In this blog we are presenting a bunch of tips for writing a Master or BCh. thesis in a simple and short time way.
For those who are studying a Master or ending a BCh degree, writing the final work may result a very important step.
Although the many and many workshops and courses about methodologies for writing a thesis, students seem to loose themselves in an abstract world that may get tired to anyone.
Here, we present a simple and effective model for designing a clear and possible thesis project.
Key ideas
For those who are studying a Master or ending a BCh degree, writing the final work may result a very important step.
Although the many and many workshops and courses about methodologies for writing a thesis, students seem to loose themselves in an abstract world that may get tired to anyone.
Here, we present a simple and effective model for designing a clear and possible thesis project.
Key ideas
- Choose a very small subject or issue, very limited in time, space and range.
- We should like the theme/topic. It might result useful. Must be a well known issue to us. There should be an easy access to info resources. It is recommendable not to get into very debated or studied issues because we will be forced to read all the authors and papers and that is not what we want.
- Write the ideas as they appear in your mind, without thinking about shape and methodologies. The important thing is to generate an amount of writing and then modify and improve it.
- Write in excess. (It is easier to resume than generate new ideas).
- Do not try to write a super original thesis. The goal is to finish and passing it.
Types of thesis
There are many kinds of thesis, however, for Master and Bch. thesis, the most commons are:
Exploratory: Those research about issues for which there is a general lack of knowledge. So, it is needed to investigate for identifying causes and fundamental of the issue.
Descriptive: Based on the description of a phenomenon or event. It assumes a prior knowledge of the subject, which leads to more precise questions and focused on the relationship between variables.
Explanatory: are based on identifying relationships between variables, and/or tending to explain more clearly the relationship between variables.
Depending on the level of knowledge of the student, he/she will choose the most suitable type of thesis.
The main differences are, first, the state of the art and the type of questions that are to formulate the problem and identify targets.
General clarifications
The main difference between a Bachelor or Master thesis and a PhD thesis (at least in Latin America) is that the formers don´t need to make an “original” contribution to knowledge in general.
Related to that, Bachelor or Master thesis don´t need an hypothesis as a requirement (they may have it but it is not mandatory).
(In general speaking, an hypothesis shows a cause relation; it means, A happens because of B. Or, in other way round; B is a consequence of A. In these cases, the aim of thesis is to prove the veracity of the hypothesis).
If the student has a high level of knowledge about the topic, an hypothesis could be included, but, as it was said before, in Latin American (and other) Universities, this is not mandatory.
So, in general (and especially when you are not including an hypothesis) it is very important to write a clear general objective. The general objective will provide you the real aim and scope of the thesis.
It is very important the keep coherence among the objective scope, arguments scope and the conclusion.
Remember that, for Descriptive or Exploratory thesis, it is not mandatory to include an hypothesis..
THE THESIS PROJECT
This is the basic type of a (thesis) project. It must contain:
1. Title
2. State of the art / state of affairs
3. Justification
4. Hypothesis (if any).
5. General objective.
6. Specific objectives.
7. Methodology and Sources
8. (Others) Schedule. Etc.
1. Title
It is the object of study. It exposes what the thesis is about. Ideally should circumscribe or limit the temporal and spatial extent of it. Thus we solve the first critical point, which is the excessive amount of work. Then, the overall objective will be clearer.
Examples:
"The production chain of biofuels in this country during 2008 - 2010."
"Peasant movements as social variable in that country or region for the period 1990 - 2000".
"The management of software development at such place in 2011"
"Relations between Europe and South America during 1990 - 2000."
It can be added a subtitle to improve the understanding of who reads the thesis.
2. State of the art / state of affairs
Here is the issue and / or problem. In this part we have what is already known about the subject, background, what the existing approaches are, main discussions and major authors (if any). It is essential to clearly identify the issues that will be addressed. The idea is to introduce the reader into the subject.
ATTENTION: THIS DOES NOT MEAN TO INCLUDE EVERYTHING YOU READ ABOUT THE SUBJECT . IT MEANS TO HAVE AT LEAST AN OVERVIEW AND DESCRIBE THE CURRENT CHALLENGES ON THE PROBLEM.
