We've covered perceptual fluency, structure and word choice. Now we're getting to the level where most thesis writing actually breaks down: sentences and paragraphs. This is where the zombie prose lives.

In the previous post, I introduced perceptual fluency, the idea that the easier your thesis is to read, the more your marker will like it, and the smarter they'll judge you to be. Now let's get into the practical stuff. The first two levels: structure and words.

Your thesis marker is tired. They've been given a big pile of theses and only a couple of weeks to read, write comments, and give a grade to each one. That's not the only thing on their plate. They've got the rest of their job too: running a research lab, getting a grant written, dealing with their kids.

The student-supervisor relationship is a weird one. It's not like any other professional relationship you've navigated before.

When you start a research project, there is a lot to read. This is not news. What doesn't get talked about enough is how to read. How to actually get your head around the literature rather than just accumulating a pile of PDFs and hoping it eventually makes sense.