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A Graduate's Handbook for Writing High-Quality Thesis (1st Edition)
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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29024.10242
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A Graduate’s Handbook for Writing High-Quality
Thesis
1st Edition
Author
Syed Abdul Rehman Bukhari
ORCID | RGID
Author’s Note
This work reflects author’s cumulative experience & knowledge and aims to assist
students pursuing MBA/MS degree in Management Sciences. Objective is to facilitate
supervisors to use this handbook as a “must read first” resource.
Citation: Bukhari, S.A.R. (2020). “A Graduate’s Handbook for Writing High-Quality
Thesis (1 ed.)”. Research Gate. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29024.10242
All rights are reserved through creative commons. First published online, 19th December, 2020
Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 1
A Graduate’s Handbook for Writing High-Quality Thesis.................................................................... 2
Section 1: Prelude ................................................................................................................................ 2
Who can use this handbook? .............................................................................................................. 2
Master’s Degree Program................................................................................................................... 2
Management Sciences Faculty & Supervisor..................................................................................... 2
Significance of Master’s Thesis ......................................................................................................... 3
Definitions of Key Terms ................................................................................................................... 3
Handbook Structure............................................................................................................................ 4
Section 2: Structure of Master’s Thesis ............................................................................................. 5
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Background of the Study .......................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................... 5
1.3 Research objective .................................................................................................................... 5
1.4 Research questions ................................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Significance of the Study.......................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Research Gap ............................................................................................................................ 6
1.7 Definition of Key Terms........................................................................................................... 6
1.8 Structure of the Study ............................................................................................................... 6
Chapter Two: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 6
2.1 Theoretical Foundation ............................................................................................................. 6
2.2 Independent Variables .............................................................................................................. 6
2.3 Mediating Variable ................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Dependent Variable .................................................................................................................. 7
2.5 Hypothesis Development .......................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 3: Methodology..................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 Research Philosophy................................................................................................................. 7
3.2 Research Approach ................................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Research Design ....................................................................................................................... 8
3.4 Population ................................................................................................................................. 8
3.5 Sampling Technique ................................................................................................................. 9
3.6 Sample Size .............................................................................................................................. 9
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3.7 Research Instrument / Construct............................................................................................... 9
3.8 Data Analysis Tool ................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 4: Results and Findings (APA 6.0 Style for IBM SPSS, STATA, JASP & EVIEWS) ....... 9
4.1 Overview of the Chapter........................................................................................................... 9
4.2 Reliability of Questionnaire.................................................................................................... 10
4.3 Descriptive Statistics .............................................................................................................. 10
4.4 Normality Statistics ................................................................................................................ 10
4.5 Correlation Statistics............................................................................................................... 10
4.6 Hypothesis Testing ................................................................................................................. 10
Chapter 5: Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 10
5.1 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 10
5.2 Managerial Implications ......................................................................................................... 10
5.3 Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................................... 11
5.4 Directions for Future Research ............................................................................................... 11
Reference .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 11
Section 3: End Note ............................................................................................................................ 12
Summary of Previous sections ......................................................................................................... 12
Writing Style .................................................................................................................................... 12
Reference ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 13
ii
Abstract
This is my humble contribution to research community. I have summarized almost 372 pages (Bui,
2019) and 3 courses into one small pocket guide. You can learn thesis writing process through the
text and video instructions given in this handbook—moreover, composed articles are also added
as example. Objective is to facilitate supervisors to use this handbook as a “must read first”
resource. I hope my effort will bring change to current research aptitude of graduates, who
undermine research courses and at the time of thesis or final research project they panic and create
disturbance, unknowingly. Some graduates even get disappointed and drop the thesis altogether
and take coursework instead, shutting the door of opportunities forever upon themselves and the
country. Consequently, lack of research willingness has not been very fruitful for any country. As
a researcher, I suggest we promote and make the research process understandable for every
graduate. After reading this handbook you will realize that writing a high-quality thesis is not at
all difficult.
