How to complete thesis writing fast

Just wrapped up my MTech thesis in Computer Science and here’s everything I followed to finish the final thesis writing within a month!

If you want to save months of unnecessary stress, this one’s for you. Especially, if you are also trying to study for interviews simultaneously.

So, yeah, I’ve been there- clueless about where to even start. That’s why I’m sharing a few tips, not because I’m a pro but because I genuinely feel these learnings could save anybody’s time, especially when it comes to a tedious task like ‘writing’.

Just a heads up: these tips are more geared towards thesis writing, not research paper writing.

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1. Define your domain and topic early

Start with clarity. By the end of your 2nd semester, finalize your research area and problem statement. This helps you hit the ground running next semester.

To finalize a topic, observe your surroundings and spot real-world challenges that can be addressed using your domain-specific knowledge. You can also explore various research papers on Google Scholar to understand the ongoing work in your research area of interest.

2. Choose your guide wisely

I was fortunate enough to find a guide (Dr. Garima Verma; Associate Professor) who made me understand the entire flow of writing a good thesis, including proper editing and formatting. She created a structure that streamlined the whole writing process including verification and corrections. She helped me in finalizing the objectives for the thesis and was always available.

3. Start hunting for your dataset and base papers EARLY

Begin dataset hunting early. Probably by the end of semester 2. Then, dive into paper research to choose a base paper, relevant to your topic. Stick to big names like ScienceDirect, IEEE, Nature, Springer, etc.

Keep collecting papers until you finish writing your thesis. Aim to select at least 45–50 good research papers, with the majority of being journals. Look for the latest ones regularly that are highly relevant to your topic.

Additional Tip: Skim smart. Read just the abstracts and conclusions to get the gist of the paper. Also, check if the paper offers scope for a comparative study — look at their results and discussion section!

4. Stay Organized

Create an Excel workbook and maintain multiple sheets for different purposes. For example, one sheet can be created for maintaining a list of research papers selected along with their publication years, links, and key information in separate columns. Another sheet can track the list of blog articles or websites relevant to your topic, and so on. This will serve you as a thesis command center, helping you to easily monitor everything.

Excel Workbook for maintaining multiple sheets to track everything

5. Finish technical implementation first

Don’t even think about writing until your technical work is solid. Aim to finish implementation in 2–2.5 months. Focus on code, experimentation, debugging, and get it done. You can use your vacation or weekends.

6. Use AI tools wisely

I know people are eager to directly jump into using AI tools to speed up the process, but it’s crucial to use it wisely. Blindly using these tools can invite unnecessary delays.

Use tools like *Chatgpt or Copilot* to generate summaries or any other extra particular information that you want to explore about a research paper, but make sure to give clear prompts, especially to generate the response in past tense and passive voice, and reduce the chances of text hallucination.

Make sure to paraphrase the material by using *Quillbot.* Now, sometimes Quillbot replaces specific technical terms with their synonyms, which hold no meaning in the context, so proofread everything carefully.

After paraphrasing the content, maintain the details in the Excel book created accordingly.

This crucial step will help you to read papers in depth. Eventually, you will be filled with ideas to write about in your thesis.

7. Weekly Writing Plan

Plan: One chapter. One week.

Write one chapter per week using material collected in an Excel file. Send weekly drafts to your guide. If they’re not available? move on to writing the next chapter. You need to keep the train moving.

While writing chapters, follow all formatting guidelines right from the beginning. Cite sources alongside every fact or definition you mention. Use visual representations and provide citations if they are taken from other research papers.

8. Final Touch

• Keep plagiarism below 10% from the start.
• Maintain a list of abbreviations, citations, and references along the way.
• Format the document like your life depends on it.
• Proofread everything.

Thesis Writing can be a wild ride and hopefully, the aforementioned tips can help save your sanity. If you find yourself stuck at any point during the process, please discuss it with your guide or any other mentor who can help you out.

The key here is to start planning and working on it as early as possible during your course and be consistent to avoid delays.