thesis whisperer anu

• Help & FAQ

The Role of the Technology in the Making of a Thesis Whisperer

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article

Access to Document

• 10.2218/unfamiliar.v7i1.1884

Fingerprint

• employee Social Sciences 100%
• job description Social Sciences 62%
• job performance Social Sciences 54%
• university Social Sciences 43%
• ranking Social Sciences 41%
• director Social Sciences 39%
• climate Social Sciences 36%

T1 - The Role of the Technology in the Making of a Thesis Whisperer

AU - Trembath, Jodie-Lee

AU - Mewburn, Inger

N2 - This paper explores the notion of the human-technology hybrid, seeking to understand how ‘smart’ technologies are enmeshed with humans in their fleshier forms to assemble different identities from moment to moment. One participant - the Director of Research Training (DRT) at a high-ranking research-intensive university - was shadowed as she interacted with the human and non-human actants within her network to produce and sustain various identities. The goal of the study was to illuminate aspects of the DRT’s working day that are not accounted for in her job description or performance plan, but are crucial to her success in her role; that is to say, the ‘invisible work’ that she undertakes, and the ways in which she enrolls, translates and works with or against various technologies - and they, her. In exploring three forms of invisible work – a) where the employee is visible but the work is invisible, b) where the employee is invisible but the work is visible, and c) where both work and employee are invisible – we argue that it is critical for university administrators to understand the invisible work that human/smart technology hybrids are doing within academic environments in order to best manage their rapidly changing workforces and the organizational climates in which they work.

AB - This paper explores the notion of the human-technology hybrid, seeking to understand how ‘smart’ technologies are enmeshed with humans in their fleshier forms to assemble different identities from moment to moment. One participant - the Director of Research Training (DRT) at a high-ranking research-intensive university - was shadowed as she interacted with the human and non-human actants within her network to produce and sustain various identities. The goal of the study was to illuminate aspects of the DRT’s working day that are not accounted for in her job description or performance plan, but are crucial to her success in her role; that is to say, the ‘invisible work’ that she undertakes, and the ways in which she enrolls, translates and works with or against various technologies - and they, her. In exploring three forms of invisible work – a) where the employee is visible but the work is invisible, b) where the employee is invisible but the work is visible, and c) where both work and employee are invisible – we argue that it is critical for university administrators to understand the invisible work that human/smart technology hybrids are doing within academic environments in order to best manage their rapidly changing workforces and the organizational climates in which they work.

U2 - 10.2218/unfamiliar.v7i1.1884

DO - 10.2218/unfamiliar.v7i1.1884

M3 - Article

JO - The Unfamiliar

JF - The Unfamiliar

16 episodes

The podcast feed for Thesiswhisperer.com: tune in for audio projects produced by Professor Inger Mewburn from The Australian National University. Scroll down in the feed for past projects, including 'Academics Talk about The Chair' and 'Your brain on Writing'... Coming soon: 'Academic workers talk about Severance'

Thesiswhisperer Pod Thesis Whisperer

• Society & Culture
• 4.8 • 17 Ratings
• 21 OCT 2023

Episode Nine: The We, we are

It's the final episode of Severance, and it's really fucking tense! For our final show this season, it's just us: Outie Anitra and Innie Inger, talking about episode 9.  So much happened this episode! So many big reveals, and new plot lines opened. Helly has the most Dystopian Cinderella moment, Mark is Ricken's fanboy, Dylan is taking one for the workers collective and Irv only says a single word (but he makes it count).  We still live in hope for season two - hopefully we won't be in the break room waiting too long! Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

• 16 SEPT 2023

Episode Eight: What's for dinner?

Worker solidarity is the theme of this episode, and in celebration, we invited Anitra's current boss, Geoff Stringer. Don't worry though - he's not going to rat us out to the higher ups. The team dissect episode: What's for Dinner. This is the episode where Inger had to text Anitra all the way through because it was so damn tense. Plans are made, dreams are broken - most importantly, certain people are at the 'find out' stage of the Fuck Around journey. And we are here for every delicious moment! Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Episode Seven: Defiant Jazz

