Writing the Thesis or Dissertation
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283
Elements of the structure of the thesis explained –
and variants discussed
Title
Put your title on a separate title-page, try to keep this to one or two lines, and
develop a title that is clear, suggesting the questions you are posing and
assertions you are making rather than just the field of study.
Abstract
An abstract is usually about 500 words and answers the questions: (i) What
is this thesis about?; (ii) What does it argue/prove/contend?; (iii) How did the
research design enable it to ask these questions and gain answers?; (iv)
What does this work/what has been found contribute to knowledge and
meaning?; (v) Why does it matter?, and so on. It should use the third person
and passive verbs, for example, ‘it is argued that ... in discussing ... using ...
evidence is presented which suggests that ...’.
Preface and acknowledgements
Introduction
This lays out the:
background to the thesis
brief introduction to other work in the area
general ideas and developments related to the thesis
your context – why you are the right person, in the right place, to
write this
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topicality and context of the research itself.
Usually the introduction tends to be written last – it provides a coherent
introduction to themes, arguments and findings: this is difficult to do until
the whole anatomy of the thesis has actually been constructed and flesh put
on the bones of each chapter.
Review of the literature/theoretical perspectives chapter
Not all theses have a separate literature review chapter, but all do have a
chapter where they use the literature they have read, the theorists, critics and
the experts to set up debates and dialogues. This chapter also indicates how
their own work contributes to the debates and enters into an academic
dialogue with previous and current work. If all your work develops logically
and smoothly from the reading you have done, and your research and findings follow on from a coherent body of established work in the field and
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established informing theories, you will develop a literature review or theoretical perspectives chapter at this point. The theoretical perspectives
chapter will: (i) establish the main underlying and informing theories and
arguments; and (ii) discuss the main debates, research and authors who
contribute to the field. In this chapter you need to contextualise your own
work and enter into a dialogue with the work of others.
This is not the last time you will be discussing the literature and the work
of theorists and experts. You will be moving stage by stage and, at different
stages, need to introduce and develop theories and reading, so you should
find all your chapters use and interleave the literature, theory and arguments. Do remember that the literature review or survey/theoretical
perspectives chapter is not just a collection of all you have read. You need to
weave the reading and main points and arguments made into your own
discussion, using it to back up or counteract some of your arguments. If you
have found a few main themes developing logically and coherently through
your reading, these can help form the basis of your main chapters.
Methodology and methods including design of the study
For the social sciences, education and related research, this is as crucial as it
is for scientific research. You need to explore the methodology that underpins and informs your research. Have you chosen to set out to prove something, measure it, experiment and discover factual answers, in a piece that is
positivistic, deductive (theory testing), using quantitative methods? Or have
you set out to explore interactions, constructions, versions, interpretations,
feelings and things that are not measurable but, rather, interpreted? This
would be a postpositivistic research study that was inductive (theory
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making), using qualitative research methods. It is possible your research is a
combination of both, that you set out to explore if, how and why (inductive)
and then, having made your discoveries, you built, tested and measured
(deductive), or the other way round. Explain your methodology and defend it,
explain your methods and defend them, and clarify the design of your study.
Here, you also use some of the literature and theories you have been
reading, this time of those who are experts in methodology, so that you
defend your choices of methods – questionnaires, for instance – and explain
whose theories and practice underlie their usage here.
Explain why and how you designed your studies – mentioning the pilot
stage if there is one, decisions taken about interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, samples and so on.
If your research is more humanities- or literature-based, you might well
find that you have already described what your research questions are along
with your main ideas and arguments in the preceding chapters. In this case,
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Writing the Thesis or Dissertation
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there is no specific study in logical stages, each depending on the data from
previous stages, as such; instead, each chapter takes a different theme, critical approach or point of view, or different author or book, and so on. There
might well be a methodology and methods you can describe and defend;
however, since you could be using documentary analysis, autobiography,
storytelling, the self as a case study, archival research and interviews with
text analysis, all of these need discussing and defending.
