Is it unprofessional to add illustrations to a master’s thesis?

Question

Sometimes I see articles, even high-quality ones, use illustrations (e.g. imagine a simple Powerpoint depiction of a certain process).

I'm now writing my thesis and found some interesting illustrations that I would like to use in the Definitions section of my thesis. However, I'm not quite sure if that would turn out to be beneficial:

• pro: It would break up the wall of text a bit and provide a more intuitive way of grasping a definition.

• con: My supervisor (who probably would not bother to read the whole section anyway) glances over it and doesn’t like illustrations and marks me down.

I don't really want to ask my supervisor about this, since he is a highly decorated senior professor and head of faculty. I'd rather use my “capital” wisely on methodological questions.

What is your view on that?

Answer 1

If it is like putting a picture of a film star next to an article about them, then you should not do it.

If they are merely "interesting illustrations" to "break up the wall of text", then you should probably not use them.

If they are positively useful, show things that cannot be shown in text, or make something much clearer than text, then you should use them.

(Edited to add: As others have said, if you want to use an illustration from someone else's publication, you need to think about copyright. And in many cases, it is better to make your own illustrations.)

Answer 2

I must push back on the frame of your question: I think you should ask this question of your advisor for the following reasons:

First, learning to write an academic paper or thesis is part of what you are there to learn as a Master's candidate, and part of what your advisor is there to teach you.

Second, as you yourself point out, your advisor is the person (or one of the few people) to be evaluating your work. It is fine to cast a wide net for advice when developing your overall style as an academic writer. But it would be foolish to take our advice over your advisor's advice when you are writing a paper for the narrow audience of your advisor and/or your committee.

That said: The valid use of drawings, figures, diagrams, plots, illustrations, etc is to convey information efficiently and effectively. They can also be beautiful in their own right; placed strategically to break up text, etc. But if they are not there to convey information, they should probably not be there.

Answer 3

Textbooks often have pictures. For example Munkres' Topology:

Consult textbooks and papers related to your masters topic for what a "professional" illustration looks like.

Answer 4

he is a highly decorated senior professor and head of faculty

Highly decorated senior professors and heads of faculty are not demi-gods.

They are human like everyone else and can be great people or assholes. This is how you should assess them and act accordingly. Since he is your advisor he has a duty to help you (he does not need a PhD candidate like someone just starting).

I'm now writing my thesis and found some interesting illustrations

Since you wrote an introduction, its readers will benefit from a crisp, helpful picture (which as Napoleon put it, is better than 100 PowerPoint bullets).

Answer 5

There is something in OP which I don't think the existing answers address.

I'm now writing my thesis and found some interesting illustrations that I would like to use [...]

The other answers talk about the benefits of having figures, etc., in your thesis, but these should be figures that you create yourself. There are several drawbacks to adding illustrations that you merely found.

• You will probably need to get permission to do this (unless the image comes with a CC or similarly permissive licence).
• You will certainly need to attribute the image (even if the original creator does not require this, the presumption is that anything in your thesis is your own work unless specified not to be, and you must not appear to take credit).
• Since they are not your own work, they will not get credit and so can't really benefit you - but they could still harm you if your supervisor/examiner thinks they are inappropriate.

So for these reasons, I would not use them. But if you can create your own (and I mean create, not just redraw) images that are helpful to the reader, then by all means do so.

Answer 6

I would say a thesis is making an argument, with evidence. The question is: do the illustrations help to build the argument?

If they are decoration, like in a magazine, clearly not. If the text can be fully understood without them, like in an online news story which the publication requires to have an illustration, even if it's a stock photo, then the photo isn't adding anything.

Your reader does not need images to help them read the piece, because you can assume they are able to read at a good standard, and your piece does not need to sell itself on a newsstand, bookstore or online clickbait.

But if the argument is aided by the image, then maybe there is a case to include them. A diagram or graph presents information in a different way to text, and that would be absolutely fine IMHO. A picture of an experimental setup or historical source material may help the reader understand the context better. A cartoon could make a point in an ironic way that the text could not do. Think about what the purpose of each image is, and what you are saying with it.

In general, though, I would be sparing in using images. The reader is there to read, not to view a photo album. It is hard to make a good argument with primarily images ('eye of the beholder' and all that). Also, you may run into copyright and plagiarism issues if too much of the content is not your own.

Obviously there are some fields which are very graphical - eg art or fashion - where your source material is all image-based and you have to use that material. For those different expectations might apply.

Answer 7

There's a difference here that I think needs to be drawn between "illustrations" and "diagrams".

Diagrams are technical drawings that add useful information to your thesis that is better conveyed visually than textually. I would also include charts in this category. Include as many of these as you need, they're a great way to effectively convey information.

Illustrations, however, tend to be less textual and more descriptive. So, you might show an illustration of what a design might look like in context. Now, whether you include these or not is largely dependent on what your thesis is. If you're doing a design-based course like Architecture or Fashion, then sure, include illustrations. Other than that, I probably wouldn't, except perhaps as an appendix if you really want to.

The key difference here is whether you're actually adding information to the paper or merely illustrating it in a pretty fashion.

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That being said, it's your thesis. You're not submitting it for publication to a journal so sans explicit instructions from the university to the contrary, you're free to make stylistic decisions to suit yourself. I, for one, chose to break my dissertation into chapters and put amusing, albeit relevant, epigraphs at the start of each. Not very "professional", I'll admit, but it made the whole thing a bit nicer to read and I liked them. No reasonable professor is going to care about a stylistic choice here or there, they're only going to care about the content. Within reason of course.

Answer 8

The other answers make good points, but some textbooks also have (a few) pictures that are not strictly related to the text, often at the beginning of chapters. If done with style, this can be fine.

But you are not a textbook author and your thesis is not a textbook. It is also your first major article, so you may not have the judgement to know what is appropriate and what is not. Also, a thesis is a different type of document.

Nevertheless, you might consider adding a personal touch, for example in the dedication or perhaps even in the introduction. But if you are really worried that your supervisor might not like it, you should probably leave it out. Even if they don't have a problem with it, you run the risk of always thinking about whether it might have been a problem and contributed to the grade and other doubts.

Answer 9

I think that some of the previous answers have tried to be fair and still protective of you.

But maybe they miss the point of why you are applying the illustrations - and this is no surprise as all you say is that they are in the Definitions section of the thesis.

As I read it, you may be introducing illustrations to make it easier for the general reader in your subject - as opposed to those actively researching in a small field within it - to quickly "get" the basic concepts that you are introducing at the start of the thesis. And there is no doubt about it but a picture is worth a thousand words in getting many concepts. In physical sciences, schematic diagrams are often used to put across processes that are in reality much more detailed and complex though the latter aspects are simply to make the process more effective.

I don't see much wrong in this exercise as long as your diagrams are expressly labelled as schematics and the added complexities are referred to at least in the accompanying text.

But you really must discuss your purpose with these illustrations with your supervisor so that he understands why you are putting these in your Definitions section. Noting that the attention span of supervisors is quite short, you would be well advised to have a short and simple phrasing prepared before you present your reason for these graphics.

Answer 10

Depends from your filed of study. Literature (for example) do not use many pictures. Physics (again, for example as field) believe that "a picture is value 1000 words".

My personal opinion: pictures that explains the concepts/ideas/tests/methodology(etc.) are very welcome as are capable to say something that may be difficult to express in words. However every picture that you add in your manuscript should be properly described.

This is what I recommend to my students when they write their thesis with me: https://francescolelli.info/thesis/simple-writing-rules-that-can-improve-the-quality-of-your-thesis/

The second bullet talks about how to describe pictures and tables.