There are many articles online that claim to explain how to successfully write a thesis or dissertation. Most of them are completely useless! This article has been written by a published academic who has helped hundreds of students to successfully write their thesis or dissertation. Find out how!

1. Choose a Topic

The first step is to choose a broad topic for your thesis. For example, if you are undertaking a PhD in History, the topic might be as broad as women’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War. You will refine and narrow this topic at a later stage. Choosing the topic for your thesis is an important step that requires a great deal of thoughtful consideration. Many factors need to be considered. Ask yourself these questions:

What topic in my field interests me the most?

If you are writing an Honors thesis, you will need to maintain your interest in the topic you choose for at least one year. If you are completing a PhD, you will be researching this topic for three or more years! For this reason, it is important that you choose a topic that will hold your enthusiasm, interest and passion for an extended period. There is nothing worse than being locked in to studying a thesis topic that no longer interests you.

Will I be able to find an appropriate supervisor for that topic?

Finding a supervisor is an important step in your postgraduate journey and it is something you need to consider when choosing your topic. There needs to be a balance between your interest in a topic and the ability of a specific supervisor to work in this area. It is not useful to choose a topic that is of immense interest to you if no one at your university has sufficient knowledge in the area to act as your supervisor. However, it is also not advisable to choose a supervisor first and then choose a topic based solely on their research interests, as you may end up studying something that is not of interest to you.

Will I have access to the appropriate sources to research this topic?

Similarly, it is not useful to choose a topic that is immensely interesting to you if there is very little information on the subject. When choosing your topic, consider what types of sources you would need to be able to research it well, and find out if you will have access to these sources. If, as in the example above, you will be studying the Spanish Civil War, can you speak Spanish? Will you be able to travel to Spain to access sources? Does a wealth of material on your chosen subject exist?

2. Conduct the Literature Review

Once you have chosen a topic to study for your thesis, you need to begin your background research to discover what has already been written on the topic by other researchers. There are several reasons why it is important to conduct a thorough Literature Review:

• Most thesis structures require you to include a well written Literature Review in your thesis, so that you can demonstrate you have conducted in-depth research in the field and possess a sound knowledge of it
• You need to study what has been written on a topic so you can identify a gap in the current literature that can be filled by your thesis, since a thesis needs to make an original contribution to a field of knowledge

3. Narrow your Topic and Define your Research Questions

Once you have conducted your Literature Review and identified a gap in the current field of knowledge in your topic, you will be able to narrow your topic further. This is an important step as this is the point at which you will decide what questions your thesis will answer.

In the example of the PhD student who knew she wanted to study women’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, after a careful review of the literature she might have found that one unexamined area is the role of Republican women in combat during the war. This is a much narrower topic than ‘women’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War’, and thus it is a suitable subject for a thesis. The student would then need to define her research questions. Her main research question might be ‘Why was the military participation of Republican women in the Spanish Civil War significant?’ In order to answer this main research question, she would first have to answer a set of sub-questions, like these:

• How many women fought in the Spanish Civil War?
• What motivated these women to volunteer for combat?
• Why were these women removed from their combat positions only eight months after the beginning of the war?

Thus, the third step in writing a thesis is narrowing your topic, deciding on a main research question and deciding on sub-questions.

4. Research Proposal

If you are writing a Masters or a PhD thesis, you will normally be required to write a detailed Research Proposal in the first few months of your candidature. If you are undertaking a PhD, for example, you might have six months to write a 10,000 word proposal. This Research Proposal will include information you have discovered in your Literature Review, and will outline what your thesis aims to achieve. For many students, this Research Proposal later becomes the basis for the Introduction and Literature Review in their final thesis. The successful completion of this proposal and its acceptance by your university is a necessary step in order to continue your candidature. Once you have written your Research Proposal, it is important that you have it professionally edited prior to submitting it, to ensure you have the best chance of its acceptance. See ‘The Final Stage: Professional Editing’ below.

5. Conduct the Research

The aim in conducting your research is to answer your research questions and develop a thesis statement. The thesis statement is your answer to your main research question. It defines the argument that you will be putting forward throughout your thesis. In fact, the word ‘thesis’ means ‘argument’ or ‘position’.

