future work master thesis

Surviving Grad School

(and hopefully thriving), how to write: future work/conclusions.

This post is the final part of a series on how to write a paper. The first was on abstracts , the second on introductions , the third on related work and fourth on methodology and analysis of results .

I’m combining future work and conclusions into a single post since they are often found combined in a single section in a paper. While a conclusion is always necessary, sometimes people don’t include future work. While I don’t think it’s always necessary to have a future work section, I would argue that it’s always worthwhile to include some mention of future work.

Let’s start with Future Work .

The future work section is a place for you to explain to your readers where you think the results can lead you. What do you think are the next steps to take? What other questions do your results raise? Do you think certain paths seem to be more promising than others?

Another way to look at the future work section, is a way to sort of “claim” an area of research. This is not to say that others can’t research the same things, but if your paper gets published, it’s out there that you had the idea. This lets people know what you’re thinking of doing next and they may ask to collaborate if your future research area crosses over theirs.

If you do include a future work section, it should be pretty short. The goal should not be to go into a bunch of details, but instead just a sentence or two explaining each idea. It should just provide enough information as to a possible research path and why the path may be important. Motivation is always key in research. I stressed earlier that you need to motivate your research. This also applies to future work. If you can’t motivate a good reason to continue research down some path, then why should/would you?

Conclusions

Conclusions are the last section people read in your paper, and therefore it’s what they leave remembering. You need to make sure they walk away thinking about your paper just the way you want them to.

Your conclusions needs to do three main things:

Recap what you did. In about one paragraph recap what your research question was and how you tackled it.
Highlight the big accomplishments. Spend another paragraph explaining the highlights of your results. These are the main results you want the reader to remember after they put down the paper, so ignore any small details.
Conclude. Finally, finish off with a sentence or two that wraps up your paper. I find this can often be the hardest part to write. You want the paper to feel finished after they read these. One way to do this, is to try and tie your research to the “real world.” Can you somehow relate how your research is important outside of academia? Or, if your results leave you with a big question, finish with that. Put it out there for the reader to think about to.
Optional Before you conclude, if you don’t have a future work section, put in a paragraph detailing the questions you think arise from the work and where you think researchers need to be looking next.

Things to not do in your conclusion:

Introduce new information. The conclusion is for wrapping up everything you’ve done. It’s not a place to say “oh yeah, and we also got result y.” All results should be first presented and detailed in the result section. Think of the conclusion as a place to reflect on what you’ve already said earlier in the paper.
Directly re-quote anything you’ve already written. I’ve seen conclusions that are almost identical to the abstract or a collection of sentences from throughout the paper. As a reader, it makes me think the author was lazy and couldn’t be bothered to actually summarize their results for the paper. Take the time to write a proper conclusion so that the reader walks away with good thoughts about your work.
Write a conclusion longer than your introduction. A conclusion should be short, and to the point. You’ll rarely see them over 3 paragraphs, and three is often long. A lot of the time they are usually only one or two. Think about a conclusion as a chance to see how concisely you can summarize your entire research project. It’s your “30 second” research spiel .

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Research Voyage

Research Tips and Infromation

How to Write the Conclusion and Future Work section of Your Dissertation or Thesis?

The conclusion and future work section of a PhD or Post Graduate dissertation serves as the pivotal culmination of extensive research, critical analysis, and scholarly exploration. It is the chapter where the researcher brings their study to a satisfying closure, summarizing the main findings, discussing their implications, and paving the way for future investigations. In this discussion, we will delve into the intricacies of crafting an impactful conclusion and future work section, focusing on their purpose, significance, and key elements.

The conclusion and future work section holds paramount importance in a dissertation, as it encapsulates the essence of the entire research endeavor. It provides a concise and comprehensive summary of the study’s outcomes, reinforcing the significance of the research questions and objectives. By carefully crafting this section, researchers not only reinforce the value of their own work but also contribute to the broader body of knowledge in their respective fields.

Within the conclusion section, the researcher has the opportunity to restate the research questions and objectives, emphasizing their relevance and the study’s focus. This serves as a gentle reminder to the reader, bringing them back to the core aspects of the research. Additionally, summarizing the main findings allows for a concise overview of the research outcomes, enabling readers to grasp the key insights and discoveries at a glance. Moreover, discussing the implications of the findings showcases the researcher’s understanding of how their work contributes to the existing knowledge in the field, addresses gaps, and potentially influences future practices or theories.

Equally crucial is the future work section, which demonstrates the researcher’s awareness of the study’s limitations and presents directions for future research. By acknowledging the constraints and suggesting potential avenues for further investigation, the researcher invites future scholars to build upon the current work, advancing the field and propelling innovation. It is through this section that researchers showcase their thought leadership and forward-thinking mindset, leaving a lasting impact on the academic community.

In the following sections, we will explore the art of writing a conclusion for PhD or Post Graduate dissertation. We will delve into the importance of restating the research questions and objectives, summarizing the main findings, discussing the implications, reflecting on the significance of the research, and providing a concise summary. Additionally, we will examine the significance of the future work section, highlighting its purpose in demonstrating awareness of limitations and offering directions for future research.

By meticulously crafting the conclusion and future work section, researchers can not only conclude their dissertation effectively but also make a lasting impression on readers and inspire the next generation of scholars to push the boundaries of knowledge in their respective fields.

Let us now embark on a journey to uncover the secrets of writing an exceptional conclusion and future work section in a dissertation.

If you are in paucity of time, not confident of your writing skills and in a hurry to complete the writing task then you can think of hiring a research consultant that solves all your problems. Please visit my article on Hiring a Research consultant for your research tasks for further details.

Introduction

A. restating the research questions/objectives, b. summarizing the main findings, c. discussing the implications, d. reflecting on the significance of the research, e. providing a concise summary, writing the future work.

In a dissertation, the conclusion section serves as a crucial component that brings together the research findings and provides a comprehensive summary of the study. It allows researchers to reflect on the implications of their work and discuss potential future directions. – The future work section, on the other hand, highlights the researcher’s awareness of the study’s limitations and provides suggestions for further research to build upon the current work.

The conclusion section consolidates the main findings and insights from the research, emphasizing the significance of the study. It allows the researcher to demonstrate the impact of their work and its contributions to the field.

The future work section offers a forward-looking perspective by identifying areas that warrant further investigation, addressing research gaps, and proposing potential extensions or improvements to the existing research.

Example 1: In the field of computer vision , the conclusion section of a dissertation might summarize the key findings and insights obtained from developing a novel object detection algorithm. It could discuss the algorithm’s performance in terms of accuracy and efficiency, highlighting its potential applications in various domains such as autonomous vehicles, surveillance systems, and medical imaging. The conclusion might also reflect on the challenges faced during the research and suggest improvements or alternative approaches to enhance the algorithm’s performance in future work.

Example 2: In the domain of natural language processing , the conclusion section could summarize the results of a dissertation focused on sentiment analysis in social media data. It might discuss the effectiveness of the proposed sentiment analysis model in capturing the nuances of sentiments expressed in user-generated content. The conclusion could emphasize the practical implications of the research, such as aiding businesses in understanding customer feedback and improving their products or services. The future work section might suggest exploring multilingual sentiment analysis, investigating sentiment evolution over time, or incorporating contextual information for more accurate sentiment classification.

By providing these examples, researchers can understand how the conclusion and future work sections serve as essential components of a dissertation, allowing them to effectively communicate the significance of their research and guide future studies.

Writing the Conclusion

Restating the research questions or objectives in the conclusion section is crucial as it helps the reader remember the main purpose of the study. It serves as a reminder of the specific goals and objectives that guided the research process.

For instance:

“The primary research question of this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of accurately classifying sentiment in social media posts using machine learning techniques. In pursuit of this goal, we designed and implemented a novel sentiment analysis system and evaluated its effectiveness on a diverse dataset. By restating the research question and objectives, we emphasize the primary aim of the study and provide the reader with a clear reminder of the research’s specific focus.”

Restating the research questions or objectives in the conclusion helps create a cohesive conclusion by maintaining the connection between the findings and the original research intent. It allows the reader to see how the research directly addresses the initial questions or objectives.

Summarizing the main findings in the conclusion allows the reader to quickly grasp the essential outcomes of the research. It provides a condensed overview of the key results and insights gained from the study.

Example: Building upon the previous example of developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data, let’s consider the main findings of the study. The findings may include the accuracy achieved by the developed system, comparisons with existing approaches, and insights into the challenges and limitations of sentiment analysis in the social media domain.

In the conclusion section, summarizing the main findings would involve providing a concise overview of the key results and insights. For instance:

“Our findings demonstrate that the developed sentiment analysis system achieved an accuracy of 85% on the social media dataset, outperforming existing state-of-the-art approaches by a significant margin. This highlights the effectiveness of incorporating contextual information and deep learning techniques for sentiment classification. Furthermore, the study shed light on the challenges of sentiment analysis in social media due to the presence of slang, abbreviations, and contextual nuances. These insights emphasize the importance of developing robust models that can handle the intricacies of social media data.”

By summarizing the main findings, researchers allow readers to gain a quick understanding of the crucial outcomes and insights obtained from the study. It helps readers identify the key contributions and impact of the research in a concise manner. Summarizing the main findings also assists readers in connecting the dots between the research questions or objectives and the results obtained, providing a clear and coherent picture of the research outcomes.

Moreover, a well-crafted summary of the main findings serves as a reference point for readers, enabling them to recall the significant results without revisiting the entire dissertation. It allows researchers to convey the core contributions of their study efficiently and reinforces the value and relevance of the research in the field of computer science.

Continuing from the previous example of developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data, let’s consider the implications of the findings, the research’s contribution to the existing knowledge, and the limitations addressed in the conclusion section.

Discussing the implications of the findings in the conclusion helps provide a broader understanding of the research’s significance. It allows the researcher to explore the practical and theoretical implications of the results and their potential impact on the field.

Analyzing how the research contributes to the existing knowledge in the field helps situate the study within the broader research landscape. It allows the researcher to demonstrate how their work fills gaps, extends current understanding, or challenges existing theories or practices.

