这是我在1993年写给一名学生的信，内容涉及他的论文初稿。2003年，我修改了一下这封信，删除了与该学生相关的具体内容，并将修改后的这封信作为对所有研究生的额外知识要求。I wrote this in 1993 as a letter to a student concerning a draft of his dissertation. in 2003 I edited it to remove some specific references to the student and present it as a small increment to the information available to my grad students. --spaf 先让我以一些看似显而易见的事情开始。Let me start by reviewing some things that may seem obvious: 第一，你的论文是获得博士学位要求的一部分。除此之外，研究、理论、实验等本身也是你获得博士学位的条件。一个人不会试图在自己的论文中面面俱到地写下所有这些。Your dissertation is part of the requirements for a PhD. The research, theory, experimentation, et al. also contribute. One does not attempt to capture everything in one's dissertation. 第二，博士论文是一种专业（technical）文档，用于记录和提出论点的证明。它面向专业领域的读者，必须清晰而完整，但不一定详尽无遗。还要注意——实验数据，如果使用的话，不是证明（proof）——它只是是证据（evidence）。证明应作为分析和批判性陈述来呈现。一般来说，你论文的每一项陈述要么是有专业领域文献支撑的常识，要么是由学位候选人（您）能提供证明的原创结果。这些陈述必须直接与论点的证明有关，否则就不需要。The dissertation is a technical work used to document and set forth proof of one's thesis. It is intended for a technical audience, and it must be clear and complete, but not necessarily exhaustively comprehensive. Also note -- experimental data, if used, is not the proof -- it is evidence. The proof is presented as analysis and critical presentation. As a general rule, every statement in your dissertation must be common knowledge, supported by citation to technical literature, or else original results proved by the candidate (you). Each of those statements must directly relate to the proof of the thesis or else they are not needed. 第三，学位论文（dissertation）并不等同于论点（thesis）。一个人的论点只是一个主张——一个假设。论文应详细描述如何证明这个假设（或者，很少，反驳这一声明，并呈现出其他重要结果）。The dissertation is not the thesis. One's thesis is a claim -- a hypothesis. The dissertation describes, in detail, how one proves the hypothesis (or, rarely, disproves the claim and shows other important results). 让我们重温一下论点本身这一概念。论点是一个假设，一个猜想，一个定理。论文是一份正式的、程式化的文件，用来为你的论点辩护。论点必须具有重要的原创性（即未曾有人对它的真实性进行过证明），它必须能拓展科学知识的现有状态。Let's revisit the idea of the thesis itself. It is a hypothesis, a conjecture, a theorem. The dissertation is a formal, stylized document used to argue your thesis. The thesis must be significant, original (no one has yet demonstrated it to be true), and it must extend the state of scientific knowledge. 你需要做的第一件事是想出不超过三个句子来表达你的论点。你对论点的陈述既要得到委员会的认同，也要令自己满意。The first thing you need to do is to come up with no more than three sentences that express your thesis. Your committee must agree that your statements form a valid thesis statement. You too must be happy with the statement -- it should be what you will tell anyone if they ask you what your thesis is (few people will want to hear an hour presentation as a response). 一旦你有论点陈述，你就可以开始展开论文写作了。例如，摘要应该是你论点及其如何证明的一页纸描述。摘要应总结论文成果，强调对科学的贡献。Once you have a statement of thesis, you can begin to develop the dissertation. The abstract, for instance, should be a one-page description of your thesis and how you present the proof of it. The abstract should summarize the results of the thesis and should stress the contributions to science made thereby. 以下是一些在编写/校对时要记住的更一般的提示（原文有不少与计算机专业相关的条目，不具有普适性，因此这里没有翻译——译者注）：Here are some more general hints to keep in mind as you write/edit: 1. 一般不应该使用副词——相反，使用精确的语言。例如，不要说某事"发生得很快"。与此类似，应避免使用"快"，"慢"，"完美"，"很快"，"理想"，"很多"等等词语。Adverbs should generally not be used -- instead, use something precise. For example, do not say that something "happens quickly." How fast is quickly? Is it relative to CPU speeds? Network speeds? Does it depend on connectivity, configuration, programming language, OS release, etc? What is the standard deviation? As per the above, use of the words "fast", "slow", "perfect", "soon", "ideal", "lots of" and related should all be avoided. So should "clearly", "obviously", "simple", "like", "few", "most", "large", et al. 2. 你所写的是科学事实。对美学、伦理、个人偏好等的判断的描述应该放在结论章节中， 如果它们必须出现的话。避免说"事实上"，"实际上"，"实际情况是"，和任何类似的结构 - 你写的一切必须是事实，所以没有必要再陈述你写的是事实。 