HOW TO WRITE A THESIS - A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

HOW TO WRITE A THESIS - A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

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Are you at the stage in your high school where you are about to start your thesis? If yes, then below you can find a complete step by step guide on how you write a thesis from the introduction to its conclusion.

Writing in college takes students to persuade others by convincing them that you have an interesting point that makes logic as well. This form of persuasion often known as academic argument that is followed by a pattern in writing that is somehow predictable.

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1. What is a Thesis?

A thesis is a document that is submitted to complete an academic degree or a professional qualification to present the research and findings of an author.

In some particular context, the word thesis is used for a part of bachelor’s or master's course. The term thesis is used to refer to a claim of an essay or a work of similar kind.

A good thesis should propose an arguable point to which people could reasonably disagree. It should be proactive, strong enough to justify statements presented in the thesis paper.

Do not confuse the term thesis with dissertation. Dissertation is another form of assessment that differ from thesis in so many ways. Dissertation is a subject that you choose for yourself and is required for a doctoral program degrees.

Continue reading to clear the confusion regarding dissertation vs thesis. It will surely help you to find out the obvious differences between thesis and dissertation.

Coming back to thesis. Another important thing in thesis is the thesis statement.

Whether its a short essay or a full length doctoral dissertation. A good thesis statement is one of the trickiest sentences that you will have to formulate.

2. How to Structure a Thesis?

It is important to note that not all thesis are structured in the same way. It completely depends on the discipline, location, approach and topic on which you are going to write.

There are different types of thesis such as analytical thesis, Argumentative thesis, Expository thesis etc. and all of these follow a different structure depending upon the guidelines provided by the instructor.

So it is essential for you always go through the department’s guidelines and consult it with your instructor so that you don’t end up with a weak thesis.

2.1 Title Page

It is the first page of your paper and contains the following things:

• Thesis Title
• Your Name
• Institution
• Department
• Submission date
• Degree program

2.2 Abstract

It is a shortened summary of your thesis. Keep in mind the following things when writing an abstract for your paper.

• An abstract should be written in a way that it will explain the importance of your paper.
• It should end in 400 words approximately
• Generally, it does not contain citations
• Repeat the information of title
• Use numbers when needed
• Your abstract should contain the answer to a specific question or questions such as why does it matter? What did you learn? Etc.

2.3 Table of Contents

All parts of the thesis should be included in the section of table of contents.

It contains:

• Headings and subheadings with page number
• Indent subheadings

You can see in the diagram, it will look something like this

APA FORMAT PAPERView File

2.4 List of Tables and Figures

If you have a lot of tables and figures in your paper. Then you should item them all in a list of numbers.

• List page numbers for all the tables/figures.
• Add a short title for each table/figure.

2.5 Introduction

In this part of your paper, you set the topic its purpose, relevance and eventually tell the reader what to expect in the paper.

It is impossible for you to write a good introduction if you don't know the body of you paper says. It is a good approach to write the introduction after completing the rest of your paper.

The introduction must have the following things:

• Describe the research topic
• Define the scope
• Narrow down the paper's focus
• Discuss the existing research paper and show how your paper is relevant to solve the problem that is discussed in the paper
• State your question and research paper's objective
• Overview the structure of the thesis paper

A good thesis introduction is very important because this section will decide the fate of your thesis paper. You can also explore our step by step guide to write a good thesis introduction.

After the introduction, comes the thesis statement. It is an important part of a thesis paper.

For a strong thesis statement, it should be specific and usually found somewhere in the first paragraph of the thesis paper.

A great thesis statement is the one that should only cover what is being discussed in the paper with the help of specific evidence.

2.6 Methods

The method section explains how you have conducted the whole research. This will let the users to check the piper's validity.

This section contains the following things:

• Type of research (qualitative, experimental, ethnographic, quantitative)
• Overall approach
• When and where the research is conducted
• Methods used in the paper to analyze the data
• Tools used in the paper
• Obstacles that you may have faced while conducting the research
• Justification or evaluation of your research

The purpose of this section is to report your findings and to convince the readers that why your approach is the best one to answer the questions of your research.

2.7 Results

Now it's the part where you report the actual statements of your research. It includes tables, graphs, and statistics.

• Show information on a range of varieties.
• Include the negative results along with positive.
• Lay out the complete case, present the required details
• Draw the inferences and add their own explanations
• Show results in segments
• Show key result in at the start of paragraph in clear sentences.

2.8 Discussion

It is the point where you will have to explore the true meaning and the implication of your findings related to the questions of your research paper.

You should interpret the results in detail and discuss whether it successfully meets the expectations or not.

Start with a few sentences and summarize the most important results. It should be a brief essay in itself.

The discussion should also refer scholarly work to emphasize how your findings fits the knowledge already existing.

2.9 Conclusion

It should answer the research questions in a precise manner. This should should be written in a way that will leave the user with a clear understanding of the main argument of the paper.

Go back to the problem and describe the conclusion with the help of your findings and summarize new interpretations and insights that you gathered from the present work.

2.10 Recommendations

• Include in your paper when it is appropriate
• Action to solve the particular problem
• Add further research
• Direct the reader for future investigations

2.11 Acknowledgements

Anyone who helped you in the process.

• Technically (include supplies, materials )
• Financially (travel grant, departmental support etc.)
• Intellectually (advice, assistance)

2.12 Reference

Add the details of all the sources that you have mentioned in your paper. It is sometimes known as a bibliography or works cited list.

• Cite all the concepts, ideas, data that does not belong to you
• Cite single author by its surname followed by the publication date

For example:

...according to Byrne (2000)

• Cite the references for double authors by their surname with the publication date

For example:

Alex and Byrne (2000)

• Avoid using footnotes
• List down all the references in alphabetical order

2.13 Appendices

Documents used in your paper that generally do not fit the main body of your thesis paper can be included as Appendices.

3. Thesis Paper Length

Wondering how long should a thesis be?

Well, the goal should be in adding all the necessary information in the paper to describe the work and its supporting arguments.

Try to avoid unnecessary and irrelevant details. For repeated information, use tables.

Although, the length of thesis paper varies, but the average length is 40 pages long.

This total word count includes all of the text and the list of references in the paper but it does not include appendices.

You should not take these instructions seriously. If you are a student, it is important for you to ask your instructor about the project guidelines early on.

4. What To Look for In a Thesis?

We are in search of a critical analysis. We will gather evidence that will allow us to make judgments and interpret the findings. All your findings should clearly display the topic's main context. You must cite the relevant literature.

A solid thesis paper should be a well-reasoned argument from questions to relevant findings to its implications. It should be clearly written and must follow the order mentioned below.

4.1 Order of Writing

Order might differ in different type of thesis but this is the basic ordering that you can follow.

1. Firstly, you need to organize your paper in a logical manner before you begin writing
2. Write down your figures to support your argument
3. Define the paper sections

• Introduction
• Observations
• Analysis conclusion

1. Outline its main elements

• Sections
• Subsections

1. Start writing in paragraphs, sentences and words.

4.2 Editing and Proofreading

• Make sure that all the sections in your paper are at the correct place.
• It should be well written.
• Leave time for editing and proofreading it.
• Refine your thesis and make sure there is spelling and grammatical mistakes.

It is important for you to make time to write and revise drafts before focusing on typos, grammar and language mistakes.

4.3 Thesis Sample

Below you can find a sample of thesis that you can check to clearly understand each and every thing about thesis writing. However, we don't recommend you to copy the work.

SAMPLE PAPERView File

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Though you can find all the important steps to write a thesis. But keep in mind writing a thesis required a lot of hard work as it is quite different from other academic writings.