“The findings of this study have significant implications for various domains relying on sentiment analysis, such as brand monitoring, market research, and customer feedback analysis. The high accuracy achieved by our sentiment analysis system demonstrates its potential for real-world applications, enabling organizations to gain valuable insights from social media data. The system’s ability to handle contextual nuances and accurately classify sentiment can help businesses make informed decisions and enhance customer satisfaction.” Addressing the limitations or constraints of the study in the conclusion section shows the researcher’s awareness of the study’s boundaries. It also provides an opportunity to suggest areas for future research, building upon the current study’s findings.

“This study contributes to the existing knowledge in sentiment analysis by incorporating deep learning techniques and contextual information specific to social media data. Our research extends current understanding by demonstrating the effectiveness of leveraging these approaches for improved sentiment classification. Additionally, the insights gained from addressing the challenges of sentiment analysis in the social media domain contribute to the ongoing discourse on refining sentiment analysis models for diverse text sources.”

Reflecting on the significance and impact of the research in the broader context of the field allows the researcher to highlight the relevance and importance of their work. It helps the reader understand the broader implications and potential contributions of the research.

Example: Continuing from the previous example of developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data

Significance and Impact:

“Reflecting on the significance and impact of our research reveals its potential to revolutionize sentiment analysis methodologies. By developing an accurate sentiment analysis system tailored to social media data, our study addresses a critical need in today’s digitally connected world. The insights gained from this research have far-reaching implications for understanding public sentiment, market trends, and brand perception. Our work has the potential to empower businesses and organizations with actionable insights, leading to informed decision-making and improved customer satisfaction.”

Advancement of Knowledge and Filling Gaps in Existing Literature:

“Our study contributes to advancing the knowledge in sentiment analysis by addressing several gaps in the existing literature. By incorporating deep learning techniques and considering the contextual nuances specific to social media data, our research provides a fresh perspective on sentiment analysis approaches. We extend current understanding by showcasing the effectiveness of these techniques in improving sentiment classification accuracy. Additionally, our work sheds light on the challenges of sentiment analysis in the social media domain, highlighting areas where further research and refinement are required.”

Practical Implications in Real-World Scenarios:

“The practical implications of our research are significant, with potential applications in various domains. Our sentiment analysis system can be leveraged by businesses for brand monitoring, customer feedback analysis, and market research. It enables organizations to gain valuable insights into customer sentiment, enabling them to identify areas for improvement, monitor brand reputation, and make informed business decisions. Furthermore, our work opens avenues for the development of new tools and applications that can assist in sentiment analysis across diverse social media platforms.”

By reflecting on the significance and impact of the research, researchers convey the broader relevance and importance of their work. It allows readers to understand the potential contributions and implications of the research in a wider context.

Explaining how the study advances knowledge and fills gaps in existing literature demonstrates the originality and novelty of the research. It showcases how the research addresses unanswered questions, challenges prevailing methodologies, or provides new insights, thereby contributing to the growth of the field.

Considering the potential practical implications of the research in real-world scenarios helps highlight its relevance and application. It allows researchers to discuss how the findings can be implemented or used to solve real-world problems, thereby bridging the gap between academic research and practical applications.

Overall, by reflecting on the significance and impact, explaining the advancement of knowledge and filling gaps, and considering practical implications, researchers highlight the broader implications and potential contributions of their research. It allows readers to appreciate the relevance, novelty, and practicality of the study, paving the way for future advancements in the field of study.

A concise summary within the conclusion section plays a pivotal role in reinforcing the main points and takeaways from the research. By distilling the essential findings, implications, and future research directions, researchers ensure that readers grasp the core essence of their work.

Highlighting the key points discussed throughout the dissertation reaffirms the significance and contributions of the research. It allows readers to quickly grasp the overarching themes and outcomes, reinforcing the main arguments and supporting evidence presented in the study. By providing a condensed overview of the research, researchers ensure that the core messages resonate with readers, leaving a lasting impact.

A concise and impactful summary also aids in information retention. As readers progress through a lengthy dissertation, a well-crafted summary serves as a mental anchor, reinforcing the most salient aspects of the study. It enables readers to revisit and recall the main findings, implications, and future research possibilities long after they have completed reading the document.

To achieve a concise and impactful summary, researchers should focus on extracting the most relevant and significant elements from each section of the dissertation. They should avoid repetition and prioritize clarity and precision in their language. By distilling complex ideas into digestible snippets, researchers ensure that their summary effectively encapsulates the core essence of their research.

Example: Continuing from the previous example of developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data, let’s explore how a concise summary within the conclusion section helps reinforce the main points and takeaways from the research.

“In conclusion, our study on developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data has demonstrated significant advancements in the field. By incorporating deep learning techniques and considering contextual nuances, we achieved an accuracy of 85%, surpassing existing state-of-the-art approaches. The practical implications of our research are substantial, with potential applications in brand monitoring, market research, and customer feedback analysis.

Furthermore, our findings contribute to the existing knowledge in sentiment analysis by filling gaps in the literature. We highlight the challenges posed by social media data, such as slang and contextual nuances, and propose future research directions for handling these complexities. This study underscores the importance of refining sentiment analysis models to cater to the unique characteristics of social media platforms.

In summary, our research not only advances sentiment analysis methodologies but also offers valuable insights for businesses and organizations seeking to harness the power of social media data. We emphasize the need for further exploration in adapting sentiment analysis to different domains and languages, as well as refining models to handle sarcasm and irony. Overall, our work showcases the relevance and potential impact of sentiment analysis in today’s digital age.”

In conclusion, a concise summary within the conclusion section is an invaluable tool for reinforcing the main takeaways from the research. By highlighting the key points and delivering them in a concise and impactful manner, researchers leave readers with a clear understanding of the study’s significance and contributions. A well-crafted summary ensures that the main findings and implications resonate with readers long after they have completed reading the dissertation, solidifying the research’s impact in the field.

Including a future work section in a dissertation is significant as it demonstrates the researcher’s understanding of the study’s limitations and the potential for further research. It acknowledges that research is an iterative process and provides valuable insights for future researchers in the field.

The future work section showcases the researcher’s awareness of the limitations and constraints of their study. It acknowledges that there may be unanswered questions, unexplored avenues, or areas that require further investigation. By providing directions for future research, the researcher contributes to the continuous advancement of knowledge in their field.

Example1 : Continuing from the previous example of developing an automated sentiment analysis system for social media data, let’s explore how including a future work section in the conclusion acknowledges the study’s limitations and offers valuable insights for future research.

“The inclusion of a future work section in this dissertation is crucial in acknowledging the limitations of our study and providing a roadmap for future research endeavors. While our research has made significant advancements in sentiment analysis for social media data, several areas warrant further investigation.

Firstly, the scalability of our sentiment analysis system can be explored to handle large volumes of data in real-time. As social media platforms continue to grow, the need for efficient and scalable sentiment analysis techniques becomes paramount.

Additionally, investigating the generalizability of our model across different languages and cultural contexts is an exciting avenue for future research. Adapting sentiment analysis techniques to diverse languages, understanding regional variations in sentiment expressions, and accounting for cultural nuances can enhance the applicability of sentiment analysis in a global context.

Moreover, exploring the integration of multimodal data, such as text, images, and videos, presents an intriguing opportunity. Sentiment analysis systems that can effectively analyze and interpret multimodal content have the potential to offer deeper insights into user sentiments and experiences.

Furthermore, the ethical implications of sentiment analysis in terms of privacy, bias, and fairness need to be thoroughly investigated. Designing and implementing ethical guidelines and frameworks for sentiment analysis can ensure responsible and unbiased use of these technologies.

By including a future work section, we recognize that research is an ongoing process and acknowledge the possibilities for further exploration. This section serves as a valuable resource for future researchers in the field, providing a starting point and suggesting intriguing directions for their investigations.

In summary, the future work section of this dissertation highlights the limitations of our study and opens up exciting avenues for future research. The research community can build upon our work to address the identified challenges, expand the scope of sentiment analysis, and develop more robust and context-aware models. By continually advancing the field, we can enhance the accuracy, applicability, and ethical use of sentiment analysis techniques in the digital age.” Example 2: In the field of data mining, a dissertation might propose a new algorithm for anomaly detection in large-scale datasets. In the future work section, the researcher can acknowledge the limitations of the proposed algorithm, such as its performance on specific types of anomalies or scalability to even larger datasets. They can suggest investigating techniques to handle these challenges, exploring the application of the algorithm to different domains, or evaluating its performance under various real-world scenarios. This demonstrates the researcher’s awareness of the study’s limitations and provides clear directions for future research in improving and extending the anomaly detection algorithm. Example 3: In the domain of computer networks, a dissertation focused on improving network performance might present a novel congestion control mechanism. In the future work section, the researcher can acknowledge potential limitations in the mechanism, such as its adaptability to dynamic network conditions or its interoperability with different network protocols. They can suggest conducting further experiments to evaluate the mechanism’s performance in more complex network topologies, exploring its integration with emerging network technologies, or investigating the impact of various parameters on its effectiveness. This showcases the researcher’s awareness of the study’s limitations and provides concrete guidance for future researchers interested in advancing network performance optimization.

By including a future work section in a dissertation, researchers demonstrate their awareness of the study’s limitations and contribute to the ongoing progress in their field. Providing directions for future research guides the efforts of future researchers and fosters the continuous development of knowledge and innovation.

The conclusion and future work section of a PhD or Post Graduate dissertation holds immense significance as it brings the research journey to a satisfying close while setting the stage for future explorations. Throughout this discussion, we have explored the key elements and best practices for crafting an impactful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression on readers.

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How to Write a Master's Thesis: A Guide to Planning Your Thesis, Pursuing It, and Avoiding Pitfalls

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Part 1: Initial Considerations

Who needs to write a master’s thesis.

Thesis writing is one of the more daunting challenges of higher education. That being said, not all master's students have to write a thesis. For example, fields that place a stronger emphasis on applied knowledge, such as nursing, business, and education, tend to have projects and exams to test students on the skills and abilities associated with those fields. Conversely, in disciplines that require in-depth research or highly polished creative abilities, students are usually expected to prove their understanding and independence with a thesis.

What's Your Goal?

