Cs thesis guide

Graduate Programs in Computer Science
-1- Ferworn Rev: April 21, 2009
How to Produce a Computer Science Thesis
Introduction
This document is intended as a brief guide to students in Ryerson University Computer
Science Masters and Doctoral programs who are at the stage in their studies where they
need to report on the fruits of their labors— it is the written thesis. This document does
not address any of the front or back matter of a thesis1
but speaks to the core of it. While
a broad variance in permissible in the organization of the core, what is presented here
should serve as a broad description of what needs to be present so that a successful
outcome will be more likely.
The following sections discuss the core parts of your thesis with the goal of allowing you
to form your thoughts around writing a document whose form is well-understood by all
who may read it but whose content helps you defend it as a new work, worthy of the
degree you seek.
There are seven essential elements to any thesis document:
1. Thesis Statement
2. Contributions
3. Introduction
4. Literature Survey
5. Methodology and Implementation
6. Evaluation
7. Conclusions, Summary and Future Work
1
Extremely detailed instructions for the physical production of a thesis document can be found at:
http://www.ryerson.ca/graduate/policies/documents/SGS_Thesis_Regulations_000.pdf

Thesis statement
The word “thesis” roughly translates from the Greek word for “position”. The thesis
statement is a refined and succinct set of arguments that define what you will demonstrate
or prove in the thesis—it is your position. It is the “point” of your work. The statement
can be very short or many pages in length. If an oral defense were a battle, this is the
ground you fight to hold.
Contributions
This is a list of things that you did that you believe expand the bounds of what Computer
Science is in the context of your thesis statement. If one thinks of the massed knowledge
accumulated over decades as bricks being used to build a tower that reaches ever higher.
Your contributions, once examined, are the bricks that help build that tower.
Contributions are always made in relationship to both the discipline of Computer Science
and the thesis statement you have made. For example, writing a piece of software would
not normally be considered a contribution. However, defining a methodology or
algorithm that supports your thesis statement may.
Introduction
This is where you lead the reader into the core of your thesis. It is where you frame what
you will present in future chapters. It explains the context in which your work has taken
place. This might make reference to a particular field or perhaps a problem that your
work addresses. The introduction contains your thesis statement and your contributions.
It also describes how the rest of your thesis will be organized. It normally, is not very
long, should be compelling and typically forms chapter one of your thesis.
Literature Survey
This section is a review of all relevant research that impinges on your thesis. It is the
work done by others that relates to what you hope to demonstrate with your work. This is
also where the literature related to methods that you used in your work should be
introduced.
Essentially, this part of your thesis document will form the bulk of your citations. The
literature survey should reference only publicly available material. The purpose of this
section is to illuminate the area of research not to reference “magic documents” that are
impossible to find. Essentially, the literature survey forms chapter two although some of
the literature survey may begin in the introduction to your thesis to help prime the reader.
This section also helps guide the reader through the rest of your thesis in the sense that it
provides direction as to what bodies of knowledge you used in support of your thesis
statement.
It is good practice to cite seminal and significant works directly, rather than cite work that
relies on the work of others. These are considered primary sources. It is also good

practice and extremely prudent to cite ones own peer-reviewed works that adds to your
position.
Methodology and Implementation
This is the section of your thesis where you will present the methodological framework
for your research. It discusses how you would do what you have already done, if you
were to start again. Methodology chapters are intended to be complete, detailed reports of
what someone would need to do to replicate your results with the objective that any other
researcher could repeat your work exactly to determine if your results can be replicated.
This section will also describe any experiments you may have run, it will also discuss any
testing methodologies and how these would be actually applied in your case. In essence,
this is the section where you disclose how you measure your results to the world but do
not actually give the results—this is where you “open the kimono”. This section of your
thesis typically becomes chapter three.
Evaluation
In this section you will report the results of your work with reference to the methodology
you discussed in the previous section. It is very important that you report the results of
your evaluation in relation to your thesis statement. This will bolster your arguments
concerning the validity of your statement and will make it more difficult to attack. In
many cases the claims you made in the first section of your thesis can now be
substantiated as well.
Generally speaking, it is a good idea to break this part of your thesis into section that
addresses a single claim at a time by applying your methodology, reporting a result and
discussing the result in the context of your thesis statement.
This section will normally form chapter four and is essentially the “meat” of your
document and may take more than one chapter to present.
Conclusions, Summary and Future Work
This section allows you to explain to the reader all conclusions that can be drawn from
evidence that you have presented in previous sections. In addition, you should again
present your contributions and make reference to how you validated them in your thesis.
Finally, it is very important that you present a roadmap for continuing the research you
have reported. You should present all questions that you did not address in you work and
discuss why they are significant.
This section forms the last part of your core work. Conclusions may require quite a lot of
explanation and thus may cause this section to span several chapters.

The Five Chapter Thesis Heuristic
Perhaps a good assumption is that you will be producing a document with approximately
five chapters in it. When considering what should be go into any additional chapters it is
helpful to ask the question, “Is the material in question so different from what I am
putting in this chapter that it warrants another chapter?” It is usually the case that the
answer is “maybe”. This means that the material may be reworded to fit well into the
existing framework. The five-chapter thesis is often labeled “traditional” but it is well
understood, has served many, and places your new work in a well-understood context.
Appendices vs. More Chapters
Often, situations arise where material, directly related to your thesis but of a background
nature, may be included in your work. This is where the use of appendices may be of
considerable help. Appendices can be referenced by your main text, are available to the
reader when necessary, but do not oblige the reader to examine the contents of the
appendices if they are already familiar with the contents or they simply wish to examine
the gist of your arguments without the clutter of background. If you feel that the reader
should be coaxed into examining the material you may simply consider adding an
appropriately named chapter.
When deciding what should go in an appendix or additional chapter you should ask
yourself;
1. Is this material necessary to support my arguments?
2. Is this material something that needs to introduced and not simply cited?
The answer to the first question lets you decide if the information should be included at
all. The answer to the second question provides you insight into what to do with the
material.
For example, if your thesis relies on algorithms or computer software to make your case,
you may wish to provide explanations in an appendix. This is especially true if you feel
that providing the information will help the committee examining your thesis to see the
merit of your arguments.
Flexibility
The goal of a thesis is to present a clearly defined thesis statement with the arguments
that support it. As such, there is a great deal of flexibility that is permissible in the actual
production of the thesis document. If you feel that the material being presented requires
an alternative form than the one this document has discussed, it is always your option to
pursue it. Having said this, no matter what the format of your thesis, the seven
components presented in this document must still form the basis of your work and it is up
to you to make it clear to the reader that you have provided them.

Cs thesis guide

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Cs thesis guide