Keywords: Handbook, thesis, research methods, fresh researchers, components of thesis, thesis
structure, thesis guideline, orientation to research.
1
A Graduate’s Handbook for Writing High-Quality Thesis
Section 1: Prelude
If you are reading this handbook, congratulations! It means that you have already completed a
bachelor’s degree in your field, a major accomplishment. Now you are ready to board on the next
plane of your education journey, completing a thesis for a master’s degree. A master’s degree is a
post bachelorette degree awarded by a university to candidates who complete one to two years of
graduate study (Glazer, 1988). Which is the highest professional degree in your field and opens
gateway to doctoral studies, hence completing a thesis will open many doors for you both
personally and professionally. This handbook is a summary of How to Write a Master's Thesis
(Bui, 2019) and provides concrete information. Purpose of this handbook is to give you a blueprint
of the research process as well as provide you with step-by step guidance on how to write the
actual thesis, chapter by chapter.
Who can use this handbook?
All candidates who are writing a thesis or final research project under management sciences
department of your university with major in finance, human resource management, marketing and
supply-chain management. Although each discipline has its own requirements for the master’s
degree, they all share a commonality of having a cumulative activity to represent that students
have “mastered” the necessary content. Dynamics of applied sciences thesis may differ by
methods, tools and structure—hence other candidates, with major other than those mentioned
earlier, should consult with their respective supervisors, department head and/or dean of faculty.
Scope of this handbook is focused on management sciences master’ thesis & only.
Master’s Degree Program
This is a graduate level program in management sciences discipline that typically involves
coursework as quizzes, assignments, projects and thesis. Although master’s degree programs are
not designed to teach students how to write a thesis, yet the course of study and experiences from
the program benefit you greatly as you go through the research and writing process for the thesis.
First, the master’s degree program provides you with multiple opportunities to learn the core
content in your field—this knowledge greatly helps you to select an appropriate topic to study.
Second, most master’s degree programs require students to take course in research methods such
as BRM, ARM & QRM. These courses will help you research the literature, analyze and synthetize
research articles, develop answerable research questions and create a robust design for your study.
Therefore, during the thesis writing process, you will be constantly relying on the content
knowledge and experiences that you gained from the master’s degree program to demonstrate that
you have “mastered” the content and associated research skills in your field of study.
Management Sciences Faculty & Supervisor
Department of management sciences is mainly comprised of faculties from finance, marketing,
human resource management and supply-chain management. Another benefit of almost
completing your master’s degree program is getting to know the different faculty members in your
program. At the time of thesis, you will have a better sense of which faculty member would be the
most compatible in terms of working style and research interests to select as your supervisor. The
2
supervisor is the faculty member who is assigned or selected by the student to advise him or her
throughout the master’s thesis process. Role of your supervisor is to guide and direct your study
and does not include writing, editing, conducting research, data collection, etc. In other words,
your supervisor will assume that you have all the necessary skill sets to complete the thesis—he
or she will be there to facilitate the process. Make sure to select a faculty member with area of
expertise similar to your thesis e.g. Faculty of HR will be useful as a supervisor for students writing
thesis in HRM as major. Having a supervisor who is familiar with your topic, and theoretical
foundation of your thesis, is helpful as they can offer suggestions on critical research literature and
offer insight and constructive feedback on your work.
Significance of Master’s Thesis
The master’s thesis is an empirically based research study that in an original piece of high-quality
work by the graduate student. Empirically based research study is based on data that are produced
by experiment (primary data) or observation (secondary data). Completing a thesis demonstrates
your ability to conduct original research, review the existing literature, collect data, analyze the
results and discuss conclusions and draw implications from your research. Hence, the thesis must
be an original piece of high-quality work because it represents you on paper which also shows
your determination, discipline and scholarly writing. According to Gay, Mills & Airasian (2006)
a master’s thesis can also be referred to applied research as it is conducted for the purpose of
applying or testing a theory to determine its usefulness in solving practical problems.
