Master Thesis 101

MasterThesis101

Master’s thesis: From entry to graduation.

• TL;DR: You can jump straight to the “CheckList” section at the end of the article to check items one by one.
• This text has been desensitized—confidential information stays offline, and online content is not confidential. Meanwhile, this text enhances general applicability and can be adopted as appropriate.
• This article strives to sync with the latest thesis requirements (I certainly don’t want to defend again 😂); for the latest version, please see GitHub. Suggestions via issue or PR are welcome to keep this content up to date.
• This article adopts an academic thesis style as much as possible with no fluff, making it suitable for self-checking or quick fixes, but not for students with extensive thesis-writing experience.
• Innovations, workload, ideas, and methods should be thoroughly argued and demonstrated, and compared and analyzed against existing methods to highlight the performance differences after improvement.
• Work conscientiously, learn conscientiously, write your thesis conscientiously.
• As my respected advisor said: Write short papers first whenever possible, to practice academic paper writing in advance.

This article incorporates feedback and cases of criticism from advisors, reasons for delayed graduation, reasons for failing spot checks, reasons for failing defenses, blind review comments, school format inspection comments, and error cases discovered during peer reviews experienced by multiple students including myself. Hope you can learn from the lessons of the “pioneers” and graduate smoothly on time.

Disclaimer: This article is an open-source article written under the GPL 2.0 license. Although I promise that all recommendations stated herein are truthful to the best of my knowledge, any consequences resulting from using this guide have nothing to do with the author. Please comply with your university’s or school’s thesis specifications, academic ethics norms, and regulations regarding academic misconduct.

Original link: https://github.com/SUTFutureCoder/MasterThesis101

💥 Opening Tips

Consulting Your Advisor

Before starting to write your thesis, be sure to consult your advisor to confirm the topic. If you find that the topic has strayed off course (too large a field gap, not worth doing, no practical value, topic too broad), change the topic as soon as possible.

When the first draft reaches 30%, consult your advisor as soon as possible to confirm whether the chapter structure meets the school’s requirements; otherwise, major structural revisions later will cause significant time and mental pressure.

After completing the first draft of the thesis, be sure to perform a self-check according to the suggestions and tips in this article first, then submit it to your advisor’s email as soon as possible, and use instant messaging apps such as WeChat to ask your advisor to review it and provide valuable feedback.

Whatever feedback your advisor gives, it is extremely valuable advice; be sure to thoroughly check and revise the full text before submitting it again.

It is recommended to ask your advisor for several excellent sample theses from previous graduates to serve as references for formatting and writing details.

Suggested timing: Beginning of the semester. Do not wait until after the school issues an official notice to consult your advisor.

Etiquette when Consulting Your Advisor

Graduating quickly is the shared wish of both you and your advisor. To ensure that your advisor’s blood pressure and state of mind can endure until your defense is completed and they sign off on your departure, please be sure to follow basic etiquette:

• Refer to excellent thesis samples provided by your advisor or classmates to model your structure and formatting, and self-check for issues
• Be sure to self-check using this document before sending the thesis to your advisor
• Book a time with your advisor as a group in advance for a unified pre-defense (grouping up also allows you to hear the advisor’s feedback for other students; the group will continue until the defense ends, which is crucial for mutual reminders, checks, communication, and information sharing)
• Do not repeatedly on-call your advisor via WeChat or email outside working hours (evenings or weekends)
• Your advisor has no obligation to rewrite your entire thesis; please be the primary person responsible for your thesis (everyone except yourself has a disclaimer regarding your thesis)

Regarding Chapter Structure

Generally, the school will specify several required chapters; please write according to your school’s requirements. These specific chapters are the top priority in all thesis review stages, so be sure to take them seriously, polish them thoroughly, and meet the word count and formatting requirements. Example: Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction, Conclusion, References, List of Figures and Tables, Acknowledgments.

It is strongly recommended to draw a chapter structure relationship diagram when determining the chapter structure (which can serve as a research roadmap placed in Chapter 1) to clarify the logical relationships between chapters.

There needs to be some connection between chapters in the main body, such as a progressive relationship in research—for instance, Chapter 3 research is based on the experimental results, algorithms, or designs of Chapter 2, and so on. If you can find progressive relationships between chapters, you can determine the chapter structure relatively quickly. Example: Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 2 Discussion of Existing Methods, Chapter 3 Key Work Highlighting Innovations, Chapter 4 Experimental Design, Chapter 5 Experimental Results and Discussion.

If it is not a progressive relationship—for example, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are three independent studies, but the prototype system utilizes the research from those chapters—you can write it as a “part-to-whole” structure and add a chapter relationship diagram in the “Thesis Structure” section of the Introduction, using boxes to represent the research content of each chapter and arrows to indicate relationships between chapters. This helps readers understand inter-chapter relationships more clearly during review or defense.

Structures where main chapters have no connection, confused connections, or reversed progression must be strictly avoided.

