summary of the phd thesis

• What Is a PhD Thesis?
• Doing a PhD

This page will explain what a PhD thesis is and offer advice on how to write a good thesis, from outlining the typical structure to guiding you through the referencing. A summary of this page is as follows:

• A PhD thesis is a concentrated piece of original research which must be carried out by all PhD students in order to successfully earn their doctoral degree.
• The fundamental purpose of a thesis is to explain the conclusion that has been reached as a result of undertaking the research project.
• The typical PhD thesis structure will contain four chapters of original work sandwiched between a literature review chapter and a concluding chapter.
• There is no universal rule for the length of a thesis, but general guidelines set the word count between 70,000 to 100,000 words .

What Is a Thesis?

A thesis is the main output of a PhD as it explains your workflow in reaching the conclusions you have come to in undertaking the research project. As a result, much of the content of your thesis will be based around your chapters of original work.

For your thesis to be successful, it needs to adequately defend your argument and provide a unique or increased insight into your field that was not previously available. As such, you can’t rely on other ideas or results to produce your thesis; it needs to be an original piece of text that belongs to you and you alone.

What Should a Thesis Include?

Although each thesis will be unique, they will all follow the same general format. To demonstrate this, we’ve put together an example structure of a PhD thesis and explained what you should include in each section below.

Acknowledgements

This is a personal section which you may or may not choose to include. The vast majority of students include it, giving both gratitude and recognition to their supervisor, university, sponsor/funder and anyone else who has supported them along the way.

1. Introduction

Provide a brief overview of your reason for carrying out your research project and what you hope to achieve by undertaking it. Following this, explain the structure of your thesis to give the reader context for what he or she is about to read.

2. Literature Review

Set the context of your research by explaining the foundation of what is currently known within your field of research, what recent developments have occurred, and where the gaps in knowledge are. You should conclude the literature review by outlining the overarching aims and objectives of the research project.

3. Main Body

This section focuses on explaining all aspects of your original research and so will form the bulk of your thesis. Typically, this section will contain four chapters covering the below:

• your research/data collection methodologies,
• your results,
• a comprehensive analysis of your results,
• a detailed discussion of your findings.

Depending on your project, each of your chapters may independently contain the structure listed above or in some projects, each chapter could be focussed entirely on one aspect (e.g. a standalone results chapter). Ideally, each of these chapters should be formatted such that they could be translated into papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, following your PhD, you should be able to submit papers for peer-review by reusing content you have already produced.

4. Conclusion

The conclusion will be a summary of your key findings with emphasis placed on the new contributions you have made to your field.

When producing your conclusion, it’s imperative that you relate it back to your original research aims, objectives and hypotheses. Make sure you have answered your original question.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

How Many Words Is a PhD Thesis?

A common question we receive from students is – “how long should my thesis be?“.

Every university has different guidelines on this matter, therefore, consult with your university to get an understanding of their full requirements. Generally speaking, most supervisors will suggest somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 words . This usually corresponds to somewhere between 250 – 350 pages .

We must stress that this is flexible, and it is important not to focus solely on the length of your thesis, but rather the quality.

How Do I Format My Thesis?

Although the exact formatting requirements will vary depending on the university, the typical formatting policies adopted by most universities are:

What Happens When I Finish My Thesis?

After you have submitted your thesis, you will attend a viva . A viva is an interview-style examination during which you are required to defend your thesis and answer questions on it. The aim of the viva is to convince your examiners that your work is of the level required for a doctoral degree. It is one of the last steps in the PhD process and arguably one of the most daunting!

For more information on the viva process and for tips on how to confidently pass it, please refer to our in-depth PhD Viva Guide .

How Do I Publish My Thesis?

Unfortunately, you can’t publish your thesis in its entirety in a journal. However, universities can make it available for others to read through their library system.

If you want to submit your work in a journal, you will need to develop it into one or more peer-reviewed papers. This will largely involve reformatting, condensing and tailoring it to meet the standards of the journal you are targeting.

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Authoring a PhD

How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation

• © 2003
• Latest edition
• Patrick Dunleavy 0

London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

• Covers all the core aspects of doctoral research, from forming research questions through to final submission
• Includes a chapter on getting published, with practical guidance on writing and submitting journal papers and reshaping a thesis into a monograph
• Draws on the author’s own experience of supervising over 30 PhD students

Part of the book series: Macmillan Study Skills (MASTSK)

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About this book

This engaging and highly regarded book takes readers through the key stages of their PhD research journey, from the initial ideas through to successful completion and publication. It gives helpful guidance on forming research questions, organising ideas, pulling together a final draft, handling the viva and getting published. Each chapter contains a wealth of practical suggestions and tips for readers to try out and adapt to their own research needs and disciplinary style.

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Developing the PhD thesis project in relation to individual contexts: a multiple case study of five doctoral researchers

Duchamp, Marcel: Duchamp du signe

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front matter, becoming an author.

Patrick Dunleavy

Envisioning the Thesis as a Whole

Planning an integrated thesis: the macro-structure, organizing a chapter or paper: the micro-structure, writing clearly: style and referencing issues, developing your text and managing the writing process, handling attention points: data, charts and graphics, the end-game: finishing your doctorate, publishing your research, back matter, authors and affiliations, about the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : Authoring a PhD

Book Subtitle : How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation

Authors : Patrick Dunleavy

Series Title : Macmillan Study Skills

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-80208-7

Publisher : Red Globe Press London

eBook Packages : Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2003

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XIII, 297

Additional Information : Previously published under the imprint Palgrave

Topics : Research Methods in Education

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• How to write a thesis

The best structure for your HDR thesis will depend on your discipline and the research you aim to communicate.