Presentation of results, discussion and analysis
For the scientific thesis, there is a chapter that can be just a clear, annotated
record of what has been discovered. However, you are unlikely to have a
chapter that just presents results if your work is in social sciences, education,
health, literature or cultural studies, the humanities, or the arts. In this case,
your ‘results’ or discoveries and arguments will form part of the discussions
in separate chapters.
Presentation/discussion of results
While in science theses there is a chapter or more to discuss the results, in
the social sciences, arts, humanities and business theses, the presentation of
results or data and their discussion are always interwoven: no evidence
(data) without a claim and no claim without the data to accompany it. I
always suggest no extract of data, whether it is a table or a quotation, should
be any longer than a short paragraph, before you discuss it in terms of the
theories informing your understanding of it, the themes that are emerging
and the ways in which it relates to your question and your argument. For a
social sciences, health or education thesis, this is a logical place for working
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through different results, putting tables, statistics and bar charts – either in
the main text or, if you do want to include large tables and charts, and so on
– referring to them in the appendices, and conducting a narrative that
explores and brings in different results to develop arguments and present
your coherent points and findings.
For a humanities- or literature-based thesis, and also often for one in the
social sciences, health or education, there are often several chapters exploring
different themes and issues in a linked discussion. The results, as such, will be
your critically informed comments and arguments on the texts, images, your
readings and so on. You are analysing the data and interpreting the findings
in the light of your question. You might find that the main themes identified in
the literature review appear here as main topics in each of your chapters.
In a humanities- or literature-based thesis, there might well be a more
organic structure of chapters focusing on different themes, developing issues
and authors.
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Conclusion
All theses have a conclusion; however, many students – exhausted – run out
of steam by the time they get to the conclusions and just sum up what they
said already and the facts they have discovered. This is not satisfactory for a
conclusion! The conclusions establish the importance of your work; state its
contribution clearly; and summarise the main points you have made – where,
when and how. It rounds off your arguments, even if there are still points
open for further work and questioning.
You will have factual conclusions: what facts or evidence have you
discovered? How have you added your knowledge about the issue you
researched? Conceptual conclusions: how does what you have found and
argued help to develop meaning and understanding – perhaps of the data,
the complexities, the paradoxes, as much as the particular version of understanding of the field that your work has revealed and established with its
evidence? Usually, these do not contain recommendations; they sit better in
a report. However, at this point – in theses that seek to suggest change or
development, or to contribute new ideas and strategies and so cause development and change – there could well be a section for suggestions for
further work and perhaps for others to take ideas into practice. If your work
does indeed seek change, then it is essential that you think throughout the
research how you are going to make constructive and realistic suggestions
here based on your findings. But most theses DO NOT make recommendations.
Appendices, statistical tables and illustrations
These might appear in the main text, with the argumentation that refers to
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them. Ensure each item is clearly labelled and referenced as to where it is
used in the thesis. If they are not explained in the body of the thesis, explain
them fully here.
Most theses tend to use a bibliography that sums up, in alphabetical
order, the texts used in the thesis itself. However, some theses cut this into
both references and a bibliography.
References
If you are using footnotes, they usually appear at the foot of each page, and
endnotes appear at the end of each chapter. Some writers leave all the
endnotes to the end of the thesis, collected chapter by chapter at that point
and integrated with the references. References in the text appear in the
bibliography. For example, ‘Estelle M. Phillips and D.S. Pugh (1994) How to
Get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors, 2nd edn
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Writing the Thesis or Dissertation
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(Buckingham: Open University Press)’ placed at the end, in the references,
can be signalled in your actual text as ‘(Phillips and Pugh 1994)’. Consider
the referencing format for your discipline and your university, as there are
many variants. The most important rule is to stick to the same method
throughout.
Writing chapters
Each chapter is like an essay in that it has a focus, and a linked, developed
narrative and argument, which is a subset of that of the thesis as a whole. As
such, then, you will probably begin by planning it using diagrams, mindmapping, brainstorming and the development of key points, followed by
notes to illustrate and fill these out.