Once the entire chapter structure is confirmed, you can update the Abstract and the “Thesis Structure” subsection in the Introduction. After the experimental data is ready, you can complete the Abstract. Once the overarching framework of the chapter structure is determined, you can focus more intently on writing the main body content of the chapters.

Regarding Engineering Theses

Overview

Engineering theses whose titles contain “Design and Implementation of XXX System“ or whose chapter structure consists of “Related Theories and Technologies,” “System Requirements Analysis,” “System Architecture Selection and Related Technologies,” “High-Level System Design,” “Detailed System Design,” and “System Testing and Deployment” need to pay special attention to innovations.

System design-type theses are difficult to write innovations for, because cloud services, open-source software, architectures, CRUD operations, wrapping calls for remote invocation, microservices, multi-region active-active deployment, and container technologies are already relatively mature, making it hard to create innovations through recombination. The full text easily becomes filled with introductions to existing technologies, database schema structures, screenshots, and other uninnovative content, risking the appearance of padding word count or page count.

In short, a thesis focuses on “argumentation”; never write it like a product manual, development documentation, or lab report.

Solution

If time is tight and changing the research content or topic is no longer possible, please follow these steps for a major overhaul.

1. Organize and condense the thesis, placing it into the final chapter, “Design and Implementation of the Prototype System.” It is recommended that this final chapter include subsections on “Application Scenarios and Requirements Analysis,” “High-Level System Design,” “Detailed System Design,” “System Implementation Results,” and “System Testing and Discussion.” This preserves previously written content while easily taking the first step of a major revision.
2. Carefully extract design details and propose at least 3 innovations. What are the flaws of existing systems or algorithms (Research Status subsection); each innovation includes 3 formulas (Algorithm Design subsection); compare with existing systems and algorithms (Algorithm Improvement subsection); how to design experiments to verify the effectiveness of the improved algorithms (Experimental Design subsection); what are the experimental data metrics like Precision, Recall, F1-Score, or performance indicators for each system or algorithm, accompanied by experimental data charts and tables (Experimental Results subsection); analyze the experimental data and describe why certain metrics for each system or algorithm were not as high as your designed system or algorithm (Experimental Analysis subsection).
3. As appropriate, place the research status into Chapter 2 to discuss existing methods. If you find that other chapters become thin (fewer than 7 pages) after doing so, it is recommended to split Chapter 2 and integrate it into individual chapters.
4. If it remains thin after splitting, extract relevant content from the final chapter to fill the earlier chapters as appropriate.
5. If it is still thin after filling, elaborate extensively on experimental design and discussion of results.
6. If all the above steps are completed and the length is still insufficient, supplement literature review and analysis content under research status as appropriate.

Keep the structure of multiple chapters consistent wherever possible to give readers a sense of neatness and smooth flow.

Common Thesis Writing Logic

Find a meaningful problem (Topic Background and Significance) and propose clear research goals.

Demonstrate that the proposed scheme has practical significance by referencing other studies (Literature Review).

Provide a technical roadmap or solution based on the research goals. (Research Content or Research Roadmap)

Transform into a mathematical problem to prove the scheme’s effectiveness through data. (Experimental Design, Experimental Results)

Prove that the proposed scheme is superior by comparing various existing schemes. (Experimental Analysis)

Having Difficulty Finding Innovations?

• Read through the full text, think about where innovations can be uncovered, and try to identify 3 of them.
• Refer to existing literature and research in the field on how to innovate further on top of current paper studies.
• Determine how innovations can be demonstrated and measured through formulas or experiments.

🔧 Auxiliary Tools

A good tool allows you to focus your energy on writing and refining the main body content of the thesis, while automatically avoiding hard-to-spot self-checking issues like out-of-order numbering, distinguishing Chinese homophones (“de” particles: 的/地/得), Chinese/English grammatical errors, and typos.

The phrasing and grammar of this text have been checked by Metaso Writing Cat (秘塔写作猫); please feel confident using it.

Note: To avoid crossing academic ethics red lines, do not use any text-continuation/auto-writing features of auxiliary tools.

Grammarly

Even if machine translation is used for the English abstract, there will be grammatical issues; you need to read through the entire text first and correct proper nouns or technical terms.

By purchasing a one-day shared Grammarly membership account on Taobao, you can check English spelling, grammar, and sentence fluency.

Blind reviews, defenses, and subsequent random spot checks all pay attention to the content of the English abstract; cases have already occurred where spot checks failed due to grammatical issues in the English abstract.

Metaso Writing Cat (秘塔写作猫)

Please support domestic software and renew a 1–3 month membership as appropriate, since you may need to revise your thesis again right up until submitting it to the library.

Before every version submitted to your advisor, blind review, or defense, be sure to run a full-text check and correction through Metaso Writing Cat. It can quickly fix writing issues that cannot be caught by the naked eye alone but could be cited if discovered.

iCloud and Other Cloud Storage or Version Control Tools

Sync modifications, print, share, and submit at any time to avoid system crashes or disk failures that leave you crying when it’s too late.

Word & Windows

Professors open theses using Word in a Windows environment, so please do not use non-official environments like WPS to compose your thesis.