Before you begin writing your thesis, make sure you've read our advice on thesis preparation for information on the requirements you'll need to meet.

Once you've done this, you can begin to think about how to structure your thesis. To help you get started, we've outlined a basic structure below, but the requirements for your discipline may be different .

If you need help determining a suitable structure:

• read other theses in your discipline – you can search for UQ theses on the Library website. For prime examples, search for theses that received commendations from their examiners
• check with your advisor.

A basic thesis structure includes the following sections:

Introduction and literature review

Results or findings.

An abstract is a summary of your entire thesis and should provide a complete overview of the thesis, including your key results and findings.

An abstract is different to your introduction, and shouldn't be used to advertise your thesis — it should provide enough information to allow readers to understand what they'll learn by reading the thesis.

Your abstract should answer the following questions:

• What did you do?
• How did you do it?
• Why was it worth doing?
• What were the key results?
• What are the implications or significance of the results?

As your abstract will have a word limit, you may be unable to answer every question in detail. If you find yourself running out of words, make sure you include your key findings before other information.

All theses require introductions and literature reviews, but the structure and location of these can vary.

In some cases, your literature review will be incorporated into the introduction. You may also review literature in other parts of your thesis, such as in the methods section.

Other options for structuring an introduction and literature review include:

• a brief introductory chapter with a longer, separate literature review chapter
• a long introductory chapter with a brief introductory section followed by literature review sections
• a brief introductory chapter with detailed literature reviews relevant to the topic of each chapter provided separately in each chapter — this is common in a thesis comprised of publications.

If you have a separate introduction and literature review, they should complement, not repeat, each other.

The introduction should outline the background and significance of the broad area of study, as well as your:

• general aims – what you intend to contribute to the understanding of a topic
• specific objectives – which particular aspects of that topic you'll be investigating
• the rationale for proceeding in the way that you did
• your motivation or the justification for your research – the level of detail can vary depending on how much detail you will be including in a literature review.

The literature review should provide a more detailed analysis of research in the field, and present more specific aims or hypotheses for your research. What's expected for a literature review varies depending on your:

• program – a PhD thesis requires a more extensive literature review than an MPhil thesis
• discipline – analyse well-written examples from your discipline to learn the conventions for content and structure.

To get some ideas about how to structure and integrate your literature review, look at how to write a literature review and an example analysis of a literature review , or talk to your advisor.

A possible structure for your methods section is to include an introduction that provides a justification and explanation of the methodological approach you chose, followed by relevant sub-sections. Some standard sub-sections of a methods chapter include:

• Participants
• Procedures.

How the methods section is structured can depend on your discipline, so review other theses from your discipline for ideas for structure.

Regardless of structure, the methods section should explain:

• how you collected and analysed your data – you only need to include enough detail that another expert in the field could repeat what you've done (you don't have to detail field standard techniques or tests)
• why you chose to collect specific data
• how this data will help you to answer your research questions
• why you chose the approach you went with.

You may want to present your results separately to your discussion. If so, use the results section to:

• specify the data you collected and how it was were prepared for analysis
• describe the data analysis (e.g. define the type of statistical test that was applied to the data)
• describe the outcome of the analysis
• present a summary and descriptive statistics in a table or graph.

Use tables and figures effectively

Reports usually include tables, graphs and other graphics to present data and supplement the text. To learn how to design and use these elements effectively, see our guides to:

• incorporating tables, figures, statistics and equations (PDF, 1.2MB)
• graphic presentation (PDF, 2.9MB) .

Use the discussion section to:

• comment on your results and explain what they mean
• compare, contrast and relate your results back to theory or the findings of other studies
• identify and explain any unexpected results
• identify any limitations to your research and any questions that your research was unable to answer
• discuss the significance or implications of your results.

If you find that your research ends up in a different direction to what you intended, it can help to explicitly acknowledge this and explain why in this section.

Use the conclusion section to:

• emphasise that you've met your research aims
• summarise the main findings of your research
• restate the limitations of your research and make suggestions for further research.

In some cases, the discussion and conclusion sections can be combined. Check with your advisor if you want to combine these sections.

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How To Write A Summary For A Doctoral Thesis: Tips And Examples

As you are ready to start working on your doctoral thesis, the foremost component of your paper is obviously the summary. It is an essential introduction or a precise introductory statement that stays right at the beginning of the work. So, you want to create a very powerful first impression of your work among readers? Then, a well-written summary is the best component.

Objectives of the summary:

Before writing the summary, you must figure out its objectives. When you know what purpose the summary is intended to serve, it becomes easier for you to make it an effective part.

• The summary provides your target readers with a concise and precise synopsis of what you are going to state out of your research.
• The summary offers a compelling and substantial reason for readers to continue to read the rest of the thesis.

Hooking your readers:

This is what you should start with.

• The very first sentence of the summary should include a captivating or convincing reason why your reader can keep reading.
• The best way to accomplish this is by indicating a research gap or problem in the current research or its methodology that you promise to put correctly in your study.
• You need to be wary of using your style of writing. Do not use gimmicky or flowery phrasing in your introductory sentence because it is still possible to hook the reader with a straightforward and simple statement.

Restating your statement:

Now, you will move onto the second sentence.

• The second summary sentence needs to recap your thesis statement.
• Using precise language when you reiterate the thesis is always effective.
• You have to assume that your readers are already familiar with the field of your study, and they will follow what you provide them as your premise.

