How To Write A PhD Thesis In Humanities

Students who are working on a PhD usually have to write a thesis for their final graduation requirements. This lengthy project involves following a specific format that is assigned by your school and by the organization that created the style. You will have to follow the format in order to earn the credit you want for the project. While you are working on your PhD thesis, you will have an advisor who will guide you through the process and make realistic suggestions along the way. It is a good idea to listen to everything that your advisor says and make the revisions without complaint. These are a few things to consider when you are writing that PhD thesis:

• Properly format the bibliography. Nothing irritates instructors more than an improperly formatted bibliography. Your advisor will tell you what style you need to use, like MLA or APA, and it is your job to ensure that you follow the style. There are apps that will format bibliography pages for you and for decades students have been formatting their own without any errors at all without apps. There is no excuse for a improperly formatted bibliography other than laziness and lack of attention to detail.


• Avoid using generalizations. The idea behind a thesis is that you do significant research to prove a point. When you use generalizations, your instructor thinks that you have not done any research. Generalizations include words like much, very, some, many, or all. If you must use a generalization, be sure to have a source for it so your instructor knows you are paraphrasing or directly quoting a source.


• Keep your thesis manageable. PhD candidates often try to cover more than they can in one paper. You will most likely have a word limit, so you should not try to cover a topic that requires volumes rather than just one book. When you tackle a subject about a humanities issue, you can condense the topic from covering all of the humanity to covering humanity in a historical period or in a geographic region.


• Read about the subject. Your advisor is well-read on the subject of humanities. You should be, too. Before you begin to quote the popular names from humanities, be sure you have read something and closely analyzed the work. Otherwise, your instructor will immediately recognize your flaws in reasoning and defending your thesis.