In this blog you’ll find step by step 7-day plan on how to write your thesis. This 7-day thesis writing plan is designed for students and researchers who need to complete their thesis (or dissertation) quickly and effectively. Without any jibber jabber let’s get straight to the point. Just one point to remember that before you dive in to starting your write up, make sure you have read the university guidelines as in what style and format is required. This will save you time in going back and making changes once you have finished writing. Now let’s start the action:

Day 1: Start Your Thesis with Title and Methodology Section

First step get yourself a drink, whatever you like tea, coffee, cold drink. Sit down comfortably and open your laptop and open a new document. Next, write down your title, in many cases this would be already finalised with your supervisor and if not now is the time to write down a concise title. Next, write down structure of your thesis, in mostly scientific experimental research, the outline is usually something like this:

Introduction/literature review

Materials and methods

Results and Discussion or results separate and discussion separate section

If you have enough time till your deadline I would stop at this point and start from next day. Why I do this? because this always works for me. I start with a very small and doable action which I can achieve, then ticking it off gives me a sense of accomplishment. I then continue with the second step the next day. But if you have limited time I would carry on.

Whether its thesis chapters or research paper, I start with Methodology section as I find it the easiest one. It is what it is. I would not give more than one day for this section. I would aim to get this section done in one day after setting out the outline. So, second step write down “materials and methods” or “methodology” or anything appropriate according to your uni guidelines. Now you need to write structure of this section. Take out lab book, notes, digital notes where you have noted down your methodology have a good look. Also, a very important point is to look at research papers or theses where the methodology used is similar to yours. It is ok to get an idea of the layout from previous papers and theses, just need to be aware to not copy and paste it as it is. Now once you have written down the sub-headings all you need to do is start filling up these sections. It should be pretty straight forward as you know what and how you have done. Add references where required. Now this is for day 1 and stop here. Before you wind up for the day, plan for Day 2. I would start working on Results and Discussion section next, or if the 2 sections are separate in your guidelines, in that case I would do results. This planning for the next day is very important because then on the second day you won’t waste time by deciding what to do today and you will already be prepared for that day’s work.

To sum up day 1 tasks: title and headings; material and methods and subheadings. Write up methodology section.

Day 2: Writing Results for Your Thesis

For Results and Discussion, whether combined or separate, I would aim to finish it in no more than 3 days. If timeline is tight, I wouldn’t give it more than 3 days. It is doable but it would need some planning. Let’s take the example of writing Results and Discussion separate. Let’s be clear here that I am talking about undergrad or master’s thesis and not PhD thesis. Secondly, this is the part where you have already done your research and it’s just the writing and compiling part and NOT the actual research part. The time required for your actual research part and analysis can vary depending on your area. Keep in mind it is only for write up and not the actual analysis. You would need to have all your graphs and figures and tables beforehand. If something is missing, don’t panic you can still fit in that task in these 3 days.

Start with writing the heading Results, then sub-headings. Again as mentioned above, we can get some ideas of layout from similar papers or theses. Once heading and subheadings are done, all you need is to start writing around it. If you already have done your analysis and have graphs, tables etc, then this Results section should not take more than a day. So by day 2 you could finish this whole section. In this section, underneath subheadings, we can write what we found and nothing else needed to be written because it is the section to report what was found.. ‘why’, ‘what it means’ etc. needs to go in the Discussion section. Once, graph or figure is inserted, it should be pretty much straightforward to write about it.

Some tips for this section: you don’t need to write text about each and every figure from the graph or table. Highlight the important ones, for example, the highest one and the lowest value, the most effective value etc. If the graph shows some numbers, you may translate that into percentage for the important ones and then write that in the text to make it clearer. This is just an example, again taking ideas from similar theses or research papers is fine.

If all this work is done by the end of the day well and good, if not, you can use another half day for this section and 1.5 days for Discussion section. Now before winding up for day 2, plan for day 3 which in this case would be Discussion. By planning I don’t mean doing much but mentally preparing for the next day and also write it down in your to do list or diary that tomorrow is the day to start Discussion and outline of it.

Day 3: How to Write the Discussion Section in Your Thesis

Without wasting the day, dive in to Discussion section. This section is basically about your findings that we now compare with other studies, which studies are in agreement and which studies are in contrast. Any other points that were not mentioned previously can go in to this. For example, if there was something about the methods section that is important to write such as why used a different temperature etc. it can be discussed in this section. 

Generally, when we are doing our research, there are some papers that are very relevant to ours and we go to it more often during our research, so there will be some important points in these papers that we can use in our discussion section to compare with our results. Write these points in notebook or in separate drafts document, not necessarily in order. Go through these points and see where these fit better. Start with a more general paragraph about the study and then then write paragraphs more specifically to specific results. Before the end of the day, plan for next day. Write down what is missing and what is needed. For example, you want to search for a paper to justify xyz findings. To find another reference for result abc.

Day 4: Completing the Thesis Discussion Section

Start this day very relaxed thinking that you are nearly there. You are halfway through your Discussion section so, the bulk of the thesis has already been written. Complete this section and plan for the next day. Day 5 is to start Introduction/Literature review.

Day 5: Writing the Thesis Introduction and Literature Review

This is the section I personally like the least, hence why I leave it to the last. For this section, it is not like you are going to start the research from scratch because, for research we start literature reading from the beginning of the project and some reading all the way through the project. So by this time you should have enough research papers saved in your folder. Again, the very first advice I would give is to look at similar theses and dissertation to get an idea of layout but keep in mind not to copy paste otherwise it will be flagged in plagiarism software and it is not ethical. Get some idea and now make an outline of Literature review section. Usually, the first heading is about the area where we can add statistics and figures about it for example if it is about a disease, then we can add prevalence etc. globally and then more specific to our country. Think of this section as an inverted pyramid, start broad with general area of your research and go narrower towards the knowledge gap and then finally to your research question. Towards end of the day, plan for the next day by jotting down what is missing and what areas you would like to highlight, or what points you want to find references for.

Day 6: Finalising Literature Review and Objectives

Start your day thinking you are nearly there as it is the last day of the actual thesis work. Depending on your uni/school guidelines for word limit, make sure you don’t overdo or under do it. Try to get down enough information so that the background is clear, the overview of the whole project is clear. The knowledge gap and your research question is clear. In many cases the Aims and objectives go in this section too. Write them too and….. Congratulations you have completed your thesis! well done!

Day 7: Proofreading and Referencing

Last but not the least it is time to format the References and proofread the thesis. A very very important advice that I always give is to keep a record of references as you go, otherwise it is going to be a very hectic day to find references which at the time of writing seemed like oh yeah I am totally going to remember this reference but when the actual time comes, we then struggle to find the references. Always ALWAYS keep a record of the references in a separate draft or ideally in a software such as Endnote, Mendeley, Refworks or a software suggested/available from your university. If you have already recorded references in a software, it won’t take very long to create the reference list. Once references are also done, proofread the document, see if any missing references, typos, any tweaks need to be done. If you still have time, proofread it again the next day with fresh eyes before submitting it. Once you are happy with it hit the SUBMIT button and YOU ARE DONE! Pat your back and enjoy your achievement and share your thoughts in the comments section.

If you think your thesis is publication worthy, I have a blog here on how to turn your thesis into publication in high-impact factor journal check it out! Need more thesis tips? Check out my guide on overcoming procrastination in research writing.