Summarizing research methodology and conclusions:

This is the last part of your summary. This part may contain anywhere from two sentences to five or six sentences.

• Your research methods and objectives should be stated vividly but in a precise manner.
• Do not forget to include the conclusion or significant contributions or outcomes the thesis has to offer to the field of your study.
• It is recommended that you limit technical jargon.
• Although it is allowed to cite influential sources, you must not quote them in the summary section.

Final thoughts:

Your summary should contain somewhere from 100 to 300 words. Also, you should avoid abbreviations which are not explained yet. You can include some relevant keywords, so online accessibility of your doctoral thesis increases.

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Thesis Helpers

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Thesis Summary: A Detailed Academic Writing Guide

A thesis summary is a highly condensed version of the longer paper. It highlights the main points that have been covered in the paper while concisely describing the content of the thesis. In most cases, the summary of a thesis and the abstract serve the same purpose. They provide an overview of all the major points of a thesis. Thus, a reader can quickly see the main content of your thesis when they read the summary. This enables them to determine whether they are interested in your work or not.

What is Included in a Thesis Summary?

When asked to summarize something, you’re simply required to condense the text to the main points. As such, a good summary of thesis research should include important elements only. It should capture the main idea in the paper and the supporting points that may be interwoven with content that is of lesser importance.

Many learners confuse a thesis statement summary with an analysis. An analysis is a discussion of the techniques, ideas, and meaning in the text. On the other hand, a summary does not entail responding or critiquing the ideas in the text. Analyzing a paper entails summarizing its content to establish the ideas that you will be analyzing. A summary does not substitute for analysis.

Here are some of the things that a Ph.D. or master thesis summary should include: A title that is similar to that of your thesis The main purpose of your thesis The main topic of your thesis The research methods used to gather the information The sub-sections of your thesis Recommendations, results, and conclusions

Essentially, a summary should present the points of the author in a straightforward structure. Therefore, read the thesis carefully to determine the major and minor components or points of the argument and summarize them in an organized manner.

A point that the author makes at the beginning and another one at the end should concisely be included in a summary of thesis to convey the main argument of the author. Thus, you should read, understand, and reconstruct the thesis into a more concise, shorter form.

How to Write an Executive Summary for Thesis

Perhaps, you have written a short thesis that is not longer than ten pages. In that case, follow these steps to write a summary thesis:

• Summarize every paragraph in one sentence
• Summarize the entire text in a single sentence
• Write a single paragraph that starts with a sentence that summarizes the entire text followed by a paragraph of summary sentences
• Rewrite and rearrange your paragraph to ensure that it’s concise and clear.
• Eliminate relatively minor and repetitive points and include transitions.

Make sure that the final summary is complete, coherent, and unified.

How to Write Summary of Ph.D. Thesis and Longer Texts

A longer text like a Ph.D. requires time to summarize. That’s because you have to read and understand the document before you summarize it. Here’s how to write a summary thesis for longer papers.

• Outline the thesis by breaking it down into different major sections. To do this, group the paragraphs that focus on a similar topic and then list down the supporting points for different sections.
• Write a sentence or two that summarizes every section.
• Create a single sentence that summarizes the entire text. Look for the topic sentence in the thesis to guide you.
• Write one paragraph or several to start the overall summary sentence. Follow it with sentences that summarize different sections.
• Rearrange and rewrite the paragraphs to make the text concise and clear while eliminating repetitious and relatively minor points. Also, include transitions in your summary.

The final summary should include the main supporting points of every idea. Make the final version coherent, unified, and complete.

When is the Summary of Findings in Thesis Necessary?

The summary and conclusion thesis serves the purpose of providing an overview of the paper. As such, students are required to write a summary in many instances. In some cases, an educator can assign learners to write a page or two after reading a paper or article. They can also be asked to come up with a summary of their text as part of their critique or response after reading a paper.

Students can also write article summaries as a part of their planning or note-taking process when writing a research paper. These summaries or their parts can be included in the final papers. When writing a research paper, an author can depend on the summary as their reference to source materials. A summary enables a writer to condense broad information so that they can explain and present the relevance of the sources that deal with a similar subject.

A paper can also be summarized in the introduction to present a precise and concise overview of the main ideas to be discussed in the rest of the text. The length of a summary should depend on the complexity and length of the paper. Additionally, the purpose of a summary should determine whether it will be a few sentences, a shorter paragraph, or even several paragraphs. You can even come across a thesis summary sample that looks like an entire paper.

Qualities of a Good Summary Thesis Sample

When learning how to write summary and conclusion in thesis, many students use samples as their guides. But, how do you know that you’re using a good thesis summary example? Here are the qualities to look for:

• Comprehensiveness : A good summary should be comprehensive. All important points should be isolated from the original passage and noted down in a brief list. These are the ideas that should form the summary because they are indispensable to the development of the thesis.
• Conciseness : An ideal summary should be free of repetitions. Do not repeat the same points even if they have been restated in the main document. The summary should be shorter while providing a brief overview of the paper. Therefore, avoid repetition of the main point and supporting ideas.
• Coherence : A good summary makes sense. It’s not a piece that looks like it’s been taken from the main document. It should also not sound like a collection of disjointed sentences from the main document that is being summarized.
• Independence : When writing a summary, your work is not to imitate the main text’s author. Instead, you are expected to showcase your style and voice in the summary. Thus, you should not just quote the main text’s author. Instead, express how you understand the document in your words. A summary should be based on your understanding and interpretation of the main ideas or points of the writer. Nevertheless, a good summary does not create distortion or misrepresentation through the introduction of criticisms or comments.

