I recently read Professor Pan Bixin's "Guide to Writing a Dissertation" and it was very rewarding. I would like to share with you the main contents of the book. I hope that after reading it, you will also have a clear understanding of how to write a graduation thesis.

recently read "Thesis Writing Guide" by Professor Pan Bixin of . It was very rewarding. I would like to share with you the main contents of the book. I hope that after reading it, you will also have a clear understanding of how to write a graduation thesis.

This book takes the writing of dissertations as the research object. It breaks down the specific process of dissertation writing into seven links, covering the entire process from topic selection to defense. It teaches us how to write papers with unique insights and usefulness. Innovative.

About the author

Pan Bixin is a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music. He was the director of the Literary Theory and Aesthetics Teaching and Research Section and enjoys special government allowances from the State Council. He has taught courses such as Introduction to Art, Principles of Aesthetics, Research on Kant's Aesthetics, Research on Hegel's Aesthetics, and Marx's Aesthetic Thoughts. The direction of academic research is aesthetics and art theory. He has published more than 30 papers in journals such as " Literary Review " and "Philosophical Research", and is the author of "Introduction to Aesthetics" ( China Social Sciences Press ) and "Introduction to Art".

Dissertations and academic papers

What is an academic paper?

Academic: Xue refers to knowledge; Shu refers to technology. The purpose of academics is to explore and discover the laws of things. "cihai" explains "academic": academic refers to more specialized and systematic knowledge. "Specialized" refers to professionalism. For example, art, history, philosophy, and linguistics are specialized disciplines in the humanities field. "System" refers to the whole, rather than fragments and fragments. For example, a school uses a series of related courses to enable students to acquire systematic knowledge and theory about a certain major.

● Academic research: Discussion and research on specialized and systematic knowledge.

● Academic paper: academic research results, written into a paper.

What is a thesis?

The national standards of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulate that: a thesis is an academic paper that shows that the author has achieved creative results or new insights in scientific research and is based on this content, and is used for review when applying for the award of the corresponding degree. paper. A thesis is an academic paper that is written to apply for a degree (bachelor's, master's, doctoral).

Three Elements of the Paper

Xunzi believes that if you want to promote your own opinions and want others to be convinced, you must "persist in what you say and make sense."

Being justified means that arguments must be presented with arguments;

being reasonable means that it is not enough to have arguments. It is also necessary to explain clearly the reasons and processes of why the arguments are valid and how to prove them. Speak clearly, and speak in an organized and coherent manner so that people can be convinced by what you say.

When making an argument, the arguments cannot contradict themselves, and the arguments and arguments must be consistent. Arguments are used to prove arguments. Arguments and arguments are irrelevant to each other. If arguments cannot be proved, arguments will be useless.

How to write a paper?

The first step is to select a topic

The first step in writing a dissertation is to select a topic, that is, to determine the topic of academic research. The task of topic selection is to be good at discovering problems and identifying the discovered problems as scientific research topics.

More than half of the chance of success lies in topic selection. Whether it is well chosen or not is correct will have a decisive impact on the value of the research results.

Philosopher Zhang Shiying: "It is not easy to ask decent questions, but it is a very important thing to determine the content and value of a paper. It is not easy because Asking a question itself requires research; a person who does not study a certain profession cannot ask a question about a certain profession. Precisely because it takes a research process to ask a decent question, we can also say that the question has been raised decently. , the content and value of this paper are very important. This is the importance of topic selection."

Einstein believed: "Raising new questions, new possibilities, and looking at old problems from a new perspective requires creative imagination and marks real progress in science. ”, raising questions is not only more difficult than solving problems, but also more important.

How to choose the right and good topic?

Before choosing a topic, you must do some research on the academic results and problems in the academic field you are studying. A general survey. When reading other people's articles, you must be diligent in thinking and good at questioning.

. The principles to be followed when selecting a topic

Ji Xianlin said: "When studying a subject or a topic, the first step is to understand the past research situation and level already reached. To do this, you must be proficient in this knowledge or this topic. If you don’t do this piece of work or don’t do it well, you won’t be able to start your research work. Because if you don’t understand the past research situation, don’t know which problems have been solved, which problems have not yet been solved, and what problems have been solved to what extent, and you start hastily, you will definitely make a fool of yourself. If you continue to dwell on a problem that others have solved; if you continue to dwell on a problem that others have already proven to be unworkable, the result will be a waste of energy and go in the wrong direction. "

. A common method for starting a specific topic selection

The second step is the proposition

"Half the article is as good as the title." The title of the paper is the finishing touch of the paper. The meaning of the article can be seen from the title. The content of the article can be imagined from the title. Wonderful title It will have a magnet-like effect and attract readers' attention and interest.