Definitions of Key Terms
APA: American psychological association. Click here for APA Style Website
ARM: Advance research methods, a course offered in master’s degree program. This course
teaches you how to write a complete thesis using literature review, research methodology,
research instruments & data analysis software e.g. IBM SPSS & AMOS, EVIEWS, SmartPLS.
BRM: Business research methods, a course offered in master’s degree program. This course
teaches you how to write a business research report as a final project, does not dig deep into
literature review but discusses research approaches, writing style & data analysis tools.
Citation: A reference to a previous case, in APA style we use round brackets (Bukhari, 2019)
with last name of author and year of publication, used as guidance in the trying of comparable
cases or in support of an argument. click here to download APA_Style_6.0_Guide. Visit my
research gate profile (link given on title page) and see some of my writeups, they were all done
on APA style template. You will also learn ‘how to write in style’, how—what—when to cite
and reference to source after reading my work.
Conceptual Framework: An illustration of your research model. (See Appendix)
Dependent Variable (DV): An unknown phenomenon that you study—estimate using the
theoretical foundation.
Independent Variable (IV): A factor which effects on your dependent variable or variable that
you are studying—estimating.
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Mediating/Moderating Variable (MV): A variable which enhances (mediation) or restricts
(moderation) relationship between IV and DV.
QRM: Quantitative research methods, a course offered in master’s degree program. This course
teaches you various statistic data analysis techniques to research e.g. ANOVA, MANOVA, OneSample t-test, Linear Regression, etc. Software taught IBM SPSS, SmartPLS, AMOS, EVIEWS,
etc.
Theoretical Framework: An organization of variables—research model—to study relationship,
correlation or cause and effect with the support of existing theory.
Theory: A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based
on general principles independent of the thing to be explained e.g. “Social Exchange Theory”,
“Fraud Triangle Theory”, “Demand & Supply Theory”, etc.
Variable: An unknown term or phenomenon that you study through literature and develop an
understanding. “An element, feature, or factor that is liable to vary or change”.
SEM: Structural equation modelling.
EFA: Exploratory factor analysis.
CFA: Confirmatory factor analysis.
SPSS: Software package for social sciences.
AMOS: Analysis of moment structure.
PLS: Partial least square technique.
HLR: Hierarchical linear regression.
OLS: Ordinary least square technique.
Handbook Structure
Section 1 discusses mostly about thesis, master’s degree, role of supervisor and why you should
write your thesis efficiently.
Section 2 discusses about the headings and sub-headings of your master’s thesis and the content
under those headings.
Section 3 concludes this handbook on a positive note.
References & Images are given at the end of this handbook.
4
Section 2: Structure of Master’s Thesis
Finally, the purpose of this handbook, the master’s thesis will consist of five different chapters.
Each chapter has a specific focus and objective, titles for the chapter are; introduction, literature
review, methodology, results & conclusion (Bui, 2019). The structure of the five chapters thesis
stays same for both qualitative and quantitative researches. Gay et al. (2006) define “a study which
delves into particular situation in order to better understand a phenomenon within its natural
context and the perspectives of the participants involved is called qualitative research study”.
While, a quantitative research study includes (but not limited to) research using descriptive,
correlation, prediction and control (cause—effect) methods. The word count for your thesis totally
depends on how you conduct your research (qualitative, quantitative), methodology and
interpretation of the data. Now I will breakdown each chapter for its subheadings and what to write
under it, to avoid confusion, chapters will be referred with numbers e.g. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.
Chapter 1: Introduction
This part of the chapter provides detailed introduction of the topic of thesis to the reader. Write
something to excite the reader. If you can introduce your topic with some citations from current
literature only then we can call it a research, no citations make your narrative mere fiction (Iser,
1975). Tip: Make sure your font face is Times New Roman and font size is 12 throughout the body
of your thesis with line spacing set to 2.0 click here for more details.
