Friday, September 26, 2008

Thesis Audience

So today I spoke with my advisors about what audience I should aim my thesis introduction towards. One advisor said that his advisor said your thesis introduction should be something you can give your (non-technical) mom and dad and they should be able to get through.

This is a pretty tall order, but one to which I will try to adhere. It makes sense - a thesis is not necessarily geared at a particular audience the way a conference or journal paper is, and thus greater introductory background is necessary. I actually would be quite amused to see what my mother would make of my thesis introduction, "That's nice, dear, it looks very nice." Haha. My mother is adorable and sweet and wonderful.

I just wanted to share this tidbit of information which is going to be helpful to me. Now I can continue writing!

1 comment:

Candid Engineer said...

Hmm, I think it depends on who your parents are. My delightful father could not make it through the introduction on any dissertation I would write. Perhaps gearing towards an academic in the humanities would be more appropriate? I think assuming some level of intellectual background is called for.