How can you come up with a good title?

1. The title should be concise and concise. Have literary talent.

The third step is the collection, study and application of materials

Hu Shi pointed out: "The progress of knowledge has two important aspects: one is the accumulation and analysis of materials, and the other is the organization and comprehension of materials. The former requires hard work, while the latter relies entirely on comprehensive understanding. "

"Accumulation" means collection, "anatomy" means study and analysis. The accumulation and dissection of materials are the basis for writing a paper, and the materials run through the whole process of writing a paper. Without materials, there is no paper. Writing academic papers requires attention from beginning to end. It is inseparable from materials.

The soul of academic papers is to be creative. To come up with original ideas, you must rely on materials and thinking.

When collecting materials, we must try our best to catch all the materials within the scope of the topic.

Hu Shi proposed. The "four-word secret" of academic methods: Diligence, caution, harmony, and slowness. "Diligence": Diligence in seeking materials, diligently seeking evidence, and diligently seeking facts.

There are two channels for collecting materials.

. Several main methods of reviewing literature

( 1) Casting a wide net method

To search for literature, start by searching the bibliography, and find all the bibliographies related to the research topic.

(2) Snowball method

Use the tracing method to check the references of the article. Ming's sources provide readers with new bibliographies. Look for new books and articles, and they may provide you with new bibliographies. In this way, the bibliography will snowball. More and more.

(3) Inference of cause and effect

Only indirect and hidden relationship materials need to be found through inference of cause and effect.

Using this method requires profound thinking and profound knowledge. If you are not profound, you will not be able to recognize the causal relationship between certain things. If you are not knowledgeable, your vision will be narrow and you will not be able to see the useful information in front of you.

Knowledge depends entirely on daily accumulation. As the saying goes, "opening a book is beneficial." You should read a lot of books, not only books related to your major, but also books that have little or even nothing to do with your major.From the perspective of collecting information for writing a thesis, there may be very valuable and useful information hidden in books that have nothing to do with your major.

. Study of materials

(1) Take reading notes

Liang Qichao said in "Fifteen Essentials of Learning": "If you don't have notes, you will be careless, and if you are careless, you will read but not read."

Reading Notes are equivalent to your own database, which is easy to access at any time when writing. Taking notes can deepen our memory of the material we read and promote understanding. It can also prompt us to spark ideas and come up with new ideas.

Zhu Guangqian talks about " classification note cards " which is a way of organizing reading notes. You can consciously develop the habit of sorting and taking notes.

When transcribing, be sure to indicate the source of the information, which book and page it comes from, who is the author of the book, which publisher and year it was published, so that it can be checked and used later. Write down comments at any time, thoughts and associations triggered and aroused by this material. This way, you can gain the most and achieve the best results by thinking while transcribing.

Hu Shi said in a letter to his student Wu Han: "Notes are the most useful. Each item must indicate the volume page number, and you can review it when citing."

Guo Moruo When talking about his reading experience, he said: "I have always The best method is to first mark the original book with various notes, and then prepare a copy to classify and excerpt it, so that when writing, you can have both sources. "

(2) Accurately understand the original meaning of the information

correctly. Understanding the original meaning is the basic principle of studying materials, including the original meaning and subtext of the author's written words.

Study materials must be "understood" and their original meaning must be analyzed and criticized.

Literal meaning without rigorous research will lead to misunderstanding of the original meaning of the material.

Historian Fan Wenlan said: "You have to sit on the bench for ten years without writing an empty sentence."

(3) Distinguish, decide, decide to choose

" It is better to have no book than to believe in the book ." It is not that All materials are authentic and trustworthy. Cut the materials separately to distinguish the authenticity from the fake, weigh the importance, and make the right choice when using them.

Distinguish authenticity and weigh the importance

"Never cite a book that you have not read from cover to cover."

First-hand material is the most valuable. When original materials are quoted and turned into second-hand or third-hand materials, they may be taken out of context and may be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

To distinguish between before and after

Someone has two views on a certain issue, namely the early one and the later one. It is necessary to distinguish which ones others insist on and which ones they give up.

. Use of materials

Collect materials, the more the better; use materials, choose the best.

collects materials and strives for completeness; uses materials and strives for refinement. The materials used in

should comply with the following requirements:

(1) Real . Legends cannot be used as factual materials.

(2) to the point . The material chosen to be used should be relevant to the argument and it should be necessary to prove the argument. Hu Shi pointed out that materials used as arguments must meet two conditions: authenticity and relevance .

(3) typical . It is an outstanding representation.