It’s also crucial to note that a good summary thesis example uses a structure that features an introduction, the body, and a conclusion. It presents the goal or purpose, results, and conclusion or recommendations. What’s more, it features logical connections of the included information without adding new information.

To write a great summary, work on this part after completing your thesis. Make sure that you’re guided by the main points of your thesis. What’s more, use a good executive summary for thesis sample to guide you. The length of your summary should depend on its purpose and the length of the main document. Once you have written the summary, read it carefully, and eliminate all errors when proofreading and editing it. Alternatively, ask our thesis editors to proofread the summary for you.

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How To Structure A PhD Thesis

Nov 21, 2019

Introduction

Universities and supervisors often assume that PhD students know how to structure their PhD theses. But often this assumption is false, which can cause considerable headache and uncertainty.  It can also waste a lot of time and money as you engage in a process of trial and error working out what goes where.

If you go to your university’s library, you’ll find whole shelves of   books on how to structure or write your PhD . Many of these are great, and I highly recommend you check them out, but here I want to present to you a thesis structure 101 lesson.

I’ve read those books,   proofread hundreds of PhDs   and   coached   dozens of students and want to take what I know and run you through a basic introduction to structuring your PhD   thesis .

In what follows, I’ll talk you through the basic outline of a typical thesis. This mirrors and expands upon the   PhD Writing Template   I’ve created. If you haven’t already downloaded it, you can find it   here .  

Now, I want to make an important observation: what I present below is an outline of the   typical   thesis. Yours may differ, whether considerably or just a little. That’s fine. The purpose is to give you an overarching summary so that when you do approach the books and guides that exist, you’ve already got a basic understanding of what goes where and why.

So, in what follows, I’ll walk you through each of the main sections and talk about what the purpose of each is, offer some tips for planning and writing them, and show you how they relate to one another.

At the end, I’ll tell you about an   email based course   I’ve put together that will teach you how to plan, structure and write your thesis. It goes into a lot more detail than I’ve presented here, so check it out if you’d like to learn more. 

How to Structure an Abstract

Your abstract should be a short summary at the beginning of the thesis that sums up the research, summarises the separate sections of the thesis and outlines the contribution.

Above all, your PhD abstract should answer the question: ‘So what?’ In other words, what is the contribution of your thesis to the field?

• What is the reason for writing the thesis?
• What are the current approaches and gaps in the literature?
• What are your research question(s) and aims?
• Which methodology have you used?
• What are the main findings?
• What are the main conclusions and implications?

One thing that should be obvious is that you can’t write your abstract until the study itself has been written. It’ll typically be the last thing you write (alongside the acknowledgements).

The tricky thing about writing a great PhD abstract is that you haven’t got much space to answer the six questions above. There are a few things to consider though that will help to elevate your writing and make your abstract as efficient as possible:

• Give a good first impression by writing in short clear sentences.
• Don’t repeat the title in the abstract.
• Don’t cite references.
• Use keywords from the document.
• Respect the word limit.
• Don’t be vague – the abstract should be a self-contained summary of the research, so don’t introduce ambiguous words or complex terms.
• Focus on just four or five essential points, concepts, or findings. Don’t, for example, try to explain your entire theoretical framework.
• Edit it carefully. Make sure every word is relevant (you haven’t got room for wasted words) and that each sentence has maximum impact.
• Avoid lengthy background information.
• Don’t mention anything that isn’t discussed in the thesis.
• Avoid overstatements.
• Don’t spin your findings, contribution or significance to make your research sound grander or more influential that it actually is.

How to Structure an Introduction

The introduction serves three purposes:

• Establish your territory.
• Establish and justify your niche.
• Explain the significance of your research.

The reader should be able to understand the whole thesis just by reading the introduction. It should tell them all they need to know about:

• What your thesis is about
• Why it is important
• How it was conducted
• How it is laid out

How to Structure a Literature Review

Imagine you’re making a new model of mobile phone. You’d need to look at old models to see how other people are designing them (and so you know how yours will differ) and to see how they are made. You’ll need to look for their flaws, and get an idea of where they can be improved.

That’s because you can’t make something new if you don’t know what the old one looks like.

The literature review is the same. You use it to make the case for your research by surveying the work that’s already been done in your discipline (and sometimes beyond). It’s a bit like a family tree. You use it to trace the lineage of your study. Putting it in its place.

A literature review has three objectives:

• Summarise what has already been discussed in your field, both to demonstrate that you understand your field and to show how your study relates to it.
• Highlight gaps, problems or shortcomings in existing research to show the original contribution that your thesis makes.
• Identify important studies, theories, methods or theoretical frameworks that can be applied in your research.
• Pick a broad topic
• Find the way in
• Who’s saying what and when
• Narrow down the field
• Narrow does the sources
• Think about questions that haven’t been asked
• Write early, write quickly and write relevantly

Your PhD Thesis. On one page.

Use our free PhD Structure Template to quickly visualise every element of your thesis.

How to Structure a Theory Framework Chapter

The theory framework is the scaffolding upon which your thesis is built. When you’re done writing your theory framework chapter or section, your reader should be able to answer these questions:

• What theoretical concepts are used in the research? What hypotheses, if any, are you using?
• Why have you chosen this theory?
• What are the implications of using this theory?
• How does the theory relate to the existing literature, your problem statement and your epistemological and ontological positions? How has this theory has been applied by others in similar contexts? What can you learn from them and how do you differ?
• How do you apply the theory and measure the concepts (with reference to the literature review/problem statement)?
• What is the relationship between the various elements and concepts within the model? Can you depict this visually?

