Each day we send a short, thought-provoking email that will make you think differently about what it means to be a PhD student. Each is designed to be read in thirty seconds and thought about all day.
The PhD Writing Template is a way for you to visualise your PhD on one page. It guides you through creating a synopsis for each chapter and an overall outline of the thesis using simple questions to structure and guide your thinking. If you haven’t already download it for free now.
Start with the ‘Aims and Objectives’ box, where you will list down the core headlines of the entire thesis. This is the big-picture stuff. You should have this completed and refined before you move on. Without solid answers to these questions, the thesis will be disjointed and unclear.
Our PhD Writing Template is a way to visualise every element of your PhD on one page. Once you have filled it in you will have an overview of each section of the thesis and an executive summary of the thesis as a whole. It’ll show you how to write a PhD. If you haven’t already download it for free now and then come back to this post.
How do I write a PhD using the template?
Answer on Post-it notes. One for each box. That way you can change your answers over time.
To save space, use bullet points, but make sure you carefully think about and respond to each point.
But aren’t Post-it notes too small? No! Small is good here. It means you have to be clear and concise. If you can’t fit your answers onto a Post-it note, you need to refine them.
Then, work through the boxes one by one. You may want to leave the abstract and acknowledgements to last. You may also want to work on the introduction last. That’s fine. Work in the way that suits you.
The reader should be able to understand the whole thesis just by reading the introduction. It should tell them all they need to know about:
In what follows, I’ll talk you through the basic outline of a typical thesis. This mirrors and expands upon the PhD Writing Template I’ve created. If you haven’t already downloaded it, you can find it here .
If you go to your university’s library, you’ll find whole shelves of books on how to structure or write your PhD . Many of these are great, and I highly recommend you check them out, but here I want to present to you a thesis structure 101 lesson.
That’s because you can’t make something new if you don’t know what the old one looks like.
How to Structure an Introduction
I’ve read those books, proofread hundreds of PhDs and coached dozens of students and want to take what I know and run you through a basic introduction to structuring your PhD thesis .
Above all, your PhD abstract should answer the question: ‘So what?’ In other words, what is the contribution of your thesis to the field?
The tricky thing about writing a great PhD abstract is that you haven’t got much space to answer the six questions above. There are a few things to consider though that will help to elevate your writing and make your abstract as efficient as possible:
Broadly speaking, a theory framework can be used to either derive certain testable assumptions or as a way of making sense of your data. In both cases, it structures your data collection by focusing your attention on a small subset of concepts.
What are the qualities of a good thesis statement?
Thesis proposal is an integral part of the thesis. Following are some of the ways to write an effective thesis proposal:
- Analysis of the available data – Analysis of the data is done depending on the type of study and research you are going to do. You can use various tools and hypothesis depending on the nature of your work. You have to clearly present the data in a formatted manner under the expert guidance.
- Outline of the thesis – The outline of the thesis is important for its quality and consistent nature of work. It will also determine whether or not the thesis fulfills your needs.
Thesis statement is an important part of research papers. It is mainly added at the start of introduction paragraph of thesis paper.
There are three kinds of research papers namely:
What is a thesis statement?
Stage 2
In the second stage, following all things are taken care of:
- Know what you are writing (Purpose of the thesis statement) – The topic you have chosen should be something that you have knowledge about. You cannot write a thesis statement if you have no understanding of what you are writing. Personal experiences and thorough research will be beneficial in such cases. The thesis statement is usually added at the beginning of the introductory paragraph. Thesis statement should reflect the main idea of the thesis paper. You should also determine for kind of paper you are writing about i.e. whether it is analytical, expository or argumentative.
- Explore your topic – Before writing a thesis statement you should have a deep research on your topic for which you are writing a thesis statement. You should explore your topic such that you can argument about that topic. You should also know about the type of paper, purpose, and audience of the paper.
- Make sure that your thesis statement is clear as well as precise – Your thesis statement should be clear and precise—it should cover only those points that you have talked about in your paper and should be supported with a good proof. You should be able to address a single problem in detail so that the main body is the solution to this problem.
- Thesis statement should be original – Make sure that your thesis statement is original rather than generic. Also, ensure that your thesis is able to prove itself with some evidence and facts. It should not divert from the main content of the thesis.