Do you want to write a thesis? The process is a long one, often spanning years. It's best to know exactly what you want before you begin. Many people are motivated by career goals. For example, hiring managers may see a master's degree as proof that the candidate is an expert within their field and can lead, motivate, and demonstrate initiative for themselves and others. Others dream of earning their doctorate, and they see a master's degree as a stepping stone toward their Ph.D .

No matter what your desired goal is, you should have one before you start your thesis. With your goal in mind, your work will have a purpose, which will allow you to measure your progress more easily.

Major Types of Theses

Once you've carefully researched or even enrolled in a master's program—a feat that involves its own planning and resources —you should know if you are expected to produce a quantitative (which occurs in many math and science programs), qualitative (which occurs in many humanities programs), or creative (which occurs in many creative writing, music, or fine arts programs) thesis.

Time and Energy Considerations

Advanced degrees are notoriously time and energy consuming. If you have a job, thesis writing will become your second job. If you have a family, they will need to know that your thesis will take a great deal of your attention, energy, and focus.

Your studies should not consume you, but they also should not take a back seat to everything else. You will be expected to attend classes, conduct research, source relevant literature, and schedule meetings with various people as you pursue your master's, so it's important to let those you care about know what's going on.

As a general note, most master's programs expect students to finish within a two-year period but are willing to grant extra time if requested, especially if that time is needed to deal with unexpected life events (more on those later).

Part 2: Form an Initial Thesis Question, and Find a Supervisor

When to begin forming your initial thesis question.

Some fields, such as history, may require you to have already formed your thesis question and to have used it to create a statement of intent (outlining the nature of your research) prior to applying to a master’s program. Others may require this information only after you've been accepted. Most of the time, you will be expected to come up with your topic yourself. However, in some disciplines, your supervisor may assign a general research topic to you.

Overall, requirements vary immensely from program to program, so it's best to confirm the exact requirements of your specific program.

What to Say to Your Supervisor

You will have a supervisor during your master's studies. Have you identified who that person will be? If yes, have you introduced yourself via email or phone and obtained information on the processes and procedures that are in place for your master's program? Once you've established contact, request an in-person meeting with him or her, and take a page of questions along with you. Your questions might include:

Is there a research subject you can recommend in my field?
I would like to pursue [target research subject] for my thesis. Can you help me narrow my focus?
Can you give me an example of a properly formatted thesis proposal for my program?

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help (to a Degree)

Procedures and expectations vary from program to program, and your supervisor is there to help remove doubt and provide encouragement so you can follow the right path when you embark on writing your thesis. Since your supervisor has almost certainly worked with other graduate students (and was one at some point), take advantage of their experience, and ask questions to put your mind at ease about how to write a master’s thesis.

That being said, do not rely too heavily on your supervisor. As a graduate student, you are also expected to be able to work independently. Proving your independent initiative and capacity is part of what will earn you your master's degree.

Part 3: Revise Your Thesis

Read everything you can get your hands on.

Whether you have a question or need to create one, your next step is simple and applies to all kinds of theses: read.

Seek Out Knowledge or Research Gaps

Read everything you can that relates to the question or the field you are studying. The only way you will be able to determine where you can go is to see where everyone else has been. After you have read some published material, you will start to spot gaps in current research or notice things that could be developed further with an alternative approach. Things that are known but not understood or understood but not explained clearly or consistently are great potential thesis subjects. Addressing something already known from a new perspective or with a different style could also be a potentially valuable project. Whichever way you choose to do it, keep in mind that your project should make a valuable contribution to your field.

Talk with Experts in Your Field (and Don't Be Afraid to Revise Your Thesis)

To help narrow down your thesis topic, talk to your supervisor. Your supervisor will have an idea of what is current in your field and what can be left alone because others are already working on it. Additionally, the school you are attending will have programs and faculty with particular areas of interest within your chosen field.

On a similar note, don't be surprised if your thesis question changes as you study. Other students and researchers are out there, and as they publish, what you are working on can change. You might also discover that your question is too vague, not substantial enough, or even no longer relevant. Do not lose heart! Take what you know and adjust the question to address these concerns as they arise. The freedom to adapt is part of the power you hold as a graduate student.

Part 4: Select a Proposal Committee

What proposal committees are and why they're useful.

When you have a solid question or set of questions, draft a proposal.

You'll need an original stance and a clear justification for asking, and answering, your thesis question. To ensure this, a committee will review your thesis proposal. Thankfully, that committee will consist of people assigned by your supervisor or department head or handpicked by you. These people will be experts who understand your field of study and will do everything in their power to ensure that you are pursuing something worthwhile. And yes, it is okay to put your supervisor on your committee. Some programs even require that your supervisor be on your committee.

Just remember that the committee will expect you to schedule meetings with them, present your proposal, respond to any questions they might have for you, and ultimately present your findings and thesis when all the work is done. Choose those who are willing to support you, give constructive feedback, and help address issues with your proposal. And don't forget to give your proposal a good, thorough edit and proofread before you present it.

How to Prepare for Committee Meetings

Be ready for committee meetings with synopses of your material for committee members, answers for expected questions, and a calm attitude. To prepare for those meetings, sit in on proposal and thesis defenses so you can watch how other graduate students handle them and see what your committee might ask of you. You can even hold rehearsals with friends and fellow students acting as your committee to help you build confidence for your presentation.

Part 5: Write Your Thesis

What to do once your proposal is approved.

After you have written your thesis proposal and received feedback from your committee, the fun part starts: doing the work. This is where you will take your proposal and carry it out. If you drafted a qualitative or quantitative proposal, your experimentation or will begin here. If you wrote a creative proposal, you will now start working on your material. Your proposal should be strong enough to give you direction when you perform your experiments, conduct interviews, or craft your work. Take note that you will have to check in with your supervisor from time to time to give progress updates.

Thesis Writing: It's Important to Pace Yourself and Take Breaks

Do not expect the work to go quickly. You will need to pace yourself and make sure you record your progress meticulously. You can always discard information you don't need, but you cannot go back and grab a crucial fact that you can't quite remember. When in doubt, write it down. When drawing from a source, always create a citation for the information to save your future self time and stress. In the same sense, you may also find journaling to be a helpful process.

Additionally, take breaks and allow yourself to step away from your thesis, even if you're having fun (and especially if you're not). Ideally, your proposal should have milestones in it— points where you can stop and assess what you've already completed and what's left to do. When you reach a milestone, celebrate. Take a day off and relax. Better yet, give yourself a week's vacation! The rest will help you regain your focus and ensure that you function at your best.

How to Become More Comfortable with Presenting Your Work

Once you start reaching your milestones, you should be able to start sharing what you have. Just about everyone in a graduate program has experience giving a presentation at the front of the class, attending a seminar, or watching an interview. If you haven't (or even if you have), look for conferences and clubs that will give you the opportunity to learn about presenting your work and become comfortable with the idea of public speaking. The more you practice talking about what you are studying, the more comfortable you'll be with the information, which will make your committee defenses and other official meetings easier.

Published authors can be called upon to present at conferences, and if your thesis is strong, you may receive an email or a phone call asking if you would share your findings onstage.

Presenting at conferences is also a great way to boost your CV and network within your field. Make presenting part of your education, and it will become something you look forward to instead of fear.

What to Do If Your Relationship with Your Supervisor Sours

A small aside: If it isn't already obvious, you will be communicating extensively with others as you pursue your thesis. That also means that others will need to communicate with you, and if you've been noticing things getting quiet, you will need to be the one to speak up. Your supervisor should speak to you at least once a term and preferably once a week in the more active parts of your research and writing. If you give written work to your supervisor, you should have feedback within three weeks.

If your supervisor does not provide feedback, frequently misses appointments, or is consistently discouraging of your work, contact your graduate program advisor and ask for a new supervisor. The relationship with your supervisor is crucial to your success, especially if she or he is on your committee, and while your supervisor does not have to be friendly, there should at least be professional respect between you.

What to Do If a Crisis Strikes

If something happens in your life that disrupts everything (e.g., emotional strain, the birth of a child, or the death of a family member), ask for help. You are a human being, and personal lives can and do change without warning. Do not wait until you are falling apart before asking for help, either. Learn what resources exist for crises before you have one, so you can head off trauma before it hits. That being said, if you get blindsided, don't refuse help. Seek it out, and take the time you need to recover. Your degree is supposed to help you become a stronger and smarter person, not break you.

Part 6: Polish and Defend Your Master's Thesis

How to write a master’s thesis: the final stages.

After your work is done and everything is written down, you will have to give your thesis a good, thorough polishing. This is where you will have to organize the information, draft it into a paper format with an abstract, and abbreviate things to help meet your word-count limit. This is also where your final editing and proofreading passes will occur, after which you will face your final hurdle: presenting your thesis defense to your committee. If they approve your thesis, then congratulations! You are now a master of your chosen field.

Conclusion and Parting Thoughts

Remember that you do not (and should not) have to learn how to write a master’s thesis on your own. Thesis writing is collaborative, as is practically any kind of research.

While you will be expected to develop your thesis using your own initiative, pursue it with your own ambition, and complete it with your own abilities, you will also be expected to use all available resources to do so. The purpose of a master's thesis is to help you develop your own independent abilities, ensuring that you can drive your own career forward without constantly looking to others to provide direction. Leaders get master's degrees. That's why many business professionals in leadership roles have graduate degree initials after their last names. If you already have the skills necessary to motivate yourself, lead others, and drive change, you may only need your master's as an acknowledgement of your abilities. If you do not, but you apply yourself carefully and thoroughly to the pursuit of your thesis, you should come away from your studies with those skills in place.

A final thought regarding collaboration: all theses have a section for acknowledgements. Be sure to say thank you to those who helped you become a master. One day, someone might be doing the same for you.

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/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="future work master thesis"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Guide to writing your thesis/dissertation, definition of dissertation and thesis.

The dissertation or thesis is a scholarly treatise that substantiates a specific point of view as a result of original research that is conducted by students during their graduate study. At Cornell, the thesis is a requirement for the receipt of the M.A. and M.S. degrees and some professional master’s degrees. The dissertation is a requirement of the Ph.D. degree.

