Conducting Research Projects Guide: Structuring your report or thesis

The introductory chapter of your thesis may require a specific structure depending on your field.  Discuss this with your supervisor.  Following is the structure that is most commonly used:

You may want to end the chapter with a short summary or comment about what the reader can expect in the following chapters.  Again, discuss the need for this with your supervisor.

For detailed information on the literature review chapter, click on the Writing your report or thesis tab and choose the Literature review page.

Following is a possible structure of the literature review chapter based on a study examining teachers' professional development:

        (Joyner et al., 2018, p. 200).

Again, the structure of you methodology chapter will depend on your type of study.  However, the example below is a good starting point.  Discuss the final structure with your lecturer.

   A sample structure for a methodology chapter

   (Joyner et al., 2018, p. 211).

Some important points to note:

• use an objective writing style - provide specific data with just the facts. Support all your statements with evidence. Avoid sweeping generalisations and extreme statements.  It can be helpful to present your data in a table ensuring you use APA7 style. When commenting on the information in the table, point out the highlights rather than repeating the information from the table.
• developing an outline for the chapter - see the example above. Make sure the content of the chapter is organised logically.  Depending on your type of research, the chronological order may be important. 
• use appropriate subheadings
• study context - Remember to outline the time and place that the study occurred in.  This is important as it may affect the validity of your study and can assist readers to understand why and how the results occurred.  It may be important to use pseudonyms to maintain anonymity.
• Identifying participants - It is important to give an overview of where the participants of the study were found and how they were selected.  You may also need to include information such as age, ethnicity and gender.  As with the study context, you many need to use pseudonyms to maintain anonymity.
• identifying data collection instruments - these are the instruments you used to collect your data.  They may include: observation instruments (including observation forms, guidelines and schedules); interviews (questions to be asked, recording devises used, interview guides); surveys (survey forms and directions); document analysis (guidelines and criteria for analysis); tests and measurements (the tests used, performance assessment tasks, measurement guidelines). 
• research design procedures - you need to provide a step-by-step procedure you used in the design of your study.  This allows for the study to be replicated and helps the reader to decide if your findings are trustworthy.
• data analysis and procedures - an explanation is required about what you did with the raw data you arrived at. Firstly explain how you reduced the data to a point where you were able to make sense of it.  Secondly you need to explain how you decided to report  (e.g. raw data, percentages, mean, median, or standardized scores) and display the data ( e.g. narrative, matrix, tables, graphs, charts etc...) the way you did.  
• summary - you need to state concisely the key features of the methodology and signpost what is to follow in later chapters.                (Joyner et al., 2018).

The data analysis and results may be presented across one to three chapters depending on the size of the study and the type and amount of data collected.

Before writing the chapter(s) decide on:

• what  data will be included in the appendices as not all results will be presented in the body of the text. 
  This generally includes letters to participants, questionnaires and survey forms, instruments used and informed consent forms.
• what information will be included in the tables.  You can use tables to present complex information in an easy to read format such as columns and rows.  Do take care to avoid using too many tables as they can interrupt the flow of the writing.
• what figures will be needed. This includes any graphs, photographs, drawings, other images.

Then decide on how you will organise the chapter(s):

• by hypotheses when you have hypotheses and null-hypotheses
• by research question when you have multiple questions
• by research method if you have multiple methods

Next you need to formulate all your tables and figures so you can insert them into the paragraphs as required.  It will save time to do this before you start writing.

The introductory paragraph should restate your research problem, followed by an overview of the contents of the chapter.

In the first section, start with a general statement summarising your results.  Make sure you refer to any table or figure as appropriate in your text rather than just inserting a table or figure and leaving it up to the reader to decide what it means. You can achieve this by making a statement followed by (see Table 1.3) or begin your sentence with Figure 3.2 shows that...

Always report the results objectively without any interpretation or modifiers.

Use this same pattern for all other sections using appropriate subheadings.

 (Joyner et al., 2018).

Once you have written up your results, you need to then discuss the significant aspects of your study.  Depending on the type of study, you may choose to include conclusions and recommendations where and if appropriate.

This chapter begins with a review of your results focusing on the general findings.  

Tell the full story of your study in this chapter.  

Outline of the discussion chapter:

• introduction - a short paragraph on the contents of the chapter
• restate the research problem - this should be the same as in chapter 1
• review the methodology - give enough detail that the reader is reminded of how you went about the study, but try to avoid too much repetition.   
• summarise the results - start with the general results then provide detail of specific results. Include supporting evidence from your results and avoid interpretation..
• discuss the significance of the results - reflect on what you found, what this means, any insights you had, any connection to previous studies, implications for theories in the field, mention of any unexpected findings, implications for practice (where appropriate), and recommendations for further research. You can be more subjective in this section, but ensure that any statements you make can be backed up by your results.

 (Joyner et al., 2018).

Formatting an appendix:

• appendices come after the reference pages

• each appendix begins on a separate page

• place appendices in the order they appear in the narrative

• all appendices should be referred to in the narrative. E.g.

The population of New Zealand grew by 15% in a five year period (see Appendix A).

• For appendices containing text, the information should appear in paragraphs in the same formatting as in the narrative.

•  To distinguish them from those in the main narrative, tables, figures, footnotes or equations within an appendix should be titled according to the appendix number.

 E.g. Table A1, or Figure B2.

•  When there is only one table or figure in an appendix, then the table or figure does not need its own title. 

Each appendix should be labelled in bold in the center of the page followed by the label of the information. E.g.

Appendix

Population growth in New Zealand 2015-2021

                           Where there are multiple appendices, include letters after Appendix. E.g.

Appendix A

Population growth in New Zealand 2012-2015

then on the next page,

Appendix B

Population growth in New Zealand 2016-2021

These video clips are all from the same source.  They were chosen because they are all around or less than 5 mins each.  For more detailed and longer videos (there are many), check out YouTube.