Thesis/Project report: Overall structure

OBJECTIVES

In this section you will learn about:

Typical thesis/project stages
Explanation of the role of the stages
The typical structure
The thesis stages and the flow of argument

THE STAGES THE FUNCTIONS

Look at the table showing the main stages of a thesis. Each stage has a function. Note that this is a generalized structure and your thesis may combine some stages e.g. Results and Discussion. It also contains suggested proportions for each stage.

Stage	Function
Title	Gives the main idea of your topic using essential keywords which mean your thesis could be retrieved through databases.
Abstract	Briefly summarizes each of the main stages of the thesis.
Front matter	Sets up important preliminary matter for thesis such as Department Disclaimer (statement of originality/responsibility), Acknowledgements (any assistance you have had either academic or personal), Table of Contents, List of Tables/Figures. It may include List of Symbols used or Glossary of terms.
Introduction	Establishes the field of your research and key studies in the field, the scope of the thesis, its significance, your research questions/aims and the thesis outline. (10-15%)
Literature review	Continues the process you started in the Introduction of giving readers background research to your study, shows you are familiar with key research in your area and establishes the justification for your study in the research context as a whole. (20%)
Methodology	Shows how you conducted the research and the steps you have taken and why; describes the materials and/or justifies statistical or other procedures used. (20-40%)
Results	Summarizes and comments on findings. This section may be combined with the Discussion (20%-40%)
Discussion	Establishes the significance of the key findings and relates them to existing research. (20%)
Conclusion	Distils key findings and may discuss implications of your research. Here you may recommend additional research topics, building on the thesis findings. (10-15%)
References	Is a list of all references you have referred to in your thesis, in the departmentally approved style.
Appendices	Contains detailed information which cannot fit into or is distracting to the flow of argument in the main body of the thesis, e.g. raw data, statistical detail in tables, figures, details of procedures.

OVERALL STRUCTURE: THE THESIS AS ARGUMENT

It is useful to see your whole thesis as an argument. The diagram below shows which sections of the report are crucial for the development of your argument, the shape of the whole thesis and how the information flows through the report from general to specific.