1.1 Background of the Study
Before you establish a problem statement, it is crucial to provide your reader with broader context
and consequents to the topic. In other words, explain what has been done on your research topic,
so that the reader fully understands where you are picking up from.
1.2 Problem Statement
Important thing of this chapter is to write the problem statement to establish research problem,
objectives & questions. Tip: read ‘limitations’—‘future research directives’ part of the literature.
Study meta-analysis of a particular topic, it sure contains a lot of research gap.
1.3 Research objective
Basically, it is your justification to the reader why it is significant to study this topic and what
research questions your study will answer. Every study can have at least one objective while some
studies may have many.
1.4 Research questions
This is where you list your research questions in connection with your topic, background, problem
statement and objective. Judge yourself that how many research questions are required to achieve
your research objectives.
1.5 Significance of the Study
Under this heading explain what difference your study will create and what benefits it will add to
the current literature base around your topic.
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1.6 Research Gap
Describe the research gap, under this heading, that you identified in your field, cite last published
literature in your demography. If you see none, then it shows a ‘real’ research gap and you are
good to go.
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
Define all of the key terms that you are using during your writing so that attention of your reader
is not diverted to another source of information e.g. Google.
1.8 Structure of the Study
Tell your reader how have you structured your study to keep them engage. Excite them about
upcoming chapters, a little? Tip: Optional and may cause high similarity index.
Chapter One of your thesis ends here, use Heading1 for chapter heading and Heading2 for subheadings in MS Word. Do it from ‘Chapter 1’ till ‘Chapter 5’ and MS Word will create ‘table of
contents’ for you, easily. Tip: Just click on “Table of Contents” in References ribbon in MS Word.
Insert “Page Break” between your chapter headings.
Chapter Two: Literature Review
Before you start your theoretical foundation, explain your topic especially your dependent variable
and situation with support of as many citations as possible to this problem. Basically, you are
informing the reader of the critical studies that have been conducted related to this topic. This
provides the reader with the background information that he or she needs to understand the
problems related to your topic. The literature review also provides the justification for your study
as you indicate the gaps and weaknesses in the existing research. Chapter two provides credibility
to your study as it shows you have done your “homework” in reading the research for this topic,
and your study is “grounded” in the research. In other words, your thesis did not simply appear
from thin air; instead, it was developed because there was a need to conduct the study, and it will
contribute to the body of research related.
2.1 Theoretical Foundation
Discuss existing theories supporting your research objectives, consult your thesis or course
supervisors. Don’t get distracted by the theories only, it is observed that two theories contradict
with each other disturb the research momentum. Another way to support your theoretical
foundation is through recently published articles about your research variables. Tip: Read ‘W’
category journals first, 90% chance is that you get good articles to support your opinion. Cite 10
to 15 articles on exact model if possible, this creates an impact of your research on your
audience.
2.2 Independent Variables
Define your independent variables, the way you are looking at them, with support of citations.
Make sub-headings for each IV and define it.
2.3 Mediating Variable
Define you mediating variable with support of citations.
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2.4 Dependent Variable
Define your dependent variable, the way you are looking at it, with support of citations.
2.5 Hypothesis Development
2.5.1 Independent variable and Dependent variable
Develop relationship between your independent and dependent variables with support of
theoretical foundation and citations. Based on citations, develop 2 hypotheses;
H1: There is a significant relationship between IV and DV
H10: There is no relationship between IV and DV
2.5.2 Independent, Mediating and Dependent Variable
Develop mediating effect of MV between IV and DV with the help of theory and citations of
previous researchers. Based on citations, develop 2 hypotheses;
H2: MV significantly mediated between IV and DV
H20: MV does not mediate between IV and DV
Tip: First hypothesis is your research question, while the second hypothesis is called alternate or
null hypothesis.