State the main argument of the chapter in an introductory paragraph or
two. If you have several main arguments, suggest here how they are linked,
for example:
Example
In this chapter the arguments for developing regional colleges are made
clearly. Regional colleges provide a valuable service for students who cannot
attend the main sites of universities owing to distance or other commitments,
and their usefulness should be valued politically as well as pedagogically.
You need to remember that you are writing to make a case that is backed up
by evidence, and underpinned by theorists and experts whose work is referenced – a mix of your own work and that of others. You also need to think
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clearly about which chapter it is you are writing, because each has a special
focus and concern (see above).
Developing notes
Under key headings for each element of the chapter – for example, ‘regional
colleges’ – explore the information you are going to provide and the examples, references and theories to which you will refer. For instance, in this
subject area you might include an introductory chapter that begins the thesis
and moves on to set up the research theories, methodology and methods,
and the design of the study to show:
their role geographically
their role as access providers for the region
their political role – enabling disadvantaged or distant students to
gain university/college qualifications
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the franchises and mechanisms for linking regional colleges to
universities, or enabling them to remain separate – the pros and
cons.
This is an introductory chapter; much of it is initially descriptive. You should
also outline the issues that you are going to research, questions to ask and
your own context and role, as well as why it is important to ask these questions now. Move through the argument and the narrative of your chapter,
ensuring that (i) there is coherence between the different elements and
examples discussed within the chapter; and (ii) that each of the chapter’s
streams of argument are related to the thesis arguments and themes as a
whole.
You will need to ensure that there are links between arguments and
examples or illustrative material, theories and abstract ideas and concepts,
generalised comments, and specific, worked-through examples. Do not be
afraid to introduce major arguments that contradict your own – you need to
argue with these in order to show you have taken other points on board and
understand their relevance. Do not just include other people’s work to show
you have read it, but use it in a discussion/argument. Using the work of
others in such a discussion also appears in the theoretical perspectives
chapter, where it establishes: (i) the theory and major work in the field; (ii)
major debates into which your work will fit in the methodology chapter
where you are also placing your methodology and methods choices in the
context of work done by others, which can be used to argue for the methodology and methods you have chosen; and in the thematic data analysis and
discussion chapters, where the experts are also there to remind the reader of
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what you are interpreting from your data and arguing about, and that what
you are turning into findings is underpinned by theory and debate in the
subject.
Using quotations
If you are quoting, try to break up long quotations with discussion. This is
true both for the quotations you use in a theoretical perspectives, methodology or discussion chapter, where you take from someone else’s work to
engage in a dialogue with your own, and from your own research, when you
are discussing and interpreting your data. Do not depend on the plan and
construction of the other author’s work for your argument – make those
elements of his or her arguments you use fit in with your plan of argument.
Use his or her arguments as illustrations, or points to argue with or against –
setting up and pulling down points, and so on. Do not simply fall into redescribing and paraphrasing: make it your own and, of course, reference it
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Writing the Thesis or Dissertation
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fully and carefully. Disputing and arguing with authorities is all part of developing your own contributions and ideas, as is agreeing with them. Do be
careful to reference fully and so avoid any accusations of plagiarism. For
students from outside Britain, the USA and Australia, where English is not
the first language, different conventions often operate in relation to the use
of authorities. However, if this is a thesis in English for an English/US/
Australian university, you will need to follow conventions of arguing with
and carefully referencing any authorities, quotations, and so on that you use.
Check conventions with the university authorities and guidebooks for good
practice in writing.
When you reach the end of each chapter, just as in the whole thesis,
summarise what you have argued and ‘proved’. At this point you are
summing up the chapter, indicating where it fits in your overall argument
and in the thesis, reminding us as readers of the facts you have mentioned,
and also writing at a conceptual level, indicating to readers what this has
contributed to enhance our understanding of the meaning, the importance
and the contribution of the work to this field of study, these arguments, these
beliefs and so on. For example:
Example
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This chapter has suggested that the development of regional colleges should
be supported because of the specific access provision they present. The
chapter has argued for several models of linking with universities, emphasising the importance of some autonomy in this relationship. A number of
examples have been considered and their position and value explored. Issues
of the assessment relationships are explored in Chapter 5 and issues of overseas ‘regional’ colleges in Chapter 6.