You'll never look at mandated company fun the same way after this episode, especially when it becomes clear that inter-departmental politics can get its own body count.  Prof Narelle Lemon, who is now at Edith Cowan University, joins us again to dissect episode seven of Severance. There's so much in this episode - the action is really heating up. Milcheck tries his best to keep a lid on the simmering tensions, and only earns himself a bite from Dylan. There is no Ricken in this episode, but he is till present in his absence.  Everything seems to be heading in a bad direction - but will worker solidarity win out over corporate oppression? We can't wait to find out. Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

• 2 SEPT 2023

Episode Five: The grim barbarity of optics and design

We saved this one for Anitra's co-worker and Director of Digital Experience, Joyce Seitzinger, because it is the infamous "bring-your-baby-goat-to-work" day episode.  There is also a lot of Ricken in this ep, which gives us an excuse to talk about our favourite academic. Anitra compares Ricken to Yoda while Joyce points out that the comparison works only if Yoda were really really self-involved. Plus, mysterious baby goats. Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

Episode Six: Hide and Seek

Love is in the air in episode six of Severance, where inter-departmental politics is platonic. Sort of. Maybe. Bert and Irv grow closer, Mark and Helly take the work flirt to the next level and Devon has a mysterious encounter in the local park...  Anitra's work colleague and future novel co-writer Chris joins us this week to dissect the many Kier mystery kinda-reveals. He also gives us a word to describe that spooky feeling of buildings that should be full of people, but aren't. A word we all need after lockdown for sure. Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

• 19 AUG 2023

Episode four: The You you are

In this episode we are joined by Inger’s ANU colleague and fellow podcaster Will Grant and we are talking about how no one wants to go into the break room. Like, ever.  We dissect Cobel’s (unasked for) freelancing — ‘wet work’ at Petey’s funeral — and whether or not she is getting any stock options. Will disturbingly points out the ways humans are never very far away from choosing violence. Our office door is always open so please leave your comments in the suggestion box (well, the review section of whatever platform you are on right now). Send us an email at [email protected] or record a speak pipe message at www.speakpipe.com/thesiswhisperer. You might want to tell us about this episode, your theories about what is actually being done at Lumon or speculate on plot points for season two. We'll read them all out in the last show! For more information about us, visit the (Academic) Workers talk about Severance website. You can find Anitra on BlueSky and Mastodon as @anitranot You can find Inger on all the social channels as @thesiswhisperer

• © 2023 Thesiswhisperer Pod

Customer Reviews

Fantastic but could do without the long recap.

I am thoroughly enjoying your new podcast. I love the banter and analysis by a bunch of academics like myself. However I feel like fast forwarding the recap. It’s too long and I’ve already seen the ep. I want to hear you wonderful bunch of women talk about it.

Very disappointing. You made me sad, The Chair didn’t.

I invite you to listen to your podcast and mine it for ageism (at least the first one, I won’t be listening to the rest). I am an academic, female, from a working class background. I’m older than all of you, so that’s a brief part of my PoV. I adored The Chair, related to it a great deal and laughed a lot. I though I’d laugh a lot at your podcast, but it made me sad that you so clearly find the older faculty members in both The Chair and real life so disposable. You talk about the ‘invisible older woman’ as though you are empathising with her, but then you generalise how all ‘people of THAT generation’ are not into online learning, resistant to student engagement, and how the fact that COVID has made a lot of us leave is not a bad thing. Wow. You made me feel terrible and that fact that this came from a group of female academics who clearly think of themselves and intellectual powerhouses was really, really disappointing.

Academics are indeed divided on this! I enjoyed the commentary on the first episode.

Top Podcasts In Society & Culture

• ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
• ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
• ANU College of Business & Economics
• ANU College of Engineering & Computer Science
• ANU College of Law
• ANU College of Medicine & Health
• ANU College of Science
• » more academic areas
• Search query Search

Researchers

Search our research

• Researcher profiles
• Flagged profiles

Quick links

• Research Services Division
• ANU Research
• Digital Theses
• ANU Repository
• ANU E Press

How to be an Academic: The thesis whisperer reveals all

Anu authors.

• Professor Inger Mewburn

Updated:   23 April 2024 / Responsible Officer:   Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:   Researchers

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906

• Directories

Chapter writing

  A chapter is a discrete unit of a research report or thesis, and it needs to be able to be read as such.