Formatting Requirement and Standards

The Graduate School sets the minimum format for your thesis or dissertation, while you, your special committee, and your advisor/chair decide upon the content and length. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other mechanical issues are your sole responsibility. Generally, the thesis and dissertation should conform to the standards of leading academic journals in your field. The Graduate School does not monitor the thesis or dissertation for mechanics, content, or style.

“Papers Option” Dissertation or Thesis

A “papers option” is available only to students in certain fields, which are listed on the Fields Permitting the Use of Papers Option page , or by approved petition. If you choose the papers option, your dissertation or thesis is organized as a series of relatively independent chapters or papers that you have submitted or will be submitting to journals in the field. You must be the only author or the first author of the papers to be used in the dissertation. The papers-option dissertation or thesis must meet all format and submission requirements, and a singular referencing convention must be used throughout.

ProQuest Electronic Submissions

The dissertation and thesis become permanent records of your original research, and in the case of doctoral research, the Graduate School requires publication of the dissertation and abstract in its original form. All Cornell master’s theses and doctoral dissertations require an electronic submission through ProQuest, which fills orders for paper or digital copies of the thesis and dissertation and makes a digital version available online via their subscription database, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses . For master’s theses, only the abstract is available. ProQuest provides worldwide distribution of your work from the master copy. You retain control over your dissertation and are free to grant publishing rights as you see fit. The formatting requirements contained in this guide meet all ProQuest specifications.

Copies of Dissertation and Thesis

Copies of Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses are also uploaded in PDF format to the Cornell Library Repository, eCommons . A print copy of each master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation is submitted to Cornell University Library by ProQuest.

FindAMasters
Researching and Writing a Masters Dissertation

Written by Mark Bennett

All Masters programmes include some form of extended individual project. Research-focussed programmes, such as an MRes , may include multiple independent research components. Taught courses usually culminate with a substantial research task, referred to as the Masters dissertation or thesis.

This article talks about how long a Masters dissertation is and the structure it follows.Before you get started on your dissertation, you'll usually need to write a proposal. Read our full guide to Masters dissertation proposals for more information on what this should include!

Masters dissertation - key facts
Length	15,000 - 20,000 words
Structure	Abstract (300 words) Introduction (1,000 words) Literature review (1,000 words) Research methodology (1,500 words) Results Discussion (12,000 words) Conclusion (1,500 words) References/Bibliography Appendices
Supervision	Yes, you’ll be paired with an academic from your own university
Assessment	External examiner along with additional members of faculty. There is not usually a viva at Masters level.

To answer your overall research question comprehensively, you’ll be expected to identify and examine specific areas of your topic. This can be like producing a series of shorter pieces of work, similar to those required by individual modules. However, there’s the additional requirement that they collectively support a broader set of conclusions.

This more involved Masters dissertation structure will:

Give you the scope to investigate your subject in greater detail than is possible at undergraduate level
Challenge you to be effective at organising your work so that its individual components function as stages in a coherent and persuasive overall argument
Allow you to develop and hone a suitable research methodology (for example, choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods)

If the individual topics within your overall project require you to access separate sources or datasets, this may also have an impact on your research process.

As a postgraduate, you’ll be expected to establish and assert your own critical voice as a member of the academic community associated with your field .

During your Masters thesis you’ll need to show that you are not just capable of analysing and critiquing original data or primary source material. You should also demonstrate awareness of the existing body of scholarship relating to your topic .

So, if you’ll excuse the pun, a ‘Masters’ degree really is about achieving ‘mastery’ of your particular specialism and the dissertation is where you’ll demonstrate this: showing off the scholarly expertise and research skills that you’ve developed across your programme.

What’s the difference between a dissertation and a thesis?

A dissertation is a long piece of (usually) written work on the same topic. A thesis is a little more specific: it usually means something that presents an original argument based on the interpretation of data, statistics or content.

So, a thesis is almost always presented as a dissertation, but not all dissertations present a thesis.

Masters dissertation structure

As you can probably imagine, no two dissertations follow the exact same structure, especially given the differences found between Masters programmes from university to university and country to country .

That said, there are several key components that make up the structure of a typical Masters dissertation

How long is a Masters dissertation?

Most dissertations will typically be between 15,000 and 20,000 words long, although this can vary significantly depending on the nature of the programme.

You should also check with your university exactly which sections of the dissertation count towards the final word count (the abstract, bibliography and appendices won’t usually be included in the total).

Usually around 300 words long, the abstract is meant to be a concise summary of your dissertation. It should briefly cover the question(s) you aim to answer, your primary argument and your conclusion.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to provide context for the rest of the dissertation, setting out your aims and the scope of what you want to achieve with your research. The introduction should give a clear overview of the dissertation’s chapters and will usually be around 1,000 words long.

Literature review

This part of the dissertation should examine the scholarship that has already been published in your field, presenting various arguments and counter-arguments while situating your own research within this wider body of work.

You should analyse and evaluate other publications and explain how your dissertation will contribute to the existing literature in your subject area. The literature review sometimes forms part of the introduction or follows immediately on from it. Most literature reviews are up to 1,000 words long.

Research methodology

Not all dissertations will require a section covering research methodology (Arts and Humanities dissertations won’t normally undertake the kind of research that involves a set methodology). However, if you are using a particular method to collect information for your dissertation, you should make sure to explain the rationale behind your choice of methodology. The word count for this part of the dissertation is usually around the 1,500 mark.

Those in the Arts and Humanities will usually outline their theoretical perspectives and approaches as part of the introduction, rather than requiring a detailed explanation of the methodology for their data collection and analysis.

Results / findings

If your research involves some form of survey or experiment, this is where you’ll present the results of your work. Depending on the nature of the study, this might be in the form of graphs, tables or charts – or even just a written description of what the research entailed and what the findings were.

This section forms the bulk of your dissertation and should be carefully structured using a series of related chapters (and sub-chapters). There should be a logical progression from one chapter to the next, with each part building on the arguments of its predecessor.

It can be helpful to think of your Masters dissertation as a series of closely interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper. The size of this section will depend on the overall word count for your dissertation. However, to give you a rough idea for a 15,000-word dissertation, the discussion part will generally be about 12,000 words long.

Here you should draw together the threads of the previous discussion chapters and make your final concluding statements, drawing on evidence and arguments that you’ve already explored over the course of the dissertation. Explain the significance of your findings and point towards directions that future research could follow. This section of the Masters thesis will be around 1,500 words long.

References / bibliography

While planning and writing your dissertation, you should keep an extensive, organised record of any papers, sources or books you’ve quoted (or referred to). This will be a lot easier than leaving all of it until the end and struggling to work out where a particular quotation is from!

Appendices won’t be necessary in many dissertations, but you may need to include supplementary material to support your argument. This could be interview transcripts or questionnaires. If including such content within the body of the dissertation won’t be feasible – i.e. there wouldn’t be enough space or it would break the flow of your writing – you should consult with your supervisor and consider attaching it in an appendix.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these sections won’t always be discretely labelled in every dissertation. For example, everything up to ‘discussion’ might be covered in introductory chapter (rather than as distinct sections). If you’re unsure about the structure of your Masters dissertation, your supervisor will be able to help you map it out.

How does supervision work for a Masters dissertation?

As a Masters student at the dissertation stage you’ll usually be matched with an academic within your institution who will be tasked with guiding your work. This might be someone who has already taught you, or it may be another scholar whose research interests and expertise align well with what you want to do. You may be able to request a particular supervisor, but taught postgraduates are more likely to be assigned them by their department.

Specific arrangements with your supervisor will vary depending on your institution and subject area. They will usually meet with you at the beginning of the dissertation period to discuss your project and agree a suitable schedule for its undertaking. This timetable will probably set dates for:

Subsequent discussions and progress checks
The submission of draft chapters or sections
Feedback appointments

Though your supervisor is there to help and advise you, it is important to remember that your dissertation is a personal research project with associated expectations of you as an independent scholar.

As a rule of thumb, you can expect your supervisor to read each part of your dissertation once at the draft stage and to offer feedback. Most will not have time to look at lots of subsequent revisions, but may respond favourably to polite requests for exceptions (provided their own workload permits it).

Inundating your supervisor with emails or multiple iterations of draft material is best avoided; they will have their own research to manage (as well as other supervision assignments) and will be able to offer better quality feedback if you stick to an agreed schedule.

How is a Masters dissertation assessed and examined?

On most courses your dissertation will be assessed by an external examiner (as well as additional members of faculty within your university who haven’t been responsible for supervising you), but these will read and critique the work you submit without personally questioning and testing you on it.

Though this examination process is not as challenging as the oral defence or ‘ viva voce ’ required for a PhD thesis, the grading of your Masters dissertation is still a fundamental component of your degree.

On some programmes the result awarded to a student’s dissertation may determine the upper grade-band that can be awarded to their degree.

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A complete guide to writing a master’s thesis

Speak right now to our live team of english staff.

If you’re reading this because you have been accepted onto a master’s programme that requires you to write a thesis – congratulations! This is a very exciting time in your life.

Hopefully what we’re about to tell you doesn’t come as too much of a surprise – as part of your master’s course you are going to be spending a considerable amount of time working on a single written submission. In fact, your master’s thesis may be the longest and most detailed piece of writing that you have ever been asked to complete.

With that in mind, getting some guidance before you begin is an important first step.

As you progress through your degree, you may have questions on exactly how to write a master’s thesis and are thus looking to obtain some thesis writing tips to help you on your way.

This post is designed to provide you with a comprehensive guide to writing a master’s thesis in the UK context. It will help you not just now, but will also be something you can refer back to throughout the duration of your master’s studies. If you haven’t already, we strongly recommend bookmarking this post so can you find it easily when you inevitably have questions during the thesis writing process.

In this post, we’ll clue you in to some strategies best suited to master’s students trying to complete a thesis. We’ll focus on what to expect at each stage, including creating a working plan, doing your reading, undertaking research, writing your master’s thesis, editing it, and leaving time to finish and proofread.

Hopefully, by the time you have finished reading, you will have the confidence and motivation to get going on a path that will lead to ultimate success in your thesis writing.

Start with a plan (and stick to it)

OK, we realise we may be teaching your grandma how to suck eggs here – starting with a plan is the obvious first step in any piece of academic writing.