Once you are done with your hypothesis development for all of your IVs, MV & DV. Your chapter
2 ends. You can add an optional heading as “Summary of Chapter” but it may badly affect your
similarity index. Insert “Page Break” and move onto next chapter.
Chapter 3: Methodology
Chapter 3 explains the research methods and design that were used to conduct the study. The
critical part of writing Chapter 3 is to describe the actual procedures that were used to conduct the
study. Basically, you are informing the reader of how the study was conducted. Thus, you need to
include detailed descriptions about every aspect of your study. This Chapter will include the
following components: (1) Setting (where the study took place), (2) Participants (the individuals
who participated in the study and how they were selected), (3) Instructional or Intervention
Materials (any materials or instructional strategies that were used to conduct the study), (4)
Measurement Instruments (the tools you used to collect data), (5) Procedures (how you collected
the data and/or implemented the study), and (6) Data Analysis (the statistical techniques that were
used to analyze the data). Write these things under sub-headings accordingly.
3.1 Research Philosophy
State your research philosophy, it can be either positivism (quantitative), interpretivism
(qualitative) or realism (mixed philosophy) (Kumar, 2011). Alternatively, you can opt one from
various philosophy such as; Ontology, Doxology, Epistemology, etc.
3.2 Research Approach
There are two types research studies, deductive and Inductive. In the case of a deductive approach,
the implementation of a hypothesis takes place based on a research theory while in the inductive
research approach, a contemporary theory is developed from the observations gained (Mertens,
7
2008). So, if you are working on existing theory your approach is deductive—but when you are
developing your own theory your approach is inductive.
3.3 Research Design
Research design entails the detail assembly of the research, describing the process of conducting
the research, whether it is a survey-based study, a narrative enquiry, ethnography or case study.
Tip: Adding sub-headings is totally optional, you can describe your research design as a paragraph
(unstructured) or by using sub-headings (structured). Do as you & your supervisor like!
3.3.1 Strategy
According to Kumar (2011) there can be three strategies towards research design to answer your
research questions; 1. Exploratory (EFA), 2. Explanatory (CFA) & 3. Descriptive (Mean
Difference Analysis). The exploratory design strategy is undertaken when a topic has to be
diagnosed with the development of basic understanding, the descriptive strategy is inclined
towards searching answers to questions of where, who, what and how while the explanatory
research focuses to establish relationship between variable. An average student, at MS/MBA level,
goes with combination of explanatory and descriptive research design strategy. I don’t know much
about qualitative side of strategy.
3.3.2 Method
There are two methods to collect data for quantitative research; 1. Primary data, 2. Secondary data.
When you use existing data for financial or marketing performance analysis and you get data from
a website, annual reports, other records—this kind of data is called Secondary data and estimated
on EVIEWS & STATA. When you use a survey-form to create new data all by yourself—this data
type is called Primary data and estimated on IBM SPSS, AMOS, SmartPLS, JASP. Mostly
students with major in finance go with secondary data, I suggest they should take elective course
named as “Financial Econometrics, Advanced Portfolio Management” to study longitudinal data
on EVIEWS. Students with major in HRM, Marketing & Supply-chain management go with
primary data and leverage their knowledge gained through “BRM, Arm & QRM” course and they
use IBM SPSS or SmartPLS for descriptive and analytical statistics (more on this in Chapter 4).
3.3.3 Time Horizon
Researches based on longitudinal study collect data from the same people (sample) on different
occasions, usually using the similar methodology over a span of time while the cross-sectional
studies gather data in one specifies time period, only once and other elements attached are analyzed
(Payne & Payne, 2004). So, if you are working with Paired-Samples t-test go with longitudinal
data (collect data for time1 and time2), otherwise one-time data collection (cross-section) data is
enough.
3.4 Population
The sum or aggregate of all the objects, respondents or members that conform to the research
specifications is the population of the study (Polit & Hungler, 1999). You should know your target
population, if not, then you are not thinking critically. Find an issue, make it a problem, narrow it
down to a group of people affected by that problem through your problem statement (see Chapter
1), get the count of that group of people. That is your population! Make sure your population is
8
greater than 10k but not greater than 50k. On average an unknown population is a bad signal to
both; the reader & the examiner.
