Writing a thesis as a group: how to split the work
If you write the thesis together, as two people or more, it goes more smoothly when a few things are settled early: who owns which part, how the text should sound, how you settle a disagreement and what you do if someone is away. This guide takes them one at a time.
01Dividing the work
Split the work so that every part has an owner.
Splitting by chapter works well if each chapter has one person who writes the first draft and makes sure it gets finished. The others read and comment. Decide first what each chapter should contain, roughly how long it should be and what it builds on. The methods chapter, for example, can’t be finished until the scope is settled. The introduction, the aim and the discussion come out better if you write them together or read each other’s parts first. Write down who owns what in a list that everyone can see.
02Voice
Decide how the text should sound before anyone starts writing.
A text with several authors shows it in small things. One person writes “we” and another writes “the authors”, the tense shifts, and the same concept is spelled or named differently in different chapters. Agree on which terms you use and how they are spelled, which reference style applies and which tense each part is written in. Ask your supervisor what applies in your subject to writing “we”. Put it all in a short list. When all the text exists, one person reads through the whole document and evens it out, and the others go through the changes. Reading the text aloud helps, because that is where you hear the tone change.
03Decisions
Agree in advance how you settle a disagreement.
Sooner or later you will disagree about the scope, the method or which theory to use. If there are two of you, a vote can end in a tie. A common arrangement is that whoever owns a chapter decides the details in it, while questions that affect the whole thesis are settled together. If you still can’t agree, you can ask your supervisor. Write down each decision with the date and the reason, so that you don’t have to remember weeks later why you chose as you did.
04Time and absence
Plan backwards and expect someone to be away.
Start from the submission date and set a date for each partial draft, with a week or two left over to read everything through together. Someone will be ill, have another exam or stop answering messages, and then it helps to have it written down what remains and who takes what. Raise a late part with the person as soon as you see it. If that doesn’t help, you can contact your supervisor or the course coordinator in good time. How absence and unequal contributions are handled differs between universities, so ask how you should account for who has done what.
05Knyte
One place for what you have read and decided.
Knyte gathers the group’s sources, decisions, questions and plan. The PDFs are read in Knyte, and highlights and comments are visible to the whole group. Decisions are written down with the reasoning and stay there, so someone who has been away opens the knyte and sees what was decided, and why. Your Google Doc opens beside the sources and you can edit it there. Knyte also works without anyone connecting an AI assistant.
Frequently asked questions
Are you allowed to write a thesis or degree project together?
The programme and the university decide. Some allow two or more students to write together, others require individual work. Sometimes each person’s part must also be identifiable. Read the course syllabus and ask your supervisor or the course coordinator before you start.
How do we split the work fairly?
Count how much work each part means, for example how much reading or data collection it needs. A theory section with a lot of reading can weigh as much as a longer results section. Write down the split, look at it again halfway and change it openly if it doesn’t fit.
What do we do if someone in the group isn’t doing their part?
Talk to the person early and directly, and start from what you wrote down about who does what. Agree on a new date and on who takes over what is urgent. If that doesn’t help, contact your supervisor or the course coordinator. How a university handles unequal contributions varies, so ask how it works at yours.
Do we have to stop writing in Google Docs?
No. Your Google Doc opens in Knyte beside the sources, and you can edit it there.
Keep the group’s material in one place.
Start a knyte, invite your group and add the sources you have so far.