Thesis Format

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 in  Thesis Writing Guide by admin | 13 Comments

Guidelines on Thesis Format Types

To tell the truth, a lot of information is implied by a thesis format. It is vital

to know what it means before actually beginning the writing process. A  thesis format is required to
create a Master’s or PhD research treatise. Therefore, its components will differ depending on the
complexity of your assignments.

Nevertheless, any thesis format will have some general overlapping essentials. When given a task,
you will be provided with a guidebook or recommended to buy one. Anyhow, to get an overall idea of
what it is, you should understand the purpose of every component.

Mandatory Constituents of a Thesis

Cover/title page

This may vary according to the formatting style and institution requirements, but will usually contain
the researcher’s name and course, the thesis title, the advisor’s name and the wording stating with
what intention the paper is submitted.

Abstract

It is a brief (usually no more than 500 words) summary of your research

objective and summary. It is necessary in order to quickly determine what your thesis is all about.

Acknowledgements

This is a page of gratitude to those who have helped the writer in his or her research endeavours.
Although it may optionally list your family members, it must necessarily name those who have made a
contribution to your study.
Table of contents

Here you will have to provide a list of thesis sections and subsections with the corresponding page
numbers.

Introduction

Here any thesis format requires you to provide the rationale for your investigation, state its
importance for the research field, give its objective and explain your research problem in detail based
on the background information.

Review of Literature

Survey of literature has to highlight those suggestions and findings from existing literature which set
the scene for your research problem. Refrain from summarizing all sources you have read. Instead,
you should provide only the information which is relevant for your topic.

Methodology

This chapter needs to explain the methods which will be used to conduct the research. The basic three
approaches are qualitative, quantitative and mixed. However, there are also numerous research
methods and tools to go along.

Theory

In this part you will need to declare your starting ideas on the subject and
provide substantial proof for them. In addition, the research proceedings and your computations
should also be present.

Results and Discussion

Remember to mention under which conditions your results were obtained. The results and discussion
sections are often combined because this way you can explain how the findings contribute to the
existing knowledge base and analyze whether they go in line with old theories or give new insights.

Use of diagrams and graphs is necessary for this section.

Conclusions

Your conclusion has to summarize your research results and suggest avenues for further investigation.

Bibliography

The references page has to be formatted according to the required style

(APA, MLA, Harvard, etc.) and needs to include both online and print sources.

Appendices

Generally, this section of a thesis format will contain the illustrative material for your thesis or some
research material which would not fit into the main body.

Formatting Your Thesis

Even the minor details have to be in order when it concerns a  thesis paper. When formatting your
piece, you will have to find out what the requirements for margins, spacing, fonts and pagination are.
If getting submerged in requirements of the thesis format is simply not your cup of tea, the excellent
writers and editors of MasterPapers will gladly assist you in this time-consuming task.