Your examiners may read your thesis abstract, introduction and conclusion first, but then they may come back weeks later and read a chapter at random, or select one that they are interested in (Mullins & Kiley, 2002). This means that each chapter needs to be easy to read, without the reader having to reread the thesis' introduction to remember what it is about. At the same time, it needs to be clear how the chapter contributes to the development of your overall thesis argument. In the following pages you'll find advice on how to effectively plan and structure your chapters, commuicate and develop your argument with authority, and create clarity and cohesion within your chapters. 

Chapter structures

When it comes to structuring a chapter, a chapter should:

• have an introduction that indicates the chapter's argument / key message
• clearly address part of the thesis' overall research question/s or aim/s
• use a structure that persuades the reader of the argument 
• have a conclusion that sums up the chapter's contribution to the thesis and shows the link to the next chapter.

To make your chapter easy to read, an introduction, body and conclusion is needed. The introduction should give an overview of how the chapter contributes to your thesis. In a chapter introduction, it works well to explain how the chapter answers or contributes to the overall research question. That way, the reader is reminded of your thesis' purpose and they can understand why this chapter is relevant to it. Before writing, make an outline and show it to a friend or supervisor to test the persuasiveness of the chapter's structure.

The chapter's body should develop the key message logically and persuasively. The sequence of sections and ideas is important to developing a persuasive and clear argument. When outlining your chapter, carefully consider the order in which you will present the information. Ask yourself these questions. 

• Would it make your analysis clearer and more convincing to organise your chapter by themes rather than chronologically?
• If you were demonstrating why a particular case study contradicts extant theoretical literature, would it be better to organise the chapter into themes toshow how the case study relates to the literature in respect to each theme, rather than having a dense literature review at the beginning of the chapter?
• Is a brief literature review at the beginning of the chapter necessary and sufficient to establish the key ideas that the chapter's analysis develops?
• What is the best order to convince readers of your overall point? 

Our friend the Thesis Whisperer has written about writing  discussion chapters and discussion sections within chapters .

If used appropriately, subheadings can also be useful to help your reader to follow your line of argument, distinguish ideas and understand the key idea for each section. Subheadings should not be a substitute for flow or transitional sentences however. In general, substantive discussion should follow a subheading. Use your opening paragraph to a new section to introduce the key ideas that will be developed so that your readers do not get lost or are left wondering how the ideas build on what's already covered. How you connect the different sections of your paper is especially important in a long piece of writing like a chapter.

Paragraphing techniques are essential to develop a persuasive and coherent argument within your chapters. Each paragraph needs to present one main idea. Each paragraph needs to have a topic sentence and supporting evidence, and a final sentence that might summarise that idea, emphasise its significance, draw a conclusion or create a link to the next idea. Using language that shows the connections between ideas can be helpful for developing chapter  flow  and  cohesion .

As suggested in our  page on thesis structures , a good way to test out the persuasiveness and logic of your chapter is to talk it over with a friend or colleague. Try to explain the chapter's purpose and argument, and give your key reasons for your argument. Ask them whether it makes sense, or whether there are any ideas that weren't clear. If you find that you express your ideas differently and in a different order to how they're written down, consider whether it would better to revise your argument and adjust the structure to persuasively and more logically make your case in writing.

In sum, when you plan, write and edit your chapter, think about your reader and what they need in order to understand your argument.

• Have you stated your chapter's argument?
• Will a reader be able to identify how it contributes to the whole thesis' research question/s or aim/s?
• Does your chapter flow logically from one idea to the next, and is it convincing?
• Finally, does it have a conclusion that pulls the chapter's key points together and explains its connection to the next chapter?

These elements are central to helpfing your reader follow and be persuaded by your work.

• Mullins, G., & Kiley, M. (2002). 'It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize': How experienced examiners assess research theses.  Studies in Higher Education ,  27 (4), 369-386. doi:10.1080/0307507022000011507

Reference documents

• Chapter diagram (PDF, 1.14 MB)
• Chapter template (DOCX, 66.58 KB)

Use contact details to request an alternative file format.

• ANU Library Academic Skills
• +61 2 6125 2972

While you scream inside your heart, please keep working.

