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Topic Development and Thesis
Topic   |   Proposal   |   Thesis design   |   Academic style   |   Text production

Type I   |   Type II   |   Template

Thesis design

There's no one 'right' way to structure a thesis, but amongst the variations there are two clear types. The structure of your thesis will be influenced by the discipline you're working in, your research questions, methodology, theoretical framework and the issues you want to cover.

To develop a good sense of how your thesis could potentially be structured, have a look at as many completed theses as you can. Begin with the Honours theses that have been produced in recent years in your discipline (you can find titles and sometimes abstracts for Honours theses via the Science faculty website). Hard copies of past theses are held in the faculty, so ask your supervisor where you can find them. Look also at theses from other disciplines that have used similar research designs or models or methodologies to the ones you want to use.

Next: Thesis types