MSc Thesis Structure Student research activities should result in a final, comprehensive, consistent and clear thesis report. You should write your thesis as if it were a scientific article for publication, but with rather more detail in the introduction and methods sections. The thesis should be understandable for a non-specialist. The thesis is not restricted by any fixed length requirements, but as a general rule, the thesis should consist of 40 - 80 pages, excluding annexes. A good thesis is not necessarily a long thesis! A good thesis: – Should be clearly written and presented. – Should be concise. – Should be consistent in style and logic.
Thesis structure Title Table of contents: The table of contents gives an overview of the thesis’ chapter structure and its page numbers. It should also include the summary and any annexes. List of tables and figures: The outline is followed by a list of the tables and figures appearing in the text, including their (short) titles and respective page numbers. Summary: Provide a short (one page), complete summary of all chapters, including comments and/or recommendations. Acknowledgment: Additional help must be mentioned, such as field workers’ activities or active support and practical help from technicians and colleagues. Similarly, any official financial support given to you or the project must be mentioned here. You could also acknowledge others who supported you or your thesis in other ways. Introduction and Rationale: The introduction includes relevant background information or a brief overview of the field, including a review of the literature and the theoretical concepts you plan to use. This is the basis from which you formulate the problem statement and your hypothesis leading to a statement of your research questions and objectives. You can also give a characterisation of the type of work carried out and a short outline of the chapters that follow. During your research, you may have come up with additional questions. These should also be mentioned here, but it should be clear that these questions were not originally planned. Goals and Objectives: This part states the overall goal of the project. It also contains a number of specific objectives, usually 2-4, which can later form chapters of the thesis or be converted into manuscripts for publication. Material and Methods: This part reports on the information sources used, the methods applied, and the materials used for lab work or data collection, and for data analysis. You should present what was actually done, and reference any problems encountered. In the case of fieldwork, you should describe the area and sites at which the research was carried out. For experimental work, you should give all
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