- Make sure that your thesis statement does not exceed one or two sentences in length – Thesis statement should be clear and up to the point and should be about 30-40 words in length. Try to write a thesis statement in a single sentence that should not exceed one or two lines in length.
- Revise your thesis statement – After writing thesis statement, revise it carefully and thoroughly to make sure that there is no mistake in it and it is clear and ambiguous. This will make your statement good, interactive, and accurate.
- Length – The length of thesis statement depends upon the points it is trying to convey i.e. it can be short or long. It should be a single sentence of one or two lines that is around 30 to 40 words.
- Position – A thesis statement is considered good if it is added at the beginning of the thesis paper. It will give the idea about what we are going to discuss in the thesis paper.
- Strength – The thesis statement should be strong such that it should be able to convey the main idea of the topic that we are going to discuss. The thesis statement should be declarative rather than interrogative. It should also be arguable.
- Engaging – The thesis statement should be such that it immediately engages readers into reading. It should not divert from the main idea of the topic.
When producing this section, your writing style can be more informal compared to the rest of your thesis. This includes writing in first person and using more emotive language. Although in most cases you will have complete freedom in how you write this section of your thesis, it is still highly advisable to keep it professional. As mentioned earlier, this is largely because it will be one of the first things your assessors will read, and so it will help set the tone for the rest of your work.
The acknowledgement section of a thesis or dissertation is where you recognise and thank those who supported you during your PhD. This can be but is not limited to individuals, institutions or organisations.
If you intend to include a list of people from one institution or organisation, it is best to list their names in alphabetical order. The exception to this is when a particular individual has been of significant assistance
First and foremost I am extremely grateful to my supervisors, Prof. XXX and Dr. XXX for their invaluable advice, continuous support, and patience during my PhD study. Their immense knowledge and plentiful experience have encouraged me in all the time of my academic research and daily life. I would also like to thank Dr. XXX and Dr. XXX for their technical support on my study. I would like to thank all the members in the XXX. It is their kind help and support that have made my study and life in the UK a wonderful time. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, my wife and my children. Without their tremendous understanding and encouragement in the past few years, it would be impossible for me to complete my study.
Personal Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements for a PhD thesis will typically fall into one of two categories – professional or personal.
It should be noted that certain universities have policies which state only those who have directly supported your work, such as supervisors and professors, should be included in your acknowledgements. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you read your university guidelines before writing this section of your thesis.
In the vast majority of cases, your acknowledgements should appear directly after your abstract and before your table of contents.
“No man is an Island”. The critical review of the literature places your work in context. Usually, one third of the PhD thesis is about others’ work
Preliminaries Pages: The preliminaries are the cover page, the title page, the table of contents page, and the abstract.
Remember
The major importance of Literature review is that it specifies the gap in the existing knowledge (gap in literature). The source of the literature that is being reviewed should be specified. For instance
Follow the following steps to achieve successful thesis writing
Write your thesis from the inside out. Begin with the chapters on your own experimental work. You will develop confidence in writing them because you know your own work better than anyone else. Once you have overcome the initial inertia, move on to the other chapters.
- Then collecting and analyzing data, after data analysis, the result of the analysis should be written and discussed, followed by summary, conclusion, recommendations, list of references and the appendices
- The last step is editing of the thesis and proper spell checking.
The introduction: The introduction is the first section and it provides as the name implies an introduction to the thesis. The introduction contains such aspects as the background to the study which provides information on the topic in the context of what is happening in the world as related to the topic. It also discusses the relevance of the topic to society, policies formulated success and failure. The introduction also contains the statement of the problem which is essentially a succinct description of the problem that the thesis want to solve and what the trend will be if the problem is not solved. The concluding part of the statement of problem ends with an outline of the research questions. These are the questions which when answered helps in achieving the aim of the thesis. The third section is the outline of research objectives. Conventionally research objectives re a conversion the research questions into an active statement form. Other parts of the introduction are a discussion of hypotheses (if any), the significance of the study, delimitations, proposed methodology and a discussion of the structure of the study(RE: write a thesis or writing a thesis).
Contact us now if you need help with writing your thesis. Check out our services
The conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.
I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to knowledge.
Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to knowledge in your field. Some strategies to achieve this include:
Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed, but synthesize them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.
Discussion vs conclusion
The conclusion should be concise and engaging. Aim to leave the reader with a clear understanding of the main discovery or argument that your research has advanced.
Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:
Examples
- Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider…
- To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address…
- Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between…