Formatting the thesis

Formatting the thesis is something that most of us take for granted. If we got a place to do a Ph.D we certainly are familiar with word processing software, such as MS Word. Most universities also offer training on using the technology available in one way or another. So, formatting the thesis should be a simple task But it is not. Each university provides its own guidelines with all specifications needed to meet the standards for a doctorate dissertation. Which is helpful especially if the candidate consult and follow those guidelines from day one, when they first start writing the first bits of the thesis. However, it is a common behaviour to leave this for when you start thinking in submitting it. In some cases, the student researcher has worked in such a way that differs so much from the guidelines that it is a nightmare to re-format things to comply with them.

In my case, I experienced a huge setback when my computer was infected with a spyware that nearly make impossible to work on the files of my thesis. It involved more than one technician, took me several months, and washed away a good part of my patience. Fortunately, I got there in the end, and won the battle against that digital ‘vermin’ which purposely invaded my files at home, and through my VPN connection affected also my file store in the university server. So, thanks to all that mess, formatting my thesis ended up being one of the biggest challenges of the whole process. I had all the data collected, analysed, discussed and everything written and approved. It was just the formatting. Just!

On that note, I spoke to a friend yesterday about her thesis and how she is coping with the technological bits of this never-ending task. We discussed the importance of using EndNote (or another reference management software) and the Word itself. Coincidently, in a meeting I had just after seen this friend, I was asked to help another colleague with his formatting. As a result I spent the day today again working on a PhD thesis, only that this one was not mine. This colleague has completed everything, and similar to myself is now depending only on getting all headings, sub-headings, tables, figures, etc., right and consistently referenced and cross-referenced and after that  it will be it for him, too. A huge difference from his thesis to mine is that he has not done much of fancy formatting as I had and was not affected by any virus or spyware attack, so his thesis is much cleaner than mine was in that aspect. Also, I am working in another laptop which has never been infected, is perfectly clean, the disc has an immense amount of free space, and the Office package is better than the one I had when working on mine. Everything is so smooth.

I am almost done with this task and in hindsight I thought that it would have been less complicated if I didn’t have all those macros infected and if I had the chance to work on the formatting in the same smooth way I did today on this one. That would have saved me a few months. Bearing this in mind, I would recommend anyone writing their thesis to be extremely cautious and keep their anti-virus and anti-spyware up-to-date, and use them regularly.

Bearing in mind my conversation with my friend prior to that meeting, I would say that it is crucial learning all the features of MS Word and using them in your favour, facing you fear of technology (if you have it) and learning to use the Endnote or alike, even NVivo and alike or SPSS and alike, and so forth depending on the type of research you are doing. Make the technology work for you, put it on your side instead of against you. However, do not panick if you get to the end and need to use some sort of external service/help like my colleague now, because it is fine. Do not feel incompetent if technology defeats you as not everyone is a geek. Find the balance between giving up just because you are scared of the unknown or think that you can learn new tricks at this point in life; and the determination to get it done independently when you could, in some cases even should, use some help. It is common people outsourcing individuals or companies to do transcriptions, for instance, or to produce some specific part of your study that you obviously are not supposed to do. It is exactly the same thing. Writing the thesis, this is your real job.