Conducting the research is the most important and time-consuming stage of writing a thesis. How you do this will depend on your field of study and the research project you have created. It is important to consult with your supervisor throughout this stage and to use time management skills to ensure that you stay on track.

6. Follow the Guidelines

Your university department or school will have guidelines that you must follow when writing your thesis and it is important to be familiar with these before you begin writing your first draft. These guidelines will vary from university to university. They even vary within universities, as different disciplines follow different guidelines. It is important that you check with your supervisor about where to find the correct guidelines to follow. Often these guidelines will be very detailed and will specify the following things: the length of your final thesis; the structure of the thesis and what elements it should contain; the referencing style to be used; and the formatting and presentation of the thesis. If you have trouble following some of the guidelines, for example the formatting and presentation or the correct referencing of your thesis, your professional editor will be able to assist you in these matters (please see ‘The Final Stage: Professional Editing’).

7. Write the First Draft of the Thesis

Once you have completed your research, you will arrive at what can be the most nerve-racking stage, writing up your results in the form of your first draft. Before you begin writing, it is important that you finalise a detailed plan for your thesis (one that you no doubt will have begun developing during the research stage). With a detailed plan and organised research, you will not feel like you are starting from scratch when you begin writing your first draft. Your professional editor at Elite Editing & Tutoring can help you during this stage, as some students find it helpful to submit individual chapters for editing as soon as they have written them. This is especially helpful for students who have English as a second language. This way you are able to submit drafts to your supervisor that have already been edited to improve the level of English and your supervisor can concentrate on advising you regarding the ideas and arguments contained in your thesis, rather than being distracted by the language use.

8. Thesis Structure

The structure of a thesis varies widely. It will depend on what level you are studying at, what field you are studying in, the guidelines you are following, your supervisor’s suggestions, and how best to present the type of research you have done. Below is an example of a common thesis structure. This is a guide only and you will need to adjust it to suit your needs and adhere to your department’s guidelines.

• Title Page
• Contents
• Abstract
• Declaration of Original Work
• Acknowledgments
• List of Figures and Tables
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Thesis Chapters
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Appendices

9. The Final Stage: Professional Editing

Once you have completed writing your thesis, it is vital that you have it professionally edited by an academic editor. You have just spent between a year (for Honors students) and over three years (for PhD students) doing your research and writing up your results. After all this effort, it is critical that your work is presented in the best possible way. Using a professional academic editor will ensure that your work is polished, well written, and presented correctly. If English is your second language, having your thesis professionally edited is even more important. You do not want mistakes in your writing to confuse your examiners or distract them from the important arguments you are making.

This article has been written by Dr Lisa Lines, the Director and Head Editor of Elite Editing & Tutoring. For more information on how to write your thesis or dissertation, please visit their website.

Please note that some universities require postgraduate students to obtain the permission of their supervisor prior to having their thesis professionally edited. We recommend that students follow the policies of their universities.

Dr. Lisa Lines
Director and Head Editor
Elite Editing & Tutoring

Web: http://www.eliteediting.com.au
Blog: http://eliteediting.blogspot.com

The times are desperate, you are close to graduating but you have something holding you back from touching that diploma. That’s right, you didn’t finish up your Thesis and now you need help even starting, its not easy but with this Thesis Writing Guide, you could see that diploma a little sooner than later.

What is a Thesis and what does it signify? A Thesis as actually a document one must submit in order to signify their completion of their degree or masters. The other name for Thesis is Dissertation but in some countries the latter term is only used by those trying to attain their doctorate. It is a vital manual of the author’s researches and finds much like a journal but with solid facts and dates to help the written articles in being proven real and true. In this article, you will be given a Thesis Writing Guide that will help you learn the skeletal structure and form of how to start and end a proper Thesis without the main mistakes many commit when making one.

Rule number one in making a Thesis, be sure of the topic you had chosen of your given field. Don’t blindly choose any topic because the Thesis is a form of upgrade that shows you to be of higher education. He higher the degree, the more sophisticated and professional you must present your Thesis.  You topic must present usefulness to the world as if it were a portfolio of future ventures just awaiting to be tested and so you must be careful to not place any random thing to fill the void. This is your brain-child, your skill-baby and if you don’t show how much you have nurtured it with care, they won’t think twice about giving you that diploma with care. Keep in mind that this is the most significant factor of the whole Thesis Writing Guide for you to remember.