3.5 Sampling Technique
Sampling technique is used to select a representation of the population. There are two methods of
sampling, namely the probability and non-probability sampling. In the case of probability
sampling, each individual has an equal chance of being a part of the sample while in nonprobability sampling this is not the case, and equal opportunity is not available to each person in a
population to be a part of the population (Kumar, 2011).
3.6 Sample Size
For a known population use online statistical tool for sample size such as; Rao Soft, SS Calc, Other
etc. Academicians look at the proposed sample size for a study as 384 observations (Saunders,
2011). Chapman, Hopwood and Shield (2007) justified, that a sample size of 120 respondents
defines a population of 12,000 or 12,000,000 with practically the similar accurateness, assuming
that all other aspects of the sample design were the same. Some academicians say “the larger, the
better”, some call “10 responses for each question” as a rule of thumb.
3.7 Research Instrument / Construct
State whether you are using an existing questionnaire as your research instrument for primary data
collection, as it is, cite the source. Or if you are using constructs from multiple sources, cite them
all according to construct.
3.8 Data Analysis Tool
State which software you see fit for your data analysis. EVIEWS & STATA are common for
secondary data analysis, while SPSS is used for descriptive tests (ANOVA, MANOVA, Linear
Regression, Hierarchical linear regression, normality testing, EFA etc.). AMOS & SmartPLS are
used for SEM & CFA techniques.
Chapter 4: Results and Findings (APA 6.0 Style for IBM SPSS, STATA, JASP &
EVIEWS)
Chapter 4 reports the results of the study. The critical part of writing Chapter 4 is to present the
findings from the data collection process in Chapter 3. Basically, you are informing the reader of
what was discovered. This chapter integrates a numerical, tabular presentation and interpretations
of the outcomes of the study, depending on the research design. In Chapter 4, you will report the
results of the data analysis for each variable and measurement instrument that was discussed in
Chapter 3. Read the name of sub-heading, find the content in your data analysis software outputs,
copy & paste the table and explain your findings.
4.1 Overview of the Chapter
This is where you explain how much data have you collected and what was your medium of data
collection. Social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google forms are widely used electronic
mediums other than email and WhatsApp. You share your experience with your reader that how
many people you approached, how many responded (to calculate response rate).
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4.2 Reliability of Questionnaire
You load your data to IBM SPSS to analyze reliability of your variables and questionnaire, a
desired reading is greater than 0.7 percent. If your results are greater than 0.7 it is good enough. If
it is below the desired 0.7 cut-off value then analyze reliability again with “if items removed”
option enabled. It should do that! Watch my video and check this article to learn how to interpret
these findings.
4.3 Descriptive Statistics
Draw a table and dissect your respondents into categories such as Gender, Age Groups, Education,
Experience, Locations, etc. Show the contribution of each category in % to the total N=384 or
something similar. Show either male respondents were more active than female or vice-versa,
either young were more responsive than aged or vice-versa. Watch my video
4.4 Normality Statistics
Look for the z-score for Skewness and Kurtosis of the data, if it is between -1.96 to +1.96 or to
some researchers these z-scores may be between -2.5 and +2.5. Display your normality of data
under this heading and write something about what you see in the table.
4.5 Correlation Statistics
Show correlation matrix in APA style table and check that coefficient r is greater than 0.2 and less
than 0.85 between all variables. Anything below 0.2 denotes low or no correlation among
variables. Similarly, coefficient r greater than 085 denotes multicollinearity among variables.
