Introduction
Many students that are pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees struggle with writing a thesis or dissertation. A thesis is an academic document related to a research topic that will help to achieve a degree. A key significance of a thesis is that it helps students to work on different ideas. However, a well-structured thesis plays an important role to attract the reader’s attention. For instance, at the beginning of formatting, you show acknowledgment for the thesis to appreciate the contribution of people in the research. This is an integral part of your thesis because you’ve to recognize the efforts of people.
Throughout the journey of research, students can improve their learning experiences. At the end of the research, students have to present a properly structured thesis in front of the supervisor. After completing a thesis, you can also take a research paper help to address your research findings in the form of a paper. Therefore, it is important to present a good thesis document in front of the research community.
This article is here to help those students that are struggling with a question i.e. how to structure your thesis? So without further delay, let’s see how to structure a thesis properly.
Structuring your thesis
Writing and structuring a thesis is an overwhelming task that can affect students’ performance. It is challenging because arranging elements of the thesis in a well-structured way along with ensuring quality. Students need proper guidance to overcome challenges and improve their thesis quality (Johnson, 2020). All universities and colleges have their specific set of guidelines to structure a thesis. However, there is a common structure followed for every thesis. There are seven major components of structuring a thesis. Each component has its significance and pattern to follow. In this guide, you will be able to understand and analyse each structural component of the thesis.
· Abstract
The first component of the thesis is the abstract which is a concise summary of your entire thesis. A quality of an abstract is that it should be concise and addresses the significance of the research (Thomas, 2021). When you’re writing an abstract ensure that you cover all the essential aspects of the research. For example, you should address the key significance, methodology, and findings of the proposed research.
Keep in mind that the abstract is the first component to impress readers. It allows readers to understand the main theme of research by just having a glance at your abstract.
· Introduction
The introduction section provides a reflection on the core arguments and significance of the proposed research. It usually presents background information about the research topic. First, you’ve to explore the answer to the question i.e. why the proposed topic should study. Then you’ve to address the significance of the topic. By answering these questions in a well-structured way, you can provide ground background information. You can also highlight the importance of the proposed research question in this part.
Make sure that you provide enough background information about the topic. After completing your thesis, make sure to review that introduction is connected with your whole research.
· Literature Review
This chapter of the thesis or dissertation focuses on addressing previous relevant studies. It means that you will evaluate and examine the past literature related to your thesis topic. Here, you will explore literature through academic sources to provide an overview of the current knowledge. This will help you to provide insight into relevant theories, results, methods, and gaps. Make sure that you have critically analysed the literature findings to get a clear picture. Present everything in a systematic way and analyse the literature by conducting critical analysis.
· Methodology
This chapter of the thesis highlights the key methods used by the researcher. You have to explore methods used for collecting and analysing data. Also, justifying the selected method is an integral aspect to support your methodology. It shows how your selected method is beneficial for answering a research question. Remember that your methodology is strong enough to achieve all the research objectives of the proposed study. Therefore, make sure that you provide a clear picture of chosen methods to your readers.
· Results
This section of the thesis mainly outlines the findings of the proposed study. Here, you will address the results for answering the research question. As a student, you have to present the facts of your research by using graphs and tables. Generally, a good result chapter should have a clear visual picture of the results. It means that you’ve to present your findings in a way that is easily understandable by readers. This means that you have to stick with the format that helps the reader to compare and evaluate the findings.
· Discussion
The discussion section is a chapter where you interpret and explain the findings. Here you will address the importance, relevance, and meaning of the obtained results. It should explain the findings in light of research objectives and support your arguments. Make sure that writing a flawless thesis requires that you present information accurately. Therefore, you have to interpret the results and also support them with past literature. Most students lack proper structuring of the discussion by neglecting the central aim of the research.
Hence, make sure that your arguments are supported by relevant references throughout the discussion.
· Conclusion
This is the last and most important chapter of the thesis or dissertation. At this point, you have achieved the research objectives. You have to address the possible limitations of the proposed study in conclusion. It is important to provide a limitation to give better ground information about the study. Moreover, you can also present key suggestions and recommendations for future research. This will help in building a bridge between present research and future studies.
The Final Note
Understanding the structure of the thesis is important to write quality thesis work. By going through the above seven basic components of research, you can write a thesis effectively. This will not only help you in the writing process but also help you to understand each component properly. It is also important to check out your college and university thesis structure guidelines. However, by following this basic thesis structure you can improve your thesis quality.
Remember that a well-structured thesis is a source of impressing the readers about your research. Therefore, make sure that you follow a logical structure in your thesis to maintain the quality of your work.