And yet, as good as everyone’s intentions may be when students start writing a master’s thesis, circumstances (nearly) always arise that make sticking to the plan much more challenging.

So, first tip: when writing your thesis, make sure that your plan is flexible , and allows time for dealing with unexpected circumstances.

Next, reconsider your research proposal. It is likely you had to write one before you were accepted onto your master’s programme. If this was your first time producing a research proposal, you may read it back now and find it’s a little over-ambitious in its claims about what you planned to do. It’s a common trap to fall into, so don’t despair! Book some time with your research supervisor to determine whether your research proposal is actually realistic for your master’s thesis. If you claimed that you were going to do qualitative interviews of 200 participants across the UK, and you only have a year to complete your master’s, you might want to rethink your project and scale it to something that is achievable and not setting you up for failure.

Another tip on supervisors: make sure that you ask them questions about their expectations throughout the thesis writing process. Will they want to see drafts of your chapters as they’re written? If the answer is yes, finding out these dates will help you to develop a plan to achieve this without scrambling at the last minute.

Another tip for planning how to write your master’s thesis is to set yourself a goal of doing a little bit each day. Framing your thesis in your mind as a long-term project with a deadline very far away in the future will only encourage you to put off writing it. Then ‘far away in the future’ will all of a sudden be ‘next month’ and major panic will set in, and the lack of time at your disposal will make for rushed, compromised writing.

Set yourself milestones: a realistic plan for writing certain chapters by certain dates. Then within these milestones, commit to writing an amount of words per day, or per week. Then be disciplined and stick to your plan. Avoiding procrastination isn’t easy, but will very much work in your favour in the long run.

A final tip when devising your plan: it is easy to go back and delete words that you do not need during the editing process. Conversely, having to add thousands of words at the last minute will be stressful and sometimes impossible. Plan to start writing early, and budget for, say, 1000-2000 words every day. Not only will you then reach the full word count of your master’s thesis quickly, but you’ll leave yourself plenty of time to edit it, remove sections that aren’t working, and add more words that strengthen the overall assignment, all long before the deadline arrives.

Do your reading

The trick here is to find a balance between reading enough and not spending too much time doing so. There is so much reading to do and it can be easy to drift off topic.

Doing your reading and producing the final literature review are important components of a master’s thesis, but if you spend too much time reading there won’t be ample time for the data collection process and the writing up phase.

Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your reading process is both effective and efficient.

Step 1 – Understand your research questions

The first step in the reading phase of your master’s thesis is knowing what research questions you are trying to answer. Hopefully you have identified these questions with your supervisor before you started to work on your thesis. If you do not have a clear research question, your reading strategies will be severely hindered.

There are certain databases that are going to be more relevant to your area of study. Getting research from these databases is going to streamline the writing process for you to ensure that your project is focused within the context that it needs to be. A research librarian can likely help you focus this search, making the process significantly easier.

Step 2 – Make reading easier

There are several challenges associated with reading. First, it is easy to get distracted, especially if your reading material is lengthy and complex. So you want to keep your reading blocks short and sweet. ‘Chunk’ your reading. Spend 20 to 25 minutes reading without distraction (it hurts we know, but putting your phone on flight mode and leaving it in another room will ultimately help) and then take a 5 to 10 minute break (on your phone, if you must!) before starting up again.

Furthermore, whilst there is a lot of reading to do, it is unrealistic to spend your whole day doing it. Earmark just a portion of the day for reading, then make sure that you have other things that you can do with the rest of your time (like completing your ethics forms, or starting to create your research instruments). By dividing up your time, you are going to be able to keep your focus for longer, making you more productive and efficient overall.

Step 3 – Take good notes

It’s always worth remembering the forgetting curve – ah that’s a paradox if we ever saw one. The forgetting curve is the amount of information you will forget as time passes. It can be quite steep, and after a month passes you likely won’t remember much about what you have previously read. This could lead to disaster when writing up your literature review, so make sure that you take good, thorough notes throughout the reading process.

A good idea is to build out an excel spreadsheet or other list that documents your reading in a detailed and organised manner. You can keep track of key information, such as:

Location of research
Sample size
Research methods
Main findings

Not only will this help slow the curve of your inevitable forgetfulness, but crucially, it will also make referring back to your reading much easier when you move on to writing your overall literature review.

A note to remember: not everything that you read will end up in your literature review. The purpose of reading is to make sure that you, as a researcher, understand how your project is positioned within your area of study. The literature review explains this to the reader but in much simpler terms. So to reiterate, the reading process is for your own benefit, not solely to find studies to include in your literature review.

Do your research

Even if you did research as part of your undergraduate work, research for a master’s thesis is a whole different story. As an undergraduate, your project was likely quite small or it was significantly guided by a faculty member; as a master’s student, this is typically your first opportunity to do research on a topic that you have chosen to pursue. While this is an exciting step, it also means that you are accountable for your actions.

Your research type and tools

The first step in the research process is deciding on what type of research you will do. Is it going to be qualitative or quantitative? Maybe it will be a combination of the two. You have likely documented this in your research proposal, but your answer to this question will have implications about how you will organise and analyse your data once it is collected.

Regardless of what route you choose, you will need software to help you manage your data. Many universities have free data management software tools available, and if that is the case for your institution then use them –tools available otherwise can rack up quite a hefty bill.

The most common tools are SPSS, which deals primarily with quantitative data, or NVivo which focuses more on qualitative measures. There are numerous other software packages available, and your supervisor may have suggestions about which management tool is most suitable for your project.

Planning ahead for better outcomes

The second step in the process is to think about timing and distribution. If you are planning a qualitative study, perhaps using interviews, remember that you will need to transcribe all of the words that are contained in the interview. While some programmes allow speech-to-text translation, it is not always accurate. The process of transcription takes considerable time, and therefore, as a researcher, you should consider how many participants you are looking to have in your project.

While a quantitative project may not have the same level of detail in the data input process, there are likely to be more participants and a wider range of outcomes. As a researcher, you must recruit these participants and ensure that they meet the criteria for inclusion. Finding people who are willing to participate in this type of project (often volunteering their time for free) can be challenging, and so as a researcher, it can be useful to have a minimum number of participants that you believe (based on past research) will give you findings that can be reliable and valid within your context.

It is also worth mentioning that you will likely end up with a lot of data, much more than can actually be presented in your master’s thesis.

One of the challenging pieces of the research process is deciding which findings make the cut for your thesis and which get saved for a later date. While your data are probably very interesting to you, it is important that you do not overwhelm the reader or deviate from the research questions that you set out to answer.

To sum up, the process of actually carrying out research and distilling it for the writing part of your thesis takes time. You need to carefully plan your research steps to ensure not only that you cover everything you intend to, but that you also do it in good time, leaving yourself ample space in your schedule to write up your thesis.

Write your Master’s thesis: the right structure

It’s helpful to start here by going over the structure of a master’s thesis. The precise way that different master’s theses are structured is largely going to depend on the discipline area. But most of the time, empirical dissertations follow a format including:

Table of contents
List of tables/figures
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology

Before you start writing

Before you start to write, draft an outline of your approach to each section including the word count you expect to have (total word counts also vary by discipline).

Within each section you should also include all the major subheadings that you plan to include in the final version.

Before writing any of the sections, meet with your supervisor to ensure that your outline generally conforms to their expectations. Supervisors are the experts in the field and have likely seen many master’s theses, so they will be able to tell you if you are on the right track.

Beginning to write

It’s worth noting here that the order in which you write all the sections of your master’s thesis can vary depending on your process and preferences.

Once you have a detailed outline, there is no rule that says you have to start with the introduction and end with the conclusion. While the reader will inevitably read your thesis this way, you are free to write the ‘easy’ sections first and then move on to ones that you find more challenging.

For many students, beginning with the methodology chapter makes the most sense, as this allows the project to be framed around the steps that you, as a researcher, will take. The methodology usually includes:

The research question(s).
Any hypotheses that you might have.
Your theoretical framework, and the methods that you will use to collect your data.
Often, but not always, it includes ethical considerations, especially if you are working with human participants.

For many writers, the methodology chapter is written prior to the collection of data, whereas other chapters may be written after the data have been collected and analysed.

The same can be said for writing the literature review . For some writers, the literature review begins to take shape early in the project, but others choose to leave the writing until after data collection has occurred.

Both strategies have value. Writing the literature review early can give a researcher a clear indication of what data already exists and how this could relate to the potential project. The downside is that if the findings from the current project do not match the historical findings from the literature, the whole chapter may need to be revised to better align with the current findings.

Leaving the literature review until after the data collection means a bigger gap between when the reading was actually done for the project and the writing up period, meaning that the sources may need to be consulted repeatedly. In addition, leaving all the writing to the end of the project may seem tedious for some writers.

Another element that you will need to consider is how to present your findings . For some researchers, combining the findings and discussion sections makes logical sense, whereas for others, this presentation makes the chapter unwieldy and difficult to read.

Staying on track

There is no universal approach to writing a master’s thesis, but there are a lot of people out there who are willing to help you along the way. You will put yourself in a really good place if you seek advice at multiple stages in the process and from multiple different sources.

Your university library is going to be a useful source for research and reference, whereas your supervisor can give more discipline-specific advice on writing. Your university will likely have a writing centre too that can offer suggestions on how to improve your writing and make sure that you are staying on track. Making appointments at your writing centre can also help with accountability, as you will have to actually complete parts of your writing in order to discuss them with others.

Finishing and proofreading

When you write those last few words of your conclusion and you have made it to the end of your thesis (hopefully in one piece – you, not the thesis), there may be a sense of finality. It’s a huge feat you’ve just overcome and for that, you deserve a pat on the back.

But finishing writing your master’s thesis is a little like reaching Camp 4 on an Everest summit trek. Without wanting to sound too ominous, there is still a considerable amount of work to do – chiefly, putting the finishing touches on your thesis through editing and proofreading.

Hopefully, during the process of writing your thesis, you sent drafts to your supervisor for review. These drafts may have included individual chapters or various sections within the data set that required clarification. Your supervisor would have provided feedback on these drafts either through written or verbal comments. It is essential that you keep track of these comments, as they will become crucial for the final stages prior to submission.