These final points link your chapter to the rest of the thesis and show that
there is a coherent argument throughout.
Language
Think of your audience’s needs. Check conventions. Many university departments do not like the use of ‘I’ or ‘we’; however, others recognise that the
research has been carried out by you (or you and others), and that you wish
to place your own views and arguments in your work, and so to signal them
with the first person. Feminist research and action research, for example,
quite often prefer the use of ‘I’ because it acknowledges engagement of the
researcher with the research. If, for instance, you are using yourself as a case
study in a social science, business or health context, you should also use ‘I’,
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but only for those parts. Be careful, above all, to be readable. Adopting
distanced and stilted language can be off-putting for readers.
If you are using technical language, of whatever sort, explain acronyms
on their first use and explain complex technical terms (unless they are clearly
in everyday use among specialists such as yourself and the readership you
expect). When in doubt, explain terms on first use and, if there are numerous
unusual terms, include them in a glossary in an appendix.
Avoid ‘fog’, which is very (unnecessarily) dense language. This is
common, especially in scientific writing, and even in the social sciences and
literary criticism. Those who write theses are sometimes as guilty as anyone
else in ‘fogging up’ their expression with too many unnecessarily long and
complex words when a straightforward word would do just as well. Do not
sacrifice technical terms, but do ensure that there are limited numbers of
words of several syllables explaining the most straightforward elements of
your argument, especially when they are all gathered in a sentence that
includes technical terms. If too many long, complex, unusually specialist
words and technical terms come together, the reader will experience ‘fog’.
They will not be able to get through the density of your prose to your argument. It is not impressive; it is confusing.
Try out early parts of early chapters on colleagues who are semi-expert in
your field – if they are entirely happy, then it is probably readable prose.
Things to do
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Expression
Look back over the research questions you have formulated and the
brief outline of what you feel your thesis will be about, or at your
developed proposal, especially the theoretical perspectives element.
How clear is this?
How logical?
Is the language unnecessarily filled with long words in addition to
technical terms?
See if you or a colleague can summarise your arguments easily.
Consider what it tells you about readable prose that is, nonetheless,
working at a high level and making a complex argument.
Submitting the thesis – forewarning for good practice (see final
chapters for further discussion)
Drafting, redrafting, changing, editing and so on take a long time – do allow
for this. Various things can go wrong with your data collection and analysis,
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Writing the Thesis or Dissertation
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and even with your hypothesis and the arguments you were exploring. You
will need to discuss why and how you changed your mind and some
elements of your focus, and you will also need to reschedule if this happens.
Try out drafts of your work on your peers, a family member, on a critical
friend. You need supportive development and advice rather than destructive
criticism or empty praise! Of course, you are also sending drafts to your
supervisor and working with his or her comments.
Finally, once your thesis has been edited and re-edited, and reads coherently and well, and really makes a powerful case for your research, you can
proceed to submission.
Conclusion
To sum up, a few points to bear in mind as you are working:
Your supervisor should have read all of your work before
submission and can advise on layout, as well as more
complex arguments, and so on.
Ensure you have read the university guidelines about
layout, typeface, presentation, binding (or not, until after
the viva) and references, and that your work conforms to
all of these. Many theses have difficulties simply because
of their presentation – which is a waste if the hard work
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has been done and the presentation quality lets this down.
●
Further reading
Dunleavy, P. (2003) Authoring a PhD (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Murray, R. (2002) How to Write a Thesis (Buckingham: Open University Press).
Phillips, E.M. and Pugh, D.S. (1994) How to Get a PhD: A Handbook for
Students and Their Supervisors (2nd edn) (Buckingham: Open University
Press).
Wisker, G. (2005) The Good Supervisor (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
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