Structure Thesis

Structuring your thesis
‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

© 2009 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Please refer to www.vitae.ac.uk/resourcedisclaimer for full conditions of use.
‘Think of your report as part of your investigation,
not as a duty to be undertaken when your work is
otherwise complete.’ Barras (1993:136)

Learning outcomes
By the end of this session you will have:
• encountered some typical PhD structures
• audited your own writing and thought about what
you have already written
• written your argument in the form of a hypothesis
• planned a structure for your thesis.

Overview of session
• Basic structures
• Write early, write often
• Starting your write up
• Planning and amending your plan
• Creating your thesis structure

5
mins
Basic structures
On the cards provided you will find the basic
structures of two types of PhDs.
In groups, quickly organise them into two

possible structures.
You don’t have to use all of the cards and you

may add in new sections if you like.

Basic PhD structure
• Copyright waiver
• Declaration
• Title page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Literature review/background
• Middle chapters
• Conclusions and suggestions for further work
• References
• Appendices

Middle chapters
• Could follow a very conventional IMRaD format:
IMRaD
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Alternatively you may feel your topic needs a

multiple IMRaD approach or some other format
more suited to your research

Multiple IMRaD
Overview of PhD
Literature survey(?)
Topic one Topic two Topic three

• Introduction • Introduction • Introduction
• Methods • Methods • Methods
• Results • Results • Results
• Discussion • Discussion • Discussion
Conclusion/drawing strands together

Thematic
Overview of PhD
Literature survey(?)
Theory (?)
Methods (?)
Theme one Theme two Theme three

eg class eg gender eg race
Conclusion/drawing strands together

Write early, write often

2
mins
Audit what you have
• As you undertake your research you should have
been doing some writing
• Make a list of everything that you have written
already
• Estimate how many words each piece of writing is.
What is the total number of words you have
written?
• Don’t worry how finished each of these pieces of
writing is
Good writing tasks to complete while
you are researching include:
• Research proposal
• Literature survey
• Analysing data and detailing pilot studies
• Reports for your supervisor
• A personal journal
• Methodology chapters
• Early drafts of other chapters

The patchwork
Data Methods
Writing

Starting your write up…

Hypothesis
‘A proposition or principle put forth or stated (without
any reference to its correspondence with fact) merely as
a basis for reasoning or argument, or as a premiss from
which to draw a conclusion.’
OED

2
mins
Your hypothesis
Ask yourself ‘What am I trying to prove in my thesis?’
Write it in a hypothesis format, eg
• More than 60% of students skip breakfast most
days.
• Ethnic background has a significant impact on

school choice.
• The Hubble telescope will give more accurate

readings of gamma radiation than earthbound
telescopes.
Write a draft structure
Write your patchwork (what you already have) on
to sticky notes
Write your hypothesis across the middle of a

blank piece of paper
Use the sticky notes to create a rough structure

Planning and amending your
plan…

Once you have a draft structure
1. Look at the structure of recently
submitted PhDs in your discipline
Amend
2. Show the structure to your supervisor
3. Attach a word length to each chapter
4. Attach a target to each chapter
5. Work out how what you have done
already fits in
6. Revisit the structure after you finish each
chapter

Communicating your structure
• It is key that you communicate your structure in
your writing
• Repetition and effective signposting will help you to
get your message across
Say what you

Say what you
are going Say it
said
to say

Signposts
• A detailed contents page
• Abstract
• Introduction and conclusion
• Chapters
• Sub-headings
• Summary paragraphs
• In text, signposts, such as ‘and now it will be
argued that…’

Creating your thesis structure…

Plan your structure
• Spend a few minutes filling out the handout
based on what we have looked at today


Structure Thesis

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Structure Thesis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Structuring your thesis

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

In groups, quickly organise them into two

You don’t have to use all of the cards and you

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

• Alternatively you may feel your topic needs a

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

Topic one Topic two Topic three

Conclusion/drawing strands together

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

Theme one Theme two Theme three

Conclusion/drawing strands together

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

• Ethnic background has a significant impact on

• The Hubble telescope will give more accurate

Write your hypothesis across the middle of a

Use the sticky notes to create a rough structure

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

Say what you

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

‛Structuring your thesis’ has been developed by Vitae

You might also like