That means that a theory framework can take different forms: 

It can state the theoretical assumptions underpinning the study.

• It can connect the empirical data to existing knowledge.
• It can allow you to come up with propositions, concepts or hypotheses that you can use to answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions.

Broadly speaking, a theory framework can be used to either derive certain testable assumptions or as a way of making sense of your data. In both cases, it structures your data collection by focusing your attention on a small subset of concepts.

You can, therefore, think of it as a toolbox. In your literature review, you outlined the problem that needs ‘fixing’. The theory framework is a toolbox stuffed full of concepts, variables, or hypotheses (your tools) that you’ll then use to address the problem and do the fixing.

You can find an   extended guide on creating your theory framework . Check it out if you’re still struggling.

When you discuss theory, you are seeking to provide a background examination of what other researchers think about a phenomenon and how they have conceptualised it. You should discuss the relevance of particular theoretical approaches for your study, and you should take care to consider the dominant theoretical schools in your field. This shows the examiner you have understood the state of the art.

But, you should do so critically, and question the suitability of any theories that exist or that you are creating to your particular study. That means that you should discuss previous applications of theory in order to discuss what implications they have for your own research.

The reason you do this is that your discipline likely has accepted and ’tried and tested’ ways of doing things. In many cases, this is an advantage, because it can serve as inspiration for your choice of concepts, hypotheses or variables, and can influence your choice of methods.

In other cases, it may be that the existing theory is ill-equipped to account for your particular phenomenon. In either case, you need to demonstrate a good understanding of what that theory is discussing, both to demonstrate your skills as a researcher and scholar, but also to justify your own theoretical and methodological position. 

How to Structure a Methods Chapter

The job of a methods chapter is:

• To summarise, explain and recount how you answered your research questions and to explain how this relates to the methods used by other scholars in similar contexts and similar studies
• To discuss – in detail – the techniques you used to collect the data used to answer your research questions 
• To discuss why the techniques are relevant to the study’s aims and objectives
• To explain how you used them

Your reader should be able to answer the following questions when they’re done reading it:

• What did you did do to achieve the research aims?
• Why did you choose this particular approach over others?
• How does it relate to your epistemological and ontological positions?
• What tools did you use to collect data and why? What are the implications?
• When did you collect data, and from whom?
• What tools have you used to analyze the data and why? What are the implications? Are there ethical considerations to take into account?

How to Structure an Empirical Chapter

• What are the results of your investigations?  
• How do the findings relate to previous studies?  
• Was there anything surprising or that didn’t work out as planned?  
• Are there any themes or categories that emerge from the data?   
• Have you explained to the reader why you have reached particular conclusions?
• Have you explained the results?

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That way, you’ll have complete peace of mind prior to submission and save yourself months of costly revisions. 

How to Structure a Discussion Chapter 

The discussion chapter is the place in which you discuss your empirics. Many people find it the hardest chapter, primarily because it’s the stage at which you start to flex your academic muscles and speak like a doctor. It is here that you start to push the boundaries of knowledge.

That’s a hard thing to do, largely because you’ve probably never had to do it before. All through your masters and undergraduate work you’ve learnt what other people have found. Now you’re finding out things that no-one else knows.

The difference between a discussion and an empirical chapter is subtle, but I’ve written   a detailed guide   that will clear up any confusion you’ve got.

How to Structure a Conclusion

The job of the conclusion is to:

• Fully and clearly articulate the answer to your research questions
• Discuss how the research is related to your aims and objectives
• Explain the significance of the work
• Outline its shortcomings
• Suggest avenues for future research

It is not the place to introduce new ideas and concepts, or to present new findings.

Your job is to reflect back on your original aims and intentions and discuss them in terms of your findings and new expertise.

Three things to do in a conclusion:

• Own your research by speaking with authority! You’ve earned the right to do that by the time you reach your conclusion 
• See the thesis and not the detail. Drive home the contribution that the thesis has made. Whatever it is, you need to shout about it. Loudly. Like an expert.
• Each chapter is a piece of the puzzle and only when they are all slotted together do you have an entire thesis. That means that a great conclusion is one that shows that the thesis is bigger than the sum of its individual chapters. 
• By the time the reader has finished reading the conclusion, they should be able to answer the following questions:
• Have you briefly recapped the research questions and objectives?
• Have you provided a brief recount of the answer to those questions?
• Have you clearly discussed the significance and implications of those findings?
• Have you discussed the contribution that the study has made?
• Do the claims you are making align with the content of the results and discussion chapters?

Wrapping Up 

There’s clearly a lot more that can be said about how to structure each of these sections. Go to your university library and you’ll find dozens of books on how to write a PhD. Google it and you’ll find thousands of posts. It’s hard to know where to start.

That’s why  I’ve put together an  email based course on How To Write Your Thesis . Over twelve emails you’ll get detailed chapter guides that expand on the above, a ton of templates, checklist and worksheets, and lots of curated videos and external resources to really cement your learning. By the end, you’ll understand what goes where and why and would have saved yourself a bunch of time and energy sifting through all those books and posts.

That way, you can write more, worry less and graduate sooner.

To sign up,   click here . 

