As a rule, college and university students are required to present their thesis in order to obtain the highest academic degree as, for example, Ph.D. Thesis is astructurally complex work and requires much research in a particular field. Unfortunately, many students do not have a clear idea of what the thesis is – neither its structure, nor the proper format. This piece of information aims at helping students who have no clue about how to write their thesis.

Thesis definition

The thesis is a big research paper, usually written by the PhD students in order to obtain the highest academic degree. Famous Greek philosopher Aristotle defines thesis as a profound research work which presupposes the researcher to dig as deep into the subject as only possible to discover a new aspect of it, absolutely different from the general opinion.

Thesis statement definition

Thesis statement can be found mostly at the end of the introduction. It is a formulation of the key idea of the paper. As it is considered to be a statement, it takes only a sentence, where you present your thesis’ analysis.

Thesis statement can be of two types: direct and indirect. The indirect thesis statement doesn’t reveal the key idea of the topic, while the direct thesis statement states it explicitly. For example, a thesis statement “I don’t eat much ice-cream for two reasons” is indirect, as it hides these reasons, though comprises them. And the statement “I don’t eat ice-cream because it is too sweet and contains too many calories” is direct as it reveals the ideas right away. Choose your preferable type of a thesis statement and develop the idea throughout the text.

Follow the thesis structure

After getting to know what the thesis and the thesis statement are, let us talk about the structure of the thesis. The following points are a MUST, which means you have to follow them strictly:

Introduction

This is the opening part of the thesis. It introduces the topic, main issues further discussed, objectives, and ways of resolving the issues. Though the introduction doesn’t provide any details on the topic, it still serves an important generator of ideas and aims at holding readers’ attention.

Background

This section provides with some historical data, statistics, facts, and other available information on the topic in the historical context. It also gives some good knowledge of the past to understand better the present.

The “heart”

This section is all your own research. Here you explain the main issues and provide detailed information on the topic, apply some useful methods to prove your arguments.

The “heart” comprises all new information you’ve discovered, thought of, and want to share with the readers. This central part should take more than a half of the whole research paper.

Conclusion

This part includes the essence of what has been discussed in the “heart” section. It also briefly summarizes the main points of the research. The concluding part gives an account of your ideas, discoveries, innovative approaches, and the hypothesis, which you have already proved.

To some extent, this part also answers the question stated in the introductory section. You should here connect the introduction with the conclusion, making the paper logical and coherent.

We’ve discussed the structure of your thesis regarding its content (inner part), and now let us take a look at what needs to be included in the outer part:

• Title page

Here you provide the most important details about yourself: your name, university name, the topic, guide name, etc.

• Abstract

Abstract gives a brief summary of your thesis and consists of about 250-300 words.

• Preface

The preface is an optional page and is usually written after you complete your research. It is describes some personal motives and reasons for writing the paper

• Table of contents

This page consists of all the chapters of the thesis.

• List of symbols and abbreviations

In case you used many different symbols and abbreviations your thesis, you have to provide a list which will explain all of them.

• Glossary

You may use many other terms and specific phrases related to the topic. You should definitely explain them.

• Acknowledgment

In this part you express your gratitude to those, who contributed to your research project.

• Bibliography

Bibliography is the list of cited works: books, articles, journals, etc.

• Appendices 

This is an essential part that adds some more information to the thesis. Appendices may include the data and other additional information.

Thesis writing process

It is not that difficult to write a thesis having the ready structure. Though, you should write a good and presentable thesis. Some researchers still cannot express their ecclesiastical ideas in the paper. To fight all fears and develop your writing skills, you should consider these practical steps:

• Define your interests

Before you choose what to write on, just conduct small research on what you like and what interests you the most. You can find out more, and it will give you a pleasant feeling of satisfaction even with the writing process itself.

• Read more on the topic

Once you decide what interests you the most, it is high time you chose the topic. Important reminder: before you decide the topic, take your time for reading all the needed papers. It will save your preparation time and help to plan your research effectively.

• Research opportunities

You should have enough time to read and to analyze all modern issues regarding your questions and topic. It might be some valuable new discovery and gain the worldwide attention. Try also to collect the sources, which will assist with the analysis of some relevant data.

• Present evidence to all your arguments

Your primary goal is to write a powerful, groundbreaking research paper. But also note that all the details and new facts presented should be well-proved in a tight connection with each other. Otherwise, your hypothesis will be extremely vague and loose.

If you still haven’t decided how to write the thesis paper, we would like to recommend you use some online services. There are many good writers who gained proficiency in writing thesis and are now pretty willing to share their experience to teach other students.