School of Mathematics and Statistics

Postgraduate Coursework Project

Masters Project: Students will have a 12 units of credit (UOC) project as a compulsory part of any master coursework program. The project involves writing a thesis on the chosen topic. The project could include a literature survey and a critical analysis of the topic area; or could be a small research project. This should prepare you for the problem-solving and report-writing aspects of future employment, or for progression to a research degree. Each student works under the supervision of one or more members of the School. Members of the School are flexible about the range of areas in which they will supervise students. Prospective students should start talking to staff members about possible topics well before they start on the project. An early decision about a topic will facilitate an early start with the project. Supervision by individual staff members is dependent on staff agreement and availability.

The project will be assessed for quality in four major areas (see below), each of which is important. The written project will be assessed by two or three markers, one of which may be the supervisor, and each marker will provide a written assessment and grade(s) based on the following.

Exposition: Clarity of the presentation. Sufficient introductory and summary material. Organisation and style of the presentation.
Literature coverage: Adequate coverage of related material in the field. Placing the topic in a wider context.
Critical analysis and insight: Understanding of the problem and/or model. Quality of the discussion. Discussion of the advantages and limitations of the problem/method.
Originality: E.g. by modifying or extending earlier theory or methods, or by developing new examples, or by an application to a new area.

Project Due Date

The Masters project is due at 3pm on the Friday of the last teaching week in the second semester of the student’s enrolment into the project. The rule below -- regarding loss of grade for days late -- will be applied if the thesis is late with no good reason. In the case of illness or other extenuating circumstances, the late penalty will be determined by agreement between the assessors and the Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator.

Project Timeline

The following is a general guide to how work on your project should progress. If you think that a major variation is warranted, please discuss this with your supervisor and the Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator. The timetable applies to full-time and part-time students. For part-time students the project semesters have to be consecutive.

Select supervisor and topic	Before the start of your 1st project semester
Research, reading, discussion & understanding	1st project semester mostly
Outline of project and significant piece of writing	By the beginning of your 2nd project semester
Give substantial draft to supervisor	End of week 8 of your 2nd semester
Talk (3 - semester masters only)	Last 2 teaching weeks of your 2nd project semester
Final submission	3pm on the Friday of the last teaching week in your 2nd project semester

Getting Started

Before you start your Masters project you should speak to members of staff about possible projects. Find out who works in the areas that you are interested in and who you find it easy to talk mathematics with. If at all possible, settle on a topic and supervisor before the start of the first semester of your project.

Most students see their supervisor about once a week, although this is usually open to negotiation between the student and the supervisor. Even if you haven't done much between visits it is a good idea to have a regular chat so that your supervisor can keep track of how you are going. You can expect your supervisor to:

Help you select - and modify - your topic.
Direct you to useful references on your topic.
Explain difficult points.
Provide feedback on the direction of your research.
Read and comment on drafts of your thesis.
Help prepare you for your talk.
Give general course advice

Project/Thesis Writing

Your thesis is a report of what you have been studying in your project. Write it as if you were trying to explain the area of mathematics or statistics that you have been looking at to a fellow Masters student.

Include an introduction that explains what the thesis is all about, and what its contents are. (It is sometimes better to leave writing this part to the end!) For many theses, a conclusion or summary is appropriate.
Your thesis should be a coherent, self-contained piece of work.
Your writing should conform to the highest standards of English. Aim at clarity, precision and correct grammar. Start sentences with capital letters and end them with full-stops. Don't start sentences with a symbol. (Otherwise you can get things like `... a function f. g is sometimes used ...' which is hard to parse.)
Take great care with bibliographic referencing. Wherever some material has an external source, this should be clear to the reader. Don't just write in the introduction: this thesis contains material from [1],[2] and [3]: give the references for the material wherever it is used. Don't gratuitously pad your reference list with references that are not referred to in the text. Check current journals for acceptable referencing styles.
Be careful not to plagiarise. What constitutes plagiarism is perhaps a little different in mathematics compared to some other subjects since there is a limit to how different you may be able to make a proof (at least in its basic structure). We do, however, expect the thesis to be written in your own words. A basic rule is: if you put a fact or an idea in your thesis which is not your own, the reader should be able to tell where you got this fact or idea. For more information on the University's policies on academic honesty and plagiarism see

UNSW Rules on Plagiarism
Student Guide on Plagarism

P R Halmos (1970): How to write mathematics, Enseignement Math. (2) 16, 123-152 has the following advice: ``The basic problem in writing mathematics is the same as in writing biology, writing a novel, or writing directions for assembling a harpsichord: the problem is to communicate an idea. To do so, and to do it clearly:

you must have something to say (ie, some ideas), and you must have someone to say it to (ie, an audience);
you must organize what you want to say, and you must arrange it in the order you want it said in;
you must write it, rewrite it, and re-rewrite it several times;
and you must be willing to think hard about and work hard on mechanical details such as diction, notation, and punctuation.

