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The three vital parts: introduction, body and discussion





The introduction has a central function in the thesis. It serves three purposes:

First, the objective of the thesis is stated. The underlying problem statement should be clear, and you develop a research question. The rest of the thesis will refer back to this part. A common beginner's mistake is that the actual thesis deviates from the research question, or in the worst case has nothing to do with it anymore. The "common theme" begins in the introduction.

Secondly, the relevance of the research question is justified. This is obvious, but often forgot-ten. Sometimes, one reads of a "definition" of the topic. This is misleading, since definitions are statements of facts that do not require further justification.

What means "relevant"? A simple answer does not exist. A characteristic of relevant research is that it helps to find general explanations about reality, or to check, amend and/or modify current explanations, thus expanding our knowledge about reality. There are many starting points, such as finding suitable systematization schemes, formal or behavioral modeling, deriving or analyzing theoretical models, and/or empirical exploration of hypotheses, the empirical testing of theories/hypotheses, or a summary of existing empirical research results (meta-analysis) etc.

Third, the approach to problem solving is explained. The reader is offered a first overview of concepts, methods and results of the thesis. How does the author approach the topic? How do the individual chapters build on each other? What is the result of the thesis? The preview is thus a conceptual overview, a brief description of the methods used and a very brief summary of the key findings or conclusions.

The body contains the actual problem solving. It also introduces, analyzes and synthesizes the existing literature. Reviewed academic works are not always on the exact same topic, but can also be related in other ways, for example, originate from analogous fields or involve more general statements. This means the statement that one cannot find any literature on the topic only points to the fact that no thorough literature and database search was carried out. Based on discussion about the scientific work, you should show exactly why this is not sufficient to answer the problem statement contained in your thesis. It is therefore necessary to point out the limitations of previous research.

Based on these limitations, the contributions that your thesis makes can now be presented. What kind of support does your thesis offer to overcome these limitations? It may be useful to show on the one hand what your work accomplishes, and on the other hand what it does not address. Finally, it can be asked, what impact your own investigation results will have on the scientific theory. For whom is this result interesting? How will our point of view change because of the results of the thesis?

In the concluding discussion you should analyze to what extent the research question was answered, what alternative explanations there may be (especially in empirical studies), what additional questions emerged and what issues remain open and could be handled in future works. A self-critical analysis is important and there is no shame, if not all questions have been answered. Awareness of the limits of your own work is extremely important. An overly confident "everything's great" almost always indicates either a misunderstanding or a lack of analytical depth in your thesis

7.1.3 Figures, tables, charts

Figures, tables, charts and key words greatly help readers to navigate through the document. Particularly complicated and detailed issues can briefly be summarized in this way. So do not be stingy - but do not overdo it.

Figures serve the function to easily demonstrate concepts. Color, 3D effects and other bells and whistles only have a place in academic work if they add value or facilitate a better under-standing. For example, only provide 3-D pie charts if the height of the cake is of significance. Illustrations should be noted in the text, and if necessary, they must be explained. Place meaningful captions under tables and figures.

Some key success factors

7.2.1 Text flow and structuring: the famous „common theme“

An important assessment criterion is the structure of the thesis. Do you understand the thesis immediately? Can you find your way around? The reader wants to be guided through the thesis and not have to put all the pieces together him/herself.

A good thesis is characterized by a clear theme and a compelling argument. This is known as the "common theme". In a thesis that has a clear common theme, the results are answers to the research question, the analysis of the literature supports the argument and has no unessential parts - in short, the thesis is well-rounded, complete and contains nothing unnecessary. The individual parts build on each other; there are no jumps and complicated pre- or recourses.

It is a lot of work to get a thesis to this point. In no case one will succeed right away. A thesis must usually be revised several times. Here, critical feedback from someone who is not involved in the thesis is very important to get an external perspective.

A clear outline

For a master’s thesis it should be sufficient to use a maximum of four numbered heading levels (e.g. chapter 4.1.2.3.). In general, you should be able to get along with three. If you have the feeling that you need more, you should critically question your fundamental structure. Otherwise, the danger is that the text almost exclusively consists of headlines that contain no argumentation.

An outline is logical and self-explanatory. What is fundamental for the title of the thesis also applies to the headings.

Avoiding digressions

One should always focus on the fundamentals, namely the topic of the thesis. This means that for every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence and even every word, you ask yourself one critical question:

Does it contribute to problem identification and/or problem solution?

You can take this sentence and paste it on your computer - that’s how important it is. There is a tendency to document your own learning process when working on longer, more complex projects. Also, there is a strong reluctance to delete something once it is written – whether it contributes to the topic or not. It is very likely that you will encounter this situation.

Believe us: Someone who is hard on himself in this aspect will at the end write a better thesis. Things that deviate from the common theme, even if they are interesting and well written, will make the thesis worse. It will be necessary to revise the work several times and you will most likely have to remove some passages that you have put a lot of work into and that you may be proud of. While this is unfortunate, you will have to make the sacrifice or face the consequences, i.e. the risk of living with a worse grade.

A clear writing style

A good thesis is clear and precise. Obviously the writing style also contributes to this. The ability to express yourself can be learned – make yourself aware of which texts seem clear to you and which do not, and what distinguishes them. Practice it. There is good literature on this subject.

Sometimes a simple test helps: Give the thesis to your parents or a friend without business background and ask if they really understand the text or whether there are sentences that are not yet entirely clear. Also ask if the work is structured clearly, whether the central arguments are clear, and whether it is fun to read.

Again: It's not enough to write a thesis that only has good content – Quality means being able to communicate the content. By the way, this applies not only to master theses.







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