There are two ways that you can approach the editing of your master’s thesis. Both have value and it depends on how you view the process of writing. These are:

Individually edit sections as they are returned from the supervisor.
Edit at the very end, so that the editing can be consistent across sections.

With the first strategy, the editing process is broken up into manageable chunks, but at the end you will have to go back and re-edit sections to improve the clarity and flow.

With the second strategy, you may be able to achieve better flow, but the number of edits at the end may seem overwhelming and take up considerable time.

These challenges bring us back to the importance of a timeline. Leaving several weeks for the editing process is necessary because editing can take longer than you think . Also, once you have made these necessary edits, you will need to go through and proofread your document to make sure that the fine details are consistent across chapters. This includes things like making sure acronyms are clearly defined, tables are appropriately numbered/titled, that punctuation and syntax are accurate, and that formatting and alignment is consistent.

Something you may find challenging during the finishing process is knowing when to stop. With writing there are always changes that can be made – ideas or sentences that can be written just a little bit better or slightly more clearly. You could spend years (really!) refining your work – writing and rewriting sections to make them exactly how you want them – but the simple fact is: you do not have time for that.

Use the time that you do have for editing your thesis to the best of your ability, but also be willing to say “this is good enough” and submit your work.

Handing something in that you have worked diligently on for a long time is a truly satisfying feeling, so try to cherish that moment when it comes.

Also, it goes without saying but is always worth the reminder: the expert editors we have on board here at Oxbridge Editing can not only relieve a phenomenal amount of effort in this final hurdle of your assignment, but, thanks to their experience and skill, they will also ensure your thesis is flawless and truly ready for submission. You can find out more about thesis editing here .

Read Also : How to Improve English Punctuation

Final words

Hopefully, by reading this post you have identified some tips for writing your master’s thesis that you can apply in your own context.

While the finished product will vary by discipline, the strategies listed above can apply across a wide range of contexts.

Above all else: start early and stick to the plan.

There are many examples of master’s dissertations that you can refer to for guidance so that you can identify the appropriate thesis structure for your project. By doing a little bit each day and by keeping track of your reading, you can ensure that you remain organised and efficient with your work.

Remember that writing your master’s thesis is your first opportunity to demonstrate to the academic community that you are a proficient scholar in your field. A UK master’s dissertation is no easy task, but there are lots of people and resources available to help you. Take guidance from your supervisor and use the facilities that exist on your university campus, including the writing centre and the library.

Best of luck!

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Theses and Dissertations

How to Write a Master's Thesis

Last Updated: June 1, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 615,784 times.

Students learning how to write a Master's Thesis will first learn that a central thesis question must be presented and subsequently answered. A Master's Thesis will be the most prominent piece of your graduate work up to this point, and a pertinent thesis question that forms the spine of this work elevates it from the prosaic to the significant.

Choosing a Topic

Step 1 Think about the objectives of writing a thesis.

To get a degree - topic should be difficult enough, but manageable too.
To enjoy the work - topic that you are truly interested in, something that you will not grow bored of after a short period of time.
To get a job afterward - if you know what specifically you want to do after your studies and/or for which company, it might be useful to choose a topic, that will help with this goal.
To be useful - thesis might actually be useful to help to make the world a little better place.
Try thinking about your favorite subject of study - it may be a particular author, theory, time period, etc. Imagine how you might further the study of that subject.
You might consider skimming through papers you wrote for your graduate courses and see if there is any apparent topic that you tend to gravitate towards.
Consult with faculty members, favorite professors. They might have some good suggestions to write about. Generally, you'll be required to meet with your thesis advisor at least once before you start working.
Consider consulting with industry partners. Your favorite company might have some work to do which might be done as a master's thesis. This might also help you get a job within the company afterward and maybe even some money for the thesis.
If you want to help the world to be a better place, you might want to consult with your local non-profits and charities or check the Internet for possible thesis topics to write about.
3 Choose the right topic. From the possible topics generated in the previous step, find the one which best fits the objectives from the first step, especially the objectives most important to you. Make sure that you have a clear, specific, and organized plan on how to write a master's thesis which you will be able to then defend.

Make sure that your question and the answers provided will provide original content to the body of research in existence. A judicious question will also keep research focused, organized, and interesting.
Once you've formulated your topic and direction of inquiry, try formulating 5-10 different questions around your intended research. This forces you to think flexibly about your topic and visualize how small changes in wording can change the trajectory of your research.

Usually, your committee chair will be in place before you formally start your thesis. They can help guide you and provide input into your project, so the earlier you can get their commitment, the better.
Nothing is more frustrating than your thesis progress being held up by a professor who has too many obligations to make time to meet with you.

Selecting Your Texts

For example, a novel written by Ernest Hemingway or a scientific journal article in which new results are documented for the first time would both be considered primary sources.

For example, a book written about Ernest Hemingway's novel or a scientific journal article examining the findings of someone else's experiment would both be considered secondary sources.

Use the in-text citation format appropriate to your discipline. [3] X Research source The most common formats are MLA, APA, and Chicago.
Create a coordinating works cited or reference entry for each source you cite in the text of your document or in a footnote.
Consider using a citation management software such as EndNote, Mendeley, or Zotero. These will enable you to insert and move citations within your word processor program and will automatically populate a works cited or reference page for you.

Planning an Outline

Step 1 Know the requirements for your field/department.

Qualitative. This type of thesis involves completing a project that is exploratory, analytical, or creative in some way. Usually, students in the humanities will complete this kind of thesis.
Quantitative. This type of thesis involves conducting experiments, measuring data, and recording results. Students in the sciences usually complete this kind of thesis.

Signature page (with the completed signatures of your advising committee - usually attained at the defense, or after the project is deemed complete )
Abstract - this is a short (one paragraph or so) description/summary of the work completed in your thesis
Table of Contents (with page numbers)
Introduction
Body of paper
Works Cited or Bibliography
Any necessary appendices or endnotes

Moving through the Writing Process

If you do not already have a review of literature written, it’s time to do your research! The review of literature is essentially a summary of all of the existing scholarship about your topic with plenty of direct quotations from the primary and secondary sources that you’re referencing.

Finalizing Your Thesis

Step 1 Compare your draft with your university's requirements.

Many departments or programs provide a document template for theses and dissertations. If you have one of these, it may be easiest to use such a template from the beginning of your work (rather than copying and pasting your writing into it).

Step 2 Re-read the entire thesis for correctness.

Alternatively, ask a trusted colleague or friend to read over your thesis to help you catch any minor grammar/spelling/punctuation errors and typos.

Step 3 Follow all printing guidelines according to your department's policies.

Some institutions require you to submit your thesis for a formatting check prior to uploading the document to ProQuest. Be sure to check with your department’s Director of Graduate Studies for specific instructions.
Be aware of thesis submission deadlines, which are often well in advance of your graduation date. Late submission of your thesis may force you to push back your graduation date, which may affect your employment or continuing graduate studies.

Masters Thesis Outline

Expert Q&A

Remember why you are writing a Master's thesis and who will want to read and use the material. You write a Master's thesis for members of your community, so keep in mind that they will have extensive knowledge and experience before reading your work. Don't bore them with unnecessary material. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
Choosing the perfect question before starting research will prevent frustration and save time. Rigorous effort on finding the perfect question is probably the most important task when learning how to write a Master's thesis. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
Consult other people who have completed a Master's thesis and obtained a Master's degree. It can be a long, grueling process, and having the support and advice of someone who has already done it can be very valuable. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://umb.libguides.com/PrimarySources/secondary
↑ https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/in-text-citation-styles/
↑ https://www.unk.edu/academics/gradstudies/admissions/grad-files/Grad%20Files/ThesisGdlnsFinal08.pdf
↑ https://u.osu.edu/hackingthethesis/managing-stuff/your-content/outline/
↑ http://www.imm.dtu.dk/~janba/MastersThesisAdvice.pdf

About This Article

To write a master's thesis, make it a goal to write 500 words every day, which will help you meet your deadline without having to rush at the last minute. It's also helpful if you work in 25-minute increments and take a 5-minute break in between, which will make your work sessions less overwhelming. Also, figure out a writing time that works best for you, whether it's in the morning or at night, and stick with it so you're more productive. For more help writing your master's thesis, like how to make an outline, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Dissertation
How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion

How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion | Checklist and Examples

Published on 9 September 2022 by Tegan George and Shona McCombes. Revised on 10 October 2022.

The conclusion is the very last part of your thesis or dissertation . It should be concise and engaging, leaving your reader with a clear understanding of your main findings, as well as the answer to your research question .

In it, you should:

Clearly state the answer to your main research question
Summarise and reflect on your research process
Make recommendations for future work on your topic
Show what new knowledge you have contributed to your field
Wrap up your thesis or dissertation

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Discussion vs. conclusion, how long should your conclusion be, step 1: answer your research question, step 2: summarise and reflect on your research, step 3: make future recommendations, step 4: emphasise your contributions to your field, step 5: wrap up your thesis or dissertation, full conclusion example, conclusion checklist, frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.

While your conclusion contains similar elements to your discussion section , they are not the same thing.

Your conclusion should be shorter and more general than your discussion. Instead of repeating literature from your literature review , discussing specific research results , or interpreting your data in detail, concentrate on making broad statements that sum up the most important insights of your research.

As a rule of thumb, your conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.

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Depending on whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your length will vary. Generally, a conclusion should make up around 5–7% of your overall word count.

An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion, concisely stating the main findings and recommendations for future research. A humanities topic or systematic review , on the other hand, might require more space to conclude its analysis, tying all the previous sections together in an overall argument.

Your conclusion should begin with the main question that your thesis or dissertation aimed to address. This is your final chance to show that you’ve done what you set out to do, so make sure to formulate a clear, concise answer.

Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed
Do synthesise them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.

An empirical thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

A case study –based thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

In the second example, the research aim is not directly restated, but rather added implicitly to the statement. To avoid repeating yourself, it is helpful to reformulate your aims and questions into an overall statement of what you did and how you did it.

Your conclusion is an opportunity to remind your reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.

To avoid repetition , consider writing more reflectively here, rather than just writing a summary of each preceding section. Consider mentioning the effectiveness of your methodology , or perhaps any new questions or unexpected insights that arose in the process.

