Writing a Thesis

▒ TIME FRAME

	First Year	Second Year
Fall Term	Surveying professors	Refining the research question Data analysis & writing a draft Advanced Seminar 2 English Thesis Writing 1
Winter Term	Selecting a supervisor	Final draft submission (March) Advanced Seminar 3 English Thesis Writing 2
Spring Term	Research question Research plan Advanced Seminar 1 (ch. 1 & 2)	Oral exam (April) Final draft submission (Early June) Graduation (Late June)
Summer Vacation	Data collection with a research diary taken

* Research diary is a record of your research.

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▒ General Guidelines

▒ Coursework Recommended

▒ Research Question

How to make a bad research question?
Narrowing down to a specific research question
How to write a thesis (by Charles Lipson)
Basic research concepts and thesis structure: threats to validity

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▒ Sample Outline

In the sample outline below, you may switch chapter 2 and 3 and, if necessary, skip discussion chapter. Also you may change chapter titles as you want. Download the thesis template 2007. MS Word Icon

CHAPTER 1. Introduction

What is the public problem?
Why is the problem important and significant?
Which aspect of the problem do you want to study?
Scope and time-span of the research?
State clearly the research question that you want to answer. Be specific!
Provide a roadmap of your thesis

CHAPTER 2. Background

Provide a description of the problem so that audience can understand the situation
Think about important factors that are closely related to the research question
Basic information about country, organization (government department/agency), or county/city/town of interest
This explanation should be consistent with Introduction

CHAPTER 3. Literature Review

Review previous research that is directly related to the research question
Ask yourself, "Which model am I going to use?"
"Who already studied topics related to my research question?"
Include academic work rather than practical report or Internet resources

CHAPTER 4. Data & Methods

Describe data: Where did you get? how they were collected? By whom?
How did you manipulate data?
Provide descriptive statistics of data you are using
What are dependent variables and independent variables?
Which method are you using? Describe the core logic of the method.
Provide your framework if you have

CHAPTER 5. Analysis and Findings

Describe how well the model fits the data.
Interpret and explain the key findings
Summarize results you obtained from the analysis

CHAPTER 6. Discussion

Discuss the results, in particular, surprising, strange, and/or conflicting results
Discuss how the results are related to literature review and background information
Discuss their implications for management and policy
You may make suggestions or recommendations

CHAPTER 7. Conclusion

Summarize your main arguments, limitations of your research, and future study plans

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▒ Oral Exam (Presentation)

Prepare 20-30 minute presentation and adjust the number of slides properly. Sample
Highlights your research question, data, method, and key findings.
Reviewers will ask questions after your presentation and then make decision.
After the oral exam, summarize comments, revise the draft accordingly, and email supervisor and examiner to show how their comments were reflected.
Oral Presentation Advice by Mark D. Hill
How to give a bad talk

▒ Citation Styles

▒ Dictionary & Grammar

OALD | CALD | Free Dic | Heritage | Collins | Mnemonic | One Look | Merriam | Dictionary
KD | Yahoo | Bartleby | Elements of Style (William Strunk, Jr.) | Acronym | Netarose
Grammar & Writing | Grammer & Style | Grammar | Common Errors | Grammar Slammer

▒ Writing Resources

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