I’m considered quite an effective and productive researcher, yet no project I have ever managed has unfolded as I expected. I generally deliver on time – and by that, I mean about a month or so past when I promised to deliver – but it’s always a mad rush to the finish line. I’ve thrown every planning trick in the project management book at this problem over the last 20 years. Despite my best efforts, all my projects go over time, head off in a different direction or deliver outcomes I wasn’t expecting.

I know I am not alone. Most PhD candidates take around 5 years, not 3.5 years, to finish their degree. Only about 20% of people finish ‘on time’ at ANU – and our students are not unusually tardy. You might be over time on your PhD right now – despite working hard for years and years. It’s not just PhDs that don’t go to plan: try participating in an edited book project. I handed in the last chapter I wrote on time – and by that I mean about a month past due – and the editors thanked me for being the first to deliver. That was 18 months ago. I’ve heard nothing since about the publication of said book. I imagine they are still waiting for the other chapters.

Why are academics so chronically late delivering on projects?

Lack of training probably has something to do with it. I guess the university assumes that, by the time you get to a PhD, you are an accomplished student who can get shit done. This is a big assumption. My disciplinary background, way back when, was architecture. You’d think they would teach project management somewhere in a five year undergraduate course on delivering buildings, but sadly I can report – not so much. I did, however, pick up a lot of project management techniques in the 10 years or so I spent hanging around in architects’ offices. I learned, for instance, about Gantt charts for visualising individual tasks on a timeline of a project. A Gantt chart looks something like this:

You’ve probably made one or two of these – we love asking PhD students to make Gantt charts at regular intervals. Grant applications are certainly not complete without the mandatory Gantt chart, which is there to tell funders that you can realistically estimate time for project delivery. Some grant funders look at this first, so it’s important to be able to do a Gantt chart well. If you’re interested, the Research Whisperer folks have a great post on putting a simple gantt chart together .

Gantt charts are great.

Except they don’t work. You know – for the actual managing bit.

A Gantt chart is good for communicating how you think a project will progress, but no Gantt chart survives first contact with twin enemies of task and time. Research work is unpredictable: experiments don’t go to plan, interviews take longer to set up than you think, that archive is only open between May and September… there’s always something. Before too long, that Gantt chart looks hopelessly optimistic in terms of time on task, so you abandon it and just keep soldiering on. At some point, you will have to report on progress, so you pull out the old Gantt chart to compare your progress with what you said you would do. Old Gantt charts are quaint aren’t they? Full of tasks that you thought needed to be done that no longer seem important and – more importantly – empty of the tasks that actually turned out to be worthwhile.

Good project management is at the heart of being a good academic researcher. I’ve bought a LOT of project management books and invested in a lot of software, which has helped a bit, but failed to solve the lateness problem completely. Lately I have switched away from a focus on tools and started to try and understand the problem of lateness better instead. For a recent episode of our podcast ‘On the Reg’ I did a deep dive into the project management literature (ok, I googled ‘why doesn’t project management work?’ and followed my nose through the most interesting papers that came up). Through the magic of Google scholar citation searches, I came across one particularly useful paper with the rather dull title of ‘ A framework for project management under uncertainty ‘ written in 2002 by Meyer, Pich and Loch (which would be a good name for a Blues cover band).

I felt very seen by this paper; the authors seemed to really understand the nature of my everyday struggle with project management. Meyer, Pich and Loch start by clarifying the difference between projects and processes. Processes are ‘the systematic execution of repetitive activities
’. In the academic world, teaching preparation is a process. Ok, you prepare different kinds of classes, but all teaching preparation has standard steps. You must pull together background material, craft lectures or videos, write content, design activities and align the assessment to your stated learning outcomes (streamlining your teaching preparation by treating it AS a process seems like a good idea, but that’s a post for another time).

A project, the authors argue, is ‘the one-time execution of more or less unique activities’. They point out there are two main strands of activity in any project: (i) managing tasks; and (ii) managing stakeholder relationships. Obviously, in a PhD, your supervisor is your main stakeholder, and your tasks are doing experiments, gathering data, making things or whatever. Other stakeholders to consider are the university who has supported the research, the community of scholars in which the research is carried out and the public(s) who might benefit from the research. No research is carried out in a vacuum: everything must be reported eventually, if only informally, so managing and reporting to stakeholders is critical.