In addition, the macOS version of Word may also have compatibility issues, particularly with page breaks, figures, tables, and other elements.

Linux and macOS users can consider using “Cloud PC” services for formatting checks; here, “JiYun Cloud PC” paired with a simplified version of Word is recommended.

Before every submission of your thesis via email or system, be sure to check for compatibility issues.

📔 Cover Page

[Mandatory] The first letter of each word on the cover page should be capitalized (except function words)

For example: Design and Implementation of Master Thesis Format Checking System for Students.

[Recommendation] Align elements on the cover page as much as possible

After all, it is the face of your thesis; use spaces or indents as much as possible to align the columns.

An uneven title page is also disrespectful to yourself and your professors.

0️⃣ Abstract

[Mandatory] Pay extreme attention to every single word in the abstract

The abstract is generally written after the final draft as a highly refined extraction and summary of the research status, work content, innovations, and experimental results in the thesis. It is the last part to be written and also the chapter that evaluation committees at all levels focus heavily on.

Therefore, the abstract is extremely important; it needs word-by-word proofreading with strict attention to formatting and grammar.

Note that the abstract should highlight research results rather than introducing background in long paragraphs; express each point in a single sentence.

[Mandatory] The abstract must not copy content verbatim from the thesis body

The abstract is a high-level summary of the contents and innovations of each chapter in the body; do not introduce too many concepts in the abstract.

The sole task of the abstract chapter is to demonstrate innovations and experimental data within the shortest word count.

If you find that you have copied verbatim from the thesis body, please expand and rephrase the copied parts.

[Recommendation] Refer to the following template structure to write the abstract

A master’s thesis is an academic paper written by a master’s graduate student, possessing a certain theoretical depth and a higher academic level, placing greater emphasis on the originality of the author’s ideas and viewpoints, as well as stronger practical value and higher scientific value (one sentence defining the research subject). However, most master’s theses that fail suffer from problems such as insufficient innovations or word count, chaotic formatting, and outdated references (one sentence describing the problem).

In order to provide guidance to students troubled by master’s theses, this paper proposes a series of recommendations and tips for master’s thesis writing by analyzing and correcting theses written by multiple students, aiming to avoid the situation where the thesis fails disastrously (start a new paragraph on how to address the problem).

(The following splits the work and innovations using a part-to-whole structure consistent with the main body chapters. Specify what problem was solved, what improvements were made, and what the experimental results were)

First, to avoid thesis rework, this paper summarizes and presents common thesis issues, categorizing recommendation levels according to importance. Experimental results show that the rework rate is reduced by 50%.

Second, to improve thesis writing efficiency and allow students to focus their energy on thesis content rather than details such as grammar, this paper recommends two tools: Grammarly and Metaso Writing Cat. Experimental results show that detail revision work after applying the tools is reduced by 90%.

Third, to increase the defense pass rate, this paper summarizes and presents the key points of the defense. Experimental results show that understanding defense key points in advance can increase the pass rate by 25%.

Finally, based on the aforementioned thesis research work, the recommendations and tips described in this paper can be applied to the writing of master’s theses and possess substantial practical value.

[Recommendation] Avoid abbreviations like AST whenever possible

Strive for brevity in the abstract. Since it is the first occurrence of an abbreviation, the full English name must be annotated, and including parenthetical notes like (Full English Name: XXX) adds non-critical content.

🇬🇧 English Abstract

[Mandatory] After using translation software, read and correct word for word and sentence by sentence

Although most students use translation software to translate the Chinese abstract, be sure to read and correct it line by line.

Pay special attention to proper nouns and various subordinate clauses.

It is recommended to use Grammarly to correct grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation in the English abstract.

There have been cases where spot checks caught issues due to grammar and wording errors in the English abstract.

[Mandatory] Keep capitalization of proper nouns or full text consistent with conventions and uniform throughout

For example: Java, MySQL, ID; subsequent occurrences of Java, MySQL, and ID should remain consistent with their first appearance.

[Recommendation] Avoid abbreviations like AST whenever possible

Recommendation is the same as for the Chinese abstract.

[Recommendation] Use simple sentences more, use subordinate clauses and inverted sentences less, and pay attention to sentence length

If it was translated by translation software, go back and revise your Chinese abstract. The sentence might be too long, inverted, or grammatically incorrect.

Split sentences before translating them.

[Recommendation] Use “this thesis” instead of “this paper”

The reason is unknown, but some advisors require the use of “this thesis”. It may be due to the following reason:

Thesis can refer specifically to a graduation thesis or degree dissertation, or generally to a paper written to expound academic views. Paper, on the other hand, is a formal term mostly referring to a monograph published in academic journals or presented at academic conferences.

🗂 Chapters

[Mandatory] Do not make chapter nesting levels too deep

It is recommended to go at most down to the third level like (1), (2), (3); if deeper, split the content separately.

[Mandatory] Do not indent chapter titles

Be especially careful not to select the whole text to set indentation just to save trouble.