Hello, Doctor…

Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Be able to call yourself Doctor sooner with our five-star rated How to Write A PhD email-course. Learn everything your supervisor should have taught you about planning and completing a PhD.

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26 comments.

This is seriously and absolutely helpful but some terminologies used may not be understood by most beginners in research methodology. Beginners would better understand the use of chapter1, etc. Thank you.

Thanks for the useful feedback. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Wonderful…. It is really practical to have such tips… Many thanks….

You’re welcome!

Well done Max, very informative post.

Great. Thanks for the kind words.

Cheers Max! Sent it on to many friends starting the journey

Great. Thanks Dean!

Hi Dr Lumpriere,

Thanks for creating this website, it is really helpful to situate oneself – I am really new to this. In your experience, how many hours does one (roughly. – of course depending on the scope of the project) have to dedicate to a PhD weekly on average?

Thanks again, Maureen

Hi Maureen – it really depends on so many factors, including how much familiarity you already have with research and how quickly you want to finish. It’s hard to say! I devoted around 3/4 of full time to mine per week – so roughly 30 hours. But then I had never conducted research before, didn’t have any caregiving responsibilities, and wanted to complete quickly.

Thanks a lot for dedicating your time and effort to helping those who are still struggling with writing up their PhD!

Best, Felix

You’re welcome Felix.

Good job. Thanks for the information here.

You’re welcome! Glad you found it useful.

This is great, I am impressed by the guideline. I shall consult these steps as I work on my Thesis for my PhD.

Thanks for this information keep it up.

Very interesting and useful job!

Well done Dr Max. Quite helpful, thanks

I am really grateful for this tip. God bless the writer in Jesus’ name

Thank you for this guide.

Thank you very much for the information. It’s very useful.

This article is insanely helpful. Especially the questions that should be answered in each part. Even though I was aware of most of it, seeing it all put together so neatly helps a lot. Thank you!

Wow. Such great praise. Thanks!

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How to write a popular scientific summary

The popular scientific summary is an important part of disseminating your doctoral thesis to the outside world. You yourself write the draft content of the popular scientific summary by using the popular scientific summary form, and the department of communications ensures publication on inn.no and distribution to the press.

Tips for writing a popular scientific summary

A popular scientific summary should contain new information. Explain what your research has to offer people outside your academic field. Think about social benefits. Think about usability. Think of concrete examples.

• Headline: Create a good and short title that captures the interest
• The main thing first: Start with the conclusion – what have you discovered?
• What are the "new" things you do in your doctoral thesis?
• Highlight: Concentrate on one main point, not the entire thesis
• Avoid details: Think key facts – avoid reservations and clarifications
• Active sentences: Use direct language, avoid generalisations and passive forms
• Write succinctly: One-third of a page with single line spacing (max 1500 characters including spaces)
• Write simply: use everyday language, avoid discipline-specific expressions
• Quote yourself: Feel free to use your own wording or quotations from the thesis   

Please read aloud the popular scientific summary for a friend who is not an academic. If the text is well suited for reading aloud, it will almost always flow well in written form as well.

Take a look at the public defences overview at inn.no to see how previous articles / popular scientific summaries have been formulated.

• Form for dissemination of PhD Thesis – Popular Scientific Summary

Submission of popular scientific summary form

The form for dissemination of PhD thesis together with an electronic photo (jpg, landscape format and a minimum of 1 MB) of yourself should be sent to  [email protected] , with PhD coordinator at your programme on CC, three weeks before the defence.The department of communication will publish an article on INN University's website and will assess how the doctoral thesis can be communicated to other sources approximately two weeks before the public defence.

• Manuscript Preparation

Know How to Structure Your PhD Thesis

• 4 minute read
• 35.6K views

Table of Contents

In your academic career, few projects are more important than your PhD thesis. Unfortunately, many university professors and advisors assume that their students know how to structure a PhD. Books have literally been written on the subject, but there’s no need to read a book in order to know about PhD thesis paper format and structure. With that said, however, it’s important to understand that your PhD thesis format requirement may not be the same as another student’s. The bottom line is that how to structure a PhD thesis often depends on your university and department guidelines.

But, let’s take a look at a general PhD thesis format. We’ll look at the main sections, and how to connect them to each other. We’ll also examine different hints and tips for each of the sections. As you read through this toolkit, compare it to published PhD theses in your area of study to see how a real-life example looks.

Main Sections of a PhD Thesis

In almost every PhD thesis or dissertation, there are standard sections. Of course, some of these may differ, depending on your university or department requirements, as well as your topic of study, but this will give you a good idea of the basic components of a PhD thesis format.

• Abstract : The abstract is a brief summary that quickly outlines your research, touches on each of the main sections of your thesis, and clearly outlines your contribution to the field by way of your PhD thesis. Even though the abstract is very short, similar to what you’ve seen in published research articles, its impact shouldn’t be underestimated. The abstract is there to answer the most important question to the reviewer. “Why is this important?”
• Introduction : In this section, you help the reviewer understand your entire dissertation, including what your paper is about, why it’s important to the field, a brief description of your methodology, and how your research and the thesis are laid out. Think of your introduction as an expansion of your abstract.
• Literature Review : Within the literature review, you are making a case for your new research by telling the story of the work that’s already been done. You’ll cover a bit about the history of the topic at hand, and how your study fits into the present and future.
• Theory Framework : Here, you explain assumptions related to your study. Here you’re explaining to the review what theoretical concepts you might have used in your research, how it relates to existing knowledge and ideas.
• Methods : This section of a PhD thesis is typically the most detailed and descriptive, depending of course on your research design. Here you’ll discuss the specific techniques you used to get the information you were looking for, in addition to how those methods are relevant and appropriate, as well as how you specifically used each method described.
• Results : Here you present your empirical findings. This section is sometimes also called the “empiracles” chapter. This section is usually pretty straightforward and technical, and full of details. Don’t shortcut this chapter.
• Discussion : This can be a tricky chapter, because it’s where you want to show the reviewer that you know what you’re talking about. You need to speak as a PhD versus a student. The discussion chapter is similar to the empirical/results chapter, but you’re building on those results to push the new information that you learned, prior to making your conclusion.
• Conclusion : Here, you take a step back and reflect on what your original goals and intentions for the research were. You’ll outline them in context of your new findings and expertise.

