A PhD thesis is a scholarly document that candidates for PhD degree present to showcase the professional qualifications by presenting findings of independent research on a topic.
What is the process of writing a PhD thesis?
Choose a topic
A thesis paper is a long paper hence the need to choose a research problem topic that you find interesting because it will motivate you to write. Writing something dull will slow you down, and you could even get the dreaded writer’s block (inability to create writing ideas).
Work on a research proposal
Research proposal puts the aims and objectives of your PhD forward. Try much to come up with an original topic on an issue you are literature review writer contemplating to study and the questions it will enable you to answer. It is also a means to sell your idea by showing the viability and importance of your thesis and why your committee should allow you to go ahead.
Conduct a literature review
If the committee approves your topic, the next step is to conduct a literature review. It exhaustively surveys the available literature in your domain and topic. Your thesis supervisor will help you with a suggestion for you to make a choice. Later you will identify the existing data for your subject and assess it.
Begin your research
Perform research work frown the current sources using your literature to guide you in finding the relevant information for your topic.Take notes as you read from sources to record the location. Your notes will make referencing easier and allow you to find a source quickly when you need to refer something during writing of arguments. You can simplify the process by using a reference manager to keep your references in a central place. Reference managers allow faster adding of references to the thesis file, changing, deleting and formatting them according to thesis guidelines of your institution.
Gather the results
You can begin writing your findings as you collect them and arrange them in the most excellent structure when you are preparing the final draft. Other instances require you to wait until after gathering the entire dataset before reviewing and writing the conclusions.
Define that appropriate structure for presenting your results
The best practice is to define the formatting guidelines by your university so that you write in matching style. You can use one of the two methods of organizing a thesis. Thesis by chapter is the first format in which you follow the literature review with sections describing the methodology and results of the research addressing the principal question and the objective of the thesis. A summary chapter discusses the implications in the context of your primary research question to conclude the thesis.
A second alternative is the manuscript format. It is mostly for sciences and organizes the contents as a combined body of text with sections for these sections:
- Literature review
- Material and methods
- Results
- Discussion
Edit the text
End with a thorough edit to correct any mistakes in structure, coherence, grammar, spelling and referencing according to your university’s format. Cross check all the references to ensure that everything in your in-text citation appears in the bibliography. Many authors make the mistake of citing and forget to include the sources in their bibliography.