1️⃣ Introduction

[Recommendation] Research Background and Significance

The research background mainly describes the current status and defines the problem.

The research significance is a summary of what scheme was used, what was done, and what problem was solved in the thesis.

In addition, do not describe too much technical theory here; please split and move it into subsequent chapters to address specific problems in those chapters.

[Recommendation] Do not merely list literature in the research status at home and abroad; literature must have logical connections and require summary and discussion

The first two subsections can be categorized into either “Research Status” and “Application Status”, or “International Research Status” and “Domestic Research Status”.

Be sure to perform a summary and discussion; the third subsection should be “Main Existing Deficiencies”, thereby leading into the next subsection on research content and roadmap.

The definition of merely listing literature is expressing only that XXX proposed XXX [1], YYY proposed YYY [2], and ZZZ proposed ZZZ [3]. This carries the suspicion of forcefully padding the reference count without any connections between literature.

Each reference needs to be condensed into one or two sentences, letting readers know that you have carefully read the full text of the reference, mastered its core ideas, and understood its contributions and deficiencies.

References cited within a single paragraph should have progressive or parallel logical relationships targeting a key problem to be solved in the thesis.

For example: Targeting problem A (problem A needs to be the key problem to be solved in the thesis), B proposed method C, which effectively improved efficiency by F% by performing optimization E on algorithm D (write a bit more here) [X1]; building on B’s research, G proposed method H, which used algorithm I to solve problem A while achieving higher generalization capability and simultaneously improving accuracy by J% [X2]…

[Recommendation] Research content should correspond one-to-one with “Main Existing Deficiencies” in the research status at home and abroad

For example, if three main deficiencies are summarized in the research status, there should also be three points in the “Research Content” section corresponding to the points above.

This indicates the value of this thesis and its ability to solve existing problems.

In this section, it is recommended to insert a “Research Flow and Technical Roadmap” or “Research Roadmap” so that the overall structure of the full text is clearly presented before the reader.

This leads into the next section, “Thesis Structure”.

[Recommendation] Chapters in the thesis structure must be planned in advance and confirmed with your advisor

Please refer to the “Opening Tips” section above.

📃 Main Body

[Mandatory] Content must include formulas

Formulas are tools for scientifically expressing research content and measuring experimental results, transforming research content into mathematical language descriptions. Even a simple metric like F1-Score has a formula.

If there are no formulas in the main body, it is easy to suspect that the research lacks depth or that experimental results cannot be measured.

If your current thesis lacks formulas, you can supplement:

• Formulas from existing cited research
• Formulas for measuring experimental results
• Algorithm principle or improvement formulas

[Mandatory] Variables in formulas must be in italics

Do not manually change them to regular upright text; keep them as generated by the formula editor.

[Mandatory] English abbreviations appearing for the first time must provide the full English name

For example: AST (Full English Name: Abstract Syntax Tree), ACM-ICPC (Full English Name: Association for Computing Machinery - International Collegiate Programming Contest).

[Mandatory] Avoid large blocks of blank lines

Blank lines often appear on pages containing figures or tables; they need to be filled by adjusting word order, adding text, splitting paragraphs, or moving text after images forward.

Generally, except for the end of a chapter (the page containing “Chapter Summary”), blank lines should be less than or equal to three lines.

[Mandatory] Devote extensive space to your main innovative work and experimental data; cover others’ research status briefly

The focus of the thesis is your main innovative work content and experimental data, not the research of others.

The research of others should be concentrated in Chapter 2 or the first page (“Research Status” subsection) of each chapter; all remaining space must be original content of the thesis.

If after finishing your paper you find that your innovations and work only first appear in the second half (75%+) of the text, with everything else being other people’s work, that is very dangerous.

[Mandatory] Numbering styles must be consistent and single parentheses should be avoided

Numbering styles below sections must be unified. For example, it is recommended to consistently use (I), (II), (III), etc., or (1), (2), (3), etc., or First, Second, Third, etc. Do not mix them.

Do not use single parentheses like 1), 2).

[Mandatory] All features described in the text must be reflected through class diagrams and flowcharts

For example: Class A includes Feature XX, and there is already a class diagram for Class A, then the method for Feature XX must be included in the class diagram.

The author was challenged on this point during the defense.

[Mandatory] First-person references other than “this paper” are prohibited in the main text

For example: change “this system”, “this algorithm”, “myself”, etc., to “the system”, “the algorithm”, “the user”, etc.

The subject of the paper is [the paper]; everything other than [the paper] should be written in the third person.

Simply put, you writing the paper are no longer a [person], but [the paper]. It is [the paper] unemotionally discussing its research subject.

[Mandatory] Colloquial words are prohibited in the text

For example: “a bit”, “saw”, “same”, “that is to say”, etc.

As well as other words expressing the author’s subjective feelings: awesome, terrible, strong, gratifying, pleasing, ! (exclamation marks), ? (question marks), reduplicated words (e.g., “a tiny bit”, which usually appear when inputting or system lags), etc.

