directed project report. Following this checklist can minimize the risk of the Purdue Graduate School rejecting your thesis for deposit (which would delay your graduation until at least the next semester).

Templates and Tools

When writing your thesis or direct project, you must follow very specific Purdue and SoET standards.  Theses and directed projects follow the same structure and formatting rules. To help you conform to Purdue and SoET standards, use the following Word or LaTEX template. 

Microsoft Word Templates for Theses (also to be used for Directed Project Reports) -- Please note that these Graduate School templates may or may not include two important front matter sections required in all theses and direct project reports. These sections are LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS and GLOSSARY, to immediately precede the ABSTRACT section. Depending on when you took TECH 64600, the GLOSSARY will replace what used to be a Definitions subsection in Chapter 1.

LaTeX Instructions for Theses -- Some students (and graduate faculty) prefer to use LaTeX to format their thesis or directed project (instead of Microsoft Word ).  It is STRONGLY suggested you use LaTeX.  Engineering Technology students should NOT use the LaTeX template provided on the Graduate School's website. Instead, they should use the attached template . 

APA Son of Citation Formatting App --this web application may prove useful for correctly formatting APA-style citations for your thesis or directed project. Please note that the application is not aware of proper nouns and acronyms. Thus, you will still need to capitalize the first letter of proper nouns, as well as full acronyms.

APA Style Tips -- Need a refresher on APA formatting and styles? This is a direct link to their web site.

Services for Research, Theses, and Directed Projects

Institutional Review Board (IRB) -- The IRB provides mandatory review of research protocols that involved humans. This includes surveys conducted by many graduate students as part of their research. Any graduate student research requiring the use of humans for data collection and reporting requires IRB pre-approval; before you conduct the survey.

Qualtrics  -- Qualtrics is a web-based survey software available for use by all Purdue Faculty, Students and Staff to support teaching and research at Purdue. Surveys can be created and distributed by anyone with a career account. Be aware that surveys may require approval from the IRB because they implement research protocols that involve humans.

Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) -- The Department of Statistics provides statistical software and design consulting services for the University community – free of charge.  The Statistical Consulting Service can help you with statistical software problems and data analysis issues.  Statistical Software Consulting provides assistance with the set up and running of a wide variety of statistical computing programs, including SAS, SPSS, Minitab and S-Plus. Software consulting is available in MATH G175 on a drop-in basis.  Experimental Design and Data Analysis Consulting is available during the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters.  Services include assistance with all phases of research projects: proposal preparation, design of studies, survey design, data input strategies, data import/export, analysis of data, interpretation of results, presentation of results, and other statistics or probability problems.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)  -- this is a link to Purdue's acclaimed Online Writing Lab (OWL) which can be very helpful to students with less than satisfactory writing skills. The web site also provides links into APA formatting expectations.

Google Scholar -- this is a link to a special Google search engine designed to find scholarly publications that have been appropriately reviewed or refereed by academic faculty. Such publications should be more credible than information discovered via Google's standard search engine.

Depositing Your Written Thesis 

After you have successfully defended your thesis, and made any required changes to your written thesis, and received all required approvals, you must still officially deposit your thesis.  You should familiarize yourself with the Purdue Thesis Deposit Process .  

Thesis and Directed Project Format Checklist

MS SOET Graduate Student Handbook

Graduate School Forms 

Search form

Creating a thesis statement.

Write with Might #6: Creating a Thesis Statement

This week we continue our exploration of the writing process, which again includes: (1) prewriting, (2) creating a thesis sentence, (3) developing an outline (4) reverse outlining and (5) proofreading. I would like to offer some support on how to create a thesis statement. The following information is adapted from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and the Odegaard Writing &Research Center, with citations following.

Creating a thesis statement

In writing a thesis statement, remember that your task is to take a stance, argue a position and support it thoroughly with academic evidence.

1. Determine the kind of paper to determine your thesis' task

An analytical paper: your thesis should break down an idea/issue and evaluate it An expository paper: your thesis should explain something

An argumentative paper: your thesis should make a claim (an opinion) and argue it

Got something different?: Perhaps you are writing a narrative or reflection paper. If so, your thesis statement is still important as it should communicate one central theme or main idea to your reader. It will also help you stay organized.

• Start with your claim

Locate the strongest idea you developed while prewriting, then ask yourself, "is it arguable?"  Thesis statements

MUST be arguable.

Revise your claim as needed so that it is arguable.

Arguable statements:

• are persuasive and convincing
• tackle an issue/problem/question for which no easy answers exist
• invite a variety of possible perspectives
• Add reasons to your claim

A working thesis is a claim (arguable statement) with REASONS attached

CLAIM: Readers should reject women's magazines with advertising that presents impossibly thin models. REASON: Excessive dieting can cause psychological problems.

WORKING THESIS: Because excessive dieting causes psychological problems, readers should reject women's

magazines with advertising that presents impossibly thin models.

4. Ask: Is my thesis statement specific?

It should only cover what you will argue/discuss/present in your paper and what you can thoroughly

support with evidence within the scope of the paper. Be honest with yourself, perhaps you could pare it down?

5. Ask: Where does my thesis statement appear?

Your thesis should generally fall near end of your first paragraph. You should warm up the reader at the beginning of your first paragraph, providing interest, context and perhaps a brief description of the larger discourse in which your thesis lives. Consider adding a roadmap for the reader, telling them how you are going to prove your mentioned thesis. EXAMPLE: "This paper will....1), 2), 3).