You can also mention any limitations of your research, but only if you haven’t already included these in the discussion. Don’t dwell on them at length, though – focus on the positives of your work.

While x limits the generalisability of the results, this approach provides new insight into y .
This research clearly illustrates x , but it also raises the question of y .

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You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms.

Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider …
To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address …
Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between …

When making recommendations for further research, be sure not to undermine your own work. Relatedly, while future studies might confirm, build on, or enrich your conclusions, they shouldn’t be required for your argument to feel complete. Your work should stand alone on its own merits.

Just as you should avoid too much self-criticism, you should also avoid exaggerating the applicability of your research. If you’re making recommendations for policy, business, or other practical implementations, it’s generally best to frame them as ‘shoulds’ rather than ‘musts’. All in all, the purpose of academic research is to inform, explain, and explore – not to demand.

Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to the state of your field.

Some strategies to achieve this include:

Returning to your problem statement to explain how your research helps solve the problem
Referring back to the literature review and showing how you have addressed a gap in knowledge
Discussing how your findings confirm or challenge an existing theory or assumption

Again, avoid simply repeating what you’ve already covered in the discussion in your conclusion. Instead, pick out the most important points and sum them up succinctly, situating your project in a broader context.

The end is near! Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s time to wrap up your thesis or dissertation with a few final steps:

It’s a good idea to write your abstract next, while the research is still fresh in your mind.
Next, make sure your reference list is complete and correctly formatted. To speed up the process, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Once you’ve added any appendices , you can create a table of contents and title page .
Finally, read through the whole document again to make sure your thesis is clearly written and free from language errors. You can proofread it yourself , ask a friend, or consider Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Here is an example of how you can write your conclusion section. Notice how it includes everything mentioned above:

V. Conclusion

The current research aimed to identify acoustic speech characteristics which mark the beginning of an exacerbation in COPD patients.

The central questions for this research were as follows: 1. Which acoustic measures extracted from read speech differ between COPD speakers in stable condition and healthy speakers? 2. In what ways does the speech of COPD patients during an exacerbation differ from speech of COPD patients during stable periods?

All recordings were aligned using a script. Subsequently, they were manually annotated to indicate respiratory actions such as inhaling and exhaling. The recordings of 9 stable COPD patients reading aloud were then compared with the recordings of 5 healthy control subjects reading aloud. The results showed a significant effect of condition on the number of in- and exhalations per syllable, the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable, and the ratio of voiced and silence intervals. The number of in- and exhalations per syllable and the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable were higher for COPD patients than for healthy controls, which confirmed both hypotheses.

However, the higher ratio of voiced and silence intervals for COPD patients compared to healthy controls was not in line with the hypotheses. This unpredicted result might have been caused by the different reading materials or recording procedures for both groups, or by a difference in reading skills. Moreover, there was a trend regarding the effect of condition on the number of syllables per breath group. The number of syllables per breath group was higher for healthy controls than for COPD patients, which was in line with the hypothesis. There was no effect of condition on pitch, intensity, center of gravity, pitch variability, speaking rate, or articulation rate.

This research has shown that the speech of COPD patients in exacerbation differs from the speech of COPD patients in stable condition. This might have potential for the detection of exacerbations. However, sustained vowels rarely occur in spontaneous speech. Therefore, the last two outcome measures might have greater potential for the detection of beginning exacerbations, but further research on the different outcome measures and their potential for the detection of exacerbations is needed due to the limitations of the current study.

Checklist: Conclusion

I have clearly and concisely answered the main research question .

I have summarized my overall argument or key takeaways.

I have mentioned any important limitations of the research.

I have given relevant recommendations .

I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to my field.

I have not introduced any new data or arguments.

You've written a great conclusion! Use the other checklists to further improve your dissertation.

In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.

The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.

While it may be tempting to present new arguments or evidence in your thesis or disseration conclusion , especially if you have a particularly striking argument you’d like to finish your analysis with, you shouldn’t. Theses and dissertations follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the discussion section and results section .) The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

For a stronger dissertation conclusion , avoid including:

Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5-7% of your overall word count.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:

A restatement of your research question
A summary of your key arguments and/or results
A short discussion of the implications of your research

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Home > ETD > OPEN_ACCESS_THESES > 1395

Open Access Theses

Exploring generation z’s work values: implications for future work.

Pei-Yu Hsieh , Purdue University

Date of Award

Degree type, degree name.

Master of Science (MS)

Technology Leadership and Innovation

Committee Chair

Mesut Akdere

Committee Member 1

Brett Crawford

Committee Member 2

Paul Asunda

Work values are often studied in literature with relation to generational issues as they represent an important norm in comparing and understanding expectations of various generations of employees in the workplace. Generation Z, individuals born between 1995 and 2010, is preparing to enter the workplace, yet there is limited exploring of the work values that motivate this generation. This study aims to explore the work values of Generation Z and provide insights to organizational managers and Human Resources (HR) as they cope with the challenges of a new generation in the workplace. This quantitative study consists of a research question that seeks to explore Generation Z’s preferred work values, utilizing Super’s Work Values Inventory (SWVI), and five sub research questions that seek to report if there are statistically significant differences between work values in specific variables. These variables include gender, academic disciplines that participants are enrolled in Purdue University, citizenship (domestic and international students), race and ethnicity, and prior work experience. Mean scores from descriptive statistical analysis were used to rank the work values of Generation Z and a one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the effect of different variables with each work value. The results demonstrate that in the 12 work values, Generation Z places way of life first, achievement second, and supervisory relations third. Although most variables had a statistically significant difference in work values, the overall ranking associated with each variable aligns with the rankings of Generation Z’s overall work values. Implications and recommendations for HR include understanding Generation Z employees and further developing corresponding strategies based on Generation Z’s preferred work values. These implications may help HR engage and motivate this generation, increase employee retention and successful recruitment, and improve Generation Z’s productivity and loyalty for organizations; additionally, this study may increase understanding between generations to reduce generational conflicts and bridge the generation gap.

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Hsieh, Pei-Yu, "Exploring Generation Z’s Work Values: Implications for Future Work" (2018). Open Access Theses . 1395. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses/1395

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How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Proposal

Published on September 21, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.

When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic .

The proposal or prospectus stage is crucial for the development of your research. It helps you choose a type of research to pursue, as well as whether to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

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What should your proposal contain, dissertation question examples, what should your proposal look like, dissertation prospectus examples, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about proposals.

Prior to jumping into the research for your thesis or dissertation, you first need to develop your research proposal and have it approved by your supervisor. It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives .

Depending on your department’s requirements, there may be a defense component involved, where you present your research plan in prospectus format to your committee for their approval.

Your proposal should answer the following questions:

Why is your research necessary?
What is already known about your topic?
Where and when will your research be conducted?
Who should be studied?
How can the research best be done?

Ultimately, your proposal should persuade your supervisor or committee that your proposed project is worth pursuing.

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Strong research kicks off with a solid research question , and dissertations are no exception to this.

Dissertation research questions should be:

Focused on a single problem or issue
Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
Specific enough to answer thoroughly
Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly
What are the main factors enticing people under 30 in suburban areas to engage in the gig economy?
Which techniques prove most effective for 1st-grade teachers at local elementary schools in engaging students with special needs?
Which communication streams are the most effective for getting those aged 18-30 to the polls on Election Day?

An easy rule of thumb is that your proposal will usually resemble a (much) shorter version of your thesis or dissertation. While of course it won’t include the results section , discussion section , or conclusion , it serves as a “mini” version or roadmap for what you eventually seek to write.

Be sure to include:

A succinct introduction to your topic and problem statement
A brief literature review situating your topic within existing research
A basic outline of the research methods you think will best answer your research question
The perceived implications for future research
A reference list in the citation style of your choice

The length of your proposal varies quite a bit depending on your discipline and type of work you’re conducting. While a thesis proposal is often only 3-7 pages long, a prospectus for your dissertation is usually much longer, with more detailed analysis. Dissertation proposals can be up to 25-30 pages in length.

Writing a proposal or prospectus can be a challenge, but we’ve compiled some examples for you to get your started.

Example #1: “Geographic Representations of the Planet Mars, 1867-1907” by Maria Lane
Example #2: “Individuals and the State in Late Bronze Age Greece: Messenian Perspectives on Mycenaean Society” by Dimitri Nakassis
Example #3: “Manhood Up in the Air: A Study of Male Flight Attendants, Queerness, and Corporate Capitalism during the Cold War Era” by Phil Tiemeyer

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The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts and meanings, use qualitative methods .
If you want to analyze a large amount of readily-available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how it is generated, collect primary data.
If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:

Your anticipated title
Your abstract
Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review , research methods , avenues for future research, etc.)

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

Your research questions and/or hypotheses
Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests or thematic analysis )

A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives , ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.

Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

Researchability
Feasibility and specificity
Relevance and originality

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What tense to use when writing a thesis?

I am well aware of the fact that there are a number of questions that talk about tenses in research, but I still have not found exactly what I am after.

Basically my question is this, in a Master dissertation, should the tense be the same throughout the entire text? Or is it acceptable (or even required) to use different tenses in different structures?

Assuming the following structure, if you believe that there should be separate tenses, would the suggestions in brackets be correct?

Title ( Present )
Abstract ( Imperfect Past )
Introduction ( Present + Future )
Methodology ( Past Perfect, Present, Future or Mix? )
Results ( Past Perfect )
Discussion ( Present* )
Conclusion ( Mix?, conditional present )

*Would the choice of any present tense put all preceding sections in a past tense?

Looking at that structure I find it hard to see that only one tense should be adopted throughout the entire text.

Sources: This , this and that .

writing-style

I was about to say "The correct tense for the correct sections" but I see you are already thinking in terms of sections. Good question. It might be interesting to run corpus linguistics on this to find out. – Frames Catherine White Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 15:39
1 I would use the past only for discussion of prior work. – gerrit Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 17:09
@gerrit: In papers involving experiments, the experiments are typically described in the past tense. – Peter Shor Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 18:51
@PeterShor Maybe so. That makes me a minority. I don't destroy my instruments after use so when I describe them, I do so in the present tense. I might use them again! Consistency is most important, however. – gerrit Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 18:57
@gerrit: I can see writing "The apparatus consists of ..." , but do you mean you would also write "500 observations are taken for each value of the electric field" ? – Peter Shor Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 19:27

The answer to this question varies across disciplines. Your dissertation presumably falls within some academic discipline. Look at other papers in the same discipline, and see what tenses they use. For example, unlike your suggestion, in math papers the abstract is usually present tense.