Suggestions: “a little bit” → “lower”, “a lot” → “more”, “a bit less” → “fewer”, “appear together” → “used in combination”, “basically same as” → “with/and”, “configured well” → “configuration completed”.

As mentioned in the previous rule, you writing the paper are no longer a [person], and [the paper] telling the story has no emotion. Please leave all colloquial expressions and emotional outpourings for the Acknowledgments section.

[Mandatory] Pasting large blocks of code and logs in the text is prohibited

It is recommended to use flowcharts or pseudocode to present code logic.

Large blocks of code and logs not only consume body text space and are difficult to read (lacking syntax highlighting and proper indentation), but also significantly increase the similarity rate.

If using a table to format pseudocode, please add table titles and numbers according to table-related regulations and include them in the list of tables.

[Mandatory] Self-copying is prohibited

This refers to instances where only proper nouns are modified between chapters while large sections remain identical. This commonly occurs when the paper submission deadline is approaching, word count or length is insufficient, or out of desperation.

If copying is genuinely necessary (e.g., experimental design and analysis), please modify it carefully and emphasize the differences between the two chapters or experiments.

[Mandatory] Pay attention to headers and footers

Too many changes to the body text and table of contents can easily accidentally remove headers and footers; pay special attention to the requirements prior to the main text and for odd/even pages.

For more tips, please refer to the “About Chapter Structure” section above.

🔍 Research Process

[Recommendation] Describe and compare the pros and cons of multiple methods, highlighting sufficient experimental sample size and statistical validation analysis results

Compared with state-of-the-art methods, does the method proposed in this paper have sufficient comparative experiments, and what are the statistical results?

Use multiple tables for comparison here, and subsequently describe the statistical results in text, analyze the causes, and compare them. (This helps make the chapters and experiments richer and more comprehensive.)

[Recommendation] Describe the time consumption of model training

With the advent of the Transformer large model era, the time and resource consumption of model training have risen sharply, and the training time of each model also needs to be described and compared in the chapters.

If your model training takes less time while achieving better results, you can also emphasize it in the chapter, as it is a great innovative achievement.

[Recommendation] Pay attention to grammar standards for progressive writing in research

First, then, second, next, again, furthermore, next, after that, following that…

📚 References

References are located at the end of the paper and indirectly reflect the student’s research workload, recency, and paper credibility.

[Mandatory] The number of citations meets the requirements and references from the last 3 years are cited

Strict metric; no further explanation needed.

[Mandatory] The order of citations in the body text must remain consistent with the order of references

When editing or collecting literature, placeholders such as 1-1 or 1-1-2 can be used, but the final version of the paper must have consistent ordering throughout.

[Mandatory] References must support the identified problems and the significance of the research

References need to directly lead to the key problems that the paper aims to solve.

The quality of references also determines the degree of understanding of the current state of research and guides the implementation of meaningful solutions.

[Mandatory] Format must comply with college standards and GB/T 7714-2005

Please make comprehensive use of the “Cite” function in Baidu Scholar or CNKI to automatically generate citation formats that meet the standard. However, detailed rules vary by college, so the college’s formatting specifications must take precedence.

For foreign literature, you can also use the “cite” function in Google Scholar, IEEE, ACM, etc., to generate citations and modify them according to the above standards.

Common ones include [J], for instance:

Zhu X., Lyu S., Wang X., et al. TPH-YOLOv5: Improved YOLOv5 Based on Transformer Prediction Head for Object Detection on Drone-captured Scenarios[J]. arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.11539, 2021

Or [C], using // to denote conference proceedings:

Lawton N., Kyle D., Mehmet E., et al. Syntax-based Improvements to Plagiarism Detectors and their Evaluations[C]//Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. ACM, 2019:555-561

[Mandatory] Formatting of references also requires attention

Line spacing, Chinese and English font types and sizes, indentation, justification (definitely do not left-align)…

Do not slack off even in the final section of the paper.

[Recommendation] Do not cite [D], i.e., dissertations/theses

Citing other dissertations/theses may lower the overall quality of the paper.

They should be replaced with high-quality conference or journal papers.

[Recommendation] The more English reference materials, the better

If the cited materials are outdated or contain a large amount of Chinese literature, they need to be replaced.

Search in English on websites such as Google, Google Scholar, IEEE, or ACM to find similar research papers.

After reading them through, replace the old references with summaries of the new ones to complete the replacement.

However, some students reported that a 100% English reference list may also receive objections during blind review, so please manage the ratio of Chinese and English references yourself.

[Recommendation] The placement of square brackets for references should be unified

For specifics, please refer to your institution’s regulations. Since the author’s university had no relevant rules, for aesthetic reasons, square brackets were uniformly placed at the end of the cited sentence, before the period.

Of course, some institutions require square brackets to be placed after the author’s name.

⏱️ Appendix

Test cases are generally placed in the appendix to avoid taking up space in the main text and to make the main text more compact.

Tables should be used to describe test items, test case descriptions, preconditions, test methods (operating steps), test cases (expected results), and test results; never simply check them off as passed.