Tips for your PhD Thesis Format

As you put together your PhD thesis, it’s easy to get a little overwhelmed. Here are some tips that might keep you on track.

• Don’t try to write your PhD as a first-draft. Every great masterwork has typically been edited, and edited, and…edited.
• Work with your thesis supervisor to plan the structure and format of your PhD thesis. Be prepared to rewrite each section, as you work out rough drafts. Don’t get discouraged by this process. It’s typical.
• Make your writing interesting. Academic writing has a reputation of being very dry.
• You don’t have to necessarily work on the chapters and sections outlined above in chronological order. Work on each section as things come up, and while your work on that section is relevant to what you’re doing.
• Don’t rush things. Write a first draft, and leave it for a few days, so you can come back to it with a more critical take. Look at it objectively and carefully grammatical errors, clarity, logic and flow.
• Know what style your references need to be in, and utilize tools out there to organize them in the required format.
• It’s easier to accidentally plagiarize than you think. Make sure you’re referencing appropriately, and check your document for inadvertent plagiarism throughout your writing process.

PhD Thesis Editing Plus

Want some support during your PhD writing process? Our PhD Thesis Editing Plus service includes extensive and detailed editing of your thesis to improve the flow and quality of your writing. Unlimited editing support for guaranteed results. Learn more here , and get started today!

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Thesis Summary

Ai generator.

Considering that you have finished writing your thesis, it is high time that you started working on your thesis summary or abstract as the last and final part of your research paper before submitting it to your instructor. Writing an abstract is actually the simplest way for your audience, the teachers and the panel of publishers (if you wish for it to be published) to know what your research paper is about without going through the bulk of your paper.

What is an Abstract?

According to an article found in the Simon Fraser University database, the abstract is deemed a critical part of your thesis and it is presented at the beginning of the thesis, as it is a summary of the whole thesis. The thesis summary is a substantive description of your work read by an external examiner by presenting all the major elements of your work in a highly condensed form.

Size and Structure

Normally, a thesis summary would only contain 120 or less (for undergraduate theses), 150 words (for Masters theses) and 350 words (for a doctoral dissertation).

• For doctoral dissertations, it is best to limit it to only 280 words with a format of one double-spaced page, to preserve visual coherence.
• The structure of the abstract should mirror the structure of the whole thesis, and should represent all its major elements.
• For instance, if your thesis has five chapters (rationale, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion), limit each chapter to only a sentence or two for each chapter in order to maximize some parts that need more substantial backing.

Clearly Specify Your Research Questions

• Research questions are important in making sure that the abstract is coherent and logically structured as they form the backbone to which other elements adhere; they should be presented near the beginning of the abstract.
• Depending on the length of your research paper, there is only room for one to three questions. If there are more than three major research questions in your thesis, try to rearrange them by reducing some to subsidiary status.

Don’t Forget the Results

• One of the most common mistakes in writing abstracts is the failure to indicate the results.
• The primary function of your thesis (and by extension your abstract) is not to tell readers what you did, it is to tell them what you discovered. Other information, such as the account of your research methods, is needed mainly to back the claims you make about your results.
• The final part of your thesis should be about summarizing your results as well as interpreting them.
• Although it is sometimes not necessary, you can choose to add keywords below your abstract as the most important terms that can be found in the thesis.

Listed below are some thesis summary examples:

This study aimed to analyze and identify the most frequent news category and rhetoric of the three local English dailies as well as assess whether they align to the readers’ news preference. These factors served as the sources of the data gathered by the researchers: ninety tertiary students, each local publication’s respective editorial board, and banner stories. Findings indicated that even though the editors would usually select their stories based on impact, the banner story content however focused more on news like crime and politics which are mostly conflict-based issues, instead of human interest stories that readers prefer the most. In conclusion, the respective editorial boards of each publication are not presenting the readers with their main interests in the banner story. Keywords: banner stories, news values, news categories, gatekeeping/gatekeepers, and readers’ preference

An example of a summary format The aim or goal or purpose of this graduation thesis (title) is to … (analyse, characterize, compare, examine, illustrate, present, survey, design, reconstruct) … The graduation thesis is composed of five chapters, each of them dealing with different aspect of … Chapter 1 is introductory and (defines, describes, reviews, deals with) … The chapter is subdivided into two parts. Part 1 describes … and explains … . Part 2 deals with … Chapter 2 examines … . The chapter consists of three parts. Part 1 focuses on … . Part 2 investigates … . Part 3 addresses the issue of … . Chapter 3 is subdivided into two parts and provides an outline of relevant … Part 1 illustrates … . Part 2 looks at … . Chapter 4 concentrates on problems resulting from … Part 1 describes …. Part 2 recommends changes to be made in legislation … Conclusions are drawn in Chapter 5. The main aim of the graduation thesis has been reached. The author suggests that …………………… should be changed/introduced/applied.