(4) Orphan certificate problem

Orphan certificate is material without backing. It is a taboo to use lone evidence in a paper.

Philosopher Zhang Shiying: "Behind the written paper, there should be something unwritten as a 'backing'. The stronger the backing, the more solid and weighty the article will be."

The fourth step is to learn from the materials. Refining arguments

The purpose of collecting study materials is to extract arguments and innovative insights from the materials. Extracting arguments from materials is a key part of essay writing.

German philosopher Ernst Cassirer believed: "The wealth of facts is not necessarily the wealth of ideas."

The opportunity to transform the wealth of facts into the wealth of ideas lies in extracting opinions from the facts.

What kind of opinions are extracted from the facts can show a person's innovative spirit and depth of thought.

. Principles that should be followed when refining arguments from materials: Seeking truth from facts

(1) Research must start from existing facts and existing materials.

(2) Extract arguments from the material instead of placing existing arguments into the material.

(3) After extracting the arguments from the materials, you must continue to use experience to verify the arguments.

(4) The argument is not the starting point of the research, but the final result of the research.

(5) The argument is abstracted from the material. It is not that the facts and materials fit the argument. On the contrary, the argument is correct only when it suits the facts and materials.

. The method of extracting arguments from materials

Hu Shi said: "Bold hypothesis, careful verification."

We must fully respect the facts and evidence. In the process of testing your hypothesis, do not rush to conclusions. On this basis, must fully let its imagination run wild, dare to come up with fantastic ideas, and must have the courage to break through old stereotypes and the courage to be innovative. creativity and innovation are nurtured in this whimsy.

Einstein attached great importance to the positive significance of imagination in scientific research. He wrote in "On Science": "Imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited, and imagination summarizes everything in the world. , drives progress and is the source of knowledge evolution. Strictly speaking, imagination is a real factor in scientific research. ”

. How to make hypotheses? How to verify?

First, accumulate information;

Second, propose hypotheses based on the studied facts;

Finally, further confirm and test the hypotheses proposed.

When making hypotheses through textual research, we must start from actual materials. We are not allowed to make assumptions out of thin air or make subjective assumptions. It must accumulate more evidence and withstand counter-evidence before it can become a conclusion.

The fifth step is to plan the layout and write an outline

The paper must have substantial content: innovative arguments, strong arguments, and rigorous demonstrations. The content of the paper should be presented in a smooth way, with a reasonable layout and a perfect structure.

The general form of the paper

. Several basic types of paper structure

(1) Parallel type

Discuss several issues or aspects one by one.

The several issues or aspects to be discussed have no priority or importance. They are independent and do not belong to each other. There is a parallel relationship between them.

(2) Progressive

The relationship between the several issues discussed in the paper is, in a sense, connected and progressive.

(3) Master-slave or outline style

List the main points of the content at the beginning of the article, and then expand these points one by one and discuss them in detail.

(4) Coherent

Several issues discussed in the paper are connected and sequential in time sequence.

(5) Mixed

A paper contains more than one structural method.

There are various structures of papers. The structure of a paper depends entirely on the content of the paper and cannot be decided in advance by the author or based on the author's preference. There is no good or bad distinction between various structures. As long as the structure of a paper can fully and logically express the point of the paper, the structure is appropriate and good. As long as the content of the paper is complete and orderly, you will always find a suitable structural method to express it.

. Writing an outline

(1) The importance of an outline

An outline allows the author to have a clear and practical "bird's eye view" of what he is writing. To write a long masterpiece, "you must first have an outline." Hold the program tightly and use it to guide the entire text.At the beginning of writing, make a comprehensive plan for the overall paper, including how to start, how to unfold, and how to end, so that you can be "well-informed." Writing hastily without writing an outline will lead to unclear ideas and confusing logic in the entire article. The important content is not written in, or is not written thoroughly, and the unimportant or even irrelevant content is written upside down, and there is a lot of writing, which requires a lot of effort when revising, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Mao Dun "Preparation for Creation" wrote: "Note: In the process of writing a long novel, the author should have the entire outline of the entire work in mind at all times - in other words, although what he wrote at the time was partial, it was His vision must cover the whole thing, otherwise, the spirit of the entire article will be difficult to maintain after the draft is completed... Therefore, although the "outline" cannot be an immutable shell, although it is often revised during the writing process, it must be written in advance. An 'outline' always has both advantages and disadvantages. "

(2) The specific way of writing an outline

Title style : Use words, phrases or short sentences to briefly express the content to be discussed, without adding punctuation at the end of the article.

Summary style : State the argument in complete sentences and indicate what arguments are used. This is a further refinement and expansion of the "title style".