Don’t forget that tables in the appendix also need to be numbered according to requirements and included in the list of tables.

🏞 Figures and Tables

[Mandatory] The timestamp displayed in figures cannot be earlier than the proposal date or one year prior to defense

In spot-check reviews, some papers failed due to images showing timestamps earlier than the enrollment date, casting doubt on originality.

Be sure to check all timestamps in images; it is recommended to set them close to about 3 months before the defense/blind review.

[Mandatory] Figures and tables must be clearly visible

An extremely important point: this issue is raised in almost every blind review

If figures or tables are unclear, the originality of the experiment may be questioned, leading to a judgment of plagiarism.

If the experimental data and process are original, true, and reliable, but the original images are lost, HitPaw Photo Enhancer can be used for image enhancement.

Academic Ethics Warning: Before performing any operation on experimental images, be sure to consult relevant personnel to avoid committing academic misconduct.

[Mandatory] Figure flowcharts should be compact and aesthetic, expanding horizontally as much as possible to avoid long vertical strips occupying excessive space

If there are too many such images, it creates the impression of padding page counts and lacking substance.

[Mandatory] The figure and its caption should be on the same page, with caption numbers arranged in order, and references to the figure included in the body text

Basic formatting specification.

Also note that no unreferenced figures or tables should appear in the text, and the citation position must precede the appearance of the figure or table.

[Mandatory] Diagrams should conform to standard UML specifications

Rounded boxes, rectangles, diamonds, arrows, text.

Swimlane diagrams, flowcharts, use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, class diagrams, activity diagrams, functional structure diagrams, overall architecture diagrams, E-R diagrams, network topology diagrams.

All must comply with UML specifications.

“Draw it beautifully“—keep this phrase echoing in your mind when drawing diagrams.

[Mandatory] Font style and size of text inside figures should conform to formatting requirements

Generally, Chinese uses SimSun, English uses Times New Roman, size 10.5 pt (Size 5).

Ensure the text has no pixelation or jagged edges; pixelation indicates that the exported image is too small and has been excessively stretched or enlarged.

If emphasis is needed, please use underlines; do NOT increase font size, arbitrarily bold aggressively, or use other colors for emphasis (unfriendly to black-and-white printing).

For specific requirements, please refer to your institution’s guidelines.

[Mandatory] When deleting figures or tables, remember to update the list of figures/tables accordingly

Prevent the table of contents from showing obvious number duplication or skipped number errors.

[Mandatory] Figures and tables themselves should not have indentation

Figures and tables are easily thrown off alignment by automatic text indentations; be sure to check carefully.

[Mandatory] Set picture wrapping to “Top and Bottom”

Do not use Enter keys to create space for images; it makes subsequent edits troublesome, and a cluster of line breaks looks unsightly.

[Recommendation] Adjust the resolution of UI screenshots so that text is clearly visible and complies with the required text font size in figures

Due to high monitor or browser resolutions and the limited width of A4 paper, text in UI screenshots can easily become too small to read.

If the system runs in a browser and uses a front-end framework, you can press Ctrl/Command + Plus sign to zoom in on the interface. After narrowing the browser width, you can take a screenshot and paste it into the paper.

[Recommendation] Figures should be as original as possible

When using existing models or open-source software, redraw model structure diagrams, software flowcharts, or architecture schematics as much as possible to prevent disputes over originality.

If documents are downloaded from a company, watermarks and shadows must absolutely not appear.

English text in figures should be translated into Chinese as much as possible.

[Recommendation] Do not include too many UI screenshots

UI screenshots of the prototype system only need to display core figures that reflect the workload; similar to avoiding long vertical images, this prevents being perceived as padding the page count.

[Recommendation] Combine use case diagrams and E-R diagrams as much as possible

For example, if there are use case diagrams for three roles or functions, they can be merged into a single diagram to lay out horizontally.

Not just UI screenshots, but other diagrams should also be as few and concise as possible—by no means should it look like a sea of stick figures at a glance.

This also makes PPT design easier, allowing a single diagram to explain the entire panorama.

[Recommendation] Figure titles should end with the word “Figure” as much as possible

To keep the formatting neat.

[Recommendation] No space between the label and the number

Figure 1 → Figure1, Table 1 → Table1

[Recommendation] Both left and right sides of figures and tables should reach the page margins as much as possible

Leaving empty space serves no purpose—it’s practically wide enough to sail an aircraft carrier.

[Recommendation] Data charts such as line graphs require units for horizontal/vertical axes and curve legends

Attention must also be paid to font style and size for axis labels.

[Recommendation] Categories must remain distinguishable after converting images to black and white

Papers at the defense site and submitted to the library are generally printed in black and white. However, charts like line graphs and bar charts that rely on colors for distinction become difficult to identify once converted to black and white.

Therefore, techniques such as dashed lines, pattern fills, and special symbols should be used in line graphs or bar charts to enhance the legibility of black-and-white images.

In addition, it is recommended to design directly in black and white when drawing diagrams and avoid bright colors.