Examples of the state of the subject:
For a decade, the advancement of alternative fuels set a new phenomenon of growing importance in the global scenario of bioenergy.
Nowadays...
You may be required to include a justification. It relates to answer teh question: "Why is it a relevant research?", ie, "why it is necessary or helpful?." The justification usually is claims for the absence of studies addressing (specifically) a subject or offering a different approach to a subject already under research.
Sample wording: "According to the above, a limited number of papers that address this new theme " or "Although there are papers that address the issue of the international relations, there is no research that focuses on this particular aspect."
4. Hypothesis
ATTENTION ! Remember, according to type of thesis , it may not be required a hypothesis. If the thesis is exploratory or descriptive, a hypothesis is not necessary. Remember that you choose this type of thesis even for master degree.
A hypothesis is, basically, a causal link. So if our intention is to explain a phenomenon from its causes, we will use an initial hypothesis . The advice is making it as simple as possible and do not try to explain anything, just describing or analyzing a phenomenon. Formally, it is common to find hypotheses that are not such and merely serve as a starting point for research and/or express the author´s intentions.
If you still persist in the idea of an explanatory thesis , here are a couple of examples of hypotheses that may work.
Important ! . We must find simple hypotheses and to raise existing or past situations but not looking for something that cannot be verified .
Example: "Relations between Europe and South America during the period 1990 - 2000 were governed by cooperation as a key pint in the agendas. This was because Europe prompted a foreign policy focused on achieving the support of many countries for their investments abroad". (one thing causes the other).
For this, they will need to analyze both the relationship between South America and Europe, and how the agenda of U.S. foreign policy was shaped in this period.
How to express that otherwise: "The importance of investment in European foreign policy established a new pattern of relationship with South America where the objectives of cooperation prevailed over other issues.
In this case, the object of study is still large, it is recommended to shrink it in space ( or one fewer countries ) and time (4 years).
5. General objective (main purpose)
It is the main goal of the work. What does the thesis pretend?, That's the question that tries to answer the overall objective. In other words, the overall objective leads to answer the research question.
Examples:
Identify the impact of public policies on the competitiveness of biofuels.
Develop an analytical framework for evaluating such a thing ..
Explain the functioning of political schemes around the theme of Latin American integration.
Describe the operation of political systems in countries of the region ....
6. Specific Objectives
It's taking the overall goal and objectives defrag in greater specificity. These, taken together, lead us to achieving the overall goal.
For example, if the overall goal is to "identify the impact of public policies on the competitiveness of biofuels", the specific objectives are:
· Define political parameters under which biofuel programs are based.
· Characterize the institutional and legal variables that regulate the activity of the sector.
· Identify the macroeconomic performance of biofuels in state revenues.
· Identify the influence of these variables on domestic prices.
Attention! The most common mistake is to confuse objectives with specific "tasks" necessary to achieve them. For example, in the above case it would have been a mistake to regard these actions as specific objectives:
· Analyze the policies of such countries on demand.
· Collect laws related to biofuels.
So, on the right above cases we find that the achievement of specific objectives generates a defined product (either the characterization of variables, the parameter definition or identification of a result), the rest are just actions necessary to the achievement of specific objectives. The specific objective indicates a (partial) purpose and actions or tasks indicate means to that end.
REMEMBER! GOAL AS BOTH THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES MUST BE WRITTEN IN INFINITIVE.
7. Sources and Methodology
I recommend doing these two items together
(SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY) but you may find them separately.
Finally we include the sources used in the
project and those that we will use in the thesis. In addition to the sources quoted
is advisable to include the sources.
In the methodology point we must explain how we will carry out our
research. You must know that, in social sciences, for every thesis you may need
a specific methodology. This is because of limitless amount of issues,
variations in approaches to analyze, etc., so each time new methodology may be
required. However, there are standardized methodologies that fit many of these researches.
Research
methodologies refer to the sources and methods of accessing and processing the
information necessary to achieve the objectives.
In general,
the more common methodologies allude to,
for example, the collection and analysis of certain sources, interviews /
surveys (and variants). No complicate in a first step with this point.
Questions: alvarozopatti@gmail.com
See also: www.hacerunatesis.com.ar (Spanish)
