Sometimes your data is so rich on emotions and stories that you can easily produce both a scientific manuscript and a novel type book. Publications are not often in published in the personal form. Dissertations however, can contain more personal forms. Different disciplines advocate different voices. It may become a problem if your opponent is from a different discipline. However this has not yet experienced in practice at TaiK. Also in a design related degree playfulness in language could even be encouraged.

When quoting real life stories 5 sentences is good practice. Usually the personal form is more used in the dissertation. Publications however, are often more written in objective form. There are different graphic strategies to approach quotation in your manuscript. Color, font, size, italic, etc. Explain why you use these quotations as exemplar.

Inside reader: Whom are you addressing in your dissertation. This will most likely be those people that are closely related to your references and your resources.

It is important not to forget to mention the researcher’s background. For in this case the researcher is female herself, a jeweler herself and Finnish of background. These belong to the pre-conditions of the research. Important: don’t fall in love with your text and dont fall in love with your data. (Emotional stories)

Some Ideas.

1. Introduction talk on the book “Authoring a Ph.D (by Patrick Dunleavy)”

* check Tero Heikkinen’s slides in “INTRA”

* remember that this book is about guidance. How to structure the thesis can depend on topics, approaches and so on.

2. Some rules for article-based dissertation

• Original articles should be attached: layout design for articles according to the book layout can be fine, but no changes for words allowed (if typos are corrected, should be mentioned.)
• Typically 6 articles (minimum 5), should include 3 strong ones that the author has siginificant contribution in (if an article was co-authored, roles of the author and co-authors should be discussed.)
• Some merits of article-based dissertation: attached articles are conference papers and journal papers that have been already peer-reviewed and published, which means that they already contain proved research contribution.
• Pre-examination time has nothing to do with types of dissertation, either article-based or monograph.

3. Example of authoring manuscript: 4 rounds of writing

• Producing rough mass of text: to see what the author has got.  Print the body of text. The text will start to speak to the author. Then discuss with supervisors on the text (structure, argumentation, titles…)
• Revision: “Monster Round”. This text will be the dissertation. One should be very carful with structuring, argumentation & make sure the text delivers what the author promised in the beginning.
• Finalizing: exact words for research questions, exact results, exact references, headlines, titles of chapters….
• Language -proof

4. What helps for having an image of structure of thesis

• Have a (broad) main research question  from the beginning & several sub-questions
• Writing a literature review part is important because it’s the step for positioning one’s work and choosing contribution area and audience.
• Important to write papers (even with preliminary findings) from the early phase of research: they are foundations for building monograph.

See also ppt of Giulio Jacucci here: Paper-writing

Some factors that can affect this change:
Audience. Remember the first reader is most likely the chairman of the conference or a joint committee. Their choice of acceptance is subject to personal preferences. Be smart in this.
Type of publication. Theoretical, design, system, etc. paper. Also look at the contribution types mentioned on this page and this page.
Approach.
Schedule.
Authorship. There are different guidelines with naming and crediting authors. Here is one of the American Psychology Guidelines on authorship order.

Each conference has their own rules on paper format, deadline, etc. Best is to decide which conference you’re aiming for and to investigate their specific guidelines.

Writing process. Effective writing starts of with a set up of the skeleton of the paper. This skeleton contains the following:
Title. This will be subject to change throughout the process.
Abstract. This is particularly important when co-authoring. This piece can guide in communicating and coming to terms with co-authors what the paper is about. It can also guide in how the process of writing can look like and what roles each co-author will take on. The abstract is a stand alone section. However, it s good practice for the introduction and the conclusion together combined to a stand alone section. So there is no need to repeat yourself in the conclusion part of things already mentioned in the introduction part.
Table of contents. This can include dates, deadlines and people – organizational agreements
Study and results.
Plan.

Paper parts. The big issue here is to identify The/Your/Our single big idea. What is your single contribution? Your paper should reflect this. See also this page.

Readability. Make sure the different parts introduce eachother in way so the next part doesn’t seem to big to absorb. E.g. Have the parts about results point towards key questions and factors laid out in the discussion later on. This way the discussion won’t seem to large to absorb for the reader. Depending on your paper it can be:
- Read by pictures
- Read by titles
In fact is should be able to be read visually at all times.

Collaboration and co-authoring means that you will end up with more publications. Proof reading is supported by university services.

Where should I submit my papers to? Find inspiration in your idols. Look for those places where they seem to present their papers and imitate.