Rule number two, get to the point, keep to the main information needed to be provided and don’t beat around the bush. You are making a practical and very technical manual of your profession and what you’ve found in it. In this Thesis Writing Guide, you are to learn that filling your Thesis with theories and other less hands-on methods of dissertation would not yield you much points as the point of a Thesis is to tell your department what you’ve done and accomplished and not philosophized was done.

Rule number three in the Thesis Writing Guide I’ve prepared is: do not gathered completely from one source. It is a big point-deducting mistake to rely solely on one singular place of gathering you needed facts and research material as it shows you were not diligent enough to have truly searched for the right needed and specific pieces of information and evidential facts to the whole point of your study. You need to be very serious and show an air of intellect that you were not lazy to have just grabbed from any place and shove it into your manual. That Thesis can determine if you eligible to get what you were working so hard for-your diploma.

Keep in mind that the Thesis Writing Guide was mere understanding to how to make a proper content and outline structure of how to write your Thesis and not how to actually write it word for word. That is your job as it is your creativity sand ingenuity that makes the Thesis very much yours.

Before you can write your thesis itself it will be necessary to submit your thesis proposal. A thesis proposal is a brief presentation of your plan of attack when it comes to the research you will use to write your thesis. Within the thesis proposal you will want to provide information on the main focus of the thesis, your anticipated course of action, and the results you expect to derive from it.

A thesis proposal can sometimes be orally given, but more times than not it is given in a written form of presentation. This decision is upon to the examiner or committee that will review your thesis proposal and it will be your job to convince them with your thesis proposal that your proposal is actually with developing.

For that reason you need to be sure that your thesis proposal is the absolute best that it can be and that it is handed in the proper format. There are 13 main components that should be used when formulating your thesis proposal and these further break down as follows:

1.    Introduction: This should be one to two pages in length and should capture the reader’s interest. Many choose to write this section last as the overview is best given after the project is complete.
2.    Problem Statement: Begin by coming up with a research question then restate that question to be in the form of a statement.
3.    Background: Give examples of why the problem you are choosing is worth perusing and cite at least two examples of the problem if possible. This is your opportunity to convince the reader that your chosen problem is a significant one.
4.    Purpose: ‘The purpose of this study is to….’ You need to fill in the blank according to what your thesis will be about. You should be addressing a change, an understanding, an analysis, or interpretation of a problem here.
5.    Significance: Write this as if someone said to you, “so what?’ In this section you will not want to focus ion the research problem but rather the benefits of your study instead.
6.    Methodology: Go over you points of view both past and present and list at least three possible research methodologies that you can use in your thesis.
7.    Literature Review: Briefly go over other studies and research that have been conducted in regards to your thesis.
8.    Hypothesis: What will the expected results of your study be? Focus on what you expect to find and not how you plan on finding it.
9.    Definition of Terms: Use synonyms and descriptions to define terms in the problem, purpose, and methodology sections that could otherwise prove to be confusing to readers.
10.    Assumptions: Make the reader aware of how you feel about the subject of your thesis and give assumed beliefs that will come with your study.
11.    Scope and Limitations: Give any abstract and practical limitations associated with your study. Then tell how far from your expectations this all may be.
12.    Procedure: Describe in great detail all of the steps you will take in order to achieve your goal of the thesis and do it in such a way that someone else could replicate the results if they wanted to simply by rereading your work.
13.    Long-Range Consequences: What are the consequences of you having done your thesis or not done your thesis at least three year out? If you are successful at carrying out the results of your thesis will he results confirm or contradict your hypothesis or will it simply be inconclusive?

Do not forget to give your thesis proposal a strong title that will immediately grab the attention of the reader. It is also a good idea to outline your ideas before laying them out in the format above. Remember, your thesis proposal must dazzle the reviewers so that you will be able to go on and do the actual thesis and thus gain the degree you have been working so long and hard for.