On complete writing a thesis for your doctoral degree you become a professional academic. The research work you do for your doctoral degree will provide you an in-depth knowledge on that particular topic and can determine the future research you are going to do. Reading the general guidelines provided before start writing your research paper can help you make it better. Go through this article to know about every process involved in writing a thesis and collect some tips for it.
How to Write a Thesis
The content in your thesis may vary depending upon your discipline and specialization by the process you need to follow remains the same:
- Conduct Research
No matter you are in which specialization, it is important for you to conduct a complete research before start writing your paper. Doing research before start writing paper, will make your writing work easier. By conducting in-depth research you can collect more ideas and form clear arguments by reviewing the existing literatures. When you get a clear idea on your topic, now you can move on to writing your paper.
- Plan your Thesis Structure
At first start structuring the arguments and evidence collected to support your findings and proposal. Decide on the flow of the evidence and divide them into self-contained discussions in order to support the argument. You have to add data collected from the existing literature in separate section, with adding your ideas from current trend to it and to address the counterarguments. Get some examples from the already published paper in your field to know, the structure followed by them and what others expect from you.
- Decide on the Format
Before start writing you have to decide on some of the formats for referencing, font and line spacing. This can help you move on the right track and witness progress in your work. You have to add a title page to your thesis which includes details such as title of your thesis, your name and supervisor’s name, name of your institution and your department. Additional details like date of submission or final title of your paper can also be added to the title page. But it will be a better option to start writing your paper after choosing your final topic.
- Set your Thesis Statement
The thesis statement holds the main objective of your research. This can be placed in the introduction section at last part or can have a separate section based on your thesis length. Depending on your thesis paper details based on the evidence need to support your argument, your thesis statement can either be explanatory, analytical or argumentative. You have to frame a sentence which should be summarized enough to support your opinion based on the evidence collected.
- Write the Main Body and Argument
To write a more meaningful content in the body of thesis paper and to make it simple, you have to divide them into segments and decide on the timeline to complete it. This can help you manage your work in an easy way. In every segment of the thesis statement talk about different areas focusing the main topic to support your argument, this makes it clear for the readers to clearly understand about your research.
- Discuss your Method and the History of Scholarship
The thesis should have a detailed explanation which holds the key concept of the research based on the evidence collected and comparing it with previous knowledge of it. Mention about the existing theories on that topic in a separate section or in addition to other sections. Find the opinions of scholars with which you agree and disagree along with their name. Explain about the methodology which you choose to derive your conclusion and progress from initial scholarship.
- Add Figures, Contents, Lists and Indexes
When you are adding any images, figures or any material which supports your theory add them with their respective reference. Thesis will include a content page where you will be adding the list of sections along with their headings and sub-headings. Check you thesis again whether you have included all the sections to it, and don’t add that section which you may delete later in the final paper. Add a list of images, figures, plates and tables to the content list. You can also include index of key terms, topics or names as references to help out the readers.
- Write your Introduction and Conclusion
Both your introduction and conclusion does the same role in doing introduction to your statements and finally concluding the statements. You can do these sections at last in your thesis, because the content in your body section will be changing when you go deep through the topic. The introduction part should introduce your main objective of the thesis, discuss about past theories, significance of your research to attract the attention of readers. The conclusion section should produce the summary of your idea, discuss about the findings of your research and also recommend some suggestions for future research.
- Write the References and Bibliography
You have to give credit to every source you used in the reference section. Follow any of the style for reference which is suggested foe your field like APA, Chicago, MLA or Harvard. You can add the sources which you did not refer directly for content in the bibliography section. Verify at last whether you have included all the references which you used as source to collect information.
- Add the Final Sections
If you want to extend the length of your paper you can add some extra sections like acknowledgements, appendices and abstract. The acknowledgement section is written in order to thank your supervisors, contributors, colleagues and friends who all were with you during your research process. The abstract section will not be more than 500 words, which comprises your research summary. In the appendix section you can add the sources which did not directly helped you to add details to your research but provided indirect help. This section could also have some word limits, check with the requirements of your field to know about them.
- Proofread and Submit your Thesis
After complete writing your paper you have to revise it and check for errors. You can have many drafts and make changes to it before submitting your final draft. Make sure to check grammar and spelling mistakes also, for that you can seek help from your peers or advisors. Ensure correct formatting for your paper and submit it based on the guidelines provided.
Hints for Writing a Convincing Thesis
Clearly programmatic: You have to create a clear structure for your thesis in order to make the readers to properly understand about the thesis. To follow up that you have to format logical arguments, provide reference for previous scholarship and make every section up to the point by clearly defining the key concepts.
Confident stance: You should provide proper evidence in order to support your argument in the thesis. For doing that you have to collect and analyze more data related to the ongoing debates.
Focused argument: You have to provide evidence for your argument which should be only based on the objective of your research, avoid using unnecessary details and information.
Summative conclusion: The conclusion you provide should clearly provide a solution for your research problem by considering the evidence and data you collected to provide support for your opinion.
Thought-provoking: The reader after finish reading your thesis should be fully satisfied with it and should prove them to think of it and read more about it.