The aim of this graduation thesis entitled Development of Yamakawa Technologies to Ascertain the Existence of Cheese on the Moon is to test the use of Yamakawa technologies in ascertaining the existence of cheese on the moon. Yamakawa technologies have been successfully used to test the existence of water in Wakanda, but to date no further applications are known. For this reason the author decided to test further applications, with the aim of describing the technology’s suitability for further development. This thesis first examines the testing procedures for the water in Wakanda experiment, and presents the results. In a second stage several adaptations to Yamakawa for the testing of the existence of cheese on the moon are undertaken. Finally the technology is applied to the question of cheese on the moon, within a six-week testing phase. At the end of each week the testing apparatus is fine tuned, and experiment results are charted every twenty-four hours. The results of the experiment show that Yamakawa technologies are well suited to ascertaining the presence of water in Wakanda, but were unable to be sufficiently modified for the purpose of ascertaining the existence of cheese on the moon. The author recommends further modification to the technology before any other uses are considered.

After writing the said abstract in your research paper, then congratulations! You are now ready to move to the next step of your thesis journey, defending it. Just remember this, always know your thesis by heart. Believe me, if you do, you will not have a hard time and eventually, you will learn to enjoy it too. Good luck!

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

10 Examples of Public speaking

20 Examples of Gas lighting

Cost-Safety-Aware Inspection Strategy for Truck Fleets with Limited Historical Data

 Heavy-duty trucks are a significant segment of the population involved in fatal accidents. In order to prevent crashes caused by vehicle malfunctions, effective inspection planning is essential. This research aims to develop a reliable predictive inspection planning strategy that can predict the future condition of the vehicle and to develop an inspection plan that can identify risky components with a few inspection costs and time. However, the limited historical data decrease the reliability of predictive inspection planning. To address this issue, this research developed data augmentation methods to generate synthetic data to fill in the limited historical data. The research also explores the potential to integrate humans and machines for more reliable inspection planning by handling data limitations from another perspective. 

This research addresses the challenges that: (1) the data augmentation is required to generate synthetic data similar to data in the real world, (2) the need for a comprehensive summary of characteristics of humans and machines in inspection planning, especially their advantages and limitations; (3) the need for integrating human knowledge into machine learning models with utilizing their advantages and avoiding limitations. To address the challenges, the researcher: (1) proposed a data augmentation method adapted to brake inspection planning considering the brake deterioration mechanism; (2) compared human and machine performance in inspection planning and summarized the scenarios in which human or machine perform better; (3) obtained a comprehensive summary of the advantages and limitations of human and machine inspection planning; and (4) This research proposed a framework for a human-machine collaboration mode that combines human and machine advantages and avoids their limitations. The outcomes of the research are expected to provide commercial fleets with reliable interpretation-based inspection suggestions, which can ensure vehicle safety with minimum inspection resources. 

Degree Type

• Dissertation
• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Degree Name

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Usage metrics

• Civil Engineering not elsewhere classified

Kluyver thesis award for neutrino researcher Rasa Muller

28 May 2024

Rasa Muller, on Zoom from Bologna, Italy. “I wanted to summarize my work in such a way that, so to speak, my grandmother would enjoy reading it. From my public talks and appearances in the media, I know pretty well what questions people on the outside have. Those questions form the line through my summary. What are neutrinos? Why an experiment in the deep sea? Could you see anything?”

When she got the call that she was awarded this prize, she reread that summary anyway. “It’s pretty much what I wanted to do, but I can see myself rushing it a little bit. Because that’s what it was, I had a fairly ridiculously tight schedule, the proofs were already coming off the printer. I didn’t really think about a possible Kluyver Prize at the time.”

Rasa Muller received her Ph.D. in summer 2023 for her doctoral work on the KM3NeT experiment, the undersea neutrino telescope under construction in the Mediterranean Sea. Her dissertation Getting to the Point is a first attempt to pinpoint sources of neutrinos in the sky with measurements from KM3NeT.

Muller on her result: “We couldn’t do that with the few lines that KM3NeT counted in the beginning, but we were able to set up an analysis method and show that with more lines in the sea we will indeed start to see neutrino sources.”

In the fall of 2023, she left for Italy and joined INFN’s KM3NeT group in Bologna as a postdoc. “A great personal adventure. It’s been said that it’s better to switch experiments for your academic career, but actually I wanted above all to finish what I had started: finding cosmic neutrino sources. I am now working on those analyses with now almost 30 lines in the sea.”

Notable in her dissertation is an Epilogue on science communication. During her doctoral work, she regularly appeared on television programs about science and was a speaker or presenter at events. From Italy, that is a little less for a while, but the dreams are certainly still there. “For example, I occasionally think about the intention to set up a science broadcaster,” she said.

“That last extra chapter actually stems from my frustration that there is a kind of public fear of science things. That’s not justified, of course, but does lie in part very much with science and scientists themselves. We are often arrogant and don’t make enough effort to engage people. Even among ourselves, by the way: all those incomprehensible stories at conferences and in talks, a terrible waste of time and money.”

In her opinion, the fact that the public is afraid of science subjects is certainly also due to the inadequate education in the Netherlands. “There are really far too few good teachers of science subjects. I would like scientists to realize that this is precisely where they have to roll up their sleeves if they want to keep their own discipline afloat. Give students or PhD students an extra year to contribute to teaching. I bet people will start to like teaching, too.”

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