Most problems with stakeholders start because research tasks are fraught with uncertainty, which Meyer, Pich and Loch sort into three categories:

• Foreseen uncertainties: tasks that take longer to do, resources not turning up on time etc, etc – in other words, the ordinary everyday stuff that happens to everyone.
• Unforeseen uncertainties: not anticipated, and therefore a “Plan B” has not been formulated. Floods, hailstorms, pandemics, fires… 2020 has been a giant experiential learning program in unforeseen uncertainties.
• Chaotic, or turbulent uncertainty: You’re trying to do something so new that the project plan itself cannot be fully formulated in advance. Everything is in flux and changing throughout the project: both methods and outcomes, even the project questions.

Meyer, Pich and Loch argue that it’s this last form of uncertainty, chaos or turbulent uncertainty, which makes research projects difficult to manage. I see PhD students become unstuck due to chaotic uncertainty All. The. Time. You might set out with a method, and get puzzling results, which sends you back to the drawing board over and over again. Many PhD students they are redesigning the project methods at the same time as doing data gathering and writing work – I know I did. Some people seem doomed to essentially start the project over and over again…

It’s a truth universally acknowledged (but rarely articulated) that many PhD students can only really articulate the research question clearly at the end, once they have answered it. By the time I see some of these people in our thesis bootcamp program they are tired, burned out and convinced they are failing at everything… but really, they have just been dealing with chaos for 3 or 4 years. No wonder they feel exhausted!

There are a number of strategies Meyer, Pich and Loch suggest for dealing with chaotic uncertainty. I have used or recommended all of these strategies myself, so I was pleased to have my ‘homebrew’ solutions validated. Here are a couple:

Ask yourself: where are the information gaps?

Can you get access to a field site, data, tools and so on. There is where finely honed intuition and experience is crucial. We would expect that supervisors are a good source of information on these uncertainties, but make sure you talk to a range of people who have done a similar project before: they will be able to point out the traps for new players.

Try running parallel experiments, lines of inquiries or methods to see which will work.


If you are doing interviews, see if there is some document analysis that you can use to supplement the data – just in case. If you are doing experiments, aim to try multiple small ones before choosing one that has a huge time investment. Make sure you keep good records of these side explorations. There’s nothing more annoying than doing a bunch of stuff that turns out to be useful in retrospect, but you can’t include it in your thesis because you didn’t record them properly or get the right kind of ethics approval.

Understand that research involves iteration and constant learning from feedback
.

Expect to do a lot of work that doesn’t end up in the final write up. Doing a lot of what turns out to be redundant work is not a sign of failure, this is just research business as usual.

Recognise that most research projects cannot be fully planned in advance – but planning is still essential.

Planning is a way of testing out how the project parameters you have set up are tracking.
 Part of this review process is to realise what is not working. Sometimes researchers can fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy and keep going down paths that will make the project run over time. Reviewing your performance is one way to get better at forward estimating time on task. I use the PERT method, which I don’t have time to explain here – have a look at this slide deck from our bootcamp materials where I have some formulas and other tools to help you complete the writing process.

One of the most important insights in the Meyer, Pich and Loch paper is about the stakeholder management piece. As project methods change, so do deliverables and even research questions. Meyer, Pich and Loch describe your role in the project as a kind of entrepreneur; someone who has to ‘sell’ the new project outcomes and directions to stakeholders. This is why it’s vitally important to try to bring your supervisor along on this uncertainty journey.

Ideally you will regularly be reporting to your supervisor(s) on what has happened, and what you did to try and mitigate the problems you encountered. The authors call this the ‘explain the deviance’ method and point out that this approach to stakeholder management won’t work unless there is a high degree of trust and mutual dependence. All good if you are the kind of student who has a chatty coffee with your supervisor every couple of weeks. In fact, I would recommend those coffees even if there is no substantive progress to report. Regular human interaction naturally builds trust and you will need a reservoir of this trust to navigate the rough patches.

If you have a distant, ‘hands off’ supervisor, the sort who only wants to see you every three to six months – or even longer, you’ve obviously got a big stakeholder management problem. It’s hard to build trust with a person you spend no time with. It’s also hard to complain about how you are being treated if no one knows the details of how you are dealing with research project uncertainty. Students who change their project constantly can – and sadly do – get positioned as ‘flakes’ by some supervisors. Given the nature of research project uncertainty, being called a flake is deeply unfair, but you can see how it’s easy to be painted this way if you turn up with a completely different project every time. One way to handle that absent supervisor problem is to get into the habit of a monthly status report. Write down everything that has happened in the project, at least once a month, and send it via email so you have a time stamped record. If your supervisor(s) don’t read and respond, at least you have a record you can produce later which explains the decisions you made.

