How to Write Thesis

 

Introduction

In the academic world, one in all the hallmark rites signifying mastery of a course or academic area is that the writing of a thesis. Basically, a thesis may be a typewritten work, usually 50 to 350 pages long depending on institutions, discipline, and academic level that is usually aimed toward addressing a specific problem in a given field.

While a thesis is insufficient to handle all the problems in a given field, it's summary enough to address a specialized aspect of the matter by taking a stance or making a claim on what the resolution of the problem ought to be. Writing a thesis will be a really a daunting task as a result of most times it's the first complex research undertaking for the scholar. However, commitment to excellence on the part of the scholar combined with some of the techniques and ways which will be discussed below offers a good chance that the scholar is ready to deliver an excellent thesis regardless of the subject area, the depth of the research specialization and therefore the daunting amount of materials that must be understood.

What is a thesis?

A thesis may be a statement, theory, argument, proposal or proposition, that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proven. It explains the stand someone takes on an issue and how the person intends to justify the stand. it's always higher to select a subject which will be ready to render skilled facilitate, a topic that you just will be happy to talk regarding with anybody, a subject you have got personal interest and passion for, as a result of once writing a thesis, gets frustrating personal interest, happiness, and passion coupled with the skilled help it'll be easier to write an excellent thesis. One should supply for plenty of information regarding the subject one is writing a thesis on to know the important question, as a result of for you to take a good stand on an issue you have got to study the proof first.

Qualities of a good thesis

A good thesis has the following qualities

• A smart thesis should solve an existing problem within the society, organization, and government among others.

• A sensible thesis ought to be contestable, it ought to propose a point that's arguable which individuals will believe or disagree.

• It is specific, clear and focused.

• A good thesis doesn't use general terms and abstractions. 

• The claims of a good thesis ought to be determinable and debatable.

• It anticipates the counter-arguments

• It doesn't use unclear language

• It avoids the first person.

• A strong thesis ought to be ready to take a stand and not simply taking a stand however ought to be ready to justify the stand that's taken, so that the reader will be tempted to raise questions like however or why.

• The thesis ought to be debatable, questionable, focused, specific, and clear. create your thesis clear, strong, and easy to find.

• The conclusion of a thesis ought to be based on evidence.

Steps in writing a Thesis

First, think about good topics and theories that you just will write before writing the thesis, and then decide on a subject. The topic or thesis statement comes from a review of existing literature within the area of study that the researcher desires to explore. This route is taken once the unknowns in an area of study aren't nevertheless defined. Some areas of study have existing issues craving to be solved and the drafting of the thesis topic or statement revolves around a selection of one of those problems.

Once you have got a good thesis, place it down, and draw an overview. The outline is like a map of the full thesis, and it covers additional commonly the introduction, literature review, discussion of methodology, discussion of results, and therefore the thesis’ conclusions and suggestions. The outline may differ from one institution to a different however the one described within the preceding sentence is what's more commonly getable. It's imperative now to note that the outline drew still needs different mini- outlines for each of the sections mentioned. The outlines and mini- outlines offer a graphical overview of the full project and might even be used in allocating the word- count for each section and sub-section based on the general word- count demand of the thesis.

Literature search. Remember to draw a good outline you would like to do a literature search to familiarize yourself with the ideas and therefore the works of others. Similarly, to realize this, you would like to browse as much material that contains necessary information as you'll. there'll always be a counter argument for everything therefore anticipate it as a result of it'll help form your thesis. Browse everything you can–academic analysis, trade literature, and data within the popular press and on the net.

After obtaining all the information you would like, the information you gathered ought to facilitate in suggesting the aim of your thesis.

Remember; a thesis isn't supposed to be a question or a listing, thesis ought to specific and as clear as possible. The claims of a thesis ought to be definable and also debatable.

Then collecting and analyzing information, once data analysis, the results of the analysis ought to be written and mentioned, followed by a summary, conclusion, recommendations, list of references, and therefore the appendices.

The last step is editing the thesis and correct spell checking.

Structure of a Thesis

A conventional thesis has 5 chapters – chapters 1-5 which can be mentioned in detail below. However, it's necessary to state that a thesis isn't limited to any chapter or section because the case may be. In fact, a thesis will be 5, six, seven, or maybe eight chapters.  What determines the number of chapters in an exceeding thesis includes institution rules/guidelines, researcher choice, supervisor selection, program, or educational level. In fact, most Ph.D. thesis is typically more than five chapters.

Preliminaries Pages: The preliminaries are the quilt page, the title page, the table of contents page, and therefore the abstract.

The introduction: The introduction is that the first section and it provides because the name implies an introduction to the thesis. The introduction contains such aspects because the background of the study provides information on the subject within the context of what's happening within the world as related to the subject. It also discusses the relevance of the subject to society, policies formulated success, and failure. The introduction also contains the statement of the problem that is basically a summary description of the matter that the thesis needs to solve and what the trend is going to be if the matter isn't resolved. The last part of the statement of the problem ends with an outline of the research questions. These are the questions that once answered helps in achieving the aim of the thesis. The third section is the definition of research objectives. Conventionally research objectives reconversion of the research questions into an active statement type. Other elements of the introduction are a discussion of hypotheses (if any), the importance of the study, delimitations, proposed methodology, and a discussion of the structure of the study.

The main body includes the following; the literature review, methodology, research results, and discussion of the result, the summary, conclusion and suggestions, the list of references, and the appendices.