6. Ask: Do I need to change my thesis now that I've written part of/all of this paper?

You may find that after you really delve into writing the body of your paper, you realize you have taken a different path. This is not necessarily a problem. Perhaps you simply need to revisit your thesis statement and change it to ensure it exactly reflects what you are telling your reader throughout the paper. Remember, reverse outlining is a great help for gaining this awareness!

Brizee, A., Tardiff, E. (2011, February, 24). Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements. Retrieved from:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1 /

Odegaard Writing & Research (n.d.) Center. Claims, Claims, Claims. Retrieved from:

http://depts.washington.edu/owrc/Handouts/Claims%20Claims%20Claims.pdf

Have a wonderful, inspired week and take good care of yourself,

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Reference List: Textual Sources

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Basic Format for Books

Edited book, no author, edited book with an author or authors, a translation.

Note : When you cite a republished work, like the one above, in your text, it should appear with both dates: Plato (385-378/1989)

Edition Other Than the First

Article or chapter in an edited book.

Note : When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers. List any edition number in the same set of parentheses as the page numbers, separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 66-72).

Multivolume Work

Articles in periodicals.

APA style dictates that authors are named with their last name followed by their initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized. If a DOI has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the article. If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the URL of the website from which you are retrieving the periodical.

Article in Print Journal

Note: APA 7 advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source. The example above assumes no DOI is available.

Article in Electronic Journal

Note :  This content also appears on Reference List: Online Media .

As noted above, when citing an article in an electronic journal, include a DOI if one is associated with the article.

DOIs may not always be available. In these cases, use a URL. Many academic journals provide stable URLs that function similarly to DOIs. These are preferable to ordinary URLs copied and pasted from the browser's address bar.

Article in a Magazine

Article in a newspaper.

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Handouts and hyperlinks.

Sometimes, you just need a quick reference guide. The following documents and links serve that purpose—for a variety of topics. Save them, print them, share them—we’ve put them together to help you whenever and wherever you are.

If you’d like to recommend additional handout topics, please email us at [email protected] .

The following handouts should be used only as general guidelines; please use your professor or departmental guidelines when they conflict with those used on these references.

Academic Writing

Use these guides to build up your writing:

• Analyzing Your Assignment
• Analysis vs. Synthesis
• Annotating a Text
• Audience Analysis
• Evaluating Sources: The CRAAP Test
• Guide to Writing In-Class Essay Exams
• Guidelines for an Annotated Bibliography
• How to Organize an Academic Paper
• How to Write an Analysis
• How to Write a Literature Review
• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis
• How to Write a Summary
• How to Write a Synthesis
• How to Write a Thesis Statement
• Key Strategies for Effective Revision
• Tips for Writing College Papers

Grammar and Usage

Grammar can be confusing; use these handouts as a guide:

• Colons, Semicolons, and Dashes
• Combining Clauses
• Formatting Microsoft Word Documents
• Signal Verbs and Phrases
• Transitions

Helpful Links

These additional links can help with other writing and style questions you may have:

• The Draft, the PFW Writing Center Blog
• Ask a Librarian and Schedule an Appointment with a PFW Librarian
• Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab)
• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• APA Style.org
• International Writing Centers Association
• East Central Writing Centers Association
• Judging Sources: Is Your Journal Scholarly?
• Judging Sources: Is Your Book Scholarly?

Sources and Citations

The Writing Center recommends using the Purdue Online Writing Lab or the style organization's website for the most up-to-date information on citations and formatting. If you need assistance with Purdue OWL, please visit the Writing Center during our business hours. Please note, though we are a Purdue University campus, we have no control or impact on the content of the Purdue OWL. It’s run entirely through the Purdue West Lafayette campus, with a separate staff.

• Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 9:47 AM
• URL: https://library.pfw.edu/writing

Intensive Writing Experience for Thesis & Dissertation Writers (IWE)-Summer 2021 - Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Purdue University

Intensive Writing Experience for Thesis & Dissertation Writers (IWE)-Summer 2021

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Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest

Full text is available to Purdue University faculty, staff, and students on campus through this site. No login is required.

Off-campus Purdue users may download theses and dissertations by logging into the Libraries' proxy server with your Purdue Career Account. Links to log in to the proxy server directly below the download button of each thesis or dissertation page.

Non-Purdue users, may purchase copies of theses and dissertations from ProQuest or talk to your librarian about borrowing a copy through Interlibrary Loan. (Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Theses and Dissertations Series, so please check there first.)

Access to abstracts is unrestricted.

Open Access Theses

This series contains theses that students have wished to make openly available. The full content is available to all, although some theses may have embargoes. If an embargo exists the date will be listed instead of the download button. The download button will appear once a thesis is no longer embargoed. To browse a fuller listing of theses from Purdue please visit the Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest series.

Open Access Dissertations

This series contains open access dissertations that students have wished to make openly available. The full-text content is available to all, although some theses may have embargoes. If an embargo exists the date will be listed instead of the download button. The download button will appear once a dissertation is no longer embargoed. To browse a fuller listing of dissertations from Purdue please visit the Theses and Dissertations Available from ProQuest series.

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The Thesis and Dissertation Office assists graduate students in the formatting, editing, and depositing of their theses. Our staff will consult with you to ensure that your thesis is ready for defense.

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