📊 Tables

[Mandatory] Table data should be compact and aesthetic, expanding horizontally as much as possible to avoid long vertical strips

Same as with figures, to prevent being perceived as padding the page count.

[Mandatory] Pay attention to continuation table formatting

Try to fit tables on a single page as much as possible. If a table cannot fit on one page, it is very likely that the table content or layout has issues—being a long vertical strip or unsightly.

It could also be due to excessive text before the table, which needs to be trimmed or moved.

If it really cannot fit, continuation tables can be used. Please refer to your institution’s regulations for continuation table formatting, which will not be detailed here.

[Recommendation] Do not include too many database structure tables; two pages are sufficient

Keep only core tables to prevent being perceived as padding the page count.

[Recommendation] Table titles should end with the word “Table” as much as possible

To keep the formatting neat.

Tables are similar to figures; the recommendations and tips for figures still apply to the table section.

💬 Defense

Blind Review

Before blind review, it is best to be in a perfect or near-perfect state. If you fluke an “Average” evaluation, you will receive special attention during defense.

Although comments given by blind reviewers vary in length, they are the final life-saving hints for revising the paper.

On one hand, draw inferences from reviewer comments, focusing on the reported issues across the entire text and making corrections.

On the other hand, for sections where no comments were given by blind reviewers, you still need to read and correct them word by word. If necessary, please cross-check with your classmates.

Before submitting the final version, confirm that all issues raised by the blind review reviewers have been fixed.

PPT

The chapters of the PPT need to correspond to the chapters of the main text.

Use diagrams instead of large blocks of text in the content; reading directly from scripts is prohibited.

For key innovations, method comparisons, data, and conclusions on each page, highlight in red and bold, making it easy to read the red text to smooth things over if you get stuck.

For system implementation figures, you can place one per page, simulating mouse clicks along the operational workflow as you transition through them.

For sections on model structure improvements, experimental results, interfaces, and summary, slow down your speaking speed to emphasize key points.

One page is enough for summary and outlook; after finishing your talk, don’t gloat or stand there blankly—switch back from the acknowledgments page to the summary and outlook or the research roadmap.

Write the script in advance, practice memorizing it, and control the timing to M-1 minutes, leaving one minute of buffer time. (Provide a buffer for various unexpected situations at the defense site.)

At a normal speaking pace of around 200 words per minute, a 10-minute presentation script should be kept under around 2,300 words. Shortening the script is also a process of refining the PPT.

Discarded pages or text-heavy PPT slides should be hidden and placed at the very end to prepare in case questions arise during defense.

If you feel that after revising the PPT, a logical thread connects all the slides in your mind, you are pretty much ready for the official defense.

Use bold and red text in the PPT to emphasize:

• Project Source
• Research Roadmap
• Innovations
• Experimental Data and Results Diagrams
• Core Formulas

Be sure to highlight your own research and innovations, reducing the description of known models, tools, and open-source software. At most 1 minute should be allocated to existing work.

Otherwise, an awkward scenario may occur where everyone in the defense group used Transformer, but a student spent 5 minutes introducing the basic structure of Transformer and ran out of time.

Suggested chapter structure (for reference only):

• Project Background

Project Introduction (introduce project source), Current Research Status (introduce pain points), Research Content and Objectives (a single diagram for the research roadmap).

• Other Chapters

Current Research Status, Model Design or Algorithm Implementation, Model Optimization, Dataset Sources and Data Preprocessing, Evaluation Metrics and Experimental Results, Model Deployment and Operation Results.

• Design and Implementation of XX System

High-Level Design (one diagram), E-R Diagram Design (one diagram), Network Topology Design (one diagram), Interface Implementation (three PPT slides, displayed coherently following the operational workflow), Test Results (table).

• Summary and Outlook

One page is sufficient.

Defense Site

Precautions

• If the paper still has very obvious flaws (insufficient word count, awkward phrasing suggesting machine translation, broken formatting, unclear figures, or core sections like Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction, Summary, and References in complete disarray), it is recommended to voluntarily forfeit the defense.
• Go over the logical line of the PPT again in advance to get familiar with innovations, core formulas, experimental processes, and results.
• If time permits, keep a steady speaking pace. Broadcaster-level pronunciation is not required, but at least enunciate clearly.
• Answer without arguing, and apologize sincerely. If you know, say you know; if you don’t know, accept the feedback humbly.
• For other precautions, please refer to the official requirements of your institution.