If some of the premier journals in your discipline have a style guide, look at these style guides and see what they say.

The journal Nature , in which the majority of articles are in the sciences, has the following suggestions for verb tense (I've left out a few of their examples):

Past tense Work done We collected blood samples from . . . Consequently, astronomers decided to rename . . . Work reported Jankowsky reported a similar growth rate . . . In 2009, Chu published an alternative method to . . . Observations The mice in Group A developed, on average, twice as much . . . The conversion rate was close to 95% . . . Present tense General truths Microbes in the human gut have a profound influence on . . . The Reynolds number provides a measure of . . . Atemporal facts This paper presents the results of . . . Section 3.1 explains the difference between . . . Behbood's 1969 paper provides a framework for . . . Future tense Perspectives In a follow-up experiment, we will study the role of . . . The influence of temperature will be the object of future research . . .

"We collected blood samples from . . ." That's strange. I thought they want you to avoid I and We? "Blood samples were collected from..." sounds much more like a nature paper. – user64845 Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 22:01
@DSVA: There has been a rethinking of the tradition of never using we or I in scientific papers. While some journals still maintain this rule, many welcome use of the first person plural. Another quote from that same link: 'As a second argument against a systematic preference for the passive voice, readers sometimes need people to be mentioned. A sentence such as "The temperature is believed to be the cause for . . . " is ambiguous. Readers will want to know who believes this — the authors of the paper, or the scientific community as a whole? ' (continued ...) – Peter Shor Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 23:55
'To clarify the sentence, use the active voice and set the appropriate people as the subject, in either the third or the first person, as in the examples below. Biologists believe the temperature to be . . . Keustermans et al. (1997) believe the temperature to be . . . The authors believe the temperature to be . . . We believe the temperature to be . . . ' – Peter Shor Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 23:55
And let me modify the Nature suggestions. I have the impression that work done and observations are usually past tense, but work reported is often present perfect tense — Jankowsky has reported a similar growth rate ... Of course, if you mention a year with work reported, then for grammatical reasons it has to be past tense. – Peter Shor Commented Aug 27, 2017 at 20:16

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How To Write Master Thesis Pdf: Step By Step Example and Quickly Tips
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How to write a fantastic thesis introduction (+15 examples)
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How to properly describe future works in Master's Thesis?
If the work that you have done in your master's thesis has been worthwhile, the most likely outcome will be that other researchers will want to develop your work further. Since this is the standard state of affairs, there is a standard place for describing future work in your thesis. This place is at the end of the Conclusions chapter. If you ...
How to Write: Future Work/Conclusions
Spend another paragraph explaining the highlights of your results. These are the main results you want the reader to remember after they put down the paper, so ignore any small details. Conclude. Finally, finish off with a sentence or two that wraps up your paper. I find this can often be the hardest part to write.
Writing Conclusion and Future Work section of Dissertation
The conclusion and future work section of a PhD or Post Graduate dissertation serves as the pivotal culmination of extensive research, critical analysis, and scholarly exploration. It is the chapter where the researcher brings their study to a satisfying closure, summarizing the main findings, discussing their implications, and paving the way ...
How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion
Step 2: Summarize and reflect on your research. Step 3: Make future recommendations. Step 4: Emphasize your contributions to your field. Step 5: Wrap up your thesis or dissertation. Full conclusion example. Conclusion checklist. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.
PDF Structure of a Master thesis
Structure of the Thesis. This chapter reviews previous work done in the domain of the thesis. It should start by indicating what kind of related work has been considered and why. It should end with a conclusion identifying gaps and remaining problems (which actually justify why the problem is relevant to consider).
PDF How to write a good master thesis
To put your results into context and reach conclusions. Formulate conclusions and interpret them in the light of known information. Generalize conclusions into what is it we learned. Make sure that what you have learned is indeed an answer to the question posed in the introduction. Thoughts on applied relevance/the future.
Dissertation & Thesis Outline
Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates. Published on June 7, 2022 by Tegan George.Revised on November 21, 2023. A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process.It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to ...
How to Write a Master's Thesis: A Guide to Planning Your Thesis
How to Write a Master's Thesis: The Final Stages After your work is done and everything is written down, you will have to give your thesis a good, thorough polishing. This is where you will have to organize the information, draft it into a paper format with an abstract, and abbreviate things to help meet your word-count limit.
Guide to Writing Your Thesis/Dissertation : Graduate School
For master's theses, only the abstract is available. ProQuest provides worldwide distribution of your work from the master copy. You retain control over your dissertation and are free to grant publishing rights as you see fit. The formatting requirements contained in this guide meet all ProQuest specifications. Copies of Dissertation and Thesis
Your Guide to Writing a Successful Masters Dissertation
It can be helpful to think of your Masters dissertation as a series of closely interlinked essays, rather than one overwhelming paper. The size of this section will depend on the overall word count for your dissertation. However, to give you a rough idea for a 15,000-word dissertation, the discussion part will generally be about 12,000 words long.
Include background to ideas for future work in related work chapter of
You can always write a Future work section that can be as long as you want. My overall advise when writing your thesis (especially for Masters) is to keep it simple and straight. Share. Improve this answer. Follow answered Nov 15, 2012 at 6:53. Leon palafox Leon palafox. 12k 9 9 gold ...
PDF Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing
A Practical Guide to Dissertation and Thesis Writing. By Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith. This book first published 2019. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PDF Chapter 7 Conclusions and Future Work
The main thesis validated by this dissertation is that a deeper understanding of the computational nature of reflection and illumination is important and leads to new practical algorithms. Secondly, since the properties of the reflection operator impact a number of different areas, the same fundamental insights lead to novel algorithms for a ...
A complete guide to writing a master's thesis
Step 1 - Understand your research questions. The first step in the reading phase of your master's thesis is knowing what research questions you are trying to answer. Hopefully you have identified these questions with your supervisor before you started to work on your thesis.
How to Write a Master's Thesis (with Pictures)
1. Complete a literature review. Review the literature and research currently available that is relevant to your Master's thesis. This review of the literature must be exhaustive to ensure that your Master's thesis will be important and not be redundant. It is important that your thesis idea be original and relevant.
What Is a Thesis?
Revised on April 16, 2024. A thesis is a type of research paper based on your original research. It is usually submitted as the final step of a master's program or a capstone to a bachelor's degree. Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. Other than a dissertation, it is one of the longest pieces of writing students typically complete.
How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion
Step 3: Make future recommendations. You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms. Example: Recommendation sentence.
Exploring Generation Z's Work Values: Implications for Future Work
Abstract. Work values are often studied in literature with relation to generational issues as they represent an important norm in comparing and understanding expectations of various generations of employees in the workplace. Generation Z, individuals born between 1995 and 2010, is preparing to enter the workplace, yet there is limited exploring ...
thesis
2. There's no way to know but to try it. Sometimes the ideas people say they'd like to try in their future work don't pan out. Also, you can be pretty sure that they are working on it. They don't have an enforceable claim on the area, but given the head start that they have, they might beat you to finishing the idea (if it's viable). - Bill ...
How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Introduction
Overview of the structure. To help guide your reader, end your introduction with an outline of the structure of the thesis or dissertation to follow. Share a brief summary of each chapter, clearly showing how each contributes to your central aims. However, be careful to keep this overview concise: 1-2 sentences should be enough.
How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Proposal
When starting your thesis or dissertation process, one of the first requirements is a research proposal or a prospectus. It describes what or who you want to examine, delving into why, when, where, and how you will do so, stemming from your research question and a relevant topic. The proposal or prospectus stage is crucial for the development ...
Thesis' "Future Work" section
Alongside my bachelor's thesis, I've been taking a course that trains students in working in teams for projects. Let's call this 'course X'. Coincidentally, the project that I'm working on in course X happens to be very similar to my thesis topic. So, in the Future Work section of my thesis, I wrote about the project that we're working on in ...
What tense to use when writing a thesis?
18. The answer to this question varies across disciplines. Your dissertation presumably falls within some academic discipline. Look at other papers in the same discipline, and see what tenses they use. For example, unlike your suggestion, in math papers the abstract is usually present tense.

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How to Write the Conclusion and Future Work section of Your Dissertation or Thesis?

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How to Write a Master's Thesis: A Guide to Planning Your Thesis, Pursuing It, and Avoiding Pitfalls

Part 1: Initial Considerations

What's Your Goal?

Major Types of Theses

Time and Energy Considerations

Part 2: Form an Initial Thesis Question, and Find a Supervisor

What to Say to Your Supervisor

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help (to a Degree)

Part 3: Revise Your Thesis

Seek Out Knowledge or Research Gaps

Talk with Experts in Your Field (and Don't Be Afraid to Revise Your Thesis)

Part 4: Select a Proposal Committee

How to Prepare for Committee Meetings

Part 5: Write Your Thesis

Thesis Writing: It's Important to Pace Yourself and Take Breaks

How to Become More Comfortable with Presenting Your Work

What to Do If Your Relationship with Your Supervisor Sours

What to Do If a Crisis Strikes

Part 6: Polish and Defend Your Master's Thesis

Conclusion and Parting Thoughts

We’re Masters at Master’s Theses! Make Yours Shine.

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A complete guide to writing a master’s thesis

Start with a plan (and stick to it)

Do your reading

Step 1 – Understand your research questions

Step 2 – Make reading easier

Step 3 – Take good notes

Do your research

Your research type and tools

Planning ahead for better outcomes

Write your Master’s thesis: the right structure

Before you start writing

Beginning to write

Staying on track

Finishing and proofreading

Final words

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What Is a Misplaced Modifier? With Examples

Fewer vs. Less: Which Is Correct?

How Long Should a Sentence Be?

How to Write a Master's Thesis

Choosing a Topic

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Planning an Outline