That's all there is to it.”

Say something: To have something to say is by far the most important ingredient of good exposition -- so much so that if the idea is important enough, the work has a chance to be immortal even if it is confusingly misorganized and awkwardly expressed..... To get by one this first principle alone is, however, only rarely possible and never desirable."
``The second principle of good writing is to write for someone. When you decide to write something, ask yourself who it is that you want to reach." Your broad audience will be fellow Masters and Honours students, who may not be experts in your thesis topic. ``The author must anticipate and avoid the reader's difficulties. As he(/she) writes, he(/she) must keep trying to imagine what in the words being written may tend to mislead the reader, and what will set him(/her) right."
Organize: The main contribution that an expository writer can make is to organize and arrange the material so as to minimize the resistance and maximize the insight of the reader and keep him on the track with no unintended distractions.
Think about the alphabet: Once you have some kind of plan of organization, an outline, which may not be a fine one but is the best you can do, you are almost ready to start writing. The only other thing I would recommend that you do first is to invest an hour or two of thought in the alphabet; you'll find it saves many headaches later. The letters that are used to denote the concepts you'll discuss are worthy of thought and careful design. A good, consistent notation can be a tremendous help.
Write in spirals: The best way to start writing, perhaps the only way, is to write on the spiral plan. According to the spiral plan the chapters get written in the order 1,2; 1,2,3; 1,2,3,4 etc. You think you know how to write Chapter 1, but after you've done it and gone on to Chapter 2, you'll realize that you could have done a better job on Chapter 2 if you had done Chapter 1 differently. There is no help for it but to go back, do Chapter 1 differently, do a better job on Chapter 2, and then dive into Chapter 3. Chapter 3 will show up the weaknesses of Chapters 1 and 2.
Write good English: Good English style implies correct grammar, correct choice of words, correct punctuation, and, perhaps above all, common sense."

More articles on how to write mathematics

Lee, K. A guide to writing mathematics.

Madel, J. How to write mathematics.

Reiter, A. Writing a research paper in mathematics.

Jackson, M. Some notes on writing in mathematics.

Lee, K. Some notes on writing mathematics.

Weins, D. How to write mathematics.

How to use LaTeX, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW.

Thesis Information, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW.

Recent Theses, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW.

These days, theses are almost always typed in LaTeX. If you are going to type the thesis yourself, you should allow a certain amount of time to become familiar with this software. Indeed starting to learn LaTeX well before you actually want to write the thesis is a very good idea.

You should not underestimate the time it takes to produce a polished document. You will almost certainly need several drafts. It is very difficult to concentrate on getting the mathematics, spelling, grammar, layout, etc, all correct at once. Try getting another student to proofread what you have written - from their different viewpoint they may pick up on lots of things that you can’t see.

You should begin to plan the `shape' of the thesis before the start of your second semester. You supervisor should have a fairly mature draft by the end of week 8 of your last semester, but you should probably give them a chapter rather sooner than this, so they can check your writing style.

Typically a thesis should be between 40-60 pages in length. If you think that you have a good reason to write a shorter or longer thesis, discuss this with your supervisor. Theses are not judged by their weight! It is better to write a shorter thesis in which you understand everything than a longer one where you are rather hazy on the details.

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Masters Project: Thesis Format

This section provides some guidance as to the physical presentation of a Masters thesis at UNSW. To quote the rules:

Students are required to submit three copies of their thesis, typed and in a protective binder or cover. Students are responsible for the production of their theses. They may choose to type their thesis themselves, possibly using one of the word-processing facilities available in the School (e.g. LaTeX). Another option is to have the typing done by a professional typist. Some of the secretarial staff in the School are prepared to type theses for payment outside normal working hours.

These days, almost all students type their theses using LaTeX. The School runs periodic classes on how to get started in LaTeX and you should take advantage of these as early as you can.

Getting a good looking thesis can be helped by having a good style or `document class' file and a decent example to copy. Below are links to a UNSW thesis class which has been set up to produce a nice front page which says all the right sort of things and has a copy of the UNSW crest on it. There is also a cut down example of a past thesis.

[[http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/honpg/current/UNSWthesis.cls||To use this the start of your LaTeX document should include the line \documentclass[mxxx]{MS-UNSWthesis} where
mxxx = msctech for the Master of Science and Technology,
mxxx = mstat for the Master of Statistics;
mxxx = mfin for the Master of Financial Mathematics.

A Postscript version of the UNSW crest

Sample Thesis. If you put the three files in a directory and then latex this file, you'll be able to look at what it produces. This sample is of course much shorter than a real thesis should be! The file contains lots of macros and special environments if you want some examples of how these work.

Projects Available 2009

For a list of available projects for 2009 please click here