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My master thesis is about doing an an upgrade/update of a previously created circuit board. I need to basically redo the whole thing because the new upgrades complete changed the board.

Now I know that there are different way to write a master thesis. As ususal most people at my university do it like this.

  1. Introduction
  2. Basics
  3. Main Part
  4. Conclusion

But some people told me that for a project like mine which is less theortical and more pratical it is better to write it "like a technical datasheet/user guide - so it doesn't just look like only academic" but I can't really understand what is meant by that ? If I take look at a user guide like this: ESP32 should I build my master thesis around the same "layout" and split it something like this:

  1. Overview
  2. Schematic
  3. PCB
  4. Programming

But these User Guides are mainly written for people with technological background. So there is no "basics". Do I have to put this into aswell? I hope you can help me there and get me some guidance.

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    Did the people who told you about the different structure include your thesis advisor? If not - have you considered asking them (as in - give a proposal of how you'd structure it and see what they think)?
    – Jeroen
    Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 8:34
  • My advisor said he 'doesn't really care, just that it needs to be done' - So I am free to do what I want there.
    – Daniel Do
    Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 8:35
  • Some people? what kind of some people? the secretary of the department? the liberal students association? These people opinion has a value only if they are or they were part of the commission reviewing master thesis. Are they? And, how do you evaluate the opinion of these people against random people on their internet, where attendibility is given only by the upvotes AKA a biased, echo-chamber reinforced point of view?
    – EarlGrey
    Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 8:43
  • Does your thesis have an 'audience'? For example, I've done a more practical Bachelor's thesis a few years back where the manager of the company that provided the project needed to understand the thesis (technical appendices were okay). Is there anything specified in your case?
    – Jeroen
    Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 9:07
  • In the United States, the institutions I know about have a prescribed form for organizing theses. You don't say where you're from, but that may be true where you are as well. So, the very first thing to do is find out whether there is a prescribed form at your institution..
    – Bob Brown
    Commented Jun 17, 2021 at 16:38

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Please put your comment:

My advisor said he 'doesn't really care, just that it needs to be done' - So I am free to do what I want there

in the question. Note: you could not be more wrong about being free.

Based on your advisor's answer, this means that however you will do the thesis, your advisor will consider it done only if it respects the only way he thinks it must done. So if you prepare the thesis in a different way from the way they expect it, the feedback you will receive will be "this is a userguide, not a thesis!" and you will have to rewrite it.

It is very simple how to proceed: during the weekend prepare a draft of the thesis, exactly as the numbered bullet points you provided, fill each chapter with 2-3 pages or general claims and some figures, send it next Monday morning to the thesis advisor and ask him/her if it would do the job.

Be sure to have a feedback before Thursday evening.

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