McRoy's Guide to Thesis Writing. 1/23/96 1) Introduction - main ideas - overview of your approach and its advantages [sales pitch] 2) Background (literature review) Things to present: 1. definitions 2. consensus opinions 3. previous approaches - what was the main point - how did they support it - how good an argument is it? why? 4. keypoints For the most important previous approaches, construct a simple example to help illustrate its strengths and weaknesses. 3) Requirements Specifications Your theory of what a successful solution to the problem would be like - what inputs needed - what function would be provided 4) Implementation How you achieved the goals outlined in the Requirements Specifications. -Probably also want to include: 1. logical design (ie the general architecture) 2. an extended example (a real one) and a discussion. The idea is that this is a report of the "experiment" and its results. 5) Conclusions - what you did (can be the same structure as the introduction) - why it was great - future work (what you would do differently next time if you were doing it again and what you would add next if you had had the time. Be specific.)