Writing Your Thesis

            Students have a choice to write their thesis in a traditional format or an alternative paper-based format.  The decision on which format is used should be made together by the student, their supervisor, and committee members. If no agreement can be reached, the default will be for the traditional format.

Form

            The APA Publication Manual provides guidelines regarding proper formatting of tables and figures.  Whether you choose a traditional format or a paper-based format, your thesis should be prepared as per the APA Publication Manual (6^th ed.).  In particular:

• Double space your thesis on 8.5 x 11 inch plain white paper.
• Type only on one side of each page.
• Use a 12-point font (preferred typefaces are Arial and Times Roman).
• Create page margins as follows:  Left margin 1.5 inches (4 cm) – this allows sufficient clearance for binding your thesis; top, bottom, and right margins should be 1 inch (2.54 cm) except that the running head and page number in the top right corner should be .5 inch from the top.
• Do not right-justify lines of text (i.e., do not format so that you get an even line of text on both the left and right margins); instead, flush everything left and let the right margin look “uneven” – like what you see in this document.
• Indent the first line of every paragraph about half an inch.
• In presenting data/results:  Use a zero before the decimal point for numbers < 1 (e.g., “0.27”) except for certain statistical values such as p values (e.g., “p < .05”) and r values; two decimal places is customary in reporting data in Results sections. 

Prefactory pages

            Whether you choose a traditional format or a paper-based format, your document will begin with a series of prefactory pages which appear before the Introduction or Chapter 1.  Each must be a separate page.  Prefactory pages are not numbered but must appear in the correct order, as outlined below.

Title Page

Every thesis must have a title page.

Abstract

A thesis is preceded by an abstract or summary which may include the following:

ü  a statement of the problem or a thesis statement

ü  a summary of the methodology: a description of the approach taken in the thesis, the research, and/or the methods of investigation

ü  the main points made in the thesis or a summary of the main findings, and general conclusions.

Abstracts should be no longer than 150 words.  The abstract must be double-spaced.  It should not contain graphs, charts, tables, or illustrations.  Symbols and foreign words and phrases should be displayed clearly and accurately.  All pertinent place names and other proper nouns should be included.

Acknowledgements

In an Acknowledgements section, mention those who helped you intellectually. Who funded your research? Who directly helped you along the way? You might have had assistance with your research, or some experiments or data analysis, or with word processing.

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents should be detailed and include:

ü  everything in the thesis document including the Abstract and Acknowledgements and not just chapter titles but various levels of headings within chapters and sections.

List of Tables

Provide a separate page with a list of tables used in the text. Include:

ü  the table number;

ü  • the full title of the table;

ü  • the page number where the table appears in the text.

(Tables in the text must be numbered in order of appearance.)

List of Figures

Provide a separate list of figures. The same conventions that apply to the list of tables apply to the list of figures.

Adapted from the University of Ottawa website.

A Traditional Format Thesis

Chapter 1 – Introduction

            This first chapter must introduce the thesis with an emphasis on its key components, providing a clear statement of the topic or problem under investigation. It generally includes:

• context information;
• theoretical framework;
• statement of the problem or 'gap' in the research;
• aims of the project;
• brief description of your methodology / research;
• outline of chapters - Thesis plan.

            The purpose of the Introduction is to provide a rationale for your research project. It establishes the need for your research within the current knowledge of the discipline, in a clearly constructed logical and explicit argument; clarifying how this work will contribute to knowledge in the field.  In addition, the Introduction often discusses why the particular approach taken in conducting the research has been chosen.

            To establish the need for your research, you must indicate in precise terms the problem which has not yet been adequately investigated. This is usually done by showing:

• the limitations of previous research;
• the gaps in the previous research;
• the unresolved conflicts in the field that still require investigation;
• new developments that are required in your field.

            The Introduction generally moves from general information providing background about the research field to specific information about the research project itself, culminating in an outline of the chapters. This finale to the introductory chapter provides a plan of the structure of your project, describing chapter by chapter, the major components of the research and showing how the various threads are woven together.

Chapter 2 - Method Section

            In a thesis, you are setting out an argument based on evidence. This evidence may have many different forms and be gathered or selected by many different methods. However, every thesis needs to answer these questions:

            "How did you do your research?"

            "Why did you do it that way?"

            This covers not only the methods used to collect and analyze data, but also the theoretical framework that informs both the choice of methods and the approach to interpreting the data, and relates all of these explicitly to the research question(s) addressed in the thesis.

Chapter 3 - Results Section

Quantitative Studies

            There are generally accepted guidelines for how to display data and summarize the results of statistical analyses of data about populations or groups of people, or animals. However, this display needs to be presented in an informative way.

1. Describe the sample.
2. Remind the reader of the research question being addressed, or the hypothesis being tested.
3. Tell the reader what you want him/her to get from the data.
4. State which differences are significant.
5. Highlight the important trends and differences/comparisons.
6. Indicate whether the hypothesis is confirmed, not confirmed, or partially confirmed.

Qualitative Studies

            The analysis of qualitative data cannot be neatly presented in tables and figures, as quantitative results can be. It must all be expressed in words, and this results in a large quantity of written material, through which you must guide your reader.