I hope this quite long dive into research project uncertainty is helpful. It certainly helped me to write it. I might be screaming inside my heart, but at least I know what I am screaming about! I’ll do one more post before Christmas, in the meantime, solidarity with your own uncertainty.

Hear me explain project uncertainty to my co-host, Dr Jason Downs, in our semi-regular podcast here, or go to the On The Reg podcast to subscribe through your favourite player.

The 2020 Covid Diaries

You have to believe what you do matters

Should you quit (go part time or pause) your PhD during Covid?

The valley of deep Covid Shit

Where I call bullshit on how we do the PhD

Why academic writing sucks, and how to fix it

How NOT to be an academic asshole during Covid

Rich academic, poor academic: making an academic living in Covid times

Do you need clown shoes? Finding a research job in Covid times

Imposter Syndrome doesn’t exist, but I call mine Beryl

Related posts and articles

A 5 step program for finishing your PhD – finally!

‘ A framework for project management under uncertainty ‘ (2002) by Meyer, Pich and Loch.

Coping during COVID tip sheet  by Shari Walsh

How to touch your face less (printable tip sheet from The Oatmeal).

Want more content like Thesiswhisperer?

Visit The Whisper Collective , a site we built to continuously curate all the best research education material on the web.

Love the ThesisWhisperer?

I cover all the expenses of operating the Thesis Whisperer out of my own pocket. If you’d like to support my work, please consider becoming a $1 a month Patreon or buy a copy of my (cheap!) ebooks: Tame your PhD or The Year of Living Covidly .

Jason Downs and I have our first ‘On the Reg’ podcast book – on TextExpander . This book shows you how to use TextExpander to reduce your everyday cognitive load.

You can find links to print versions – and my other books – on the Buy Books page

Share this:

The Thesis Whisperer is written by Professor Inger Mewburn, director of researcher development at The Australian National University . New posts on the first Wednesday of the month. Subscribe by email below. Visit the About page to find out more about me, my podcasts and books. I'm on most social media platforms as @thesiswhisperer. The best places to talk to me are LinkedIn , Mastodon and Threads.

• Post (606)
• Page (16)
• Product (5)
• Getting things done (257)
• Miscellany (137)
• On Writing (137)
• Your Career (113)
• You and your supervisor (67)
• Writing (48)
• productivity (23)
• consulting (13)
• TWC (13)
• supervision (12)
• 2024 (3)
• 2023 (12)
• 2022 (11)
• 2021 (15)
• 2020 (22)

Whisper to me....

Enter your email address to get posts by email.

Email Address

Sign me up!

• On the reg: a podcast with @jasondowns
• Thesis Whisperer on Facebook
• Thesis Whisperer on Instagram
• Thesis Whisperer on Soundcloud
• Thesis Whisperer on Youtube
• Thesiswhisperer on Mastodon
• Thesiswhisperer page on LinkedIn
• Thesiswhisperer Podcast
• 12,083,773 hits

Discover more from The Thesis Whisperer

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Staff Services

• Business units
• News & events
• Directories

People & culture

Research support, learning & teaching, campus environment, information technology, marketing & outreach, financial management, planning & governance.

• Respect & inclusion
• Salaries & benefits
• Training & development
• Health & safety
• ANU Vice-Chancellor's Awards
• ANU Chancellor’s Awards
• Business travel
• Academic promotions
• Enterprise agreement
• Transition & leaving
• Funding opportunities
• Fellowships & support
• Ethics & integrity
• Research contracts
• Reporting & publications
• Research systems
• Costing & pricing
• Partner Engagement and Commercialisation
• Tools & resources
• Communities & training
• HDR supervision development
• Teaching support
• NECTAR mentoring program
• Awards & grants
• Academic integrity
• Education data
• Global programs
• Student administration
• Supporting students
• Facilities & maps
• Building management
• Transport & parking
• Safety & security
• Venues & functions
• Accommodation
• Sustainability & environment
• Campus development
• Login & access
• Print, copy, scan
• Information security
• Software & systems
• Teaching space list
• Infrastructure
• ANU Service Desk community support request form
• IT management
• ANU identity
• Digital communication
• Media engagement
• Storytelling & writing
• Events & VIP visits
• Merchandise & uniforms
• International engagements
• Ledger integrity
• Investments
• Research Financial Advisory
• Transactional services
• Procurement & contracts
• Purchase cards
• Financial frameworks
• Planning & review
• Performance measurement
• Project management framework
• Current projects
• Service improvement
• Legal services
• Risk & audit
• Recordkeeping