Watch my video
4.6 Hypothesis Testing
Run your final test for hypothesis, be it linear regression, hierarchical linear regression. Look for
F value under ANNOVA table if greater than 7 denotes fitness of research model. In next table
look for t-statistics and p value. If t-statistic is greater than 1.96 and p-value is less 5% denotes
your hypothesis is accepted, other way, your hypothesis is rejected. Watch my video
Alternate Chapter 4: Results and Findings (APA 6.5 for SmartPLS, IBM AMOS) click to see
this paper to understand what tables do we need to report under APA 6.5 guidelines. Watch this
video for demonstration.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Conclusion
The last chapter in the thesis, Chapter 5, discusses the results from Chapter 4 and draws
conclusions about the study’s findings. The critical part of writing Chapter 5 is to discuss the
findings in relation to the statement of the problem and the research questions that were identified
in Chapter 1. The discussion section includes the significant findings and the researcher’s
interpretation based on the results. You may also discuss the relationship of your findings to
previous research conducted in the literature.
5.2 Managerial Implications
Suggest the industry to learn from your study and implement implications to solve the problem.
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5.3 Limitations of the Study
Discuss how you study is limited and what future researchers can do to overcome these
limitations.
5.4 Directions for Future Research
Suggest future researchers to improve results by incorporating larger sample size and include
more variables.
Tip: Some people add heading 5.1 as “Results & Discussion” and 5.2 as “Conclusion”, this vary
from supervisor to supervisor and does not disorient form APA style. Do as you & your
supervisor like!
Reference
Add all references for each of your citations in this section of thesis. If you cited one source more
than once, add the reference only one time. Arrange your references in alphabetical order using
MS Word option in “Paragraph” segment under “Home” ribbon. You can use MS Word’s built in
“Bibliography” under “Reference” ribbon. I personally paste references from online journals, as
they come in right format effortlessly. APA referencing style can be read from the poster that I
shared with you in Section 1. Simply, write the last name of author place a coma first letter of his
first name add a full stop—inside round brackets write year or publication—write name of
article—name of journal—volume number, page number and DOI if available.
Appendix
Attach your ‘exact’ questionnaire, that you used for data collection, in this section along with the
sources you developed your questionnaire.
Abstract
After completing your entire thesis, chapter by chapter, it is time to write an abstract of your study.
Abstract is mainly written between 300 to 500 words, in some cases up to 700 words are
acceptable. Add relevant keywords for your study to make it search engine friendly. Abstract can
be written as paragraph known as ‘unstructured abstract’, you can write a ‘structured abstract’
using some headings, as shown in image below or click here to see another example.
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Section 3: End Note
Summary of Previous sections
Congratulations on getting through this handbook. You should now have a sense of thesis and feel
energized, empowered, and ready to embark on this educational quest. Thank you for allowing me
to be your tour guide. I wish you all the best of luck. If you want to contact me, do so via my RG
profile or send me an email at s.a.rahman@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as
humanly possible.
For the purposes of this handbook, the master’s thesis is an empirically based research study
written in five distinct chapters. Here is a summary of the most critical points about your thesis;
•
•
•
•
•
Chapter 1 introduces the topic of the thesis to the reader and establishes the statement of
the problem and research questions.
Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the research literature related to the topic and identifies
the most relevant and significant research.
Chapter 3 explains the research methods and design that were used to conduct the study
and describes the actual procedures.
Chapter 4 reports the results of the study and presents the findings from the data collection
process in Chapter 3.
Chapter 5 discusses the results from Chapter 4 in relation to the statement of the problem
and the research questions that were addressed in Chapter 1 and draws conclusions about
the study’s findings.
Writing Style
All scholarly writing such as books, journal articles, reference materials, dissertations, and theses
must comply with a writing style. Writing style refers to both writing and editorial style. The
editorial style is a set of rules or guidelines that writers must adhere to for publishing manuscripts,
books, and so on. Some of the critical elements include how to format headings, citations,
references, tables, figures, and so forth.
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Reference
Bui, Y. N. (2019). “How to Write a Master’s Thesis 3rd Edition”. SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Appendix
Conceptual framework/ research model/ SEM sample
13
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