What you are writing is scientific fact. Judgments of aesthetics, ethics, personal preference, and the like should be in the conclusions chapter if they should be anywhere at all. With that in mind, avoid use of words such as "good", "bad", "best", and any similar discussion. Also avoid stating "In fact," "Actually," "In reality," and any similar construct -- everything you are writing must be factual, so there is no need to state such things. If you feel compelled to use one of these constructs, then carefully evaluate what you are saying to be certain you are not injecting relative terms, opinions, value judgements, or other items that are inappropriate for a dissertation. 3. 避免提及时间和环境。如果特定的时间或间隔很重要，请说明确，如"1905 年至 1920 年之间"，而不是"过去 15 年"。Avoid mention of time and environment. "Today's computers" are antiques far sooner than you think. Your thesis should still be true many years from now. If a particular time or interval is important, then be explicit about it, as in "Between 1905 and 1920" rather than "Over the last 15 years." (See the difference, given some distance in time?) 4. 确保你声称作为证明的东西都会被任何科学家或数学家认可。Be sure that something you claim as a proof would be recognized as such by any scientist or mathematician. 5. 您和您的论文应该是您讨论的主题的最终（当前）权威。因此，不应有"以我们所知"或"就我们所知"的例子。要么你知道肯定，要么你不知道——如果你不知道，你就不应该说！You and your dissertation are supposed to be the ultimate (current) authority on the topic you are covering. Thus, there should be no instance of "to the best of our knowledge" or "as far as we can tell." Either you know for certain, or you don't -- and if you don't know, you shouldn't state it! 6. 重点关注结果而不是研究方法。虽然研究方法应被明确描述，但不应在第三章和第四章中成为您讨论的中心主题。Focus on the results and not the methodology. Methodology should be clearly described, but not the central topic of your discussion in chapters III & IV 请记住，你——博士学位候选人——有望成为你研究主题的世界级专家。这一主题不应过于宽泛，但又必须足够大才有意义。你的导师和委员会成员不应该比你更了解这个主题。你的论文应该解释你的发现，并和答辩一起证明你精通某一领域且你现在是一流的专家。这并不意味着要写你所知道的一切——它意味着你将最重要的观点写得足以让其他人同意你的结论。Keep in mind that you -- the Ph.D. candidate -- are expected to become the world's foremost expert on your topic area. That topic area should not be unduly broad, but must be big enough to be meaningful. Your advisor and committee members are not supposed to know more about the topic than you do -- not individually, at least. Your dissertation is supposed to explain your findings and, along with the defense, demonstrate your mastery of the area in which you are now the leading expert. That does not mean writing everything you know -- it means writing enough about the most important points that others can agree with your conclusions. 最后，不要落入这样一个束缚了许多候选人并导致他们中的一些人在完成任务前就被淘汰了的陷阱：你的论点不需要具有革命性。它只需要是该领域的一个渐进式进步。很少有博士论文对该领域有显著的影响。相反，作者的出版物和产品集可能会改变该领域。Last of all, don't fall into the trap that ties up many a candidate, and causes some of them to flame out before completion: your thesis does not need to be revolutionary. It simply needs to be an incremental advancement in the field. Few Ph.D. dissertations have ever had a marked impact on the field. Instead, it is the set of publications and products of the author that may change the field. 如果你的论文是像大多数其它论文，那么它的读者对象只会是你的委员会和一些寻求在你的工作的基础上推进一步的其他博士候选人。因此，它不需要是文学的杰作，也不需要解决一个长期存在的问题。它只需要正确，在委员会看来足够有意义，且需要完整。当你毕业后改变世界时，我们都会鼓掌。在这一点，你会发现，许多著名的科学家在他们的职业生涯里的工作与博士论文主题完全不同。博士论文用以证明你有能力找到并呈现原创结果；毕业后你的事业和生活将告诉你为了产生影响还需要考虑哪些其它事情。 If your dissertation is like most, it will only be read by your committee and some other Ph.D. candidates seeking to build on your work. As such, it does not need to be a masterwork of literature, nor does it need to solve a long-standing problem in computing. It merely needs to be correct, to be significant in the judgement of your committee, and it needs to be complete. We will all applaud when you change the world after graduation. And at that you will find that many well-known scientists in CS have made their careers in areas different from their dissertation topic. The dissertation is proof that you can find and present original results; your career and life after graduation will demonstrate the other concerns you might have about making an impact.
所以开始工作吧！So get to work!
节选自：Sparf, What is a Ph.D. Dissertation? https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/StudentInfo/spaf.html
非原创声明：本文中的闪图复制自北岭加州州立大学（California State University, Northridge）网页https://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm