The Front Matter and Introduction of Your Thesis: Outline and Structure
The first few pages of your dissertation need to give a lot
of technical information about your study. These pages are used by
administrators, by your college or university library, and by any readers who
search for research like yours in order to understand the details of your study
and to categorize it within databases.
Title Page
The title page
has to contain the following information:
·
Your full name
·
The full title of your dissertation
·
Your university or college department’s details –
the name of your institution, emblem and department name, as well as the
faculty or school your department forms part of
·
The name of your supervisor/ promoter and their
rank or title
·
Whether your dissertation is in partial fulfillment
of your degree, or whether it is in fulfillment of the degree. If you’re
required to also do coursework, extra assignments or community interaction as
part of your degree requirements, your dissertation is in partial fulfillment
of your degree. Indicate this before your degree name.
·
The full and correct name of your instructional
program (eg. Philosophiae doctor, Magister Technologiae, etc). Find these
titles on your department guide or registration information at your
institution. Your proof of registration should contain the full name of the
degree. Make sure it’s correct.
An example of a title page, and a template where you can
swap out the information for your own, can be found on the resources page at
the Academic Coaching website: www.writeyourthesis.com/p/resources.html.
Your department might require additional information, so once you’ve included
the basics, be sure to consult your supervisor about anything you should add.
Declaration
The second page of your thesis needs to contain a
declaration which you will need to sign. The declaration states that all of the
work in the thesis is your own, original work based on your own research (in
the case of collaborations, indicate this in your declaration. Your
introductory section will clearly have to state the contributions of each collaborator
in order to justify the conferment of your degree). You also need to declare
that the contributions of others have been credited, and all resources used in
your thesis are fully referenced.
You also need to state that the work hasn’t been submitted
before for any other degree, and that you’ve upheld your department’s ethical
requirements. If you’ve been given an ethical clearance reference number, state
it in your declaration.
An example of a declaration could look as follows:
Declaration of
Originality and Compliance
I hereby declare that the work contained in this dissertation is
completely my own, original work, and was not previously submitted, in whole or
in part, for the application of any other degree. I declare that any sources
consulted or any external contributions have been fully referenced and credited.
Furthermore, this declaration acknowledges my full understanding of the ethical
requirements of my department, and I affirm that I have upheld these
requirements in the course of my work.
Name: Type
your name
Student Number: Your student ID number
Department: The
name of your department and School
Date: The
full date at which you sign the declaration
Signature: Your
signature
Abstract
The third page of your dissertation contains your abstract or
summary. This needs to briefly summarize what your thesis is about. Depending
on the length of your thesis, your abstract can be between 150 – 500 words. Try
and keep it as brief as possible. Mention all of the main points you’ll be
looking at, as well as your overarching thesis statement. Also mention the main
findings of your study in your abstract in one or two sentences. You can find a
free short guide on writing an abstract at www.writeyourthesis.com.
Table of Contents
The next page should have an easy-to-read table of contents.
Number the pages of your thesis and give the page number of each section and
chapter in your table of contents so that the reader can easily navigate your
work.
Acknowledgements
You are allowed to acknowledge any person or institution
that has assisted you in your research. If you have been funded by a
scholarship or research grant, you should acknowledge this contribution. You can
thank your friends, family or supervisor for the help they’ve provided. This
section can be as personal as you like.
Introduction
The first chapter of your dissertation will be your
introduction. In your introduction, you should give some background information
(context), the main point or contention of your dissertation (thesis
statement), and an overview of your
research and expected findings.
Most of your introductory chapter will be made up from
information prepared for your research proposal, although some of the
information for your proposal will be found in the method and literature review
chapters.
You can find a full book on writing introductions at the
Academic Coaching website if you need more information. However, a full thesis introduction
is much longer than the standard essay or proposal introductions. You’ll need
to include a lot of information here, including introducing all of the ideas
and concepts that you’ll be elaborating on more later in your thesis. Your
thesis introduction should be between five and 15 pages, and you should give
subheadings for each of the parts of your introduction.
Let’s look at the subsections for each of the different
elements of your thesis introduction, and explain how to structure that
information in your chapter.
1.1.
Background
Your background or context
section gives a basic idea of what the field is that your research takes place
within. Explain some of the emerging research, and where there are gaps in the
research that your study is responding to. What are the ideas or theories that
influence the type of study that your thesis will do?
1.2.
Motivation
What was your motivation for choosing this topic? Give the
reader a clear idea of how your study could add value to your field. What kind
of knowledge are you building on? What kind of information could your study
clarify? Why did you choose to undertake this study?
1.3.
Problem
Statement
Clearly state the problem that your research is trying to
address. This could include your research questions or explain the gaps in
research with some clarity. Most of this can be taken directly from your
proposal; see the guide on research proposals given in the Academic Coaching
resources.
1.4.
Theoretical
Background
What is the main theory or theories that you are relying on for
your research. Explain this theory in a few paragraphs and explain how it can
help you to complete your research.
1.5.
Thesis
Statement/ Research Aims
Give the main contention or the main hypothesis which you
tested in your research. Explain each facet of this hypothesis or contention.
How does it offer an answer to your research questions?
1.6.
Overview
of Chapters
Describe the chapters of your thesis and what each chapter
does. This should be about four to seven paragraphs, each paragraph dealing
with one chapter of your thesis. Give detail here; your reader should get a
clear sense of exactly what each paragraph does and the sub-conclusion that you
reach in each paragraph, and how this fits into your overall thesis statement.
This basic outline will give you a comprehensive
introduction to your dissertation that accomplishes all of the requirements.
Next, we’ll look at the literature review and how to present the information in
a structured, clear way.
Review Your Learning:
·
The context component of an introduction gives
general background information that the reader needs in order to understand
your study
·
The front matter is important for categorizing
your work
·
Your introduction is a longer version of the
standard format (context, thesis statement, overview). This time, your introduction
has many subheadings