If you’re tasked with writing a thesis for the first time, it can be a daunting prospect. That’s why Thesis Writing for Beginners is an ideal course for anyone preparing to write a thesis, from students to academics, writers, and entrepreneurs. 

You’ll expand your knowledge of literature review, data collection and research methodology to prepare for and to write a professional thesis.

The course also explores how to define a problem, outline a hypothesis, select a topic, undertake quantitative and qualitative research, and find appropriate literature from journal articles, textbooks, and the internet.

Whether you want to enhance your career opportunities, expand your writing portfolio, or pitch a new business idea, you’ll develop a sound knowledge of how to write a thesis when you graduate this course. 

Learning Outcomes 

• Prepare and plan for a thesis 
• Research methodology
• Data collection 
• Define a problem 
• Outline a hypothesis
• Structuring a hypothesis 
• Select a topic 
• Qualitative and quantitative research
• Source literature (journal articles, textbooks, internet) 
• Research proposals 
• Structure of a thesis 
• Guidelines for a thesis 
• Ethical data collection 
• Pitfalls of academic writing 
• Types of literature 
• Critical reading 
• Presenting work
• Correlation Vs cause and effect 
• Occam’s razor 
• Research strategy 
• Data sampling 
• Research integrity 
• Questionnaires, surveys, and tests 
• Interviews, focus groups and case studies 
• Combination and triangulation 
• Nature of thesis structure
• Thesis structure guidelines: different types
• Ethics of collecting data
• Human research
• Non-human research
• Ethics committee
• Categories of research
• Finalising a thesis submission
• Construct a problem statement
• Identify related literature resources which correspond to ‘the problem statement’
• Understand the nature of hypotheses and methods of hypothesis development
• Develop an initial method for your research project
• Identify the data sources for the research project
• Complete a research proposal
• Understand how to structure a thesis
• Complete an ethics form to gain approval for research
• Write a thesis draft

 

Types of Thesis 

There are three common types of a thesis, including a standard thesis, a thesis by compilation (also known as a thesis publication) and a thesis by creative works.

Standard Thesis 

A standard thesis is usually up to 100,000 words in length for a PhD or 60,000 for a Master of Philosophy. 

Thesis by Compilation 

A thesis by compilation may include works that are solo or joint authored and accepted for publication. The compilation can consist of works which have been explicitly prepared for publication but not yet accepted; however, these should not make up most of the text. It is expected that a thesis by compilation has linking text and a foreword to each chapter.

Creative Works

A thesis with original works includes work such as multimedia, film, exhibition, performance, musical composition, novel or play or other production. 

 

Types of Thesis Statements 

To write a thesis, you must first formulate a thesis statement. There are three common thesis statements, including explanatory, argumentative, and analytical. 

Explanatory 

Explanatory thesis statements are based solely on fact. These statements don’t include opinions or make claims that are unsupported by evidence. Instead, the explanatory thesis statement accurately outlines the topic and introduces significant points that will be explored in the body of the thesis. 

Argumentative 

The argumentative thesis statement takes a stance on a debatable topic. It allows the writer to take a position on a subject and to convince readers of their opinion. The body of the argumentative essay uses examples and other evidence to support the writer’s opinion.

Analytical 

An analytical thesis statement analyses, or breaks down, an issue or idea into its different parts. Then, it evaluates the topic and presents the order of the analysis to the reader.

 

5 World-Changing, Famous Theses 

These famous, landmark theses were world-changing. Take a look – if these minds don’t fire up your motivation and inspiration to start or finish your thesis, nothing will! But remember, it’s a thesis, not a Nobel Prize, so try not to feel overwhelmed. 

1. Marie Curie 

Polish-born French physicist, Marie Currie is famous for her thesis on radioactivity and is twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was also the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and she is still the only woman to win the award in two different fields.

 

2. Claude Shannon

The inventor of information theory and pioneer in artificial intelligence, Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and cryptographer. His landmark thesis ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication” was published in 1948.

 

3. John Nash 

If you’ve read A Beautiful Mind (or seen the blockbuster movie starring Russel Crow), you’ve discovered the biography of John Forbes Nash Jr (1928 – 2015). This beautiful mind was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, geometry and partial differential equations, which govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems today.

 

4. Albert Einstein 

Near the beginning of his career, Albert Einstein (1879 -1955) developed his special theory of relativity while working at the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905, he published four groundbreaking papers, which attracted the attention of the academic world. The first paper outlined the theory of the photoelectric effect, the second explained Brownian motion, the third paper introduced special relativity and the fourth mass-energy equivalence. In that same year, at just 26, he was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich.

 

5. Kim Eric Drexler 

Kim Eric Drexler (born 25th April 1955) published his doctoral thesis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the following year it was turned into a book Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation. The book is a comprehensive overview of how molecular manufacturing will make products by using nanoscale mechanical and robotic technologies to guide the placement of molecules and atoms. It received the Best Computer Science Book award for 1992 from the Association of American Publishers.

 

Are you inspired to begin or finish your thesis? Study how to write a thesis to develop and perfect your writing skills with our Thesis Writing for Beginners course.