The literature review: The literature review is usually the most voluminous aspects of a thesis as a result of its reviews past empirical and theoretical literature regarding the matter being studied. This section starts by discussing the ideas relevant to the matter as indicated within the topic, the relationship between the ideas and what discoveries have being created on the topic based on the selection of methodologies. The validity of the studies reviewed are questioned and findings are compared to get a comprehensive picture of the problem. The literature review also discusses the theories and theoretical frameworks that are relevant to the matter, the gaps that is evident in literature and the way the thesis is written helps in resolution some of the gaps.

The major importance of a Literature review is that it specifies the gap within the existing information (gap in the literature). The supply of the literature that's being reviewed ought to be such. For instance; ‘It has been argued that if the rural youth is to remember of their community development role they have to be educated’ Effiong, (1992). The author’s name will be at the beginning, end, or in between the literature. The literature ought to be discussed and not simply expressed.

The methodology: The third section may be a discussion of the research methodology adopted within the thesis and touches on aspects like the research style, the area, population, and sample that may be considered for the study similarly because of the sampling procedure. These aspects are discussed in terms of selection, technique, and explanation. This section also covers the sub-section of data collection, data analysis, and measures of ensuring the validity of study. It's chapter three. This chapter explains the strategy utilized in data collection and data analysis. It explains the methodology adopted and why it's the simplest method to be used, it also explains each step of data collection and analysis.  The information used can be primary information or secondary data. Whereas analyzing the info, the correct statistical tool ought to be utilized in order to fit the expressed objectives of the thesis. The statistical tool might be; the Spearman rank-order correlation, chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA) etc.

The findings and discussion of the result: the next section may be a discussion of findings based on the information collection instrumentation used and therefore the objectives or hypotheses of the study if any. it's chapter four. Its research results. This can be the half that describes the research. It shows the result gotten from information that's collected and analyzed. It discusses the result and the way it relates to your profession.

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation: this can be commonly the chapter five. The last section discusses the outline of the study and therefore the conclusions came across based on the findings mentioned within the previous section. This section also presents any policy recommendations that the researcher needs to propose.

References: It cites all concepts, concepts, text, information that aren't your own. It's acceptable to put the initials of the individual authors behind their last names. The approach single author is documented is completely different from the far more than one author is documented.

The appendices; it includes all information within the appendix. Reference information or materials that's not simply accessible. It includes tables and calculations, a list of equipment used for an experiment or details of difficult procedures. If an oversized variety of references are consulted however all aren't cited, it should even be enclosed within the appendix. The appendices also contain supportive or complementary info just like the form, the interview schedule, tables and charts whereas the references section contain an ordered list of all literature, academic and contemporary cited within the thesis. Completely different faculties have their own most popular referencing styles.

Follow the following steps to attain successful thesis writing

Start writing early. Don't delay writing till you've got finished your project or research. Write complete and concise “Technical Reports” as and once you end every nugget of work. This way, you may remember everything you probably did and document it accurately, once the work remains fresh in your mind. This can be particularly therefore if your work involves programming.

Spot errors early. A well-written “Technical Report” can force you to trust what you've got done, before you move on to one thing else. If something is amiss, you may find it quickly and may simply correct it, instead of having to re-visit the work later, once you could also be pressured for time and have lost touch with it.

Write your thesis from the within out. Begin with the chapters on your own experimental work. You may develop confidence in writing them as a result of you recognize your own work better than anyone else. Once you've got overcome the initial inertia, move on to the other chapters.

End with a bang, not a whimper. 1st things 1st, and save the simplest for last. 1st and last impressions persist. Organize your chapters so your 1st and last experimental chapters are sound and solid.

Write the Introduction once writing the Conclusions. The examiner can read the Introduction 1st, and so the Conclusions, to see if the promises created within the former are so consummated within the latter. Make sure that your introduction and Conclusions match.

“No man is an Island”. The critical review of the literature places your work in context. Usually, one-third of the Ph.D. thesis is concerning others’ work; 2 thirds, what you've got done yourself. Once a thorough and critical literature review, the Ph.D. candidate should be ready to determine the main researchers within the field and create a sound proposal for doctorial research. Estimate the time to jot down your thesis and so multiply it by 3 to urge the proper estimate. Writing at one stretch is extremely demanding and it's only too straightforward to underestimate the time needed for it; inflating your 1st estimate by a factor of 3 is more realistic.

Punctuating your thesis

Punctuation good punctuation makes reading straightforward. The only thanks to conclude wherever to punctuate is to read aloud what you've got written. Each time you pause, you must add a punctuation image. There are four major pause symbols, organized below in ascending order of “degree of pause”:

1. Comma. Use the comma to point a brief pause or to separate things in an exceedingly list. A pair of commas could delimit the start and finish of a subordinate clause or phrase. Sometimes, this can be additionally finished a pair of “em dashes” that are written like this:

2. Semi-colon. The semi-colon signifies an extended pause than the comma. It separates segments of a sentence that are “further apart” in position, or meaning, however, that are however related. If the concepts were “closer together”, a comma would are used. It's also wont to separate 2 clauses that will stand on their own however they are too closely connected for a colon or full stop to intervene between them.

• Colon. The colon is employed before one or a lot of examples of thought, and whenever things are to be listed in a visually separate fashion. The sentence that introduced the itemized list you're currently reading led to a colon. it should even be wont to separate 2 fairly—but not totally—independent clauses in a sentence.

1. Full stop or period. The complete stop ends a sentence. If the sentence embodies a matter or an exclamation, then, of course, it's over with a matter mark or punctuation, respectively. The complete stop is additionally wont to terminate abbreviations like etc., (for et cetera), e.g., (for exempli gratia), et al., (for et alia) etc., however not with abbreviations for SI units. The readability of your writing can improve greatly if you take the difficulty to learn the fundamental rules of punctuation given above.