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STORYTELLING IN YOUR PHD

Your thesis should tell the story of your research

Unlike a novel, a PhD shouldn’t have ‘dramatic revelations’

‘…say what you are going to say, say it, say what you’ve just said.’ (Marshall and Green, 2010: 85 )

In other words “I’m going to tell you a story…”“This is the story of…”“I’ve told you the story of”

CLARITY AND COHERENCE

State the obviousQualify your points in relation to your key

messageBalanced yet assertive tone

LINKING IDEAS IN YOUR WRITINGReinforcing a pointAlso; moreover; furthermore; in addition, what

is more; not only…but also; correspondingly

Be preciseFirstly, secondly, thirdly; another; the purpose

is twofold

Same idea, different phrasingIn other words; put simply; to look at this in

another way

Introducing another viewpointBy contrast; alternatively; rather; on the one

hand, on the other hand; conversely; on the contrary

Showing the results Therefore; accordingly; consequently; it is

evident that; thus; hence; for this reason; this implies

ConcludingIn short; to conclude; on the whole; to

summarise briefly; overall; thus For lots more of this see Manchester’s Academic Phrasebank

www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk

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