            Structure is therefore very important. Try to make your sections and subsections reflect your thematic analysis of the data, and to make sure your reader knows how these themes evolved. Be clear what type of analysis you are doing (e.g., constant comparative method, interpretive phenomenological analysis).  Try not to make this chapter a string of quotes.  Make sure there is explanation of the themes and only include quotes to illustrate your themes. Headings and subheadings, as well as directions to the reader, are forms of signposting you can use to make these chapters easy to navigate.

Chapter 4 – Discussion Section

Research Question

            In your discussion, you must draw together your research question and your own research results. You will need to briefly summarize the major findings that come from the research and relate them to what you originally proposed to find out. If your research is testing a hypothesis, you need to answer these questions:

• Do your research findings support your initial hypothesis? Why and how?
• Do your findings only support the hypothesis in part? Why and how?
• Do your findings disprove your hypothesis? Why and how?
• What else do your findings tell you, over and above what you initially set out to investigate?

 Relation to Other Research

            Since one of the requirements of a graduate degree is to make a contribution to knowledge, it is essential to show how your results fit in with other work that has been done in your field.

• Point out the agreements and disagreements between your data and that of others.
• In presenting your own interpretation of the results, consider the strengths and weaknesses of alternative interpretations from the literature.

Chapter 5 – Conclusions

 Present and Discuss the Main Findings of your Research

            You will have already presented specific conclusions drawn from the results of each stage of your investigation in earlier chapters of your thesis. In the discussion section of the thesis, you will have drawn some conclusions. These can now be woven into a series of well organized conclusions of the work as a whole and should connect with the original project aims, its importance and the ways in which it contributes to the knowledge of the discipline. In the Conclusions chapter, you present the broad general conclusions of the entire investigation.

Limitations of the Research

            Within the concluding chapter, you will discuss limitations of the research. While you will present confidence regarding the scholarly aspect of your research, your findings and the significance of the work, you will simultaneously show humility in recognizing that it is still only an in depth study into a very tiny aspect of the field. While you may succeed in doing that exceptionally well, you will also need to demonstrate that you appreciate that it is limited. Additionally, even within the most comprehensive and large scale study, there are limitations by virtue of the possible scope, methodological restrictions, and practical realities. All claims and generalizations therefore, have to be tempered by this knowledge, and should be made using cautious language. 

 Recommendations for Future Work

            It is generally accepted as good practice to recommend areas and possibilities for further research and future work that is indicated by the present project. The study should open up new questions that can be addressed in the future. In this section you will suggest various useful ways of extending the scope of the research presented in the thesis.

Implications

            Another aspect of making clear the contribution of your research is to draw out the implications of your findings. Depending on the nature or your research, these will probably be related to:

• current theory;
• technical applications;
• clinical practice.

Adapted from the Monash University website

 Paper-based Thesis Format

Body of Text

Introductory chapter (Introduction) to the entire thesis with its own reference page:

·      Establishes the student’s familiarity with the field, sets out the objectives of the thesis, places the research in the larger context of the candidate’s discipline, and explains the overall thematic cohesiveness of the articles.

·      This chapter should identify research patterns in the area, reviewing previous publications and current research.

·      It should also include a detailed analysis of how the articles included in the text address the question/topic being studied, and how the articles each contribute to the study.

            Each subsequent chapter is presented in a self-contained journal article format without an abstract, but with its own reference page:

·      These need not have been submitted to any journal. 

·      Chapters of the thesis and self-contained articles need to be integrated and therefore need to flow cogently from one to another.  It needs to be made clear how the chapters are linked and how they contribute to each other.

·      Each table and figure is located within the appropriate paper, immediately following the first text reference to it, or the tables and figures may be grouped at the end of each paper before the reference page. Both tables and figures in this type of format are to be numbered consecutively using the chapter number (e.g., tables in Chapter 2 would be numbered Table 2-1, 2-2, and so on; tables in Chapter 3 would be numbered Table 3-1, 3-2, and so on).

Final chapter (General Discussion and Conclusions):

·         Relates the separate studies to each other and to a relevant discipline or field of study.

·         It might also set out recommendations for future research or contain implications for professional practice.

·         This section has its own reference page.

Appendices (if any) may contain details of methodology, tabulated data, and so on, not provided in detail in previous chapters.

Page Numbering

            All pages of the thesis, beginning with the Introduction or Chapter 1, must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3 and so on), including pages containing tables, figures, illustrations, reference pages, and Appendices. APA format should be followed.

Publication

            It is expected that the articles presented shall deal with the same research question or set of questions. The publications included in the thesis may include jointly written papers, although the candidate must normally be the principal author of a major part of the work. In cases of multi-authored articles, candidates are required to indicate in the thesis appendix, by means of a list, their contribution to each article. Students are required to seek and obtain copyright permission with regard to their published work and will be required to include in the appendix a declaration stating that such permission has been given.

          Provide a footnote for any or all chapters that have been submitted for publication, accepted for publication, or published. In order to avoid copyright problems, please use the following format for wording in the footnote:

A version of this chapter has been submitted for publication/accepted for publication/published. Jones 1984. Journal of Data. 48: 206-215.

UNB and University of Alberta websites consulted.