Thesis Writing
Before enrolling in any master’s degree course, it’s crucial to understand what actually thesis is and when you’ll be asked to write one. Thesis is a long scholarly paper that students are familiar with from undergrad. The point of thesis writing is to demonstrate the ability to think critically on a particular topic and knowledgeably debate the profound information. It gives an opportunity to develop understanding on a subject that is related to the specialization area that student aims to pursue professionally. Institutes often require students to complete their thesis in order to earn master’s degree on time. A research-oriented degree demands for thesis writing as chance for student to prove their professional capability in their chosen career. For instance, an economic major would investigate the effects of Covid-19 on labour market of specific country whereas an education major would look at impact of technological advancement of changing teaching strategies. The word count for thesis writing differs depending on the subject or university requirements. Also, the completion of thesis writing is then followed by a panel discussion where students are required to defend the work they have carried out.
Thesis vs Dissertation:
Many of the students misguidedly use the words “dissertation” and “thesis” interchangeably, but they are commonly two different kinds. Thesis writing is a research paper but it includes taking preliminary research from others while composing own analytical points. It proves how much understanding a student has developed throughout the study tenure. Whereas dissertation is pretty longer than thesis, and also a great chance during doctorate program to contribute to new practices, theories and knowledge in the field. The idea is to come up with whole new concept and to defend its worth.
Tutoring Lounge has been assisting thousands of students who are facing challenges in thesis writing which is usually in the last semester of the degree completion. Our consultants specialise in their field of study and offer customized guidance from research proposal to thesis completion and then to the thesis defence. Our consultants use collaborative learning approach to yield finest results, because what one can’t think of the other does. Also, we encourage students to make thesis writing attempts on own as it could be beneficial in both academic and professional life.
How to Write Proper Thesis
Simply think of yourself as a jury member, carefully listening to a lawyer who presents an opening argument. There you would be curious to know if the lawyer believes the suspect to be guilty or not guilty, also how he plans to convince you. Likewise, academic essay readers act like jury member: prior they go for long reading they may clearly want to know what the study argues, also how the writer has planned an argument. The thesis statement (expresses the main idea of a research paper) should make the reader think “The research is trying to convince me of something, though I’m not yet, but willing to see how I might be”. Also, it should deliver the central idea of what the entire research will be based on.
A thesis is not a fact, nor a topic; nor an opinion. “Communism failed in Eastern Europe” is a fact known by people. “Causes for the failure of communism” is a topic. “The collapse of communism is far most the best thing that took place in Europe” is simply an opinion. (The word best, a superlative always leads to trouble). It’s nearly difficult to weigh things that took place in Europe. Also, what about the ending rule of Hitler? Wouldn’t it be the best thing as per others? Good thesis writing entails two things:
“Tell the reader what you plan to argue and telegraph how it is planned – which includes support for the claim”
Some examples and some warnings:
- A thesis is never a question: The purpose of thesis dies when there is no argument. For example: “Why communism failed in Eastern Europe”? There isn’t any argument.
- A thesis is never a list: For economic, political, cultural and social causes, communism failed in Eastern Europe”. It’s obvious that these aspects are the reason why it collapsed, but the statement fails to advance argument.
- A well-written thesis has arguable and definable claim: “Political forces contributed to the failure of communism in Eastern Europe, and the degeneration of economies played the strategic role in the decline” The effective thesis sentence which telegraphs gives readers a clear view of the study. In this way the thesis makes an arguable and definable claim: that the degeneration of economies played a crucial role than political forces in conquering communism.
- A thesis should be specific and clear: Avoid general and overused terms. For instance, “Communism failed in Eastern Europe mainly due to the dominant elite’s incompetence to address the economic issues of the people” is powerful than “Communism failed because of societal discontent.”
Literature Review
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This chapter comes after the introduction part. When writing a thesis you have to conduct a literature review in order to situate the research within current knowledge. This gives you a chance to:
- Determine your acquaintance with the scholar content and chosen topic
- Create a theoretical framework and appropriate methodology for the study
- Position your study in relation to eminent theorists and researchers
- Demonstrate how the study contributes to debate or addresses a research gap
The process of carrying out a literature review follows these steps:
1. Search for relevant literature
Before students search for relevant literature, it is crucial to clearly define a topic. It requires reviewing content and themes that pertains to the topic that is written by eminent scholars. The literature is written related to the research objectives and questions. At first make a list of keywords and include those key variables and concepts you’re interested in.
Keywords example: communism, cultural forces, Eastern Europe History, people’s mindset, political influence, economic impact.
Search for relevant sources: By using keywords from your topic, search for sources. Few useful and common databases to look for articles and journals include:
- Universities digital library
- JSTOR (a digital library of academic, books, journals and primary sources)
- EBSCO (a free database that have more than 1.2 million dissertation and thesis writing around the world)
- Google Scholar (provide broad search for scholarly literature in wide variety of discipline)
- Project Muse (provide resources of social science and humanities)
- Medline (provide resources of Biomedicine and Life sciences)
- EconLit (provide resources of Economics)
- Inspec (provide resources of computer science, physics and engineering)
- Evaluate and select sources
Asses the sources you have collected in term of relevancy to your question. In other research paper, consider:
- What problems does the author address?