Thesis Boot Camp

• Search ANU web, staff & maps
• Search current site content

Help you with all aspects of your employment including conditions, pay and other benefits, training, and wellbeing.

• Supporting development
• Achieve & recognise

Information about research, publishing, funding, and supervision.

Information about teaching & learning, student administration and student services.

• Professional development

Information about ANU buildings, rooms, gardens, car parks, roads and more.

Technical services and infrastructure that support teaching, learning, research and administration.

• Learning space technology
• Help & support

Supporting public lectures and events, media and publications, advertising, marketing, branding and more.

Get help with financial management and administration including purchase cards.

Information relating to strategic planning and management of University business.

You are here

What is Thesis Boot Camp?

The Australian National University (ANU) runs a Thesis Boot Camp (#ANUTBC) program based on a concept created and developed by Dr Liam Connell and Peta Freestone at The University of Melbourne. 

Research candidates can often encounter difficulties with writing towards the end of their degree. Thesis Boot Camp helps you do a large amount of work on your thesis and develop productive writing habits in a single weekend. The concept of Thesis Boot Camp is disarmingly simple. Put a group of people experiencing similar issues in the same room for a weekend, feed them regularly and provide a reward for each 5,000 words written. An experienced writing teacher is available to help you work through challenges, and regular breaks for physical activity are encouraged. This is a 20,000 word challenge Boot camp funded by the Dean, Higher Degree Research  and is free for ANU candidates to attend.

How can I apply?

The #ANUTBC program is extremely popular and spaces are limited. Places are offered on a needs basis, as with everything that the Researcher Development team offers, our camps are an inclusive and safe space for all students to work. These camps are targeted for students writing towards the end of their degree. Your application will go through an application process assessing your thesis progress, goals for the camp and personal circumstances.

#ANUTBC is advertised in the monthly  HDR Update , which is mailed to all research students at the start of every month. Thesis boot camp is delivered face to face on Kambri, Acton campus and online options are not available.

2024 dates:

23,24 and 25 Feb 

20,21 and 22 Nov

Please submit your Expression of Interest for Feb  here  and  check out our other online offers here.

Eligibility 

We will select based on the following criteria: how close you are to completion (with those who will not have another chance given preference), then we will consider your reported difficulties and any interruptions to candidature. We will attempt to balance this with ensuring a spread across colleges and gender parity. In order to participate in this opportunity, you are required to complete a thesis map.  If you have any questions about this, please email [email protected]. 

We also encourage Veterans' to continue making appointments with Academic Skills for one on one support, and attend relevant workshops.

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906

All Australian National University theses are in digital form. You can search for them online through the  theses collection in ANU Open Research , and are also searchable via the  Library Catalogue .

The majority of ANU theses are openly accessible but a small number are restricted due to cultural sensitivities, copyright controls or other restrictions.

Digital theses

Digital theses can be searched online through the  theses collection in ANU Open Research .

The Australian National University Library’s theses collection holds the research output of the University’s academic community over the last 60 years. The first ANU thesis was awarded in 1953.

By digitising its print theses collection, ANU Library delivers the University’s unique and original research in a freely available, open access online collection. Digital delivery expands engagement with the Library’s collections, provides visibility to the university’s scholarship, and supports the careers of its academic community.

Restrictions

The majority of theses are openly accessible; however, some may not be available under open access conditions due to author or copyright restrictions.

If an author wishes to restrict access to their thesis (or part of it), they can elect to do so as part of the online submission process. If after 12 months an extension to that restriction is required, a new application must be completed.

