Although the exact structure of the thesis depends on your field and the specific requirements of your department, the general structure of a thesis is fairly standard. In general, the beginning and the conclusion follow the same guidelines in almost all fields. However, the body of the thesis has variations from one field to another. Review the basic structure of a thesis and start doing yours.
Steps
Method 1 of 5: Submit Your Literary Review
Step 1. Start your thesis with a short introduction
The introduction should present the scope of your research, as well as indicate why your research is necessary. It should go beyond the abstract to the abstract. The introduction should include any context or information the reader needs in order to understand your research.
Writing the introduction after the rest of the content can sometimes be a good way to ensure that the introduction covers everything
Step 2. Write the literary review
The literary review should benefit both the general public and experts. It should cover information related to your concept, link information similar to yours, and demonstrate issues related to your research.
- If your research improves or clears up a specific flaw in previous research, be sure to highlight the importance of your original content.
- The literary review should also indicate discrepancies with previous research.
Step 3. Show why your thesis is meritorious
A thesis must be written because there is a known gap of some kind in the industry. Explain how your thesis fills that gap and why that information is necessary. Your thesis must be original. Due to their respective experience, your advisors should be able to provide you with adequate guidance in choosing your thesis topic and avoid a certain level of redundancy.
Consider if your thesis really interests you. This job will take a considerable amount of time and losing interest will make it difficult for you to do your research
Method 2 of 5: Explain your methodology
Step 1. Restate the purpose of your study
The purpose of the methodological section is to demonstrate how you have collected the information. As such, most of the following sections will fill in the necessary details. The explanation does not have to be elaborate, but should prepare the reader for the following detailed methodology.
Step 2. Describe any participant
If applicable, you should fully describe anyone involved in your study. You must be able to identify each person included in the investigation. Also, you should write down how people join and leave the study. If the people were chosen at random or if they were relatives, it is important that you indicate this in the study.
Make sure to consider various ethical issues (eg risk and consent of participants) if there are people involved in your research
Step 3. Explain all the instruments related to the measurement
If you've developed a new measurement method, something like a survey or questionnaire, explicitly state every detail about it. If an established metric is used, be sure to mention it if applicable. Once you list the tools, be sure to collect all the pertinent information, such as the following:
- Describes the format of the information collected.
- Identify all the scores obtained by the tools.
- Write down what techniques were used to administer the measurements.
Step 4. Describe your research design
Break down all the details about how you did it from start to finish. Define all the variables and hypothetical frames so that anyone who wants to do it can reproduce your procedures and complete study.
- Include possible reasons why the validity of the research may be threatened. For example, a study related to happiness may be affected by the weather or a participant's family problem.
- Decompose the limited details so there are no problems if someone tries to duplicate them.
Method 3 of 5: Develop your study and results
Step 1. List the results of the investigation
You don't need to include all the results discovered through your research. Only the most relevant to the scope of the thesis are necessary. Don't interpret the research. If there are findings or important information, you should save them for the final part of the thesis in which everything is explained.
Cross reference text with relevant visual aids (i.e. figures, graphs, tables)
Step 2. Divide the results into chapters
The thesis should be organized so that the chapters focus on a specific question. The questions can be broad, based on a reasoning process, an aspect of your methodology, or another research-related problem. Make sure the chapters not only address the questions, but also their answers.
Step 3. Develop your argument
After you've finished your research, your chapters should support your central idea. They should support what you want to demonstrate through your detailed research and methodology. Support your argument by avoiding debatable statements related to the topics of the chapter. These are some examples:
- A debatable statement is "60% of the voters supported the referendum."
- An uncontroversial statement is "Microprocessors are smaller today than they were ten years ago."
Method 4 of 5: Conclude your thesis
Step 1. Conclude your thesis
Present the significance of your findings in the context of your general research. Without a solid conclusion, it may appear that the research has not been done well or that the author may not understand the results of the thesis.
Be sure to clarify how the conclusions relate to the pre-investigation questions and related results
Step 2. Submit addresses for further investigation
It is inevitable that your research is not perfect. As such, you should propose how to resolve the errors in a future investigation. There may be unforeseen results that may suggest further investigation. Maybe there are also expected results that didn't come true. You can suggest a narrower focus of your research that someone in the future can follow to answer an unsolved question.
Step 3. Calculate the effectiveness of your thesis
It is important that in the conclusion you also indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the investigation. It shows where the limitations exist and why those limitations may affect the results. The purpose of focusing on the limitations is to demonstrate your understanding of your research, why there might be difficulties, the importance of the limitations to your arguments, and the justification for the decisions made during your research.
You know the limitations better than anyone. Make sure to clearly propose corrections to current limitations for future research
Method 5 of 5: Format Your Thesis and Polish It
Step 1. Discuss your thesis with the committee
Finally, the thesis is structured as directed by your advisor and committee. Make sure you understand what is necessary for your field and department in a thesis. You may also want to read approved theses from previous studies to better understand how to structure a thesis in your field.
- Find out if there is a word limit and what parts of your thesis (eg, references, tables, abstracts) are included in the word count.
- Determine what information to include or exclude. Maybe there are specifications on what is acceptable.
- Ask what information is least important to the committee and you should move it from the main content to the appendix.
Step 2. Create the first page
The first page should be specific to your university, maybe even your department or discipline. However, in general, it should be written in capital letters, with centered margins. Exclude page numbers, but the following is usually part of the first page of a thesis:
- The title of the thesis is written at the top.
- The purpose of the thesis, which indicates how you will present the thesis, follows the title.
- The name of the person doing the thesis and the delivery date are the last elements.
Step 3. Build your abstract
The abstract should summarize the thesis and explain why the research is important. First include the background of your study. Then decompose the research methods and findings. Finally, clearly explain all the research findings. Each section should contain enough words to provide enough information, but the length of the abstract should not exceed 350 words.
- Since the abstract must be a high-level abstract, do not use citations or references in this section. The only exception is if you base your thesis on someone else's work. In that situation, it is appropriate that you mention the work you are supporting.
- One recommendation is to include one or two comments for each part (eg, introduction, methodology, conclusion) of the thesis.
Step 4. Include the acknowledgments after the abstract
On the page after the abstract, thank the people who made your thesis possible. Sometimes this section recognizes only a few people; sometimes it is more than one page. From inspirational people to editors, all kinds of people can be thanked in any way you want.
Thesis acknowledgments are not required, but they provide a great opportunity for the writer to really thank the people who have influenced and collaborated with the arduous thesis process
Step 5. Submit a complete index
After the acknowledgments, start the index on a new page. Include both the sections of your thesis and their subsections. It should also include the acknowledgments page.
- Center the word "Index" at the top of the page.
- Make sure you line up the page numbers well.
Step 6. Cite all your references
Sometimes a bibliography is used, in which all references, even those that have not been cited, are written in a list. There are many possible structures in which sources can be cited. Make sure you know in advance if the references should be in APA, MLA, Harvard or Chicago style.
Step 7. Finish with any appendixes
The point of the appendices is to include information that is not directly related to your research or that has been mentioned in the results of the thesis. Appendices should be complementary in nature, not superfluous. Extremely long items like quizzes and tables are perfect for inclusion in the appendix.