- Major key concepts, theories, models and methods, also how are they used and defined in the research?
- Does the publication allow developing current understanding of the topic? What are the arguments and key insights?
- What are the strengths, weakness and opportunities a research demonstrate?
It’s crucial for students to make sure the sources are credible and highly influential in the research field. It is important to keep track of the source the data is gathered from in order to avoid plagiarism.
- Identify debates, gaps and themes
To build structure and argument, it is necessary to understand the connection between sources you find reliable. Here you should look for;
- Patterns and trends: Go through these in methods, theory and results of other published studies, and check if these approaches have become popular overtime?
- Themes: Which concepts and questions persist across the literature?
- Contradictions, debates and conflicts: Where do the chosen sources disagree?
- Publications: If there is any theories which are influential and have altered the direction of field.
- Gaps: Identify the research gaps and the weakness that requires to be addressed.
The section outlines the conceptual and theoretical framework with in-text citation in the required referencing format such as APA, MLA, and Harvard etc. To all the beginners in thesis writing, Tutoring Lounge consultants absolutely draw on their expertise across wide-ranging disciplines and help to recognize the appropriate and relevant theories to guide students’ inquiry on this chapter.
Methodology, Research, Structure
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It’s the most challenging part as students are unable to identify the research design or methodology they should use to conduct their research. The methodology part explains what is done and how it is done, permitting readers to evaluate reliability (the results are consistently achieved by utilizing similar method in any circumstances) and validity (the results are accurate, also the method measures what it is supposed to measure) of the research. It covers:
- Type of research done
- Way of data collection
- Manner the data is analysed
- Sources, tool and material used in research
- Purpose of selecting the method
Depending on the approach and discipline, underpin the methodology:
- Do you need to use qualitative (method of data collection that uses semi-structured and unstructured techniques such as observations, focus groups and interviews), quantitative (use objective measurement and statistical technique to collect data through questionnaire, surveys, polls etc.) or mixed method (takes both qualitative and quantitative method) for the research?
- Why is it the most appropriate approach to answer research questions?
- Does the methodology require justification or is standard one in your field?
- What are the criteria for reliability and validity for the research?
We can help you choose a research design and methodology looking at what the research aims to, comparing it with previous similar researches, and outlining the conceptual framework.
This chapter incorporates references to eminent researchers and choses research methods in order to prove the credibility of particular methodology. Our assistance make sure that all relevant information is related to data collection , also justify and explain the sampling strategy for participants, selected data collection method, and analysis protocol.
While finalizing the methodology, we address all potential limitations (issues with the study that couldn’t be addresses) and ethical considerations.
Thesis Data Analysis and Results
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In thesis, the core work of interpretation isn’t done until data is collected and properly analysed. Data analysis differs in qualitative and quantitative research. The data analysis and interpretation lies within broad thesis framework which covers:
- Hypothesis test and their result
- Implications of hypothesis
- Key concepts used in the study
- Finding that direct on the concepts discussed and researched.
- Key empirical (verifiable by observation) examples
Regardless of your chosen data collection instrument and particular dataset, the consultants on our platform use statistical analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis protocol as per the requirement or looking at the study, to assist data analysis and result discussion. As a part of in-depth guidance, we help students to make appropriate figures and tables that give a clear view of findings. For result section, in accordance to the methodology used, we assist you in conducting any type of statistical analysis using software (SPSS, Eviews, STATA, Minitab etc.) as per the research requirement.
Discussion and Conclusion
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Students tend to be vague when they reach discussion and conclusion part and here our experience let you provide effective assistance with:
- Research synthesising with theoretical problem:
When writing a thesis, it is important to link the conceptual framework of the study with the modern issues in the field which is challenging, research-intensive, and time-consuming. We ensure the issue is catered and also the effect of seminal work is clearly demonstrated.
- Clarifying your hypothesis, design, and method:
It is important to discuss the results, which indicate that the hypothesis is accepted or rejected. Also, compare it with previous researches in context of the design and method approached.
- Looking to earlier researches and results:
Perhaps it is important to analyze the findings in context of identifying research gaps and earlier research in the field of study. This allows understanding the gap which has been covered and what could be done in the future.
Incorporating key debate taking literature review, methodologies and findings confirms what the study have been about and the result that has been achieved. Further on adding limitation and recommendations can pave a way to make further research taking new approach and emerging trends.
Thesis EDITING
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In the last, it is important to edit the citation sources in the required format such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard or other in order to avoid plagiarism. For each style, there is proper format that differ across the source information is collected form such as articles, journals, books or more. Our thesis consultants are well-versed with citations and can assist you on any using university guidelines. Before submitting thesis, it is better to make a manual check on grammatical, spelling and sentence structure errors. Many of the times a paper without editing and proofreading distract readers’ attention or deteriorate the flow of content.
Well, Tutoring Lounge guidance doesn’t end here. The professional PhD qualified consultants on our platform assist students in preparing for defence of their thesis. They help students improve their public speaking skills, boost their confidence and augment their subject knowledge throughout the process. Despite of how short the deadline is, we charge reasonable rates and don’t compromise on quality assistance. So book your Thesis now before it’s too late!
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