The outline is the road map for paper writing. During the paper writing process, with the continuous discovery of new materials and the deepening of thinking, the original views will inevitably change, and the outline must be revised in a timely manner.

. Several joints of the paper structure

(1) Global and local

The relationship between global and local is mainly reflected in the relationship between the core content and each branch part.

The core content is like a commander-in-chief. It must be highlighted and all branches must surround and obey the core content instead of distracting or weakening the core content. Even if a certain idea or material is fresh and valuable, as long as it distracts and disrupts the core content, it must be reluctantly given up and discarded. Stacking materials without being good at choosing and choosing will lead to local expansion and dissociation from the core.

Everyone must obey the overall situation, and materials and concepts that are irrelevant to the subject must be eliminated without hesitation. If you think that piece of material is really valuable and that point of view is really meaningful, then you would rather write another article. Beginner essay writers often like this situation, which is worth noting.

(2) Beginning and end

The beginning and end of the paper are very important. There are not many words, but it is difficult to write.

The beginning should be shocking and fascinating, and the ending should be full of meaning and endlessly memorable.

The beginning of the article : State the purpose, significance, and necessity of writing this article, declare the main content to be discussed in the paper, and clearly state the core argument of the paper at the beginning.

The end of the article : summarizes and summarizes the main points of the full text, connects the topic with reality, looks to the future or puts forward hopes.

(3) Levels and Paragraphs

In addition to the core argument , a paper also has some secondary arguments . These arguments are presented one after another during the development of the paper, which forms the level . The content at each level of

will be quite rich and complex.

divides the content in a level into component parts, which forms paragraph . A paragraph usually describes an event or expresses an idea.

In terms of the division of levels and paragraphs, it is necessary to have clear levels and clear paragraphs, so that the paper can be organized and orderly.

Reading such a paper is like sailing along the current, smooth and enjoyable. Articles with unclear levels and confusing paragraphs often give people the impression of a hammer here and a stick here and there, and have always been criticized.

(4) Transition and anaphora

Transition is a means of dealing with the connection between paragraphs and between levels.

In an article, when the meaning changes or the topic jumps, it is necessary to use a sentence or a paragraph to serve as a transition to connect the two levels of meaning or two topics. Otherwise, it will make people feel that the literary meaning is scattered and the cultural context is broken.

echoes , which means that the preceding and following contexts are related and echo each other, thus making the whole article coherent and integrated.

The sixth step is to modify

. Modifying is a necessary step to write a good article.

Writer and language expert Ye Shengtao said: "Revision is to carefully consider the original manuscript, taking into account the overall situation and details, and the purpose is to express the meaning as fully and accurately as possible."

. The method of revision

(1) Cold treatment

After establishing the pattern, keep writing, regardless of rhetoric, and don’t look back (strike while the iron is hot).

Wait until it is successful, leave it alone for a few days, and then read it again, delete a few words, and replace a few words.

The cold treatment method will make the author change from an "authority" to a "bystander" and discover problems that were not discovered before.

(2) Humbly ask for advice

(3) Read aloud

Guo Moruo wrote in the article "How to Use the Language of Literature": "What you write must be readable, read it several times, revise it several times, and read it aloud first. Listen to your relatives, don't rush to publish. This is also an excellent method. This is what the ancients called 'thinking'.

. The language requirements of the paper

(1) Smooth. articles and statements have no grammatical or logical problems.

(2) is accurate. must choose the most appropriate and appropriate words to express the meaning to be expressed, and ensure that the words and meanings fit seamlessly. To make language expression accurate, the key is to refine words and sentences. Read the dictionary, persevere, and over time, you will get good results.

(3) concise . Simplicity lies in "deletion". Cutting out the complicated and simplifying the article will have the same effect as picking out gold from sand.

(4) Literary talent. uses metaphors to visualize abstract ideas and theories; creates aphorisms and famous sayings; and uses allusions skillfully.

. How to learn a language?

Ordinary people are the source of language, and language is rich and vivid.

You can also read more and learn from books. Written language is refined language. From the ancient Four Books and Five Classics and hundreds of schools of thought to the outstanding literature, history, philosophy, classics, and teaching works of the past dynasties, they together constitute a language treasure, which is full of famous quotes, good sentences, meaningful sayings, idioms and other language Essence.

The authors of excellent works are all experts and masters in language control. Reading their works extensively and extensively is tantamount to watching the masters' skillful performances in controlling language, which can greatly improve our ability to control language.

The seventh step, defense

After intensive reading of Professor Pan Bixin's "Thesis Writing Guide", the following seven steps are summarized for your reference.