Piercing Questions

• Where is your system, model, or algorithm currently applied, in what environment is it deployed, to what scenario is it applied, who is the target user group, and what is the effect? (Classic first opening question)

• Your XXX algorithm shouldn’t be very suitable for XXX scenario or user group because of XXX, so why do you claim it’s suitable for this scenario or user group? (Although pressure doubles, you must find a way to justify it)

• Why did you choose XXX algorithm or model to improve? (It might not have been explained clearly in the text; failing to answer will be seen as unfamiliarity with the paper)

• Did you complete the XXX feature or algorithm independently? (Either your workload/innovation seems suspiciously large, or a questionable point was found)

• What are the innovations and values, and how does it differ from other solutions, models, or algorithms? (No clear innovation found in the paper, or lacking comparison with existing solutions)

• Why haven’t other models, algorithms, or systems implemented your work yet? (Testing literature review)

• What improvements are there compared to other models, algorithms, and systems, what are the metrics, and where is the data? (Testing actual practical value of work and experimental design details)

• Are the studies across chapters interconnected? Are they independent? How are they integrated together? (Please present your research roadmap)

• Is the XXX formula like this? Can XXX formula be derived from it? (Possible errors in formulas or reasoning logic in the paper)

• Class XXX contains Feature XXX, so why can’t it be found in the class diagram / where is the class diagram for Class XXX? (Lacking class diagrams or class diagram details)

• Problem XXX was already pointed out during blind review, and you only modified this single spot. 😡 (Poor attitude; you have successfully infuriated the defense committee, please apply the fix across the entire text by extension)

• Did you write XXX yourself? Read what you wrote—can you even understand it yourself? 😡 (Severe incoherence in writing, suspecting machine translation or touching academic misconduct red lines, on the brink of failing the defense)

• Insufficient word count, chaotic formatting, insufficient number of references, severely incoherent writing. 😡 (Principle issues; you have already failed)

✅ Checklist Summary Table

Fundamental Issues

• The main text and each chapter meet the word count requirements
• The main text has been read and checked word by word
• Self-check of the entire text completed in accordance with thesis writing regulations
• English text checked via Grammarly, Chinese text checked via MiTa Writing Cat
• Fonts, font sizes, and formatting for figures, tables, main text, and table of contents meet requirements
• All figures are clear and visible without shadows or watermarks; quantity, width, and height are reasonable; text font and size within figures meet requirements, match the table of contents, and appear on the same page as their captions
• All tables have reasonable quantity, width, and height, correspond to the table of contents, and appear on the same page as their titles
• Headers and footers meet requirements and correspond to the table of contents
• Reference formatting complies with university requirements or GB/T 7714-2005
• Do not use first-person pronouns other than “this paper” (e.g., “this system”, “this algorithm”, “myself”), replace them with “the system”, “the algorithm”, “the user”, etc.
• Except for pages containing chapter summaries, blank space at the bottom must not exceed 3 lines to avoid large blank areas
• Abstract fully expresses and synthesizes core innovations and experimental results
• Core sections (Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction, Conclusion, References) have no obvious flaws
• Do not paste large blocks of code or logs; using flowcharts or pseudocode to present code logic is recommended
• Avoid self-duplication (i.e., chapters where only proper nouns are modified while remaining large blocks of text are identical)

Detailed Issues

• Capitalize the first letter of each word on the cover page (except function words)
• All tables and figures must be cited in the main text and appear after their citation
• Spacing between section numbers and title text in the Table of Contents is reasonable (two spaces recommended)
• Dot leaders between section titles and page numbers in the Table of Contents are intact
• Check whether the label “Keywords” in the abstract is boldface/SimHei, and whether the formatting of remaining keywords is correct
• The order of references matches the order of citations in the text
• Figures and tables have no indentation and stretch as close to both margins as possible
• Numbering of figures, tables, and formulas is sequential without skipped numbers
• Check common Chinese character confusions: “登陆” -> “登录” and “阀值” -> “阈值”
• Subsection numbering is unified (e.g., (1), (2), (3)), do not mix styles
• Fonts and colors for numbers, English, and Chinese text: select all main text and set to Times New Roman and black
• Avoid colloquial expressions: “a bit”, “can see”, “the same as”, “that is to say” (一下, 看出了, 一样, 也就是说)
• Main text paragraph indentation is consistent
• Pay attention to the proper usage of “的”, “地”, and “得”
• Provide the full English name for English acronyms upon their first appearance
• Headers and footers conform to pre-body or odd/even page specifications

Preparations Before Final Submission

• Full text revisions based on advisor or blind review feedback have been completed
• English text checked via Grammarly, Chinese text checked via MiTa Writing Cat
• Formatting re-checked in Word on Windows OS
• No blank pages in the exported PDF file

Defense Preparation

• PPT structure aligns with the thesis structure, featuring more figures and formulas than text descriptions
• PPT presentation script has been written, approximately 200 words * Minutes
• PPT presentation script practiced, keeping the timing within M-1 minutes
• PPT contains no element animations, slide transitions, or automatic slide timing
• Key content in the PPT is highlighted in red or bolded
• PPT is cleared of third-party content and default template text (e.g., “your English title here”)
• Thoroughly understand all innovations, research pathways, experimental plans, and data in the paper
• Prepared response strategies for all questions raised in the “Soul-Searching Questions” section of this paper

❤️ Acknowledgments

As I take my leave, I shed tears before this page, at a loss for words. 😢 — 2023.01

The text has been updated with the 202305 sample, and will continue to be updated. Wishing everyone a smooth graduation! — 2023.08

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