In the case of a Higher Degree by Research thesis, approval is required from the Dean, Higher Degree Research and can be sought by filling out an  Extension of Thesis Restriction of Access Request Form  or emailing  [email protected] . If approved, the Open Research team will be notified and restrict access to the online version of your thesis in line with the decision made.

Read our  Restriction Infosheet  for more information about applying for restrictions on theses.

Hard copy theses

Hard copy theses can be requested  for reading within the Library, but cannot be borrowed.

The majority of theses are available for research or study, however some may not be available due to author or copyright restrictions.

To check whether access restrictions apply to a particular thesis, ask at the  Menzies Library  Information Desk or email the  ANU Library .

Non-ANU readers are advised to check in advance whether they will be granted access to a particular thesis.

Location of hard copy theses

• ANU Doctoral and Masters’ theses (1953-2018) –  Menzies Library
• Master of Law and International Law theses (pre-October 1987) –  Law Library
• ANU Honours theses – held by the  ANU Colleges
• ANU Law Honours theses (selected) – Law Library or online through  ANU Open Research
• Non-ANU theses (without access restrictions) are on the open shelves.
• Hard copy theses requests

Related links

• Finding theses
• Ask a librarian
•   Theses   +61 2 6125 2005   Send email

Open Research Library Search query Search var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-5266663-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip navigation jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('#gw-nav a[data-mega-menu-trigger], #gw-megas a[data-mega-menu-trigger]').on('click', function () { showMegaMenu($(this).attr('data-mega-menu-trigger')); return false; }); }); Home About Contribute Publishing Policy Copyright Contact Statistics My Open Research close My Open Research

Your list of unfinished submissions or submissions in the workflow.

• Edit Profile
• Receive email updates

• Search ANU web, staff & maps
• Search current site content

ANU Theses : [15746]

The Australian National University Library’s theses collection holds the research output of the University’s academic community over the last 60 years. The first ANU thesis was awarded in 1953.

By digitising its print theses collection, ANU Library delivers the University’s unique and original research in a freely available, open access online collection. Digital delivery expands engagement with the Library’s collections, provides visibility to the university’s scholarship, and supports the careers of its academic community.

The majority of theses are openly accessible, however some may not be available under open access conditions due to author or copyright restrictions.

The ANU print theses collection has been made available through Exception 200AB of the Copyright Act 1968 (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s200ab.html)

ANU digital theses are made available in ANU Open Research under a Non Exclusive Distribution License. Copyright remains with the author.

Communities & Collections

• Open Access Theses [15397]
• Restricted Theses [328]
• Three Minute Thesis (3MT) [16]
• Visualise Your Thesis (VYT) [5]
• 5 Woodley, Peter
• 3 Briscoe, Gordon
• 3 Davis, Robert Brent
• 3 Munro, Alison
• 3 Richardson, Alice
• 3 Wang, Lei
• 2 Abejo, Socorro D
• 2 Abraham, Mark James
• 2 Akhtar, Muhammad Saleem
• 2 Allen, Matthew G
• 12372 Thesis (PhD)
• 1653 Thesis (Masters)
• 577 Thesis (MPhil)
• 491 Thesis (Masters sub-thesis)
• 389 Thesis (Honours)
• 114 Thesis (Graduate Diploma)
• 42 Thesis (DPsych(Clinical))
• 24 Thesis (Bachelors)
• 22 Thesis (D. Sc.)
• 21 Thesis (PhD) - Exegesis
• 1694 2020 - 2024
• 3907 2010 - 2019
• 3023 2000 - 2009
• 2456 1990 - 1999
• 1957 1980 - 1989
• 1794 1970 - 1979
• 813 1960 - 1969
• 79 1953 - 1959

Water Quality of Urban Lakes and Ponds for Recreational Use

The Applied Epidemiology of Influenza and other Infectious Diseases in Victoria

The Evolution of Chinese Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies, 1949-2018: Domestic and External Interactions

Tweeting Hydrogen: An Exploratory Study of Australian Twitter Communications about Hydrogen Decarbonisation

Exceptional Points and Other Properties of Free Parafermions

Updated:   19 May 2020 / Responsible Officer:   University Librarian / Page Contact:   Library Systems & Web Coordinator

• Contact ANU
• Freedom of Information

+61 2 6125 5111 The Australian National University, Canberra CRICOS Provider : 00120C ABN : 52 234 063 906